Story

(This story is based on the events of Year 7 adventure 1-3, the main theme of the banes for AD4-6, and an adventure suggestion from the City of Strangers book. I wanted to keep the story in Kaer Maga since that’s what the first half of the season was about.)

Letra is no more and the strange artifact that has caused so much trouble is secure at the Pathfinder’s Grand Lodge. But one question still nags at you: how did the priestess come to find the artifact in the first place? How did she unlock the Forbidden Door without a key and was it coincidence that the perfect type of person would find the artifact. Feeling that another hand might have been guiding things, you head back to Kaer Maga.

As you arrive, it would seem that you are not the only one with an interest in the recent uprising of the undead.

# **The Backstory**

Two wizards, bound by a magic blood-oath, found a hidden passage that lead to a series of previously undiscovered chambers. Columns lined the massive vaults, which were filled with a multitude of stone soldiers, standing at attention. Postulating that this represented a bound army waiting for a leader to reanimate them, both knew that a discovery of this proportion would be the end of their friendship and the start of a rivalry.

Bathus Ardoc, a prominent golemcrafter tried all his techniques to activate the constructs, to no avail. His companion, Lysanar, believed the soldiers to be men turned to stone to preserve them. He tried a number of spells and alchemical concoctions, but these failed to invigorate the stone army.

With a growing paranoia and distrust of each other, both wizards struggled to understand the myriad of arcane writings on the walls of the chambers. As their trips to the surface grew more infrequent, and the traps they laid to protect their find and perhaps eliminate the other grew in number, both wizards resigned themselves to living on opposite ends of the chamber, devoted entirely to the race to control one of the world’s largest armies.

As the years passed, each changed their philosophies as they came to understand that the stone soldiers had no souls. Lysanar, pulling from his extensive knowledge of the arcane arts, believes that the key to animating the soldiers lies in this absence of a soul. Having heard of a powerful relic of dead that could control the powers of undeath, safely stored in the care of the Pharasmins, Lysanar put into motion a plan to retrieve the artifact and use it to channel flows of necromancy through the chambers. Unfortunately, he is not a death priest…

At the same time, Bathus had an epiphany, deciding that the souls were removed and must be bought back from the devils and hags that pilfer souls on their way to the Boneyard. Thus he put his golems on guard and began researching how to summon the fiends he would need…

# **Adventure Synopsis**

## AD4

Soon after the party returns to Kaer Maga, a messenger bears a piece of parchment requesting the presence of the Pathfinders of Kaer Maga to visit an encampment of Shoanti outside the city. They refuse to enter for cultural reasons, but their seers have had a vision of a stone army sweeping across the Cinderlands, destroying their peoples.

The party meets with the Shoanti forerunners and is invited to a nearby tribe to partake in a vision ritual. In the vision, they see a vast chamber beneath Kaer Maga filled with stone soldiers. After thanking the Shaonti for their help, the party heads back to Kaer Maga and tries to get more information about where under Kaer Maga that chamber could be.

After a bit of back and forth with various sages and organizations, the party hears some rumors of the wizards that have been closely guarding the secret of the Vault of the Sleepers.

## AD5

Separate from the Halflight Path, the way down to the Vault is plagued with traps from the wizards and dangerous denizens, ranging from the untamed monsters of the Undercity to a number of undead created in the wake of Lysanar tricking Letra into using the Rebirth Stone.

Finally, the party finds the entrance to the Vault of the Sleepers, which is overrun by undead. Seemingly ignored by the undead is a man, investigating some of the writing on the wall. At the party’s arrival, Bathus is quite thrilled at the idea their interference and asks them to deal with the wizard that has been creating all these undead abominations.

With the guidance of Bathus Ardoc, the party hunts down and confronts Lysanar.

## AD6

Reveling in his victory over his nemesis, Bathus reveals to the party that he alone will now rule over the stone army. After villain monologuing, he sets his golems on the party and retreats to his summoning chambers. 

The chambers beyond Lysanar’s influence are filled with various outsiders that Bathus has summoned and attempted to force to give him the souls he needs. While some are hostile to the party, many wish to be free of their binding and try to convince the party to dispose of Bathus. Given the conflicting goals, the chambers leading to Bathus’s workshop see as much devil-on-devil violence and are a virtual gauntlet of traps, golems, and dangerous situations with devils willing to make a deal.

Eventually, the party works its way through the golemcrafter’s defenses to the heart of all the summoning. Using the constricting spider web of promises and bindings Bathus has made against him, the party is able to trap him in the very situation he created, releasing all the outsiders to get their revenge on him before departing.

With the wizards dead, the chamber is able to be properly dealt with by the Duskwardens, who collapse the entrances and make sure to send regular patrols to check for overly-curious adventurers that might have aspirations of command.