"Join Me" - part 2

 Present:

• Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
• Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
• Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
  
• Bush Tucker. Human Rogue from Spite Anti - Darryl
• Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
• MARMALADING: Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
  
• Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
• Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
• Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven

 by Jeff 

... continued from part 1

"Crikey" stated Bush, "That's a lovely knife"
"Joe" continued Bush, "You may as well take my bow and the magic arrows, I'll be using this!"

A quick search of the room revealed no additional secrets or items of interest, and we continued to the end of the landing and down the stairs.

A pentagram was carved into the floor

The stairs ended at yet another room carved out of the rock. This room was also square, but contained a large pentagram carved into the stone floor. Strange figures and imaged were worked into the stone walls, and on the far side of the pentagram, another large opening could be seen leading on.

"Not liking the look of that pentagram" worried Galena.
"No traps around the bottom of the stairs" reported Griza, stepping into the room.

Immediately Griza stepped onto the floor of the room, and not even near the pentagram, a white light shone up from the pentagram shape. Starting at the nearest face, the light raced along the lines defining the pentagram until the shape was totally lit, illuminating the room in a bright glow. Leaping back out of the room with a startled exclamation, Griza prepared for some form of attack. As Griza's foot left the floor, the colour of the light flickered from white to a light blue, but continuing to glow. Everything was now illuminated in a soft blue glow.

The blue light reflected strangely from Balders face

"Hey" noted Joe, "Check out Balders face"

The blue light closely matched the blue colour of the speckles that could occasionally be seen in Balder's skin, and right now his face was twinkling as the blue speckles reflected the blue light from the floor. [This was the same blue colour of the strange egg from many adventures ago that had infected Balder, and was apparently the cause of his current "health" issues]

"That's not weird at all" mumbled Bush.

"Allow me" offered Balder, stepping down into the room.
"Not on the pentagram!" warned Phoebe.

The blue glow from the pentagram remained, and Balder, closely followed by the rest of the party, circled slowly around the edge of the room to the far door. A short passage led forward to a four-way intersection. Another pentagram was carved into the floor of the intersection, but this time there would be no circling around it. It filled the whole intersection.

"I'm sensing undead ahead" whispered Galena.

Griza made his way to the front and crouched down just before the intersection.
"Yup, and some form of magical trap right here" he reported.
"But I don't sense any magic here?" Balder questioned.
"No option" noted Phoebe, stepping boldly onto the middle of the pentagram.

Standing still in the middle of the pentagram, Phoebe cast her senses out along the three passages leading away. Nothing from the left, nothing from straight ahead, but some noises from the right. Peering down the right-hand passage into the darkness, sword held ready, Phoebe spotted some movement. The glitter of light reflecting from two large swords emerged from the gloom.

"Back" Phoebe called, "Back to the large pentagram room. And set for attackers!"

Everyone pulled back to the large pentagram room and spread out around the passage opening. Two large skeletons, wearing chain mail armour and wielding long swords lumbered forward towards us. 

"Get thee hence!" commanded Galena, attempting to turn these foul undead. Nope.

Balder cast a Dispel Magic, hoping to affect these creatures. Nope.

Red, wielding his mighty two-handed mace, laughed happily, and stepped forward to engage one.

Phoebe stepped in beside him, while Joe and Bush engaged the second skeletal warrior.

Making use of the space in the large room, and that the attacking skeletal warriors were confined by the narrow passage, the party felt that the fight would be quickly over. Only two of them after all.

Oh, how the Gods laughed!

Red swung his mighty magical mace, which carved through the air and swished over the skeletons head.
Phoebe struck, but her bladed weapon was only minimally effective.

[Bladed weapons only deal half-damage to skeletons!]

Joe's sword crunched satisfactorily into his target, but the skeleton barely noticed.

Bush, with a crazed cackle, swung his new knife with skill and precision, shearing between its ribs.

But neither Joe nor Bush dealt any damage to the creature!

[Joe's sword isn't magical, and the half damage effect against chain mail armour negated Bush's attack]

From behind, Balder cast his "Enchanted Weapon" spell on Joe, effectively creating a temporary magical weapon, while Bush stepped out of combat muttering angrily. Tabatha, the half-elven warrior we had rescued from the Massimo Island, stepped forward to take his place. She was wearing chain mail armour and carrying a glittering long sword. Surely this would be better now?

"There are two more of those things behind the others" called Griza, spotting two more down the short passage behind the first two skeletal warriors, and stepping forward to support Joe, "Hit them already!"

The battle raged on.

Joe, engaging the first skeleton while Tabatha and Griza moved forward to join him, attempted to Dodge, to minimise his chances of being hit. [A Dodge will win on a drawn roll during the opposed rolls of a melee combat scenario. A successful Dodge obviously avoids any chance of damage] But he failed his Dodge, and the creature struck him, dealing 4 damage after the effect of his chain mail armour was deducted. He also had to make a saving throw against Divine magic. [Shane just failed his saving throw by 1 point, but spent 1 Luck point to increase his saving roll to be a success. One never wants to fail a save against undead creatures if it can be helped!]

As a result of Joe being hit, he was forced back into the large pentagram room, and a third of the creatures stepped out of the corridor and engaged the party. Tabatha and Griza switched targets to the third creature, Joe batted on alone against the second, while Red and Phoebe pummelled at the first.

Red and Phoebe quickly took their opponent out, and the fourth warrior took its place.

Three combats were occurring in the room now. 

There was no way the previous instruction to avoid the blue glowing pentagram could be followed. Combatants were swarming around each other all across the room. The non-combatants had stepped back to the original entrance and were cheering the combatants on. The tide of the battle swayed first one way and then the other. The party dealt a reasonable amount of damage in the next melee round, although Griza's poisoned knife was proving minimally effective. The poison had no effect whatsoever, and the D6 cutting damage was halved due to the bony nature of the skeletons.

In the next melee round, Red was hit, taking 1 point of damage, but fortunately making his saving roll.

Phoebe was successful though, her sword breaking out a bunch of bones from the skeleton.

Tabatha was also hit, but the skeleton's blow wasn't sufficient to penetrate her armour.

But Joe, on his own against his opponent, had switched back to full attacks and finally managed a decent blow against the skeletal warrior. Even halved, his mighty blow cleaved its skull clean off and a second skeleton crumbled to the floor.

"YEAH" cheered Bush from the rear.

During the next melee round, Phoebe and Red both scored hits against their skeletal opponent, and it collapsed to the ground with a crash, bones shattering and bouncing across the floor of the room. Tabatha again took a minor blow, but again her armour saved her from actual damage. Unfortunately, Griza and Joe both missed their attacks against Tabatha's opponent. "Great elp vou lot are" muttered Tabatha as she readied for the next exchange of blows, relieved that both Phoebe and Joe were stepping in to assist. Just one of the nasty warriors left to defeat.

The Demise of Tabatha (npc)

In the next melee round, Tabatha was struck with a critical hit [Richard rolled a 1 for the skeleton's attack] and collapsed to the ground, dead! [The immediate damage, boosted by the critical roll effect, even mitigated by her 3-point armour reduction, knocked her into unconsciousness. She wasn't bleeding, so didn't need to roll against Constitution (or die), but she failed her saving roll against the undead effect] Her body quickly aged, her skin drying out and withering, her face collapsing in on itself and stretching tightly across her skull, then crumbling to dust leaving just a skeleton inside her chain mail armour. Her skeletal fingers still clutched her magical long sword, and her large shield lay discarded beside her body.

