The Deadly Necromancer

O-Sayumi and her mysterious older companion knelt motionless on the floor of the room at the end of the Shadow Maze, as everyone stood around her and wondered what their next step should be. They’d been on a mission to find the missing geisha, and technically they had, but they weren’t sure it would constitute “Mission Accomplished” to return her to the teahouse sans soul. Her samisen had been found in the next room, and Marie had confirmed that it was extremely magical. On a whim, Sandoval picked up the instrument and began to play, hoping it would have some effect on the frozen women. The bard was surprisingly proficient with the unfamiliar instrument, but the haunting tune he picked out fell on deaf ears as far as the two women were concerned.

“Hey! There’s a secret door in here!” It was Bella, from the study adjacent to the room where they’d found O-Sayumi. Sure enough, one of the bookshelves slid away after prodding by Bella’s skillful fingers. Behind it was a dim hallway with two closed doors; one on the left halfway down, and an elaborately carved door at the end of the hall. Bella moved cautiously forward, and after examining the first door, pushed it open.

The chamber inside was an alchemical laboratory, with a marble table in the middle of the room and an assortment of alembics and other tools of the trade neatly stored on wall shelves. A wheeled cart stood near the table, with a set of silver surgery implements on its upper shelf and an array of ominous-looking torture implements on the lower shelf. On one of the shelves a trio of skulls grinned down at the party: one human, one looking like the lacedon ghouls they’d fought in the village, and the third bearing the fangs and distorted features of the manananggals. This was apparently Yugureda’s laboratory for perfecting the creation of his undead servants.

That left only the door at the end of the hall. Nicki’s senses were all shouting warnings of danger and ambush, and he decided to be proactive. “Hey Bella,” he whispered, and the rogue moved to his side. “When you open that door, stand back,” Nicki advised, then cast Greater Invisibility on the both of them. Sawyer, seeing the pair vanish, activated Suishen’s See Invisible power; he’d feel better knowing where those two were at.

The others stood well back in the hallway and watched as the door seemed to open on its own, revealing a large room beyond. The colors in the room had completely faded, and even the familiar scent of green tea wafting through the open door seemed to have lost part of its fragrance. Panels of gray wood lined the walls, imitating the lattice of rice paper shoji walls, and the floor was paved in marble. An ornate archway stood in the middle of the north wall, opening onto a short tunnel that ended in a stain of inky darkness. Four braziers burned in the corners, serving more to accentuate the shadows than to dispel them.

Facing them from the back of the room was a tall man with a long drooping moustache and beard. He wore dark robes and a tall courtier’s hat, and his fingers ended in extremely long, twisting nails. He was sipping a cup of tea, his face illuminated by the candle glowing under the tea kettle on the table beside him. His other hand rested on a tall glass vase full of pearls.

Yugureda Shosaito  was staring straight at the door as it opened, with a knowing smile on his face. “I wouldn’t rush into things, if I were you,” he purred. “You want to save the girl, don’t you?” He reached into the vase and took a handful of pearls, letting them sift back down through his gnarled fingers. “Of all the pearls in the world, she was the most beautiful. She looked so like her poor mother, my little O-Sayumi, and when I saw her for the first time in the teahouse, I thought her mother must have come back from the dead. My wife was growing old, and withered, but her family’s influence was everything for me. So I decided to house my wife’s soul in O-Sayumi’s perfect body. My wife did not object – indeed she was anxious to be young and beautiful again! But alas,” he sighed, “the spell proved more intricate than I had anticipated. O-Sayumi’s soul was preserved – in one of these very pearls.” He let another fistful of pearls stream through his fingers. “But my Tarukimi’s soul was lost, and I fear she will wander the Shadow Plane forever. But O-Sayumi can still be saved. Her soul is inside one of these pearls – you just have to find her!” With that, he toppled the pearl-filled vase, sending scores of pearls bouncing and rattling across the marble floor.

Yugureda’s cackle of evil-villain laughter was cut off by the explosion of Nicki’s Fireball. As soon as he’d cast the spell, Nicki ducked into the laboratory, and not a moment too soon, because a blast of Lightning shot out of the room before the smoke had even cleared, frying everyone in the hallway. An instant later, a Shadow Demon appeared just outside the lab door, slashing at Marie with icy claws

Sandoval began singing, and cast a Rainbow Pattern in the room around Yugureda, hoping to disable him with its fascinating display of colors, but the necromancer laughed at his attempt. Sawyer charged past the Shadow Demon and into the room, drawing Suishen to deliver a murderous blow. But he’d forgotten about the spray of pearls covering the floor, and his feet went flying out from under him, sending him down hard on his butt and drawing another peal of laughter from Yugureda. Zhustin cast Feeblemind on the necromancer, but his willpower was too strong. Marie moved up to the doorway, and cast Detect Magic, looking for the pearl holding O-Sayumi’s soul. Yugureda glowed with magic, but none of the pearls on the floor showed any sign of magic. “He lied!” Marie thought to herself, not altogether surprised.

