Session 6: Denizens of the Catacombs Report

General Summary

Finally reunited, the group made their way back to the central chamber and took a moment to reconvene. They addressed Omar's thievery and demanded that he stop doing so moving forwards, to which he begrudgingly agreed.   The heroes explored the chamber and decided to send Marnie on a scouting mission past the wooden blockade to investigate the supposed cave-in. Due to her nimble halfling frame, she easily squeezed between the wooden boards and crept forwards. She found that the crypts had caved into some form of natural cavern about twenty feet below, but the cavern was quite large. Small bioluminescent mushrooms created blue dots of light in the cavern, enough to give Marnie a sense of the scale of the cave, but not enough to reveal much of its details to her. All she could see was that there was another tunnel dug into the ceiling of this cavern, and what appeared to be the broken and mangled corpse of a priest lie on the group thirty feet below the hole. It seemed he had been dropped from the tunnel. Since she could not see further into the cave, she returned to the group.   After discussing their options, the group decided to check the corridor to the east before moving on to the cavern. They moved in and quickly found themselves at a T-interchange, where they decided to tackle each direction in cardinal order.    They headed north first, through a metal gate. Inside they found coffins that had been rotted and chewed up. The heroes inspected the bodies and found them covered in small circular holes, about the size of a gold piece in diameter. It appeared as though something had buried itself into the bodies. Disgusted by the sight and a bit troubled, they pressed forward into the next room. They found a burial room, but in the center was the corpse of a priest. He had burn marks that looked self-inflicted on his body, as well as the same circular bore marks. On his waist was a scroll tube and to his side was a burnt out torch. Upon seeing the corpse, Dane had unpleasant memories of the battlefield flash forward, and he recalled the phenomena that they were witnessing. He explained to everyone that these were telltale signs of rot grub infestation in the corpses, and that if they were not burned out before they burrowed too deep into the body, they could not be removed.   The group took a step back and made a plan as to how they could recover the scroll tube, because Dane was confident it held important magic that could be useful, just like with the previous scroll tubes. They sent Marnie in to carefully pour a bottle of oil supplied by Omar onto the corpse. She managed to do so, and as the grubs began to stir she quickly yanked the tube off of the belt of the corpse. As Marnie ran, a swarm of grubs begin wriggling their way out of the corpse, but Vallis was prepared and shot forth a fire bolt onto the oil coated body. It erupted in a small fireball and scent the smell of singed flesh into everyone's nostrils. The sound of the screaming grubs was ear shattering for a brief moment, but within seconds the grubs began to flop out onto the ground, half-melted and dead. The group sealed off the chamber and then headed for the eastern corridor.   Omar opened the room and found that an uneasy darkness resided in the chamber. They saw bones scattered throughout the room, and the charred body of a man stabbed by four rusty blades. On his finger was a slightly melted brass ring, and to his side was an ornate, pristine torch body. The group deliberated on what to do, and eventually Dane cast light on a stone and threw it into the room. As he did so, the darkness of the room recoiled. The shadows danced about the chamber as though they were not attached to anything, and then they disappeared. An uneasy quite fell upon the group for a brief moment followed by twisted whispers. Suddenly, shadows of men began to form forth out of the darkness around them and attack!   Four shadows attacked the group, sapping their strength and then disappearing back into the darkness. Each one of the heroes made their best efforts to try and attack the shadows, but they kept disappearing. When attacks did land, it seemed as though the shadows were resistant to all of their attack. During this fight both Vallis and Omar were overcome by the shadows and fell unconscious from their strength draining attacks. The rest of the group fought hard and were able to overcome their adversary despite their companions being knocked down.   When the shadows were dispatched, Dane used the last of his healing magic to awaken Vallis, and then the group made efforts to tend to Omar's wounds. They were not able to wake him, but they stabilized him and kept him from dying. They cleared the room and barricaded the door to prevent any other undead from entering the chamber. The group searched the body and deduced it was a member of the Children of Cinder who had been slain in this room. In his hand they found a stolen holy symbol of Necruus, and Vallis collected the torch. While they rested, he studied it and learned it had the properties of an Everflame Torch. Dane also studied the scroll he had collected from his fallen brother and learned it was a scroll of Speak with Dead.   With the room secured, the group took watch over shifts, and they all got a much needed rest.

Rewards Granted

• Everflame Torch (Vallis)
• Spell Scroll of Speak with Dead (Dane)