Stepping over Tabatha's body, Phoebe took the primary attack role for the next melee round. [Primary attacker engages with the opponent, leaving any secondary attackers to attack with a bonus roll (two rolls, take the most advantageous result). Good news when you outnumber your opposition, but not so good if they outnumber you and can get bonus attacks against the party!] 

Griza withdrew from the combat and joined Bush at the rear.

Phoebe, Red, and Joe all scored hits against the last skeletal warrior, and it was destroyed.

"Take that ya mangy undead monsters" yelled Galena happily.

As the bones clattered to the floor, Balder again heard a voice in his head. 

"BALDER .... JOIN ME" it called, "YOU ARE CLOSE NOW"

Joe gathered up Tabatha's long sword, Red spoke a few words, Galena shed a few tears, and then the party were off, forward to the intersection with the pentagram symbol. A quick foray to the left and right found a small room at the end of a short passage each way. Each room had two alcoves, presumably where the skeletal warriors had waited, but nothing else of interest.

Only one passage remained, straight ahead. No doubt our great battle had alerted whatever lay ahead to our presence, but gripping our weapons tightly, and straining our senses for any indication of danger, we boldly advanced down the dark passage.

The black sarcophagus dominated the room

In fact, the passage was quite short, maybe ten meters, and then it discharged into a large rectangular room hewn from the stone. A large black obsidian sarcophagus dominated the centre of the room, resting on an elevated stone table, its lid very obviously ajar. Symbols of CANKER were carved into the stone and scrawled across the walls and floor in what appeared to be blood. The pungent smell of incense drifted past us in the passage,

"Undead" noted Galena.
"Yup, I totally agree" confirmed Red.

The tracking compass, attuned to the amulet of Simeon Massimo, now known to be a vampire, pointed unerringly at the sarcophagus. Phoebe stepped cautiously forward into the room.

"Woosh"

Torches in scones around the four walls burst into flame, and a flickering red glow lit up the room. The red light glinted ominously from the shiny obsidian sarcophagus, highlighting the ajar lid.

"I want to cut something" yelled Bush pushing forward, caressing his new knife lovingly.

"Hold on" commanded Phoebe, "There's nothing to cut yet"
"Maybe you" leered Bush menacingly, waving his knife in Phoebe's face.

But Galena calmed Bush down with a gentle word, stepped forward with a vial of Holy water, and upended it over the side of the sarcophagus, without even looking in.

A loud sizzling noise emerged from the sarcophagus, and a cloud of stinking vapour bubbled up and spread across the ceiling before slowly dissipating. Before it had even stopped discharging vapour, Bush had leapt up onto the stone table, leaned over the side of the sarcophagus, and thrust in his knife.

"Take that" he yelled, then stiffened and slowly toppled backwards off the table to crumple in a heap on the floor, unconscious. Balder quickly stepped forward and kicked the knife out of Bush's hand, but as his boot connected and sent the knife skittering across the floor, a sharp pain lanced his foot.
[1 point of damage to Balder due to contact with the knife] 

"Bloody hell" Balder winced, "And I didn't even touch the thing"

Phoebe leapt up onto the table and peered into the sarcophagus. A skeleton rested there, Simeon's amulet draped around its neck and a bracelet wrapped around its radius and ulna bones.

Red offered to torch the body, but Phoebe took one of the wooden stakes and drove it repeatedly through the body, especially in the vicinity of where the heart should have been. The bones crumbled to pieces. Reaching into the sarcophagus, Phoebe grabbed the amulet and the bracelet and jumped off the table. 

The bracelet rested on Simeon's robes

Balder cast a Detect magic spell.

"Oh" he exclaimed, "The three amulets are no longer magical. But that bracelet is"
"That clinches it" Phoebe declared, "Simion is dead"
"Well, that's torn it" stated Griza, "Thursa wanted him bought back alive" 

"Sigh. No magical item reward then" grumbled Napolean.
"Let's take back some evidence" suggested Bush, having just revived from his unconscious state.
"Oooohh" he Bush, "I feel terrible. What happened, and where's my knife?"

Spotting his knife on the floor in the corner of the room, Bush scrambled over to it and clutched it to his chest. "Ahhhh" he sighed happily. Then he leapt up to his feet, bounded over to the table, sprung up onto it and hacked off the skull from the rest of the skeleton. Holding the skull up in the air and staring into its eye sockets, he declared "We'll take this back to Thursa!" 

Galena confirmed that the strong sense of Undead previously here in the room was much reduced, if not gone altogether. There was no exit from this sarcophagus chamber, apart from the passage we had arrived through, so a thorough search was undertaken. Sure enough, a secret door was discovered in the far-right corner of the room (from the entrance) and Griza began a scan for traps.

"Magical trap" Griza confirmed.

"Allow me" offered Balder.

Griza spotted three small holes through the door panel, a gaseous form sneaky exit, and plugged them up. Everyone then cleared out of the room and Balder cast a Dispel Magic on the door. That seemed to do the trick [A successful opposed roll of Balder's skill at level 3 spells vs. the caster's skill at the level 2 Traps spell. Balder got a larger margin below his skill level, yay] and Griza opened the door.

A short passage led off to the bottom of a shaft, where a series of metal rungs protruding from the stone formed a ladder leading up. The sweet smell of incense lingered in the air here, and Galena confirmed there was still no sense of Undead. The shaft was about four metres in height and led to a stone landing and yet another passage leading off into darkness. This passage was long, very long. We cautiously moved forward along the passage, 25 metres, 50 metres, 150 metres, 200 metres.

Then we came to an old iron portcullis that blocked the passage. The flickering of distant torches lit the passage ahead, but on the other side of the portcullis. Griza carefully checked the bars, the passage floor, walls, and roof overhead.

"No sign of traps" he concluded.

Phoebe and Joe each took a grip on the lower bars of portcullis and lifted. With much effort and strain, the old portcullis creaked and groaned but eventually lifted with load scraping and graunching noises. Jamming the portcullis open, everyone scurried through to the other side.

The passage ran on for about five metres, then turned right and ran straight ahead. Torches were mounted along each side of the passage, their flames casting odd flickering shadows across the walls as we passed.

"Careful" called Galena, "I'm sensing Undead here now"

"Look" pointed out Joe, "My shadow isn't me"

Joe had noticed that our shadows cast by the torchlight weren't moving in time with us, in fact they were different shapes and numbers altogether. These were shadows of much larger things than us! This discovery didn't bode well. "Time for some healing" decided Napolean.

Napolean cast a couple of Cure's on Joe, one of our key fighters.

Balder was feeling quite unwell. The atmosphere of the tunnels was getting to him, or perhaps it was the Undead presence that pervaded this unholy place that was influencing him. Red cast a Transfer spell, transferring magic points from his reserve to Balder. 

