In the last game, Aeris started his long-awaited plan for revenge on Hollin. He would become a lich, raise an undead army to kill everyone in Hollin, and rule over the resulting necropolis forever.
Unknown to the rest of the party, Aeris had researched his own brand of scientific necromancy through the campaign so far. He'd experimented on his own, but also observed the abomination Hass, the lich Ishild, the Volker Brothers, and the Hollin Oracle. Through all of this, he'd developed a series of rituals for raising and controlling the dead.
Embalm
Prepare a corpse for reanimation by removing the stomach, intestines, lungs, liver, and brain; and replacing the blood with embalming fluid. The corpse must be from a person of level less than the caster.
A special forceps is used to remove the brain through the nostrils, and a mechanical pump is used to replace the blood with embalming fluid, which can be an arsenic salt fluid or formaldehyde. The forceps and pump can both be found at hospital morgues.
Embalm is a level 1 ritual, takes 1 hour, and requires 10 gold pieces worth of embalming fluid.
Lightning in a Bottle
Store electrical charge from lightning in a Leyden jar, for use with Reanimate below. Part of mastering this ritual is learning how to construct Leyden jars.
Lightning in a Bottle is a level 2 ritual and takes 10 minutes.
Reanimate
Reanimates a corpse. The corpse must have been previously prepared with Embalm; must be treated with adrenaline; must be in a natron salt bath, and must be electrically shocked. The lightning can come from a lightning rod, Leyden jar, or other mechanism. The corpse must be from a person of level less than the caster.
If a soul has not been recalled to / trapped in the body, the reanimated body will be walking dead that will attack the nearest living. If a soul has been recalled to / trapped in the body, it will control the body unless the body is also controlled (a more advanced ritual) by the reanimator.
Reanimate is a level 3 ritual, takes 10 minutes, and requires 100 gold pieces worth of adrenaline and natron salts.
Summon
The caster can summon (1) a specific soul if the caster knows the soul's name and plane, or (2) a random soul of a specific level from a plane. Some information about specific souls is held in e.g. the Hollin Oracle's Grimoire. The caster's level must be greater than or equal to the soul's level. The value in gold pieces of the Greencake required to summon a soul of level n is equal to (the cost of magic item of level n) / 2.
Summon is a level 4 ritual and takes 10 minutes.
Trap
Trap is the same as Summon, except that the soul is trapped inside a body that becomes reanimated. The soul takes control of the body.
Trap is a level 5 ritual, takes 10 minutes, and requires the same amount of Greencake as Summon above.Control
Control is the same as Trap, except the caster (not the trapped soul) controls the body's actions. Controlling the body doesn't require any actions from the caster.
Control is a level 6 ritual, takes 10 minutes, and requires the same amount of Greencake as Summon and Trap above.
Aeris wanted his brother Jaris to rule the necropolis by his side, and he decided to use the rituals to resurrect Jaris first.
He had the Greencake he needed, which the party took from Krohn's vault in Game 24, but he'd have to find some of the other material components. The party's former member Jennish Cole had taken the pump for Embalm from Meade Hospital Morgue in Game 2, and Aeris bought it for a few gold pieces from Jennish's artifact shop. He bought charged Leyden jars from Gregor the naturalist's friend Brunn, who studied electricity and magnetism and had installed lightning rods around Hollin.
Getting natron salt and adrenaline was slightly harder. Kasskar had seen Gregor making a squid tentacle move in a salt bath in Game 1 and pointed Aeris there. Reanimation was the only use that Gregor knew for natron salt and adrenaline, and he gave Aeris the third degree, but ultimately did sell them.
Since Aeris only had Jaris's skull, the most important component was actually a body to resurrect Jaris in. He decided that Kasskar's boxers from Game 7 were promising choices and of those, he chose Eldred the harpooner. He kidnapped Eldred from the waterfront, brought him to the lab, and killed him there.
He performed his scientific necromancy rituals to resurrect Jaris in Eldred's body. After slowly awakening and coming to grips with his situation, Jaris became horrified. Aeris tried to explain how joyful their reunion was, but Jaris insisted his resurrection was an abomination, and fled the lab.
Frustrated with Jaris's response, Aeris turned his anger on his parents. He had them brought from Ishild's apartment to the lab, and tortured, killed, and resurrected them there.
In the last game, Ishild suggested that Aeris recruit the prisoner Bane by breaking him out of Dule Tree Prison. With his anger sated, Aeris now marshaled Kane, Kasskar, and Treasach to go there.
Dule Tree prison was on the waterfront, and consisted of five long cell block buildings radiating from the prison's central hub on the river. Although Dule Tree wasn't normally as easy to enter as Heath Prison had been, the prison was in the same state of chaos as the rest of the city, and the party had little difficulty entering.
Exploring inside, they found that in times past, Hollin had tried to build a tunnel under the river to take sewage out of the city. But the project had been abandoned, and the tunnel was integrated into the prison. It led under the river to the most secluded cells, where Bane was being held.
Going into the tunnel, they found that it was flooded in the middle, and that a watertight cable car traveled underwater between the two ends of the tunnel. The car could take two at a time, and was moved along the cables using a crank on either end. Aeris's evil party split and traveled to the far end of the tunnel in pairs.
On the far end, they found a cellar-like room with a high ceiling, with just a few cells attached. One cell held Bane, and Kasskar picked the lock to free him.
As the cell door opened, Kasskar looked up and saw that men had come into the cellar room while he'd been focused on the lock: the Hobnails Horst, Bering, Garrow, and Krispin. A knowing look passed between Aeris and Horst, and Aeris turned to Kasskar, saying "It's been nice working with you Kasskar, but this is where we part ways." Aeris, Kane, Treasach, and Bane walked out, leaving Kasskar trapped with the Hobnails he'd been fighting so bitterly.
The Hobnails looked formidable, and Kasskar was preparing for the worst. But just then, Bering decided the time was right to claim leadership of the Hobnails by attacking Horst. For a second, Kasskar hoped for a chance with the Hobnails divided, but Horst and Garrow instantly beat Bering down, killing him, and turned on Kasskar again.
The Hobnails dominated Kasskar, and quickly drove him to take cover in the cell that he'd freed Bane from. But it was futile and the Hobnails soon beat him unconscious.
As Kasskar lay unconscious, his animal spirit Marwolaeth appeared and attacked the Hobnails. Marwolaeth drove them back into the flooded tunnel, trapping them there, and killed them. Kasskar remained unconscious but alive on the floor of Bane's cell.
My notes don't say what Marwolaeth's stats were, but Keith's notes show him starting with 280 hits, so I think he had the stats of an Adult Black Dragon with half hits.
The characters went to seventh level after this game.
