The heart of the Death House - Session 6 Report
General Summary
Day 2 (continued):
After resting and some quick healing, the party unblocks the doorway and resumes their search of the basement. Moving back to the cultist's den, the party finds nothing of value before returning to the shrine room.
Festooned with moldy skeletons hanging from rusty shackles, this large room has a wide alcove in the south wall. Within the alcove stands a painted wooden statue of a pale-faced woman wearing a voluminous black cloak. Her left hand rests upon the head of a wolf beside her. Sticky inspects the statue as amorphous black shapes disengage from the shadows and strike at the party. Within seconds, both Sticky and Nazgog feel the icy touch as the shadows drain their strength. However, the party quickly turns the tables and disperses the undead shadows. Afterwards, the party searches the shrine while catching their breath and finds a concealed door behind some decaying wallpaper as well as pocketing the crystal orb from the dark statue's hand.
Moving onward, the party makes it way down the stairs. Upon reaching the lower level, the chanting slowly becomes clearer until the party hears "He is the ancient. He is the land." As the party turns past the final landing of the stairs, Sticky sneaks forward to search for hidden dangers. He comes into a large room with a series of pillars separated into two columns and sees two exits to his right. Ignoring the alcoves with mysterious objects, he explores past the nearest doorway and finds a long hallway leading further away. Temporarily satisfied, he returns to the reliquary and calls out, "Okay, I think it's safe to come on down."
The party quickly joins Sticky in the rectangular room as the chanting "He is the ancient. He is the land." continues relentlessly around them. The party takes some time examining each of the relics in the numerous alcoves of the room. Finally, the party leaves by heading down the hall and following it as it makes couple of right turns. There are several cubicles on each side of the hallway within each one hangs rusty chains about head high. In one of these alcoves, there is a body cloaked in black robes hanging limply. Searching the lifeless decayed body, the party finds a ring before continuing onward to end of the hallway.
The party backtracks within the cubicles and Sticky finds a secret door roughly midway in the cubicles. Walking through this door, the chanting abruptly ceases leaving an eerie quiet echoing in the party's ears. The party stands on raised walkway that surrounds the edge of a large square room. Below this walkway, murky water covers the floor. Right of the party, a breach in the wall exposes a dark cave heaped with refuse. In the middle of the room, stairs lead to a raised octagonal dais with an altar beneath hanging rusty chains upon it.
Jagger moves down toward the exposed cave and looks at the heap of garbage, but doesn't see anything of value. Meanwhile, Morgana moves around the walkway down some stairs into the water and then scales the steps towards the dais. As she reaches the top, thirteen dark apparitions appear along the edge of the room. These dark apparitions begin to chant "One must die! One must die!" The mantra echoes within the chamber as Morgana inspects the altar on the dias. Nazgog reacting to the "One must Die!" mantra leaps onto the stairs and moves up to the dais. She swings her axe at the altar, but it just rebounds off with no apparent damage. Sticky jumps into the water, moves toward the entrance of the cave, and starts to inspect the garbage heap. Fidelia moves down the steps and inspects the large wheel that appears to control the portcullis blocking the hallway back to the reliquary room. Nazgog pulls Morgana into a bear hug and dashes down the steps. As their feet hit the water, the apparitions immediately change their chanting, "One must Die! One... Lorghoth the decayer, we awaken thee!" The new chant repeats louder and louder as the heap of garbage in the cave rumbles and shakes before slowly rising from the muck.
The large mound shambles forward slamming itself against Sticky and knocking him to the ground. Meanwhile, Jagger summons eldritch energies causing the earth to crack and crumble in front of the mound. Nazgog sets Morgana down and rushes intimidatingly forward slamming her axe into the mound before picking Sticky up and retreating. Morgana and Fidelia rotate the wheel opening the portcullis blocking escape. The party does a protracted retreating fight moving back into the reliquary where Nazgog drops an unconscious Sticky where Morgana calls upon Celestian for divine healing. As the mound approaches the portcullis, Nazgog realizes that the party's in no shape to run and places herself between the mound and the party. She strikes again and the mound slams forward against her. The party watches as Nazgog blacks out for a moment, before roaring back to consciousness as Morgana spews flames around the mound causing it to crumble into itself. The chanting ceases once again as the party utters a weary cheer.
Jagger gathers herself together while stating, "Can we get the hell out of here? I'm so done with this house." The party maneuvers back up the stairs with Sticky leading and into the shrine room before passing through the concealed door and up the stairs to the trap door into the first floor. Sticky peeks into the room, but is greeted with roiling black smoke obscuring the view. Sticky thinks the room is the den with the wolves, but can't quite see enough details. Nazgog pushes through and pulls herself into the blackness. She bulls her way through the room to what used to be a door leading to the grand hallway, however, it's not a set of spinning blades. Nazgog coughs due to the noxious fumes as Fidelia pushes into the room as well. Jagger follows quickly, looks at the spinning scythes before shouting, "Dammit can't anything in this house be normal!!" The rest of the party mills beneath the trap door sensing the danger of the noxious black smoke as Nazgog then attacks the swarm and then pushes through the battered wall and into the morning light as the house finally releases her. One by one, the party follows Nazgog's lead and as Jagger makes it out onto the barren lawn, she falls onto her back exclaiming, "Fuck that house!"
Rewards Granted
Crystal Orb (25gp)
Small mummified goblin hand with claws on a looped rope
Knife carved from human bone
Dagger with rat's skull set into pommel
8-inch varnished orb made from nothic's eye
Aspergillum carved from bone
Folded cloak made from stitched ghoul skin
Desiccated frog lashed to a stick
Bag full of bat guano
Hag's severed finger
6-inch tall wooden figurine of a mummy
Iron pendant adorned with a devil's face
Shrunken, shriveled head of a halfling
Small wooden coffer containing a dire wolf's tongue
Small mummified goblin hand with claws on a looped rope
Knife carved from human bone
Dagger with rat's skull set into pommel
8-inch varnished orb made from nothic's eye
Aspergillum carved from bone
Folded cloak made from stitched ghoul skin
Desiccated frog lashed to a stick
Bag full of bat guano
Hag's severed finger
6-inch tall wooden figurine of a mummy
Iron pendant adorned with a devil's face
Shrunken, shriveled head of a halfling
Small wooden coffer containing a dire wolf's tongue
Missions/Quests Completed
Killed the Shambling Mound, Escaped the Death House
5x Shadows (100xp) = 500xp
1xShambling Mound = 1,800xp
Total XP = 2,300/5 = 460xp/person
5x Shadows (100xp) = 500xp
1xShambling Mound = 1,800xp
Total XP = 2,300/5 = 460xp/person
