The Dungeon of Graves: Session 6

General Summary

Chuckling Gargoyles

Over the last few days of their travel from the Landing to their new companions, the Bugbear and Human were being escorted by the unsleeping roguish Wights. Constantly vigilant, their escort was able to navigate the terrain to the rest of the Shrike’s team. It was fairly easy for the adventurers to notice the two approaching their campsite. Materializing out of the gloom, the Shrike’s Wights delivered them to the group and as quickly they appeared they turned and headed back to the Landing.
Acacius wore the colors of the Gylidder guard while Mogg seemed to blend in a bit better with their surroundings sporting charcoal colored leathers. After a short and awkward interrogation where Keartas once again wanted to know what the Shirke of Czira had on his companions and none of them wanted to answer. They did learn that Acacius was good at stabbing things and not being stabbed in returned. Mogg seemed to be good at picking locks, moving stealthy and had once been a guide. The group lets the two know the area in which they were heading. It seemed that the Shrike and Inako had not let the new recruits in on what they were tasked to do. They headed about an hour northeast of their campsite, all of them could sense when they passed into the aura the area presented.
The group could feel this oppressive feeling of anxiety, ‘dire consequences’, a feeling that something was out to get them as they approached the sunken area of the mausoleums. The area was filled with graves, some with tombstones in various forms of decay and some which were new. As he got closer to the area, Keartas remembered the hidden door under the statue and was getting very excited. Mogg offered to scout the area. As a group they decide to move up under the protective aura of Tumeti’s magic, hopefully hiding the sound of them trampling up to the nearest set of rat holes. After examining the holes, Mogg offers that the holes and tunnels under them are too big to collapse without magic and that the tunnels could be big enough for a small creature to move through them. Nam had said that Keartas was going to use their magic but is presented with the fact that moving earth would announce to the area that they were indeed here. The tracks around the holes showed that the tunnels were used quite often and that the rats must be massive.
Tumeti offers that they should continue to scout the entire area as a group before making a great racket. Continuing onto the western mausoleum they noticed that it seemed to be more of a work in progress and wasn’t as adorned as the main, larger mausoleum. Keartas points out that it must be over a century old but not more than three. They continue to move around the area, moving from the tomb to the next set of rats holes. Mogg spots five large rats dart into the holes as they approached but other than that they seem to have the same definitions as the other set.
As they approached the well at the opposite end of the large mausoleum, they felt this overwhelming sensation that something was going to crawl from the hideous well and eat their soul. Only two had the strength of will to remain. They did not learn much more than Terrance had told them yesterday during their scouting. Skirting the demon iconography adorned well, they moved around the area to the other smaller mausoleum, noting the same relative newness of the structure compared to the main one. They did note that the staircase leading up to the large iron doors seemed to be sunken in as if the structure is so heavy that it pulled the ground down around them.
Stealthy making their way around the main mausoleum, they can all notice the horrific scenes covering the green stone. Grisly reliefs of demons, hundreds of skulls of a medley of races. The spikes coming up from the roof having carved skulls along them. Two dozen gargoyles, carved out of the same sickly green stone, placed around the top all in various poses. Their eyes seemed to be made with two expensive jet gemstones. They finish their scouting around the seemingly generic dwarven statue.
Nam is able to speak the dwarven script on the hidden door facing the main mausoleum. Speaking it out loud, “Blessed are they who spare these stones. And Cursed be the ones who move my bones." Tumeti points out that it is probably wise not to read any script we find in this area out loud as the last time they used the “bless” in front of a mausoleum three of them were greeted by a vampire. Keartas uses magic to sense any magical effect on the statue but only something behind the hidden door seems to radiate anything. As the Tumeti’s magic fades from the group, Nam is standing in front of the main mausoleum.
Not realizing that the druid’s magic had faded, Nam stood facing the mausoleum as three gargoyles flew at him. Three others headed out for Keartas who had been standing close. The goliath cleric falls instantly. It seems like the green gargoyles are toying with us. They luckily miss Keartas and Acacuis moves to help his new companion. Lothar is able to heal his fellow cleric. Nam yells “you fools, you should have ran.” The combat was intense but it was easy to see that the adventurers were no match for the creatures. As Nam falls again, Tumeti calls out to the group that she could cover their escape and casts a massive fog cloud covering the area in what seemed to be Brume-like in appearance but was clearly just magical fog.
As the group safely escaped they could hear chuckling from the main mausoleum as the gargoyles were laughing at their feeble attempt for combat. Acacius is able to retrieve their donkey companion from a tombstone they had tied the poor beast to. After a short rest far from the sickening aura of the area, they determine that they should scout the area around the tombs before attempting another venture into the area.
Scoping out the area, they find more winged insects similar to the ones they fought before but fluffy. The druid with the help of their new companion was able to gather food for the group as they continued their scouting. As they approach the shoreline, they could see Vrokíva’s Brume off in the distance, Lothar seems lost in thought when looking at it. A massive reef that looked more like a sandbar seemed to be off the edge of the shoreline but they just note it down on Keartas’ map, much like they did with fluffy bees. As the evening of the seventh of Zhira fell, the group found a new campsite an hour away from the dungeons possible entrance, this time they made sure to cover any tracks to their campsite.
Nothing assaults them throughout the night; however, Lothar wakes up screaming after once again dreaming of the screaming angel. Breaking camp, they move back to the sunken area of the mausoleums. They move to inspect the western smaller mausoleum, once again under the magics of the druid. Over the night, Terrance noted that everything was still in the area. As they approached the iron doors, Mogg was able to spot the gargoyles on the top of the main structure. They were all in different poses, some having darkened red spots of his companion’s blood and near the middle one of the stone creatures seemed to be cracked. “We might be able to chip away at them.” At the large iron doors, Xantrix is able to determine that they were not trapped but were locked. Mogg moved in and easily unlocked the doors. Acacuis pushes the heavy doors inward and as he does so six undead creatures rose.
In the early morning hours of the eighth of Zhira, a battle commenced in the mausoleum. Lothar summoned his spiritual weapon, a surprise to them all, it looked like a spiritual wolf very similar to one he had wanted to spare but the group slew. Stepping into the structure, they could note that this seemed to follow the descriptions of tombs dedicated to the Master. “Lupus, bite that one” Lothar commands his weapon, an extension of his goddess. A quick combat that goes in the adventurers' favor finishes, leaving the group discussing what to do with all the items they found among the dead.

Report Date

15 Nov 2020