Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
After Mudgol's fireball strikes the middledeck of the strange vessel while it passes between the two piers at Cedarway, the undead on board broadside the PCs and their allies with a pair of ballista and several crossbowmen. Ranged attacks are exchanged, and melee combatants leap from the vessel, including several two-headed skeletal giants and a leaping corpse with a garish sailors' outfit. The arcane robe-wearing navigator decides to launch the vessel on the West bank of the Pinewater, while Mudgol wreaks more havoc with a fireball to the bough. The Battle on the Pine truly commences when the undead in the middledeck and cargo hold, some ablaze, erupt to swarm the land. Several skeletal wolves and spell slingers also enter the fray, the latter conjuring up fiendish centipedes to attack the PCs on the docks. The ghostly figure glides to shore, while the navigator flies around the far side of the ship.
The PCs, halflings, fishermen and Eidolorn guard decide to form up a phalanx to protect Mudgol, Langston and the other ranged fighters, but it loses them valuable time in taking down the swarming masses of undead that approach. Bethys is able to turn and destroy a number of the corpses through the powers invested by Eleste (including the first mate), but many are simply too strong. A melee ensues, the PCs attacks proving most useless against the ghost, weaker against the skeletons and zombies. Everett Tasker rushes one of the undead ettins as it wades to the shoreline, breaking the line briefly. Luz, Wafflar Drull and Odd Jon Stuckle prove more effective, however, beating down the first with bludgeoning weapons. A turning point in the battle comes when the undead wizard lines up a lightning bolt that destroys a good third of the defenders' phalanx, and then chaos and individual combats break out.
Captain Hoary charges mightily against a number of undead, while Mudgol and others try to take out whatever they can. The enemy wizard manages to lay Bethys and Mudgol low, and the PCs are looking to be in a dire situation. The ghostly figure, who has at this point done little more than slay several of the Eidolorn soldiers and fishermen with a chilling touch, possesses Blake Bauerkfroft briefly, and he turns against Captain Hoary. Eventually, most of the undead make it on shore and to the PCs location, so they launch a last ditch, desperate effort to take two of the remaining rowboats and get as many as they can upriver to safety. Luz, Belgin Hosspotch, Odd Jon, Langston, Mudgol and Bethys make it to the boats, the unconscious being dragged there, with a small handful of halflings and soldiers, while the hard-pressed but heavily armored Hoary escapes running north up the West Bank, and Slab leaps the pier and swims to the far bank. The undead do not pursue, realizing they would be incapable in a foot or boat race.
Wafflar Drull was sadly slain in a heroic attempt to buy the PCs more time to escape on the boats, and Everett Tasker was also left behind. At last sight, he surrendered and kneeled in prayer before the ghost and its legion...
PCs: Betrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
Captain Ogrous (undead male): An undead war wizard whose presence was crucial in routing the PCs and their Eidolorn allies. He was heavily damaged in the Battle on the Pine, so much that he fled for his life. Ogrous was not only the navigator for the stolen river galley, but a devastating wielder of destructive spells of lightning and frost, with an uncanny ability to remain in flight.
First Mate Hungered (undead male): Some sort of leaping, deadly mobile corpse with a predilection for paralyzing his victims. Hungered did not take much part in the Battle on the Pine, as Bethys was able to turn him under Eleste.
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