Never to See the Light of Day (Part Two)

General Summary

Having pulled back to tend to their wounds and to the dead, the heroes find themselves back in the dark antechamber beneath the massive sun symbol and surrounded by the strange writing they cannot read. Ivor, Aelfric's young ward lay lifeless and ragged from the savage attack by the dragon in the nearby chamber. Cordelia lurks in the shadows alone and eventually peels off on her own. Aelfric is the first to break his silence and it's to announce his intentions to find a proper place to carry out Ivor's funeral rites. Erik and Berenger decide to accompany him in that duty.
Leaving the passage to the dragon's lair alone they wander into the other half of this tomb. Pushing open the doors and crossing the long hall that follows they come upon a room with walls that have collapsed; mud, floodwater and debris clog this chamber but they can also clearly make out eight stone sarcophagi in the center of the room. While exploring the murky chamber Aelfric starts seeing shadows skulking about the room, appearing and vanishings. Strange whispers in a language unlike any they've heard before start hissing in their ear. Aelfric demands to know who they are and one of the whispers slithers into his him saying: We are HER chosen ones!
The shadows leap at them, their very touch icy and able to numb the strength of those they grip. Erik and Berenger's weapons are ineffective but the glowing long sword that Aelfric carries (which he names Bear Claw) seems able to cleave into these spirits and ignite the wicked matter they are made of. After the last shadow is dispatched they take to opening the tombs and defiling the remains inside to make sure the spirits are gone, or so they hope.
Meanwhile, the rest of the scouts are starting to arrive at the fissure. Riken and his sister McKenna opt to head down and find out where the others are while the rest of the party remains above to ward against the Choir or other threats. The Moondall siblings begin exploring the first level at the bottom of the fissure while Mckenna teases her brother about still being stuck in Heinreich Klamp's decrepit body. They look for clues about where the others might have went to. In the process they find another chamber that seemed to be the site of a battle long long ago. A clash between the armored and professional human soldiers that seemed to be the guardians of this tomb and a group of primitive, tribal Halflings resulted in both sides being buried alive.
Finally, they slip inside the large chamber on the first floor and find the mud elemental that was defeated by Aelfric's team earlier. It lay in the muck, dying, and gurgling incoherently to Riken about a seal being broken and that he must promise to seal it. McKenna tells her brother to leave the mud pile alone and they proceed down the half-buried staircase where they find recent signs of their friends having been there. They follow the signs and clumsily meet up with them, accidentally prompting a brief attack as both sides were unaware of who was coming up upon them.
After settling down from nearly killing each other they discover another room behind the one they stand in. This one sealed off and protected from the flooding. There are three crypts in chamber, an alter, and a large symbol of the sun against the back wall. Erik begins piecing together some of the context around the glyphs, writing, and layout of the room (with his super high 20+ roll). He tells the others what he's able to guess at- that the three people in these crypts are here to prepare the dead and guard them. The alter here seems to be used by the three dead priests to call to the dead and wake them. Aelfric decides to use the alter and see if Ivor can be given a second chance at life and to learn from this experience.
Moments after putting Ivor on the alter the lids to the crypts open and three silent, skeletal priests emerge and hold their hands over the boy's body. The room swirls with an unnatural energy, strange whispers, and a tremor that radiates from below. Their hands focus the energy into Ivor's head where the sun symbol is burned into his flesh and suddenly the boy gasps and rises, seemingly to life. Everyone other than Aelfric are visibly shaken but the Frostmerite seems to willfully ignore the strangeness or forces himself to just accept it and move on. Uncertain and concerned, they all choose to carry on.
They begin exploring the tomb together and find the original tunnel the dragon burrowed through and theorize that they can follow that through into his lair and reach the staircase that Klamp and Sifter escaped down. They follow it through and reach the muddy chamber where the young Blue Dragon is slumbering and recovering from his ordeal.
In the dragon's chamber among the fallen bodies of Klamp's goons they find the unconscious Hyena Shaman that was kidnapped and forced to help them navigate the wards here. It's just a girl no older than ten years dressed in tattered skins and wearing a hyena skull as a helmet. They wake her and speak with her and it's clear from the get-go that she's A) a little insane, B) a cannibal who's pretty obsessed with wanting to eat Riken and Berenger, and C) dangerous (as she bites Berenger's neck and tried several times to club Riken and eat him. They decide to take her with in case there are more traps that she might be useful in navigating.
After taking the stairs to the third level of the tomb complex the scouts find an obvious trail to a final set of heavy stone doors that were recently disturbed. They assume Klamp is behind them and try opening them only to find some kind of arcane lock barring them from entering. They turn to exploring the rest of the third level for a means of opening the passage and getting at Klamp.
The first chamber they come across is a regal crypt with a massive tomb in the center of the space. They begin exploring the room while Erik approaches the sarcophagus to look for clues. While the others pour over the room Erik begins hearing whispers that echo only in his head and draw him closer to the tomb with promises of a key to the final door. As he leans over it a billowing, ghostly hand reaches out to grab him. Emerging from the crypt is a ghastly specter encased in blackish armor and wielding an ebony mace. Its touch infects Erik's mind forcing him to see his friends and enemies. This spirit proves to be a fierce threat unleashing powerful attacks with its weapon and unleash fear-effects that cripple their ability to fight back. It even seems to have the ability to control Ivor and forces him to attack Aelfric as well.
Slowly, they're able to turn the tide with help from Aelfric's magic blade and finally discorporate the entity and shatter his remains to deny him a place to reform. Inside his crypt they find a number of magic items that they add to their arsenal including the mace which Erik takes. He also examines the crypt and begins piecing together that this spirit was named Amonreth and that he was the champion to a figure known as Khadesha who seemed to be in charge of this place.
In the room behind this chamber is another crypt, one full of even more splendor than Amonreth's crypt save for one thing... it's empty. The sarcophagus is empty, the treasure holds are empty, everything is gone and not recently either. Whatever happened, it happened long ago. This was Khadesha's resting place and there is not so much as a hint of what happened to her.
They return to the main chamber and Erik uses the ancient mace to draw away the enchantment holding the door closed. He and the others than shove open the doors with tremendous fury and confront Heinreich Klamp.
Inside, the wizard is at the controls of a Gate that this tomb seems to be built around. The chamber itself is filled with ranks of silent, motionless undead soldiers seemingly waiting for a command from an absent master. Sifter is there as well, tending to his severed arm. Klamp explains that this is the true power he came here for, what nature was trying to stop explorers from finding. A functional gate. The heroes quickly leap to action knowing that if they don't act quickly Klamp will leap into the already active portal. Sifter uses one of his [manacite gas grenades to stall and poison the scouts. Berenger, already injured during the fight with Amonreth, collapses completely but Erik and Aelfric push on and confront Klamp. The wizard only has time get off a handful of spells before he's quickly brought down by their efforts. Meanwhile, Sifter quickly skulks into the gate's portal and vanishes. Erik, under the sway of his rage, hammers his new mace into the controls of the gate causing the portal to falter and fail. 
They now have Klamp in their possession after months and months of his persistent annoyances.

Report Date

19 Dec 2019