Campaign Journals part 4 - Morgul Ironarm, Paladin of Athena
I have run a few solo adventures in my regular campaign, they are a fun way to allow characters to develop and challenge them differently than they would be challenged in a group setting. And I campaign journaled a bunch of these. I post them now to give people an idea of what 1e AD&D can look like if you run it in “pulp”, lower magic mode.
One of my favorite PC’s is Morgul Ironarm, paladin of Athena. The player who ran Morgul for about 5 years was one of those “crazy” players that would do anything, he had no natural fear for his character, so he played a fearless paladin perfectly. He was also fairly straightforward and was happy to “do the right thing”. This story occurs when he is a 9th level paladin who has a handful of minor magic items and a mount. This is what a high level fighter can do in AD&D, the character was played for 4 years to get to 9th level, so the player grew with the PC.
This particular side adventure was written FOUR YEARS AGO, so don’t take there to be any meaning to the fact that disease features prominently in this story.
If current events are freaking you out, DON’T READ THIS STORY, it is EXPLICIT AND DEALS WITH DISEASE.
I was hesitant to post it given current events, but I reread it recently and it reminded me of what it is like to run a paladin, and to run a high level fighter. High level fighters get one attack per round against 0-level creatures, and he fought a bunch of 0-level creatures in this adventure.
It is not for the faint of heart, as it is explicitly violent.
It is a good window into how a well played paladin can shine though. Note that in my setting giant lizards are more common mounts, so his “war horse” is a giant lizard.
Enjoy!
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Morghul Ironarm - Human-Paladin-9th Level-LG (Athena)
S-17 (+1,+1), I-9, W-13, D-10, C-12, Ch-17, HP: 63, AC: 0, MV: 12”
SA: Detect evil 60’ [at will], immune to disease [perm], lay on hands 2hp/level [1/day], cure disease [1/wk], protection from evil 1” radius [perm], turn as 7th level cleric
Weapons – Longsword [+3/+3], Javelin [+2/+2], Mace [+2/+2]
Saving Throws: PPDM: 6, PP: 7, RSW: 8, BW: 7, SP: 9 [additional +2 on physical saves]
Spells: 1st level (1) – any 1st level cleric spell
Magic Items: +1 Shield, +2 Splint Mail, +1 Sword of Wounding “Kronas”, +1 mace, Boots of Levitation
Warhorse: “Vacanga”, dark green with yellow striations, scar on left flank, HD: 5+5, HP: 33, AC: 5, MV: 18”, NA: 1, DA: 2-12, SA: on “20” it bites and holds victim, 1-8 damage per round thereafter, no “to hit” needed
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Morgul Ironarm was hot, he had spent the last few years in hot locales, steaming jungles and simmering marshes were his home now, and he had become used to the constant sweating, the beat of the sun on his back like the headsman’s whip, and the glare of midday washing out his deep blue eyes.
He was used to it, but he adjusted his canopy anyway, pulling down the loose side flap to block out the blaze of the sun.
He had left his companions in the City of Prophecy and went out on his own for a time. Morgul was happy to be a member of the party, and to adventure together, but their foray into House politics had left him cold. Let the others arrange things in the city and ingratiate themselves with House aristocracy; that was not for him. After much soul searching he decided to ride out into the marshes for a few weeks and wander, seeing where his war lizard would take him.
Vacanga snorted and sneezed, perhaps in acknowledgement of his thoughts, perhaps not.
The big bull lizard stuck his dark green and yellow muzzle into the water for a moment, and when it came out there was a fish being consumed in several fast bites.
Morgul was happy the beast was eating, but he was far too warm to eat.
The two sauntered along the road, not really a road, more of a well-worn dirt path that skirted the river and connected a number of small towns and fishing villages that dotted this stretch of the swamp. Kolkey bushes and vanner trees competed for sunlight and wind in this stretch of the river, the former had dark purple leaves and bright red berries, and grew in clumps near deep parts of the river, the latter towered along the sides of the river, dark brown bark and bursting deep yellow flowers nestled in bright olive fronds seemed to be reaching down for a drink from the dark emerald water below.
Morgul would have dived in to cool off if it wasn’t for fear of being eaten by something in the water.
The paladin and his steed made steady progress along the road as the early afternoon sun raged on above. After the third bend in the river Morgul scented something on the wind. It was a charnel stench, one he had smelled many times before, disease, death, Morgul had found them together often.
The smell became stronger as he rode along the river, then the wind shifted and it got considerably worse. He also saw bloodied rags nailed to trees along this portion of the road, a sign, he assumed, of danger ahead. Judging from the smell it was not a warning to ignore.
Still, Morgul wanted to know what that stench was.
The justiciar reached down into his saddle bag and took out a rag and wet it with some wine and water. He then tied off a mask in front of his nose and mouth to blunt the smell, which was becoming worse as he rode.
Then he saw the first body. It was hideous, even for a warrior as battle hardened and experienced as Morgul, this was horrific. The body was contorted, twisted and gnarled, but not old, appearing to be a young adult. There were boils, hideous blue black boils, some as large as melons, some as small as apples, but all semi translucent and ghastly. The skin itself was a jaundiced green with purple mottling, and sores oozed everywhere.
The corpse had a screwed up mouth, as if caught frozen in a scream, and its eyes were crimson red and had cried tears of blood.
Morgul steeled himself, due to the power of his faith and his god Morgul was immune to most diseases, as long as his conscience was pure and his motives were noble, he was safe from whatever was ravaging this place. He could even heal diseases, albeit slowly, so perhaps there were some he could save.
The bodies became more frequent, and the smell more revolting, as they approached the settlement. It was a large enough settlement for a fishing village, it appeared to have around 20 or so houses with a tall wooden wall around them. There were men at the open gates, but even from this distance Morgul could see that they too were beset with whatever had killed the men he had already seen.
Yet they were walking.
Morgul approached with his left hand resting on a javelin shaft, he was ready to heft it out to his right hand and throw it at a moment’s notice.
One of the two men at the village gate approached closer, he was armed with a spear and he leaned on it as he walked out.
He looked like death warmed over.
“Stranger, welcome to Arcon Village, stay and receive the blessings of Nanahuatzin”
“You don’t look blessed man, you look like you are dying.”
The man looked on with a crooked stare, and he pointed back to the village.
“We are all blessed by Nanahuatzin, the sores, the wounds, they are all signs of our bodies being consumed by the all of things, as our bodies decay our spirits prepare to join Nanahuatzin, with life everlasting as our reward.”
Morgul could not believe what he was hearing, “Does it not hurt?”
The two men laughed at this, one fell into a fit of coughing as he did so, and then the first one spoke again.
“Pain is your body leaving you, it is but a step you must take.”
Morgul looked on into the village as the gates were open, but couldn’t see much, he did see at least half a dozen other people however, and they all appeared in stages of the same disease.
“May I enter?”
“Nanahuatzin welcomes you”, and the guard waved towards the open gate with his spear.
Morgul rode into the village, the stench here was unbelievable, and he had no idea how any of them could stand it for so long.
Perhaps their noses didn’t work anymore.
Morgul even saw some children wracked with the disease, this made his blood boil. To do this willingly as an adult, being part of some strange cult, that was one thing. Spreading this disease amongst children, that was reprehensible.
His right hand squeezed the grip of Kronas as he rode.
Bodies, diseased, rotting bodies lay in the streets, apparently being “taken” to their god meant just their spirits, their bodies were left where they died. Morgul suppressed a gag.
They all just walked around the corpses. It was unnerving to say the least.
Morgul’s mount was pulling back against the reins, it wanted out and Morgul understood why.
