The Cold Chill of Death

I do not remember much beyond this point. But I do know that we almost died. We have never come as close to death as we did on that day.

Kale and Ryn suddenly disappeared with a noise like a "pop". (Eventually, after the battle was won, they somehow reappeared.)

Bran, the Halfling Rogue, began the battle by tipping over the table. He had hoped to trap Baird beneath the table, but Baird managed to dodge aside. Baird hurled a ball of icy death toward the ground, covering it with cold from the grave. It was difficult to move, and the icy cold tore at us while we stood there.

Firinne, the Half-Elven Paladin, Carlagnios the Dragonborn Fighter, Garg the Half-Elven Warlord, and Bran moved to surround Baird, while Tiny kept Baird distracted with his spiritual hammer.

Since I had been in the back of our party (strategically positioning myself to attack Baird with a swarm of arrows), the Ghouls were closest to me, they all chose to attack me at the same time. With each blow and each bite, I could feel nothing but terror in my heart. I could no longer move, and I was stunned by the shock of their bites.

Far ahead of me, I could see Baird covering more of the ground with ice. Bran carefully avoided these areas, but the others kept getting caught in the cold. They managed to surround Baird and strike him again and again.

But Carlagnios took one too many blows from Baird, and he fell unconscious. The Ghouls kept biting and striking me, and I eventually fell as well. Before I lost consciousness, I was Tiny, the Dwarven Cleric, bring Carlagnios back from death's door. Garg was keeping the party inspired as well and healed many of their wounds.

I could hear Garg's voice in my head when I awoke. The Ghouls had taken me down and moved on to attack the rest of the party. The party had managed to kill Baird but at a hight cost. We were all bloodied and worn from the effort. The Ghouls gave them no respite.

One had attacked Tiny and stunned and immobilized him. Even while stunned, Tiny could still strike back through Loom, his magical hammer. Loom struck a critical blow, but the Ghoul was relentless and kept mauling Tiny until, mercifully, Tiny lost consciousness.

We were able to dispatch one of the Ghouls, and Garg was able to destroy another. But Garg, Carlagnios, and Firinne were nearly unconscious from the blows from the Ghouls. Bran was thankfully unscathed.

Bran, Garg, and Carlagnios focused their efforts on one of the Ghouls, while Firinne battled the other. I faced a difficult decision -- I could finish off the first Ghoul, or I could attack the second one, who was about to knock out Firinne. I reluctantly chose the former, and the second Ghoul struck Firinne down. We refocused our efforts on the remaining Ghoul and finally destoryed it.

Tiny and Firinne were near death, and Garg and Carlagnios were close to losing consciousness. Carlagnios and I had almost died.

We wanted to rest but Kale insisted that we search the room.

"We must find its phylactery," Kale said. "It is the thing that holds the soul of the Lich." He was referring to Baird.

Although we searched, we did not find this phylactery. We found some gold, and we had Baird's helm.

Kale examined the helm and declared that it was a Helm of Vision Unclouded. The helm would give its wearer keen insight and perception and the ability (on occassion) to see invisible things. Tiny eagerly scooped up the helm and donned it on his head.

Animata had slowly begun to stream into the room. We explored the rest of the room but could go no further.

We backtracked to the stairway up and followed the stairway past a fountain to some stables. In the ceiling, there was a hole with a rope coming down it. This is where the underground room "poked out".

In the stables, we also found a statuette of an ebony fly. Kale discovered that the statuette was magical and could be used to summon a flying mount.

Beyond that, we found nothing. After nearly dying in battle, we decided to take a long, extended rest and heal our wounds.