I wanted a single session interlude adventure to give me time to finish writing the next big adventure. I took an adventure seed idea from Edge of the Wilds The Thousand Trails Part 2 by True Mask Games and mixed it with an adventure from Dungeon Magazine 6 Bristanams Cairn by John Nephew. I created the VTT map in a few hours and the rewrite took only a few more hours.
Session 87: The Grey Monk
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).
Flora checked the ground again to make sure she was still on the trail of the marauding wolves. The tracks from the human homestead continued on to the north up into the mountains. The wolves’ tracks were enormous, easily the size of a mountain lion. She followed the tracks up into the mountains and down into a glacial valley. At the end of the valley rose the wall of ice that was a glacier. The tracks lead toward the glacier. Strewn about the valley floor was the wreckage of merchant carts, dead horses, humans, and possibly a few dwarves. Flora paused and scanned the glacier. A stream emerged from the front of the glacier from a tall crack. The glacier looked to be rapidly melting in the noonday sun.
Splashing sounds came from the front of the glacier and Flora drew an arrow from her quiver. First, one human fighter emerged then several more humans including one in a blue robe with a staff that burned with blue fire. The humans paused regarding her and then the robed figure called out.
“It's okay Fenris, there is no danger”.
Flora was startled as a human figure suddenly emerged from behind a bush-clad in a green robe. He had advanced within 30 feet of her without making a sound. Something unheard of from humans she had met before. She advanced slowly to speak with these humans.
After the Company of the Black Dragon interrogates the spirit of the wizard Vermis, they notice that the glacier is melting rapidly and quickly exit the glacier with Fenris in the lead. Fenris signals that he has spotted a single figure waiting outside for them. Lakima sees a single elven woman and moves forward to talk to her. The elven thief Flora meets the Company of the Black Dragon. Once the party explains that the Winter Wolves were the pets of Frost Giants and have been dealt with, Flora agrees to accompany the party to the village of Larm. She is surprised when they take out a book, touch a piece of paper to it and they are all pulled into a pocket dimension inside the book. In this pocket realm of browns and greys, floats a gigantic open book. Rising from the pages of the book is a tower seemingly made of parchment. But inside the tower appears to be made of stone. Lakima tells her that the company often travels inside the book in comfort while he puts the book in a saddlebag and flies on a hippogriff. Lakima leaves with the hippogriff.
Lakima flies south along the river all of the way to the village of Larm landing in a cloud of dust in the village common. Despite having seen this before the villagers are still startled and scatter into their houses and shops. Soon the militia arrives and then the Captain of the Militia. Lakima tells Captain Arboghast that the Company of the Black Dragon has defeated the Frost Giants in IceFang pass. He also tells him and the trade master that the glacier will soon melt opening the pass to travel. Trademaster Osmund prepares a note for Lakima to take to the Merchant Adventurers Guild in Edgerton and get paid.
That evening some members of the company enjoy a meal and several ales at the Borderland Tavern. They regale the owner Haldo Bramwise with tales of the fight against the giants. Eldric Trollslayer meets up with the other members of his party who have recovered much of their strength. He bids the company goodbye. The Mayor, Claus Oland enters the tavern and asks to speak privately with the group. They move to a corner of the tavern and invite Flora to join them. The mayor asks them if they would check in on a man known locally as the Grey Monk. A hermit who has a cottage near an ancient cairn in the woods a few miles outside Larm. There have been reports of the normally peaceful monk attacking travelers without reason. The Merchant’s Guild has put up a 40-gold bounty for his capture (dead or alive). The mayor tells the party of the many good deeds the hermit has done over the years. He is sure it is just a misunderstanding. A powerful group like theirs should be able to figure out the cause of the attacks without hurting the hermit. When Lakima expresses disinterest in such a minor adventure, the mayor shows him a wooden scroll tube.
“This is a family heirloom. Three magic spells handed down from my mentor. They are yours if you check in on the hermit”.
Lakima takes a poll of the party and they agree to check on the hermit without hurting him. But not until the next morning. The mayor thanks them and leaves.