“Steady Vacanga, we bolt if we must, but we stay for now.”
The bull lizard snorted but continued in the direction Morgul indicated.
Morgul noted that the locals were all staring in his direction as he rode. Not so unusual perhaps, there didn’t appear to be any armored warriors around, so he might be a bit of a surprise. But soon he also noted that people were clustering around the various exit routes to the main street where he was riding, and the paladin, a devotee of Athena, goddess of wisdom in combat, immediately perceived a threat.
They were boxing him in.
He then noticed the weapons a few of them were badly hiding, hachets, long knives, a few spears, no swords to speak of.
Morgul spurred on Vacanga towards the smallest cluster of villagers as they dropped pretense and began to move in his direction, weapons now out and in their hands.
Morgul took out his Kronas and his shield and charged into the group, he swung the sword at the first villager and it tore through his chest; he collapsed to the ground and died.
Another grasped at the justiciar to try and drag him off the giant lizard, but the beast swung its massive tail around and smashed into the man with a sickening “crunch”, he doubled over and did not get back up.
Morgul slashed at two more men as they approached, both fell like ripe wheat before his blade.
The last man smashed against Morgul’s shield with his machete, but it was easily blocked, then Morgul stabbed the man in the neck, and he died.
Morgul charged away down the small side road as the growing mob pursued him.
Morgul had broken through and could ride around to the gate, but it could be closed right now, he had no way of knowing. These people, what had happened to them. Perhaps Athena had sent him here to cleanse them all, to be her arm, and bring them all the gift of a swift death, rather than lingering decay.
Morgul saw a group of the villagers running towards him from ahead with machetes in hand, four behind them had ropes around what appeared to be a giant ape, and were moving it forward.
Morgul charged into the machete wielding group. He pulled Vacanga to the left, exposing his sword arm to the group, and he hacked away at them with abandon, smashing aside their weapons and cleaving them men with his magical sword. He dispensed with each man with a single blow, his flashing sword cutting open chests, removing arms, chopping off heads and impaling hearts. Morgul’s blade sang destruction, and the justiciar struck with a righteous rage over whatever evil force had done this to these villagers.
The last man fell to Morgul’s bloody sword, slumping to the ground.
Then the ape slammed into Morgul, knocking him from Vacanga to the ground.
The four remaining villagers ran towards Morgul with hatchets in their hands.
The ape was clawing at Morgul but his armor was protecting him so far. His holy protection was not hedging out the beast so it wasn’t magically conjured, it must have been captured by the villagers and used for just these purposes.
Morgul smashed the beast in the chest with the pommel of Kronas, weakening its grasp on him. The creature chose to release its grip and try to savage Morgul’s head, but the paladin twisted free and smashed his shield into the apes head, sending it sprawling. In one smooth motion he brought around his sword and slashed the beast’s chest open.
It wailed in pain.
The ape kicked out at Morgul but was unable to knock him over. Morgul replied with a sword strike that split open it’s body at the shoulder, and the beast shuddered and died.
By this time the villagers with the hatchets had arrived, and more were running down the road towards them.
“Athena calls your name, let her embrace you!”
Morgul moved forward, he knocked aside the first hatchet with his shield and ran through the first man in the stomach, pulling the blade out to trail his innards behind it. He crashed to the ground and the next two men both attacked at once with overhead hatchet blows, Morgul kicked the first in the stomach sending him down and stabbed the other in the neck. He pulled out the blade and flipped it around, bringing it down directly on to the man on the ground, pinning him down through his chest. The last hatchet wielding villager swung the blade in from the side, Morgul brought his shield around and caught the blow, then brought his sword up, slashing the man across the face, his blade buried a good five inches into the villagers head.
He collapsed to the ground.
Morgul looked around, there were perhaps 40 or so villagers surrounding his position at distances from 40 to 70 feet or so. All were armed, hatchets, machetes, a few spears and a few flails were the prominent arms he could see.
“Come for death, all of you, I offer the sweet release that your god denies you, Athena, goddess of battle has sent me to deliver this village from its pestilence!”
Then Morgul saw one man amongst the horde that was not the same, his skin was not sallow or boiled, he appeared unaffected by the disease that ravaged this place. The man was tall and thin with a narrow nose and a prominent adam’s apple. He wore black leather armor, Morgul estimated it was black dragon armor, a long green cape and carried a staff. His right hand had a ring, and his head was bald.
Morgul remounted Vacanga and replaced his shield with his mace.
The man in dragon armor spoke, “You are not welcome here stranger, you deny the gift of Nanahuatzin, you are ignorant and heretical, and you destroy his followers with abandon. I could command these men to kill you, but you would slay so many before they did so that Nanahuatzin would be denied their souls. So begone, before I bring Nanahuatzin’s wrath upon you.”
Morgul seethed with rage, the man’s words made it clear that he had some sort of magical command over the villagers, and that their souls were fed to this foul god Nanahuatzin for its consumption. He had stumbled upon a vile, disgusting place, and it was his most fervent desire to cleanse it.
Morgul cursed the most vile curse he could think of, an insult in saan he had learned years ago while stationed at a forest’s edge castle, which roughly translated to, “may you eat your own tail!” and he and Vacanga then charged the man in armor, sword and mace at the ready.
Vacanga charged forward and Morgul sheathed Kronas. Taking his mace in hand he stood up on Vacanga and held the reins with the other hand, steadying himself. A spear flew past his head, and the villagers began to cluster in front of the man with armor on.
They were sacrificing themselves for him.
When Morgul approached the front of the horde of villagers he leapt into the air, activating his magical boots the forward momentum of his jump supported by the upward lift of the levitation made for a gigantic leap, a trick Morgul had perfected in the last few years.
Mace held in two hands over his head Morgul flew through the air towards the armored man.
As he came down several of the villagers managed to intervene, and his mace smashed through two of them, sending them to the ground broken.
Morgul was then surrounded by villagers.
The paladin’s mace flew, Morgul moved in a perfectly synchronized whirlwind of destruction. Heads smashed open, chests caved in, each swing put Morgul in position for the next, the heavy metal sphere crushing everything that came into its path.
The first ring of diseased villagers lay dead at his feet, the next ring waited on orders from their leader before advancing.
The man in armor screamed something that Morgul could not make out and the next wave attacked.
Morgul fought like a man possessed, his mace unmatched by the villagers’ meek fighting skills, diseased bodies and inferior weapons. Villagers fell like rain. With each death Morgul felt an elation, freeing these suffering fools from their diseased servitude.
Athena, through him, brought redemption.
Then the first of the fallen villagers began to stand again, half of his face was caved in, but he stood and began to walk towards Morgul.
The paladin looked around as others raised from the ground and began to advance, now there were dead villagers and live villagers surrounding him.
Morgul activated his boots and slowly rose into the air.
There was much cursing and screaming below.
Morgul took out his sword, replacing his mace, and held out his holy symbol as he floated in the air above.
“Athena damns you all! With her power, you are nothing!”
The newly raised villagers began to twitch, a low wail was uttered from their mouths. Then, it was as if they were made of sand and a savage wind was blowing them away, parts of their bodies flew off and dissolved into a fine dust that spread on the wind, and his body disappeared, blasted out of existence by the fury of Athena’s power, channeled through her willing servant.
The armored man hissed in revulsion.
All of the remaining villagers surrounded the armored man, there were perhaps 30 of them here now.
Morgul lowered himself to the ground, and the waiting Vacanga, who had moved in close.
Morgul mounted Vacanga while the armored man looked on. The paladin spoke in sharp tones.
“Free these people from your spell, and I may be able to save them. Your god has no power over me, did you see what happened to those you brought back to life with your god’s power, Athena destroyed them. Utterly.”