[Chris was about to leave for the night, so wanted to make sure we had magic power to deal with whatever came up next in this section of the adventure. Joe and Phoebe would be the only real fighters left, hence the healing. Balder had also been having his Strength stat. reduced by Richard (DM) as a result of circumstances unknown to the party. In fact, Balder had just lost another point of Strength, and was thus suffering from the effects of physical degradation]

A strange Shadow attacked Griza

Setting off down the passage again, we were soon "surprised" as one of the strange shadows actually peeled off the wall and launched itself at Griza [I rolled the worst Luck roll! The strange creature easily struck Griza, doing 4 points of physical damage and requiring Jeff to make a saving throw against divine magic, which fortunately was successful]

Galena hastily called on the powers of her God, Vingt et Un, successfully Turning the shadow creature from its attack. Griza shook off whatever nasty effect would have befallen him, and everyone rushed forward along the passage. 

Galena managed to keep the Shadows at bay behind us. After another two-hundred metres or so, we arrived at the end of the passage. Metal rungs protruded from the wall, with a shaft rising up above us to a closed wooded trapdoor.

Griza clambered up first, checking for traps on the trapdoor (clear) and dropped back down to allow Phoebe to climb up and fling it open. The trapdoor opened into a storage room cluttered with domestic supplies and lots of other "stuff". A stair led upwards, a carved stone archway opened into another room on our right, and a closed wooden doorway stood in front of us.

"JOIN ME" reverberated into Balders head, "YOU ARE CLOSE NOW"

Balder staggered over towards the archway, which Galena noted did not have any Undead sense beyond and led everyone through the arch into a cold chamber adorned with religious symbols and strange implements of torture. A blood-stained table stood in the centre of the room. Balder staggered forward and flung himself to the ground in front of the table.

"Ewww" exclaimed Galena, "This is a shrine to CANKER"

But there was nothing much of interest, and certainly no magical treasure, so we dragged Balder out into the storeroom and checked out the stairs.

...

The smells of cooking drifted down the stairs from the room above. But nice smells this time.
"Another undead creature cooking?" wondered Phoebe.
"Smells too good" noted Bush, "Definitely a Sheila up there"

Assuming that our element of surprise had been lost by the previous battle and noise, if we ever had the element of surprise, we rushed up the stairs into the kitchen. A well-appointed kitchen, in a nice setting. Sunlight poured in through the large windows, which looked out over a garden with some part of the city on the far side of a tall stone wall. An older woman was standing at the stove stirring something in a large pot. She turned towards us. Holy symbols of Canker clattered from around her neck

"Welcome Balder" she stated, "I am Gabriella Massimo, the wife of Simeon"
"Ah, hello" replied Balder, "So not a vampire I take it"
"Definitely not" she responded.

[At this point Richard had everyone make a saving through against arcane magic.
Surprisingly, and probably fortunately, everyone succeeded]

"I see you are carrying my knife" she noted, gesturing at Bush.
"It will not work against me, but maybe you should try it on one of your friends" she commanded.

[At this point Richard made Darryl make a saving throw against arcane magic.
Surprisingly, and probably fortunately, everyone succeeded]

Balder steps forward. He feels a familiarity towards this woman and wants to protect her from any harm that might be directed towards her. But he is also conflicted. Is this not a follower, even a priestess, of Canker, one of the evilest of evil gods, the purveyor of pain and suffering?

"Fuck it" he thinks to himself and .....

"Join Me" - part 1

Present:

• Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
• Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
• Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
  
• Bush Tucker. Human Rogue from Spite Anti - Darryl
• Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
• MARMALADING: Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
  
• Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
• Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
• Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven

 by Jeff 

"Let's rest up first" Galena had suggested. 

The party was standing around the entrance to the Spite Battle graveyard, in the dead of night, contemplating whether to track Simeon Massimo, now confirmed as an actual vampire, into the heart of the graveyard. All the fighters had been injured in their recent battle with the skeletal wolves, and all the magic users were extremely depleted in terms of magic points. Napolean did have a small reserve, on account of his marmalading state through the recent excitement below the Massimo Island in Kilgith Cove, but this was unlikely to even partially support a battle with undead creatures in a graveyard at night!

It was agreed that rest would be the better part of valour.

"Off to the Jolly Jester then?" suggested Phoebe.
"Maybe not" countered Bush, "I think we should try a new inn"

Bush had recalled that the Assassin's Guild had sent a few "visitors" to find him at the Jolly Jester in order to recover the magic ring that Bush had bullied from the dwarf Harlequin. 

But the Jolly Jester with its friendly innkeeper Lyra Silvermoon won the day, so we made our way there. After pounding on the door for some minutes (it was the early hours after all) the sleepy night manager informed us that they had no rooms available. So, we continued on to the Cheeky Chalice, which was just around the corner and offered equivalent comfort, and more anonymity. And they had rooms for us. Phoebe handed over a small bag of coins, which didn't hurt the quest for accommodation!

Napolean used his magic points by curing Joe and Phoebe of their Major Wounds, inflicted by the nasty skeletal wolves earlier in the night, in addition to another Cure for Phoebe. Then the magic users took their recharge grapes/wafers and retired for twelve hours of recovery. Griza also used the twelve hours to get a decent rest and allow his body some natural healing, while Bush and Tabitha shared the watch duties. Since it was the early hours of the morning already, the twelve-hour resting period would end in the afternoon tomorrow, at which point we would make decisions regarding the next steps in chasing down Simeon the vampire.

After waking from their recharge slumber, the magic users plied the party with Cures, depleting their magic points yet again. But everyone was feeling much healthier! It was concluded that a search of the graveyard during the remainder of the afternoon, followed by another rest/recovery period would allow appropriate preparation for a graveyard assault the following morning. Taking the "locate object compass" we returned to the graveyard for a proper reconnoitre. Tabitha the elf said she would join us later after running a few errands and collecting some equipment from her family home.

The black stone Massimo mausoleum

The compass led us to the centre of the graveyard and a raised stone mausoleum. Constructed of black obsidian, fours steps led up the mausoleum floor where a black stone throne sat. 

Four stone columns and the back wall supported a stone roof, and each of the capitals of the columns were shaped like bats with oversized curled wings and a central face.

The Massimo name was spelled out in black obsidian across the front lintel, and strange figures and symbols were carved into the throne. 

The locate compass needle spun slowly around and around, pointing nowhere, and everywhere!

"Definitely the place then" confirmed Balder.

Balder couldn't see any glows of magic from anywhere on the mausoleum, but decided to cast a Detect magic spell, just in case.

"Nothing" Balder declared, "Oh wait, I hear something"

"JOIN ME" a voice boomed into Balder's head.
"COME TO ME. JOIN ME" he heard.
"ACCEPT THE POWER. JOIN ME"

"Do you hear that?" Balder exclaimed, looking about nervously and backing away from the mausoleum.
"It must be Simeon speaking to me directly" Balder declared, "Only ... it's a female voice. It can't be Simeon"
"Let's get out of here" Balder suddenly instructed, already walking away towards the city.

"YOU HAVE FOUND ME. DON'T GO. JOIN ME"

"I'm not joining nothing" Balder muttered, starting to jog.

Having not heard anything at all apart from Balder's muttering, the rest of the party looked at each other in confusion and followed Balder out of the graveyard.

"I'm off to grab some nice sharp stake thingies" Bush said and wandered off in another direction. As the rest of the party followed Balder back towards the Cheeky Chalice, Bush noticed a cloaked figure slip out from an ally and follow him down the street. Muttering to himself, Bush took some countersurveillance measures and soon found himself alone. He proceeded with his wooden stake procurement activities and was safely back at the Chalice before night.

