Previous: Ash-Melin
Session 9: Into The Swamp
The group entered the swamp first thing in the morning and set a strong pace so they would reach the ruins during their third day of travel.
At the beginning of their journey, everyone was on edge, jumping at every little sound coming from the swamp. By the end of the day, the group was becoming accustomed to the typical sounds of the swamp, but their senses were sharp for sounds of danger. The entire first day and night went by uneventfully and a couple of the companions were beginning to question if the swamp was as dangerous as advertised.
In the evening, the companions found a dry area for a campsite and settled down to rest.
Alisnier was awake and watching over the rest of her sleeping companions when a sound caused her to jump to her feet and shout an alarm. Just entering the darkness-limited range of her vision was a veritable army of undead. Silently the undead host charged. Grafton and Jelana were sleeping under the stars, so they were able to jump up quickly before the melee began. Several skeletal wolves charged forward, surrounding their prey as their zombie handlers shambled towards the group.
Jacob Lemoore, the deadbane priest traveling with the group, stumbled from his tent after the battle had already been joined. Jacob was dressed only in his sleeping clothes, but he did bring the one item that he would need the most: his morningstar. He raised the morningstar and proclaimed a quick prayer to his lord Rendolar, several of the undead creatures turned and ran when faced with his holy might.
The rest of the group was facing the brunt of the battle, the crushing blows from Grafton’s maces were doing a good job against the skeletal canines, but Jelana and Alisnier were having difficulties injuring the creatures because their weapons would slide between the bones on the creatures. The small injuries inflicted by the creatures were beginning to mount as Jacob called upon his god once more. More of the undead creatures fled before Rendolar’s power. With the number of creatures greatly diminished by Jacob’s divine might, the group was able to destroy the rest of the creatures without any casualties. The group had found the reason why the swamp has such a bad reputation.
The following morning the group continued their journey towards the wight’s lair. Late in the afternoon the group spied a figure in tattered robes through the foliage. Grafton, figuring that the figure was some sort of undead, let an arrow fly. The arrow struck the figure and sure enough, the creature turned its emaciated face towards the group, howled in challenge, and charged forward to destroy the living. Alisnier met their charge halfway and delivered a vicious blow that seemed to have no effect of the creature. Again, the group probably would have been defeated if not for Jacob’s faith. He rushed forward and called upon his god’s blessing, the creatures ignored the power on his first attempt, but two of the creatures turned and ran on his second attempt. The group surrounded the creature and only the most powerful blows from the sisters and Grafton could even scratch the powerful undead creature’s tough skin. Fortunately, Jacob’s morningstar was enhanced with a magical dweomer that allowed him the damage the creature as normal. The creature was defeated, so the group quickly continued on their way before the two creatures that Jacob sent running would return to harass them.
Just after noon, the group laid eyes on the ruins of a small village. There were a total of eight buildings; three of the buildings were almost completely destroyed, with the other five still standing mostly intact.
The group decided to approach the building closest to their approach (marked #1 on the map) they quietly opened the door, prepared for something to jump forward to attack them. When nothing attacked, the group began looking around; the building was an old tavern. Jelana had found a couple of unopened bottles of fine liquor, then the group continued searching the building. They nothing else of use, except for a small root cellar that would be a defensible sleeping spot when night fell.
Since nightfall was still a couple of hours away, the group left the old tavern and headed toward a large single story house (marked #5 on the map). When they went to enter the door was locked, so Jelana picked the lock and opened the door. As soon as the light from the sun reached into the room, four magical missiles hit Jelana in the chest, nearly knocking her from her feet. She staggered backward and Grafton stepped into the doorway to shield her from any more missiles from within the room. While in the doorway, he saw six skeletons in a large sitting room just inside the doorway. They stepped forward to meet him in combat.
Jacob healed Jelana while Grafton and Alisnier, using the doorway as cover, attacked the creatures as the stepped forward. Two of the creatures were quickly destroyed so the ranger and paladin stepped into the building to take the battle to the remaining creatures. As soon as Grafton stepped towards one, it began casting. Grafton used the opening in its guard to bash the creature with his mace, ruining the motions necessary to trigger the spell. The other three had triggered some sort of magical effect that caused them to blink in and out of existence between attacks. The sisters and Jacob dealt with the blinking creatures while Grafton destroyed the fourth. After defeating the spellcasting undead, the group searched the sitting room and the bedchamber beyond.
In the bedchamber, Jelana found a cleverly concealed trap door in the floor. When they opened the trap door, there was a small (5’ x 5’) cube cut into the stone below the floor. At the bottom of the cube was two small chests. Grafton jumped down into the hole to lift the chests up to the rest of the group. After he passed the chest to his companions he noticed that under the overhanging floor was a dirty piece of cloth covering a longsword and a steel shield.
The sword had etchings of flames all along the blade and when Grafton grabbed the sword, the blade burst into flames. Figuring that if the sword was magical, the shield could be as well, Grafton picked up the shield. Instantly he heard a voice in his head, “Hello adventurer, my name is Cornelius”. Grafton introduced himself to the shield and claimed both the sword and shield as his own. Jacob seemed a little bit disappointed about the shield, but he didn’t argue. None of the other companions use a longsword or shield, so they didn’t mind either. Also behind the cloth was a small opening with stairs that descended into darkness.
The group entered the dark tunnel descending into the depths until they came to a room. The room contained an altar to the evil god Mathouk. Grafton continued chatting to his shield (which no one else could hear) and the cleric and paladin desecrated the evil altar. Grafton also noticed that someone had been using this room recently, judging from the tracks scattered throughout the room. The group also found another stairwell descending even deeper.
Following the second stairwell, the group came to a large, ornate door. The door had no knob, or any other apparent way to open it. Written upon the doorway was [*]:
I've measured it from side to side,
'Tis three feet long and two feet wide.
It is of compass small, and bare
To thirsty suns and parching air.
Wood and iron, eternal cocoon,
Prison for one who left too soon.
Grafton blurted out “a child’s coffin” and the door opened. A ramp descended into the darkness. The group continued down the ramp, then the ramp began to ascend. At the top of the ramp was a room with a large crate, with a yellow glow emanating from between the planks, sitting in the center. None of the group could see the far wall of the room. As the group approached the crate someone stepped on a pressure plate. The glow died, a loud boom, and the sound of rushing water filled the room. With his superior dark-vision, Grafton saw that the crate had fallen open and a large shadowy hound was standing in the center of the crate. Grafton charged forward and hit the beast with his flaming sword. Before his very eyes, the shadows seemingly swallowed the beast.
Alisnier quickly broke a sunrod, bathing the room in bright light. With the light filling the room, the group caught a glimpse of the shadowy mastiff until it blended into the shadows again. An ear-piercing shriek filled the room as the shadow beast bayed. Supernatural waves of fear hit the companions, but only Grafton succumbed to the unnatural terror. He ran to the far corner of the room and cowered, waiting for the beast to come and finish him. The rest of the group was moving in the area of the sound, hoping to be able to attack the shadow mastiff. Alisnier passed close enough that the beast bit at her, allowing the three of them to pounce on the beast and destroy it before it was able to do much more damage.
After the shadow mastiff was destroyed, the fear affecting Grafton ceased its effect. The group searched the room for some sort of trigger that would reset the trap, but all they found on the far wall was several bookcases filled with books on torture.
The companions were trapped…
Next: Fortuitous Meeting (1)