The long awaited day when the duke's mages completed the teleporting circle finally arrived, and a celebration was held in the honor of the party and survivors. Liberal amounts of alcohol and food from the duke's personal larders was served, and the adventurers turned in happy and content in the fact that tomorrow, they would be back in Sharn, and this mess with the zombies behind them.
And it would have ended happily ever after too, except something rotten was afoot. As Jalros woke up from his reverie on the airship, he noticed that the courtyard was quiet - too quiet. The mages had all disappeared, and the guards were standing still in a daze. He approached them to investigate, and realized too late that the guards had all been slain. That was when he noticed that the gate of the keep was unbarred, and that somebody was tampering with the airship.
True enough, the escaped rogue had lain low in the keep in the past few days, and had finally made her move. Jalros sent for help, and had his bird alert the others. Those who slept in the keep though discovered that apart from the rogue and the dead guards, the survivors, all 150 of them in the keep had been poisoned and were dead. What was going on? :o
As Vicks and Jalros rushed to subdue the rogue, Jacquesaurs ran to Captain Seele's quarters, and discovered that she was dead, with a second grin from ear to ear carved in her throat. Vicks attacked the rogue, and their struggle resulted in the ship's hold catching on fire. As the fire spread, the rogue jumped out of a porthole, only to be shot dead by Jalros. Vicks then quickly tried to put out the fire, and Picadilly and Sir Colin helped. By now, zombies had entered the keep, and Jalros was hard pressed to fend them off by firing arrows.
Jacquesaurs took the helm of the ship, and managed to put it on course. As the party jumped aboard, and as the ship flew skywards, everyone spotted some furtive movement on the third floor of the keep, where the keep had a balcony and audience hall. True enough, Duke Thoric was inside, and so was Zan Zar the merchant and the mages from downstairs. As soon as they spotted the ship, two of the mages headed towards the balcony, and sent a volley of fireballs to detonate against the ship, blasting holes in the wood and causing the fires to spread.
Vicks retaliated with spells of his own, as more mages joined the fray. Picadilly teleported to the roof of the audience chamber and began to smash it with her hammer, while Jalros returned fire with arrows. However, the magical onslaught proved difficult for Vicks to defend against, and Jacquesaurs had to ram the ship into the balcony so the melee combatants could disembark to help out.
Zan Zar struck up a dirge song, causing the party to feel sickened and demoralized, and Duke Thoric, whose shadow seemed unusually large and almost solid, leapt to attack the group. With a devastating charge and a jump, he cleaved his sword into Jalros, badly injuring him. Jalros was then knocked down by a fireball from one of the wizards. More spells slammed into the party as the wizards redoubled their efforts, though some of them pinged off Sir Colin's magic shields with little effect. One of Sir Colin's fellow adventurers, who holed up in the bell tower when treachery took place, quickly joined the fray. This mystic was called Palladium, and he flew up to offer what healing aid he could.
Sir Colin activated Angel's Ashes, causing it to burn with brillance at the expense of his own health. As Sir Colin crumpled over, the undead in the courtyard, the skeleton mages, Duke Thoric and Zan Zar felt the wrath of the heavens. The zombies and skeleton mages turned to ash, and Duke Thoric was blinded. Zan Zar smoked and charred, but was mostly unhurt. Zan Zar retaliated with a spell as Duke Thoric flailed with his sword blindly. The sonic vibrations smashed into Sir Colin, killing him. But the miraculous Angel's Ashes took effect again, and Sir Colin came back to life, a little worse for wear as the power of the orb was completely spent. With a charge, Sir Colin skewered Zan Zar, and at the same time, Picadilly finally smashed the roof, causing it to fall on the fat merchant.
Duke Thoric used some foul magic to revive the skeleton mages, and they began casting magic missiles at the party. Most of the missiles that struck Sir Colin and Palladium were negated by their protections, but Jacqeusaurs was not so lucky. He had been doing his best to pilot the ship, so when the missiles slammed home, he had no way to defend against them. Jacquesaurs was drilled through by the missiles and slain outright.
The ship started listing and sinking towards the glowing magic circle in the courtyard. With no one to control the ship now, it would land in the circle and be teleported, likely to Sharn. Angered, Sir Colin charged Duke Thoric, lancing him through the chest and causing him to fall off the balcony. As the body of Duke Thoric pulped on the ground, the shadow detached from his body and made towards the magic circle. Jalros fired arrows at it, but the arrows failed to cause significant harm. Jalros's pet managed to snag the Amulet of the Keeper from Zan Zar's corpse, which quickly decomposed.
Palladium tried to freeze the shadow in place with a moon bolt, causing it to falter, and then Sir Colin hit it with magic missiles, which shredded it to pieces. As the shadow faded away, Palladium casted a dispelling on the teleporting circle, snuffing its magic. The undead outside the keep seemed to stop collectively, fell flat on the ground, and were still.
The party stopped to rest and recover from their ordeal. Searching Zan Zar's body, they retrieved a sending stone, which turned out to belong to Simon the Necromancer. Speaking into the sending stone summoned the wizard to the group, and as they conversed, it seemed more of the mystery came to light. Piecing all the information they had together, the adventurers then could logically conclude that Zan Zar and the Duke were either possessed by the giant spirits that had been loosed from the dragonshards, or were in cahoots with the spirits. The spirits had orchestrated the zombie apocalypse, and the amulet Zan Zar had tricked Simon into retrieving amplified their command of the undead to all undead in the city.
It was fortunate then that the party had put paid to the evil scheme when they did. What if the undead had crossed the portal and attacked Sharn?
Eventually, the party sailed back to Sharn, where they revived Jacquesaurs. They also came out of the adventure stronger, wiser and more powerful. All in time too, since they had to contend with Lord d'Medani's scheduled prison visit on the morrow.
There was ample time though, for Jacquesaurs, who had just recovered from death, to gain some much needed experience before the coming trials. So that was why he and the others descended into a newly opened shaft in Under Sharn to do some exploring.
But that's a story for another time, and best said in Jacquesaurs' own words.
What else will the party come up against in the weeks to come? Stay tuned to Eberron Mystery Theatre to find out!
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