Previous: Into The Swamp (2)
Session 10: Fortuitous Meeting
Since it was early in the afternoon, the companions decided to enter the ruined town to find the spellstiched wight. Bannor led the way and they headed straight for the southernmost building, an old tavern. The old tavern seemed to have been cleaned out relatively recently.
Figuring
that the wight may be haunting the ancient church or cemetery, the group turned
in the direction of the cemetery. The first thing they noticed in the old church
was that it had been desecrated and that it was formerly dedicated to Arthom.
The group wandered throughout the building, finding nothing of interest until
they reached a set of double doors in the basement of the church. The doors had
no discernable latch or lock, but they were locked tight. Astaria realized that
there was a possibility that the door was locked using a divine lock. A divine
lock is a lock that can be locked or unlocked by channeling divine energy into
it. Astaria called upon her deity and touched the door. Sure enough, the doors
swung open.
Beyond
the doors was an arched catacomb lit with glowing stone fitted into the wall.
Although it looked as if the catacombs had not been touched by the evil of the
surrounding swamp, the companions wanted to be sure that there wasn’t another
entrance into the catacombs used by the undead. After walking to the end of the
first hall, the corridor turned to the left and opened into a large vault. The
vault had four corridors branching off of it. Three of the branches had names
inscribed above the archway leading into the family vault, but the fourth had no
name, just a heraldic symbol that none of the companions recognized. Bannor,
Astaria, and Chiranjeev walked towards the nameless corridor, when a force hit
them as they crossed the threshold. Chiranjeev was knocked back and was unable
to cross through the doorway. Bannor felt a small shock, but shrugged it off
easily enough. Astaria felt that there was slight resistance, but she pushed
through without a problem.
Astaria
and Bannor told Chiranjeev to yell if he needed them and they continued into the
crypt. When they steeped within the well-lit room they realized that the man
interred within the stone sarcophagus was probably a paladin of Arthom. On the
east end of the room there was a life-sized statue of a human warrior dressed in
shining armor and holding a fine sword, blade-down. Below the statue was
inscribed, “Sir Larkin of Broadleaf”. Satisfied that the paladin’s remains
were safe in his crypt the pair left the room as they found it and joined
Chiranjeev in the central vault.
They
decided to go down the corridor inscribed with the name, “Mardik” above the
archway. About halfway down the corridor Bannor and Astaria heard a scuff across
the stone floor ahead. Bannor quickly charged forward and as he turned the
corner a powerful wave of despair enveloped him, stopping him in his tracks. In
this crypt was a desiccated humanoid form with funerary wrappings hanging from
its limbs where the bandages had come loose, a mummy. Astaria and Chiranjeev saw
Bannor stop in his tracks and sprinted forward to aid their companion. As soon
as Chiranjeev spied the mummy, the despair overcame him as well. Astaria,
however, stepped into the room, stood in the mummy’s path and called upon
Rendolar’s holy might to send the creature into flight. The mummy turned and
ran into the furthest corner of the room, cowering away from Astaria’s holy
might. Shortly thereafter both Bannor and Chiranjeev were able to recover from
the magical despair that stopped them from attacking the mummy. They fell upon
the foul undead creature, destroying it without injury.
They
checked the other two corridors and both were completely intact.
As
they left the catacombs, Astaria locked the divine lock, which had held for so
long.
The
group searched the cemetery, but surprisingly there was no restless dead to
destroy. Since there was still a couple of hours of sunlight, the companions
went to the next building, the town jail. This building was built from stone,
with some roof damage, but overall it was intact. The group entered to search
through the building for anything useful. In the two last jail cells there were
two animated skeletons trying to grasp and the companions through the bars.
Astaria turned the restless remains to dust by channeling the energy of her god.
The
group entered the fourth building and were greeted by some sort of government
building. It had a stone floor with the word “Broadleaf” carved around a
seal. The ground floor of the building consisted of two large rooms with two
stairwells in between. One stairway went up and one went down. The group decided
to go up first, searching the rooms on the top floor for any clue of the
spellstiched wight. The group found nothing, but as they walked down the stairs
to check the basement, they heard a low, rumbling growl. Bannor rushed to the
bottom of the stairs and was greeted by a large group of dangerous adversaries.