The party enjoys a restful sleep and awakes refreshed if still a little battered from their previous adventures. They all exit the Tower in a Book and partake in a meal at the Tavern. Haldo’s son discovers that the river has risen two feet overnight and that there are chunks of ice floating down the rapidly moving river. Boats strain at their moorings. Haldo comes in with the breakfast and remarks that it must be because the glacier in IceFang pass is melting.
Domago begs off from the mercy mission they have signed up for – stating that he would like to spend some time at the local Temple of Law. Before leaving he casts some Healing prayers on some of the more battered party members.
Lakima, Alrix, Eathwund, Flora, Fenris, and Lantosh set out on foot for the hermit’s cottage. After a few hours of walking, they arrive at the cottage. The cottage is very small but well-kept, smoke drifts out of its chimney. In the clearing, there is a large cairn of cut stones at least twenty feet square and 6 feet high. A small pile of neatly stacked stones sits nearby. The cairn looks to have been disturbed recently. Not seeing anything amiss, the group goes up and knocks on the door of the cottage. An older man in grey robes answers the door. They ask if he is the Grey Monk and he remarks that folks hereabouts call me that. He steps out of the cottage to talk to the party. The grey monk claims to have no knowledge of attacks on local travelers.
Lakima asks the grey monk about the Cairn and the man walks over to it and sighs saying that it is his penance. When asked to explain he tells them that every day he removes the stones to free his ancestor and every night the cairn is rebuilt. This statement elicits a stream of questions from the party which the monk tries to answer. He feels that there is a trapped ancestor beneath the stones who needs to be freed. If only he could work harder and remove them all before noon. Lakima asks the group if they should help and everyone agrees, a few shrugging without much thought. They get to work. The stones are heavy but working as a team they manage to dismantle the cairn before noon. Under the cairn, they find a single, large, flat rock. It takes four of them working as one to shift it to one side revealing a dark hole in the ground. The noonday sun shines down into a stone chamber.
At this moment the Monk collapses and convulses on the ground. Lantosh checks the monk and finds he is unconscious. The company checks out the hole they have uncovered. Then the monk sits straight up again. He looks about confused.
“Who are you?” Then he spots the uncovered pit.
“What have you done!” he cries in horror.
The monk yells at them that they have freed the evil beneath the cairn. An evil that he and his brethren have stood guard over for years. He says that in the last three months it has become much more difficult. Every day he awakes at noon and finds the cairn partially dismantled, so he works until sundown rebuilding it. After a time, he realized that it was his other self that was doing the dismantling. He lived in terror of the thought of his alter ego tricking someone into helping remove the cairn. But now that it is uncovered there is no turning back. He must enter the dungeon and confront the evil that will be found there.
Lakima tells the monk not to worry. He can wait here and the adventurers will take care of the evil. They have handled worse. When Fenris questions this decision Lakima tells Fenris that there will be treasure in this pit. Fenris leaps into the pit.
Fenris reaches the bottom of the pit and finds he is in a circular chamber made of stone. He listens carefully not hearing anything and calls up that it is safe to descend. The entire party descends one after another into the pit.
Fenris checks the passage leaving the chamber and states that it is safe. Lakima moves forward with him but feels the floor coming loose under his foot. He and Fenris jump back to safety as a ten-foot-deep pit opens up beneath their feet. The bottom of the pit is lined with rusty iron spikes. Fenris apologizes and steps across the corner of the pit to the western passage. The rest of the group follows until they come up to a wooden door. Fenris declares the door safe but he is unable to push it open. Each of the members of the group takes turns putting shoulders on the door but it does not budge. Lakima casts the Strain cantrip increasing his strength but is still unable to move the door. They decide to turn around and try the other direction.
Stepping over the pit again they head east and arrive at another wood door. Fenris presses his ear up to the door and says he cannot hear anything. It turns out that this one is not as badly stuck as the last. Eathwund is unable to budge it but Lantosh is able to shove it open. Once the door is open, they see a chamber with battered, corroded armor and swords scattered across the dirt floor. Some armors have been buried in the dirt. Eathwund decides to use his sword to detect magic. The sword communicates the location of three magic items to him. He digs two javelins and a suit of chainmail out of the dirt.
