Rolemaster - Gaming Notes #4

We found a black crystal heart, an ancient, very powerful, evil artifact in the treasure pile of the undead dragon. Only problem? The lich that owns it wants it back!

We were just about to set off for the city so we could see if the priests there could destroy this evil heart when we heart rumors that the undead were attacking to the east... not good, considering it was all our fault the undead got unleashed!

We decided to go investigate. What do we run into? A flock of undead vultures. Now, these birds had haunted us on our previous three day journey back to town. There was no way that I was going to let these birds live! Firing an arrow at them was perhaps a mistake, however. In one round these terrible birds nearly took down our entire party. Rodney was stunned and only had two hit points left. I took three critical hits. And John kept his distance, not wanting to get slaughtered. Who knew that undead vultures could move 200 feet and attack three times in one round?

Thanks in large party to John stunning the birds (and his entire party - by the end of the combat, I was stunned for an additional 21 rounds and was bleeding 12 hit points a round), we defeated the birds. We decided that resistance was too stiff and we were about the head back to town when the lich attacked! Yikes!

From our previous encounter we knew we'd be cut down before we could mount our horses so we grimly resolved to stand our ground and fight. Turns out, a lich is easier to kill than undead vultures! We pulled out the stops - John's priest started swearing years of service to his goddess in exchange for protection. I fired off one of my untested metal arrows that I had gotten from the dragon. Turns out, they are flaming arrows! A 94E crit on the large creature and fire critical hit tables later and the lich is down and engulfed in flames! Wow!

Now, the priest told us that just because we defeated the lich doesn't mean he's dead. In fact, he has his organs in containers and will come back stronger than ever very soon. The only way to truly defeat him is to destroy his organs. Determined to end this threat once and for all, we turn around and head back toward the lich's lair.

Will our heroes be able to penetrate the litch's underground lair? What the state of the hundreds of undead that were under the lich's control? To be continued...