[Channel Teaser]
The Gray Necromancer's Antics Gone Too Far?
The Party Finally Makes A Move
This is part two of Astoshan’s story, the
Gray Necromancer whose character is a shade
of gray just like its title.
If you haven't watched part 1, do watch that
prior to watching this video.
The link is in the description.
Beyond this are all spoilers.
As we already know, Astoshan’s party were
already fed up of his ambivalent actions at
seemingly the most random of occasions.
What else does the ruler and wielder of the
Undeath have up his sleeves next?
Let's find out.
The story of Astoshan, the Gray Necromancer,
does not end with the Sleepless Watch.
After the events of the attack, the GM decided
he wanted to make things a bit more clear
when it came to the undead minions of Astoshan.
He splits them into two groups: The Undead
and the Deathless.
The Undead are more of the traditional undead
minions, the mindless undead brought back
by dark magic.
The Deathless are more like the “Sleepless
Watch” soldiers, the ones who volunteer
their bodies and souls to be brought back.
It allows their souls to stay connected to
their bodies, and they are effectively intelligent
undead not under anyone’s control.
The act of Astoshan raising the Deathless
was neutral since they agreed to it first,
however because of their consent being required
it makes raising Deathless significantly more
difficult.
They are also not technically undead, allowing
them to fall under Leadership instead of forcing
them to require Undead Leadership… and since
they are intelligent they can bring their
friends!
Therefore, this allowed Astoshan to raise
two separate armies that fall under both Leadership
and Undead Leadership.
This has allowed him to accumulate an army
of the Undead and Deathless nearing 1000 soldiers,
and then stack on top of that, his mindless
horde and the bags o’ skeletons.
The party has very much so gotten used to
constantly having an army on demand, allowing
them to easily take on large scale warfare
without the need of city’s aid.
Astoshan’s player has to miss a few games
because of other plans, however the party
wants to continue on… the struggles of a
D&D group arise!
The GM and Astoshan discuss the plan of how
to continue the story while still including
Astoshan… and their neutral evil grins spread
across their face as they formulate an idea…
and our story begins.
The party travels eastward to deal with some
bands of raiders pillaging, raiding, killing…
basically being a nuisance as raiders do,
basically non-viking hordes.
Astoshan has been a tad more motivated than
normal, busying himself with hunting down
and killing mages, and naturally taking their
bones… and covering them in runes before
storing them in a dungeon.
The party is quite disturbed by this, as this
is a bit dark for even Astoshan.
They know that the horde of undead had a purpose,
but they’re not too sure about this… but
none of them really want to ask either…
so they just ignore it.
The party continues their hunt of the raiders
and encounter one warband outside a large
town, and so they sit down and strategize.
They figure that two Deathless companies should
be enough support, and so they portal in the
“Endless Crusade” and “Scorched Sons”...
they were once enemies when alive, and have
turned into major rivals in the undeath.
They are constantly at odds and trying to
out-do each other, proving their superiority
and all that standard stuff.
The party decides to send them each around
a flank, after making sure their face coverings
are down… as most towns and cities simply
don’t think being saved by the undead is
a good thing… how rude of them!
The party works their way down the middle
road towards the square, taking down hill
giants, casters, and raiders with various
player classes.
Astoshan raises the giants and sends them
out of town, as they’ll scare the locals
right now.
Never mind, he can always use them later.
The party finally makes it to the square and
meets up with the two Deathless companies;
the Sons made it there first so they naturally
get the bragging rights.
The Jarl is found so the Dwarf moves in to
go one on one, and just barely squeaks a win
against the Jarl.
After the duel the rest of the raiders are
either captured or they attempt to run…
and the runners quickly become target practice
for the rivalry between the Sons and Crusaders.
The captured are dragged into the square to
be handed over to the townspeople… well
except for one of them.
Right before the villagers make it to them,
Astoshan calmly walks into the middle of the
crowd of the captured raiders.
He deadpan stares at the one covered in bones
and totems, and simply walks up to him, grabs
his head… and drains him of his life in
front of everyone...everyone flips out as
he drags the corpse through his portal while
being flanked by the Deathless… closing
the portal behind him.
The party immediately begins to race back
to the city with the permanent portal for
the Sleepless Watch.
The Paladin and Druid are saying they were
right all along and making sure to shoot as
many “I told you so” looks to the Dwarf
and Ranger.
When they finally make it back to the city
everyone says that nothing seems to be wrong…
that makes them worry even more.
They race to the barracks and search… no
Sleepless Watch, even their equipment is gone.
They decide to search the Crypt and they find
the portal still open, and after preparing
some of the anti-undead stuff, the Paladin
storms in first, followed in second by the
rest of the party… running directly into
the back of a stunned Paladin as they do so…
the dungeon was completely empty.
The party find tracks leading north, and they
storm after them… it's really hard to miss
the path of plant-based death and footprints.
The terrain becomes very snowy as they run
north into raider territory… encountering
buildings that are burned and destroyed…
but no bodies can be found.
They continue to follow the trail northward.
They fight off the wildlife… but no.
No raiders… and over the next few days this
is all they find… and after two weeks they
finally catch up to the horde.