A corridor leads out of this chamber to another door. As they walk along the corridor Lakima notices that Fenris is scratching his right ear with vigor. He shines a light into the ear and spots something moving. Fenris yells at Lakima to get it out. So, he takes a pair of clippers from Fenris’ thieves' tools and tries but cuts Fenris on the ear. Lakima hands the tools to Eathwund who manages to expertly spear an ear seeker and pull it out of Fenris’ ear. Fenris carefully checks the next door for traps being sure not to press his ear to the wood. Declaring it safe, he gestures for one of them to open the door and Alrix shoves it open.
There is a flash of bright blue light as a Glyph of Warding trap is triggered. Eathwund and Alrix are caught in a blast of freezing cold while Lakima and Fenris are caught in the edge of the blast. Once it passes, they get to their feet and enter the chamber. In the middle of the stone-walled chamber rests a large wooden box. The sides and lid of the box are carved in elaborate patterns depicting elves, men, dwarves, and trees. The box is apparently unlocked. Fenris checks it and says it looks safe. He carefully lifts the wooden lid and lets it fall back to the floor. Inside the box is a bronze urn. The urn is unstoppered and is inlaid with a silver pattern of six dancing skeletons. The eyes of the skeletons are tiny emeralds. Not trusting what looks like a trap to him, Lakima summons his Glow Minion. The minion is instructed to remove the urn from the box and place it in the Bag of Holding. Everything works without incident and everyone starts breathing again.
Exiting this chamber is another door in the west wall, and an open passage to the north going into another, larger chamber. In this chamber rests a similar box although this one is much bigger and longer – sort of coffin-shaped. Fenris checks the box for dangerous traps and finds none. He flips open the lid and jumps back. Flora tip-toes forward and peers into the open box and realizes it is a coffin. A skeleton wearing a bronze crown lies in a bed of ancient copper, silver, and gold coins. The skeleton is half-buried by the treasure.
Eathwund uses his sword to check for magic and finds none surprisingly. Disappointed he starts searching the walls of the chamber. Meanwhile, the Glow minion and Fenris begin filling leather sacks with the treasure. Lantosh remarks that he does not trust treasure without guardians in a tomb. Lakima points out the traps they got past. Just then Eathwund shouts, “found it” and points at the stone wall behind the coffin.
“There is something magic behind that wall.”
Lakima checks the wall for doors but is unable to find anything. He asks Flora to check with her keen eyes and she does find something. Flora pulls out a stone brick revealing it to be fake and drops it to the floor. There is something hidden behind a false stone wall. Working quickly Flora soon realizes she is uncovering a body entombed upright in the wall. She continues until it is completely revealed. A human-looking skeleton stands in a shallow niche in the wall. It wears fairly intact leather armor, has a red cape, and its bony hands clutch a magnificent-looking longsword.
Flora steps back and Eathwund goes up to the skeleton. It is unmoving, its mouth hanging open. He reaches out to peel the skeletal finger bones off of the sword hilt. As his fingers touch bone, he is shocked by how cold they are. His attention on the sword pommel he does not see blackness rise in the eye-sockets of the skeletons followed by a spark of blue light that gets brighter. But his companions see it and shout a warning.
“Get Back!”
Eathwund steps back leveling his sword as the skeleton raises its sword and steps out of the wall and into the chamber. Its head creaks from side to side as if it is counting the number of intruders. Eathwund feels a magical wall of fear slam over him but he fights it off. Then the skeletal death knight opens its mouth and speaks in infernal. There is a flash of flame and smoke and a ten-foot-tall frog demon appears next to Lantosh on the far side of the chamber.
Alrix casts the Magic missile spell before Eathwund even has a chance to raise his sword. Missiles slam into the Deathknight. Then Eathwund slashes at it with Wormbane. The sword strikes true but the Deathknight seems unconcerned. He hears Lakima chanting a spell. There is a bright flash and two kobolds with spears appear. Lakima shouts at them to attack the demon. The kobolds immediately attack but the demon shoves them aside. Lantosh is not so easily shoved aside, his war hammer strikes the demon in the shoulder with a crack.