The armored man shouted in a fury, “These villagers submitted willingly to my god’s power heretic! They have chosen to live a life of misery and suffering to achieve glory in the afterlife!”
“Even the children!”, Morgul was seething.
“It is always the way of the children to follow the parents, would you not say knight? They show their children the path to salvation, who are you to judge?”
“No, they feed the power of some foul beast of a god, one that asks for such pain and suffering in his name. It ends today!”
Morgul spurred on Vacanga and charged again, his mace in his hand.
Villagers accosted him as he charged, the paladin swung his merciless mace and smashed each one of them as he passed. Vacanga swung his massive tail and smashed a few more over to add to the bodies on the ground.
A thrown hatchet smashed against Morgul’s shield, and a spear narrowly missed him while his mace smashed in a villager’s chest.
Morgul dismounted and grabbed his sword, with mace in one hand and sword in the other he commenced the slaughter. Each blow was a blow to kill, there was no nuance, no grace, no elaborate positioning or evasion. It was carnage, continuous killing, as each villager met their grisly end on the edge of Morgul’s blade or with the crush of the paladin’s heavy mace.
Occasionally a hatchet or flail would tag his armor or smash against one of his weapons, but they were no match for the paladin as he brought Athena’s wisdom to the unrelenting horde.
Morgul looked up and the armored man was gone, he had abandoned his charges to die at his hand.
Morgul impaled a man on his sword while he swung his mace and smashed a skull in.
He would find this armored priest and bring him a message from Athena.
The next few minutes were all death, Morgul was a whirlwind of righteous destruction, and none there could stand in his way.
When Morgul stopped fighting there were bodies piled up all around him in a ring, diseased and bloody, missing parts, hacked to pieces or crushed to death.
Morgul breathed heavily in the daytime heat, there were no adult villagers left, but in the distance he could see perhaps 20 or so children, all diseased, all watching him in horror. He had just slain all of their parents in front of their eyes. Not that they weren’t dying already, but he had brought that on much sooner. Morgul wondered if they hated him or would thank him for ending their suffering.
“Where did he go, the man who did this to your families, where did he go?”
Morgul’s voice was commanding yet comforting at the same time.
“You killed them all!”, one shouted.
“They were dead already, this priest, he has allowed this to spread and thrive, all to feed his foul god, he cares for none of you, and none of you will live forever!”
Morgul turned around to see children everywhere.
“How many of you chose this?”, he shouted.
None responded.
“How many of you would be free of taint, free of pain? I can give you that.”
None responded.
“There is no reward for you, you will all die unrequited, all of you. There are foul and evil gods who consume your soul for its pure power, they are not giving you eternal life, they are extinguishing your light to feed their evil. This is wrong.”
One young woman stepped forward.
“I am tired of the pain, I don’t believe in any of this…” her voice trailed off.
Morgul smiled and waved the young woman over to him.
She walked with a limp and in obvious pain, her face was covered with boils and her skin was a particularly fetid shade of green.
“How did you come to have this disease girl?”
She coughed loudly, spitting up blood, “All of us were given the ‘gift’ by the holy one, Onol Laausfar, he told us only his blessing would transform us and allow us to transcend our bodies.”
“How long does one live after the ‘blessing’?”
“Older people live about a half year or so, anyone my age lasts about 3 or 4 years before dying”, she coughed loudly and almost fell over, “I’m on my 4th year now.”
Morgul fought the white hot rage he felt in his core, these children were forced to take on this perverse blessing, and suffered for years with it, all in the name of some foul god.
He now knew he did not wander to this place, Athena’s hand guided him here.
Morgul removed his helmet so the girl could see his face, his eyes.
“Do you trust me?”
The girl squinted slightly as the sun was directly behind the paladin and was streaming a halo around his head so he was difficult to look at directly.
“Yes”, she coughed again, “make it fast and painless.”
The girl lowered her head.
Morgul was stunned, she was asking for death.
He reached out his hand and touched her head, he felt a pushback against his healing power, the girl was wracked with disease, her body twisted and bent. Morgul concentrated, channeling the power of his mighty god through his hands.
The crowd watched in wonder as the taint left her body.
She stood, wavering, and her eyes cleared, for the first time in years her body was healthy and free of disease.
She collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
Morgul spoke, “I cannot heal anyone else for several days, my power is not that great, but I can bring you all to priests who can heal you, back in the city. This wrong will be righted.”
Morgul put his helmet back on, “I must find this Onol Laausfar, he must be punished for his sins.”
One of the children shouted, “He comes!”
From down the road the armored priest approached, he held leads to four collars attached to four carnivorous apes, and he approached filled with venom and fire.
“Knight, I come for you!”
With that, the priest of Nanahuatzin let slip the apes.
Morgul swore an ancient curse in a long dead language; he had learned it from Ahrn Lockyer one night months ago. Talk had turned to a race of ancient gods who cursed humanity with their foul words, to speak those words was considered profane for fear of awakening their ancient power.
"A túa alma chama", the paladin snarled, "Your soul to flame!"
The priest let loose four carnivorous apes. Morgul's tactical mind noticed that the first time one ape was barely handled by four men, this time the priest handled four on his own. This told Morgul they would likely savage the villagers as well as him, they only appeared to defer to the priest.
Damn him twice, Morgul thought. He then turned to the children and bellowed, "RUN!"
The village children ran in terror, palsied limbs carrying them in a grotesque rush away from the loping beasts.
Morgul vaulted into Vacanga's saddle and spurred him on, "Vacanga, gepard!"
Several months ago Morgul and Vacanga had seen a tribeswoman with a horde of big cats attack a group of toughs in the shantytowns. Her cheetah had tackled its prey, knocking it down, and then tore it apart. To Vacanga the command "gepard", "cheetah", meant he would now trample as many of the apes as possible, then attack the rest.
Morgul stood up in the saddle, with his mace and sword sheathed he took out his shield, when Vacanga reached the beasts Morgul leapt off with his shield in front of him towards the ape the furthest to the side. Vacanga trampled two of the beasts, one passed its left unmolested and Morgul smashed, shield first, into the fourth.
He heard a satisfying "crunch" when he hit the ape and it went down.
Morgul rolled out of the hit and came to his feet, he looked over at the ape that had passed them and it was not coming back. He ran to Vacanga's side and took out a javelin and hurled it at the fleeing beast's back. The javelin sang and pierced the ape at the shoulder.
It stumbled to a stop and howled in pain.
But it didn't turn to attack Morgul.
"Back here!", Morgul shouted, and he took another javelin and hurled it, this time tagging the beast in the left leg.
It screeched an unholy wail and started back towards Morgul in a rage.
The ape Morgul had smashed with his shield was getting up too; Morgul tossed one last javelin at the beast he had wounded, and it shot him through the skull.
The ape slumped to the ground dead.
The ape Morgul struck with his shield was back up and tore over to the paladin, screeching loudly. Morgul had dropped his shield and took out his mace, he ran forward and swung up the mace from behind as he ran, the metal sphere cut through the air and it smashed into the ape's head, sending it crashing to the ground a few feet away.
Morgul turned to see Vacanga with one of the ape's in his maw, he was swinging his head from side to side as the ape screamed in agony.
The other ape that Vacanga ran down was heading back towards the giant lizard.
Morgul turned back just in time to see the ape he had just smashed with his mace leaping at him, a primal scream of defiance in his voice. The beast took the edge of Morgul's shield to his chin, but tagged him with his talons twice. Morgul's armor took the worst of it.
Morgul growled and did a whirlwind blow, the mace flew sideways and smashed the ape in its side, turning it around, then Morgul completed the swing like a discus thrower and brought it back around and upwards, striking the ape on the back of its head and spraying its brains into the air.