More rest with hit point and spell point recovery overnight.

But, during the night, both Joe and Bush had vivid dreams of bats swooping and swirling through the dark outside their windows. Joe rolled over and stayed asleep, but Bush, putting more weight to dreams and portents, jumped up from the bed and carefully peeked out through the curtains. 

A small black bat was sitting on the windowsill, peering straight back at him!

"CRIKEY" Bush yelled, leaping back into the centre of the room and letting the curtain swing closed.

Quickly waking Griza and Joe, Bush explained that they were under attack.

"Look" he said, pulling back the curtain.

The solitary bat, only about 15cm high, blinked its small beady eyes, and stared back at Bush.

"Maybe they are common around here?" suggested Griza.
"No way mate", replied Bush, "That there is an undead spy"
"It is a bit suspicious" noted Joe, "I was just dreaming about a colony of bats hanging around here"
"Crikey" responded Bush, "I was dreaming the very same thing. Definitely spies I tell ya"

The three tough party members cautiously watched the bat for about five minutes, and then it fluttered up and away into the night.

"Yikes!" squealed Bush, drawing his sword, "Oh wait, it's going"

Bush peered out through the window, looking all around, then carefully closed the curtain ensuring that there were no openings that anything could look through. Then they all went back into bed and eventually went back to sleep.

Sometime later during the night, Joe again had a similar vivid dream of bats swooping and swirling through the dark outside their window. He slipped out of bed and padded silently across to the window. Pulling back the curtain with a sudden jerk, Joe found three very large bats sitting outside on the sill, looking straight at him. These ones were many times the size of the previous little guy, and they were ugly.
When I say ugly, I don't mean rough looking, I mean hideous!

[Bonus points if you get the side reference there]

Stepping back with a yell, Joe peered back at the bats curiously.
Bush woke and quickly gathered up his bow and magic arrows.
"Get them" Bush yelled, "Open the window"
"Don't open the freaking window!" Joe yelled back.

Joe strode forward and violently closed the curtains.
"Crikey" yelled Bush, "Let's get them." 
"NO" commanded Joe, "They can't get in. I'm sure they will be gone by morning"

They were gone by morning; although Bush wondered where exactly they had gone.

The tracking compass hadn't indicated any movement in the location of Simeon, so after a hasty breakfast, they party, with Bush's bag of wooden stakes, made their way to the graveyard and gathered around the Massimo mausoleum, ready for adventure.

They poked and prodded and searched all through the inside of the mausoleum, all round the outside of the mausoleum, and all around the adjacent graves and tombs. Nothing.

"This isn't helping" noted Phoebe, "Let's check for the Evil"

Balder cast his Detect Evil spell and suddenly lit up like REAL herself. The solid white glow radiating from Balder's body didn't cast its light as expected though, it looked to be sucked up by the black obsidian stone of the mausoleum itself.

[Jamie fumbled his spell casting roll, rolling a 20, and triggering a random magical effect. Spending 1 Luck point and rolling 1 dice, the random effect was to glow life a light for 10 minutes. Spending more luck would allow for more rolls, selecting the preferred one. Not spending any Luck would require 2 rolls, with the DM selecting the worst effect for the fumble. Always better to spend some Luck in these situations]

"Search again" Phoebe instructed.'

This time a small hidden lever was located within the decorations at the back of the stone throne on the raised mausoleum floor. Griza conducted a thorough check for traps and declared it safe. A small 1m square panel swung open to reveal a narrow shaft dropping down into darkness. A very unnatural darkness in fact. The thick inky black Darkness that is the opposite of Light. 

"Oh" squealed Galena, "I'm sensing undead from down there"
"What a surprise" mumbled Bush.
"Seems OK to me" stated Balder, "In fact, it seems quite pleasant"
"JOIN ME" whispered a woman's voice directly into Balder's head.
"Let's head down then" suggested Balder.
"It's a bit Dark" said Griza, seeing nothing at all through his magical spectacles.

Balder cast a Continual Light spell, which seemed to cancel the Darkness in the shaft, and suddenly Griza could make out a stone chute that dropped away steeply. A faint reflective glimmer from a floor some meters below could be made out at the bottom of the chute.

"After you" Griza offered, gesturing Galena forward.

With Galena leading, (the best against undead in the party, except maybe Balder who everyone else was starting to be a little cautious of) the party slid down the chute and onto the black obsidian stone landing below. A black obsidian stairwell curved down in a tight spiral from the landing.

"They sure do love their black," noted Bush.
"No traps on the stairs" reported Griza.

The stairs spiralled down for some meters and arrived at a second black obsidian landing, about five meters long, before spiralling down again.

"I'm sensing undead more strongly here" noted Galena from the front, "In fact, from the wall here."

After a brief search, a secret door was discovered on the right wall of the landing. Griza checked it for traps and carefully opened it after finding nothing. Galena had her Turn Undead ability on standby, and the spell casters and fighters crowded around the opening, ready for anything.

There was nothing. A short passage opened into a larger room containing two raised stone daises, black obsidian of course. Symbols of CANKER adorned the walls and floor of the room, candles burnt with flickering red flames on shelves around the walls, and incense sticks smoldered in garish holders at the four corners of each dais. A smallish coffin also rested on each dais. 

The Massimo twin vampires

The lid of the first coffin was slid aside. Bush, clutching one of his wooden stakes in a sweaty trembling hand, peered in. A young male child, probably eight-nine years old, dressed in black robes, rested on his back with open eyes staring straight up at him.

"Crikey" Bush yelled, leaping back, "Eet's just a kid"

But the kid didn't move, so Bush took a breath and stepped forward again.

He staked it through the heart. The body twitched once and stilled. The eyes slowly closed.

After a few minutes, the body seemed to deflate, the robes collapsing to the bottom of the coffin.
A glowing red broach was left amongst a pile of dust within the crumpled robes.

"Easy" gloated Bush and repeated the process with the other coffin.

A young girl this time, otherwise exactly the same.

"I recognise them from those painting in the Tower" noted Phoebe.
"Crikey Balder, are you crying mate? asked Bush.

Balder's eyes were red, and possibly puffy. Definitely red though.

"No" stated Balder firmly, "What do you mean?"

Phoebe pulled out her facial mirror and held it up to Balder's face.
"See" Phoebe responded, "Red, like you're upset"
"What's this" queried Balder, "I can't see anything in this mirror"

Sure enough, Balder wasn't visible in the mirror. He had no reflection at all.

"Crikey" whispered Bush, "Even I know what that means!"
"It doesn't mean anything" grumped Balder, "This is a magical place, that's all."
"Let's continue down" suggested Joe.

"YOU ARE HERE. JOIN ME" the voice whispered into Balder's head.

Balder didn't pass on this tidbit of information!

Arriving at another straight landing in the spiral stair, a search was carried out for secret doors. Sure enough, one was located in the right-hand wall of the landing. Very similar in configuration to the location up on the previous landing.

"No undead sense here though" Galena reported.

Opening up the secret door revealed another short passageway to a room beyond.
Similar to the previous room there were many symbols of Canker, candles, and incense.
But only one raised dais with one coffin. And two finely carved statues of female warriors!

"Magic here" confirmed Balder after casting his Detect magic spell, "Those statues, the room in general, and something in the coffin there".