In each of the large rooms was a large humanoid pieced together from a human and
stone or dead flesh. Each of them released the leash they were holding allowing
their feline charges to attack. The half-flesh golem released a displacer beast
and the half-stone golem released the spectral panther. In the rear of one of
the rooms was a desiccated human form with rune drawn on all visible skin, the
spellstiched wight. The spectral panther and its handler were between Bannor and
the wight, so Bannor began attacking the panther. Before Chiranjeev and Astaria
were able to leave the stairwell, the displacer beast stepped in their way,
cutting off Bannor from his friends. Fortunately Bannor was able to defeat the
panther quickly with minimal injury. The half-stone golem stepped forward to
attack while the wight cast spells to support its allies. Bannor quickly
defeated the half-stone golem with a dizzying flurry of blows. As the half-stone
golem fell to the ground, the wight cast a flaming sphere at Bannor, catching
him within its flame. The damage from the wight’s spells was beginning to
mount.
Chiranjeev
stepped forward to intercept the displacer beast, ducking its blows as much as
possible, but the beast was too quick, landing blow after blow. The displacer
beast’s half-flesh golem handler attempted to cross through the area near
Chiranjeev to get at Bannor, but Chiranjeev hacked him down. Luckily for
Chiranjeev, Astaria was blocked behind him and was able to cast healing spells
to keep him in the battle.
Bannor,
deciding he was sick of contending with the wight’s spells, charged the undead
creature, locking it in a powerful hold. The creature tried to break free, but
Bannor was just too strong and his touch of golden ice was freezing the evil
creature’s dead bones.
Chiranjeev
and Astaria were able to turn the battle against the displacer beast by this
point, and the beast dropped to the floor just as the wight stopped struggling.
Placing
the wight’s body into a large sack, the group descended into the basement. In
the basement they found the spellstiched wight’s lair. Two large cages held
the cat creatures, there was a well-stocked alchemist’s lab, and the group
found a cache of magic items. They found a large magical garnet and a couple of
magical weapons.
Although
their mission was a success, the group decided to check the final standing
building in the village of Broadleaf. The building was obviously a fine home
before the town was abandoned. The companions searched the entire building,
finding an open trap door, and an empty treasure chest. Finally they entered a
stairwell cut into the stone.
Thirty
feet down the stairs; the stairwell was filled with water. Bannor could see that
just below the surface was a closed portcullis. Figuring someone has tripped a
trap; they searched for a lever to disarm the trap. Ten feet above the
water-filled stairwell they spotted a lever cleverly carved into the stone.
Bannor climbed up to the lever and pulled.
A
loud boom sounded and the water began to slowly recede. After an hour of
waiting, the water had drained to the point where the group was able to continue
down the stairs. At the end of the path, the companions found the previous group
that had disappeared during their mission to capture the spellstiched wight. The
two groups introduced themselves, compared notes, and realized that their larger
missions were connected in some way.
As
the two groups compared stories, they came to the conclusion that the people who
“killed” Bannor, Astaria, Chiranjeev, and Carcain must have stolen Darklife
from Falon Gareth, and during their travels to Arkhan they killed Alisnier and
Jelana’s parents.
The
new, large group traveled back to Ash-Melin. On the way, Cornelius (Grafton’s
shield) told Grafton that the magical gem that Astaria was carrying is
intelligent and its name is Balinor. Grafton told Astaria and she was able to
make contact with the gem. It told her to affix it to the handle of a weapon.
She attached Balinor to her new flail.
Once
back in the city, they took the creature to Erol Darmarus, the head priest of
the church of Arthom. They explained that the needed to give the spellstiched
wight’s corpse to Albaran Delhomme so they could get some more information
about their respective quests. Erol gave them his blessing so they went to
Albaran’s to turn the corpse over to her.
Albaran upheld her end of the bargain and gave the group a bag of maps and directions to get them to Falon Gareth’s stronghold in the underdark beneath Lifeswallower.
As a group, the companions went to Linus Helmsly's office to find out what he discovered about the monk's communication from beyond. Linus explained that he found a coded message written in the prose of the communication. The message alluded to the holy book of Mathouk, the dark god of the undead. He also explained that a close friend of his had some information about a cult of Mathouk worshippers in the city of Katay. The extended group of adventurers decided to join together to continue the investigation of Darklife for each of their personal reasons.
Astaria, Bannor, Carkain, and Chiranjeev investigate to discover the reason for their half-undead condition. Alisnier and Jelana search for their parent's murderers. Valamir is attempting to atone for his father's cowardice. Only Grafton's reasons are more abstract, a wanderlust that has consumed his since he was a child.
The group decided that the half-undead party would be the ones to attempt the journey to Falon Gareth's underdark lair. Grafton, Alisnier, Valamir, and Jelana would travel to Katay to learn information about the Mathouk cultists.