Two down.
The priest turned tail to run.
Vacanga bit the third ape in thirds, the bottom and top thirds falling to the ground as the rest went down his gullet.
The last ape charged and tackled Morgul, bringing him down. It then savaged him with multiple claw attacks and an attempted bite.
Morgul moved quickly and slipped behind the beast and placed a chokehold on it, a move he had been taught by Mohln months ago. He then activated his boots and they rose in the air. The beast thrashed mightily, and Morgul screamed at Vacanga, "poluchat'!"
"Fetch!"
Vacanga chased after the fleeing priest.
Morgul applied pressure to the neck as the ape's claws raked back at the paladin.
Morgul didn't budge or let up the pressure, and the pair rose into the air.
The priest then noticed that Vacanga was in pursuit, and he stopped and took out a scroll.
Morgul looked at the priest as he held out the scroll and he took the ape into his hands, heaving its body above his head and hurling him with all his might towards the priest. The ape screeched through the air and crashed into the startled priest, knocking him over.
Morgul descended and immediately charged in the priests direction, pulling out his sword as he ran. His shield lay on the ground out of reach.
The priest regained his feet and began to read the scroll again.
Morgul ran, Vacanga charged.
The giant lizard was closer.
Morgul bellowed at his steed, "Vacanga!"
The heavens opened up and a column of fire roared down on Morgul's mount, immolating the beast so completely that Morgul lost sight of it in the flames, and eliciting a howl of agony.
The paladin charged as fast as he could run to his mount while the priest prepared another spell. Morgul arrived at the bull lizard's side and immediately laid his hands on the beast, his divine healing magic partially restoring the creature's burnt and blistered skin, keeping him alive.
Vacanga groaned and stood shakily.
Morgul grabbed a javelin and turned to the priest who was moving his hands in prayer.
The ground around him slithered to life as seven sticks were transformed into snakes.
Morgul hurled the javelin and watched as it sank into the priest's left arm, and he screamed out.
Then the snakes moved in. Vacanga stomped on two of the snakes killing them instantly.
Two more attacked him and the remaining three went for Morgul.
The paladin lifted himself into the air with his magical boots, two of the snakes tried to bite him but were foiled by his armor. Then he was too high up to be attacked.
Vacanga stomped another snake.
Morgul deactivated his boots and fell a good five feet, smashing into another snake. He then took his sword and started slashing at them.
There was a flurry of fangs, blades, and stomping feet, and after a short time only the paladin and the giant lizard were left standing. Morgul immediately bolted, grabbing his shield from the ground and splitting up with the giant lizard, giving the priest two targets.
The priest pointed his staff at the paladin and spoke words Morgul could not hear and a cloud of insects billowed forth, the swarm tore towards Morgul and enveloped him as he ran towards the priest. Morgul could only barely make out the form of the priest as he held up his shield and pushed forwards, insects smashing against it. Morgul had pushed his way through a violent storm before, with the wind driven rain tearing at his skin; but this time the "rain" actually devoured him as he moved.
Morgul pushed forward step by step. Onol Laausfar was chanting a prayer for another spell as Morgul struggled forwards against the tide of insects he had conjured. He reached the periphery of the cloud and saw the dark armored priest on the other side.
Morgul burst out of the cloud and he stumbled, disoriented, and Laausfar struck him on the shoulder with his hand, and dark, necromantic energies coursed out of his body into the paladin.
Morgul pulled back, breaking the connection, and swung at the priest with his sword; the blow just missed.
Then the priest completed another spell and hit him again, this time the shock of the necromamtic energy burned Morgul's chest where the hand connected.
Morgul snarled and cursed, "Veshay sebya", then smashed the priest's chest with his blade, a blossom of pain pushing the cleric back a few feet, leaving Morgul room to bring a sky to ground blow that cut deeply into the priest's shoulder.
The devotee of Nanahuatzin wailed in agony as blood surged out of a gaping wound.
The priest lashed out with a wild blow with his staff, which Morgul easily countered.
The paladin then commanded Laausfar's attention by bringing a cleaving strike in from the side that bit deeply into his armor and knocked him back. The priest screamed again and reached for a potion bottle and quickly quaffed it down.
While the potion was taking effect Morgul dropped his shield and took up his sword with both hands, he then charged forward and brought down his sword in a mighty two handed blow that sliced open the priest's armor, sending an arc of blood into the air as his body began to transform into...
something else. His arms were elongating and his neck extending while his chest expanded outwards. Hair exploded everywhere on his body. The magic of the potion took effect in front of Morgul's eyes.
He had drank a polymorphing potion and was transforming into an ape.
Morgul swung the sword back around again and connected this time with the priest's neck as the transformation almost completed.
An ape's body collapsed to the ground while the head, half transformed and a grotesque combination of a human and ape, flew through the air and landed on the ground with a meaty "thunk".
Morgul bellowed in response, his righteous rage sated with the separation of the priest's head from his body, his bloodied sword held parallel to the ground, crimson drops clinging to its edge but not yet falling.
No matter what was on the outside, the insides were always the same, Morgul thought, red with death.
He looked around, there were no more priests, no more ape's and no more adult villagers. All lay dead at his feet, slain by his holy weapons.
All succumbed to the might of Athena's hand.
Morgul touched vacanga’s burnt body again and prayed for some minor healing magic to counter his pain.
The children looked on, hopeful that this was the end of their nightmare. Several of them collapsed to the ground shaking and in tears.
Morgul raised his sword and smashed the priest's staff in two with a mighty blow.
He then turned to the girl he cured.
"What is your name?"
The girl looked distracted for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what her eyes were showing her.
"Filan"
Morgul looked at her directly and spoke in a firm and confident voice.
"Filan, gather together all the oil and pitch you can find and burn this animal's temple to the ground. Soak and burn the bodies that litter the streets of your village. Soak and burn his body."
Morgul turned and swept his hand towards the village.
"Burn it all down."
Filan nodded her head silently and several of the children left with her to get the oil and pitch.
Morgul watched as the children set fire to the temple and their entire village. He had freed them from the priest but he let them purge their own home of his vile presence.
Filan walked over to the paladin as the flames flickered in his eyes.
"Where will we go?"
Morgul looked the girl over, she appeared to be in her early teens, she still had a chance for life.
"Bhavisyavani, two days ride from here, five days walking, priests there will heal you all for good.
You will likely be asked to join a House, but you will be welcomed and protected, not used as you were here."
The girl looked indifferent to the news.
"Your parents were ensorcelled by this monster, do not hold anger in your heart over what happened."
Filan turned and barked out a response.
"They were not ensorcelled, they chose willingly! My village had fallen on hard times for the last few years, then Laausfar showed up he promised an afterlife with no pain and eternal joy. Most of the villagers hated life, they willingly gave up their bodies and suffered through grotesque pain for that eternal reward, knowing their sacrifice gave a putrid god more power. They didn't care."
Morgul said nothing at first, hearing Filan's words, then the paladin responded, "Then they deserved their fate, and I have served righteousness in dispatching them."
Filan said nothing, and turned back to the fire.
Morgul left it at that, there would be time to talk on the trip back.
And the journey back would be challenging, 30 diseased children would move slowly and he would have to protect them all the way there. Still, most humans and humanoids would avoid them due to their disease, and most animals would leave them unmolested due to the presence of Vacanga alone.
Athena's hand would guide them home safely, the justiciar was sure of it.
The fire roared into the sky for hours as the heat soaked wood was lustily consumed by the flames. Morgul and his new charges sat silently and watched the village burn to the ground until their faces were lit by the glow of the embers.
