Re-using Dungeons

In session 135 we finished out my Shadows over Edgerton adventure. A short adventure I wrote for which I re-used several previously visited locations. It never would have occurred to me before to re-use a dungeon but now this is the third time the adventurers have entered the Crypt of St. Bethesda. Originally they encountered this dungeon a few years ago when we played through an adventure I had rewritten from the AEG Booster adventure of the same name. Later, I used the now empty dungeon when they were investigating the murder of a maid at the one-player's tavern. A murder that had happened decades earlier. The murderer turned out to be an insane monk who later died and was entombed beneath the church - one of the reasons the church was abandoned.

This time I had antagonists of this adventure use the dungeon beneath the abandoned church as a handy location for their ritual to summon a Nightwalker from the Shadowfell. I also had the adventure come to a close in the cemetery outside of town. A cemetery that had featured slightly in some earlier adventures.

It has the advantage of cutting down on map-making time but that is not the real reason I re-used it. I felt it would make the world a little more real to the players. There is a big dungeon beneath their hometown - someone is going to make use of it.

Session 135: Shades and Shadows

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Domago (human cleric NPC), Brovin (human thief NPC).

For weeks the townsfolk of Edgerton have been plagued by nightmares and harassed by shadows at night. The Company of the Black Dragon has traced the source of these nightmares to the crypt beneath the Church of St. Bethesda.

Brovin descends the stairs to the crypt and examines the door while the rest of the company waits above under the looming glare of the statues of St. Bethesda. After a few minutes Brovin returns and says that he cannot get the door open. The group searches the church towers but does not find any other entrance.

“We will have to enter through the abandoned cottage,” Lakima says.

The group leaves the church and makes their way to the boarded-up cottage. Inside a large stone blocks the entrance in the floor to the crypt. Lakima casts passwall and the way is clear. The entire group descends into the familiar dungeon beneath the church. They find the dungeon empty and there is no sign it has been used by anyone since they last entered here the previous summer. Avoiding the garbage chamber at the center of the dungeon they eventually make their way to the Church crypt. The chamber is piled high with debris from the church and several wood coffins have been dumped on top of the piles.

Lakima directs Brovin to check the cellar library when they suddenly come under attack from black-robed and masked cultists. A melee occurs with the adventurers killing six cultists. The cultists fight to the death requesting no parlay even when things turn desperate for them. After the battle, a search of the former crypt of the monks reveals it has been turned into a barracks for the cultists. Unable to find even a hint of the shadowstone, Lakima suggests they open one of the old iron doors to the garbage room. Inside they see an enormous pile of garbage some of which pours out around the feet of Aldus who opened the door. Emerging from the pile of garbage is the biggest carrion crawler they have ever seen. A truly gigantic carrion crawler that is ten feet long. The creature slides down the garbage and attacks Aldus with its many tentacles. Aldus is paralyzed by its touch almost immediately. Eathwund pushes Aldus to one side and takes up the fight with his longsword.

Then Lakima uses a polymorph spell and turns the creature into a larger-than-average frog. He sends the glow minion into the trash to catch the frog and return it to him. Domago examines Aldus and says he thinks Aldus will be fine in about a quarter of a watch. While they wait the glow minion searches through the garbage for anything useful but finds nothing. Aldus finally regains movement.

“Where is that creature!” he shouts, “I want to crush it.”

Lakima tells him that the frog is in his pocket. Aldus demands to be allowed to crush it but Lakima dissuades him by telling him it is his new secret weapon. Now that the entire dungeon beneath the church has been searched Lakima remembers the secret chamber that led to the Abbots’ tomb. Returning to the room where the cultists were staying, he uses the wand of secret doors to reveal the entrance to the abbot’s tomb. The door is opened and three cultists immediately emerge and attack Eathwund. Behind this fight, they can see more cultists and one is summoning a creature from the Shadowfell.

There is a general melee in which the cultists are killed or in the case of one cultist captured by Eathwund. The creature from the shadowfell is also destroyed. Lakima questions the cultist about the location of the shadowstone but he refuses to talk. But with the aid of the medallion of ESP, Lakima sees the location in the cultist’s mind. Realizing what Lakima is doing the cultist tries to kill him but he is held firmly by Eathwund.

“The shadowstone is under a crypt in the cemetery south of town,” Lakima says. He also tells everyone that the Twilight Coven (the cultists) plans to summon the Nightwalker on the night of the new moon in two days.

They take their prisoner and climb the stairs to the church nave. Above six members of the watch are waiting for them and they turn over the prisoner to them. Lakima suggests they get some rest before heading for the cemetery. They have been up all night and they see that the sun is just starting to rise. Brovin suggests they go to the cemetery during the day.

After a long rest at their manor house, the company sets out for the cemetery just outside the town gates. They arrive a few hours after noon. They see that the stone ruins of their former Tower in a Book are being slowly taken away to be used as building material. The cemetery is built on a hill and they see two large mausoleums at the base of the hill. Brovin goes over and knocks on the door of the caretaker’s cottage.

