Session 15 - A Grave Situation
21 Flaurmont 1010 - 22 Flaurmont 1010
General Summary
Seraphina accompanies Wellgar and Krag to the cemetery, seeing the 10 dug up graves. The caskets have been split and broken open, the bodies missing, and there a large, dragging track marks headed north. Seraphina offers to help, setting off to seek the help of the party and finding them breakfasting at The Wicker Goat. Upon hearing about the situation, the party agrees they're interested in finding out what happened.
The party gathers their adventure gear, and stops by Winston's Store for a few more last minute items, then head over to the cemetery. By now Eliander and some guards have arrived on the scene, a little surprised to see the party approaching. Seraphina introduces herself and starts to introduce the party, though (unknown to her) Eliander is well familiar with them. He will need to inform the council, but is happy for the party to investigate the situation - they set off even without the promise of a reward.
They venture off into the swampy area north/northeast of town, and follow the drag marks, which are fortunately still easily tracked, despite the constant drizzle and rain. Eventually they find themselves on firmer ground in a lightly forested area. After they have followed the tracks for about 2 hours, they see something large moving in the distance ahead. It seems to sense them, and turns, though it is hard to say whether it is facing them, as it is some sort of tentacled plant-like thing with corpses throughout it. It is a bizarre and terrifying (and large!) creature of some sort. The party later learns that this was a Corpse Flower, though no one in the group has had direct experience with one. For once, the party seems to assume this creature is hostile, and makes the first move, shooting from long range at the abomination.
As they close the distance to the Corpse Flower, two zombies appear to the left and right side. As the battle progresses, the Corpse Flower exudes another zombie, further alarming the party. Unsure what to do, they work down the two zombies that were first to arrive, and then start to engage the Corpse Flower itself. However, even the zombies seem tougher than most enemies, as what seems like fatal blows does not seem to kill the zombies. However after a few attemts, they are successful at taking down the zombies.
Once they close to melee range with the Corpse Flower though, the noxious fumes become overpowering, causing Belfur and Seraphina to lose the ability to fight some rounds as they are left retching from the stench. The ranged party members, including Stavos fighting with his bow this time, are still effective at whittling down the Corpse Flower, and eventually it is overcome by their arrows and eldritch blasts, Seraphina finally striking it down with a great cleaving blow.
Now that they have defeated the creatures, they realize (upon slicing the creature up) that there are seven corpses still inside it, with the three zombies they fought making the total match the 10 bodies that were taken. They gather the corpses up, and between dragging them on canvas stretchers, and the use of Tenser's Floating Disk, the party is able to bring all 10 bodies back to the cemetery. Krag is pleased to see that they have been successful, and runs to get Wellgar. Krag and Wellgar work to bless and tend to the bodies as best they can, and re-bury them. Between the party and Wellgar they are able to determine that the strange creature was in fact a Corpse Flower, and it seems likely that it was acting on its own, and not some darker root cause, and that having killed the creature, the threat is likely resolved.
The party heads back into town, and goes back to the "Goat" for another meal, and consider what to do now that they have a little down time. They have caught wind of a rumor that Boris Telnos has been talking about finding some kind of ancient city in the Dreadwood somewhere. They recall that the last time they tried to find Boris, he was found in The Snapping Line, so they go there first, and find him sitting by the fire there. They offer him a drink, he's never one to say no to such an offer, and they get him chatted up a bit, and bring up the rumor that has been going around. He is more than happy to share, and describes a city where most of the buildings are rubble, but there is a large temple in the middle that appears (from a distance at least) to be intact. The party asks if there is any strangeness in the area, perhaps disturbing the wildlife, but Boris didn't notice anything unusual in the atmosphere. To be brought to the city however, he wants 100 gold, which seems like quite a bit to the party, but after they talk among themselves for a bit, they offer to give him 50 up front, and another 50 once he gets them to the city, and it isn't just "a house in the woods".
