Session 1: The Beginning

General Summary

The tale begins with our three adventures meeting at the local tavern sharing a drink with a farmer who came into town to share his story of discovery. The farmer was hunting on the border of the Tumulheights when he discovered a rock slide had occurred on one of the cliff faces reveling an entrance to a cave or tomb. When he investigated the entrance way he saw the opening lead to some stonework hallway leading deeper into the hill. Being the god fearing man that he was and knowing the stories of the haunted tombs in the moors he fled the scene returning to town to share his story.   The three adventures decided it would be worth while to investigate the tomb out of curiosity, duty and a search for some form of adventure. The party consists of Esme, a traveling bard who after the death of her father took up his trade and is in search of material to write her own ballads; Gytha, a local farm girl that took up her father's armor and sword in search of glory; and Cerdic a local boy that joined the order of St. Signis at Culderhill becoming a cleric and issued a writ to travel Brackenwold in defense of its people against the undead.   Retiring for the evening after hearing the story, the three followed the farmer's directions to Edmund Haige's farm to the west of the village, near the border of the Tumulheights. From the farm they searched through the woods and hill until they came upon the rock slide in the side of a steep hill. It looked like the recent rains had eroded the side of the cliff and weakened it till it gave way into a rock slide exposing the entrance way to the tomb. Gytha climbed to the top of the hill gaining a view of the surrounding area, spying the town a few miles back east, the roadway making its way deeper into the moors of the Tumulheights and the acres of farm land surrounding the town. More interesting however was what appeared to be the remains of some sort of building on top of the hill. The years were not kind to it however and no real clues were to be found as what little remained was the barest hint of a building. Most of it has collapsed and much of the stonework was probably carried off by local farmers to be reused for their walls and fences.   Returning to the others waiting at the bottom of the hill, they lit a torch and proceeded into the tomb. The entrance way led into a long hallway the continued into the darkness beyond their torch light with the edge of their light revealing stonework and two reliefs on either side of the hallway. Examining the reliefs showed scenes of battle between the Goman and Human warriors, confirming the farmer's worries that this was an ancient tomb. Gytha, not perturbed by the potential haunting that may prey upon them pushed the party further into the tomb discovering a junction not much further into the hall. Making their way down one of the side passageways the trio discovered a sarcophagus of a Goman warrior, his image shaped in clay upon the lid. Curious the trio worked together to pry the lid open, breaking the seal of the sarcophagus releasing a deadly gas that had been sealed inside for centuries. Esme and Gytha reacted quickly jumping back but Cerdic did not react fast enough, inhaling the gas causing him to suffer a horrible coughing fit as his lungs burned from the putrid stink.   Once Cerdic had recovered the three examined the contents of the sarcophagus finding a skeleton of the Goman in the same pose as depicted on the lid. His armor and sword rusted laying atop his human like torso but around his neck, belong the goat like skull hung a golden amulet with a pendant of a goat head. Not wishing to disturb the dead any further than they already had, the trio returned the lid to its place and proceeded to the opposite passage way discovering another sarcophagus. Being more cautious this time Cerdic used his spear to pry open the lid slightly releasing any gasses contained within. The plan worked as a puff of foul stench leaked out when he broke the seal. The contents of this coffin was much the same as the other with the amulet standing out from the old remains. The three returned the lid to its place and proceeded further into the tomb.   Not much further into the hallway they came upon another junction which looked to lead to another set of sarcophagus on either side but further down the passage way just on the edge of their torch light they could make out some form slumped against the wall next to what appeared to be the end of the hallway. Ignoring the side passages they made their way to the end discovering the slumped figure to be a human that had been there for probably a few centuries as the armor was obviously not of modern make and the amount of dust covering the desiccated remains was thick and undisturbed. Probably some ancient tomb raider that perished from the trauma visible to his armor. The man's breastplate showed damage to the front but once they examined the back it showed that the man had been hit by a heavy force causing the back plate to collapse breaking the man's back.   Casting their gaze upward their torchlight revealed some intricate mechanism hidden in a recess of the ceiling. A large hammer was attached to some gears which in turn was connected to some cable that disappeared into the wall where the door was located. The door itself was a large stone door surrounded by carved relief but held shut by a large stone held in place by several hooks and on one side some sort of hinge. Gytha began to slowly try and lift the stone free of its holders. The stone began to slide upwards, pivoting on the hinge but as she lifted the iron hook on the door frame moved upwards with the stone. She slowly lowered the stone back into place not wanting to trigger the obvious trap. Experimenting, Gytha used her grappling hook to ensnare the exposed cable and pulled down on it. As she pulled the stone began to slide upwards with the metal hook as it had when she lifted the stone. Clearing out of the way of the trap they pulled together on the rope pulling the cable and thus raising the stone. Once the stone reached a certain height a loud mechanical clink sounded and the tension of their rope let go as the hammer sung down smashing into the door. The crushed man made much more sense. The stone hinge dropped back into place and a series of clicks sounded as slowly the hammer ratcheted back up into its position in the ceiling.   