Yugureda’s form was shifting and difficult to pin down. Bella had seen this before, as the effect of a Displacement spell. But she was now armed with the Daikyu of Commanding Presence, and the arrows she fired unerringly sought out their target, feathering the necromancer and cutting off his gloating laughter. Shinjiro charged the Shadow Demon, using his ki to both bolster his defenses and allow his strikes to hit with more power. But even with that, his blow passed through the incorporeal demon with almost no effect. Nicki blasted it with a trio of Scorching Rays, but his spell also did little to the abyssal creature.

The dark shadows in the alcove suddenly shifted, and separated into a trio of Shadow Sentinels that advanced to protect their master. One clutched at Marie and another at Sawyer’s prone form, and their icy touch sapped their strength. The third stopped as it entered Sandoval’s Rainbow Pattern, entranced by the unfamiliar display of light and color.

Yugureda gave a final snort of contempt and vanished. Even with the help of Suishen, Sawyer could see no sign of the evil wizard. Not trusting his footing on the pearl-covered floor, he activated Suishen’s Air Walk, and rose up, slashing at the Sentinel next to him. He hit it over and over, but he could only do so much with his tangible weapon. Sandoval advanced and cast Slow on the Sentinels; he’d hoped to catch Yugureda with his spell as well, but the necromancer had been too quick for him.

Marie Teleported back away from the Shadow Sentinel attacking her, and cast Mass Cure Light Wounds, using the spell’s positive energy to assault the undead around her. The Shadow Demon faded away in the face of her holy power, and disappeared. Bella, still invisible, activated another ring of her Nine-Fold Spirit Sword, and the ghost-touch weapon sliced through the Shadow Sentinel beside her, exploding it into shards of fleeting shadowstuff. However, the Sentinel beside Sawyer clutched at him again, its incorporeal claws reaching right through his metal armor. As it sank its claws into him, he felt his strength draining at an alarming rate, and he let out an involuntary cry of pain.

Zhustin had hoped to fire another spell at Yugureda as well, but with that target gone, he settled for blasting the Shadow Demon with a volley of Magic Missiles just before Marie finished it off. Acting on a hunch, he turned around, and passed back through the study to peek into the room with O-Sayumi and Yugureda’s wife. As he poked his head around the corner, he came face-to-face with Yugureda, striding towards the doorway with a grim look on his face. Zhustin felt something warm run down his leg.

The necromancer let out a snarl as he found Zhustin blocking his path to catch the party by surprise from the rear. He blasted the wizard with a volley of Magic Missiles, then retreated to the passage leading south, back to the Shadow Maze. As he went, he conjured up an immense Inerposing Hand, blocking the doorway in which Zhustin stood.

Shinjiro and Nicki had seen Zhustin leave the hallway, and they both had the thought that Yugureda might have gotten behind them. They went after Zhustin, and Bella, seeing a crowd now heading away from the action, decided to tag along. But they all found their path blocked by the giant hand. But this group had lots of magical means of travel, and the hand was not a hindrance for long. Sandoval also followed the others, and he used Dimension Door to pop into the room behind Yugureda’s wife. Shinjiro used his Abundant Step to do the same, and Nicki followed with his own D-Door. Zhustin remembered that the hallway took a jog to the left behind Yugureda, and aimed his Dimension Door to land him around that corner, out of sight. Unfortunately, his intended landing zone was part of the Shadow Maze, and not actually on this plane of existence. He found himself briefly inside a matrix of stone and earth, then was spat out into the hall behind Yugureda, bruised, but whole.

That left Sawyer all by himself in the room with the Shadow Sentinels. One was still immobilized by the Rainbow Pattern, but  the other was threatening to weaken Sawyer to the point of death. He could barely swing Suishen by this point, and his feeble strokes would do even less damage to the incorporeal shadow. But suddenly, Marie appeared by his side, and laid her hands on him. Her spell Restored him to full strength, and with a cry he slashed at the shadow again and again. Suishen blazed, and its flames erased the shadow.

