2019-12-28

[[continuing to explore the dungeon, attempting to locate the missing nobleman]]
 

Lying at the base of the central statue are the bones of a long-dead hobgoblin and a white wooden staff broken in half.
 
Carved into the stone base of each statue is a name: Elyndraun (south statue), Ruathyndar (central statue), and Onthalass (north statue). These names have been crossed out with chalk; beneath them, new names have been added in Goblin.

 
Yela cleans off the chalked graffiti, offended that someone else got to it before she did. Deborah picks up the pieces of the staff and mends them; the staff screams out about thieves and criminals, and several vampires run in. After killing the first, though, I'm not so sure that they're actually vampires.
 
[[missing nobleman: Solinar, half-elf]]
 
As we're resting after defeating the not-vampires, a loud commotion from the same direction some of the faux vampires came from draws my attention. Cramer and Yela are busy arguing, so I head down the hall to investigate...only to have all four of the others follow me. After glaring at them for a long moment, I continue on to the door where the noise is coming from.
 
The door is being beaten down from the other side; I'm only just able to get out of the way. A human man wearing hide armor and carrying a battered wooden shield bursts out of the door, asking if we're friend or foe. His name is Magnus [Ash], and seems to have been dragged down here after a night of carousing in the company of someone who might be our quarry.
 
Meanwhile, Cramer and Yela investigate another door in this corridor, this one actually locked. One of the not-vampires has the key, and they investigate the room.
 

The entire northern wall is one large stone fresco depicting a rugged mountain, hollowed out with caverns containing tiny sculpted figures of dwarves. Behind the mountain, carved rays of brilliant sunlight fan out to the edges of the wall.
 
On the table are stacks of coins totaling 220 cp, 91 sp, and 85 gp, as well as a silver ring (25 gp) engraved with dwarven symbols commonly associated with fertility and sexual potency.

 
Continuing our exploration of the dungeon, knowing now that our quarry has been this way, ZD opens a hidden door.
 

Faded frescoes cover the walls, depicting villagers and farmers being terrorized by a giant bat.

 
As Cramer and I enter the room, swarms of bats swoop down and attack, accompanied by a pair of giant bats. As we battle the bats, there are thumping sounds from the sarcophagi in the corner of the room, as if something is trying to escape. As the last of the bats are either die or return to their perches on the ceiling, a voice calls out from the sarcophagus [in Elvish, demanding to be let out]. Magnus seems to understand it, and heads over to open the sarcophagus. Deborah joins him, opening it and releasing an elven woman who immediately attacks - apparently a genuine vampire.
 
The vampire is a bit more difficult to destroy than the bats, but by surrounding it we're able to keep it from moving - when it does try to move, I get in a lucky hit to its knee, knocking it down so the others can kill it. Cramer then opens the other sarcophagus, and we take out the other vampire.
 
After a brief rest, we continue exploring. The next hallway we explore ends in a door, decorated with a Dwarvish rune. I have no idea what it means, but I could at least recognize it.
 

In the middle of the room lie the bones, skull, rotted leather wing flaps, and stinger of a wyvern, intermingled with shards of clear crystal.
 
At the south end of this 70-foot-high vaulted room, marble steps form a dais upon which stands a large, high-backed throne made of interwoven, bleached bones. Each of the throne's bone armrests is carved to resemble a fanged snake.
 
Empty torch brackets made of fluted, discolored bronze protrude from the walls.

 
As Cramer kicks in the door on the other side of the throne, several bandits come in, and we start fighting. Yela and ZD are reluctant to engage, leaving the rest of us to fight while outnumbered. I'm busy fighting a doppelganger twice my size while a couple people are shooting crossbow bolts at me. I get a lucky hit and knock my opponent unconscious, which lets me run into the other room to help Deborah, Cramer, and Magnus. When I return to the throne room, the archers have fled and the doppelganger is still unconscious. Magnus kills it with a well-placed spear before it has a chance to wake up.