Descent Into the Granite Sepulcher: Report
General Summary
Ashi introduces her new companion, Katarina, to the party. After some pleasantries, Flimp goes up to Farin and purchases his latest pickled item- pickled veal. He buys the entire jar, nearly his size. The party decides to speak to Farin about finding a way to kill Fiddlesticks and he tells them about Fokhesli Hornborn whose tomb might reveal some answers to their questions. They must travel to The Bonehills.
To find her tomb, Farin gives the party a homing stone to find the Granite Sepulcher . It was a part of the stone from her tomb with magic tweaking it has become a homing beacon. Farin Dorrie lets the party choose its activation phrase. They choose 'activation phrase'. Lokezer joins the group and interrupts their conversation about activation phrases. The party accepts their new companion, agreeing they need every person they can get for this adventure.
Ashi asks Farin for further information and he replies that a previous adventuring party went there. A member perished and the group left in a hurry, so Farin requests the party to bring him any notes they may have had and they are welcome to keep anything else the group left behind.
During the downtime from the previous adventure, Ashi makes two healing potions. The party moves on to Bujad's shop. Thanks to the donations from Flimp, Bujad's shop has seen major improvements. He has a stable added to his shop to hold animal barding. A sign hangs above it in honor of Flimp- Flimp's Barding. Near the forge is a small plaque that is in memory of Mozi. Bujad Nurzag shows Ashi Yakul's barding. Flimp pays him the 800 gold for the armor. Lokezer tries to shake Bujad's hand who doesn't reciprocate it but Flimp decides to lick their hand. They discuss Mozi's barding which costs 6000 gold. Ashi and Flimp ask Bujad about any items for Flimp. Bujad takes the two inside his home while Lokezer and Katarina wait outside. Lokezer tries to talk to Katarina who ignores her. Lokezer begins to reorganise Bujad's workstation while they wait. Bujad explains to the Ashi and Flimp that a fellow The Forgemasters visited him a couple of weeks back. This forgemaster gave him a weapon their team worked on for years known as the Leviathan. Bujad wants Flimp to have it to test it out as it has some kinks he needs to work out. Flimp is very excited about this and takes it. They go outside and much to Bujad's discomfort Lokezer reorganizes his station. The party leaves before Lokezer pisses off Bujad anymore.
The party sees that Logan Freefellow is back from his trip from the easternlands and lets them know that the people there are eager to buy whatever items they recover from the West Marches. Flimp buys several health potions and an elemental gem (emerald). Ashi puts a deposit down on a driftglobe that she can hopefully buy at the end of the adventure. They decide to leave with Logan and begin their journey to the Bonehills.
Ashi begins tying bells to the tripwire as they continue their journey through hex 12,6. They come across a large tree that stands in the middle of the road. A massive spider’s webs are strung between the branches of the tree. A large spider is in the center of the web, cocooned inside it. When the party approaches, they will see that the spider is not moving at all. Lokezer and Katarina freak out over the sight of the large spider. Ashi trains her bow on the spider. They notice that there is an egg sac connected to the spider. The egg sac is about the size of a human head and very light, almost hollow. Lokezer realizes that the spiders hatched and are somewhere nearby. The party searches the area. They hear flesh squirting noises and realize the spiders are inside of the mother's corpse, eating her. The party nopes right out of there and Lokezer casts Pass Without a Trace.
They travel through the hex and rest up in an alcove for the night. Ashi sets up the bells and tripwire while Lokezer is on the first watch. Ashi gives her a whole speel about not singing at night and avoiding any chittering creatures at night. Flimp sleeps in a bedroll. Katarina's watch finds one of the first kinks with the Leviathan's Axe. It is emitting a frost in the camp is that slowly spreading out in a sphere. Flimp is woken up and tries to grab the axe but is encased in ice due to a natural one. Ashi uses her magical flame to thaw out Flimp (takes an hour) and they read the scroll that came with the ax to help work out the kinks. The rest of the night is uneventful. Ashi activates the homing beacon.
They travel to the Granite Sepulcher and come across a dwarven door with a mural on it depicting four scenes. On the first, there is a dragon flying over a small village with a large stone nearby. The second show the dragon on top of the stone looking down on the village. There is a hole near the dragons open mouth. The third mural is exactly the same as the second, hole included. The last mural show the dragon flying away from the burned down village. Somewhere nearby there is a writing: "Those who wish to enter, on the mouth of the dragon, should put the lively elements the image lack"
Next they enter the great hall which houses Hornborn's tomb. Flimp opens her tomb and tosses a gold coin in and then takes her journal. The party moves on to the last room which is her study and lab.
