Ghosts of the past

I usually have three or four short adventures prepared at any one time in case the players finish an adventure early in our game session. I can then drop in a hook to a short adventure. During this session, I ran two short adventures back-to-back. "Malyn Missing" was a quick adventure I wrote to make use of the Darkvale Abbey map from Heroic Maps. The second adventure is a re-written Ghosts in the Graveyard 5e adventure written by William Fischer for EN Word ENSider. The published adventure was written for 5th-level adventurers but it was easy enough to make it work for my much higher level campaign.

Session 155: Ghosts of the past

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Domago (human cleric NPC), Brovin (human thief NPC), August (human magic-user NPC), Aelshara (half-elven fighter/magic-user NPC).

Lakima, Eathwund, Domago, Brovin, August, and Aelshara have journeyed north from Edgerton on the flying ship Cloudstealer on the trail of the kidnapped mage Malyn. The trail has led to an abandoned monastery in the Northern Hills.

“It looks deserted,” Brovin says, surveying the abandoned monastery. A two-story square tower and a ruined one-story building are attached to a walled courtyard. The walls have crumbled to the ground in many places.

“Scout the courtyard,” Lakima says to Brovin.

The thief puts on his ring of invisibility and vanishes. A few minutes later he returns to tell them that the courtyard is full of rubble but no one is there. With a signal, the adventurers approach the fallen doors to the courtyard. They behold two statues standing to either side of the entrance. One is little more than a pile of rocks but the other, covered in vines, is intact and depicts a broad-shouldered man in an apron holding a smith’s hammer in his right hand.

“Domago,” Lakima asks.

“It looks like Saint Helm,” Domago replies, “Patron saint of blacksmiths and stone workers.”

“Why would the monastery have been abandoned,” Lakima asks.

“It looks like it was attacked and the monks likely were killed or quit the monastery after the attack,” Domago says, “This close to the mountains, attacks from humanoid tribes would not be unexpected.”

The group enters the courtyard and Brovin points out the door to the tower.

“Check it out, Brovin,” Lakima says.

The thief moves over to the door and listens. He can see a wooden beam barring the door shut from the outside. Inside he hears a low, curious growl.

“I can hear something growling like a bear!”

“Do we check it out?” Lakima asks.

Aelshara nods that they should while Eathwund just shrugs his shoulders.

Moving to the door Eathwund grabs the bar and swings it up. The door flies open in his face. A fierce owlbear stands in the doorway and rushes toward Eathwund. Eathwund prepared for a possible bear attack is ready and drops the owlbear with a stab of his sword into its chest.

“Stand back,” Lakima yells and casts charm monster on the second owlbear. But the spell fails.

Eathwund ignores the request from Lakima seeing a second owlbear is already leaping toward him. This time Aelshara also strikes the bear with her sword and the two warriors kill the second owlbear which collapses on the corpse of the first.

“Did you get them all?” Brovin calls nervously.

Without answering Eathwund and Aelshara climb over the dead owlbears and into the tower room. Lakima impatiently tells Brovin to get in the chamber and check for treasure. A quick search reveals nothing but long-wasted provisions. A broken stair leads partway to the roof. The three climb back over the dead animals and out into the courtyard.

“Hey there is a ladder to the roof over here,” Brovin says pointing at a wood ladder just outside the courtyard wall.

“And it looks new.”

At the urging of Lakima, Brovin climbs up the ladder to the roof. A few minutes later he returns telling everyone that the roof is empty but that there is a wagon and a mule just outside the courtyard. Brovin is sent to check the wagon but finds only an empty wood crate inside it. The mule grazes peacefully on some grass nearby. Brovin returns and tells everyone.

“Well, someone is here,” Lakima says.

The group goes to the most intact building where two open doors lead to a hallway.

“I saw something move,” Brovin whispers.

“Eathwund, Aelshara, move to the front,” Lakima says.

Just then two men yelling war cries come charging toward the open doors to attack Eathwund and Lakima. Lakima casts his Protector spell and a suit of armor appears between him and the attackers. Eathwund defends himself from one attacker while the protector fights the other. Domago and Aelshara move to help but are stopped by a sudden shout.

“Behind us!” Brovin yells and points at two more bandits entering the courtyard behind them. Domago and Aelshara move quickly to block the two bandits.

Lakima casts a charm person spell on one of the bandits, a young woman.

“Stop, there is no need for this we are friends,” Lakima tells her.

The woman stops her charge and lowers her weapon looking about in confusion at Aelshara dueling with the other bandit.

“Ercan, stop!” the woman yells, “These are the guides sent for us!”

