Into the Crevasse - Nightwick Abbey - Session 31

Session 31 - 22nd of September 1391

This week's adventurers:

Verinka (Changeling 1)

Sotar (Cleric 3)

Mechtild (Fighter 1)

Liminal Space (Changeling 1)

Ianthe (Changeling 1) 

Hirelings:

Ticze

Heyno

Fidgety Nodge

In the Village

We start the session with our downtime activities since last week. Most of the party rested up (gaining a +1 HP bonus for this session) but Sotar spent the week inspecting the illuminated manuscript that he had removed from the abbey, attempting to restore it. He determined that it is a book of the Law and he restores a section of it. A brother of the abbey long ago had been writing a passage about how likely it is that various creatures are lying, but in the middle of the passage, he trailed off and wrote about how he has been hearing a voice in his head from the depth of the abbey. He knew that the other brothers hear it too and the other day he saw a brother carving something into the abbey...

Down into Nightwick

We decide to look for treasure at the Deerman altar we discovered previously. We come to the hallway outside of the room and explore the surrounding rooms first. Next to it is a empty room. Ianthe searches the back wall and discovers a secret door. She pries it open with a crowbar to reveal a small L-shaped hallway, ending at a shared wall with the altar room. It's clear that there's another secret door here and we notice a worn stone next to the door - a button to open it. We debate the best way to get the drop on the deermen we know are inside, and decide that rushing through the secret door with a sleep spell is our best bet. 

The Altar of the Deermen

We open the door to reveal 10 deermen arranged around the altar and, luckily for us, they are surprised. We pile into the room and Sotar kills one by crushing its head and Ianthe puts the rest of them to sleep - a victory through the power of teamwork! We find 40sp (we use the silver standard in this campaign) among them, in human leather pouches. Mechtild notices that the northern wall of the room holds a now defaced mural of St. Gax making a shushing motion and holding keys. Liminal hops onto the altar to investigate it and feels it move beneath his feet. The party pushes aside the altar, which is on rollers, revealing a shaft straight down beneath it. Sotar drops a candle down the shaft and it falls down 30', landing in an open room. Ianthe listened at the doors out of the room and heard voices in agony to the west but nothing behind the secret door to the north, so the party decides to open the secret door first.

Treasure!!!

We open the secret door, granting access to a small room with 2 treasure chests. Liminal inspects the chests and discovers that they probably have a need trap build into them. He opens them carefully, using a dagger to avoid the traps. The first one contains a sword and a book. Liminal picks up the sword and feels overwhelming sadness and puts the sword back down. He feels disappointment emanating from the sword (Rules explanation: Changelings in Nightwick cannot use magic swords made by men). Mechtild picks up the sword, but we will need a magic-user to read the runes on the sword to understand its true power. Sotar and Verinka inspect the book - it is a pristine chronicle of Nightwick Abbey. The second chest has 1,000sp. We decide to not risk our treasure and immediately return to Nightwick village.

Down the Shaft

Since it is still early in the session, we're able to return to the abbey again and decide to go down the shaft under the altar. We spike the doors into the room to prevent anything from sneaking up on us and secure the rope. Mechtild goes down first and finds a room with a statue in it. The statue has no head and floating above the statue is a crown and two blue points of flame where the eyes would be. The statue speaks to Mechtild, but with the rest of the party still above, in the altar room, we can only hear her side of the conversation.

"Hello?"

"Is it alright if me and my friends come down here."

"I am Mechtild."

Tired of waiting, Liminal goes down after her and also speaks to the statue.

A New Friend?

They discover the name of the being speaking through the statue is Orobas and relay it up to the rest of the party. Sotar, being somewhat book smart for a cleric, hears the name and shudders. He recognizes that name as belonging to a demon, Master of Things Unseen, Servant of Armadaezus, Current King of Hell. Sotar want's nothing to do with this demon, but Liminal sees it appropriate to ask him for help. The demon agrees to help in exchange for a secret ("a secret for a secret," it says). Liminal reveals that he has always wanted to be a werewolf (in a previous session, he had even tried on a werewolf skin we found on the road). 

"Travel west," the demon replies, "and take the first door north and there will be great treasure within."

Mechtilk asks if the treasure is dangerous, but she needs to offer up a secret for an answer.

"I slept with my cousin," she declares, insisting that it is a very normal thing (the rest of the party disagrees).

Orobas replies that the treasure is not dangerous, but seems to suggest that there could be other dangerous things present.

Nightwick Level 3

The rest of the party decides to descend down and join them, entering, unknown to us at the time, level three of the dungeon. As we come down, Liminal reveals another secret to the demon in exchange for more information. "I've always wanted to get away with a murder," he whispers to Orobas.

"Beyond the seals and to the north there is more treasure as the door to the west," he replies. Liminal decides to keep this information to himself.

The party, now reunited down below, heads west in search of treasure. We line up outside of the first door north we find. Sotar prepares by casting Protection from Evil while Liminal listens at the door, hearing nothing. We open the door, revealing a completely dark room. The Changelings in the group, however, are able to see a number of emaciated corpse-like figures in mail armor and a figure seated behind them wearing a great helm with bat-like wings.

We make a plan to retreat and use Sotar's Protection from Evil to funnel the undead, forming a line with spears in the second rank. Mechtild is hit badly, reduced to 1 HP, and we decide to retreat. Liminal and Verinka fire arrows at the attackers while we retreat. Liminal lands a good hit on one, but it doesn't react. Sotar is able to heal Mechtild. In the next round, Mechtild is hit twice and loses her left leg from the knee down and is knocked unconscious.

Left with no other option, Sotar decides to turn undead, causing the undead to flee for now. Mechtild is stabalized and we are able to retreat out of the abbey without further trouble. Ianthe is now level 2 and Mechtild will be out for 5 weeks, recovering from her wound.