=============== Morning At the end of last game, the party was staying the night outside of the Citadel, planning to head for Sunwatch in the morning. They set up a Rope Trick space next to the Citadel walls (since the clerics refused to allow the party's curse within the city's positive energy shield) and went to sleep. As the party woke up the next morning they all felt slightly weaker. Their curse had worsened: rather than simply absorbing the energy that would have gone to natural healing, it had begun to drain their life force. The clerics of the Citadel provided three of them with Greater Restoration spells, restoring their life force at some cost to the casters; the rest received some standard Restoration spells but did not feel fully healed. After a brief purchasing session the party departed for Sunwatch, a day's journey to the north, across the Diamond River. =============== Diamond River Bridge As the party approached the bridge they noticed all sorts of undead octopi and squid in the waters. The clerics had mentioned a gathering of creatures in the river; the clerics had thought the creatures were planning to attack the Citadel when/if the party destroyed the Citadel's shield. The bridge seemed clean, but the party didn't wanting to take a chance dashing across it. Instead they drew up a battle line a few hundred feet away from the riverbank and prepared to meet the undead horde. The battle was short and destructive: Gridley's newly-bought Amulet of Undead Turning boosted his power so that he could turn even the huge squid that formed the backbone of the attacking undead. The party rained arrows on the creatures as they turned and fled. They then hurried across the bridge before more undead could arrive from upriver and downriver. =============== Sunwatch As the party approached Sunwatch they noticed civilians guarding the gate. This struck them as odd: hadn't the Citadel lost contact with the town three days ago? The civilians seemed suspiciously calm, though - they didn't flee the party in terror of its undead aura. The party decided they were probably mind-controlled. The town of Sunwatch was laid out surrounding the Sunwatch bunker, the largest building of the town. The Citadel clerics had claimed that their rescue parties were held, paralyzed, in that bunker. Seeing no obvious enemies, the party advanced directly down the main street toward the bunker. As they passed the last buildings before the bunker, they heard maniacal laughter coming from the building on their left. Celeritas and Kabri, Elan's friend and cohort, found the laughter terrifying; those party members who wore cursed armor were able to ignore it. As the party was wondering how to deal with this, the buildings' doors burst open and civilians swarmed out to attack the party. Worse, the door to the bunker opened, and three enormous skeletal (carapacial?) centipedes swarmed out to attack. As the party moved to engage these threats (and the wizard flew into a window to investigate that maniacal laughter), a new threat emerged. A small girl ran past the wizard and jumped out of the window at Enajien, trying to bite his throat. Her first attack missed, and the party turned and concentrated their attacks on her. She retreated back into the building, calling to her minions to kill Enajien; Enajien, badly mauled by said minions, followed. Lacking a target, the centipedes turned and attacked the cleric. Selket's mace and Elan's sword destroyed them without too much difficulty. Meanwhile, the little girl led Enajien and Etale on a chase through nearby buildings, jumping in and out of windows, trying to stay ahead of her much faster pursuers. Etale's familiar Souffle spotted her retreat, and Etale launched a magic missile shot to finish her. =============== Rescued Clerics The party attended to the rescued clerics, casting Restoration on one to remove the dexterity damage the centipedes' poison had wrought. They spent the night at Sunwatch, staying outside the bunker to avoid desanctifying it. Enajien burned the corpse of the girl who had attacked them, then buried the ashes in several spots around the town. During the night Gridley received a Sending message from the Citadel clerics: "A large group of undead are moving toward you from the north. Please bring the residents of Sunwatch back to the Citadel immediately." The party had been planning to return anyway, so they took the message in stride; the mayor of Sunwatch reacted almost as smoothly, and the town was evacuated with an ease that comes from many years' practice. The party headed back toward the Citadel, trailed by the inhabitants of Sunwatch. =============== Diamond River Bridge II As the party returned to the Diamond River Bridge they noticed something odd: muddy, slimy tracks of several huge creatures slithering onto the bridge. The tracks stopped at about the halfway point. Scouting underneath the bridge revealed four of the same huge squid zombies the party had battled previously. They cautiously advanced onto the bridge, firing from range. Something was different, though: Gridley and Arator sensed a surge of negative energy, and one of Selket's arrows struck an invisible obstacle between her and the octopus. Someone or something began casting a spell which Etale identified as Insect Swarm. Insects blanketed the area, dropping visibility to ten feet and preventing spellcasting and undead turning; then all hell broke loose. The fighters charged the squid but were grabbed in midair by two more squid, suddenly becoming visible. Gridley ran blindly forward, trying to escape the cloud, and was grabbed by a seventh squid. Just as the situation started looking bleak, a voice rang out: "Awaken, O Vecna!" An undead creature of some sort (later identified as a kuo-toa) appeared in the center of the squid battle group and began channeling negative energy into the party's armor. The party rallied: one of the two unparalyzed clerics they had rescued managed to dispel the Insect Swarm, and Selket killed the squid that had been holding Elan. Elan remounted Tidefell and made a vicious charge against the lich; Etale and Enajien killed the squid on Gridley, who finished the lich off with a well-placed Searing Light. Elan and his cohort Kabri were badly wounded in the ensuing battle, but both survived. The party collected the lich's armor and headed back to the Citadel. =============== Last Chance to Buy The clerics' message for the party was grim: a huge army of undead giants was marching on the Citadel from the hills north of Kher Keep. The clerics from Sunwatch would be a welcome addition to the Citadel's defenses, but what the Citadel really needed was for the party to go elsewhere. As long as that undead curse was not around to possibly breach the Citadel's positive energy shield, they felt they could hold out. The party offered to stick around and help battle the ogre army, but the clerics again refused. The party made some last exchanges of magic items and set out on their way to Necropolis.