Nightwick Abbey - Session 30

Previously, on Nightwick Abbey...

Session 30 - 15th of September 1391

The adventures continue. This week's motley crew is...

Cherwe (Cleric 1)

Liminal Space (Changeling 1)

Sotar (Cleric 3)

Ianthe (Changeling 1)

Mechtild (Fighter 1)

Verinka (Changeling 1)

In the Village

Ianthe is back, after having an arm torn off and Mechtild has been promoted to full party member. There's a new hireling available at Nightwick village, Sister Fronika, who is only willing to be hired by a cleric. One of our own hirelings, Gumpert the Fanatic, is able to hire her to accompany us into Nightwick. A few other hirelings were available, but they didn't seem worth the coin to anyone in the party.

Down into Nightwick

We again head down through the west tower into Nightwick. This time, instead of immediately moving on, we spend some time in the entrance room. On one of the columns of the room is a carving of St. Gax, holding some keys and making a shushing motion. We've been puzzled over this for some time now, but this time we're able to figure out that there is, in fact, a secret passage to the south, but we don't yet know how to open it. Eventually, we press on the keys that St. Gax is holding, which opens the door!

Blood, Blood, Blood...

Revealing a room completely coated in dried blood, with further doors to the east, south, and west. We go east first and find a room full of those horrid crow-headed rats with a massive garbage pile in the middle of the room. They don't move to attack up (we got lucky on the reaction roll) and so the party sets up a choke point outside of the room and shoots some arrows at them to draw them out. Several more crawl out of the garbage pile and come out to defend themselves. In the melee, poor Gumpert is killed but the creatures are finished off. In the garbage pile, we find 100 silver pieces and 4 monk's habits, which could be sold for a pretty penny back in town.

The Book and the Pedestal

In the room to the west, we find a lone book sitting on a pedestal. The book is an illuminated manuscript, which Sotar examines. Every page has been defaced, with obscenities written on the pages in some brown substance. Examining the pedestal, he notices that there is no seam between the book and the pedestal, as if it were one single object. 

Mechtild tries to push over the pedestal, but cannot by herself. The party ties rope around it and, together, pulls it over, creating a wound in the floor. A fountain of blood spews forth from the wound, filling up the room. Sotar manages to use a crowbar to pry the illuminated manuscript off of the pedestal before Mechtild slams the door shut.

The Belly of the Beast

We go south, through the final door. It opens up into a highly decorated room. The floor is painted, red and swirling like the stomach of the great dragon who lives at the bottom of space. The ceiling is decorated to resemble the open mouth of a dragon, with rows of teeth. Cherwe tentatively enters the room and immediately the voice of deceased Gumpert rings out, "You let me die in your place!" Liminal Space enters too and the voice rings out again. Behind us, from where we came, the party hears a group of deermen, possibly alerted by the ghostly voices, and a flurry of arrows fly out towards us and Sister Fronika is immediately slain. This is potentially a bad fight for us as we were attacked from behind and many of our better armored members are out of position to defend from the deermen. However, a single sleep spell ends the fight early and we loot 30sp off of them. The party returns to the Dragon's Belly and the voices of numerous deceased hirelings ring out, blaming us for their deaths. As Cherwe and Sotar enter, they also hear the voice of their (living) friend Mayfly the magic-user, taunting them that he has led them into satanism. The party examines the intricately carved walls of the room and discovers another carving of St. Gax, holding a set of keys. We press on the keys again and another secret door opens up out of the room, to a room we've previously been in containing a lectern and several pews. 

This time, we find additionally find another flaming toddler made of stone, known as a "Child of Stone." It's fierce but it's also on its own and we take it down quickly, without casualty. Next, we return to the T-junction we discovered in session 28 and continue exploring those rooms. We find a room full of rotting wood and then open a door to a room full of 7 deermen arranged around an altar, chanting in their bestial tongue. Not ready to take them on this week, we quickly close the door and retreat out of the abbey.

Our exploration from session 30