26th July - Going Up to Go Down to Go Up to Go Down

General Summary

The party awoke from a refreshing long afternoon nap, finding themsleves still inside the dining room of the eriee Durst House, in the middle of the night.
Vidar taking charge, leads the team back up stairs then down the winding staircase back into the basement, except for Lars who needs to stay back for a little bit of a longer rest to regain his stamina. The chanting still emanating from within causes Sorrow some hesitation for further exploration, but she takes hold of Aeli as a means of comfort.
The adventurers explore a room containing a well in the centre and 5 bed chambers. Aeli quickly discovers that the well is unremarkable, it simply drops 30 feet to a water source. Each bed chamber is furnished exactly the same, a wood-framed bed with a moldy straw mattress and a wooden chest. Despite her fears, Sorrow puts her lockping skills to use and is able to pick the lock of three of chests, securing some odd valuables; 11 gp and 60 sp in a pouch made of human skin, three moss agates in a folded piece of black cloth, and a black leather eyepatch with a carnelian sewn into it.
The remaining locks prove too difficult however so Vidar offers to put their skills to use. Strength with the mace and with a crowbar do nothing but mash and mangle one of the remaining chests, sealing the contents within from the group. Using a little less finesse and learning from their previous attempts, Vidar smashes the lock apart to find a silvered shortsword.
In frustration, Sorrow yells out in infernal. The chanting from within the basement changes and now repeats over and over again the curses that Sorrow had just yelled out. Marcus moves forward and noticing that the chanting is getting louder heads towards the source of the sounds. His confident strides take him right over rotted wooden planks, all hidden under a thin layer of dirt that give way. Marcus falls into a pits with sharpened wooden spikes at the bottom, bringing him to the brink of death.
Vidar uses the divine magic of Tymora and heals Marcus, while the group lower down a rope to bring him back out of the pit. They take a different path, heading through the dining room where they previously fought the grick. The group discuss the importance of staying more vigilant as they explore the house further, realising that it is perhaps more deeadly then first thought.
The make their way south to a corridor and are ambushed by bodies with razor-sharp teeth and jagged claws that rise from the ground.

As the fight goes on, Vidar istaken down by one of the creatures. Sorrow and Marcus take turns dragging Vidar to safety while taking turn to defeat the creatures, except for one who runs off and out of sight.
Rather than pursue the party head back to the dining room to recover, only to realise that they are being followed. In the nursery, they get into a fight with their pursuers, another pair of ghouls. Once the ghouls are defeated, the group continue to head towards safety, with Sorrow locking the door behind her.
After their short rest in the dining room the party head back out, still without Lars. Aeli grabs the Longsword fromthe main hall and they continue on, discovering that the door that Sorrow had locked on their way down was now unlocked. They press on and find another set of stairs the leads further down into a room where the chanting can be deciphered, the voices repeating over and over again, “He is the Ancient. He is the Land.”
There are items stored in thirteen niches along the walls of this room:

• A small, mummified, yellow hand with sharp claws (a goblin’s hand) on a loop of rope
• A knife carved from a human bone
• A dagger with a rat’s skull set into the pommel
• An 8-inch-diameter varnished orb made from a nothic’s eye
• An aspergillum carved from bone
• A folded cloak made from stitched ghoul skin
• A desiccated frog lashed to a stick (could be mistaken for a wand of polymorph)
• A bag full of bat guano
• A hag’s severed finger
• A 6-inch-tall wooden figurine of a mummy, its arms crossed over its chest
• An iron pendant adorned with a devil’s face
• The shrunken, shriveled head of a halfling
• A small wooden coffer containing a dire wolf’s withered tongue

The group spot two exits from this room, a tunnel that slopes down into murky water and ends at a rusty portcullis. Another tunnel heading to an area that was used as some sort of prison, shackles attached to the walls and bones that litter the rooms. Vidar spots a skeleton clad in a tattered black robe still hangig to the wall in one of the cells.
Not taking any chances, Vidar tries to bring upon a holy fire to subdue any danger, but finds that there is no creature there for the spell to target.
The adventurers decide that they should continue exploring the remaining rooms of the catacombs and head back up. Making their way through the winding corridors, Aeli leads the group into a room festooned with moldy skeletons that hang from rusty shackles against the walls. A wide alcove in the wall contains a painted wooden statue carved in the likeness of a gaunt, pale-faced man wearing a voluminous black cloak, his pale left hand resting on the head of a wolf that stands next to him. In his right hand, he holds a smoky-gray crystal orb.
Aeli, studying the statue, can't find any resemblance to any of the family in the artwork that they have passed during the exploration of this house. She does recall however that the robes the skeleton in the prison was wearing was in fact reminiscent of the robes they found in the cloak room earlier. Cautiously Aeli and the rest of the party leave the statue undisturbed and keep searching.
They find a door in a small corridor, Sorrow springs to action to try to unlock the door and is immediately surprised to learn that she is stuck to the door that is actually a mimic. During the fight Sorrow is knocked unconcious, the party stabilise her while the mimic runs away. But Marcus learns that it didn't run far as the table in the next room leaps out to attack. The group defeat the shapeshifting creature and make their way back to the dining room to regroup.
Through the room with the statue, Vidar notices a shadow that looks like it is behaving strangely and starts to cast a spell to attack it. This action causes three dark exaggerations of humanoid shadows to return the hostilities.

Aeli learns that her weapons may not be as effective as she would like as she makes blow after blow to the creatures. Marcus has no trouble inflicting damage with his magic. Vidar, using the magic granted by Tymora, creates radiant flames that overwhelm the shadows, but not before one of them is able to reach out and drain some of his strength.

Report Date

26 Jul 2024

Primary Location

Durst House

Related Characters

• Aelithra Moonshadow
• Marcus
• Sorrow Swiftfoot
• Vidar