Session 5

Session 5

Dozar priest of the Slumbering God
Failure the Halfling and his dog Pig-fucker
Gil master of the floating disk
A mysterious cleric (played by Chris P.)
Selwin, simpering link-boy plus (hireling)
Zadesar, heavily browed shipwright (hireling) [Slain]

Ultan hinted that he had alarming news for the group. After extracting monies in his usual fashion, Ultan happily informed them that the rival adventuring party, formerly led by Agamar, had shown up again after the long hiatus following their disastrous second attempt. However, in the place of Agamar, the group was led by a Storm Rider, and there were one or two new faces. The Storm Rider was quite open-handed, and very curious about the group, inquiring about their methods and successes, and composition. With some tips purchased from Ultan, the rival group apparently returned from a trip through the door without fatalities or marked injuries. When questioned about the identifying marks of this Storm Rider, Ultan informed the group that he had a black beard, and carried a huge sword held in a scabbard inscribed with winding black flames. The other members of his group seemed to fear him. 

After receiving this unsettling information, the group traveled through the door once again, taking along their coracle. The Guildless were present as usual, although this time they were armed with rocks, which they raised to the ready upon seeing the group. The sight of Dozar’s unmistakable form quickly reassured them, however, and they allowed the group to pass. The party proceeded to the sewer river, and using the coracle, secured the boat once again, which was still bobbing where they left it. Proceeding down the sewer river, the party approach the Catacombs of the Fleischguild without incident. 

Upon pulling up to the docks in the chum slick, and fighting back their rising bile, the party ascended to the first room of the catacombs. In the northern wall, the party came upon two stairs leading to two arches. The inscription over the eastern arch read “Drone that I am, I Rejoice that My Body Remains Whole in the Endless Dark”, over the western arch, “Cut Down Before I Could Suck the Marrow from Cracked Femurs and Taste Puddings Boiled in the Skulls of Supplicants”. Having cleared out the area to the east, the party opted for the western arch. 

As they approached, Pig-Fucker’s hackles went up. Leaving him behind, Failure crept ahead in the darkness. Around a bend he came into a rectangular room. The northern wall was covered by a mosaic depicting a sacrifice. A passageway led west out of the room. Standing in the middle of the room were four muscled figures naked but for loincloths, carrying cleavers, and such-like. The skin of their faces had been lifted off to form a mask hanging before their meaty heads, supported by wire spokes from a metal harness around their necks. They smelled of formaldehyde. Sneaking back, Failure reported this to the group. They covered the floor of the corridor with marbles and sent some clattering into the room to draw the zombies around the bend.

The clerics of the party failed to turn the first two zombies as they appeared around the corner. The party initially had the advantage, with Dozar and Zadesar in the front rank, and the zombies sliding around on marbles. Failure released Pig-Fucker, to gnaw on a zombie. However, as the Zombies gained their footing, combat quickly went against the party. Dozar received a terrible wound to his chest, falling backwards, streaming blood. When Dozar fell at his side, Zadesar routed before the undead horrors, turning to flee, and a cleaver blow split his head like a ripe melon. Since Dozar had fallen to -1 hp, under my new house rules, he had to make a save vs. death, WHICH HE PASSED. Although he was still dying, the mysterious cleric (Chris P.’s character whose name I forget) was able to return him to life. The party rallied, managing to slay the first two zombies, although Pig-Fucker too passed a saving throw vs. death, lying unconscious after being slammed against the stone wall to 0 HP. As the remaining two pushed forward towards the beleaguered party, Gil raised the amulet the party had seized from the catacombs on the last adventure. Like last time, the strange power of the amulet prevailed where the gods of the Wilderlands had failed, turning the zombies who were quickly cut down. 

Shaken, the party moved forward into the room. A careful search of the mosaic revealed little, beyond the scene itself. The mural depicted a female figure, perhaps a priestess, with a serenely smiling copper and an elaborate headdress. Before her were three unmasked young women in inadequate gauzy white wraps shackled to stone altars. The masked woman was slitting open the central maidens abdomen and holding up an organ, a liver or pancreas, seemingly offer it to the viewers. Noting this, the party proceeded through the archway to the west. 

