Unlife, Revisited - 2/12 session recap

Having fought their way to a choke point at which they could hold off the lurching horde of zombies, the party decided to retreat. All of the territory that they gained last session just vanished in the wink of an eye as they fled to the elevator for a five minute rest. All so that they could get their encounter powers back. The room re-filled with zombies as the doors of the elevator closed.

During their rest, they mused on the fact that the barracks on the ground floor of the mesa was large enough to house an army of at least a thousand. They then estimated that they had only destroyed around seventy undead so far. The odds weren't good for simply killing all of them in a massive battle.

Afterwards, they ventured back down again to face the horde. This session was much like last session, except that Ander decided to make a dash for the control closet on the opposite side of the room while the rest of the party fought the never ending tide of undead. He found a way to raise the iron door, and everyone else retreated when it had opened enough. Ander himself waited until the last minute before sending the iron door back downwards. He then made an acrobatic leap to the ground and slipped out before the zombies could overcome him.

Beyond the iron door was a large wooden door with a sally port. Xakoraki unbarred this smaller door and was met by a teenager swinging a mace. "Die, Zombie!" She easily ducked the attack, and after a few confusing moments, the party emerged from the door into sunlight. Facing them were two scared teens. Boreas used his mage hand to drop the bar on the inside as the door shut behind him, hopefully slowing any zombies that made it through before the iron door fully closed.

The teens were named Nunpar and Hondro, and they explained that they were guarding Kopatri, the cursed mesa, as part of their coming-of-age trial. A thousand years ago, during the infernal invasions, several villages and an army sought refuge in the mesa as the horde of demons and devils surrounded them. A curse was laid on the mesa that turned people into undead when they died. Eventually reinforcements arrived, but not before the stores of the mesa had been exhausted, and everyone inside had perished. The place has been guarded ever since, in case the undead ever break free.

Ander and Xakoraki stayed at the mesa with Hondro while Boreas and Thoric traveled with Nunpar to the village. They met with the village elder who listened to their tale. When asked, he mentioned that he had seen what he thought was a dragon circling the mesa, perhaps a few years ago. Thoric came to the conclusion that Orvalion must have traveled to and from the mesa by riding a dragon.

They tried to subtly ask for a reward or resupply, but the village elder said that there were shops in town. When pressed, he said that he could do them a favor if they would do him a favor. He sent everyone else out of the house and told Thoric and Boreas of his proposal.

He explained that his tribe, The Jalakampathra, has a long-standing border dispute with a neighboring tribe, the Devratetlanak. A truce was declared many years ago, and a certain region between the two tribes was proclaimed off-limits to both sides. The problem is that there is a goblin-infested place within the truce zone, and the goblins have been raiding more boldly in recent years. The dragonlords used to fly by occasionally to scour the surface with dragonbreath, thus keeping the goblinoids in check. But after the rebellion, things have been getting steadily worse. He asked the party to cull or root out the source of the goblins, and in return he would tell the local magister to teleport them back to Shandrapur.