The Baron Voghtairi has ignored his summons. This act of outright treachery comes at a bad time for The Ruby Crown. With beastmen on their door to the north, tensions rising with the Ajira-ni powder guild, and now whispers of an ancient evil lurking in the mountains of Nildazi, the crown delays. In two weeks, a council shall be held. It will determine Orthos’ fate.
In the mean time, The Friends decide to journey into the tombs underneath The Tenebrous Church in hopes to retrieve The Sceptre of Languard, a lost holy relic with ties to the angel Balthazar. The lawful council permit this. Holy men themselves, they also see the religious fervour Balthazar is inciting in the general public. It is obvious they want to harness this power for themselves.
The Friends descend the stairs into a shallow crypt containing the dried remains of several notable holy men. There, a double padlocked door leads down into the lost depths of the tomb proper.
A dungeon crawl true and proper. In trying to prep the city game, I ended up running a 3 session dungeon. I’ve collated them all into one because they’re a bit easier to write about. I have some severe misgivings about dungeon crawling in 5th edition, which I will write about on the main blog, stay tuned.
The staircase descending into the tombs is cramped, the ceiling low. Friend especially has to crouch to fit inside. They feel the weight of the stone above them as the darkness closes in until the only light is a small bubble surrounding them from Icoriols weak but ever burning lantern.
The first room of the tomb has a guillotine trap noticed by an observant Siriel. They break it to prevent accidental triggering in the future. The first area of the tombs are unmaintained crypts. Behind a misplaced coffin Friend finds a odd indent in the wall. Surmising there must be some mechanism to unlock a secret door, he bashes the wall down, revealing a more lavish tomb. They find there an exceptional war hammer (+1, but non-magic).
As they study the tomb, Icoriol notices something strange - the light from his ever burning lantern casts two seperate shadows from each of his teammates. Seeming to notice him, one of the shadows reaches up and grabs him by the face. Its touch is icy cold andhe recognizes these as hostile undead spirits!
Following my dungeon procedures I rolled Shadows as a random encounter. This encounter shows some of my romantacism of dungeon crawling without really thinking about the rules. Shadows fit perfectly here, but they’re just so weak. The party is around 8th level. This will become a problem later, stay tuned.
The Friends dispatch the shadows and continue through the tomb into a wider cavern. The stone corridor turns into a thin strone bridge spanning a seemingly bottomless pit. Strange dried vines cover the center of the walkway in a thick patch, right where the torchlight dies. Friend sends his magical echo to touch the vines, causing them to shift and slide. There is a great slithering noise, like the head of a tree being dragged along stone. Siriel spots some kind of large shambling creature clinging to the underside of the bridge. The friends decide to leave the creature alone, and turn back.
Journeying back past the entrance, they follow a thin slanted side passage and come to a room with several silver coffins. Most are open and empty, but two remain sealed. The Friends (who have been given permission to retrieve any treasure from the tombs) crack one open, but they are met with a wave of hideous bulging black worms! Friend quickly slams the coffin shut, lights a torch, braces himself, and opens the coffin again. The fire seems to aggravate the worms, but does a good enough job in disposing of them. They find a valuable metal horse statue in one of the coffins.
Continuing the way they were going the friends enter a room with a low sagging roof. Cracks permeate the stone, and the scent of rotten eggs fills the air. Friend realises only too late, and as his torch touches the invisible gas, there is a great explosion. The Friends survive the blast, but the weakened roof does not. They dash across the passage just as the stones fall. They survive, but they are now trapped in the tombs.