Discussing the trap they devised a plan to try and thwart the mechanism. Using all of her might Gytha was able to pull the cable down far enough that Esme, keeping close to the walls, was able to use her sword to saw through the cable. Again the hammer swung down crashing into the door but without its cable attached it swung slowly into a resting position. Making their way around the hammer they were able to lift the stone hinge out of the way to allow them to open the door with the iron hook stuck in the down position.   The door opened into a large burial chamber with walls decorated in elaborate murals showing the ancient battle that occured between the Goman and Humans in the Tumulheights. In the center of the room was a raised platform which held two statue depicting warriors on either side of a finely decorated sarcophagus. To either side of the platform were sarcophagus flanking the platform. Choosing to exam one of the lower sarcophagi first, the coffin was similar to the first ones they found but with finer detail. The whole sarcophagus was made of clay but richly painted on the sides and the warrior on top rendered in detail. Keeping in mind their lesson from the other graves the trio stepped back and Cerdic began to pry the lid from the coffin. However as he broke the seal the lid was pushed off with great force and two skeletal hands reached out, grabbing the sides and thrusting the skeletal remains of the goat man warrior out of the coffin.   Launching itself at the man who disturbed his grave, the skeleton launched himself forward but Cerdic was able to raise his shield and block the clawing attacks back. Esme swung her sword but the blow glanced what little armor remained of the undead. Gytha took a swing at the creature as well but the skeleton's pressing attack against Cerdic caused her to miss. Cerdic stabbed wildly with his spear to try and repel the creature succeeding in doing so. He then called out to the other two, telling them to bash the creature knowing that blunt weapons would be more effective. Esme pulled out her club and swung at the creature smashing away part of its rib cage exposed by rusted armor. Only having her sword on hand Gytha again took a swing but the skeleton was able to avoid the blow. Her attack distracted the creature enough that Cerdic, dropping his spear and pulling out his club, delivered a blow to the skeletons skull, crushing it. The force causing the skeleton to move dissipated and the remains fell to the floor.   Around the neck of the skeleton they found an amulet similar to the ones in the other sarcophagus, gold chain with a goat head pendant. Having no qualms about taking this one as the dead had attacked them, Gytha stowed the amulet away in her pack. Readying themselves for a similar attack in the other lower coffin, Gytha and Esme positioned themselves on either side of the sarcophagus with their weapons raised. Cerdic again pried the lid off with his spear and as the skeleton began to raise itself free the two waiting adventurers brought down their weapons smashing the skull, defeating their foe. Esme claimed this skeleton's amulet.   Making their way to the raised platform the trio took similar positions around the ornate sarcophagus, ready for a skeleton within.  Cerdic pried the lid open with his spear but as he did the lid was thrown back by the skeleton.  Esme and Gytha swung at the creature but it leaped out of the way of their blows and attacked Esme.  She was able to parry its blows but was pressed back by its attack.  Gytha attacked but her sword glanced off the creature.  Cerdic raised his holy symbol and shouted a prayer of St. Signis.  The symbol glowed with a bright light that narrowed and focused upon the undead.  The creature let out a screech and dropped to the floor trying to clamor away from the priest. Gytha walked up to the prone skeleton and brought her boot down upon its skull crushing it.   Checking the contents of the sarcophagus the trio found nothing of any significance.  The skeleton was armored much like the others and wore the same amulet despite the sarcophagus being more ornately decorated.  Turning their attention towards the passageway the skeleton was moving towards, their torchlight unveiled a large and imposing statue of the robed Goman holding a hand aloft crooked in a strange sign while the other clutched a sceptre.  The statue was made out of some black rock that seemed to adsorb their torch light.  The room was punctuated by the sound of dripping water, drawing their attention to a section of collapsed ceiling exposing the earth of the hill from which a steady drip of water emerged.  The water trickled down the stonework wall and formed a small stream that lead towards the statue. Drawn to this Cerdic examined the stream discovering that the water had pooled at the base of the statue and had rotted away the wood at the base of the statue exposing an opening beneath.  Pushing at the statue's base, it began to slide backwards exposing a passage way below.   The torch was nearing its end so upon lighting a new one, Gytha dropped the old torch down into the newly reveled passage.  The torch fell about 10 feet and clattered against a stonework floor.  The passageway below was a dead end that led deeper underground, the stream of water continuing down the passage way into the darkness.  Attaching the grappling hook to the statue the trio climbed down and began to make their way deeper into the tomb.