Seven Kingdoms Session 3

Session 3: The Shadow Falling
After action report - 3d session of 7k.
Players: Alaric (Iago), Bill (Kiri).

May 23
Iago and Perceval look about for sites to place catalysts.  Iago begins creating them.

May 24
Kiri is working the temple.  She is approached by a foreigner seeking assistance with an injured comrade.  She rushes to the caravansary where the man lies wounded.  It’s bad; he has been severely wounded in a knife fight.  She tries and fails to save him.  
    The foreigner asks for help in burying his comrade (the cemetery dubbed “Boot Hill” near the caravansary).  As the two dig, the corpse moves and attacks his former comrade -- zombie!  Kiri sees the shambling horror and realizes there is but one option -- run!  She flees the cemetery shouting for help.  A few curious souls come out.  Hearing the tale, only one returns with her.  The mysterious stranger makes short work of the monstrosity.  He then quarters both men, leaving their bodies at the four corners of the cemetery and their heads at the gate.
    “A dark shadow is fallen upon this place,” the stranger says.  With that, he gathers his things and rides off to the West.  Kiri is disturbed, goes and consults Iago.
    Iago completes analysis of the blade used to wound Haley.  He may now use it to develop a new potion.

May 25
Iago and Kiri go to see Madge.  There’s something recognizably “off” about Madge, so Iago takes a hair and a trinket from Madge.  The consultation yields little information.  Madge and Iago predictably don’t really get along.
    After the consultation, Iago casts Aura on Madge.  She’s suffering from spiritual dissonance -- the result of magical commerce with spirits.  The nature of the spirits cannot be determined at this stage.  He also investigates the history of the item he stole; it was present for years, a minor item used in the casting of magic and dealings with spirits.

May 26
A one-eyed man by the name of Zobrick comes to the temple, exhausted.  During the night, his caravan had camped beyond the caravansary to save money and speed travel in the morning.  One of his men was ill and died.  But he rose from the dead and attacked with a vengeance.  He fled in panic.  The temple and the town guard both plead that they are not prepared to deal with this.  

Iago and Kiri tell Valerian, who upon hearing of it recommends that they investigate, but tha they bring backup.  He puts them in touch with Sokar, a half-ork tough who has worked for him in the past.  Iago also goes to Valarian and Perceval’s fencing academy and manages to goad two young men into accompanying them to “test their skills” against whatever might come.

They travel to the campsite.  They find a couple of mangled bodies and evidence that multiple people headed toward a nearby hamlet.  The five enter the hamlet and are set upon by zombies.  The child zombies are the worst -- terrifying.  With some difficulty they manage to fend the zombies off.  One of the fencing students has been bitten, however.

Iago works on treating the bite, worried that he’ll soon have another zombie on his hands.  Sokar wants look and begins searching the houses.  Another small pocket of zombies attack and are beaten back swiftly.  Then they find a house with a glyph on it.  Iago is intrigued -- a glyph of warding.  They knock.  The man refuses to come out.

They threaten to burn his house down (their new plan to deal with any more zombies in the village, as Iago is less than confident that they’ll be so lucky in another battle against zombies, especially if there are more than a handful).  He comes out, identifying himself as Brodrim.  He claims to be a “Friend of Wisdom” (a hedge wizard) and a colleague of Madge.  

He then requests to leave.  Iago and Kiri, backed by Sokar, refuse.  He invokes something and attacks  -- he proves unnaturally strong.  Sokar is stronger.  Much stronger, and Brodrim dies quickly.  Sokar takes his ring as booty.  Iago tells Sokar not to put the ring on.  Sokar looks at it, shrugs, and puts it into his purse.  

Kiri and Iago go into his hut.  They find a demonic altar and a chest.  Inside the chest are three volumes of a book, apparently on demonology, a blood-stained cup and a sacrificial knife.  

They plan to burn the books, saving the bindings, and piss on the ashes.  They also plan to burn the hamlet to the ground...