When we last left our heroes, they had gained access to the “dungeon” and caves just under Ednowain’s keep. They had also discovered what had left all of those pole like tracks around the keep…giant ants! Giant ants that they barely survived! As they pressed deeper into complex, they discovered a much older portion that had been opened by additional tunnels dug by the ants. This portion of the complex had symbols indicating that it had been built by the Fellguard, a group known for hunting down and fighting extraplanar creatures. The party had just opened a door sealed with a large symbol of the Fellguard.
This write up is from Rachel (who is playing Clarissa and Bryn).
There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventures, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although a heavily modified version) and, “The Mysterious Tower,” from Goodman Games (also a heavily modified version). I also drew from Weapons of Legacy from WotC for some ideas and images I used.
We had opened the double doors with the Fellguard symbol on them, and a whoosh of stale air escaped, smelling of death. Straight ahead we saw a larger than life-sized statue of a man in platemail with a sword and shield. There was dust covering the floor and pedestal on which the statue stood, and some of the dust on the pedestal looked bumpy, like it might be covering etchings. The shield had the Fellguard symbol on it, which was slightly raised from the rest of the shield. There were four skeletal bodies in tattered scarlet robes, one in each corner of the room. There was one skeletal body in leather armor lying facedown in front of the statue, with a short sword just out of reach of an outstretched arm, and a backpack. The leather armor and short sword both looked better preserved than anything else in the room, showing little to no rust, wear, or decay. There were two corridors leading from the room—one opposite the double doors, and one going to the left.
Romulus, Drogar, Clarissa, and Bryn moved into the room first. Romulus brushed dust off the pedestal of the statue to reveal some words—“Ulrich, hero of mankind, general of the Fellguard.” Bryn heard a scratching from the corridor to the left. Just as she tried to alert the others to what she heard, skeletons began moving into the room (10 in all). Clarissa took one out pretty quickly, the rest of us attacked them and did a bit of damage, though one did injure Romulus. Romulus was able to turn them—sending two fleeing down the corridor ahead and the rest back to the corridor from which they came.
Shory and Remus joined us in the room as Remus checked out the body in leather armor. The backpack on the body contained mostly rotted and rusting items, but also held a piece of leather wrapped around some rotting parchment. Bryn very carefully unwrapped the leather and parchment, which was only partially intact. The parchment had a drawing of a small sword or dagger or knife, with a blade that is serrated on one side. The writings on the parchment are incomplete, as pieces of the paper have crumbled, but the remaining writings are:
• Drawing of dagger—center of page, hilt at top, tip of blade at bottom, serrated edge of blade on right, somewhat ornate hilt and handle.
• To left of dagger, at top, “Knowledge is power!” and a couple spaces below:
o “Those who would rule
…..lanes would see
…..anes kneel before them”
• To right of dagger, below handle:
o “With this blade…..
you slice the Pl………
• To left of dagger, written smaller than above language, and perpendicular (parallel to dagger
blade):
o “Sword? Dag………ething else?” and a couple spaces below:
The legacy of Knight……….
Was he truly cor………………….olls
say he was but the ……………………
• To right of dagger, about 2 ½ inches from tip, in same size writing as perpendicular writing:
o Finally found the tomb!
Tomorrow I enter and then………
to LK. . .
After showing the parchment to the others, Bryn carefully wraps the parchment back in the leather and stows it in her pack. We decide to check out the corridors off the main room.
The corridor ahead (opposite the double doors) is lined with large pillars, each of which have the Fellguard symbol on them. We dispatch of the two skeletons that came this way, as they saw our coming this way after them as a threat and attacked us. At the end of the corridor is a small room with an alcove containing a life-sized statue of Ulrich. This statue is holding its sword the same way as the larger statue, and also has a stern countenance, but the Fellguard symbol on the shield is inverted compared to all the other symbols we have seen. The hilt is at the bottom and the tip is at the top. Bryn checked out the small room and found that the spot right in front of the statue depressed slightly when stepped on, triggering a blade to forcefully swing out of the wall and across the spot in front of the statue, then swing back into the wall. The blade is about three feet off the ground, which would have slashed Bryn’s face and head had she not been able to quickly jump out of the way a couple times.
