The True Monsters

General Summary

The Party stood in front of the large stone arch. Being the most nimble, Hobart volunteered to cross first. His perception, perhaps a bit off base, was that it was too slippery for the others to risk. Axelrod instead tossed him a rope and a grappling hook, and Hobart deftly swung it around the arch and secured it, created a swing. First Axelrod, then Bartimus, and then the one-handed-but-brave Emmalyn swung across the gap.
Coming around a bend, they found another cavern. Little did they know that their footsteps had alerted the kruthik hive lord that ruled these caves. It sprang a sneak attack from above and pressed its advantage. As the danger escalate, Barty smartly grasped it with magic earth and restrained it, creating a much easier target for the others. Even attacks from a surprising pair of young kruthiks couldn't stop the heroes. The young feel quickly, and Hobart slayed the hive lord with a precise strike through the plates of its carapace. They pushed to the rear of the cavern and found a dusty but well-made stairway down. The stone frame above the stairs gave the following warning: "Heresy and menace find their end here."
Our Party emerged at the bottom of the stairs and found a very old, probably ancient hallway of worked stone. Lighting the torches still set in the walls, they soon saw another messaged scrawled in blood: "The true monsters now walk forever." That couldn't possibly mean anything bad. Moving forward, they found several skeletons patrolling an old living space. After defeating the undead, the Party surveyed the scene: broken bed frames, rotten mattresses, and rusty armor. The room seemed like a small barracks from some sort of warriors.
They soon ventured out of the room. Heading through a door to the west, they found old crates filled with ruined supplies. Heading down another hallway and through a pair of iron doors, they found a ten-foot-square prison cell built into the floor. The Party realized they were in a dungeon in the true sense of the word. They only found a few bones, however, and moved on.
They passed through another doorway and found a dusty rack of old spears. Turning right, the found two doors leading to another room with prison cells in the floor. Another smaller room was empty save for a large fissure in the floor. There was no visible bottom to the pit. Axelrod found something similar down another small hallway, though that was only the latrine. And then Hobart found the least fun thing of all: an ancient torture room inhabited by three strange, horned skeletons. As they moved, they made a horrifying sound that brought fear to our heroes' hearts. They withstood attacks from both glaives and horns, and they further investigated the room once it was safe. They found it all very unsettling and decided a long rest in the old barracks was preferable to a torture room.
After they rested, Hobart asked Emmalyn to call upon her god and remove the curse from the sword he took from the Mysterious Cult in the ancient death temple. Emmalyn cast her spell and focused her divine magic on Hobart's bond with the weapon, and she eventually severed the link between the two. Hobart no longer had such a powerful blade to wield, but he was also no longer hounded by its bloodlust.
The Party moved out of the room and to another set of double doors leading to another prison room. This one also included pits, either for imprisonment or torture. As their lights only penetrated the darkness so far, the guardian of this room saw them before they saw it. Despite Barty's calls for friendship, the flesh golem rushed him and knocked him unconscious with two swift, powerful slams. Hobart and Axelrod pressed their own assault, while Emmalyn used her divine magic to get Barty back on his feet. After a back-and-forth battle and a few more powerful strikes, the golem fell to the stone floor, and Barty extracted his pound of flesh (quite literally). The heroes found some nice trinkets of value before moving through an opening in the wall that looked like a secret door that had collapsed. The path on the other side split and turned, coming together again at the top of stairs leading deeper into the earth.
The group reached the bottom of the stairs and found themselves at a four-way junction. To their right was a ten-foot-wide tunnel that had long ago collapsed and was now impassable. Up ahead, beyond partially opened doors, Axelrod saw figures moving in a room. The heroes rushed forward to find a skeleton captain and his minions patrolling another living space. This battle was tougher than their first in this dungeon, and they suspected these were more capable warriors before their unlife began. After the battle, they dug through books lying in front of a collapsed shelf and found the journal of a man they thought was their recent captain friend. The pages contained many notes on his discomfort with the prisoners held in the dungeon and the actions of those tasked with guarding them. It was as if the captain himself was warning the Party about what—or whom—they would find in this place.
What other secrets will the Party uncover in this ancient dungeon of Morten? Will they become the next tenants? Find out next time...

Report Date

12 Dec 2020

Primary Location

Ancient Morten Prison