Previously, our intrepid party had spent some time tracking down some scrablings and brigands and exploring the locations within which each had taken up residence respectively. Most recently, they had made another foray into the ruins beneath Valvur Abbey and fought more of the brigands. In the process though, the party had taken a good deal of damage…much of it “self-inflicted” when one of the party’s magic items exploded. Retreating back to the surface, they recovered and then came back down only to find that the brigands had left.
We had to take a week off due to other commitments for folks and so it had been two weeks since the last session.
Savannah had to miss this session, but Jen was back and so she got to introduce her new character. We are also joined by a new player, Todd, is also a former player in many FRG campaigns. Jen is playing Alexandria (Alex for short), a human priest, and Todd is playing Denton, a human wizard. Alex, a priest of the Shining Lords of Law…specifically venerating St. Alora, the patron saint of truth…had a vision about a relic residing in some ruins falling into the wrong hands. She and her companion, Denton of course, traveled to the ruins and began their explorations. You might have already guessed that those ruins are the same ones that the existing PCs are already exploring.
Parts of this session use a somewhat modified version of the adventure, The Shattered Fist Monastery, from Delver #1 by James Floyd Kelly. There may be spoilers.
We pick up with the party both continuing their explorations of the apparently empty chambers beneath the ruins of Valvur Abbey and nearly doubling in size.
First off, let me continue to jump on the Shadowdark band wagon in terms of how easily and quickly it is to create a character. Todd rolled up his character at the start of our session (complete with a natural 18 for Intelligence) and was pretty much done by the time we finished our normal pre-game chatting and got started.
- The current trio of characters had made their way to chamber behind a secret door containing some skeletons, prayer mats, and a statue of St. Taius (to whom the abbey had been dedicated). Before they could continue their exploration, they heard someone (or something) approaching. Alex and Denton came up, introductions were made, reasons for being here shared, and forces joined. The players are always so trusting of new characters played by other players.
- Further exploration showed that the skeletons showed no signs of wounds or other indication of cause of death. All were kneeling as though if in prayer…at least until Aja poked on and disturbed its pose. All of the skeletons except two were kneeling on mats and all mats except two had kneeling skeletons upon them. Norfek lifted one of the unoccupied prayer mats and started to poke around the floor beneath it with his foot. One stone that he stepped upon was ever so slightly raised and depressed when stepped with an audible click. A corresponding stone was found under the other unoccupied mat and Ellery steps on it. With both stones depressed, the statue of St. Taius slides to one side revealing a spiral staircase leading down. When feet were lifted from the stones, the statue slid back to its original position so spikes were wedged into the triggering stones to keep the statue to the side.
- The stairs descended to a large chamber with a dozen statues of serene-looking monks and a large crack in the floor and wall on the far side of the room. Examination of the statues revealed nothing. and so the party headed to the door leading out of this chamber. It lead to a hallway splitting into two hallways leading to a couple of chambers and ZOMBIES…dressed in tattered monk robes…that attack from both chambers. The zombies were all muttering, “Kill…kill…kill,” over and over. A bit of a hit and run battle with damage to both sides (but only casualties to the zombies) led to a retreat to the large chamber. The party shut and held the door against the pursuing undead.
- Some running repairs are made and there is further exploration of this large chamber. Norfek heads to the crack in the wall, holding a torch up to it, and a zombie squeezes out. Fortunately, it is defeated quickly and relatively easily. The crack does not lead to anything and holds nothing of interest…most likely a result of when the abbey above was destroyed.
- Knowing that they’ll have to defeat the zombies beyond the door if they want to continue their explorations, the party take up position and open the door again. The zombies flood in and seem to focus their attacks on those carrying torches (or items with a light spell). The party starts to light torches and toss or leave them about the chamber and the zombies go to the lit torches and destroy them. While this made the fight significantly easier (and safer) for the party, their inventory of torches is considerably reduced as a result. Alex is knocked out during the fight, but her companions are able to keep her from dying as the zombies are all defeated.
- Adopting their prior practice of using the Creepy Flesh Idol to send out an arcane eye on reconnaissance (Aja failed but Denton succeeded), they are able to survey a few new rooms from relative safety. Two of the chambers held beds and debris. Another had some beds which had been pushed up against one door. That door led to a small hallway with some cloaks and to another chamber with a long mural hanging on the wall (depicting monks doing various monk-like things). As the eye moved towards a door in this mural chamber, a ghostly monk figure appears in front of it, blocking the door, and puts it translucent hand up in front of the eye.
And that is where we stopped for the night, a bit early as many of us have been a bit sniffly and tired. A bit of further exploration and fights against zombies that required some creative tactics to reduce risk to limb and life…in exchange for lost torches. Exactly the sort of choice and tactics that are central to a game and so I was a happy GM at the end of this session even though the players were concerned about how many light sources they have left (or maybe that concern is part of why I was a happy GM).
We’ll pick it up again next session.