Balder stepped boldly into the room.

"JOIN ME" whispered the voice in his mind.

The statues didn't animate, the coffin didn't open, and nothing leapt out from the darkness.
But Balder couldn't open the coffin, it was too heavy for his little gnome muscles!

Phoebe stepped boldly into the room.

The statues didn't animate, the coffin didn't open, and nothing leapt out from the darkness.

A knife and a red broach sat in the coffin

Pushing the coffin lid open, Phoebe bravely peered inside.
No bodies but inside rested a small box containing a red broach and a long, sharp looking, knife.
Gathering these few items up, using a thick leather cloth to avoid actual touch, Phoebe brought them out of the room and back to the stair landing.

Galena cast a Detect Evil and reported that only the Canker symbols in the room, and Balder, were evil.

"Give us a look at the knife then" suggests Bush, "I ain't got me a magic weapon yet"

Unwrapping the items, Phoebe held them out to Bush.
Bush grabbed the knife and gives it a few swings through the air.
A pulse of power surged up from the handle of the knife and into Bush.
The blade twitched in Bush's hand, almost of its own accord, and Bush feels a strong desire to swing the blade towards Balder, cutting through the skin of his face, and paring it off. With an effort of will, Bush resists that desire. 

"Crikey" states Bush, "That's a lovely knife"
"Joe" continued Bush, "You may as well take my bow and the magic arrows, I'll use this"

A quick search of the room reveals no additional secrets or items of interest, and we continue to the end of the landing and down the stairs.

A description of the subsequent encounters with skeletal warries, shadows, and Simeon Massimo himself will follow in part 2 of this post.

.... to be continued ....

The spells of cooking drifted down the stairs from the room above. But nice smells this time.
"Another undead creature cooking?" wondered Phoebe.
"Smells too good" noted Bush, "Definitely a Sheila up there"

Assuming that our element of surprise had been lost by the previous battle and noise, if we ever had the element of surprise, we rushed up the stairs into the kitchen. A well-appointed kitchen, in a nice setting. Sunlight poured in through the large windows, which looked out over a garden with some part of the city on the far side of a tall stone wall. An older woman was standing at the stove stirring something in a large pot. She turned towards us. Holy symbols of Canker clattered from around her neck

"Welcome Balder" she stated, "I am Gabriella Massimo, the wife of Simeon"
"Ah, hello" replied Balder, "So not a vampire I take it"
"Definitely not" she responded.

[At this point Richard had everyone make a saving through against arcane magic.
Surprisingly, and probably fortunately, everyone succeeded]

"I see you are carrying my knife" she noted, gesturing at Bush.
"It will not work against me, but maybe you should try it on one of your friends" she commanded.

[At this point Richard made Darryl make a saving throw against arcane magic.
Surprisingly, and probably fortunately, everyone succeeded]

Balder steps forward. He feels a familiarity towards this woman and wants to protect her from any harm that might be directed towards her. But he is also conflicted. Is this not a follower, even a priestess, of Canker, one of the evilest of evil gods, the purveyor of pain and suffering?

"Fuck it" he thinks to himself and .....

"No traps"

Present:

• Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
• Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
• Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
  
• Bush Tucker. Human Rogue from Spite Anti - Darryl
• Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
• MARMALADING: Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
  
• MARMALADING: Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
• Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
• Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven

 by Jeff 

"So" asked Bush, "What's the plan?"

The Massimo island plan

The party were gathered around the base of the circular stone tower, looking up its ivy-covered walls towards the battlements that ringed its circular top. A ring of arrow slits circled the tower just below the battlements, obviously too narrow to pass through. Otherwise, there were no openings, apart from the wooden door that sat just ahead.

Red had blinked his eyes open, wiped off the sticky marmalade that had dribbled over his face, and gathered his fragmented wits. [A four-week vacation, with a week boozing up on a cruise ship and another lounging around in Queenstown will do that]

"Where are we?" grunted Red, "What's this tower? Can I burn it?"
"Shhhh" whispered Phoebe, "We are on a small island, looking for Simeon Massimo"
"We think he could be in there" Phoebe finished.
"Oh" replied Red quietly.

"So, we are still on the quest to get that guy aye. I'm so looking forward to my +1 studded leather armour reward for this" Red concluded, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Don't get ahead of yourself Red, we still need to catch the guy" noted Balder.
"No traps" noted Griza, crouched down in front of the door, "and not even locked"

Griza and Bush exchanged glances, eyebrows raised.

"Too easy mate" noted Bush.
"I agree" replied Griza, "I'll just take a look up at the roof before we barge in the front"

And Griza started up the side of the tower, swinging easily up the clumps of ivy that covered the walls. It wasn't until he was about halfway up, about 6m above the ground, that he noticed something odd with the ivy. It was writhing about under his hands and feet, almost as though the ivy was trying to restrain him. It was, and it did. Grabbing his knife and attempting to slash the ivy away from his limbs, Griza was soon wrapped tightly and held fast against the side of the tower wall.

"Hellppp" Griza mumbled from beneath the ivy.

Fortunately, Bush had been watching the climb and already had his rope lasso whirling above his head. With a deft throw the lasso spun over Griza's wrist, which was luckily protruding out of the ivy, and Bush drew it tight.

Phoebe and Red leant their weight, and Griza was quickly ripped out of the clutching ivy's grasp with a POP, and he tumbled off the side of the tower towards the ground. Balder cast a Feather Fall spell and Grizza floated gently to the ground, landing lightly on his feet.

"Ow" Griza complained, "That ivy has thorns"
"And you damn near ripped my arm off with all that pulling" he grumbled. "But thanks"

[I failed my attack role to cut my way out of the thorns, made my Luck roll to have something free to get lassoed, took 4 points of damage from the wrenching, and made my Save against the poison exuded by the ivy's thorns]

"Well, I guess the roof is out" concluded Griza, "It's the door then!"

Swinging the front door slowly open, Griza peered in. A dusty old entrance parlour, musty and smelling of things long dead and rotten, the room didn't appear recently used at all.

"There be creepy undead things in there!" noted Balder, his neck hairs all standing up on end.
"Do we need to be going in there at all?" asked Bush, "I not liking the vibe"
"What about a Locate spell?" suggested Galena, "On that pendant thing Simeon wears"

So, Galena cast a Locate Object on the pendant.

We had used a similar Locate to find the pendant when we were back on the mainland, which had indicated it was out here on the island. Napolean had used his magic locating twig for that, but Napolean had slumped to the ground in a [Covid positive] marmalade state, so we were forced to use up some of our dwindling supply of Magic Points to cast an actual spell.

"Back there" reported Galena, pointing back at the old, ruined keep, "But down below somewhere"

We figured that the most likely places for an old stair down would be under one of the four corner towers of the keep, or perhaps within the magically enchanted room in collapsed building, which room we didn't want to attempt to enter due to its magical aura and the magical trap on the door!

We searched the towers.

The first was totally collapsed, mossy stone masonry littering the ground within the stumps of the original tower walls. Nothing to see, and nothing found.

Bats covered the underside of the roof

The second tower was partially collapsed, although portions of the walls still stood to their original height of around ten metres, with the old conical roof perched precariously on top. A quick search didn't find anything of interest, although the underside of the roof was covered in bats, their red eyes glaring ominously down at us.