The man turns and looks at the woman in surprise.

“What! Are you stupid, they are the Black Dragon bastards from Edgerton!” he yells back.

The woman keeps trying to convince her friend to stop fighting, even grabbing his sword arm.

Meanwhile, Eathwund kills the youngest of the two bandits near him and the other bandit starts to slowly withdraw toward an open door. The protector swings ineffectively at him. Eathwund then steps inside his guard and cuts his throat open killing him.

“HOLD!” Domago yells and casts hold person on the bandit in the courtyard. The man stops moving paralyzed by the spell.

“I don’t understand, why did you kill them?” the woman asks.

“What is your name?” Lakima asks.

“Luna.”

“Luna, you know how the bosses get, we are here to take the prisoner and get rid of any weaklings.”

The bandit who gave her name as Luna is confused by the fight but agrees to take them to Malyn who she tells them is down in the cellar. The held bandit is tied up, gagged, and tossed into a broken horse stall next to the bones of a long-dead horse.

“This way, be careful of the mushrooms they are poisonous,” Luna says leading the adventurers to a stair descending down into the cellars of the monastery.

“Thanks,” Lakima says looking at the glistening, large black mushrooms that he had no intention of stepping anywhere nearby.

Luna descends the stairs first and calls out to those below.

“Our guides have arrived for the Pass of the Dead!”

Two men stand below in a cellar and look up in surprise. The room is lit by two torches in the walls burning blue flames. A large wood box lies on the floor, a door is open to the right, and directly ahead they see two prison cell doors.

“These are not the guides you fool,” one man yells while jumping out of a chair, “They are the Black Dra… aaahh,” he tries to finish but is cut off when Lakima shouts a single word at him. The man appears stunned and falls to the floor.

Black Choke Slavers

“I stunned him, get him,” Lakima yells at Eathwund who rushes the other man. The man is clad in dark robes but Eathwund quickly learns he is protected by chainmail under the robes. As Eathwund slashes the man he casts a spell at Eathwund. A beam of yellow light strikes Eathwund in the chest but does nothing. With a quick thrust, Eathwund shoves his sword halfway up the blade into the surprised man’s chest. He slides off the sword dead.

Aelshara runs to the open door and lets out a shout of anger raising her sword and striking another bandit. Lakima runs over to join her and sends the Protector into the melee as well. Then he casts charm person but it fails.

Seeing Lakima casting spells, the dark-skinned man says a quick prayer and a beam of light from his outstretched hand strikes Lakima. But again, nothing happens.

“You fool, I am the master of spells here!” Lakima shouts and casts disintegrate at the man but it also fails.

“Ha,” the man says, and avoiding the blows of the protector he steps back and aims another spell at Lakima. Lakima feels a brief wave of sickness come over him but realizing it is magic he fights it off.

Meanwhile, Aelshara takes the opportunity to stab the man in the side wounding him grievously. He staggers apparently dying and gets off one more spell aimed at Lakima but it also fails. He drops to the floor dead.

“Brovin, over here!” Eathwund yells, waving Brovin toward the cell door near him.

“Help! Eathwund get me out of here!” they hear.

Brovin deftly unlocks the door and they find a frantic Loric in a squalid cell. He thanks them profusely and tells them Malyn is in the next cell and is dying. Brovin also quickly picks the lock to the second cell and they find Malyn lying unconscious on the floor. His clothes are soaked in sweat. Domago runs to Malyn’s aid immediately.

“His heart is weak, and his blood flow is very faint,” Domago says, “I think that it is the effect of the geas, there is nothing I can do to save him.”

“We need to return him to his shop in Edgerton quickly,” Lakima says.

Lakima then notices Luna the bandit, confused and hesitantly sneaking back up the stairs.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Something is not right here,” she says, “I don’t understand it but it's not right.”

“Have you not seen factions fight before?” Lakima asks.

“I guess,” Luna says.

“It is nothing more than that, we are taking over,” Lakima says.

“You want the Ghoul King’s bounty?”

Lakima talks to Luna and learns that the group of bandits are members of the Black Choke slavers. They sell human slaves to the Ghoul King in the north. This group of slavers decided to collect on a reward offered for Malyn, to be brought alive to Ghoul Keep. Luna continues to be suspicious of what is happening but the power of the charm on her is enough to keep her compliant.

A talk with Loric reveals that the slavers were also asking about the Black Ring. They were uncertain which of the two was the real Malyn. Since Malyn claimed to be the apprentice and then soon became sick. Not knowing about the geas, neither Loric nor the slavers realized it had given Malyn away.

