The Mouth of Doom: Session 13
General Summary
The Bells
Report Date
09 Jan 2021
As night falls over Castle Calaelen, the adventurers can see the patching mist of the Brume south of them. The large shadow of the Northern Racchis Range behind them with the clouds rapidly moving to the west, as they notice a dark plume of smoke starting to emanate from the shard of obsidian Sibrwd had held. Ansible had been drawn back into the gift Vykdramir Dauddraig bestowed to them. Before they approach the castle, Leofric informs Ansible how much they all know about the ruin. Artem solemnly informs them about what happened to their previous companions and they all talk about tactics.
A few ropes are tied off to trees, some with people attached to them in case the giant corvid attacked. They are lucky as it seems that the bird is either asleep or out hunting. Moving closer to the roof they can see that there is about 80 feet to the inner courtyard and the roofing looks to be made from rather old wood. Sibrwd offers that Artem and Leofric should move down first, however it is Artem who descends down to the upper roof area as quietly as they can. Unfortunately, the others seem to land rather loudly. Through the arrow slits the area seems to be abandoned, dark and deadly silent. Leofric pokes his pink mohawk head into one of the slits and they can see a massive unholy symbol carved into the stone with piles of various skulls littered about the room.
Ansible joins Leofric in examining the room from the arrow slits and notices the double bed in the back. It seems that the room must have been two separate rooms at first that the wall connecting them must have fallen and then cleared. The piles of skulls seem to have both humanoid and beast within them. All about the room the motif of skulls is repeated and Te’Leyuura is able to easily identify that the person who resides in the room worships the Master. They all drop down to the courtyard. Lucius had tried to head down first; however, Artem shooed them away.
In the back corner of the courtyard there is a pond that looks to have been created naturally from an unmaintained leaking bath house. Across from them, they can see the tower where earlier the corvid had been roosting in. The doors have been boarded up and in goblin “they can have it” has been scrawled upon it. Behind them, hooves hit at the stable doors which frighten a couple of them to fall back to the wall. Hugging the stone wall, they head around the corner towards the main doors to the keep. Artem moves ahead of the group scanning the area and motions them all to follow when they deem it safe. As a group they manage to keep rather quiet with the louder ones being corrected by the quieter ones.
Examining the main doors, Artem finds they are not locked or trapped after which they back away for one of their sturdier companions to open. Jarvis uses their shield to protect themselves as he opens the door. Hidden on the inside, the armed ballista shoots forward missing Jarvis. Inside the area is pitch black with a large pit carved right inside the doors. Artem uses their claws to climb across as Sibrwd starts to assemble their ladder. With help they quickly add the ladder to the rope for their companions to cross the trap easier. Meanwhile, Artem moved around the inside of the castle, keeping a careful watch and not traveling too far away from their group. Sibrwd and Jarvis examine the ballista and after finding the ballista unable to disable quickly grab the part that makes it automatically fire.
Inside the castle, the group hears nothing, it’s eerily quiet. During their tour of the hallways on the first floor, Artem finds that only one door is locked and trapped with a magical rune. This rune seems to be inscribed on the lock and that if it isn’t disabled before opening it could have some sort of evocation magic released paired with lightning. Moving around they find that two of the tower doors are not locked but hard to open. The eastern one seems to be blocked from the inside and the western door seems to open just enough for a small familiar to sneak through.
The group can see dried blood all around the stone floor but the blood is recent enough that there is dust under tit. They determine the previous Wrenjers had made it this far. Sibrwd starts a ritual casting while Artem is thoroughly investigating which triggers the wizard, Te’Leyuura to start her own ritual casting. The rogue finds the armory and they grab a heavy crossbow for future use. Te’Leyuura’s magic finds that there are four necromantic auras coming from the room behind them. Keeping that in mind, they move to the tower and Sindragosa moves through the small opening and takes a spin. They note the trap door above the ladder and the large and extremely heavy looking pin keeping the chain attached to the door tight.
They all prepare for the four necromantic auras that were detected. Sibrwd enhances Jarvis and Ansible noting that they need to stay relatively close to each other for their magic to be sustained. As Jarvis opens the door, they are greeted by two gnoll zombies swinging their weapons and two goblin skeletons with arrows ready. It seems like they have been waiting for a rather long time. Battle ensues with the team working well together. As Leofric smashes one of the skeletons to pieces, they note that the skeletons are lashed to the kitchen door.
After the battle, Jarvis notes the ropes are rigged into the ceiling and when they examine it a slight ring of a bell is heard. They decide to move to the magically runed door. Artem keeps everyone at a farther distance while they scratch out the rune, thus making the magic moot. Behind the locked door they find a library which lights up the wizard even more than her chipper mood. The room of the castle has been reinforced with thick support beams and walls. It might have at one point been used as a safe room but is not containing dusty tomes. For the most part the yellowing books are covered in layers of dust and a quick browse of them finds them to be hereditary lines, credit lines, notes, and diaries. These peaked the wizards interests but not as much as the three scrolls. These magical documents seemed to have escaped the ravages of time and contained three spells that were handed out to those who could cast them.
Before continuing they discuss how noisy they have been and how the occupants of the castle already know they are there. Sindragosa scouts the room above the trapdoor by using the arrow slits. Six skeletons spot the flying blue snake but were unprepared for a creature to be approaching from the back of the room. With nowhere else to go but down to the basement or up the rope they decide to move up the rope.
They quietly climb the rope noting the dried blood pool near the hole. Moving up to the door, Jarvis opens but nothing assaults them. Taking a step inside the hallway causes Artem’s haunches to hackle so they take a step back into the room. They feel like if they were to move inside the area further creatures would be able to spot them. Sindragosa is used to investigate the northern room by using the arrow slits once again. The small familiar confirms Artem’s hunches as there is a skeleton with bow ready aiming down the hallway towards their direction. They note the small string attached to the skeleton’s hand. The adventurers discuss cutting the line. Jarvis uses their magic and fire missiles at it but not before his companions readied themselves for battle.
Zelon quietly rages while Lucius licks spit that had formed at the corner of his mouth while he gave his crossbow a quick once over. As the string is severed they can all hear a bunch of bells ring. Lucius moves up and as they do so, one of the skeletons pop out of sight. A deep bassy voice cackles. Sibrwd brilliantly seals the door next to them with a quick freezing of water. As the group moves up and readies more actions, a door across the way, near Jarvis, swings open with seven shambling zombies approaching the door. Some of them recognize fellow Wrenjers, this was the party that had died weeks prior.