The third tower was similar, bats all over the underside of the roof, masonry rubble from the partially collapsed walls strewn across the ground. But tucked between the rubble we spotted an old wooden trapdoor, partially buried.

Red and Phoebe put their mighty strength to good use, and soon the wooden trapdoor was clear. All eyes turned to Balder.

"Not sensing anything" Balder noted.

All eyes then turned to Griza.

After crouching over the old trapdoor for a short period, Griza looked up.
"No magic, no traps, no noise" he pronounced.

The trapdoor was lifted, revealing a dark shaft that dropped away into the earth, a rusty old ladder pinned to one side. Griza went first, to reconnoitre, his magic spectacles perched on his nose. The ladder continued to the bottom of the shaft which dropped into a very large cave. One small entrance led off from the opposite side. The roof of this cave was also covered in bats. Huge bats, much bigger than those tiny ones up in the roof of the Keep towers. Griza silently climbed back up the ladder to report.

Red dropped a Silence spell down the shaft.

"That should do it" Red chuckled, "Won't hear us, and couldn't navigate even if they did"

Phoebe led the next climb, Balder immediately behind, with the rest following.

"Maybe I should just stay and guard the top here?" stammered Bush, peering down into the gloom.
But after glancing up at the the blanket of bats across the roof of the old tower above him, he eventually scurried down after the others.

The start of the lower caves

In the silence, the party crossed nervously below the huge bats and hurried into the opening on the far side of the cave. A narrow tunnel led off into the distance. Well, some ten-fifteen meters distance, before turning to the right and halting at a sturdy wooden door. Metal bands wrapped horizontally across the door at half meter centres, and a large metal lock prominently positioned in the centre.

"No traps" reported Griza, after studying the lock for a minute.
"But definitely magic" noted Balder.
"Oh" exclaimed Griza, backing up, "I shouldn't try to pick that then"
"What about that magic key we found in the other tower?" suggested Joe.

The magic key was produced, and as Griza slipped it towards the lock the bit blurred slightly and changed shape to slide smoothly into the keyhole. "Click"

Griza carefully swung the door open a crack and peered in. A small room maybe four meters across by six meters wide, a stairwell running up on the far left, a closed door to the near right marked with a death rune, and a rough circular opening in the wall directly ahead. No people or creatures, although stone rubble littered the ground around the circular opening. 

"Someone smashed through that wall" noted Phoebe.
"I bet that stair goes up to the magic room we found in the keep above" mused Balder, "You know, based on the distance and direction we have travelled along this tunnel"
"Straight ahead through that opening then" suggested Red, "You know, based on the last known location of that pendant we identified, ... and that ugly looking rune thing on that door"

Griza took point, Balder just behind him, and they led the party through the opening and into the rough tunnel beyond. The tunnel twisted and turned, angling to the left, and eventually opened up into a much larger cavern. Griza tried to pierce the darkness with his magic spectacles, but there was nothing to see. Balder's neck hairs began to prickle and rise up.

"Undead here" Balder whispered.
"And this is in the wrong location" declared Red, "Better head back to that other door"

We retreated back down the tunnel to the small room.

Griza checked out the stairwell first. As he cautiously peered over the top steps into the room above, a fire burst into life in a stone fireplace, and torches flickered on in scones placed around the walls. Now quite familiar with this type of presence activation magic, Griza wasn't perturbed at all, and glanced around the room. Some type of Necromancers workroom he figured, taking in the desk covered in papers, the blood-stained table covered with knives and clamps, and the large collection of jars and vials loaded with powders, dead insects, and other unmentionable things. No people or creatures, and everything covered in thick layers of dust.

"No traps" reported Griza and then slipping the magic key into the lock.

Another small room, three caged cells along the left wall in front of the door, all empty, and another door in the far wall past the cells. No people or creatures. Griza scuttled across the room to the door.

"No traps" reported Griza slipping the magic key into the lock.

Another room, maybe three times the size of the small one we were currently in. Straight in front of the door, and bedded into the stone floor, was a slightly raised black obsidian slab, sarcophagus sized and covered in strange markings. To the left beyond the obsidian slab stood half a dozen large vats, lidded, about one and a half meters high and half a metre in diameter. On the far left, in the same wall as the door we were peering through, was another door. The only other door!

CANKER

"That's Canker script" noted Red.

Everyone looked down at the strange makings on the obsidian slab.

"You shouldn't look at it though!" Red exclaimed.

[Canker, the God of suffering and death, is not well liked by the other Gods, and certainly not by Hob]

"It's definitely magical" noted Balder, "And it's humming a bit"

Skirting carefully around the obsidian slab, Griza approached the other door.

"No traps" he exclaimed and slipped the magic key into the lock.

Another small room, purpose very apparent! A pair of iron maidens stood against the far wall, a stretching rack and Judas cradle to the left, a large wooden table in the centre held an assortment of knives, spikes, needles, thumbscrews, and even a matching set of pears of anguish.

No people, creatures, bodies, or doors though.

"This is disappointing" grunted Bush, poking through the torture instruments on the table.
"That is magic" noted Balder, pointing at one of the smaller thumbscrews.
"Let me see" commanded Galena, testing the thumbscrew, and then slipping it into her bag.
"Now where?" wondered Phoebe.

A more thorough search of the torture room revealed a secret door, in the right-hand wall.

Griza had it open in seconds, and once again led off into the dark tunnel beyond.

"We're heading in the wrong direction again" noted Red.
"Sshhh" whispered Phoebe, "Let's go a bit further to be sure"

The tunnel twisted around to the left, then came to an intersection. Straight ahead the tunnel was blocked off with an old portcullis, iron bars slightly rusted, but solid and sturdy. To the right a man-made passage led off into the dark.

"Undead up ahead" stated Balder, rubbing the back of his neck.
"That way" instructed Red, "To the right. That's more where we want to go!"

Griza led off to the right. Almost immediately the passage was blocked by a solid metal door. 

"No traps" Griza declared.
"Ha, just kidding" Griza continued, "Definitely some kind of magical trap on this lock"
"Magic door confirmed" stated Balder.

Griza took a deep breath and slipped the magic key carefully into the lock. "Click"

The magic key was proving useful

The door swung silently open revealing a square room, strangely decorated.
The floor and walls were lined with a series of dark grey and light grey tiles, arranged in an 8x8 grid in a checkerboard pattern. The door had opened near the middle of the wall, let's call it d1, an opening in the left wall at the far corner, let's call it a8, led off somewhere to the left, and a seriously well carved imp brandishing two swords rested at the end of the wall to our left, at a1. Of particular note, and in total contrast to the other rooms we had recently been in, there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere!

"What's the bet it's all magical" grunted Joe.
"It's all magical" confirmed Balder.
"Don't step in yet" cautioned Phoebe.
"No traps" chuckled Griza, "I don't think a magically activated demon imp is classed as a trap"

Bush produced a rope, and Phoebe was securely attached to one end. Red and Joe gripped the rope, and Phoebe, drawing a big breath, took the first step in, d1.

[Richard made Andrew roll a save vs. divine magic (powered by the Gods), which Andrew chose to spend Luck points on to make sure it succeeded. As Phoebe took every other step, Richard made Andrew roll vs. divine magic]

Making sure to keep on the colour not matching the imp's tile, Phoebe carefully stepped and jumped across the tiles to the opening on the far left. d1-c2-c4-c6-a8.

