Session 42: Tunnels Under the Graveyard and then Back to the Manor

The party finishes off the undead under the graveyard, takes a long rest and then heads back inside the manor.

This write up is based on our Sunday, June 4, 2024 session and was written by our scribe Carl with a few additions from myself. Thanks to our mapper Jimmy for the screen shots.  Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: The Graveyard and Catacombs

Location: In the catacombs under the Tegel Manor Graveyard

12:40 PM

In the tunnels, with trouble ahead and the sound of bagpipes behind.

We were fighting skeletons, not entirely unreasonable for a graveyard area. But bagpipes????

The only bagpipes we knew of belonged to Steadfast Tumblebelly, who had stayed behind in the hermitage.

Suddenly there was a grinding stone sound, and out popped a ghoul.  Did we interrupt a bachelor skeleton party or something?

Yep, it was Steadfast and he caught up to the group. He had two 'friendly, helpful' goblins with him.  Natalie held fire and waited to see what actually transpired before shooting at them.

In short order, relatively, the fight was over and the corridor cluttered with even more bones and dead ghouls.

The goblins were wearing Rump livery and Steadfast introduced them as Urk and Bob. He thinks they might tell us something about the place. Aefir was on a hair trigger, and we all were wary.

We followed stairs back outside, and then back in as we did before to do a more thorough search.

Lotta crypts, already looted long ago. Almost like we were not the first people to think of this.

Asking Urk and Bob about the place, all they really knew was that Ridwick was making up an army of undead.  We kinda figured that part out, but any information is useful.

Like, how to burn bagpipes....

Reebo, looking through the mostly empty sarcophagi, noticed a ring (gold with diamond). Nothing inscribed, but a good find.

Back outside, we took a breather in the graveyard area.

We asked Urk and Bob to lead us to the person planning the undead army, and they pointed at the nearby tower in the Manor and said something to the effect of, "Hell NO, we won't go!"

Ridwick is some kind of undead.  Arkelm told us it refers to Ridwick of the Rellic, probably the deadliest Lich on the continent.... Maybe next week, maybe not...

Arkelm also told us that there are TWO liches, Ridwick and his brother Rasping Rashuak

Late afternoon, Urk and Bob had to head back to their company, no doubt planning to report that there is a set of crazy adventurers in the area.

Urk and Bob went past the graveyard and disappeared over he curve southward.  Maybe we could wander thataway sometime and scout the area?  Or ask the local ranger person we have met but not seen for some time.

May 10th
A long rest followed our short rest, and the next day we were back at our work. Dim and early, chilly but not cold.

We made our way back to the manor, heading for an area we have not fully explored and cleared.  Aefir, our chief cartographer, led the way.

As we passed through the dining room, one of the statues nodded at Shadow.  He called for Reebo to check it out. The statue checked Reebo out as he checked it. The statue said, "'Did you know that 'if' is the middle word in life?" and was inanimate once more.

Steadfast told it, "'If' is also the middle word in swift."

No response.

A nearby painting on the wall looked vaguely familiar, but we could not place it.

A door on the south wall was one we think we had not been through, so there we went.  No traps detected, not locked, we let Aefir take it from there.

There was a hallway going south, and a large corridor going east. Shadow alerted us that could hear a faint hissing from the south.

We went east and found a door on the south wall, locked.  Further east Aefir heard some faint whispering but could not make it out.  Reebo checked the south wall door, and unlocked it.

Behind the door was a room with two weapon racks but no weapons. A door in the west wall got Reebo's attention.  No traps, locked, but that was only a minor nuisance for the thief.

That door opened into a large room with more empty weapon racks. Two long tables and many stools. Tall ceiling, about 30', and several doors all around the room. The tables were empty, other than a battle axe stuck in one and two kegs on the other.

Reebo reached for the axe, and it loosed itself from the table and stuck itself in the ceiling.  Reebo, unphased, shrugged and started checking doors. The battle axe must have liked the doors - it came from the ceiling and hit Reebo soundly and then fell to the floor.

 
Aefir firmly grabbed the battle axe and it did not fight him. He threw it at a door and it stuck, just like a regular axe would. Maybe needs a recharge? Maybe all used up? Either way, Aefir wrapped it up in a blanket and put it in his pack.

Reebo went around the doors, checking and unlocking as needed. Some rooms had additional rooms behind them, some were just small rooms. They contained beds and some had chests. Items that a guard might use, but pretty well looted. A few copper pieces here and there, one amulet. One room was larger than the rest, likely for the commander.

A couple of the rooms had ratholes in the floor.

One door was locked, unlike the others. No traps, but at least one guard had a concept of security.  A little damp and musky. Well, not so much security... it opened onto a large steamy area with a pool, probably a bathing area. (soap and oils were a good clue). The water looked fairly clean. A large raven saw us, squawked and disappeared with a snap, leaving behind a single black feather. Two comely, naked, phantom ladies appeared from the water and floated out through the glass domed ceiling.  A marble statue of a man with a big nose had one missing hand. 

Hmmm, glass dome for a ceiling, we be gonna remember this if we fight another vampire.

At the west end of the bath area was a door in the northern wall.  Aefir forced the stuck door and it opened to a hallway, the one we were in as we entered this section of the manor.

The bath had a door in the eastern wall. Reebo checked it for opening, it was not trapped or locked from this side, but stuck from the moisture.

Reebo checked out the bottom of the pool - lots of sediment and muck.  Aefir stirred the pool with his sword and stirred up the muck. Nothing attacked, for a novelty.

The east door opened up to Aefir's persuasive nature, and he was pretty sure we had been there before. It sounded like something was rolling around, maybe a wheelbarrow or some such device.  Only a couple seconds, like many of the sounds we have heard here.

Yep, we had been here. But worth checking stuff out anyway.

There was a door across the hall and Reebo checked it for traps and unlocked it. He stood aside and Aefir opened it.

Steam rose from a giant hole in the floor, drenching the room in thick humidity. There was a strong stench of decay. Sagging bedclothes hung from fraying clotheslines hid a portion of the large room. Behind the clotheslines was the source of the stench: four decaying bodies. They looked exsanguinated, drained of blood.

Suddenly Aefir was attacked by a giant leech that was on the back of the hanging bedclothes.

The leech did NOT fare well in this combat, between Aefir and Reebo's arrow.

A table contained utensils stained with years of usage. Over the pit was a large kettle hanging over boiling water... yes, actually boiling... maybe magic, maybe a significant heat source below this room.

Aefir took a pole and stirred the pot, finding chunks of meat - was this a kitchen or laundry???

Nothing valuable here folks, just move along......



Continued in Session 43: Two Rumps and a Water Elemental