Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...
Session 64 - 27th of Quintember, 1392
This week's adventurers:
Blossom (Rogue 5)
Mayfly (Magician 4)
Mechtilde (Fighter 4)
Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 3)
Ulf (Magician 3)
Gerung (Magician 2)
Hirelings: Grumbletoe (Dwarf 1), Ditl (Cleric 2), Haug, Menczel
Downtime in the Village
During the week, Gerung heads to the Necromancer's tower on the edge of town. He seeks to become Halfdan's student, as is Mayfly. Halfday agrees...on the condition that Gerung provides him with blood from the Bleeding Baroness of Nightwick Abbey as a sort of "entrance exam." When Gerung tries to ask for more details about her, such as where she is in Nightwick Abbey, Halfdan simply shrugs and slams shut the door to his tower to return to his experiments.
Ulf spends the week studying the spellbook we took from the wizard Laurentius (with Mayfly anxiously overseeing the process to ensure he does not damage his prized book) and learns the spell Charm Person!
Mechtilde carouses, gaining 100xp, and we realize that the hireling Ditl has somehow reached 2nd level!
Through the Graveyard
On the morning of the 27th, we leave the Nightwick village and return to the horrid halls of Nightwick Abbey. We again go into the graveyard entrance to level 3 of Nightwick and pass by the tomb of St. God on through the doorway in the east end of the hallway.
We step into another hallway, with doors 30' to the north and south of us.
Mechtilde uses Dhinron, her magic sword, to detect silver. Closing her eyes and holding the sword aloft, she senses silver to the east through the sword.
Déjà Vu
Our resident sneaky-sneak Blossom sneaks off to the south ahead of us and spies an ossuary, lined with skulls, each with their mouth open.
When the Cutpurse notices the skulls, she realizes they once held silver coins - we've been here before!
This means that we can connect the different paths to level 3! A huge win for the mappers! It also means that the 1,500 silver coins that were once in this room are now long gone.
Thoughts in the Dark
The rest of the party catches up to Blossom and, while we debate our next course of action, Mayfly casts ESP and detects minds to the northeast.
Blossom sneaks up the hallway north and listens at the next door, a large double door. She hears the chatter of a large number of people. At the end of this hallway is another ossuary.
We go back to the first hallway we came in through, go north, then east to this new ossuary, to avoid having to pass by whatever's behind the doors (cultists, we think).
Wheelie Boys
Blossom turns a corner and sees four breaking-wheel monsters. They don't see Blossom, but notice the party's approaching torches. Blossom rushes back and warns us of the approaching fight.
We round the corner, ready to take the fight head on.
They roll into us, but Mechtilde and Ditl manage to keep them from breaking the frontline.
Mechtilde destroys the first one with Dhinron (it's +3 vs undead), steps forward, and kills a 2nd one!
One of the wheels runs over Mechtilde for 3 damage and continues into Menczel for 5 damage!
On her next turn, Mechtilde retaliates against the wheel by smashing it and hits the other, finishing it off in the next round.
We bind wounds and move on east past this ossuary.
The Blind and the Dead
At the next intersection, Blossom, through her magical blindfold, sees movement in the darkness to the north as well as an altar in the room beyond.
The figures are robed, holding swords in front of their eyes - she thinks they're the beings known as the Blind Dead.
Blossom sneaks into the room and sees that it is decorated with carvings of bishops and local pagan leaders dancing around, looking scared.
Blossom also sees a new figure in the room - a fighter in a bat-wing helmed - a Swordmeister! We know the Swordsmeisters of Nightwick Abbey carry the seals we need on level 2 (we currently have two out of four).
She also spies a set of stairs leading up! We haven't been this way before and so don't know where they go.
After Blossom relays this information to us, we decide to not take this fight today, but to come back later.
Continued Exploration
We see glowing sigils in distance to the east - another mysterious feature of level 3 that we've come across before.
We go east towards sigils, and pass an ossuary, into another ossuary with a chandelier made from childrens' bones.
Blossom spies a small group of people to the north, but they notice her too!
She is surprised, and the two figures, both wearing silver devil masks and flaming robes, rush out of the darkness and swing at her, but she dodges their blows and runs back to the group, unscathed.
A New Friend?
Mechtilde, Blossom, and Grumbletoe swing at one, but all miss. Ulf charms one!
Ulf calls out to his new friend, "Hey, remember me, it's your old roommate, Ulf. Stop attacking and protect me."
The friend-cultist steps in between us and the other robed figure, "Stop this," he cries out.
"You fool, you've been charmed," his partner shouts back.
Mechtilde hits the enemy-cultist for 4 damage - a wound, and Ulf casts Magic Missile for another four.
Enemy-cultist raises a hand to cast a spell, but the two hits disrupt his spell for the round.
On the next round, he casts Hold Person on his (former) teammate, dropping him to the floor.
