In a world of magic, many people who master the arcane arts often attempt to help the world and make it a better place.
Olethros was not one of those people.
Olethros was a battle sorcerer who specialized in necromancy. He was a devout worshiper of Vecna, and was bent on having the God of the Undead rule the cosmos. As such, he started to search for the Hand and Eye of Vecna. To do this, he had a large portion of the Cult of Vecna scatter throughout the world and raise the dead from their graves.
At first, these undead were simply zombies who roamed the countryside, only to be put down by the PCs (who were mmembers of the Holy Order of Religious Warriors, an organization made of warriors who never became paladins, but still fought for their gods). However, after the cultists started to fall to the hands of these warriors, the terror of the undead began to spread into the cities.
Olethros created more horrifying creatures that toppled kingdoms. He always stayed one step ahead of the remaining members of the now declining Holy Order, and his quest for the unholy relics was almost unopposed. After gaining the Hand and Eye of Vecna, he sent his best lieutenant, Alucard, to eliminate the party.
After he learned of Alucard’s defeat, he decided to take matters into his own hands by fighting the party himself. He disguised himself as a powerful king and told the party to go to an ancient tower called the Moonstone Spire to investigate a large amount of undead in the area. Olethros arrived long before the party and sealed himself at the top of the spire. While here, he replaced his hand and eye with Vecna’s Hand and Eye. After the party burst open the door to the final room, Olethros immediately attacked. After three of the five party members were knocked unconscious, with the other two at 3 and 0 HP, Olethros readied a Finger of Death spell to finish them off, only to be shot seven times by the archer and fall out of the tower. After this fall, he died.
But it was not over.
Because of his tremendous service to Vecna, the God of the Undead himself revived Olethros as a Lich, with many other powers of the undead. With his new powers, he raised an army of all undead horrors imaginable. The army, called the Army of the Black King, destroyed all in it’s wake.
Eventually, the only piece of land left in the world that wasn’t raped by the undead war machine was a tiny island known as Axio. Here, the party trained the last survivors of Mortalkind to fight the undead. Olethros caught on quickly and sent legions of undead to the island every day, only for the newly revived Holy Order of Religious Warriors to smite them back to Vecna’s realm.
Finally, with his undead army reduced to half it’s numbers over a period of seven years, he decided to act. Armed with his sword, Kaegroarytevivex (draconic for Undead War Victory), he led six hundred ships made of bones, flesh, sinew, and masts made of skin to Axio. As the final 1200 warriors said their prayers, Olethros led the charge on the island stronghold. His army, however, was quickly mowed down by arrows blessed by clerics.
After the arrow barrage ended, wizards and sorcerers blasted the horrible creatures to bits. Olethros and several of his Lich servants eventually killed the spell casters, and his army then reached the stronghold gates. After heavy hand-to-hand fighting, during which a PC was killed by Olethros, his army overpowered the warriors and charged towards the keep.
Despite heavy losses from archers in the streets, Olethros reached the keep as his army continued to fight the last remnants of the Holy Order. Here, he encountered the four remaining party members. After a moment of exchanged words, he attacked first, instantly slaying the party’s ranger with a Wail of the Banshee spell. After over three hundred rounds of combat (we counted afterwords), the only ones standing were Olethros and the party’s cleric, who only had seven points left with no more healing spells. Olethros himself was at full hit points due to high damage reduction and fast healing.
His mace broken, the cleric fell to his knees, seemingly in tears. After several rounds of taunting and laughing at the broken priest, the Monster of Vecna charged. That’s when the cleric’s readied action went off. He drew out his spare weapon (was able to due to the Quick Draw feat) and moved two squares, causing Olethros to miss. The cleric then moved towards his adversary and did a full attack. He raised his blade and yelled “In the name of St. Cuthbert, by the Power of Kord, with the Light of Pelor and the Valor of Heironeous, I wield the Blade of Kas against you, cursed monster!”
Olethros cursed as he heard the words “Blade of Kas” the only weapon that could truly defeat him. The cleric then began his attacks. The first cut off the Hand of Vecna from Olethros’s body. The next pierced Olethros in his left eye, which destroyed the Eye of Vecna. Lastly the cleric thrust the Blade into the heart of the Black King. Olethros began to yell towards the sky, cursing the gods, the cleric, and all of the living as the necrotic energy that powered his accursed body left him.
After the last of his power fled, the doors to the streets blasted open as the necrotic power from Olethros’s soldiers pierced the wretched sorcerer’s body. At last, the only thing remaining of Olethros was his cloak, riddled with holes and cuts from the final battle. The cleric took the cloak and Olethros’s sword and put them both into a blessed silver plated adamantine chest along with the Blade of Kas and boarded a small wooden boat with nothing but the clothes he first wore in the campaign (when he was nothing but a simple priest), a gallon of lamp oil, and a piece of flint and steel. He bade a final farewell to the survivors of the battle, which numbered at 192, and rowed into the open sea. As he lost sight of the island, he doused the boat, the chest, and himself in oil and set it ablaze.
With all undead now banished from the world, the world slowly recovered. The names of the heroes who fought Olethros were lost to history. With nobody to tell of his legacy or his dark deeds, the name Olethros was nothing but a stain in history. However, sailors now tell of a spot in the sea where the water is dark, and when you are alone, the faint sound of raspy laughter can be heard, along with the sound of a shaking chest and two swords clinking against each other.
Image from GuildWars
Michael Jarhling
