The Dungeon of Graves: Session 13
General Summary
Goodberry FTW
Report Date
03 Jan 2021
Over the last day, Xantrix had been busy probably making some rather impressive bit of artifice and had just entered the hallway that Taeva was advancing backward through. The dwarven companion informs them that the others are in battle with large rats and that they were on their way to watch the stuff as they were not “dealing with that.” Meanwhile, Acacius was down and Lothar was hurt but still standing. The new rogue missed her target but Mogg hits his. Lothar heals Acacius and then leaps into battle to give the giant rats something else to target than his fellow cleric, Nam. The adventures have a bad round with a lot of them missing.
Xantrix announces their return to the group with a spell and quickly joins the fray. The rats seem to work better as a group and swarm the clerics, Lothar falls and takes a hit while down and Nam gets swarmed. Two new combatants climb over the rubble, one shooting at Xantrix nearly downing the artificer. Nam also gets shot and nearly falls to the arrow. The warlock’s aim is solid and downs one of the giant rats. Nam, unfortunately, isn’t able to hold strong and falls unconscious. The group continues their assault downing the giant rats successfully. The fallen companions are able to be healed and rejoin the fight. Lothar, after healing Nam, tries to run but is bit by one of the rats and Vrokíva’s cleric falls unconscious again. Mogg releases a great shot just to have the arrow bounce off the wererat.
The artificer was surrounded by the wererats, but he is able to throw them off with a mighty Thunderwave. After being free he runs to the stream and joins some of his companions hiding in the cold water. The enemies move up to the only standing companion on the northern side of the stream, Nam is only able to dodge as the cleric is magically spent. Vai’len is able to slay the last of the giant rats but isn’t able to help attack the wererats and she falls back into the stream. Keartas teleports to the dying Lothar and shoves a Goodberry down his throat. Lothar stands, attacks and then moves out of the area. The hidden rats come out and fire at Keartas who manages to absorb most of the arrows, taking minor damage. Acacius, still standing on the southern side of the stream waiting for the enemies to approach him, readies his sword and shield.
Mogg, realizing he needed to load his bow with magical arrows, is able to hit one of the wererats. He readies to hand the loaded bow to his fellow rogue for her use later. Meanwhile, Xantrix uses magic and continues his retreat to safer land. The wererat who had been hit by Mogg’s arrow and Keartas’ magic, falls back holding her wounds while her companion moves up and hits the wizard. Nam pushes Keartas out of the fray. Vai’len refuses Mogg’s weapon knowing it would be more beneficial in his hands than hers and jumps into the water, readying an attack. Keartas, refusing to run away, moves and kills the wounded wererat. Seeing this, her companion becomes enraged wanting vengeance upon the murder.
Acacius finally leaps into battle, clearing the stream easily. Even with his companions firing at the enraged wererat, Keartas has the attention of the last combatant. It seemed that with the female wererats death, the hidden rats scurried off. Keartas is slain and as his body falls, the wererat picks him up, bites down upon his throat and tosses him into the stream. Vai’len quickly moves him, feeds him a healing potion then dashes away making eye contact with the enraged wererat. Keartas stands, the wound on his throat still throbbing and blasts the wererat in their face. Acacius moves in and feeds the fallen Nam who then feeds Lothar some Goodberries. The battle finally over, they start to investigate the room and the bodies. Sinestra teases Keartas about his appearance not changing yet with his new throat wound. The bite is lycanthropy, a magical curse and none of them here are able to cure such a thing yet. Luckily, he had just missed the full moon.
They can tell that there are two nests with medium sized holes. The group rests a bit and then investigates the nests. Around the half eaten dwarf there is a pristine helmet, just missing it’s neck attachment. The northern nest had actual beds with shiny objects littered through it. However, the wererats had safely stacked the silver coinage away from the beds. Just the sight of the silver made Keartas move away from it. They do find a finely made scroll case with a spell that was outside of Keartas’ skill level and a pair of pristine boots. The rogues take Xantrix with them to help investigate the stairs. The general smell of shit and disease from the beginning of the area has finally cleared but as they slowly move down the stairs, the cleaner air of the open room has been replaced by smoke--like poor ventilation. At the bottom of the stairs they see eight giant rat corpses and four doors spread out around the area.
The northern door had a key and a handaxe lodged in it and while they talk about what to do they hear screaming. All of a sudden the northern door gets thrown open and a madman rushes in, grabs the key and runs back through the door, slamming it behind them. At this, they all realize they are far too tired and magically depleted to continue and head back up the stairs to start the slow clearing of the rubble of one of the northern collapsed tunnels.
As they finish 6 hours of rubble clearing they all decide to rest outside of the dungeon. Heading back up through the mausoleum, the sarcophagus lid pops off and another skeleton leaps out with a cackle. Tired, they all enter into another battle, quickly solving this one. As they leave the green stone structure, they can all see the gargoyles leering at them but not a single one of them moves or laughs at them retreating for the night. Taeva reports that they saw a bunch of giant rats run off into the hills. They decide to camp near the coast. Keartas identifies the magical items they had found while Nam makes silvered items for the group. The mist over the eastern sea was bathed in starlight as they settled in for the night, they could hear the howling of wolves just to the south of them which throughout the night they could hear move closer to them and then north of their camp.
The 19th of Zhira finds the group back at the dungeon, this time though with Nam’s help, they inspect the well. Overall it just seems like a creepy well that looks like something has clawed its way out of. At the edge of Mogg’s vision, he could see water. They all move to head back into the dungeon and clear more rocks. As they enter the mausoleum, Lothar gets an epiphany and kneels down at the sarcophagus performing a little ritual. Whatever Lothar said managed to appease the skeleton inside.
