Evening 8

... down the rabbit hole ...

Our cast of characters...

Dracon, human beastmaster of the Wegwier;
Kalik, halfling initiate-in-training of Avoreen (Duchy of Urnst);
Milik, halfling sorcerer
Kaganost, wemic apprentice shaman, (Hepmonaland);
Flavius, half-elven (oerid/high) warrior (Rel Mord);
Kendradell, female half-elf (suloise/high) bard & initiate of Lydia (Keoland);
Murray, nalshavel orc, wizard;
Nikolai, suloise human initiate of Lendor (brother to Ivan, now deceased).

[25th of Planting, 576]

As the evening began, the party was beginning it's preparations to return to the site of the barrow their now deceased companion Ivan uncovered back in Episode 3. Several days before leaving the city, however, several important events occurred.

First, Murray the nalshaval visited Flavius' mother, (an elven wizardess based in the city) and apprenticed himself to her. He also had her polymorph him into a human [1st of Flocktime, 576].

Flavius, meanwhile, visited the temple of Darkon that his father helped found in the city, and became an initiate in his faith (having a parent in the cult was about the only means he could enter it, having neither the skills nor the talents to be recruited normally) [3rd of Flocktime, 576].

And finally, about three days before the party was due to leave the city [5th of Flocktime, 576], a gentleman appeared in the Green Dragon Inn asking questions about their companion Ivan - it was soon revealed that Nikolai, his brother, had received notice of his death and had come to make certain of it. Rounds were made of the Temple of Norebo, Melisande's apartment, and Ivan's other haunts, and in the end Nikolai agreed to join forces with his brother's former companions. Ivan had finally come to the bad end everyone in the family had predicted he'd come to.

Riding out of the city was uneventful enough, and the road was friendly for the better part of a week as they made their way south again. About a hundred miles from Hardby they met three men-at-arms on the road, claiming to be agents of the Gynarch of Hardby, demanding a toll for further travel along the road. While most of the group prepared to fight, Nikolai paid the toll demanded of them all and they rode past unmolested.

Another day's riding brought them to the scene of the first bandit attack they witnessed, and a few hours searching brought them once more to the hole in the ground they had found. As the party decended into the hole, they took notice of the two most obvious features, the doors that led east and west, respectively. The eastern valve appeared to be sealed with faintly glowing runes, while the west showed a heavy bas relief of a man with his hands out before him at chest level, as if carrying or preparing to accept some boon. They also noticed for the first time the murals that decorated the walls to each side.

The murals depicted the birth of a young boy (of Flannish descent) and the subsequent death of his parents (cause unknown). After the death of his parents, the people of his village lead him to a black zigguraut, where he is taken inside to live. The western door, when studied, seems to bear writing in an unknown tongue - when approached, the relief of the man speaks (again, in an unknown tongue). Dracon uses his magic to understand this speech, and discovers that the carving asks a riddle.

The party quickly solves the riddle, but answering the carving seems to have little effect. At first, Dracon tries crafting a boat out of leather, and Nikolai one out of cloth (each having skills in leatherwork and tailoring, respectively) but eventually Dracon simply uses his magic to unlock the doors, and they pass within to the second chamber.

The second chamber is much the same as the first, featuring another western door with the waiting man, and more murals along the other walls. These depict the life of the child within the walls of the zigguraut, where he worships a god wreathed in darkness. As Dracon and Milik make their way towards the second carving, a pit opens beneath them, dropping Dracon within and down upon the spikes that line the floor (Milik nimbly leaps aside). Once Dracon has been hauled back up and healed, the door riddles them thusly:

Figuring that it was the incorrect magic they used on the previous door that sprung the trap, this time they use Dracon's mysticism to create darkness in the hands of the carving, which then smiles and parts down the middle, permitting entrance to the third chamber.

This chamber is like the prior two, but a loaded ballistae manned by two skeletons stands ready to fire - Flavius uses the ring he claimed from the wild haired drawf they'd slain at the necromancer's cave to command them, and finds that they obey. He has them walk all about the floor to trip any trapdoors that might lie underneath, while the rest of the party studies the murals here.

The third set of murals depict the young man/adolescent as he comes of age, and is made a priest of the dark god of the zigguraut. Upon his ordination, he begins to cast a second shadow, and in the final scene he bends his knee to what must be a lich bearing the regalia of kingship. When finally approached, the third relief riddles thusly:

Once the party empties some water from their skins into his hands, he smiles and parts to reveal the fourth chamber. Like the previous three, the murals here depict the same man as a full adult, wearing the black and mauve robes of what can only be a full priest. His service to the lich is long and arduous, at one point he is seen before a great ruined city, from which zombies, ghouls and skeletons issue, bearing out the freshly dead to be reanimated in his master's cause. The carving in this room riddles the party thusly:

This riddle is answered by having one of their number stand in front of a lantern, thus casting his shadow over the upraised hands of the carving. Again, the carving smiles and parts, revealing what seems to be the final chamber in the crypt.

This chamber stand four times as wide as the hall in which they've travelled, and within are six stone tables upon which six corpses lie.Flavius sends the skeletons in first, and as they approach the bodies on the tables those bodies rise up and quickly dash the skeletons to pieces. As the ghouls begin their chilling howl, several members of the party fall prey to the fear it inspires and flee, returning in the next round certain that all is lost.

Even with half the group stricken, the battle with the ghouls is short. As the party explores the chamber, however, Flavius notices some ichor from each of the bodies running towards a central point between them, and in an effort to keep them from their final meeting, Nikolai pours oil upon that spot and Flavius lights it. When the trickles all do meet at the center, there is a hissing sound, but the rising steam takes a manlike shape and then bursts into flame!

Kaganost recognizes the spirit as a wraith, which centers it's attention on Kendradell, who, weakened by her call to Lydia in last week's session, is easily the weakest prey. As she flees before it, the rest of the party strike at it in passing, but it is Murray (who had run before the ghouls had a chance to howl, and had only begun to think of returning) who strikes the final blow against the fell spirit.

As the group searches this chamber for hidden exits, Flavius finds beneath one of the stone tables a stone box, within which lies a book bound in human skin (likely Flan, from the rich copper color of it). Upon the cover of the book lies a strange symbol, two darkness runes embossed over two diametrically opposed chaos runes - the symbol of Tharizdun, Kendradell realizes at last.

We closed the evening as the group finally located what must be the secret door in the western wall of this room...

[11th of Flocktime, 576]