“Once they mentioned torture I would have told them anything I know,” Loric says.

Loric tells Lakima that life as Malyn’s apprentice may not be what he bargained for and Lakima suggests he join the Mages Guild of Edgerton.

“I might take you up on that,” Loric says.

The bandits are searched and hundreds of coins are found along with some jewels. Lakima tells Brovin to tie up the stunned bandit who Luna tells them is Onufrio. Eathwund lifts up Onufrio and carries him up to the courtyard.

“What about him,” Eathwund says shifting the bandit leader to his shoulder and pointing at the bandit they tied up and threw in a horse stall.

“He is just an underling,” Lakima says, “We do not need him.”

“There is a bounty of 250 gold for any Black Choke Slaver brought in alive,” Brovin says.

Lakima shrugs but Eathwund reaches down and easily hefts up a second bandit.

“Bounty,” Luna says, “I don’t understand, I thought you were slavers too?”

“Put this on,” Lakima says to Luna and he hands her the cursed helm of free action.

Once Luna puts on the helmet her questions are quelled.

It is an uneventful journey by flying ship back to Edgerton taking a day and a half. Once in Edgerton, Malyn is rushed over to his bed in the Apothecary. Abbot Marta takes charge of his well-being and promises to inform them of any change. Once in his bed, he asks for his ring and the green dragon statuette shows them how to open a secret compartment that holds the ring. Malyn takes the ring and falls unconscious. Lakima offers Loric a place in the Mages Guild with no tuition. He tells him there is one condition, he must honor the goddess of magic – Medamellara. Under this condition, Loric respectfully declines. He has pledged his soul to the Dark Lady. Changing that pledge would have dire consequences.

Back at the Manor, Lakima questions the leader of the slavers. The man answers their questions admitting to kidnapping Malyn for the bounty offered by the Ghoul King. He is unmoved by Lakima’s threats. They decide to turn him and his underling in to the town watch. They inform the watch that these are Black Choke slavers. The Watch captain checks the two bandits for the tell-tale choke tattoo of the slavers and finds it. He promises to send their reward once the slavers are questioned.

It is almost a week before they receive word that Malyn has recovered. Eathwund and Lakima go to visit him. Lakima takes the charmed Luna along. Malyn is grateful and a little surprised that they came to rescue him. 

“What will it cost me?”

“A favor,” Lakima says.

“I do not want to be beholden to you,” Malyn says, “I will reduce the price on the air elemental captures for your helms.” Lakima agrees.

“You need better protection,” Lakima tells Malyn.

“I had an excellent guardian but he is now trapped in here,” Malyn says tapping the magic mazestone on the counter.

“Perhaps you can use her,” Lakima says pointing at the charmed Luna.

Malyn is intrigued until he learns she is a charmed black choke slaver. He declines saying that she is charmed by Lakima, not him, and after having tried to claim his bounty he would not trust her not to try again.

The conversation turns to the bodyguard Malyn used to have been assigned by the temple of the Dark Lady. The cleric is trapped in the Mazestone. Lakima offers to free him. Malyn agrees to deliver the helms for no cost if he can free his bodyguard. Lakima casts a limited wish but it does not work.

“Nothing.”

“The mazestone is an artifact from the time of the Seven Cities,” Malyn says, “Even a wish spell might not work on it.”

When Lakima and Eathwund return to the manor they are told by Huntley that a man is waiting to see them in the mud room. “He was too dirty to let into the hall.”

They find Fendar waiting for them. He nervously asks for help. He has spotted a ghost walking the graveyard after dark. The ghost of a young woman.

“Perhaps if you did not steal for the dead, they would not be so restless,” Lakima says. But he does agree to help and asks Brovin and Eathwund to join him that night.

Lakima, Eathwund, and Brovin arrive at the graveyard outside Edgerton a few hours after sunset. They see a lantern light on the hill amongst the graves and the dark shape of a man digging a grave. Heading toward the light they see Fendar digging up a grave while a large dog circles nervously near him with its tail between its legs.

“Fendar, what are you doing,” Lakima says.

Fendar ignores them and the dog starts to whine. Eathwund walks up to Fendar just as he swings open a coffin revealing a recently buried man.

“It’s not here!” Fendar growls in a deep voice.

“What’s not here?”

“My cat, Oro?” Fendar says.

Fendar continues to speak strangely of his missing cat.

“He’s possessed, that’s not Fendar” Lakima says.