They search the room and find the bright orange book which is a disguised lever. It opens a secret door and leads into her actual laboratory. It has an arcane rune drawn in the middle of the room with a desk with a bookshelf on either side on the opposite side of the room. They find body parts of nosalis preserved in jars as well as skeletal remains of humaniods. Flimp licks the rune and it dimly glows. Lokezer notices a water basin near it. On the desk, Ashi and Flimp find drawings of Nosalis along with their anatomy. It appears Hornborn was studying them for potential weaknesses. Flimp grabs several books that interest him- mining maps, lore of dwarven cities, The Fall of Vor Kahldur, and a bestiary book. Lokezer notices a large scroll with a diagram on it that looks similar to the descriptions of Fiddlesticks. Ashi confirms it looks familiar but not exactly like the creature they faced. Ashi has Flimp transcribe Fiddlesticks into its dwarven name in an attempt to find its name on any of the books in the room. Flimp successfully transcribes it and finds that its name matches the one on the scroll. Katarina hears noise further down the tomb and alerts the party. Flimp and Lokezer scramble to understand the rune in the room and realize it's a teleportation circle. They attempt to rework it while Ashi joins Katarina.
The two see Fiddlesticks walking towards them. It recognizes Ashi and points at her with its skeletal finger. Ashi flips it off and then scrambles to baricade the doors leading to them. Yakul is led into the secret lab as Flimp and Lokezer finish the preparations. Fiddlesticks breaks down the first door and Ashi closes the secret door and hops on the teleportation circle. Lokezer pours water on the rune which powers it up. Fiddlesticks breaks down the door and enters the room. Ashi fires an arrow at him while FLimp activates his emerald gem and releases his water elemental on it. The teleportation rune works and the party narrowly escapes Fiddlesticks. They land in front of the Far Chair Inn and end their adventure there. In Memory of Aire Endan 5 tiger-eye turquoise, 50 gold, 1500 silver In Loving Memory of Horknuth Potion of fire giant strength, Potion of diminution, Oil of etherealness, Potion of mind reading My Love, Nakala Flintbrand 400 cp, 9000 sp, 2100 gp, 70 pp 7 x Pair of engraved bone dice (25 gp) An enormous scale, perhaps from a dragon A gold coin minted in an unknown land A pipe that blows bubbles Torch Druidic focus, Totem Arcane focus, Staff Halberd Morningstar Padded armor Rapier Maps, Maps, Maps – Tons of maps for your reading pleasure An Almanack of Practical Mortis – An exhaustive collection of tables detailing how corpses decompose under various circumstances, along with an appendix that explains step-by-step how to remove maggots, close large wounds, and reset broken bones. If the players obtain it second-hand, bits of paper with names such as “Aunty Milla” and “Betrand (4c3r)” are attached by weak adhesive to some of the pages. A successful Perception check reveals that there are slight remnants of adhesive left above each note, as if someone kept moving the note down the page over time In Memory of Durirsuc Heavymaker 900 cp, 9000 sp, 2300 gp, 90 pp In Memory of Whulgol Anvilhorn 4 x Large gold bracelet (250 gp), Dust of dryness, A candle that can’t be lit, Traveler's clothes, 1 bottle of whiskey, Dragonbreath (30gp)
Flimp sticks his torch in the hole of the third mural and Lokezer blows air in the hole of the second mural. The door opens and the party descends into the tomb. In the first room, there are paintings of Fokhesli Hornborn and her various creations during her life. They take note that she created mining equipment, discovered the blue gemstones the dwarves used for lighting, and they notice a bright orange book in her possession. The party moves down the stairs and enters a hall of remembrance. There are statues of dwarves, elves, and orcs each with a plaque in their memory. In the center of the room is a stone statue of a book with a hand outstretched reaching towards to the ceiling. Ashi notices their stone fits perfectly in the ring of the hand. She puts it in and a door opens on the other side of the room. Several other mechanical clicks echo throughout the room. The party investigates the statues and finds that some of them have secret levers that gift them loot. One statue, in particular, reveals a secret passage to a tomb. It is a simple stone tomb with the inscription:
You will remember
When this is blown over
& everything's all by the wayside
When I grow older
I will be there at your side
to remind you
How I still love you
I still love you
Ashi and Flimp attempt to open this tomb while the others loot the other statues. They activate a trap and Flimp falls into a pit where he comes across the remains of a halfling clutching a leather-wrapped journal. He pockets the journal and calls for help. The rest of the party helps Ashi and then lowers a rope for Flimp who manages to climb back up. They reset the trap and open the tomb which is filled with loot- several weapons, maps, books, focuses, and an arm with a ring on it. The party takes everything besides the arm/ring. They continue on down the hall the new door opened. Lokezer walks forward without searching for traps and activates a weighted net, trapping them. She tries to break free but get a nat 1 and activates the poison dart trap, hitting herself and the party. They move on to the next room which is an old commissary. During this downtime, the party unwraps the journal and sees it's written in code so they decide to have Farin decode it. A picture falls out that appears to be a drawing of the adventuring group- a halfling, dragonborn, a drow, a high elf, and a high elf that looks like Farin. The party wants to give this to Farin so they put the picture back and wrap the book back up. Flimp notices scratches in the leather that appear to be a code. He deciphers it but due to age, he can't solve the whole code. All he comes up with is CAN'T BE TRUSTED. The party wonders who this could be referring to and wonder if they shouldn't give the journal to Farin.
