Session 22

📍 Location

The old sewers beneath Shadukar, the city centre, and the passages beneath its cathedral.

⚔️ What Happened

Before trusting the black-ichor potions, Tak wanted proof that they worked. Kael went ahead down the tunnel to demonstrate. A burrowing undead tried to ambush him, then stopped when it recognized him as one of the dead. Its attention turned instead to the smell of meat.

Kael showed it a drawing of the three black knights the party had seen earlier. The creature recognized them as its bosses. He gave it some real blood, which it consumed before burrowing away in search of more meat.

The party followed the tunnels into a staging area within an old sewer system. There, they witnessed a punishment that death could not end. Undead soldiers were tortured until destroyed, then brought back to undeath so the torment could begin again. The torturers appeared to be soldiers of Thrane, exacting an eternal revenge on soldiers of Karrnath. The party watched, then continued through the sewers.

Eventually, the cramped passages opened into another grand staging area. This one was no sewer chamber. An enigmatic black gate stood before them, and all the dark lines they had seen stretching across Shadukar converged upon it. Two slender undead lancer knights guarded the entrance, each roughly four metres tall.

Kael tried a paper order of his own making. He drew the three black knights and presented the drawing to the guards with a simple explanation: “We need to talk to the bosses.” The towering lancers seemed dumbfounded, but they let the party through.

Beyond the gate lay a dark tunnel. The gate closed behind them. About a minute later, an explosion broke the silence, followed by the sounds of fighting. It sounded as though the guards had been attacked and killed. The party suspected elite warforged, but they did not stay to find out. They ran.

For twenty minutes, they followed the black passage, waiting to see where it would lead. When they finally emerged, they were not deeper beneath Shadukar. They stood in the middle of the city.

The City of the Dead

At the city’s centre stood the cathedral. The great winged beast rested on its roof, recovering, while undead filled the streets below. They went about their business with the strange familiarity of an ordinary city.

Kael stopped a passerby. Pointing back toward the underground passage, he asked, “Bosses? Where? That way?” The undead hesitated. “Hmmm… bosses, yes… maybe?” Then it walked away, avoiding further contact. The answer did little to explain where the tunnel had brought them.

While the beast still rested above, Renoir caught a glimpse of movement: a catlike female warforged prowling nearby. For a moment, she was plainly visible. Then she recovered her concealment and became almost impossible to see.

Shrieks announced the return of the three black wraith knights. As their screams rang through the streets, the city’s undead bowed. The party bowed with them.

Then an explosion sounded somewhere near the docks. One of the wraiths spotted the catlike warforged, and the city erupted. The winged beast woke on the cathedral roof. Undead snarled all around the party, who joined in to keep their disguise.

Beneath the Cathedral

The party used the confusion to rush toward the cathedral. Tall undead lancers guarded it, much like those at the black gate. Amid the movement, the party spotted warforged slipping through a street opening into the passages below. They hurried after them.

Underground, the pursuit stopped at a trap the warforged had set. The party held back. For roughly five tense minutes, neither side advanced. Then a grenade came toward them. M.A.77 repelled it back toward the warforged, and the party charged after them.

The warforged ran, but the retreat did not last. Three elites turned to face their pursuers: one heavy frontline fighter and two skirmishers. The chase became a battle.

➡️ What’s Next

The party is fighting three elite warforged in the passages beneath the cathedral: one heavy fighter and two skirmishers. The fight remains unresolved.