Session 15. - Library Fees

General Summary

The Realm of Tarsere Adventures In Tarsere The Horizon Beckons Session Reports Session 15. - Library Fees

All Hallow's Eve - Samhain, 1439 A.P.

As the party were planning to head into the crypt, they realised that they'd forgotten to check on Deadeye to see if he was sober enough to join them. Oorr, being the least likely to be detected (at least that's what he said), volunteered to go and get him.

The others waited and discussed the previous night's events through a hazy fog of sleep. Arbor even commented that he felt like he'd slept for months instead of just one night. After waiting for about half an hour or so, the feathered head of Deadeye poked itself around the corner. He said that he'd got their note and apologised for his drunken behaviour on the boat. He just really didn't like sailing. The others brushed it off like it was nothing and Angrar asked where Oorr was. Deadeye said he hadn't seen him. Just that he'd woken up, saw the note and came at once. It took him a hot minute to realise he'd been asleep for a whole day and vowed never to drink that much again (unless they went sailing that is). Urith asked if they were going to go back and get Oorr but the general consensus was that when he realised Deadeye wasn't there, he'd backtrack and catch up with them. When they were ready, they descended into the crypt. The spiral staircase led down about 30 feet and opened up into a room that would have easily fit in the library above. The tiled mosaic of the stairs and library gave way to more rough hewn stone. They soon came to realise that this room had likely once been part of the crypt but had been fully taken over by the library with books filling every nook and cranny within the odd L shaped room. As they entered the room, they all felt a pressure in their mind and started hearing whispers just at the edge of hearing. It was a chaotic litany of harsh, guttural words in a language (or languages) that most of them could not understand with only Suljurn understanding about one in three words. Even without understanding them, the sound itself was maddening and almost instantly gave Suljurn, Deadeye and Angrar splitting headaches that they could not shake. Arbor and Urith managed to shake off the effects of the whispers for now but they still heard them just at the edge of their hearing and they all knew that prolonged exposure would likely drive them all mad. Despite not wanting to listen, Suljurn realised that some of the whispers were being spoken in Old Meradic and concentrating through the pain, he was able to piece together a few words. He heard something about Destroying the Sword, of Freedom, the Gravekeeper, and the name Moloch repeated several times. While Suljurn listened, the others looked further around the room and a statue of Rayah in her classical shieldmaiden pose as well as two exits leading from the room, one to the east and another to the north. Both were barred on this side with heavy oaken beams. Angrar took the time to look around the room and managed to discover a small chapbook. At a brief glance, it told the story of the last crusading captain of the Rayahn order who fell while storming a fort somewhere along the river Isen that had been overrun by a necromancer and his minions. The captain was known as "The Sword of the Grave" for he was a fearsome foe of the undead. The dead and near dead had a reputation for staying in the grave after he dealt with them. After the battle, his remains were brought to the mother temple in Aran Dhabar, and the priests noted that incidents of undead activity reportedly dropped to near zero after that. The priests took it on faith that the Gravekeeper continued to keep them safe from the undead and started interring their foes of the church, knowing the Sword would keep them safe. A partial list of names ends the book but the last few pages have been torn and shredded. One of the legible names is “Orin, high priest of The M…”. The remainder is indecipherable. The remainder of the book has been gnawed on by rats. Once they determined nothing else of value was in the room, the party arbitrarily chose the northern door and unbarred it. They entered a light stone hallway lit from above by a flickering glowing light that hovered about five feet above them. There were several stone plinths raised off the ground with sarcophagi on them. There was another stern looking statue of Rayah pointing at the room directly north of them. The passage itself ran east <-> west with the eastern branch looking like it turned north shortly. To the west more sarcophagi could be seen and standing beside them were several humanoid figures in the tattered remains of various suits of armour. As the party approached, the figures turned in unison, revealing skeletal faces writhed in glowing spectral blue light. The party sprang into action as the undead attacked. The fighting was very intense, with the heavy armour the skeletons were wearing deflecting the majority of the blows against them. Several more undead poured from the nearby alcoves, one strangely unarmoured. The party worried that this newcomer was some sort of spellcaster and Urith and Deadeye focused their aim on him while Angrar and Suljurn did their best at cleaving the others in twain. It took far longer than they expected to dispatch the skeletons, who hit just as hard as they were armoured but eventually they whittled them down. The one they'd suspected of being a mage, had never cast any spells which puzzled them until they went into the room he'd come out of and found a heavy set of Adamantine Scale Mail in the sarcophagus. When they searched the other alcoves, they found another one of the acolytes hiding behind one of the stone sarcophagus lids that had been pushed off by the skeletons. They were immediately suspicious of him and grilled him as to his allegiances. When they were satisfied that he was actually and acolyte rather than one of Garrick's crew, Deadeye led him back upstairs and then up into the church itself where he said he was good to find his way from there. Once Deadeye returned, they headed further west before coming to a T intersection and turned north. After some time, they came to another intersection with a large double door to the west and a passage heading back east. Angrar listened at the door and determined that there was something or someone talking beyond it, or at least that there was something beyond the door. It was locked though so collectively they decided to come back and instead turned east. The passage ahead of them looked like it widened into a room supported by several columns but to the north they saw another large circular room, where the light was not the flickering white, but instead a balefully ominous, hellish red glow. It looked like several figures were standing in front of the sarcophagi in the room and Angrar swore he heard chanting of some sort. The party charged in and saw that glowing red lines of power ran from the seven coffins along the edges of the room and intersected with two tall spectral figures with their backs turned to the party, in the middle of casting something. Standing at the foot of two of the coffins were two more of the heavily armoured skeletons they'd fought earlier. The fight started and the party soon realised that they might be in over their heads when one of the spectral figures uttered something arcane and a void of blackness enveloped the room, blinding everyone. The group did their best to manoeuvre through the blackness only to discover it filled with something otherworldly that grasped at them icily. Most everyone backed up, but Urith thought he could tactically outmanoeuvre the casters and charged forward, coming out the far side of the blackness almost next to two of them. In the darkness, the others heard his screams as the undead laid him low and he went down, slowly bleeding out. Tied up as they were, the party found it very difficult to get to him easily, but at the last minute, managed to get close enough to toss a healing potion down his throat and stabilise him. The fight continued to be brutal, with the maddening whispers and general exhaustion taking a toll on them. Many of their blows missed by inches or were ineffectual just due to the sheer tiredness of their arms. Eventually though, they managed to defeat the creatures and disrupt whatever ritual they had been engaged in. They were exhausted, and the day had just began. They regretting not waiting for Oorr to return but in the end, they doubted the outcome would've been much different. While Urith wanted to rest, they all knew that they'd not get any benefit from it. They rested as best they could and healed each other where they could spare it and considered their options. They wanted to continue but weren't sure they could last much longer and feared for their survival. While they decided, they searched the sarcophagi and inside one they found a small oblong wooden box, ornately carved, with no visible hinge or opening mechanism. They could hear something inside rattling loosely and Suljurn said it radiated a faint magical aura.

They pocketed the box and thought about their next move when they heard a scuffling noise in the hall outside...

Notes

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Campaign

The Horizon Beckons

Protagonists