The Deathknight attacks and hits Eathwund getting past the expert brawler’s defenses. The Demon claws and bites Lantosh injuring him. Eathwund manages to strike the Deathknight again and this time it takes notice. It steps away from Eathwund leaving its sword which continues to dance and lunge at Eathwund despite being dropped by the skeleton. Alrix hits the Deathknight with magic missile again. Lakima uses his Amulet of Demon control and casts Charm on the demon but the spell sputters and dies. Angered by the damage it has taken the death knight casts Fireball right on the demon. The explosion rocks the chamber and the demon is unharmed. But as the smoke and fire clear, Lantosh, Fenris, and the two kobolds lie unmoving on the floor.
Lakima yells at Eathwund to get away from the Deathknight. He backs up as the Deathknight retrieves its sword. Then Lakima casts Fireball on the skeleton. But the spell fails! Alrix also casts a fireball and the Skeleton is not able to block this one. For a second time within seconds of each other a fireball blasts the chamber. The Deathknight is incinerated.
Despite the death of its summoner, the demon fights on. It attacks Eathwund but he expertly blocks the claw and bite attacks then he counter-attacks slashing open its stomach. Flora leaps in and slashes the demon in the neck. It staggers looking for a way to escape but it is then hit with a barrage of magic missiles from Lakima and it is killed. The body is quickly consumed in flame and only ashes remain.
Alrix picks up the Deathknights sword that is now lying quietly on the dirt. The rest of the group does one last check for treasure. Eathwund busies himself picking up Lantosh’s dead body. Lakima directs the Glow Minion to pick up Fenris. They make their way back the way they came and are greeted by the Monk.
“Are you alright? I heard a lot of screaming!”
Lakima assures the monk that though they have been injured they are okay. The bodies of Fenris and Lantosh are hauled out of the pit. The monk is crestfallen to see that two of their companions are dead. He offers to bury them and say a prayer. But Lakima assures him that they know someone who can raise the pair. The Monk is shocked by this statement. He is jubilant that the evil Deathknight has been destroyed. He tells them that he is sure his curse is broken. He does not feel an alter ego lurking in his mind anymore. He asks them to thank the mayor for sending them. He also cannot contain himself and hugs Eathwund who is standing near him.
“At last, I have peace for the first time since the Temple fell”, he says cryptically.
The company returns to Larm arriving late in the day. Carrying two companions slows them down. At the town gates, they are told that adventurer burials should be done outside town on the hill. They wave off the guards. Lakima tells the mayor that the problems with the Grey Monk are over. He is rewarded with a spell scroll containing the spells, Magic Mouth, Fly, and Haste.
Once they have located Domago they step inside the Tower in a Book. Domago checks on Fenris and Lantosh and shoos away Aashdoshan who is hovering near the bodies. Lakima tells everyone to rest while he flies the hippogriff. When the hippogriff grows tired, he will land and rest and they can guard the camp. First, he asks Domago for a healing prayer as he was badly injured by their recent adventure. He sets off and flies deep into the night. Late in the evening, the hippogriff begins to grow tired and Lakima takes it in for a landing. He summons the rest of the company and gets them to make a camp. The hippogriff grows frantic on its tether and they soon realize why as a large wyvern circles the camp. Eathwund grabs one of his javelins. The wyvern suddenly dives on the camp surprising and scattering the party. It slashes at the hippogriff, opening a deep wound in its shoulder grounding it. But as it flies back up Lakima hits the wyvern dead center with a lightning bolt. The wyvern cries out and begins to fall, it flaps to regain height, and just as it begins to right itself, Alrix casts Magic missile and brings it crashing to the ground. Their hippogriff pulls up its tether and trots over and stamps on the dead reptile.
The next day Lakima flies all night until he is forced to land at the Restless Knight Inn. They stay the night and then the next afternoon they arrive in Edgerton. Lakima lands the hippogriff right in the courtyard of the Church of St. Cuthbert. Abbot Marta is summoned by the commotion and takes charge of the healing. The previous day Domago raised Lantosh from the dead successfully but now both are exhausted. Marta takes Fenris inside and casts Raise dead bringing the thief back to life. Once it is clear that Abbot Marta has things well in hand, the other members of the party go to the Black Dragon Manor House. Flora is invited over to stay in one of the guest rooms.
The next day Lantosh and Lakima collect the full reward of 7,000 gold from the Merchant’s Adventurers Guild. Rasmus Orbin, the Guildmaster examines the note they have brought from Larm.
“I expected you might deal with those Frost Giants, but how did you melt an entire glacier?”
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