He is happy with this offer, and they arrange to meet at first light by the Temple of Protius as the route there is on the old road east, turning north before the Dwarven Mines. It is getting late, and the party decides they will need a few more items, so they plan to stop by Winston's store on the way to the Temple in the morning
After those last few provisions are prepared (the next morning), they meet Boris at the temple, and start heading east. Before embarking, they ask Boris how long a trek it is to the city, and he explains it is just a days walk, and that they should be able to get there before dark today. With that news, the party determines they don't need even further provisions, and set out on foot with Boris in the lead.
They follow the road, turn north, and eventually onto a game trail next to a creek. They follow the west bank of the stream and, several hours into the trip, they are ambushed by Goblins, popping out of the woods on the other side of the water. The party immediately responds, and takes the battle right back to the goblins. Unsure how many are attacking makes this slightly risky, but compared to the last time they fought goblins, they party is much handier with their weapons, and the fight is surprisingly short. The goblins try to hit and run, but the party is fast, cutting down eight as they tried to flee, seemingly all of them.
Boris seems surprised by the raiders, as he's always able to avoid such creatures but believes the noise of such a large group is what attracted them. The party decides the town council should know they encountered goblins so close to Saltmarsh.
After a while Boris takes them on a branching trail a little more east, and by dusk they have arrived at the ruined city. It is as Boris had described, with a pretty impressive central temple, and the party gives Boris the second half of his payment, but since dark is settling in, he spends the night with the party, and departs in the morning as they are packing up camp.
The party heads down the central avenue towards the temple, the other buildings nothing but fragmented foundations and traces of walls. As they near the temple the ground collapses; they find themselves in a room with no way back to the surface, as the rubble has filled in behind them as the structure had failed. They are in a room full of dioramas, depicting various scenes of daily life in different parts of society, almost as if this was a museum exhibit. As the party examines the various dioramas, Leo starts casting detect magic and, when the casting is complete, he finds that there is a general aura of transmutation magic permeating the air.
Belfur and Tork examine the door, and Tork, with his excellent alertness and height, notices that there is a keyhole far up the door near the lintel. As they examine the various dioramas, they find a shepherd in the central diorama that has an unusual shaped staff, and upon closer examination, this actually appears to be a key. Using the combined height of Leo standing on Tork's shoulders, they are able to unlock the door, but they are still unable to open it, as the door seems to be jammed, and has no handles (they appear to have fallen apart over extensive amounts of time). Thankfully, the hinges are on the inside, so Seraphina starts assaulting them with Shatterspike, and in just a few blows, she has "disassembled" the hinges. Unfortunately, the door, now unhinged falls inward, and knocks Seraphina down; though bruised, she brushes this off.
The party elects not to take the gems from the figurines, out of combined respect and caution, and starts exploring. They work their way partway down the hall, and trigger a log trap, which they manage to evade most of the effects of, and quickly clear the debris to get back together. The door at the end of the hallway is unlocked, and upon entering a giant crayfish of some sorts moves to block their way. As they move to go to one of the next doorways, the creature keeps moving to block the way, and seems to be "speaking" a language of some kind. Seraphina casts speak with animals and after repeated warnings the crayfish calls out - the large rock in the center of the room moves, revealing itself to be some kind of giant crab. The giant crab, Kalka-Kylla, converses with Seraphina, but while he and his companion (Olman) have been here for ages, they don't know anything beyond this room; he explains that it was brought here by humans long ago, to guard this room, and has been in this room ever since. It continually tells them that they should not be here, but eventually they ask what could they do for the crab, and he seems to be hungry. They offer up some of their Goodberries, and shares one with the smaller crayfish. Once on this topic, it seems that the crab captures rats and other creatures that find their way into the room.
In the end, the party has negotiated that they can go to any of the doorways, and they will in turn bring back anything they find that might be good food for the crab. They also get permission to come back through this way if needed.
The party decides to try the eastern door first.
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
10 Apr 2020
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