Romulus was still back in the main room and briefly stopped chanting. The skeletons that had gone down the corridor to the left came back out of the corridor and into the room with the large statue. Clarissa suggested that we all move back to the small room and have one party member stand in front just outside the room to fight one skeleton at a time in the pillared hall. The skeletons did pursue us as we headed to the small room. Drogar fought the skeletons first—taking one out but getting knocked out himself. Clarissa stepped up to the fight the skeletons and was able to move forward a couple steps, allowing room for Remus and Shory to stand behind her and make ranged attacks. We were able to take out the rest of the skeletons without much problem.
We left Drogar’s body in the small room while the rest of us went to check out the other corridor. It turned out to be a room with 10 open coffins, all empty (presumably they held the skeletons until not too long ago). As we are looking at the coffins, Clarissa heard a squeak coming from the main room. Going back into the main room, Clarissa saw a flash of light and a glimpse of a frustrated/unhappy imp just outside the double doors. None of the others saw him, so Clarissa described him, and that it looked like he might not be able to enter the room. Clarissa thought he looked like Zoxpox, the imp she and other adventurers had come across at Elvid’s keep. Since all of us were pretty exhausted at this point, we shut the double doors and rested in the large room. We attempted to keep watches, but most of us were too tired to stay awake, especially when we did not keep a torch lit during watch.
The next morning, Drogar regained consciousness and we all headed to the small room. We wanted to get a better look at the statue, so we considered a couple of options, including trying to use a shield to block the blade from resetting in the wall (someone mentioned that dwarves are actually thicker than shields, but we did not consider that option). Remus suggested that Bryn crouch when she stepped on the spot in front of the statue, so the blade would come out and go back, and then stay on the spot so it could not get re-triggered. This plan worked and Bryn was able to take a look at the statue. She focused on the shield first, curious as to why this symbol was inverted. Bryn tried moving the symbol and found that it turned, so she turned it clockwise to the correct Fellguard symbol position (with the hilt up and tip down). The statue began sinking slowly into the floor and the wall behind it lowered as well.
Drogar had sat on the spot to hold the trigger down while Bryn was checking out the statue, so Bryn jumped back so she would not lower with the statue, and a ghoul-type creature scampered over the wall that was lowering. It started attacking us and knocked Romulus out pretty quickly. Shory attacked it with her short sword, cutting it but it healed up right away. Remus passed the dead adventurer’s short sword (which we suspect is magical, due to its being in such good shape) to Shory and she was able to injure the ghoul more effectively with it. Clarissa and Drogar both attacked the ghoul with their magic weapons as well, damaging it.
Not having a magical weapon at hand, and not seeing another way to assist her companions, Bryn decided to check out the secret room that had been hidden behind the wall. She finds a lot of small pieces of broken wood, a longsword covered in mold, platemail with a lot of scratch marks on the breast plate, and the dagger that had been drawn on the parchment. The dagger is clearly magical, as it is standing upright on its tip (with the hilt up), and the tip is not at all embedded in the floor. Bryn picks up the dagger and brings it out to attack the ghoul, getting the killing blow. The ghoul crumbled to dust.
Remus revives Romulus and they heal the rest of us. We got together the items we had found—the short sword, leather armor, dagger, long sword, and platemail—and Remus detected magic on them. The short sword, leather armor, and dagger are magical. Remus found that the dagger has special powers that activate when the blade is bathed in the blood of an extraplanar creature, but was unable to tell what those special powers are.
We headed back to the room with the big statue and looked for a way to open the double doors from inside. We found no triggers in the walls, so Bryn began checking out the large statue. Since the shield had been the key on the smaller statue, Bryn checked out the shield on the statue first. Sure enough, the Fellguard symbol moves, so Bryn turned it to the inverted position and we heard stone grinding in the back. Clarissa and Shory went to check it out and found that the statue in the small room and the wall behind it both came back up into position (the symbol on the shield was inverted again). Bryn turned the symbol on the large statue’s shield back to the upright position and the double doors to the room opened.
There is a goblin right outside the doors, giggling and waving at us. He ran in past us and down the pillared corridor, running into the small room and landing on the trigger spot, so he was killed by the blade trap. The goblin had a note pinned to him, which Drogar read to us – “Give me Ednowain’s key and I will let you leave.” The “e”s in the note were all written backwards, just like they were by Zoxpox.
We left Ulrich’s area and headed back toward the full-sized dug tunnel. We started down the tunnel and found more giant ants. . .
Which is where we ended the session.
