Session 6 – The Tomb in the Shadowmount
Campaign I, session 6. Previous: Session 5. Next: Session 7.
Aeropos pulls Casino aside and offers to sell him a war dog (“I hear you have had some trouble with the hired help. Humans can of course be so fickle… perhaps I could arrange for you a less demanding, more loyal creature?”)
Casino accepts, also purchasing the leather barding and spiked collar, and names the dog Deuce.
Before the party leaves town, Contessa Selenia approaches Pash in the bath, asking for tales from the big city, and offering to throw another banquet when the party returns. Pash asks if there is anything she can do for the Contessa while in Vedycaer. The Contessa sighs, and laments how the troop mustering for war has left her husband without much way to advance or do much for the empire. Pash offers to ask around and the Contessa has a letter of recommendation drawn up with the Count’s seal on it.
The party takes off on what should be a day trip to visit this unrobbed tomb. Along the way, there’s an issue with the water supply - something has been growing in the waterskins. The party has to take a short detour foraging for a fresh spring, and is able to replenish supplies without heading back to Teryk. The following day, they enter the Shadowmount Forest, and soon notice a strange wasting sickness plaguing the trees around them. They soon find what will prove to be the source.
In the center of a ring of dead trees, there is a statue of an ancient Caernathi warrior, marked with the sigils of the Order of Rekkenmark. Based on this, Travain is able to date the site to before the Year of Trembling.
The statue is toppled to the ground, and the dais on which it stood has been slid slightly to one side, revealing a staircase into the underground tomb.
The party descends and spends an hour or so searching around. They find ten wooden caskets haphazardly placed, along with 8 more ornate sarcophagi regularly spaced. As the party completes their circuit they also find another statue, this time of a priest with an unknown symbol on their tabard (the Blood of Vol sigil).
At this time, they start to hear groaning from behind them, and the crunching of wood.
(Singil has identified that this area is a Manifest Zone to Mabar)
Those unhappy dead from the wooden caskets have started to rise, and the party prepares to meet them, securing the stairwell in case they need to make a retreat.
Zombies come from either side. Casino and Deuce guard one flank, Travain, Thranator!, and Abiyir guard the other. Alwyn takes potshots at a lone zombie coming from a central passage.
The party makes smart use of readied actions to protect each other from the much slower zombies. Tassi conjures a quartet of berserkers. Nevu fails to command any of the zombies. Alwyn takes a nasty claw from a zombie, and collapses, shrieking.
Nevu flies into a berserker rage, charging the zombie that downed Alwyn. Travain also steps in to help, dicing up the zombie.
Singil reaches Alwyn and finds a nasty permanent wound in his calf. He will be unable to forced march under his own power, but he is otherwise ok. With the proper care he will be back in action with one day of rest.
The party makes relatively short work of the remaining zombies. They are about to start randomly prying open the stone sarcophagi, or searching for secrets, when Nevu comes out of her rage and tells the party that she knows a cantrip for finding wealth.
Alwyn and Tassi climb out of the dungeon and tell the mercs guarding the cart to drive it a few hundred feet away, so it won’t interfere with Nevu’s magic.
The spell reveals that there is some kind of treasure behind the priest of Vol statue. About 20 minutes of searching by Thranator reveals the secret door mechanism, and the party pulls a chest, crate, and sealed ceramic jar out of the dungeon.
They begin making their way back to the road and towards Vedycaer. Along the way they find yet another wasting sickness afflicting the trees, as well as a fearfully despoiled patch of lungwort. The mercs, natives to this part of Caernath are disgusted and sickened by the despoiling they’ve seen. Their anger has made them fearless for the next encounter on this expedition.
We ended the session just outside of Fort Talon, about halfway to the city of Vedycaer.