September 3rd, 2017

The Final Quarry Adventure

From my left:

Nick playing Merrick the 6^th level human fighter

Evan playing -unknown- the 1^st level totally not suicidal human mystic

Chad playing Neven the 1^st level not to be confused with the player name above older human magic-user

Mikey playing Ivan the 2^nd level Viking dwarven fighter and 3 charisma party spokesdwarf

Zack playing LaVeya the 6^th level human druid

Connor playing Niall Lightbringer the 4^th level human cleric

Chris playing Deckard the 3^rd/6^th level human ex-fighter/thief

and the DM playing Ydee the 6^th level half-elf thief for the absent Catherine and Charles the Restorer, 9^th level wandering bishop of light

After their battle with the grave shadows and barrow wights the reduced party decided to leave the

tombs and return to the light above as it had been mid to late afternoon when they entered. Upon climbing out of the quarry they found some of their friends just arriving with a couple of new adventurers: a nameless human mystic whose devil-may-care behavior was a bit unnerving and an older, late to the adventuring life human magic-user who was a font of useful spells. The new and expanded party rested for the night and prepared to return to the underground passages the next day.

Descending underground again, the adventurers made their way through the rooms they had previously explored, fighting quite a few of the undead monstrosities along the way, battles that were made much easier with the use of a charge from the sunstone. In the room off of the fourth hallway (numbered as they were originally discovered) after the battle they considered what their next move should be: continue back to the other unopened rooms or proceed through some of the other unopened doors in this room? Spellcasting by Charles gave the party information that the left and right doors were still sealed with silver welds and that evil could be detected from behind them. The door across the room was sealed, but there was no sensation of evil behind that door. It was decided to open the far door and see what could be found. They had a bishop with them, so how bad could it be, right? Right.

The door was opened revealing a room shaped like a pentagon with each side being roughly fifty feet. A pentagonal column in the center of the room stretched from floor to ceiling, unlike the triangular pillars in the previously explored rooms that were only eight feet tall. This one was also covered in writing in an unknown language. A door was in the middle of each wall, and as the adventurers started to look around a group of three grave wraiths and one more form hidden completely in darkness appeared. The sunstone had a second charge used which revealed the shadowy form of the creature in the darkness (later identified as a grave shade) and made this battle somewhat easier. An early flame strike from Charles helped injure the shade and killed the wraiths, but more creatures came to join the battle. Merrick's new magical necklace of soul protection burned through a lot of charges but it kept him from suffering any unfortunate draining attacks on top of the massive damage the creatures could do. With much assistance from the bishop the monsters were finally defeated and the grave shade banished by a mace of disruption.

No corpses remained, and no treasure was found. The set of double doors in the fifth wall were different than the other doors, seeming to be made of cold iron perhaps? Their seals were broken and the adventurers entered the fifth room which was a smaller room, twenty by twenty, with two stone sarcophagi against each of the other walls for six total. They had engravings on their lids that were meaningless, even with a read languages spell, though Nevan did think that they were meaningless because they were names, not actual words. The sarcophagi detected as magical, as did a small grate in the center of the floor. Under the grate was a small one foot by one foot by one foot chamber with a hole about five inches in diameter in the bottom of it that seemed to be filled with a dark water. The magical aura was determined to be coming not from the grate, but from the pipe. After several experiments, one of which made the group certain that the 'water' was actually mineral oil, Deckard stuck his arm into the hole to see what he could find. What he found seemed to be a magical key. Not having seen anything like a keyhole in the place, Deckard pocketed the key and the party turned their attention to the sarcophagi.