I have run a few solo adventures in my regular campaign, they are a fun way to allow characters to develop and challenge them differently than they would be challenged in a group setting. And I campaign journaled a bunch of these. I post them now to give people an idea of what 1e AD&D can look like if you run it in “pulp”, lower magic mode.
One of my favorite PC’s is Morgul Ironarm, paladin of Athena. The player who ran Morgul for about 5 years was one of those “crazy” players that would do anything, he had no natural fear for his character, so he played a fearless paladin perfectly. He was also fairly straightforward and was happy to “do the right thing”. This story occurs when he is a 9th level paladin who has a handful of minor magic items and a mount. This is what a high level fighter can do in AD&D, the character was played for 4 years to get to 9th level, so the player grew with the PC.
This particular side adventure was written FOUR YEARS AGO, so don’t take there to be any meaning to the fact that disease features prominently in this story.
If current events are freaking you out, DON’T READ THIS STORY, it is EXPLICIT AND DEALS WITH DISEASE.
I was hesitant to post it given current events, but I reread it recently and it reminded me of what it is like to run a paladin, and to run a high level fighter. High level fighters get one attack per round against 0-level creatures, and he fought a bunch of 0-level creatures in this adventure.
It is not for the faint of heart, as it is explicitly violent.
It is a good window into how a well played paladin can shine though. Note that in my setting giant lizards are more common mounts, so his “war horse” is a giant lizard.
Enjoy!
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Morghul Ironarm - Human-Paladin-9th Level-LG (Athena)
S-17 (+1,+1), I-9, W-13, D-10, C-12, Ch-17, HP: 63, AC: 0, MV: 12”
SA: Detect evil 60’ [at will], immune to disease [perm], lay on hands 2hp/level [1/day], cure disease [1/wk], protection from evil 1” radius [perm], turn as 7th level cleric
Weapons – Longsword [+3/+3], Javelin [+2/+2], Mace [+2/+2]
Saving Throws: PPDM: 6, PP: 7, RSW: 8, BW: 7, SP: 9 [additional +2 on physical saves]
Spells: 1st level (1) – any 1st level cleric spell
Magic Items: +1 Shield, +2 Splint Mail, +1 Sword of Wounding “Kronas”, +1 mace, Boots of Levitation
Warhorse: “Vacanga”, dark green with yellow striations, scar on left flank, HD: 5+5, HP: 33, AC: 5, MV: 18”, NA: 1, DA: 2-12, SA: on “20” it bites and holds victim, 1-8 damage per round thereafter, no “to hit” needed
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Morgul Ironarm was hot, he had spent the last few years in hot locales, steaming jungles and simmering marshes were his home now, and he had become used to the constant sweating, the beat of the sun on his back like the headsman’s whip, and the glare of midday washing out his deep blue eyes.
He was used to it, but he adjusted his canopy anyway, pulling down the loose side flap to block out the blaze of the sun.
He had left his companions in the City of Prophecy and went out on his own for a time. Morgul was happy to be a member of the party, and to adventure together, but their foray into House politics had left him cold. Let the others arrange things in the city and ingratiate themselves with House aristocracy; that was not for him. After much soul searching he decided to ride out into the marshes for a few weeks and wander, seeing where his war lizard would take him.
Vacanga snorted and sneezed, perhaps in acknowledgement of his thoughts, perhaps not.
The big bull lizard stuck his dark green and yellow muzzle into the water for a moment, and when it came out there was a fish being consumed in several fast bites.
Morgul was happy the beast was eating, but he was far too warm to eat.
The two sauntered along the road, not really a road, more of a well-worn dirt path that skirted the river and connected a number of small towns and fishing villages that dotted this stretch of the swamp. Kolkey bushes and vanner trees competed for sunlight and wind in this stretch of the river, the former had dark purple leaves and bright red berries, and grew in clumps near deep parts of the river, the latter towered along the sides of the river, dark brown bark and bursting deep yellow flowers nestled in bright olive fronds seemed to be reaching down for a drink from the dark emerald water below.
Morgul would have dived in to cool off if it wasn’t for fear of being eaten by something in the water.
The paladin and his steed made steady progress along the road as the early afternoon sun raged on above. After the third bend in the river Morgul scented something on the wind. It was a charnel stench, one he had smelled many times before, disease, death, Morgul had found them together often.
The smell became stronger as he rode along the river, then the wind shifted and it got considerably worse. He also saw bloodied rags nailed to trees along this portion of the road, a sign, he assumed, of danger ahead. Judging from the smell it was not a warning to ignore.
Still, Morgul wanted to know what that stench was.
The justiciar reached down into his saddle bag and took out a rag and wet it with some wine and water. He then tied off a mask in front of his nose and mouth to blunt the smell, which was becoming worse as he rode.
Then he saw the first body. It was hideous, even for a warrior as battle hardened and experienced as Morgul, this was horrific. The body was contorted, twisted and gnarled, but not old, appearing to be a young adult. There were boils, hideous blue black boils, some as large as melons, some as small as apples, but all semi translucent and ghastly. The skin itself was a jaundiced green with purple mottling, and sores oozed everywhere.
The corpse had a screwed up mouth, as if caught frozen in a scream, and its eyes were crimson red and had cried tears of blood.
Morgul steeled himself, due to the power of his faith and his god Morgul was immune to most diseases, as long as his conscience was pure and his motives were noble, he was safe from whatever was ravaging this place. He could even heal diseases, albeit slowly, so perhaps there were some he could save.
The bodies became more frequent, and the smell more revolting, as they approached the settlement. It was a large enough settlement for a fishing village, it appeared to have around 20 or so houses with a tall wooden wall around them. There were men at the open gates, but even from this distance Morgul could see that they too were beset with whatever had killed the men he had already seen.
Yet they were walking.
Morgul approached with his left hand resting on a javelin shaft, he was ready to heft it out to his right hand and throw it at a moment’s notice.
One of the two men at the village gate approached closer, he was armed with a spear and he leaned on it as he walked out.
He looked like death warmed over.
“Stranger, welcome to Arcon Village, stay and receive the blessings of Nanahuatzin”
“You don’t look blessed man, you look like you are dying.”
The man looked on with a crooked stare, and he pointed back to the village.
“We are all blessed by Nanahuatzin, the sores, the wounds, they are all signs of our bodies being consumed by the all of things, as our bodies decay our spirits prepare to join Nanahuatzin, with life everlasting as our reward.”
Morgul could not believe what he was hearing, “Does it not hurt?”
The two men laughed at this, one fell into a fit of coughing as he did so, and then the first one spoke again.
“Pain is your body leaving you, it is but a step you must take.”
Morgul looked on into the village as the gates were open, but couldn’t see much, he did see at least half a dozen other people however, and they all appeared in stages of the same disease.
“May I enter?”
“Nanahuatzin welcomes you”, and the guard waved towards the open gate with his spear.
Morgul rode into the village, the stench here was unbelievable, and he had no idea how any of them could stand it for so long.
Perhaps their noses didn’t work anymore.
Morgul even saw some children wracked with the disease, this made his blood boil. To do this willingly as an adult, being part of some strange cult, that was one thing. Spreading this disease amongst children, that was reprehensible.
His right hand squeezed the grip of Kronas as he rode.
Bodies, diseased, rotting bodies lay in the streets, apparently being “taken” to their god meant just their spirits, their bodies were left where they died. Morgul suppressed a gag.
They all just walked around the corpses. It was unnerving to say the least.
Morgul’s mount was pulling back against the reins, it wanted out and Morgul understood why.
“Steady Vacanga, we bolt if we must, but we stay for now.”