We struggle to hit his high AC, and Mechtilde attempts to parley with him, "This is taking too long, please surrender or die."
"I will never surrender."
"Then DIE!" she shouts back and the mighty Mechtilde slays him on her next attack.
The friend-cultist is still held, so he cannot talk, but we take the masks and robes from both clerics and discover that they are each missing an eye.
The dead one has a silver dagger, which Gerung takes.
They each also have plate armor, which we also take.
We pile the loot and the held friend-cultist on a floating disk and continue on our way.
(Don't) Drug Your Hirelings
We go north into the room the cultists came from, which has runes inscribed on the floor. Mayfly can tell they are inscribed to Armadeus, the King of Hell.
The air in this room seems somehow easier to breathe, yet sets the party on edge.
Mechtilde pries the door east open, stepping into an ossuary full of skulls.
As Mechtilde and Ditl cross over into the room, the skulls in the room begin emitting a purple smoke.
Mechtilde covers her mouth in time, but Ditl breathes in the smoke and starts convulsing on the floor.
Yevegniy, a healer by trade, can tell he is under the effect of a powerful hallucinogenic. It likely isn't fatal, but appears to be causing him a great amount of distress. He casts Remove Fear on Ditl to ease his anguish, and the abbey reacts and slime drips down from the ceiling, yet Blossom and Mayfly can tell that the dungeon hasn't shifted, despite reacting to the cleric's holy magic (we must have gotten lucky with the rolls).
We shove Ditl onto the floating disk and decide to hold our breaths and dash across the trapped room (it's only 20' across) - which works.
The Anti-Church
We come to a short, 10' hallway and stand at the threshold of a large room - its walls are painted with battle scenes and there are doors on each wall. The ceiling is domed in imitation of an eastern-style church.
The scenes are of battles of the Sword Brothers fighting against the desert lands. The suns in each of the scenes are instead rusted spheres, pitted with eyes - a depiction of Armadeus in mimicry of the God of Law.
With ESP, Mayfly gets a "weird feeling" from the northeast - not undead, but a strange being whose thoughts are pure white noise.
Mass Casualties
We go north to the next room and come to a short 20' hallway, with a doorway north and east.
Several undead are in the room to the east and shamble out of the darkness to attack us.
The undead are skeletal creatures lacking in eyes but wearing mail armor.
One hits Grumbletoe, who took Ditl's spot on the front line, slashing him across the head. He loses 5 out of his 6 hp!
We back up into the previous room to form a choke point, and Mechtilde activates the Damage Enhancement on Dhinron.
Behind the undead, another bat-winged figure emerges from the darkness!
Haug is killed with a single blow from the undead, and a second one slays Grumbletoe!
Mechtilde whifs her attack, but Menczel and Blossom both land theirs, but fail to kill the creature on the front line.
Mayfly casts Fireball, just behind the group, so as to not hit us.
Two of the blind dead are slain, but the Meister lives still.
Ulf follows up with a Magic Missile on the Meister, wounding him.
Menczel and Yevegniy are hit, but survive.
In the next round, Menczel is slain, and at least three blind undead remain, with all four hirelings either dead or incapaciated.
The Power of Friendship Magic Swords
The power of her sword empowers Mechtilde to deal 40 damage to one of the undead (the Damage Enhancement makes her deal x4 damage for the next 10 rounds). She turns to the one on her right and kills it as well. She then steps forward and slays the Meister with a mighty blow.
Mayfly and Ulf, who were both planning to cast spells, stand down after watching Mechtilde mow down three undead in a round. Ulf puts a reassuring had on Mayfly's shoulder.
"It's ok. We're still important."
Mechtilde quickly finishes off the final undead and we find an emblem on the Meister that we'll need in the light room on level 2. The rings on the Meister's armor are guilded, which we think will be valuable as well.
More to Explore?
Ahead of us, to the east where the undead came from, Blossom spies a sarcophagus with the lid popped off, the room is covered with ropey ectoplasm.
To the north, Blossom sees another sarcophagus, but we decide to cut our losses for tonight and head back to the village. We're able to leave the abbey without further incident. The charmed cultist had to be left behind in order to fit our loot and fallen hirelings on the disk.
Counting Our Treasure, Burrying Our Dead
Back in Nightwick village, Blossom is able to appraise our treasure. The silk robes are worth 2,000sp and the silver masks are worth 1,000sp, but it will be hard to find buyers for them. The gilded mail is worth 2,000sp and it will be easier to find a buyer, but Mayfly wants to give it as a gift to curry with Lord Eckhart (who's a total dick).
Selling the masks and robes will either require travelling to Lychgate (where we recently made enemies) or to Blackleg (which requires passing through the rebellion in Knightpath).
We each gain 938xp!!!
Yevegniy levels up, gaining access to 2nd level spells!!!
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