“Of course not, I am Arcos the ageless, sage of Edgerton,” Fendar says proudly. He then asks for their help in finding his cat. Eathwund notices that the grave next to the open one says “Arcos the scribe – 975”. Lakima uses the arrow of direction to locate the cat Oro and the arrow points back at the town of Edgerton.

“Will you find my cat?”

“We promise to find and return your cat,” Lakima says.

Fendar then collapses in a heap. A moment later his familiar voice returns as he questions what he is doing out in the graveyard. His dog stops whining and jumps up on him.

“Down Ripper, what's got into you,” Fendar says. Brushing himself off he gets up. Lakima explains what happened and questions what the open grave has to do with Arcos. Fendar has no idea. The grave is that of a merchant adventurer named Danforth. He had no connection to Arcos that he was aware. Fendar and his dog hurry off to their cottage.

“Let’s get out of here, we can investigate this in the morning,” Lakima says.

“Ah, Boss,” Eathwund says and points at an approaching spirit. The spirit of a young woman in a long dress can be seen floating amongst the tombstones coming towards them. Eathwund moves to meet her halfway.

“Can I help you miss,” Eathwund whispers.

The ghost pauses as if she has just noticed Eathwund.

“I am looking for my locket, it is strange that you are here in my house, did you take it?”

Eathwund assures the ghost that he did not take her locket. She tells him that the locket was a gift from her parents, it is silver and has an image of both her parents inside.

“It is all I have of them now, and is precious to me,” she says.

Eathwund learns that she is Catlina Jovani. She cannot understand where her locket has gone as she always wears it. She even turned down an offer from Gabriel Valcori to buy it for far more than it was worth. It is too important to her to part with. Once Eathwund promises to look for it she slowly vanishes.

“Now two ghosts are missing items,” Lakima says.

“Boss!” Eathwund says and points at a third ghost drifting toward them. The ghost is that of a large, fat man holding a sword in one hand. His other hand is missing and ethereal blood drips from the stump.

“You there! I know you have my hand! Return it now or die!”

Eathwund is forced to fight the ghost. With two quick slashes, the ghost is torn asunder and falls to the ground. The ghost is slowly sucked into the earth.

“You have not heard the last from Bruno Montanari, I will return every night to hunt you down!” the ghost says as it disappears.

“Three ghosts!” Lakima exclaims, “This is ridiculous, let’s get out of here while we still can.”

“What could be stirring them all up?” Eathwund asks.

“Danforth, let's check into his friends, maybe they were at the funeral.”

They head over to the caretaker’s cottage and knock on the door repeatedly. There is no answer.

“Get out here Fendar, I know you are in there!” Lakima shouts.

Fendar slowly opens the door. Lakima asks about Danforth’s friends. Fendar checks the death registry and shows it to Lakima. It appears he had only six people at the burial and all were representatives from merchant guilds. No apparent friends or family.

“No friends then, what is his connection to Arcos, or Catlina, or Bruno?” Lakima asks.

Fendar starts at Bruno’s name. With some hesitation, he confesses that Bruno Montanari worked for Gabriel Valcori, the graverobber. Fendar had been paid to allow them to rob graves.

“We will have to pay a visit to this merchant Valcori!” Lakima says.

“Begging your pardon, but you can’t”, Fendar says.

“Why not.”

“He’s dead, I buried him in the cemetery five days ago,” Fendar says.

“Show us the grave,” Lakima says with a sigh.

“Back out in the cemetery?” Brovin asks with a quiver in his voice.

Fendar leads them back out into the cemetery. During the walk, Lakima tells Fendar that he needs to promise not to disturb any more graves. Knowing full well that Fendar used to sell corpses to their fallen companion Ashdoshan. He tries putting a geas on Fendar but the gravedigger is surprisingly resistant and the spell has no effect. Lakima resorts to threatening Fendar if he learns of any graves being disturbed.

“Here it is,” Fendar says pointing at a freshly closed grave. A mound of dirt lies above a grave. The tombstone says, “Gabriel Valcori – beloved husband and father, benefactor to the poor and destitute, 498”. Lakima tells Fendar to dig up the grave.

“But you said…”

“Never mind what I said, dig it up.”

Under the moonlight, Fendar gets to work digging up the grave. Since it was a recent burial, the work goes fast. He reaches the coffin and grasps the lid. Before Fendar can touch the lid the spectre of a well-dressed merchant rises from the grave and grasps Fendar around the neck. Fendar lets out a gurgle and collapses. Eathwund frees his sword and quickly attacks the spectre slicing through the ethereal form. In turn, the spectre twice tries to reach out and touch Eathwund but he is too quick for it. At last, Eathwund slashes through the spectre's neck and it is dispatched.

