Since their may actually be some interest in picking this up again at some point in the future, I have now done a recap of the campaign so far. Boom!
Splinters of Faith
Book 1: It started with a Chicken
- Gek Crazyhands, Halfling Fighter
- Eldrin, Elf Ranger
- Shadrach, Deep Gnome Rogue
- Darv, Human Wizard
To mitigate their spiralling medical bills, the party undertake a quest from the Temple of Freya, to escort an acolyte through the wilds and deliver him safely to the village of Lessef. Young Sarnau
(cameo appearance from Aka) is a spotty, squeaky-voiced tenager with a real hard-on for God.
Arriving in Lessef, the party are confronted by an ornery old timer, who is having trouble with a wily fox raiding his chicken coop. This triggers a lengthy debate on the nature of foxes; what even is a fox, and do they wear boots? Tracks from the old man's farm lead to a group of ruffians camped outside the entrance to an old, overgrown barrow mound. The heroes dispatch the goons with ease and learn they are in the service of creepy nobleman Rayne de' Anzeray, who descended into the barrow two days ago and has yet to return.
The heroes enter the barrow. Sickly green flames flicker within iron, skull-shaped braziers. The floors are littered with bones, and crude symbols of Orcus (evil god of undeath) are scratched into the walls. The whole place gives of a real bad vibe, which is only exacerbated when the heroes bump into a group of flesh-eating zombies.
One room contains hundreds of gnawed skulls, which spill out noisily into the corridor as soon as the door is opened.
The defacto 'leader' of of the undead is a ghast called Fulcyst, who sits atop his throne of bones, stroking his skanky ghoul cat. Eldrin pins the ghast to his throne with arrows and Sarnau sets the whole thing alight with sacred flame. Darv casts Shocking Grasp on the ghoul cat. I guess you could say his clever fingers really stimulated that p - EDIT: actually no, let's not say that.
Moving on, there is some unpleasant business with a swarm of zombie rats and the party befriend the talking skull of a long dead bard, called Gillespy. Shadrach chucks the skull into his bag, from where it intermittently shouts out words of muffled encouragement, granting bardic inspiration (d6) to anyone who can make out what he's actually saying.
Ultimately, the heroes discover this whole dungeon was built to serve as the prison-tomb of Akruel, infamous death priest of Orcus. Impaled upon the Sceptre of Faiths, Akruel was not slain, but fell into a death-like stasis and was sealed beneath the earth for hundreds of years. Nowadays, he's effectively been forgotten about altogether - but not by creepy nobleman Rayne de' Anzeray, who only went and removed the Sceptre, restoring Akruel to un-life (doh!). Soon, the world will remember Akruel and the long shadow of Orcus will once again shroud the land in death, darkness and decay. Fortuitously, the two halves of the shattered sceptre lie discarded beside the death priest's vacant sarcophagus, along with convenient instructions detailing how the artifact may be reforged and restored to its full power. Only then, can the party hope to defeat Akruel once and for all!
"Hold up, how is this our problem?" Shadrach wants to know.
Because you're Heroes, m****r-f****r, so put on your big boy pants and get on with it!