They entered a long rectangular room, with further exits to the west and north. Along the southern wall, ten small sarcophagi flanked a dias, with steps leading up to the statue of a weeping woman. Flanking the northern entrance were two raised basins, each filled with blood. The western bowl was inscribed with the “Blood of the Innocents”, and the eastern “Blood of the Corrupted”. Over the western exit was inscribed, “Glory to the Archons, Principles of Life!”

Noisily prying the lid off a sarcophagus, the party discovered a mummified child within. Cautiously unwrapping the diminutive mummy, they discovered copper jewelry nestled in the wrappings. Deciding to return later if less lucrative yields presented themselves, the party headed north between the blood basins. They walked down a large corridor into a circular room ringed by six columns. Stairs led down to the NE and NW, and an archway led to the east. The columns were covered in elaborate carvings, depicting a representation of the occult significance of different elements of the human body. They seemed magical in nature to Gil, although he had never seen anything quite like them. The party took partial rubbings, using charcoal and paper. 

They then proceeded down the steps to the NE. This led to a hallway opening into a rectangular room. The left side of the room contained an altar, on which rested an open book. At each corner of the altar was a raised basin containing a clear liquid that reeked of lavender. Small steps led down to a sunk portion of the room to the right, where a carved sarcophagus rested, with a representation of a serenely masked man on the lid, arms crossed over a book. Four bowls filled with a clear liquid, smelling strongly of cinnamon flanked the sarcophagus. 

The party examined the book on the altar without touching it. The book appeared to contain instructions of some kind, the open page showing a diagram—an action shot—of a knife slicing open the calf of a standing figure. Dozar proceeded down to examine the sarcophagus. Using his massive strength he began to slide the heavy stone lid off. The liquid in the four basins suddenly lit, filling the area with an eerie red light. Immediately, Dozar could feel the lid being pushed off by something within that had great strength. Dozar desperately pushed back, struggling to hold the lid in place, while the party desperately readied itself.

Failure quickly larded the steps leading down to the sunken area, leaving a small strip on the left. The rest of the party readied missile weapons, standing on the edge of the higher portion of the room. Finally Dozar dropped the lid and ran up the steps, as a mummy wearing a fine copper mask, and purple robes sprang up. Dozar quickly hit the mummy with a light spell, as the rest of the party pelted it with missile weapons. A thrown lantern crashed into the sarcophagus without igniting the mummy. Enraged, it pulled itself out of the sarcophagus, light streaming from beneath its mask. At this point, the party hit it with oil and threw a lit torch at it, which ignited the mummy. Flaming arrows, hand axes, and daggers protruding from its flaming bodied, it shambled towards the stairs where it fell into the lard, succumbing finally the next round to the force of the flames and accumulated missile damage. 

Working quickly the party unwrapped the charred mummy to discover some gold jewelry, some melted into the charred wrappings, but some intact. In the sarcophagus, they found some singed but basically intact scrolls. The party next carefully emptied the basins surrounding the books, scooping out the liquid onto the floor. From the edge of the room, Gil used his trademark floating disk to liberate the book. The basins exploding with a flash of purple flame that would surely having ignited the whole area, had the party not taken the precaution of emptying the basins. With the book, scrolls and jewelry in hand, the party made a fast retreat back to the green canoe and Ultan’s door.

XP and Treasure:

4 Zombies: 80 XP
Mummy of The Instructor: 100 XP
Zombie Weapons: 120 GP
Copper Jewelry: 100 GP
Gold Jewelry:         1000 GP
Partial rubbings
Manual of the Carver
Scroll 1: Muscle Control, Face Absorption
Scroll 2: Mutate Breed
Scroll 3: Symbiotic Familiar

XP per player: 350
GP per player: 305

I will tell you about the manual, scrolls, rubbings, and what Adriana has to say in a second post. 

Eric Boyd Chris P. Travis Miller Zak Smith Also probably of interest to: Chris Kutalik Joshua Blackketter Michael Wentzloff