2024-01-06 Funeral Pyre
Attending
6 players for session #74.
- Ashley (Niffler - halfling/thief/4)
- Eric (Kudo - half-orc/assassin/2)
- Jacob (Sir Lear - human/knight/1)
- Keith (Lowson - human/pladin/1)
- Pete (Un’Duhr - human/illusionist/3)
- Quinn (Dolly - human/bard/4)
Almanac
- It’s the 3rd day of the 3rd month in the 615th year of of the Great Kingdoms.
- It’s late winter; the days are warmer than average, the nights are cooler than average.
- The skies are clear and there’s a light breeze.
- It’s currently the “Waning Dead Moon”; undead creatures attack all others before those born under this moon.
Events
615/03/03 - The Brazen Strumpet
The group makes its weekly trip into Helix to replenish supplies. After they complete their shopping they stop by the Brazen Strumpet for a pint before heading back to the Barrowkeep.
The tavern is quiet today, the patrons mostly consist of local towns folk. The tavern is notably absent of other adventurers.
The talk among the patrons is still the attack on the Scarlet Brotherhood in Eastdale. The general consensus among the patrons is that the Viscount should respond with force and show his support to the faithful of St. Ygg.
The party decides to return to exploring the mounds tomorrow.
They head back home to the Barrowkeep while it’s still light.
615/03/04 - The Barrowkeep
The party taps Arma and Aramil to join them on their outing today.
Mound #31
The party heads east from the Barrowkeep to the mound they’ve labeled 31.
They arrive without any difficulties but they find the mound collapsed. It’s clear that someone had been recently trying to excavate the mound.
A large area is trampled and covered in boot prints near the collapsed entrance.
Oddly there’s a single boot lying in the dirt here, it does not contain a foot.
Mound #32
The party decides to move on to mound #32.
When they arrive they find the door on the south side of the mound, in fact a large pair of iron doors with a lock. There’s nothing unique about the doors except that they’re iron. It’s rare to find anything but stone entrance caps.
Niffler goes to work and deftly picks the lock and gets a satisfying “click” as she opens it. Kudo pushes the door open and they see a stair descending down into the darkness, as is typical. It looks like this tomb will by dry.
Oz’s Raiders
Just as they’re preparing to enter the tomb a large party of rival tomb robbers shows up. Their leader calls out and introduces himself as Oz.
The party secretly confers amongst themselves as the tomb robbers approach, Dolly considers talking them into working together then backstabbing them once they’re engaged in a fight inside the tomb, Sir Lear has moral issues with this suggestion.
The leader of the tomb robbers indicates they’re lost and enquires about the direction to Bogtown. Dolly happily points them in the right direction but they do not head out. Instead they enquire about the open tomb door and make it clear they’re going to use their superior numbers to bully the party out of this find.
There’s a bit of a standoff with Kudo and Un’Duhr initially refusing to heed way to the tomb robbers presence. Just as the debate between the groups is getting spicy, Dolly casts entangle on the ground around the tomb robbers, roots and vines sprout up and wrap around their feet, and the party steps back to attack Oz’s crew from range.
Un’Duhr casts mirror image to add to the confusion.
Niffler climbs a tree to get a better angle from a distance.
Lowson activates Aohd’s ability of Extra Damage and Keith rolls a duration of 10 rounds.
During the fight Un’Duhr casts wall of fog blocking line of site to the tomb robbers.
Several of the tomb robbers are slain before Oz decides to call for his group to throw down their arms and surrender. Once they gather their wounded the tomb robbers make retreat via the path they arrived on.
Lowson went down in the fight but is resuscitated afterwards. With Lowson in his weakened condition, Arma decides to stay and guard the entrance and watch over Lowson, while the party enters the tomb.
The Entrance
The group lights their torches and heads into the entrance. The first room is partially collapsed and dirt continues to fall from the ceiling with the slightest disturbance.
The West Hallway
The party decides to investigate the hallway to the west first.
The door at the end of the hall is a wooden with wrought iron banding. They listen and hear nothing on the other side, then push the door open.
They see a large marble sarcophagus in the center of the room and 4 large white marble statues of naked women with spears, wearing just helms.
The murals on the walls have long since faded and chipped beyond recognition.
The group is quite suspicious of the statues. To often it seems that the statues attack to protect the tombs while the party is trying to rob the dead.
Dolly casts detect danger and as suspected the sarcophagus strongly indicates danger. They assume it’s the trigger to activate the statues.
The group decides to investigate the other rooms first.
The South Room
Kudo pushes the door open to a small room with 4 body length alcoves in it, each alcove has the funeral remains of one person and their meager offerings for the afterlife.
Kudo pulls a skull off one skeleton, but nothing happens, after witch they assume it’s save to loot the alcoves.
The East Room
Niffler slides the door open, it wasn’t locked, and sees a rectangular room with a single marble sarcophagus in the center of it.
Dolly casts detect danger on sarcophagus, as expected it’s clearly dangerous.
They make a plan to throw a lit torch into the sarcophagus, Sir Lear will push the lid open, Niffler will toss the torch in and Arma will quickly close it.
A solid plan, except when they push the lid open a trap is triggered and a puff of gas is released. Some of the gas seems to ignite in the presence of the torch. Sir Lear and Arma back away without being effected.
Unfortunately Niffler is to close and inhales some of the gas, then collapses a fit of coughing that lasts several minutes.
Eventually she regains her composure, stands up and says “I’m not dead yet!” maybe, unknowingly, tempting fate a little to much.
With the trap triggered the group investigates the sarcophagus. Inside they find a corpse holding a wand.
The West Room
The party returns to the west room. They open the sarcophagus which activates the statues as expected.
The group takes down one statue but the others are hitting hard and don’t want to fall.
The group decides to retreat but Niffler fails to get away in time, a statue attacks with it’s spear and she goes down.
Un’Duhr rushes back, grabs Niffler, and drags her down the hall.
The statues appear to be unable to leave the room.
The statues reach out and slam the door shut as the party retreats down the hall.
The party attempts to resuscitate Niffler but nothing works.
She’s gone.
Niffler’s Wake
The party didn’t want to risk Niffler returning in undeath so they decided to have a viking style funeral pyre and wake at the Barrowkeep.
It was simultaneously a party and solemn celebration filled with stories, reflection and lots of drink.
As the oldest surviving member of the Barrowkeep crew Niffler knew everyone and everyone will miss her.
Rewards
- 6 x Tomb Robbers lvl 1 (60xp)
- 4 x Tomb Robbers lvl 2 (80xp)
- 2 x Tomb robbers lvl 3 (70xp)
- 1 x Tomb Robber Leader lvl 4 (125xp)
- 1 x Statue (175xp)
- 1 x Wand of Cold
- 6 x Funerary Figurines (240gp)
- Misc Coin (31gp)
The players gain ? xp before personal bonuses and ? gp.
The henchmen gain ? xp before personal bonuses and ? gp.
Photos
