Heading down the stairs we follow some footsteps to a pair of cultists playing strip chess. They don’t mind us ransacking the room, seeming very focused on their game and each other. How strange, but they seem busy for the moment, so become a later problem.
The next room, I am encouraged to sneak into alone. It is a dormitory, full of bunks and chests. I rifle through each chest, avoiding the bed with the lone sleeper, relieving these cultists of their money seems the least I can do. Plenty of robes here, too, should the group decide to disguise up while we explore. The sleeper jumps up when I get to her bed, and a short scuffle ensues as she runs out straight into the rest of the party. Amazingly, Ard doesn’t kill her, but knocks her out and Gideon ties her up before waking and questioning her. Ashara tells us that she is well taken care of here. That Shamet promised her a better life. They knock her back out and bind her securely on her bed before we move on.
We continue on, finding a room with two people conversing quietly. I unlock the door and the group rushes in, to find what Tasha calls an Oathbreaker in black armor and a woman in leathers. I stay in the hallway while the group takes care of them. Once down and dead, they are relieved of all of their earthly possessions, many of which are magical, including a portable hole, currently empty, but quickly filled with everything, including these bodies. It takes some convincing to get Tasha to try on the platemail because it is blackened, a symbol, she says of oath breaking, but she’ll be safer in it.
Onward, we find a crypt with 5 bodies laid out in death. We decide to leave them be for the time, instead heading down nearby stairs to a single door. Inside, a woman in black robes reads from a book. I, once again, stay in the hallway while they fight her. Unfortunately, a man in red robes comes from up the stairs and tosses a spell at me. A quick shriek brings help out into the hall to deal with him, while I run into the room, tossing some rocks at the woman. She responds by summoning over a dozen zombies. It is very unpleasant in there until we get some turning power going. Afterwards, we have to head back to the entrance to get a quick rest and some medical care before we can continue.
Having still not found the prisoners, we have to head back in. Back in and to the right this time, we find some doors, an open sacrificial room, and a temple full of unmoving undead. There is a bell in the back of this latter room that seems like it might activate the undead – 30 skeletons and 30 zombies. They don’t seem to care if we’re in the back of the room by the hall, however. So, I open a nearby door to find just 6 undead, three of each type, guarding a couple women, Aseneth and Arpad, and merchants. We unlock them all and draw up a map back to the entrance to get them out.
We all head back down the hallway together, finding a collapse behind one door, and a double bedroom behind the other. This one has a couple more cultists who immediately attack and must be put down by the group. Laramond finds some historical tablets here and a book translating them – the story of the evil goddess this place is dedicated to.
Moving on, we check out the sacrificial altar room. The altar hold bloodstained containers, and the walls are frescos showing a man fighting past monsters that guard seven tombs to reach a woman in black. There is a single cultist here, a man hiding behind deep red pillars. We talk him out without a fight, tie him up and take him back to where Ashara is still bound.
Not ready to fight 60 undead, we head back to the crypt with five. And their shadows rise. Laramond is able to take control of some and between those and the recently found magic weapons, the group is able to put them down. They look around, but don’t find much else here.
We head back to the temple, checking out the small rooms around the edges, without bothering the silent undead. Finding a bedroom with a secret door hiding a treasure room. Using the new portable hole, we steal all the treasure. Tala comes back in from guarding the back entrance and takes a look for secret doors – many of which lead to the disorienting tunnels. Back in the sacrificial room, Ard tries to pick up the vessels on the altar, and is nearly possessed by one, so he uses a skeleton to move them all into the portable hole for later destruction. We’ll have to talk to Rafe about borrowing the forge for a few hours one evening.
Then we really do have to deal with the sanctuary. Do we collapse the tunnels? We don’t have the right gear for that, even if I could figure out how. Instead, we prepare a bottleneck. Gideon and I set up a tripwire in the hallway. The fighters line up to fight them, with the new Mace of Disruption in the middle. Then the clerics and Laramond line up behind them. I go hide in a little room with a locked door with the rescued prisoners, and eat the final remnants of Mendel’s food. The group wins out, but poor Tasha is unconscious for the effort.
We head back to the room where they fought the Blackguard, to see if his stone horse will wake up with the magic bridle they had found. It does, and Ard rides it back to the keep, with Tasha draped across its haunches. It looks stable enough, so we head out to go back to the keep.
Unfortunately, the bandits from a few days ago find us in the woods, and they’re unhappy at having been robbed. They demand half of what we took from the cultists, instead of just what we took from them. Laramond tries to negotiate with them. Several folks want to just fight them, but with Tasha down, and the others not feeling well, we should not chance it. Laramond pulls some money bags and art pieces off of his donkey and sets it down for them – around 2000 gold worth. They accept this offering and head off toward the caves. Gideon, Terak, and I trail them a little ways to be sure of their direction and number, about 20. Then we all get back to the keep for some rest and healing.
Ravonlocke's Adventures 