The bull lizard snorted but continued in the direction Morgul indicated.
Morgul noted that the locals were all staring in his direction as he rode. Not so unusual perhaps, there didn’t appear to be any armored warriors around, so he might be a bit of a surprise. But soon he also noted that people were clustering around the various exit routes to the main street where he was riding, and the paladin, a devotee of Athena, goddess of wisdom in combat, immediately perceived a threat.
They were boxing him in.
He then noticed the weapons a few of them were badly hiding, hachets, long knives, a few spears, no swords to speak of.
Morgul spurred on Vacanga towards the smallest cluster of villagers as they dropped pretense and began to move in his direction, weapons now out and in their hands.
Morgul took out his Kronas and his shield and charged into the group, he swung the sword at the first villager and it tore through his chest; he collapsed to the ground and died.
Another grasped at the justiciar to try and drag him off the giant lizard, but the beast swung its massive tail around and smashed into the man with a sickening “crunch”, he doubled over and did not get back up.
Morgul slashed at two more men as they approached, both fell like ripe wheat before his blade.
The last man smashed against Morgul’s shield with his machete, but it was easily blocked, then Morgul stabbed the man in the neck, and he died.
Morgul charged away down the small side road as the growing mob pursued him.
Morgul had broken through and could ride around to the gate, but it could be closed right now, he had no way of knowing. These people, what had happened to them. Perhaps Athena had sent him here to cleanse them all, to be her arm, and bring them all the gift of a swift death, rather than lingering decay.
Morgul saw a group of the villagers running towards him from ahead with machetes in hand, four behind them had ropes around what appeared to be a giant ape, and were moving it forward.
Morgul charged into the machete wielding group. He pulled Vacanga to the left, exposing his sword arm to the group, and he hacked away at them with abandon, smashing aside their weapons and cleaving them men with his magical sword. He dispensed with each man with a single blow, his flashing sword cutting open chests, removing arms, chopping off heads and impaling hearts. Morgul’s blade sang destruction, and the justiciar struck with a righteous rage over whatever evil force had done this to these villagers.
The last man fell to Morgul’s bloody sword, slumping to the ground.
Then the ape slammed into Morgul, knocking him from Vacanga to the ground.
The four remaining villagers ran towards Morgul with hatchets in their hands.
The ape was clawing at Morgul but his armor was protecting him so far. His holy protection was not hedging out the beast so it wasn’t magically conjured, it must have been captured by the villagers and used for just these purposes.
Morgul smashed the beast in the chest with the pommel of Kronas, weakening its grasp on him. The creature chose to release its grip and try to savage Morgul’s head, but the paladin twisted free and smashed his shield into the apes head, sending it sprawling. In one smooth motion he brought around his sword and slashed the beast’s chest open.
It wailed in pain.
The ape kicked out at Morgul but was unable to knock him over. Morgul replied with a sword strike that split open it’s body at the shoulder, and the beast shuddered and died.
By this time the villagers with the hatchets had arrived, and more were running down the road towards them.
“Athena calls your name, let her embrace you!”
Morgul moved forward, he knocked aside the first hatchet with his shield and ran through the first man in the stomach, pulling the blade out to trail his innards behind it. He crashed to the ground and the next two men both attacked at once with overhead hatchet blows, Morgul kicked the first in the stomach sending him down and stabbed the other in the neck. He pulled out the blade and flipped it around, bringing it down directly on to the man on the ground, pinning him down through his chest. The last hatchet wielding villager swung the blade in from the side, Morgul brought his shield around and caught the blow, then brought his sword up, slashing the man across the face, his blade buried a good five inches into the villagers head.
He collapsed to the ground.
Morgul looked around, there were perhaps 40 or so villagers surrounding his position at distances from 40 to 70 feet or so. All were armed, hatchets, machetes, a few spears and a few flails were the prominent arms he could see.
“Come for death, all of you, I offer the sweet release that your god denies you, Athena, goddess of battle has sent me to deliver this village from its pestilence!”
Then Morgul saw one man amongst the horde that was not the same, his skin was not sallow or boiled, he appeared unaffected by the disease that ravaged this place. The man was tall and thin with a narrow nose and a prominent adam’s apple. He wore black leather armor, Morgul estimated it was black dragon armor, a long green cape and carried a staff. His right hand had a ring, and his head was bald.
Morgul remounted Vacanga and replaced his shield with his mace.
The man in dragon armor spoke, “You are not welcome here stranger, you deny the gift of Nanahuatzin, you are ignorant and heretical, and you destroy his followers with abandon. I could command these men to kill you, but you would slay so many before they did so that Nanahuatzin would be denied their souls. So begone, before I bring Nanahuatzin’s wrath upon you.”
Morgul seethed with rage, the man’s words made it clear that he had some sort of magical command over the villagers, and that their souls were fed to this foul god Nanahuatzin for its consumption. He had stumbled upon a vile, disgusting place, and it was his most fervent desire to cleanse it.
Morgul cursed the most vile curse he could think of, an insult in saan he had learned years ago while stationed at a forest’s edge castle, which roughly translated to, “may you eat your own tail!” and he and Vacanga then charged the man in armor, sword and mace at the ready.
Vacanga charged forward and Morgul sheathed Kronas. Taking his mace in hand he stood up on Vacanga and held the reins with the other hand, steadying himself. A spear flew past his head, and the villagers began to cluster in front of the man with armor on.
They were sacrificing themselves for him.
When Morgul approached the front of the horde of villagers he leapt into the air, activating his magical boots the forward momentum of his jump supported by the upward lift of the levitation made for a gigantic leap, a trick Morgul had perfected in the last few years.
Mace held in two hands over his head Morgul flew through the air towards the armored man.
As he came down several of the villagers managed to intervene, and his mace smashed through two of them, sending them to the ground broken.
Morgul was then surrounded by villagers.
The paladin’s mace flew, Morgul moved in a perfectly synchronized whirlwind of destruction. Heads smashed open, chests caved in, each swing put Morgul in position for the next, the heavy metal sphere crushing everything that came into its path.
The first ring of diseased villagers lay dead at his feet, the next ring waited on orders from their leader before advancing.
The man in armor screamed something that Morgul could not make out and the next wave attacked.
Morgul fought like a man possessed, his mace unmatched by the villagers’ meek fighting skills, diseased bodies and inferior weapons. Villagers fell like rain. With each death Morgul felt an elation, freeing these suffering fools from their diseased servitude.
Athena, through him, brought redemption.
Then the first of the fallen villagers began to stand again, half of his face was caved in, but he stood and began to walk towards Morgul.
The paladin looked around as others raised from the ground and began to advance, now there were dead villagers and live villagers surrounding him.
Morgul activated his boots and slowly rose into the air.
There was much cursing and screaming below.
Morgul took out his sword, replacing his mace, and held out his holy symbol as he floated in the air above.
“Athena damns you all! With her power, you are nothing!”
The newly raised villagers began to twitch, a low wail was uttered from their mouths. Then, it was as if they were made of sand and a savage wind was blowing them away, parts of their bodies flew off and dissolved into a fine dust that spread on the wind, and his body disappeared, blasted out of existence by the fury of Athena’s power, channeled through her willing servant.
The armored man hissed in revulsion.
All of the remaining villagers surrounded the armored man, there were perhaps 30 of them here now.
Morgul lowered himself to the ground, and the waiting Vacanga, who had moved in close.
Morgul mounted Vacanga while the armored man looked on. The paladin spoke in sharp tones.
“Free these people from your spell, and I may be able to save them. Your god has no power over me, did you see what happened to those you brought back to life with your god’s power, Athena destroyed them. Utterly.”