Yugureda found himself facing a room full of foes. Or targets, as he preferred to think of them. He cast Chain Lightning, and bolts of electricity began to arc from person to person. Fortunately for them, Nicki and Bella were still invisible, and the necromancer couldn’t target them with his spell. But Sandoval and Shinjiro felt its full fury, then a bolt launched over its caster’s head and blasted Zhustin, standing behind him. With a whimper, Zhustin collapsed, and the magical hand, acting on its imperative to keep Zhustin away from its master, zipped into the hallway and held his unconscious form to the floor.

Sandoval let out a Shout that hammered the necromancer with a wall of sonic power. Marie, hearing it from several rooms away, grabbed Sawyer by the arm, and Teleported back into the room with the two women. Sawyer appeared directly in front of Yugureda, and he reacted instantly. Suishen flashed, and Yugureda’s head rolled across the floor.

As Yugureda died, the hallway behind Zhustin’s body shifted. The Shadow Maze disappeared, leaving a short dusty hall leading directly back to the sake cellar. The last Shadow Sentinel also vanished, and the inky darkness in the last room’s alcove faded away, severing the last linkage to the Plane of Shadow.

Marie rushed to Zhustin’s limp form, and used Breath of Life to revive him (again). As the cleric worked on him, Nicki and Bella searched Yugureda’s body for anything that might serve as the receptacle for O-Sayumi’s soul. Tucked into the sash around his waist was a lacquered darkwood inro encrusted with tiny emeralds that formed the stylized image of a dragon turtle. Each of its three compartments held a gemstone. The first held a blue-green aquamarine, which Nicki identified as a Water Elemental Gem. The second held a large black pearl and the third a large white pearl. The white pearl glowed with necromantic magic and Zhustin, stumbling back into the room, declared that it likely held O-Sayumi’s soul. “All we need to do is crush it, and it should return her soul to her body. Or a Dispel Magic should do the same.” Not wanting to waste a valuable pearl, they opted for the latter.

As soon as the spell completed, they heard a short gasp of breath from O-Sayumi’s body, and her eyes shot open. At the same moment, Tarukimi’s body slumped to the floor, eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling. As they gathered around the geisha, she looked up at them with tear-filled eyes. “It’s you! I saw you in my vision! I knew you’d come to rescue me!”

O-Sayumi explained that Yugureda had started out as just another customer at the teahouse, but his obsession with her had unnerved her. She used her magical samisen to “investigate” the pearl merchant, and learned to her horror that he was responsible for her mother’s death. When she confronted him with her knowledge, he threatened to kill the monks who had raised her, and turn them into his undead servants, unless she agreed to visit his island. Afraid for their safety, she agreed, but not before she used the samisen to scry on him some more, and learned the secrets of his Shadow Maze. “I see you were able to decipher my clues, and pass safely through the maze,” she said with relief. “I’m so glad – it’s so dangerous in there.” Everyone exchanged glances. “Uh, sure,” Bella said, “no problems at all.”

When she’d arrived on the island, she’d met Yugureda’s wife, Tarukimi. “She seemed so nice, so reassuring,” O-Sayumi sobbed, stroking the dead woman’s hair. “I thought perhaps I wasn’t in danger after all. But Yugureda made us play an odd game of uta-garuta. Some of the cards had fragments of poetry, as they should, but others had strange bits of writing that made me dizzy to read. The room seemed to be filling with shadows, and then I felt as though I was floating above my body, being pulled into the shadows themselves. And then I felt and heard and saw nothing at all, for what seemed like years, until you found me.”

As they prepared to leave, O-Sayumi suddenly cried out with joy at the sight of her samisen. “It’s safe!” she exclaimed, stroking it lovingly. Then she turned and held it out solemnly. “You have faced unimaginable danger on my behalf. I insist that you take this, as an inadequate expression of my gratitude. I have seen enough to know that you will need it in the weeks to come.” Sandoval accepted it with a bow, and O-Sayumi promised to teach him how to use it in the days to come.

As they emerged from the house, the sun was rising, and the true colors of the sunrise washed over the island for the first time in years. As they watched the sunlight spread across the water and onto the mainland of Minkai, they thought again about the task before them. “We have another favor to ask you, something we need your help with” Sandoval said to O-Sayumi, and she nodded. “I already know, and I will do all that I can to help you – and your princess.”

The PCs earned 13,257 XP for the night, putting them at 326,062 XP. They’ve now reached level 13, and need 445,000 for level 14. We’ll be at Leo’s next Sunday.