Session 8 - A Way Out and A Way Down
General Summary
When last we left our heroes...
The party was standing in front of a large set of double doors, having just done battle with a room full of death cultists. Trickles carefully put his ear to the door, and when he couldn't hear anything, unlocked and opened it quietly and looked around. He was immediately confronted with two human guards, who looked him up and down before nodding and going back to their posts. The disguise seemed to be working, as the guards clearly thought Trickles was someone else. "What is it you want - in or out?" Trickles ran with it, walking into the large cavernous room. Trickles walked around the large open cave, observing the four large statues of Killamore in the center and pretending to fluff the hanging banners all over the place. The rest of the group waited in suspense, ears to the door, trying to figure out what was going on. Not having found anything particularly interesting, and worried about the guards getting suspicious, Trickles ran at the guards, pillowcase cape flying behind him. "To arms!" he yelled, taking a grappling hook shot at the door and pulling it open, knocking the guards down in the process as his friends stood staring. "That is the signal!" he yelled. Battle was quickly joined, with the party leaping into action to help their companion. With a rapier stab from Trickles and a magical surfboard smack from Marcel, one of the guards went down. The other looked up at all of his assailants, pushed Trickles out of the way, and ran towards the northeast hallway. "I don't get paid enough for this shit!" he yelled. Trickles, thinking quickly, swung a perfectly placed hook shot at the guard's ankles. It looped around his legs, causing the guard to stumble, hit his head, and fall motionless to the ground. As the group caught their breath and looked around the room, Marcel and Flaar noticed a trigger point of some sort on the northwest statue. Trickles shot the trigger plate with a hookshot, and as the plate sunk into the pillar, a panel slid to the side in the corner of the room, and just beyond it a ladder descended downward into darkness. Before journeying farther downward, Marcel, Glitz, and Slappa decided to take a look at the hallway to the northeast, and found that as they went down the tunnel the light and the breeze intensified, leading to an open field with a forest nearby. Marcel couldn't tell where they were, but Arindorf was able to identify the landscape as woods near Runswick, and was pretty sure he could find the city from there if he absolutely needed to. After a bit of discussion about whether to go back to the dragonborn captives and get them out now, the group eventually decided to keep pushing, since they didn't have a way to get Novakian out and they left the cells looking like they were untouched. The group set down the ladder, finding another long, narrow hallway that eventually led to another ladder leading up, with a trap door at the top. Trickles poked his head through the trap door and saw a somewhat familiar hallway with the non-moving bones of a dragonborn skeleton lying in a heap. The group decided to continue on, following the hallway until they came upon a dragonborn skeleton standing guard at another passageway. Leaning into the element of surprise, Trickles jumped the skeleton and got in a solid hit. Glitz tried to slide through the skeleton's legs, intending to get in a good hit but instead crashing into one of its legs. Trickles swung back around, his rapier colliding with the skeleton as it crumbled into a pile of bones. The skeleton seemed to be guarding a short passageway with a door at the end of it - so of course the party had to investigate. They found themselves in another bedroom, with bookshelves along the wall, and a prominent treasure chest. Flaar rifled through the books and grabbed the best tomes on necrotic teachings he could find. Trickles went straight for the chest, activating a Magic Missile trap! As Flaar was investigating the bookshelves, he found one book that looked not quite real, and gave it a pull. The bookshelf slid to the side, revealing an opening into another room - a room almost entirely filled with a large lab table, a dead dragonborn lying on it, in the middle of being dissected. Slappa immediately recognized them as one of the village elders. The party took a quiet moment as Marcel spoke the rites of Selûne over the body. Working together, they moved the dragonborn to the bed in the other room and covered them with one of the bedsheets. Slappa played Taps on the lute. As the last notes of the tune filled the air, Flaar had a thought. "I wonder..." he said, pulling the black gemstone out. Everyone in the room felt slightly nauseous, and Flaar could feel the necrotic energy coming off of the stone in waves. He kept it out for probably 15 seconds longer than he should, then put it back. He suspected if it were anyone else holding the gem other than a seasoned necromancer, there would be trouble. Like maybe it would put you in a knockout coma, *cough* Lakeen *cough*. As the group investigated the room, they found several vials and potions (including a whole bunch of powerful healing potions) and a mysterous book titled "Janhara's Book of the Dead." Flaar immediately went to grab the book, and his arm was filled with freezing pain, causing him to drop the book, startled. He instructed Boner to pick it up, but the little hooded figure just looked at it, looked back at Flaar, and shook its head. Flaar attempted to pick up the book with the gem in his hand, but experienced the same freezing pain as before. Trickles offered his pillowcase cape to try and scoop the book up - but it froze the pillowcase, shattering it while the book still lay on the floor. At this point the party decided to investigate the large stone doors at the end of the tunnel. There was a rough-hewn keyhole in the door, but none of the keys filched from the guards seemed to work, and it appeared to be magically locked like the one of Novakian's cell. Abandoning the doors, the group decided to go up the ladder at the end of the hall next. Trickles led the way and found a hatch at the top. He carefully lifted it and looked around - and was immediately surrounded by the reeking stench of rotting flesh. He could tell it was a large room, with piles of corpses everywhere, and could just make out two figures at the other side of the room. He carefully snuck back down and let the group know what he saw. The party decided to press forward and attack! As the heroes made their way up the ladder and into the room, they saw two drow-like creatures screaming at each other. The one in high priest robes shouted, "What did you want me to do? They attacked! They're here! What do we do?" The other one said, "Look, we still haven't found the The Dragon's Tear yet, and I'm not leaving until we find it! The spell won't work without it!" Suddenly, they both noticed the group of adventurers. The one in the warlock robes shouted, "Stop them, you idiot! My work is more important than this stupid death cult! Just kill them all!" Trickles ran forward into a high leap, yelling, "In the name of Marcel Whitroar and Slappa DaBass - Surf's Up!" Before Trickles could even land a blow, springing up and filling the room were... a LOT of skeletons. 5 human skeletons, 3 dragonborn skeletons, and a ghoul, to be precise. The undead were surrounding the party, and battle was imminent. Arindorf cried out, "Flaar, cast some magic! We need the bear!!!""If you want to raise the dead, you must first understand the way of the living."
-Janhara's Book of the Dead
Report Date
20 Oct 2020