Isle Imperium: Episode 1.04

Playing Ossis Potior at basic
levels was originally because
I needed to round out our
"cleric" abilities in the party,
but was risky -- I didn't know
how prevalent undead were
going to be this early in the
game. Fortunately, it paid off.

Wight Night

MANTIUS awakens in the middle of the night with the dreadful certainty that undead are upon them. Unable to wake his companions due to some glittering motes and the low hissing sound that fills the air of the cave, he faces off alone against three Chainers—which are apparently responsible for whatever sleep spell is active—managing to dispatch them and awaken his friends in time to hear a crackling noise of lightning from outside.

The party rushes out to see DUMAS, the factor from the traveling circus, battling several more Chainers and losing, despite the lightning magic he evidently wields. The group springs into action to aid him, with ARCTURUS taking the undead down. Dumas tells the party that he has been traveling alone since Shardfall, chancing upon five shards in the course of his desperate search for his ward, the fourteen year old Alina.

VARIAN and MARTA both assert that they have seen Alina within the nearby town. Upon discussion, the party agrees that the most fruitful course for all concerned is to try and defeat the Wight within the mausoleum, thereby alleviating the most pressing danger to the town and hopefully smoothing the way for recovering Alina and potentially allowing Marta to return home.

Leaving Marta the Proeliator Lamniar shard in order for her to guard their supplies within Finger Cave, the party hies off to the mausoleum, where they are soon stymied when they reach a dead end not far inside from the entrance. Varian determines how to manipulate the figures of Pluto on the wall, however, thus opening the door and allowing them entry into the deeper reaches, where Arc again quickly dispatches some Chainers seeking to block their passage.

Two left forks further into the catacombs, they defeat one Skull Spider and are nearly decimated when they decide to attack a second one, which extrudes a ball of toxin that poisons, paralyzes, and renders everyone but ALECTO unconscious. She is able to fend the thing off and, through Varian’s help or under their own steam, the other members of the party eventually manage to recover, with CATALINA finishing off the spider and everyone working together to destroy its clutch of eggs.

Going back and taking the second right hand fork this time, the party hears the disembodied voice of the Wight, giving them the option to turn and leave. They refuse once—consequently needing to defeat some Chainers again—and upon the second refusal are trapped within the Chamber of Bone, where they are successively attacked by Frostlings, Haunts, and Puppeteers.

Working together, they manage to survive and defeat each of these opponents, finally coming face to face with the Wight himself in his most fearsome guise. Running low on both life and mana, they nevertheless manage to overcome even him, most notably through Dumas’s clever stratagem of dying in order to trigger his reaction as Scintillamagus.

As they prepare to leave the mausoleum, a door opens on the far side of the bone chamber, through which they see two human men leading a bound human girl. The men hastily retreat, but not before Aly’s shout and the girl’s startled reaction confirms that she is Bartomeo’s missing daughter, RIMA.