The armored man shouted in a fury, “These villagers submitted willingly to my god’s power heretic! They have chosen to live a life of misery and suffering to achieve glory in the afterlife!”
“Even the children!”, Morgul was seething.
“It is always the way of the children to follow the parents, would you not say knight? They show their children the path to salvation, who are you to judge?”
“No, they feed the power of some foul beast of a god, one that asks for such pain and suffering in his name. It ends today!”
Morgul spurred on Vacanga and charged again, his mace in his hand.
Villagers accosted him as he charged, the paladin swung his merciless mace and smashed each one of them as he passed. Vacanga swung his massive tail and smashed a few more over to add to the bodies on the ground.
A thrown hatchet smashed against Morgul’s shield, and a spear narrowly missed him while his mace smashed in a villager’s chest.
Morgul dismounted and grabbed his sword, with mace in one hand and sword in the other he commenced the slaughter. Each blow was a blow to kill, there was no nuance, no grace, no elaborate positioning or evasion. It was carnage, continuous killing, as each villager met their grisly end on the edge of Morgul’s blade or with the crush of the paladin’s heavy mace.
Occasionally a hatchet or flail would tag his armor or smash against one of his weapons, but they were no match for the paladin as he brought Athena’s wisdom to the unrelenting horde.
Morgul looked up and the armored man was gone, he had abandoned his charges to die at his hand.
Morgul impaled a man on his sword while he swung his mace and smashed a skull in.
He would find this armored priest and bring him a message from Athena.
The next few minutes were all death, Morgul was a whirlwind of righteous destruction, and none there could stand in his way.
When Morgul stopped fighting there were bodies piled up all around him in a ring, diseased and bloody, missing parts, hacked to pieces or crushed to death.
Morgul breathed heavily in the daytime heat, there were no adult villagers left, but in the distance he could see perhaps 20 or so children, all diseased, all watching him in horror. He had just slain all of their parents in front of their eyes. Not that they weren’t dying already, but he had brought that on much sooner. Morgul wondered if they hated him or would thank him for ending their suffering.
“Where did he go, the man who did this to your families, where did he go?”
Morgul’s voice was commanding yet comforting at the same time.
“You killed them all!”, one shouted.
“They were dead already, this priest, he has allowed this to spread and thrive, all to feed his foul god, he cares for none of you, and none of you will live forever!”
Morgul turned around to see children everywhere.
“How many of you chose this?”, he shouted.
None responded.
“How many of you would be free of taint, free of pain? I can give you that.”
None responded.
“There is no reward for you, you will all die unrequited, all of you. There are foul and evil gods who consume your soul for its pure power, they are not giving you eternal life, they are extinguishing your light to feed their evil. This is wrong.”
One young woman stepped forward.
“I am tired of the pain, I don’t believe in any of this…” her voice trailed off.
Morgul smiled and waved the young woman over to him.
She walked with a limp and in obvious pain, her face was covered with boils and her skin was a particularly fetid shade of green.
“How did you come to have this disease girl?”
She coughed loudly, spitting up blood, “All of us were given the ‘gift’ by the holy one, Onol Laausfar, he told us only his blessing would transform us and allow us to transcend our bodies.”
“How long does one live after the ‘blessing’?”
“Older people live about a half year or so, anyone my age lasts about 3 or 4 years before dying”, she coughed loudly and almost fell over, “I’m on my 4th year now.”
Morgul fought the white hot rage he felt in his core, these children were forced to take on this perverse blessing, and suffered for years with it, all in the name of some foul god.
He now knew he did not wander to this place, Athena’s hand guided him here.
Morgul removed his helmet so the girl could see his face, his eyes.
“Do you trust me?”
The girl squinted slightly as the sun was directly behind the paladin and was streaming a halo around his head so he was difficult to look at directly.
“Yes”, she coughed again, “make it fast and painless.”
The girl lowered her head.
Morgul was stunned, she was asking for death.
He reached out his hand and touched her head, he felt a pushback against his healing power, the girl was wracked with disease, her body twisted and bent. Morgul concentrated, channeling the power of his mighty god through his hands.
The crowd watched in wonder as the taint left her body.
She stood, wavering, and her eyes cleared, for the first time in years her body was healthy and free of disease.
She collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
Morgul spoke, “I cannot heal anyone else for several days, my power is not that great, but I can bring you all to priests who can heal you, back in the city. This wrong will be righted.”
Morgul put his helmet back on, “I must find this Onol Laausfar, he must be punished for his sins.”
One of the children shouted, “He comes!”
From down the road the armored priest approached, he held leads to four collars attached to four carnivorous apes, and he approached filled with venom and fire.
“Knight, I come for you!”
With that, the priest of Nanahuatzin let slip the apes.
Morgul swore an ancient curse in a long dead language; he had learned it from Ahrn Lockyer one night months ago. Talk had turned to a race of ancient gods who cursed humanity with their foul words, to speak those words was considered profane for fear of awakening their ancient power.
"A túa alma chama", the paladin snarled, "Your soul to flame!"
The priest let loose four carnivorous apes. Morgul's tactical mind noticed that the first time one ape was barely handled by four men, this time the priest handled four on his own. This told Morgul they would likely savage the villagers as well as him, they only appeared to defer to the priest.
Damn him twice, Morgul thought. He then turned to the children and bellowed, "RUN!"
The village children ran in terror, palsied limbs carrying them in a grotesque rush away from the loping beasts.
Morgul vaulted into Vacanga's saddle and spurred him on, "Vacanga, gepard!"
Several months ago Morgul and Vacanga had seen a tribeswoman with a horde of big cats attack a group of toughs in the shantytowns. Her cheetah had tackled its prey, knocking it down, and then tore it apart. To Vacanga the command "gepard", "cheetah", meant he would now trample as many of the apes as possible, then attack the rest.
Morgul stood up in the saddle, with his mace and sword sheathed he took out his shield, when Vacanga reached the beasts Morgul leapt off with his shield in front of him towards the ape the furthest to the side. Vacanga trampled two of the beasts, one passed its left unmolested and Morgul smashed, shield first, into the fourth.
He heard a satisfying "crunch" when he hit the ape and it went down.
Morgul rolled out of the hit and came to his feet, he looked over at the ape that had passed them and it was not coming back. He ran to Vacanga's side and took out a javelin and hurled it at the fleeing beast's back. The javelin sang and pierced the ape at the shoulder.
It stumbled to a stop and howled in pain.
But it didn't turn to attack Morgul.
"Back here!", Morgul shouted, and he took another javelin and hurled it, this time tagging the beast in the left leg.
It screeched an unholy wail and started back towards Morgul in a rage.
The ape Morgul had smashed with his shield was getting up too; Morgul tossed one last javelin at the beast he had wounded, and it shot him through the skull.
The ape slumped to the ground dead.
The ape Morgul struck with his shield was back up and tore over to the paladin, screeching loudly. Morgul had dropped his shield and took out his mace, he ran forward and swung up the mace from behind as he ran, the metal sphere cut through the air and it smashed into the ape's head, sending it crashing to the ground a few feet away.
Morgul turned to see Vacanga with one of the ape's in his maw, he was swinging his head from side to side as the ape screamed in agony.
The other ape that Vacanga ran down was heading back towards the giant lizard.
Morgul turned back just in time to see the ape he had just smashed with his mace leaping at him, a primal scream of defiance in his voice. The beast took the edge of Morgul's shield to his chin, but tagged him with his talons twice. Morgul's armor took the worst of it.
Morgul growled and did a whirlwind blow, the mace flew sideways and smashed the ape in its side, turning it around, then Morgul completed the swing like a discus thrower and brought it back around and upwards, striking the ape on the back of its head and spraying its brains into the air.