Next they enter the great hall which houses Hornborn's tomb. Flimp opens her tomb and tosses a gold coin in and then takes her journal. The party moves on to the last room which is her study and lab.
They search the room and find the bright orange book which is a disguised lever. It opens a secret door and leads into her actual laboratory. It has an arcane rune drawn in the middle of the room with a desk with a bookshelf on either side on the opposite side of the room. They find body parts of nosalis preserved in jars as well as skeletal remains of humaniods. Flimp licks the rune and it dimly glows. Lokezer notices a water basin near it. On the desk, Ashi and Flimp find drawings of Nosalis along with their anatomy. It appears Hornborn was studying them for potential weaknesses. Flimp grabs several books that interest him- mining maps, lore of dwarven cities, The Fall of Vor Kahldur, and a bestiary book. Lokezer notices a large scroll with a diagram on it that looks similar to the descriptions of Fiddlesticks. Ashi confirms it looks familiar but not exactly like the creature they faced. Ashi has Flimp transcribe Fiddlesticks into its dwarven name in an attempt to find its name on any of the books in the room. Flimp successfully transcribes it and finds that its name matches the one on the scroll. Katarina hears noise further down the tomb and alerts the party. Flimp and Lokezer scramble to understand the rune in the room and realize it's a teleportation circle. They attempt to rework it while Ashi joins Katarina.
The two see Fiddlesticks walking towards them. It recognizes Ashi and points at her with its skeletal finger. Ashi flips it off and then scrambles to baricade the doors leading to them. Yakul is led into the secret lab as Flimp and Lokezer finish the preparations. Fiddlesticks breaks down the first door and Ashi closes the secret door and hops on the teleportation circle. Lokezer pours water on the rune which powers it up. Fiddlesticks breaks down the door and enters the room. Ashi fires an arrow at him while FLimp activates his emerald gem and releases his water elemental on it. The teleportation rune works and the party narrowly escapes Fiddlesticks. They land in front of the Far Chair Inn and end their adventure there. In Memory of Aire Endan 5 tiger-eye turquoise, 50 gold, 1500 silver In Loving Memory of Horknuth Potion of fire giant strength, Potion of diminution, Oil of etherealness, Potion of mind reading My Love, Nakala Flintbrand 400 cp, 9000 sp, 2100 gp, 70 pp 7 x Pair of engraved bone dice (25 gp) An enormous scale, perhaps from a dragon A gold coin minted in an unknown land A pipe that blows bubbles Torch Druidic focus, Totem Arcane focus, Staff Halberd Morningstar Padded armor Rapier Maps, Maps, Maps – Tons of maps for your reading pleasure An Almanack of Practical Mortis – An exhaustive collection of tables detailing how corpses decompose under various circumstances, along with an appendix that explains step-by-step how to remove maggots, close large wounds, and reset broken bones. If the players obtain it second-hand, bits of paper with names such as “Aunty Milla” and “Betrand (4c3r)” are attached by weak adhesive to some of the pages. A successful Perception check reveals that there are slight remnants of adhesive left above each note, as if someone kept moving the note down the page over time In Memory of Durirsuc Heavymaker 900 cp, 9000 sp, 2300 gp, 90 pp In Memory of Whulgol Anvilhorn 4 x Large gold bracelet (250 gp), Dust of dryness, A candle that can’t be lit, Traveler's clothes, 1 bottle of whiskey, Dragonbreath (30gp)
Cleaver
Thondli Wyrmhart
Lokezer Of the Second
Bilge Ogren
Ashi of Derus
Flimp
Report Date
15 Aug 2022
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