"Stairs" called Phoebe, "Give me some slack and I'll check what's up here"

Phoebe disappeared into the opening and explored the stairs. She was back pretty quickly and reported that the stairs just went up to a small landing where a ladder led up to a wooden trapdoor in the stone ceiling above. Apparently, the trapdoor was blocked from above by something heavy. Phoebe had given it her all but couldn't budge it.

"Likely that second corner tower" stated Red, "That's where I think we would be"

As Phoebe carefully made her way back across the tiles, stepping exactly along the reverse path she took on the way across, she failed one of her divine magic saves! Everyone held their breathe to see what would happen. Would the magic imp activate and attack Phoebe with its two wicked swords, or would Phoebe just disappear with a POP, and be transported into some magic jar somewhere, or would the stone tiles swing open and drop Phoebe into a spike filled pit?

Nothing happened.

[Let's not bother with the saves any more suggested Andrew. OK responded Richard with a grin]

We retreated back down the tunnel to the room with the large, closed vats and the sarcophagus sized magical obsidian slab. Keeping off that slab, a careful search of the walls of the room was conducted. No secret doors here apparently.

Bush and Phoebe shot back to the checkerboard room, and keeping to the tile colour previously used, carried out a careful search of all the walls there. No secret doors there either.

"So, what now cobbers?" queried Bush.
"Maybe one of the vats has a hidden trapdoor in its bottom?" suggested Griza.
"Don't open them" warned Galena, "This isn't a nice place, and I hate to think what's in them"

But they were all able to be slid on the floor, and their edges lifted

"Maybe the magic sarcophagus slab will teleport somewhere?" suggested Griza.

The "immediately all follow" plan was enacted, and Balder, Phoebe, Red, and Galena stepped simultaneously onto the obsidian slab. The faint humming intensified, and the whole slab began to drop down into the floor.

"Crickey" yelled Bush as the first four slowly dropped out of sight, "It's some form of lowery thing"

The "lowery thing" deposited the first four into a small room, large wax candles were strewn across all the flat surfaces, and they all burst into flame at once. Strange runes were carved into the floors and walls, but there were no people and no creatures. But at least there was a door! A sturdy metal bound wooden door was located in one of the walls. The first four stepped off the slab, which slowly raised back to the room above, and the rest of the party descended, Bush, Griza, and Joe.

"Magic door" noted Balder.
"No traps" declared Griza, who slipped the magic key into the lock.

"BLAM"

A burst of light and bolts of electrical energy threw Griza back across the room, where he slumped against the stone wall, quite unconscious. 

"So much for the great magic key" declared Bush, peering at the melted and fused piece of metal still dangling from the lock, "I would have liked that for myself"

Healing spells were cast, using up even more of the meagre Magic Points left to the party.
[Healing rolls started out poorly with a 2, followed by a 3. The electrical damage totalled 8, and Griza was then only on 4 points out of a maximum of 11. A third Heal was cast, success, 6 more hit points! Almost perfect, but 3 Magic points consumed]

Griza grinned wryly as he stumbled back to his feet.
"It should be open now" he noted.

Listening first for any noise beyond, Griza pushed the door slowly open. The door opened into the right hand end of a long room running off to the left. Pairs of black circular obsidian columns formed a central aisle down the length of the room. Right in the centre of the room stood a raised stone dais supporting a black obsidian sarcophagus. There was no lid, but it was too high to see inside from the door. At the far-left end of the room, beyond the central dais, a stone door plugged the only other exit from the room. This door appeared to be covered in carvings of demonic Canker symbols.

Balder's neck hairs had sprung up with an audible snap.
"Ah ..." Balder called, "Undead much!"

But nothing was moving and there was no sound from the room, so Phoebe pulled her mirror out from her kit and strode boldly over to the central dais. Lifting the mirror overhead, Phoebe peered into the sarcophagus.

"Nothing" she reported.
"Um..." Galena stuttered, "That could be good, or very very bad!" 
"The sarcophagus is definitely magic" declared Balder.

Phoebe clambered up onto the table, careful not to touch the sarcophagus, and looked over the edge.

"Bad" she yelled, "Loris is lying in here, dressed in white robes"
"I have a wooden stake" yelled Bush, rummaging in his backpack.

[Darryl utilised his Resourceful talent, spent two Luck points, and found a wooden stake in his pack]

Just then, the far door swung open, and Simeon himself stepped into the room. Draped in velvet robes, he glided slowly forward towards us, the door closing behind him with a solid clunk.

"Oh shit" squealed Bush, "Crap on a bloody cracker" 

But we were prepared. Plans and backup plans had been considered, discussed, and discarded, and other plans made. What was a terrifying Vampire or two but more Undead to rid from the world!

"Silence" cast Balder at the floor at the end of the room, rendering Simeon unable to cast spells.
"Take that" yelled Bush, leaping up onto the dais and pounding his stake through Loris's chest.
"Charge" yelled Red, brandishing his magical two-handed mace and racing forward.

Simeon just grinned and dispersed into a cloud of gas which drifted back through the door. 
Red, Phoebe, and Joe were right behind him, the rest of the party following. Actually, Bush wasn't following. He was standing up in the sarcophagus and staking Loris over and over. "Take that, and that, and that" he was yelling.

As Red rushed through the door first, he found himself in a long room, oriented left to right, with another stone table in the centre. This time there was a naked elven woman strapped down to the table, and various knives and other devices of ill intent rested around the table's edge. The gaseous vampire could barely be seen, but Phoebe's keen gaze noticed it sucking quickly through a series of small holes along the top edge of another door on the far side of the table. Griza cautiously approached the door.

"No traps" reported Griza from in front of the lock.
"Locked though. I could open it, but not sure we want to barge into the unknown with a vamp!"
"I have a plan" suggested Balder.

While Bush "took care" of Loris, recovering a portion of jawbone to fulfil out contractual requirements, Griza and Galena rescued the woman from the table, and Phoebe, Balder, Joe, and Red each quaffed a half potion of Gaseous Form [We had discovered two Gaseous Form potions from the tower back on the mainland, along with the magic key, some Healing potions, and a Diminution potion] and followed Simeon through the small holes in the door.

Our gaseous crew flowed out of the holes into a short corridor, then into a squarish room dominated by four black obsidian pillars symmetrically arranged. Behind each pillar was a face carved into the stone walls of the room, each face depicting someone in agony, features twisted in pain and suffering. Directly opposite the short entrance corridor, beyond the pillars, a stairway led upwards.

There was no sign of the gaseous Simeon, so they flowed on across the room, between the pillars, and up the stairwell. An apparent dead end, so they flowed back down into the pillar room and drifted around a bit. Each of the screaming faces in the wall had an open mouth, and an open throat. Taking one face each, the gaseous crew flowed through the mouth and down the throat. Nothing. Flowing back into the room, they noticed that Red hadn't returned from his face.

Back in the room with the captive woman, Bush had appeared with Loris's jawbone, still partially covered in desiccated flesh, and sporting all its teeth, and Griza and Galena had freed the elven woman from the table. Tabatha was her name, and she was very grateful to be released. She had been snatched from the main road while travelling and had resigned herself to die on the slab when we had arrived.