Two down.
The priest turned tail to run.
Vacanga bit the third ape in thirds, the bottom and top thirds falling to the ground as the rest went down his gullet.
The last ape charged and tackled Morgul, bringing him down. It then savaged him with multiple claw attacks and an attempted bite.
Morgul moved quickly and slipped behind the beast and placed a chokehold on it, a move he had been taught by Mohln months ago. He then activated his boots and they rose in the air. The beast thrashed mightily, and Morgul screamed at Vacanga, "poluchat'!"
"Fetch!"
Vacanga chased after the fleeing priest.
Morgul applied pressure to the neck as the ape's claws raked back at the paladin.
Morgul didn't budge or let up the pressure, and the pair rose into the air.
The priest then noticed that Vacanga was in pursuit, and he stopped and took out a scroll.
Morgul looked at the priest as he held out the scroll and he took the ape into his hands, heaving its body above his head and hurling him with all his might towards the priest. The ape screeched through the air and crashed into the startled priest, knocking him over.
Morgul descended and immediately charged in the priests direction, pulling out his sword as he ran. His shield lay on the ground out of reach.
The priest regained his feet and began to read the scroll again.
Morgul ran, Vacanga charged.
The giant lizard was closer.
Morgul bellowed at his steed, "Vacanga!"
The heavens opened up and a column of fire roared down on Morgul's mount, immolating the beast so completely that Morgul lost sight of it in the flames, and eliciting a howl of agony.
The paladin charged as fast as he could run to his mount while the priest prepared another spell. Morgul arrived at the bull lizard's side and immediately laid his hands on the beast, his divine healing magic partially restoring the creature's burnt and blistered skin, keeping him alive.
Vacanga groaned and stood shakily.
Morgul grabbed a javelin and turned to the priest who was moving his hands in prayer.
The ground around him slithered to life as seven sticks were transformed into snakes.
Morgul hurled the javelin and watched as it sank into the priest's left arm, and he screamed out.
Then the snakes moved in. Vacanga stomped on two of the snakes killing them instantly.
Two more attacked him and the remaining three went for Morgul.
The paladin lifted himself into the air with his magical boots, two of the snakes tried to bite him but were foiled by his armor. Then he was too high up to be attacked.
Vacanga stomped another snake.
Morgul deactivated his boots and fell a good five feet, smashing into another snake. He then took his sword and started slashing at them.
There was a flurry of fangs, blades, and stomping feet, and after a short time only the paladin and the giant lizard were left standing. Morgul immediately bolted, grabbing his shield from the ground and splitting up with the giant lizard, giving the priest two targets.
The priest pointed his staff at the paladin and spoke words Morgul could not hear and a cloud of insects billowed forth, the swarm tore towards Morgul and enveloped him as he ran towards the priest. Morgul could only barely make out the form of the priest as he held up his shield and pushed forwards, insects smashing against it. Morgul had pushed his way through a violent storm before, with the wind driven rain tearing at his skin; but this time the "rain" actually devoured him as he moved.
Morgul pushed forward step by step. Onol Laausfar was chanting a prayer for another spell as Morgul struggled forwards against the tide of insects he had conjured. He reached the periphery of the cloud and saw the dark armored priest on the other side.
Morgul burst out of the cloud and he stumbled, disoriented, and Laausfar struck him on the shoulder with his hand, and dark, necromantic energies coursed out of his body into the paladin.
Morgul pulled back, breaking the connection, and swung at the priest with his sword; the blow just missed.
Then the priest completed another spell and hit him again, this time the shock of the necromamtic energy burned Morgul's chest where the hand connected.
Morgul snarled and cursed, "Veshay sebya", then smashed the priest's chest with his blade, a blossom of pain pushing the cleric back a few feet, leaving Morgul room to bring a sky to ground blow that cut deeply into the priest's shoulder.
The devotee of Nanahuatzin wailed in agony as blood surged out of a gaping wound.
The priest lashed out with a wild blow with his staff, which Morgul easily countered.
The paladin then commanded Laausfar's attention by bringing a cleaving strike in from the side that bit deeply into his armor and knocked him back. The priest screamed again and reached for a potion bottle and quickly quaffed it down.
While the potion was taking effect Morgul dropped his shield and took up his sword with both hands, he then charged forward and brought down his sword in a mighty two handed blow that sliced open the priest's armor, sending an arc of blood into the air as his body began to transform into...
something else. His arms were elongating and his neck extending while his chest expanded outwards. Hair exploded everywhere on his body. The magic of the potion took effect in front of Morgul's eyes.
He had drank a polymorphing potion and was transforming into an ape.
Morgul swung the sword back around again and connected this time with the priest's neck as the transformation almost completed.
An ape's body collapsed to the ground while the head, half transformed and a grotesque combination of a human and ape, flew through the air and landed on the ground with a meaty "thunk".
Morgul bellowed in response, his righteous rage sated with the separation of the priest's head from his body, his bloodied sword held parallel to the ground, crimson drops clinging to its edge but not yet falling.
No matter what was on the outside, the insides were always the same, Morgul thought, red with death.
He looked around, there were no more priests, no more ape's and no more adult villagers. All lay dead at his feet, slain by his holy weapons.
All succumbed to the might of Athena's hand.
Morgul touched vacanga’s burnt body again and prayed for some minor healing magic to counter his pain.
The children looked on, hopeful that this was the end of their nightmare. Several of them collapsed to the ground shaking and in tears.
Morgul raised his sword and smashed the priest's staff in two with a mighty blow.
He then turned to the girl he cured.
"What is your name?"
The girl looked distracted for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what her eyes were showing her.
"Filan"
Morgul looked at her directly and spoke in a firm and confident voice.
"Filan, gather together all the oil and pitch you can find and burn this animal's temple to the ground. Soak and burn the bodies that litter the streets of your village. Soak and burn his body."
Morgul turned and swept his hand towards the village.
"Burn it all down."
Filan nodded her head silently and several of the children left with her to get the oil and pitch.
Morgul watched as the children set fire to the temple and their entire village. He had freed them from the priest but he let them purge their own home of his vile presence.
Filan walked over to the paladin as the flames flickered in his eyes.
"Where will we go?"
Morgul looked the girl over, she appeared to be in her early teens, she still had a chance for life.
"Bhavisyavani, two days ride from here, five days walking, priests there will heal you all for good.
You will likely be asked to join a House, but you will be welcomed and protected, not used as you were here."
The girl looked indifferent to the news.
"Your parents were ensorcelled by this monster, do not hold anger in your heart over what happened."
Filan turned and barked out a response.
"They were not ensorcelled, they chose willingly! My village had fallen on hard times for the last few years, then Laausfar showed up he promised an afterlife with no pain and eternal joy. Most of the villagers hated life, they willingly gave up their bodies and suffered through grotesque pain for that eternal reward, knowing their sacrifice gave a putrid god more power. They didn't care."
Morgul said nothing at first, hearing Filan's words, then the paladin responded, "Then they deserved their fate, and I have served righteousness in dispatching them."
Filan said nothing, and turned back to the fire.
Morgul left it at that, there would be time to talk on the trip back.
And the journey back would be challenging, 30 diseased children would move slowly and he would have to protect them all the way there. Still, most humans and humanoids would avoid them due to their disease, and most animals would leave them unmolested due to the presence of Vacanga alone.
Athena's hand would guide them home safely, the justiciar was sure of it.
The fire roared into the sky for hours as the heat soaked wood was lustily consumed by the flames. Morgul and his new charges sat silently and watched the village burn to the ground until their faces were lit by the glow of the embers.
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