As the Hellbenders left The Grand Library, they stepped out into The Arrival, the main courtyard of Castle Rostak.
It was clear that King Thaddeus Rostak, The Iron Lich, had successfully summoned all his forces to the castle as the courtyard was packed with undead new(-ish), old and ancient.
A group of undead builders were crowded around a massive clock pulling it up on the wall with the entrance to The Stateroom, the main hall of the castle.
The heroes made a quick decision and jumped inside the clock as it was pulled up the wall.
Stuck inside the clock, the party heard The Iron Lich appear above them to address his army of undead:
Finally my army have gathered here in its completeness. We will henceforth attack Dragonskeep to kill Grindrax the Dark Wyrm for it has stolen by beloved Queen Adelyn.
She may no longer be alive, but we shall have our revenge upon the foul worm.
When the clock strikes 13 we will march upon Dragonskeep!
With that the clock struck 1 shaking the innards of the heroes knocking Pestilence—with his sensitive cat ears—out cold.
Thorga and Kaari decided that if the clock couldn’t strike 13, the attack might be delayed.
Thorga with his Artificer expertise quickly pull out a cog to stop the clock, but within minutes the undead noticed the clock had malfunctioned and started pulling it down.
Desperate to reach the Iron Lich, Thorga and Kaari broke through the roof of box the clock was housed in, grabbed the still unconscious Pestilence and jumped up on the balcony where they had heard the metallic voice of the Iron Lich moments before.
The balcony was empty, but led into a balcony inside the Statesroom. Kaari woke up Pestilence with Lesser Restoration and the three walked into the Statesroom.
The Knight of the Bell
Inside they faced the Knight of the Bell guarding the entrance to the main residence of the King: The Tower.
The heroes tried to communicate with the deadly foe, but the Knight of the Bell showed no sign of responding a stayed stoically in front of the door.
As the party cautiously approached, the Knight of the Bell took an active, defensive position.
Not sure of how powerful the Knight would be, they opted to leave through the Staff Quarters leading into the Church of Sol the Dawnfather.
The heroes intended to find the Knight of the Bell’s lost son.
The clock struck 2 in the distance.
Church to Sol the Dawnfather
The church seemed utterly untouched by the undead and here the heroes met the priest Cyron the Dawnshield who had been left un-aged by Sol to help future allies coming to fight the undead.
Cyron was unable to leave the chuch as much as undeads are unable to enter. And while he was eager to help, it also became clear that with each help he gave, he visibly aged.
After getting some useful information about the location of the son of the Knight of the Bell, the party left the church out onto the Velvet Promenade a once beautiful shopping district now derelict for centuries, except for one shop where light and music flowed out from.
The clock struck 3 in the distance.
Brimstone Stone Bargains
As the heroes entered the shop, they were meant with a—potentially, maybe—familiar face.
“Welcome to my shop”, said Jake Brimstone, the owner of the establishments.
While Jake didn’t seem to recognise the heroes, they were suspicious that he was arch-“ally” previously known as James Brimstone aka John Brimstone.
In any case, Jake Brimstone explained his shop was divided into 10 isles grouping his wares into logical order.
DM note, I basically used the fantastic book “Arcane Artifacts and Curious Curios” as the basis for the isles.
Kaari went down the isle labeled “Potion, food and drinks” where she found a bottle of Mill Workers Wine, a bottle of Silvertounge Wine and 6 Superiour Potions .
Pestilence and Thorga went down the “Trinkets and Knicknacks” isle where Pestilence found a butter knife with the name “Emmet” scratched into the surface and also found fully functional matchbox sized Mouse House and Thorga found a neckless with a piece of Murmuring Glass as well as a Mint Mist Vile.
while the Hellbenders would have loved to stay and look through Brimstone’s wares, the time was against them and they left to find the prison and free the son of the Knight of the Bell.
The clock struck 4 in the distance.
The Prison
After a short fight with the undead prison guards, the party rushed down in the dungeons but found no creature alive.
Just as they left, they saw a faint glimmer of light from the most remote cell.
As they investigated, they found the cell holding a single tiny light hovering in the air. So small it was barely visible had it not been for the surroundings being utterly devoid of light.
Pestilence opened the door of her newly found Mouse House and carefully captured the tiny light.
The clock struck 5 in the distance as the heroes rushed up and back to the Statesroom to present the Knight of the Bell with the last light of his son’s soul.
Father and son reunited
As Pestilence opened the door of the Mouse House, the tiny light floated out clearly struggling.
the Knight of the Bell froze in place, then reached out to grab the light in his armoured fist.
As he opened the fist, the light was gone, but father and son had reunited.
Starting with the arm, the black armour evaporated into black smoke revealing a body of pure light underneath for a split second and then it was gone leaving no trace the Knight of the Bell had ever existed.
The entrance to The Tower was left unguarded for the heroes to enter as the clock struck 6 in the distance leaving 7 strikes left before the undead army would march upon Dragonskeep.
DM notes
This was my original plan for this session 😊. If I compared it to how much I planned for the very fist D&D session back in 2018, this is a lot more light.
Interestingly, I did not anticipate the party jumping into the clock so I had to do a fair amount of improvisation. Fortunately I know what denizens where to be found where in the castle. Having planned out monsters and location ahead makes improvisation easier.