Astoshan and his Deathless battle with a large
horde of marauders in a large open snow field,
multiple raider tribes banded together to
fight back against the twelve companies of
deathless and the undead giants.
The tribes tripled Astoshan’s numbers and
were very well aware of it, and the party
debated on what side they should join… that
is until the Dwarf realizes that the undead
horde is nowhere to be found.
The party turned just in time to see the snow
around the battlefield come to life as thousands
upon thousands of undead claw their way out…
instantly surrounding the marauders on all
sides, and the Deathless lower their weapons
and charge… and the party decides they’re
better off sitting this one out.
The battle quickly ends as the marauders are
overrun and Astoshan simply walks through
the battlefield healing undead and killing
enemies with his AoE spells.
After it’s over the Deathless form an outer
perimeter as the undead mill about inside,
and the party sets up camp, taking watch shifts
throughout the night.
The Paladin feels something wrong with the
land but isn’t sure what it is.
After exactly 24 hours after the battle all
the corpses of the raiders stand, and the
forces begin to march again, the Deathless
still formed around the undead to hold them
in, and they move north again.
The Paladin identifies the feeling as the
land being Cursed Earth… whatever Astoshan
is doing, it is important enough to him to
curse an entire mile radius of land around
the battlefield… permanently.
The party follows the army for another day
until they stop, all of the undead being directed
towards a large city at the base of a mountain,
wasting no time and heading for the gates.
Giants fling bags packed full of skeletons
over the walls, and the Deathless stand guard
around them.
The rest of the party goes against the Dwarf
and decides to stop Astoshan before he destroys
an entire city… even if they are raiders.
The Dwarf still believes this is all for a
good reason.
They prepare themselves to charge through
a weak point in the army… but are caught
off guard when the Deathless simply part to
let them through.
The party quickly make their way to the Necromancer
in the middle, finding him watching the undead
swarm the city.
He is… much different than when they last
saw him… as he is now covered head to toe
in bone armor inscribed with black runes.
He has four skeletal arms grafted to his back,
giving him the appearance of a bone spider.
Each arm holds a black sapphire in its hand,
which the Paladin (who has been doing his
research on Necromancy since Astoshan left)
knows they are Soul Bound.
The party goes absolutely wild and demands
to know what is happening, prompting one single
and calm phrase from Astoshan:
“Repaying a promise to some old friends”
The party moves in and begins to fight the
Necromancer, and while Astoshan is not exactly
built to fight solo he has some rogue undead
around to help.
Everyone aside from the Dwarf panic as the
Deathless charge in… and the Dwarf also
isn’t surprised when they blast straight
past and charge into the city.
The party tries to fight the Necromancer without
hitting any of the Deathless, as they had
gotten to know them well.
Astoshan fights very defensively, only healing
and dishing out enough damage to keep from
getting surrounded.
The Paladin destroys each of Astoshan’s
Soul Bound sapphires one by one, each one
releasing the soul of a raider spellcaster
and weakens him.
The party finally bring him down but the city
is already completely destroyed, and as the
party decide what they’re going to do, Astoshan’s
cohort Barumet comes back from the city with
a company of the Deathless.
The Paladin isn’t too sure of him as they
never really see him, but he simply bows to
them and opens another portal.
A massive crowd of Deathless dressed in civilian
clothing make their way out, all covered in
wounds from axes and spears… the last of
which are skeletons that were once from a
small village… obviously they have been
dead for a long time.
They all give their thanks to the company
and make their way to the city.
Less than a week pass and the city has pretty
much been entirely repaired.
The party learns that all the civilians’
towns had been destroyed by raiders and most
of them had died during the raids.
During the party’s travels Astoshan had
asked Barumet to travel the land and raise
all the towns that had been destroyed by the
Raiders, making them a promise of a second
chance and a new home where they could one
day rest at.
The party decide to attend Astoshan’s funeral.
The entire city attends the funeral in the
town square, and the Sleepless Watch were
the color guard for the procession.
When they reach the center of town they stop
and set the lidless coffin in the middle of
the main road… and two of the skeletons
from the old village make their way to the
coffin… and as they kneel by it… it starts
to glow with holy energy.
Only the Dwarf knows what’s going on.
He’s the only one who cared enough to talk
to Astoshan to know what his ring familiar
Buhone could do.
Astoshan shudders and pulls himself upright.
One of the old skeletons reaches out and embraces
him, and he returns it.
For the first time had the party seen his
face when it was cold and emotionless.
His voice had changed, he sounded alive…
and he was crying… he simply said,
“It’s okay mom, I’m alright”
OMG what in Dwarven beard happened?
Did the Gray Necromancer just resurrect from
his bony casket?
Or is he, like his legions of Undead and Deathless,
immortal to some sense?
Were you still rooting for him when he went
into battle with his party?
Confession, I almost CRIED.
Or did he truly cross the line this time?
Heck, crossing lines is something he has always
been doing.
And raising the zombies, that too.
Not to mention that he himself might have
transcended death.
A scary thought indeed...
Hope you all liked the video as much as we
did making it.
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