The Dungeon of Graves: Session 16
General Summary
Dealt a Bad Hand
Report Date
24 Jan 2021
The evening of the 19th greets the group leaving the mausoleum with a blast of cold air. A layer of frost almost forms instantly on their armor. Even the green gargoyles had a layer of frost but they did not move as they left heading around the graves. Noticing a fresh grave marked with their fallen companion’s name, Xantrix, scrawled across the tombstone they headed off to the east where the beach offered them respite. Mogg wonders if the graves all mark the fallen adventurers, Sinestra agrees but the rogue thinks that it’s more than that. As they walk, the clear sky is a welcomed sight. It might make it much colder than they would like it also meant no snow. Keartas can clearly see the waning gibbous moon and feels it in his veins, but the danger had passed a few days ago. Out of nowhere, a small woodland creature delivers a message to the mage.
Lothar prepares the body as a cleric of Vrokíva making another offering to the Inaethri. The embers of the pyre peel off and the smoke billowing off into the sea. It’s mundanely odd but it makes sense to those assembled when a wind from nowhere carries the ashes out into the Brume. During this time they can see figures running along the shoreline, the Wights have returned with another new recruit. One of the minions had a body thrown over their shoulder, not hindering their progress. The wiggling bag is dropped at their feet. It is plainly obvious that they had been carted here against their will. A shield with three ship sails can be seen as a half elf removes themselves from burlap. The group greets the newcomer as warmly as they usually do. They find a small cove above the high tideline to rest for the night.
As the morning dawns and the group prepares for their day's adventures in the dungeon, Mogg brings out the magical dagger out of his secret boot pocket and hands it to the rogue for the time being. They move back to the mausoleum, grabbing the key from the dwarven statue, and turn to Lothar. He is forced to praise the Master which appeases the skeleton within the sarcophagus for now. Who knows when or if the skeleton will be able read the strength behind the words. As they move down into the tunnels, the terrible smell of the poop monster is back but they move past the room. Just out of most of the group’s eyesight, except for Vai’len and Sinestra, a gelatinous cube blocks the way into the open cavern. They wail on the creature before they could actually deal damage to the group. Although, Mogg had a brief scare as it ran into him.
After the quick battle finished, Nam ran back up to the room where they had lost their spore druid just a couple days ago. The room seems similar to what they left it except for a fresh chair at the table. No one enters the room which makes Nam a little angry but they move back down to the second floor. Mogg asks for some rations and paper. Keartas gets involved and more notes are wasted as the simple message Mogg had intended for. Finally Sinestra offers “An offering of goodwill from the Loud Ones.” The message is left near the bag with the rations and one Goodberry. They knock on the locked door to the north where the madman has been heard from a couple of days. Mogg can see the door slowly crack open, they grab the bag but the note is left behind.
They moved down the corridor from where they had fought a massive amount of ghasts and ghouls yesterday. Moving up to the first door they can hear a bunch of tiny sounds but it was far too hard to tell. They open the door, the room had been carved out of stone with rat tunnels leading out but the majority of the room is covered in detritus with two large nests, crawling with rat babies. Acting first, Vai’len just closes the door. A quick chat about if they should fight these rats end with the group coming to the consensus of not attacking them. From farther down the hall a door swings open and a massive ogre squeezes through, still clutching the large cards in his hand. Out of the room, they can hear a couple more voices and the word “Lunch” yelled back in.
Keartas magically shrunk the large ogre that had moved up and assaulted Mogg. The group has worked well together in getting wounded or squishy companions out of the frontline by having the stronger, more sturdier folk switch places with them without provoking attacks. Nam moves Mogg out of the way while Acacius moves up and joins the goliath in the frontline. The ogres move out of the side room dealing massive damage to the noble Gylidder guard. The newest recruit wasn’t able to reach the ogres but still moved up right behind Nam unleashing some eldritch energy.
The battle happened in a ten foot wide hallway making it hard for either side to enter melee. The ranged among them found it easier to hurt the combatants. Keartas takes a javelin to the shoulder but they maintain concentration on keeping the ogre small. As the battle seemed to dip in the ogre’s favor, Sinestra dropped their druidic totem down giving her party some much needed inspiration turning the tide for the Shriek’s dungeon divers. During the battle, one of the ogres kept popping into the hallway and then retreating. Mogg and Vai’len had been preparing for this creature multiple times but after the rest of the ogres fell to the frontline the ogre decided that it was a lost cause and had started to run away when Lothar moved down the hall finishing the last ogre.
As the battle had started to wrap up, Mogg and the others had noticed a few things. The room in which the ogres had been playing cards in had two doors. One led to where the ogres kept skins one of which was an ogre face...the other doorway led to a natural forming cave with two paths. One of the paths went up at a 80 degree incline while the other delved down at a 45 degree angle. While Mogg investigated the cave, some of the others investigated the other doors. The middle door had no sounds and while the third one sounded like a brush scraping against the stone floor. Feeling safe, they open the door to the third room where they see an animated broom just gently sweeping the dirt and dust into a pile. With the door open, the animated broom started to sweep the debris out the door and when their job had completed it fell inert on the floor. The middle door revealed a simple room dedicated to the construction of coffins with six finished and none occupied.
They decided to explore the natural path heading up. It was a tough climb but the path led out into the graves through one of the large rat tunnels they had scouted a few days past. Heading out and back only hampered the group for 30 minutes but they learned another path into the dungeon, one that would allow Lothar not to make false praise to the Master. Back in the dungeon, they move up the hallway that the ogre had fled too, they assumed could have been called Am Bro as they had found a letter in a sack back in the ogre’s rest room.
Moving down the hall they come upon a finely crafted door with runes carved into the it. Vai’len could tell that the runes seemed to be Abyssal and another language no one could read until Mogg dug out the helm they had found in one of the rat nests. They learn that the door read “Saracek. In life a deluded slave of binding light; in death a dark warrior-king.” The key hole looks completely different than any other door they had come upon and it seemed that no one had even attempted to pick the lock. They believe that this person could have been in the Army of Light, a lieutenant within the army and a paladin dedicated to the service of peace. Keartas notices it feels similar to the mausoleum where some of them had found the vampire. Near the runed door, there seemed to be a secret door with a layer of frost upon it.