Galena found Tabatha some clothing while Griza went to open the lock so they could follow the others. Surely they would have dealt with Simeon by now he figured. "Click", and they were through.

Striding into the pillar room, Bush, Griza, Galena, and Tabatha found Phoebe, Joe, Balder, and Red just solidifying from their gaseous form. Apparently, Red had found a small hidden chamber, about 2mx2m in size, down the throat of one of the stone faces on the wall.  It had taken him a little time to check it out, finding nothing of interest in there at all.

Simeon up close & personal

Rushing across the pillar room and up the stairs again, the party undertook a thorough search at the dead end. Sucess! A secret door was revealed, which swung open into the checkerboard room, at tile h8. Back on the trail of Simeon the vamp and led by Phoebe everyone carefully hopped across the tiles to the stairs. Phoebe rushed up the stairs first, magic sword drawn, and was almost immediately confronted by Simeon the vamp, back in human form, his vampire fangs barred and grinning hideously.

The stairwell went silent as Balder cast a Silence spell.
Phoebe and Simeon clashed in a silent flurry of motion.
Phoebe stagged back to the bottom of the steps, blood trickling from her face, as Simeon attacked again and again, moving impossibly fast. Phoebe staggered back from the stairwell onto the first tile, and Simeon moved off back up the stairs.

[Andrew had been attempting to dodge the attacks from the vampire. Dodge is a contested combat skill whereby if your dodge roll succeeds and is equal to or better that your opponents, you manage to dodge his attack. If dodging, you are unable to make an attack of your own as all your efforts are focussed on avoiding or blocking you opponent. Andrew failed Phoebe's first dodge and was struck for 7 points of damage, and had to make a saving throw against poison, which he made. Phoebe felt a nasty chilling pulse flash across her following the hit but managed to resist the vampire's necromantic effects. The second dodge was successful, but Phoebe was forced to retreat under the vampires' flowing attacks]

Bush let fly one of his magic arrows which pierced Simeon in the back, at which point his shape blurred and morphed into a large bat which raced away up the stairs.

"Fireball?" queried Balder excitedly.
"Hell no" screamed Joe, "You'd kill us all"

Phoebe grabbed one of the last the Healing potions from Bush and chugged it down. Then Phoebe and Joe rushed up the stairs. Simeon was gone. Combining their considerable strength, Phoebe and Joe managed to push open the trapdoor. The fallen masonry rubble from the tower was thrown aside and the trapdoor sprung open.

"Quick" yelled Balder, "The stables. He will be going for his creepy horse"

Running around the old keep, we made our way towards the stables, but before we got there the stable door was flung open and the black horse charged out, Simeon mounted on its back. Fire flashed from its hoofs and dark wings spread out from its back. It turned away from us and began to somehow climb up into the air.

"No you don't" yelled Balder, casting a Fireball directly at them.
CRUMP [10 points of damage was inflicted by the Fireball]

Bush sighted another magic arrow and drew back his bowstring.
TWANG [6 points of damage from the magic arrow]

As the maelstrom of flames subsided, we spotted the horse, crispy and laying dead on the ground. A faint hit of a gaseous form could be seen disrupting the smoke and heading towards the mainland.

"Catch this you bastard" yelled Balder, spending his last magic points to cast a Magic Missile.
ZZZZAAAPP [3 points of damage from the Magic Missile]

But the gas drifted purposefully away, heading back towards the mainland and the main buildings there.

"How are we going to find him now?" wailed Bush, secretly relieved that the vampire was gone.
"Can we use the Locate?" asked Joe.
"Not Napolean's twig" responded Balder, considering Napolean's current marmalading state.
"Not my spell" complained Galena, "Not enough magic power left"
"What about the compass?" asked Griza, "We left that back at the house attuning to the pendant"
"Bingo" Balder yelled, "Let's go, and let's go quickly"

We rushed back to the end of the island, through the tunnel, up the fiery demon shaft, up to the main hose kitchen, and back to the upstairs study where we had stashed the compass to allow it to attune.

"That way" shouted Balder, pointing out past the gatehouse and towards the coast road.
"But the wolves" noted Bush, "And the gatehouse guards with the roof mounted ballista thing"
"We'll avoid the gatehouse" instructed Joe, "But we'll have to chance the wolves"
"A few wolves" scoffed Balder, "No worries for you tough fighters"

Of course there were four of them, and not just ordinary wolves!
These were large skeletal wolves with fiery red eyes.
And we were very low on magic power.

"Give me a sword" yelled Tabatha the rescued elf.

A vicious combat ensued. The skeletal wolves were resistant to damage, bladed weapons were only doing half their normal damage as these creatures had no flesh to hack and chop. In addition, any successful attack by the wolves triggered a save vs. divine magic or suffer a form of necromantic hit point draining in subsequent rounds. Joe, Phoebe, Red, and Griza engaged a wolf each. Tabatha, with Phoebe's non-magical second sword, jumped in to assist Joe.

Joe, with his bladed weapon, took a hit in the first round and failed his save. Ouch.
But Red wielding his brutal two-handed mace dealt some serious damage to his opponent.
Griza took a hit in the second round but made his save. Phew
Joe made a critical hit and managed some extra damage (halved), but killing his wolf. Yay
Phoebe took a hit in the third round and failed her save. Oh no.
Joe and Red managed to wipe out another wolf, but Joe was taking draining damage every round now.
Tabatha the handy elf, managed to kill a third wolf. Going better now it seemed.
Griza took a hit in round four, 5 damage, but made his save. Lucky.
Joe takes 3 points of draining damage, was feeling ill and pulled out of the combat.
Phoebe takes 6 points of draining damage and pulls out of the combat to join Joe.
They both split the last Healing potion, and get some points back, 4 for Joe, but only 1 for Phoebe.
Joe takes another 5 points of draining damage and has to sit down with his head on his knees.
Phoebe takes another 4 points of draining damage and collapses, thrashing about violently on the ground and obviously seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Griza has made a critical hit into a wolf [rolled a 1, but the wolf's contested roll is also a 1 and as a result there is no damage either way, essentially a furious flurry of combat with no hits] Sigh!
And Red took a hit and failed his save. Things were beginning to look serious again!
Joe takes another 4 points of draining damage and collapses into convulsions on the ground. Yikes.
Galena figures that Holy Water must help against the wolf draining damage and pours a vial of her Holy Water down Joe's throat as he thrashes about. The convulsions stop, but he is still unconscious.
Red makes a mighty hit against the last wolf, but as a result of his previous saving throw failure, take 4 points of draining damage, and wasn't looking forward to the next few minutes.

Red grabs a vial of his own Holy Water and chugs it down, stopping the ongoing draining damage.
Red shares another vial of his Holy Water with the unconscious Phoebe, halting her convulsions.
First Aid is administered to Joe and Phoebe, which brings them back to consciousness.

"That looked tough" noted Bush wryly.

The howling of more wolves sounds from back behind the house and we staggered away, clambered over the low stone wall that surrounds the property, and headed off up the track towards the coast road.
The locating compass led us all the way back to Spite Battle, to the main graveyard!

"We're not going in there are we? asked Bush.
"We must hurry, while it is damaged and hopefully unconscious" declared Balder.
"But" worried Bush, "No healing left, sick fighters, no magic power!"
"I think it will take weeks to recover" noted Galena, "Lets rest up first"