Beneath the Death House - Session 5

General Summary

Day 2:   The party wakes within the spare bedroom within the attic. The group remains unsure of where they are and how they got here, but the next step leads through a secret door down to the basement.   As the party reaches the last step, an ominous multi-layered whispering echoes endlessly within the corridors. The group tries to understand, but no words are discernable. The whispering chant seems to layer upon itself making it indecipherable.   There's no light within the basement, so Fidelia takes the lead by seeing the darker and lighter grays of the corridor ahead. Jagger grabs Sticky's hand saying, "Sticky, stick close" and pulls him with her. As Fidelia comes to the first intersection, she turns right and starts heading down the hall. Upon reaching an intersection, she turns right again saying, "We should follow the right-hand rule where we turn right at every turn." Moving into the side hall, the party sees two stone slabs. The one on the right has "Rosavalda Durnst" inscribed into it. Nazgog reaches out and pushes the slab out of the way. Inside the crypt sits a coffin on a stone bier. Moving inside, Morgana gently lays the bones of Rose into the coffin. Fidelia crowds into the crypt summoning her eldritch powers as she questions if the bones will rise against her. Minutes pass as the party stands outside of the crypt in the dark with Sticky whispering, "This darkness scares me."   Finally, Fidelia moves to the next slab reading the inscription of "Thornboldt Durst" on it. Nazgog quickly pushes this slab aside as well as Morgana enters the crypt and lays the bones of Thorn inside the coffin it contains. Immediately, Stick gasps, "What!? What happened there. I was so afraid. Afraid I'd be left, afraid of the dark, afraid of the monster, afraid for my sister, and just afraid of being afraid. And now, now, I feel like me again."   Leaving the Thorn's bones to rest, the party crosses the original hall to another set of crypts. The slab on the right-side has "Elisabeth Durst" inscribed. The slab gets shifted out of the way and Morgana moves into the crypt as the sound of many legs skitters against the back wall. A swarm of spiders engages the party. As the battle rages inside the crypt, Sticky repeatedly asks Jagger what's going on as little flashes of fire are reflected back to the hallway. After several placating responses from Jagger, Sticky lights his lantern allowing him to see the empty hallway. However, by this time, the group in the crypt has beaten the swarm into submission. Moving to the other crypt, Fidelia reads the inscription of "Gustav Durst". After moving the slab, the crypt contains only an empty coffin   Returning to the main hall as the incessant whispering continues, the group turns left and then enters into a dining area littered with bones upon the ground. The party examines the bones checking for bite marks. During this investigation, several members of the party walk by a darkened alcove. As they do, a beak snaps at Jagger. Several tentacles, surrounding the beak, whip forward as this creature slithers forward. Jagger ducks beneath the beak, then rolls away to safety. Sticky puts his lantern on the ground while throwing a dagger into the heart of the beast as Morgana steps forward finishing it off. As the party breathes, Sticky asks, "Can I hand this to someone? You'll find I'm quite handy without it."   Jagger takes up the lantern as the party turns right from the dining area entering another hallway that jumps to the right again before heading straight. The party passes an intersection that heads left and instead enters a twenty foot square room that has a well in the center and opening all around the edges. Taking the first opening to the right, the party follows it to the right and enters yet another room that contains a table and chairs along with openings to the right. Searching through these alcoves, the party only finds moldy straw bedding.   As Fidelia starts to head out the hallway, Sticky objects, "Hey, we left a lot of unexplored stuff behind us. Can we, uh, go back to it first? I don't like the thought of something sneaking up from behind." The party quickly agrees and returns to the room with a well in it. Picking the first alcove on the right, the party finds a wood-framed bed with moldy straw mattress and a padlocked chest. Nazgog heaves her great axe splitting the lock off the chest and finds some personal belongings. The party quickly divides into teams with each team breaking open a chest with their own skill set while resisting the whispering that continues to echo.   The party then heads back toward the dining area but turns right at the intersecting hallway. The voices begin to rise in volume as Nazgog leads the way. As she reaches another intersection, the sound of wood cracking is heard as Nazgog falls through the floor into a spiked pit trap. Quickly, the party reacts by throwing down rope and begin to pull her up. Once secure in the hallway, the party retreats back to the dining area and let Stick lead them through the remaining doorway. As he reaches an intersection, the four rotting corpses claw their way up out of the ground. Sticky immediately reacts with a slashing of daggers at the one next to him while Morgana reaches out with her Divine power of Celestian to force the undead creations away. The ghouls flee away from her terrifying presence with three heading straight away from Sticky while another flees down the hall on his left. Nazgog roars in contempt and chases after the one toward the left rushing into a large room where upon seeing the ghoul blood lust rises within her as she hurtles her great axe at it splitting it's head in two. Jagger, Fidelia, and Sticky rush after Nazgog and see her triumphant face as the great axe clangs to the ground. Morgana moves straight down the hall after the other two ghouls. And as the axe finishes settling, Nazgog roars back up the hallway in pursuit of Morgana entering a room with a table and two high-backed chairs flanking it. The ghouls flee away from Morgana's divine aura and Nazgog wallops another into the ground using her mace. While this occurs, Fidelia, Jagger, and Sticky cross the room to find another hallway with a door at the end of it. Nazgog then rushes into a well apportioned bedroom where she pancakes the last remaining ghoul. Fidelia reaches out to open the door handle and discovers that she's stuck to it as it transforms into an amorphous blob with teeth. Jagger quips at the mimic, "Ohhh you suck!"  as Sticky instantly reacts by hauling Fidelia off the mimic and back into the shrine room. The mimic then attacks the closest person, Morgana. Jagger seeing the choas yells out, "I'll take a stab at it!" and she leaps into the air and hammers her dagger home the blob loses cohesion. Jagger responds, "Told you, you suck!"    The group moves into the bedroom and Sticky starts to pull out a book from the chest when two more corpses claw out from behind the walls. The battle wages hard and heavy, but the party does triumph. Sticky then resumes inspecting the loot within the chest handing it off as he does. After claiming the items, the party blocks the doorway with random furniture and take a well earned hour rest.

Rewards Granted

11 gp and 60 sp within a bag made from skin
Three moss agates (10gp ea) within a folded piece of black cloth
Black leather eye-patch with a Carnelian (50gp) sewn into it
Ivory Hairbrush with silver bristles (25gp)
Silvered short sword (110gp)
Folded Cloak
four potions of healing
chain shirt
mess kit
flask of alchemist fire
bullseye lantern
thieve's tools
yellow leather-bound book (rm 34)

Missions/Quests Completed

540 xp earned  (to be awarded after exiting the Death House) - No leveling at this time.

Related Reports

Within the Shadows and Mist - S4
The heart of the Death House - Session 6