The Collective - Session 11

This is the eleventh session in The Collective campaign and the second in the On the Road Again storyline of the The Dwarven Sword arc. Player feedback ranks this session at a 9.67, the highest ever in the campaign.

Notable Events

 * Badger and Gnorbitt pressed further on into the mines, leaving Roscoe and Trin to keep watch for more spiders.
 * The duo discovered that many more miners had been killed by something other than spiders, as they raised up as zombies to attack.
 * Gorrn learned of the party's location and joined the fray in the mines, while Roscoe accidentally knocked Trin out while clearing debris.
 * The group broke through a magical seal into the final section of the mines, encountering a necromancer of Cencaela.
 * In a catastrophic battle, Roscoe was killed by the necromancer, with Gorrn killing the necromancer moments before Gnorbitt suffered a similar fate.
 * Roscoe was granted a chance to return to the world after meeting with Feydrid, God of Music, and pledging his service to him.

Summary
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1000: After recuperating from the chasm jump, Badger and Gnorbitt decided to press on deeper into the mines, leaving Trin and Roscoe to keep watch for more spiders. Entering into the next cavern, Gnorbitt and Badger climbed down and discovered the destroyed corpses of more giant spiders, and amongst them, corpses of more miners, presumably killed in battle against the creatures. Badger investigated one of them, and quickly learned in shock that they were not killed by the spiders at all, but by some other, nefarious means, as the corpses of the miners rose back to life, zombified by some heinous act of necromancy. They began to fight the zombies but were overwhelmed, being outnumbered 4:1.

During this time, Gorrn had been out and about in Belvast, trying to find the rest of the party. Arriving at the tavern by the mines, he learned of their location and came upon Roscoe and Trin across the chasm. Roscoe informed him of what had happened, prompting Gorrn to jump the gap and rush into the next cavern, smashing a zombie apart with his mace to assist Gnorbitt. Unable to make the jump, Roscoe eventually decided to find an alternate route across the chasm, but as he cleared the rubble from the path around the chasm, a flying stone slammed into Trin and knocked her unconscious for the duration of the battle. Quickly entering the area, Roscoe joined the fight and the party was victorious. Resting for a time, the group prepared to dive further into the mines, leaving Badger behind to keep watch for more zombies.

A magical barrier, the clear work of some evil mage, blocked the way into the final segment of the mines. Luckily, Gnorbitt was able to use information from his past education to break the seal and gain entry into the cavern. There, the party was greeted by the sight of a necromancer clad in black robes. He decreed to the party that they would join his undead legion, but as he attempted to continue his monologue, Gorrn shot him in the leg, prompting him to give up talking and have his skeletal archers fire upon the party. Roscoe was immediately hit by two arrows and was left badly wounded. Gnorbitt advanced under cover, but in an attempt to destroy some of the skeletons, he triggered a trap and was covered in an avalanche of coal. Roscoe, in retaliation, cast Shatter upon the skeletons, destroying two of them. Gorrn, aided by magic, lepty towards the necromancer and pinned him to the ground, also managing to trick two skeletons into shooting each other.

The rest of the group advanced upon the remaining skeleton and necromancer, injured badly and hoping to end the battle before sustaining any further damage. Gorrn attempted to discourage the necromancer to give up, but he only cackled and told Gorrn that "His corpse will be worth at least five of those miners", stabbing Gorrn in the neck and kicking him off into a minecart. Roscoe tried to use the Staff of Eeling on the necromancer but was unable to pierce through his defenses. The necromancer continued to rave about how he would use Roscoe and Gnorbitt as spare parts, battering Gnorbitt with magical missiles and then, in a crazed attack, slicing Roscoe in the neck and then stabbing in the abdomen, leaving him quickly bleeding out upon the ground. Just moments before Gnorbitt was felled in a similar fashion, Gorrn let loose an arrow into the necromancer's neck, killing him.

Rushing to Roscoe's side in a desperate attempt to help him, Gorrn and Gnorbitt were unable to staunch Roscoe's wounds, and the bard died in Gorrn's arms. Roscoe awoke with no pain in a field of grass and flowers, the soft sound of music in the wind and a beautiful array of clouds in the sky. Hearing the screech of a great bird in the sky, Roscoe watched in amazement as a gigantic regal songbird, standing over 80 feet tall and adorned with vibrant, colorful feathers landed before before him. The bird introduced itself as Feydrid, God of Beauty and Music, and offered Roscoe a second chance at life if he was willing to give up his luxuriant lifestyle and dedicated his life to solely musical performance and good samaritanism. Believing the deal to be an obvious chose, Roscoe agreed to Feydrid's demands and was whisked away into the realm of the living, his soul returning to his damaged body in Gorrn's arms.