When opened, as they all eventually were, the recently deceased body of an unusual looking young woman collapsed out of each (by 'unusual looking' I mean similar to pictures of young Apache women from the 1800s. So quite unusual to the mostly occidental human race of Lloringhold). Each woman wore a simple but colorful dress (again, think of southwestern Native American tribes) and they ranged in apparent ages from roughly 18 through maybe 28. They looked similar but not identical and might have been sisters perhaps. They appeared to have died just minutes before the sarcophagi were opened, but showed no signs of being vampires or the like. The party discussed the situation before agreeing that the magic on the sarcophagi was likely preserving magic. A speak with dead spell was attempted but failed miserably, leading to the thought that perhaps the women had had eternal rest cast on them soon after dying so they could not be turned into undead creatures.

At a bit of an impasse, Deckard and Nevan went to examine the pentagonal stone pillar to see if it said anything different than the previous triangular pillars with their discussions on how to destroy the corruption and the undead. The additional information on these spoke of seeds being prepared to ensure the survival of the tribes into the future, even if the corruption could not be destroyed. From the language used it seemed that it was referring to the women in the sarcophagi as the seeds. Some time later, after further discussion and a commune spell cast by Charles, it was decided to put the women back in the sarcophagi and close them up inside again so the preservation magics could continue to work on them. The next best plan was to send some of the group back to town for a wagon to carry the women in for their safety. Once they were at the Treefold shrine then Charles could attempt to cast raise dead on them and to possibly restore them to life. That way they could live again and possibly provide information about their civilization.

In the meantime Deckard wanted to find out what the bloody key went to! Searching led to no answers until a voice whispering in Niall's mind led them to search the tops of the triangular pillars. Ydee scrambled up and found a keyhole in the top of the first one. Deckard handed her the key and she opened it. The upper half of the sides of the pillar opened and a tallish triangular chest was revealed within the space. Ydee disarmed the pressure plate trap (somewhere Hunter had painful flashbacks) and the chest could be removed. On opening there were many golden pentagonal coins revealed on the top of the pile. The chest was closed again and the other already opened room was checked and found to be the same. An identical lock, an identical opening, an identical chest, and an identically disarmed pit trap later the chest was opened to reveal identical looking coins. Success!
Half the party returned to town, rented a wagon and bought six coffins for easier and less awkward transporting of the bodies (Since the sarcophagi were built from the walls, they could not be removed). One potentially uneventful journey later the adventurers returned to Treefold with six fresh corpses and two triangular chests. Success!

The oldest of the women was raised first and successfully. After a tongues spell was cast, she gave the party basic information about herself and the other women. They were all druids, the seeds of the tribes' survival, and there were more scattered around too for these women to find. Luckily they had the abilities to do so.

They claimed some of the coins in the chests but gave the rest to the party. It worked out to roughly 50 coins each, but for a fee Glykras said he could find collectors to sell the coins to for more. Glykras paid each member of the party 400 g.p. for their coins and took them to sell. Each member was also given 5 (moonstone) gems worth 50 g.p. each. There were several magical items in the bottom of the chests, but many of those were claimed by the women, though four would be left for the party to choose from, though they could pick two while the other two went to the church as was agreed in the beginning.

Experience points for the adventure and for storyline completion:*

Merrick - 4250

Evan's -unknown- - 4250 **

Neven - 4250

Ivan - 4250

LaVeya - 4250

Niall Lightbringer - 4250

Deckard - 4250

Ydee - 2125

Footnote:

* Since we have new characters who have received a crapton of experience I will once again post the rule for leveling when one has enough points to level more than one level at a time. No one can level more than once after each full-session adventure. So while Nevan has enough experience to gain more than one level right now he can only level to level 2 after this adventure. He will have to go on another full-session adventure before he can gain ANY of the benefits of level 3. AND that is one full-session adventure AFTER being trained! A character cannot gain any automatic benefits (i.e. hit point and spell point increases) of, say, having enough experience to be third level until after they have trained for second level and then gone on a full adventure as a 2^nd level character.

It also likely goes without saying, but there will be enough time to level up before the next adventure, whatever it may be. Though Deckard has a good idea of what should come next...

** GOOD JOB SURVIVING AN ADVENTURE EVAN!!!!!!!!!!! We knew, well, hoped, you could do it!