The caretaker opens the door but becomes surly once he looks over the experienced adventurers. He accuses them of being grave robbers and demands they leave. When Lakima asks about a crypt with a large chamber beneath it, he tells them they are mistaken.

“I guess we should leave?” Brovin shrugs.

Lakima tells him that once you have saved a town a few times you have a license to dig up a few family crypts. The group heads to the nearest crypt. The name "Marren" is inscribed above the doorway and the crypt is locked and appears to have been undisturbed for a long time. They then head to the Vorloi family crypt. This one appears to have been entered recently. Brovin picks the locked gate and the group enters the large crypt. Inside are a half-dozen wood coffins resting on shelves. One coffin looks like a recent addition and there are a dozen flowers resting on its lid. Brovin reads out the name Lucia Vorloi and Lakima recalls the young noblewoman who was killed by the Veiled Society more than a year ago when they first came to Edgerton. He suggests opening the coffin but Brovin tells him that it is screwed shut. They decide not to open it. The group leaves the crypt and relocks it. They then wander about the graveyard until they arrive at an open grave with a coffin in it. Suspicious they raise the coffin. Inside is a man who appears to have been murdered recently. But there is only dirt in the grave. They replace the coffin.

“Well, we just will have to check the tomb over there again,” Lakima says and points across the field at the first tomb they checked. Brovin unlocks the gate to the tomb and opens the stone doors. Inside they find an empty room and a stone stair that descends into darkness. Lakima sends the glow minion down the steps first followed by Brovin.

The steps lead to a stone chamber with a statue of a guardian knight in the center. Three doors lead from the chamber. As Brovin tries the first door, shadows and shades from the shadowfell emerge from the walls and attack the group. Eathwund tears into the shades with his sword. Domago uses his mace ineffectively. Aldus attacks shadows with his longsword. Lakima throws darts and Alrix throws magic missiles. Even Brovin is forced to fight (with his sword) as the shadows come from all directions. The melee does not last long and the adventurers are victorious. But, Aldus, Domago, and Brovin are all weakened by the deadly touch of the shadows. After the battle, Domago casts Dispel Evil on Aldus returning his strength. He and Brovin will just have to continue on in their weakened state.

The three chambers leading from the room all turn out to be tombs with many burial slots and no exits. Lakima uses the wand of secret door detection and discovers a door hidden behind a fake tomb in the northern chamber. Eathwund opens the fake tomb and the entire door swings open revealing steps headed down another 20 feet. Below they can see flickering torchlight and hear voices.

Aldus suggests rushing them and Eathwund and he run down the steps followed by the rest of the party. They enter a large chamber with bizarre statues lining the walls. In the chamber are just four men. One man is scribing a summoning circle on the floor with a charcoal stick while the other men are scattered about the chamber. Eathwund immediately charges through the summoning circle and slashes the man at work there.

“Ahhh! Nightwalker protect me!” the man yells. Then a horrible creature steps out of the shadows beside him and levels a deathly glare at Eathwund. Eathwund swears he feels his soul lurch but he fights it off.

“It’s a Bodak!” yells Alrix, “avoid its gaze!”

The man retreats from Eathwund and several shadowy creatures step between him and the party. The creatures look like armed men made of shadow. They briefly lose sight of the man but Alrix casts Fairie Fire on him.

Lakima takes out a scroll and casts an anti-magic shield barrier around himself. At a distance of 30 feet, the barrier blocks all magic (in or out). All of the party with the exception of Aldus (off in the corner fighting a thief) and Brovin (hiding on the stairs) are within the barrier. Knowing that he cannot cast through the barrier, Alrix steps out of it just long enough to hurl a fireball at the human cultists and shadow creatures. The human mage opposing them goes down immediately in a blaze of fire. The human cult leader (who they assume is Nalazar Blackhand), survives the blaze and casts healing magic on himself.

Meanwhile, Domago is fighting a losing battle against a man with a flaming sword. Lakima tries to help him by hurling darts at the man who responds but shouting angry curses at Lakima. Lakima continues to throw darts and taunts him. He also hands his wand of lightning bolts to Alrix he uses it repeatedly to destroy shadow creatures. Eathwund keeps the bodak at bay just outside of the anti-magic shield so that it cannot use its death gaze on him or his friends. The bodak attacks instead with a sword but it is not as skilled as Eathwund with the sword and he lands several hits upon it.

First, the thief Aldus is fighting falls, and then Lakima manages to kill the man with the flaming sword with a well-placed dart into his eye. The bodak is killed by a lightning bolt from Alrix. The shadows form a defensive barrier around the human summoner holding the shadowstone. But one by one they go down until the human is killed by an arrow into his chest fired by Alrix. With his death, the remaining shadow creature vanishes.

The aftermath of the fight reveals only four human corpses. There is no trace of all of the shadow creatures. Brovin searches through the corpses and finds gold and silver coins, jewelry, and a spellbook.

“No one will know that we saved the town,” Domago says.

“We will know, and we will be sure to tell people what happened here,” Lakima says.

The adventurers climb the stairs out of the crypt and out into the sunshine.