The Iron Principalities, Session 9

I think at this point the Iron Principalities game is the longest-running fantasy game I've run in something like five years, is three sessions away from tying for longest campaign I've run, period, in five years.  Whether it will surpass the Call of Cthulhu campaign I ran in college remains to be seen. 

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 3
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 3
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 3
Mara, Human Cleric 3
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

Resuming where we left off last week, the party entered a large, circular room and challenged the two animated suits of armor that guarded the only other doorway.  It was a slow, arduous fight for our heroes; blows that would have sundered armor and crushed limbs of a mortal foe seemed to glance off the enchanted suits of ancient dwarven plate that confronted them.  Finally, however, the party finished off the pair, with Zerin striking the killing blow on both of them.  The suits collapsing into pieces, Cor shoved as many pieces as he could into his Handy Haversack, filling it to capacity. 

Unlocking the other door, within they found a gigantic stone sarcophagus, laying on an even larger dais, the walls covered in intricate bas-relief carvings.  Sending Dormammu's imp, Francis P. Mordo, in to scout, Dormammu is able to read the inscriptions on the sarcophagus, identifying it as the final resting place of Magister Eckhardt, the Sword of Justice, Last of his Clan. 

Francis, acting on his own initiative, tried to lift the sarcophagus lid, wrenching his tiny spine in the process.  As the imp groaned, "My back!" one of the dwarven figures in the bas reliefs detached itself from the wall - a lumbering, 10-foot stone dwarf, lurching towards the imp, fists raised menacingly. 

Already tired and drained from fighting the armors, the party found themselves drawn into a fight against this guardian statue - all except Zerin, who stood back, arms crossed over his chest.  "The imp got himself into this, he can get himself out," he declared. 

The fight against the statue was even harder than the fight against the armors - blades and arrows bounced ineffectively off its stony exterior, though the flails wielded by Kholark and Mivahl were a bit more effective.  Eventually, however, they managed to wear the statue down and Sylvus, in wolf form, dealt the killing blow, chomping down and shivering the battered stone to splinters. 

"Untiring guardians" defeated, the party forced open the sarcophagus, expecting to find the magic lance, the Empyreal Vengeance, inside.  Instead, inside a series of successively-smaller, nesting sarcophagi, the party found the remains of Magister Eckhardt, a scroll case emanating magic clenched in his bony hands and a magical amulet around his neck.  The amulet, Lisair was able to determine, was connected to the statue they had just destroyed; the statue would guard the wearer as long as they wore the amulet. 

Inside the scroll case, they found two sheets of seemingly-blank vellum that radiated powerful magic. 

Recognizing that they'd explored only a fraction of the complex but needed to rest, the party returned to the surface, Lisair burgling the jewels and finery of the dwarven mummies they'd passed on their way in on her way out, netting - by her estimation - over 500 GP worth of jewelry.  Cor, examining the gold and platinum filigree and inset gems on the pieces of armor he'd taken, estimated their value at 500,000 GP.  He may be mistaken. 

Spending the night in the castle, in the morning, refreshed and ready to go, they first went to the cathedral, where Mara was able to determine the site had never been properly consecrated, but was not necessarily desecrated into unholy ground.  The acolyte priest tried to run when he saw them, but was swiftly captured and interrogated, revealing his and Father Markus' involvement in a demon cult broken into terrorist-style cells, working on missions across the land to further the overall goals of their unseen masters.  They turn the acolyte over to Count Rodrigo, who orders him placed in stocks, to be hanged tomorrow. 

Questioning Count Rodrigo to determine the depths of his delusional belief that he is the heir to the Empire to the north, Zerin decides to try and break Rodrigo of his delusions; he proposes a mock-duel, between Rodrigo's bellicose drill sergeant Magro and one of his men, and Kholark and one of Mivahl's hobgoblin charges.  If Kholark and the hobgoblin win, Zerin proposes, Count Rodrigo should give up his mad dream of ruling the Empire.