Zombies and Beastmen and Orcus, Oh my!

In a nutshell the Company of the Sage was in a bit of a tough spot. Beneath the disturbing red glow cast upon the snow by a magical gem atop an evil obelisk, zombies, like this description, began to pile up. Surrounded on three sides by undead, and the other by a cliff face, things were looking a bit bleak.

That's right, aside from our adventuring party, you are now among the few people to see Toilet Paper Mountain and live to tell the tale. It was a creative way to rapidly produce a prop just before play, and it set the tone perfectly - it reminded us we were in deep doo doo.

Sophia uncorked the Elven Snowflake artifact and used its power to blast the undead in a radius of 20 feet. Only a few fell, but it was obvious many more were weakened by the effect. The snowflake went dark and it would be of no more use in this battle. (rotten recharge rolls).

The enemy was closing in and despite trying our best to push forward, progress was too slow.

Worse yet, a giant zombie spider erupted from the blanket of white, immediately in our path. In short order it had grabbed Sophia and our wizard soon fell unconscious due to wounds. (Zero hit points) Torul rushed in to try and break the monster's deadly grip. Roysen prayed for healing and the wizard awakened and from her ring of spell storing released a healing spell Roysen had wisely cast into it earlier.

A hunting party of beastmen came screaming into the fray, shouting out "For Glory!" and fortunately for us began attacking the undead. Between their efforts and our own, a path was cleared and none-too-soon as three more giant undead arachnids arose just as the first one fell.

We noticed another wave of humanoid zombies coming behind the spiders and that is when the beastmen called the retreat and told us to run to their camp. We made it to their fortified encampment with undead hot on our heels. Safely inside we helped them rain down destruction on the enemy.

We helped heal their wounds along with our own and spoke with their leader. He explained that the strange obelisk and statue or Orcus thrust their way above ground, bringing the snows and undead with them, and that the undead never seem to run out.

A week ago? Yup, right about the time Set got poked in the eye. They really are taking deli-counter numbers to see who we have to deal with next.

Their owl faced leader told us there was a door at the base of obelisk with a puzzle lock and the beastmen had failed to figure it out before being driven away by more undead. If we could get in and try to solve the problem, they would be grateful.

The beastmen invited us to rest and prepare. During this time their chieftan taught Sophia three new spells - Fireball, Wall of Fire, and Ice Storm. (That's more like it!)

Rested and prepared, the party and the beastmen set out for the puzzle door. The beastmen would hold off the undead as long as possible while we tried to figure out the answer that would let us into the underground complex.

Anyone ever play the game Mastermind? Well, the puzzle lock consisted of 4 empty sockets and 6 gems of different colors that could be placed into them. The idea was to figure out the four correct gems and have them in the right order. Torul almost got it by accident on the first try simply by attempting to match the rainbow with existing colors. The group managed it in four rounds. (Yes, I still say rounds instead of turns.)

Inside was a rather deep chasm with a bridge and platform. Out in the abyss were four smaller platforms with mirrors on them oriented toward four small metal poles on the main platform. Two larger metal poles sat across from each other along the mid-line of the platform. (Of course it's a trap, you don't have to be Admiral Akbar to know that.)

Sure enough the whole thing powered up when Torul advanced across the center line. Some quick thinking and accurate attacks by the less dull-witted party members took out three of the four mirrors and the attack against Torul resulted in little more than a singe.

Moving forward, Torul discovered another puzzle lock door and an iron golem. Niiiiice. Just what we needed.

The battle with this metal monstrosity (CR 19 vs 7th level party) took time and almost resulted in some character deaths due to a mis-understood feature of the environment. Whenever it reaches a spot near the entrance, it teleports back to a spot in from of the interior puzzle door. Torul had lead it away and Mulva and Sophia went to try and work on the puzzle. He led it too far back and they got a rude surprise.

Then the plan changed. Roysen had determined that one section of bridge was weak and if we could get the thing on that spot and knock out the support . . . bye bye big metal badass.

The problem was, in trying to weaken the bridge further, Mulva and Sophia collapsed it too soon. That meant Torul would have to weather golem attacks until everyone else brought it down with ranged attacks and spells.

Going strictly into dodge defense, along with bolstering magic from Roysen, Torul's armor class reached an incredible 29. Even with a +13 to attack rolls, the golem managed to miss every attack.

Finally Torul sensed the golem was weaked enough and he delivered the final blow.

We left off with the party resting before attempting the door again.