Alrighty, so I guess I got plenty of D&D this week, assuming that the week started on the weekend. 'Today', which I consider to be today since I haven't slept yet, people started asking me when to show up at my house. I got enough requests that I said, "Screw it, I'll run something."
Everyone arrived at 6-ish. Banter occurred, talk of pizza was had, pizza was ordered, and we finally started actually playing at 7-ish. The session started with introductions, as it was set a few days before the current dungeon mentioned in the Monday post before this, and this was the first time that one of the players had shown up. Tonight we had the Hobgoblin Fighter, the Human Ranger, the Duergar Necromancer Wizard, and the Oread Inquisitor of Cayden Cailean.
The hobgoblin searched the job board while the rest ate lunch, or breakfast in the duergar's case, and discovered a few different possibilities:
A quest to retrieve a rich district woman's Persian cat for 30 gp.
A quest to stop raiding goblins from stealing the garbage of the fringe dwellers of the city for 50 gp.
A quest to investigate a 'haunted' orphanage that had been long abandoned, and was scheduled for demolition for 150 gp.
A quest to investigate the recent disappearance of an entire small town to the city's eastern border for 150 gp. Additional 200 gp for the safe return of the residents.
A quest to investigate and clear out a crypt, after the place had been ransacked by a necromancer, most likely, for 150 gp.
Mr. Hobgoblin seemed FIXATED on the cat quest, as it was OBVIOUSLY the easiest, and paid decently for minimal effort. The others seemed to like the idea of keeping a lookout for said cat, while heading to the crypt, since it was just outside the city's main walls. They set out, and Mr. Hobgoblin immediately started looking for 'shady characters' to ask about the missing cat. He walked down an alleyway, lifted a casually waiting halfling up off of the ground, and proceeded to question him. The halfling pointed up, at the six other halflings toting heavy crossbows, set up on the rooftops on either side of the alley, and was put down after a short while of the rest of the party explaining to him that he would die if he did not.
After that bit of shenanigans, everyone headed to the city gate, waved to the two guards stationed there, and headed for the crypt. The walls around it were cobblestone, with flat solid stone decorative tops, and the steel gate in the front looked relatively new. There was an obvious lock on it, and a glowing arcane mark on either side that said, once translated, "Construction in progress, closed indefinitely.". The sensible party members climbed over the wall when the hobgoblin broke the obvious lock, and then tried to push open the door, only to find that there was another lock. He tried to bend and/or break the bars/wall, but to no avail, and eventually climbed over to join them.
Down the stairs in the crypt, the passageway split left and right, with right abruptly stopping with a door, and left heading off for ten feet before also stopping with a door. They voted to go left and investigate, opening the door on what appeared to be a mortician's workplace, complete with opened cadaver placed upon a table, ribcage pried open, and entrails on a nearby pan. The party necromancer was quick to take the anatomy book and enchanted scalpel he found, as well as a two femurs from the corpse to use as clubs, one for him, one for the ranger... The ranger begrudgingly took his... and a rib bone that then had light cast on it.
There were again, doors to the left and right. They chose right this time, opened it up, and found out exactly where the storage of the crypt was. It was a vast room with little alcoves for bodies to be placed, though of course it was not lit, same with the rest of the place. Ghouls were discovered, party members were paralyzed and/or knocked unconscious, ghouls were hacked to pieces, and everyone rushed back to town to get healing.
They returned around an hour later, fully healed, to discover that the cadaver from before was missing, as were the ghoul corpses. They explored the initial door to the right, and found that it was a storage closet for things such as embalming fluid, and then checked the one to the left in the mortician's room, to discover a lavatory. They then headed through the crypt, weary of more sneak attacks, before finding the door at the end, which they opened with caution. Beyond was a spiral staircase, descending into darkness...
Once down the stairs, they discovered a solid, steel door, complete with a sealing valve on the front. The hobgoblin worked to open said valve, and took in the sight before him. Ahead lay a hewn stone room, with a frayed red carpet, stone pews with three hooded figures dispersed in them, and an alter at the front with one hooded figure there, delivering some whispered, hissing sermon in an unidentified language. The hobgoblin was first to rush into action, 'sneaking up' behind the closest of the 'people' sitting in the pews. One quick axe swing, and the skeleton was in half, slumped over, and re-dead, causing the other two to spring into action and rush him. Swipes were exchanged, the rest of the party rushed the 'man' standing upon the raised alter, and nigh every attack was deflected by the hooded figure's shield arm.
His hood was knocked back by the oread inquisitor, revealing a skeleton head, with glowing blue, flaming eyes. The skeleton smiled in it's eternal grin and laughed as it reached for it's sword, pulling the gem encrusted blade free of it's scabbard, and taking a shield to the chest as he did. Further blows were traded, the inquisitor once again went down, the necromancer turned himself invisible to attempt a sneak attack with spells, and the ranger was up next to feel the fury of the Skeletal Champion, when once again that axe came through, crashing down atop the cloaked form with a splitting sound, and a loud thud as it hit the floor.
When the room was again safe, they looted, of course, and discovered:
A breastplate
A heavy steel shield
A masterwork longsword
A masterwork hand crossbow
A sack of 120 gold
They divided up the gold three ways, since the inquisitor was still 'asleep', then once again headed for town to get him healed up, AGAIN. The town guard were laughing as they saw the four men returning for the second time that day, again with unconscious and/or bleeding members over other members shoulders.
Back to the crypt they went, undaunted by their rate of unconsciousness! They once again drew near their last cleared room, discovering a trap door beneath the rug behind the alter. They opened it, and found it to be dark. They dropped another piece of bone with Light cast upon it, hearing a soft 'blorp' as it hit something not solid... This had them on edge, as they immediately assumed the worst, but this did not keep them from investigating further! From the depths of this hole, a foul stench was wafting up, one of sulfur and brimstone... or vast amounts of poop. They lowered a rope down, with Light cast upon it in ten foot intervals, to see if they could spot the bottom, and began to climb down... before the hobgoblin, still at the top, started laughing about the fact that they'd already technically completed the quest, and yet the rest of them were willing to crawl through feces for no added benefit...
Everyone took a moment to think about this, and decided against descending any further, since the path below was CLEARLY the Absalom sewer system, now that they'd gotten a closer look. The necromancer, feeling quite dirty and in need of a wash, decided to take the Skeletal Champion's much nicer robes, trimming them at the bottom and wearing them as his own, only to discover in his breast pocket, that there were floor plans! Plans for the very room they were in, as well as plans for where to dig upward from the sewers! He also found a wand... They had what they needed, and headed back to town for their reward!
And that's where that session stopped. They got paid, they did a good job, and everyone enjoyed the extra jingle of coin in their pockets. Night internet.
Great piece, keep going this is really nice :)
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