Episode 1 – Into the WatchTower (Part 3 – Final Report)

Where we last left off, the team was facing uncertain battle.

We’ve finally been able to get our hands on the latest reports about what happened.

Our team, looking to find the outpost’s master/bartender’s son, found themselves in the run down tower they knew to be cursed.

While investigating the tower, they hear noises from the previous, the chapel. Not expecting any guests, the team lay in wait ready to ambush should they be more of those skeletons.

Our team managed to hold their own using a combination of the only doorway as well as the magical grease spell to create a chokepoint as to not become overwhelmed by enemy numbers. A more powerful looking formerly-paladin skeleton attacked our team from the other side of the chapel while our team dealt with the regular skeletons. Taking the fight to the ex-paladin, the team managed to knock her down but not without two things happening: (1) Ataraxia stealing the ex-paladin’s slightly-glowing blade while she put down the blade for a moment to cast a spell (2) our team’s blood being shed in the chapel awakening the hordes of evil spiders in the rafters.

Desperately the team tried to remove what looked to be some kind of magical gem from the ex-paladin skeleton (as they also tried to take everything they could from her including her armour). Unable to free the gem from the skeleton’s skull, they destroyed the gem which destroyed all the skeletons.

This was a mixed blessing. While it freed the spirit of the righteous paladin that was trapped to be an evil undead it also freed other things. Her husband trapped for decades of torture and an evil abomination that was their child were locked away in that gem as well. The paladin’s spirit from finally free to move on but the husband was pulled down into the depths of hell as was the bargain struck to capture and contain their monstrous child. The child, however, an unholy cross of fiend and demon who escape into the forest.

Finally, to make matters worse, the overhead horde of spiders will quickly descend on our heroes. Retreating back to the tower, the team used a combination of a flask of oil and a firebolt spell to attempt to set the spiders on fire. It was a creative and time-consuming tactics but perhaps it worked a little too way. Reports have it that the entire chapel and tower were reduced to nothing more than a smoldering pile of ash… but I suppose that’s better than a desecrated shrine.

Our team escaped to an underground bunker of sorts where they discovered someone had been researching the skeletons in order to reproduce the kind of power used to turn a paladin into an undead monster.

The team actually got the drop on that researcher that turned out to be the old woman they met previously who turned out to be a hag. Only by a stroke of immense luck did the team manage to take down the hag not before Derasign was KOed taking the brunt of the hag’s force so that the more squishy magic users, etc. didn’t have to. With the help of the Bard they found caged there, the team managed to put together some of the missing clues and survive this place.

The boy they were looking for unfortunately didn’t make it so the team told the boy’s father using a stiff drink and high-tailed it out of town.

Now, I can’t confirm that this is how all of this actually unfolded since they are 2nd hand accounts and from what I understand, the Captain looking after the team was not even with the team when this happened.

Strangely enough though, we did manage to catch a few glimpses of Captain Morgan’s report.

The Captain noted that the team displayed exceptional creativity in combat and some outside the box strategy in combat allowing them to turn the tide of battle at critical moments. However, he gave the team a score of only 68% noting that the team still lacked the social graces and tact that may be required of them in the future.

The Captain noted that all that transpired was a tragedy and that he was unsure of whether the Output would ever recover especially since it now no longer has an heir. We all know that without this outpost, this trade route would die and that towns like Ohte would be cut off from support and trade from places like Idbash. He also went on to note his grave concerns about the unspeakably evil creature unleashed on the world but in no way blames the team for this turn of events.

No team member journals have been recovered for inclusion in this report.