Session 11: "The Weeping Stone Catacombs"

General Summary

After fleeing the Plane of Fire, the Ka-Tet returned to the Sigil Mortuary, and then traveled to The Gatehouse to report to the Bleakers.

It was decided that they next should enter the catacombs, to complete the tasks set by Pharod. After convincing the guards that they really did want to enter them, they were finally allowed to pass.

The Catacombs are totally dark and are slick with water and pervaded by a groaning wind. There are coffins everywhere. Bas relief carved faces appear to be crying with the ill boding wind coming from their mouths.

It is not long before the party encountered their first cranium rat, lurking behind a still fleshed corpse. As it was just 1 rat, it was quickly dispensed.

Heading deeper the Ka-Tet were attacked by three flying skulls, with ears that have become batwing like, and emenating terrible shrieks. TNO was afflicted by an abyssal curse after one of the shrieks. The bat-like skulls were Vargouille that are abyssal undead that are connected to the abyss via a portal. Their curse that can transform others to also become varguille.

Nearby is an animated carved face who called to TNO, calling him ‘immortal’ and asking him to come and talk. He was Glyve whom was once a respected member of the Lower Ward. He spoke out against someone who was trying to raise his station, and he was committed to suffer in these tunnels as animated sculptures. He can be saved by a magical flask of water in the Drowned Nations. Bring it to him.
He tells The Nameless One that "treachery awaits him on the surface, and that hi way is long and winding. In the end he might find it but then might not want it".

The party moved past him to the apparent end of the tunnel and discovered a door. It opened into a large oval chamber with elaborate mosaics and a sarcophagus at one end.
Acid falls from the ceiling damaging some of the party.
Arvid opens the sarcophagus and a shower of ashen dust emerges. Within lay a skeleton as well as a large magical warhammer (maul +1).
They carefully leave the room.

Along another corridor they encountered more Varguilles, more easily defeating them, now knowing of their curse. The party moved to the end of the corridor to find two door.

Entering the first door, TNO feels he had been to that place before, recalling it as ‘The Crypt of Dismemberment’.
Strong sounds of wind came from under the floor. An ornate sarcophagus is at the end of the room again guarded by scything blade traps. To one side was a concealed spiral staircase down to the lower crypt level.
At the base of the stairs is a pit of dismembered bodies, that also contained two cranium rats. One body was intact and a search revealed a severed arm that TNO recognises as his. However, the Tattoos are different to his current arm. Esmae of the Flowers suggested they eventually seek out Fell’s tattoo bar to know more.
They went to explore a sense of darkness to the south and they found a container with a wand of magic missiles within.

Along a different tunnel the party finds the body of an Elven grave robber with very long ears. It appeared to be becoming a varguille, and Arvid feels it was the source of the darkness that he had been detecting within the catacombs. It was decided to burn the body. TNO, still cursed, realised this is his fate if he can’t remove his curse.

A door adjacent led to the Dead Nations. They are met by a group of undead and an imposing man that stated they were in the wrong place and promptly took the Ka-Tet as prisoners. He was Hargrimm the Bleak. They take us to a room, and within is a man they had met, Soego.
He asks why the party had intruded, and they explained that they were seeking a portal to the abyss to destroy it.
He tells that he was ministering to the undead about true death.
He told TNO that Hargrimm the Bleak might be able to cure his curse, so the party approaches him with this request. Hargrimm offered to lift the curse if the Ka-Tet can destroy a nearby swarm of cranium rats. They were found in a nearby corridor with the aprty adding another 13 rat tails their tally.
Hargrimm cured the curse, but the part was not free to leave. Hargrimm revealed he wanted Soego to leave, as the undead did not wish to gain true death.
Approaching Stale Mary, who was ministering to some of the zombies, results in her speaking gibberish. She had milky decayed eyes. Mary held out her hands and TNO took them, granting him the ability to talk with the dead at will. (TNO race II feat – Stones Bones Tell). This might be useful to help talk with Zombie 331!
Mary says she is the enemy of ‘Many as One’.
A nearby zombie, Yaraboth, is one undead that is potentially interested in true death, so the party talked with him. They then told Soego that Yaraboth was considering true death, in an attempt to have him leave the area containing his belongings.
Soego does leave, and the Ka-Tet finds his diary, that indicated that he was a wererat, and a spy for Many As One. His task was to find the secret of the Silent King.
The party challenged Soego and demand he leave, he indicates Many as One is in the Warrens of Thought. He left the Dead Nations, satidfying Hargrimm who allowed them to leave
Near the exit of the Dead Nations, The Knifed Ghoul is upset that she is restrained by Hargrimm’s rules preventing her from consuming others. She kingly expressed the desire to eat one of us. Finding some middle ground, TNO offered her his intestines and in return she gave the party Uhir’s knife.
Session end

Cant Dictionary

Report Date

10 Sep 2023

Secondary Location

Dead Nations

Related Plots

• Obtain the Decanter from Drowned Nations
• Retrieve Knife

Related Characters

• Glyve
• Hargrimm the Bleak
• Many as One
• Soego
• Stale Mary
• The Knifed Ghoul
• Yaraboth

• Quests - Sigil
  • Find The Nameless One's Journal
  • Help Reekwind
  • Ignis - Return him to life
  • Unlock the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon
  • Obtain Decanter's Password
• Completed Quests - Sigil
  • Find Pharod
  • Find and Bring Pharod to Justice
  • Help Ingress
  • Kill Starved Dogs Barking
  • Find Craddock
  • Clear the Mausoleum
  • Purchase the Eye
  • Free Angyar from the Dustman Contract
  • Iron Nall's Secret
  • Free Esmae from Moridors box
  • Find Former Drunk Companion of TNO
  • Find Eliath
  • Who is Killing the Barmys
  • Return the Prayer Beads to Porphiron
  • Convince Nestor to Leave
  • Find Pharod's source of bodies
  • Find Amarysse
  • Learn Magic
  • Return his Name
  • Retrieve Knife
  • Find Necklace
  • Kill Rotten William
  • Kill or Drive off Blackrose
  • Bring His Body to the Surface
  • Retrieve Bronze Sphere
  • Obtain the Decanter from Drowned Nations
  • Discover where Annah found The Nameless One