“Search the coffin,” Lakima says to Brovin.

Without complaint, Brovin searches the coffin. He finds a fresh corpse of a man and goes through the man’s pockets and searches under him finding nothing. Eathwund checks Fendar lying crumpled on the ground but tells everyone that Fendar is dead.

“This is a mess, we need to let the church know about this,” Lakima says. 

The three men leave the open grave and coffin and leave the cemetery returning to the manor.

The next day Lakima, Eathwund, and Brovin go to visit Abbot Marta. They explain what happened at the cemetery. Marta agrees to go to the cemetery that day with some guards. Lakima suggests he bring some assistants.

Later in the day, Marta returns. He tells the adventurers that Fendar has been laid to rest. He would have risen as an undead in a few nights. They consecrated the ground of Valcori’s grave which will hopefully put an end to him.

“I suggest we make an official visit to Valcori’s family,” Abbot Marta says.

The adventurers go with a few members of the town watch and Abbot Marta to the Valcori manor in Edgerton. They are let in and meet with Gustav Valcori the head of the family. Gustave is indignant that any stolen items could be in his home.

“How dare you speak ill of my father, the Count will hear of this,” Gustav says angrily.

“I have already talked to the count and we are going to search the manor,” Marta says.

The two guards search the house but do not find anything suspicious.

“Marta, let me check for the items,” Domago says.

“What is his standing here!” Gustav shouts.

“It is only a spell,” Domago says. He casts the locate object spell and describes the golden cat.

“The golden cat is in the cellar,” Domago says matter of fact fully.

“Well?” Marta demands of Gustav.

Gustav claims that there is a locked cellar that they have never been able to enter since his father died. He is sure there could be nothing of interest there.

“Lucky for you we brought a Locksmith,” Lakima says pointing at Brovin.

Brovin, Eathwund, and Lakima descend into the cellar and find a locked door. Brovin manages to open it. They find an empty room. Using the wand of secret door detection Lakima locates and opens a secret door to a hallway.

“I think there is a trap in here triggered by that flagstone,” Brovin says pointing at the floor. He reaches down and carefully tries to disarm it.

“I think I got it,” he says and then they hear a clunk and a blade whirls out of a pillar slicing Brovin in half. The thief manages a brief scream before dying.

Brovin dies

Domago pulls the mangled corpse out of the hallway.

“He is surely dead,” Domago says.

“We'll bring him back,” Lakima says.

“What. Here?”

“Why not here?”

Domago sighs and then concentrates and prays over Brovin’s mangled corpse. Calling out Brovin’s name several times. A glow settles over the corpse and the injuries slowly disappear, then his chest begins to rise and fall. Domago checks Brovin carefully.

“He is alright. But he will not be moving around for a few weeks.”

Lakima instructs August to stay with Brovin while he, Luna, Eathwund, and Domago continue on.

“We should send for Grasshopper,” Lakima says. He tells August to tell the guards to send a runner with a message for Grasshopper.

“We can manage,” Domago says and casts Find Traps. He quickly points out the trigger for the blade trap and finds another. The three adventurers (and one charmed captive) carefully make their way past the traps. Another locked door blocks their advance. Lakima instructs Luna to use the Helm to open the door. She casts Knock to open the door. Here Domago finds a small chamber with a pit trap. He instructs everyone how to get past it. Luna uses the Helm to unlock another door. This leads to a trapped hall where Domago shows them how to bypass it. A locked door blocks them again and Luna uses the last charge in the helm to open it. This locked door leads to a small room. There is a fine walnut table with a chair, three large lockboxes, and two jewelry boxes on a side table.

“The large jewelry box and the middle lock box are trapped,” Domago warns.

“And us without our lockpickers,” Lakima says.

“We should wait for Grasshopper but I am impatient,” Lakima says. He casts a spell on the lockboxes and all of the wood is turned to dust. The metal brackets and lock fall to the floor. Inside they see many sacks. Searching these they find jewelry, gems, gold coins, silver coins, and a gold statuette of a cat.

“Oro, I assume,” Domago says.

“Well at least we found the gold cat,” Lakima says.

As they are searching, they find two ledger books. One is a fake accounting of the Valcori assets and the other shows all of the items Gabriel Valcori stole from the graveyard. Grasshopper arrives having been summoned by the town watch. Lakima asks him to open the two jewelry boxes. He tries to disarm the one that Domago tells him is trapped. He fails and is pricked on the finger by a needle. But nothing untoward happens. Either the poison has dried up or he is just resistant to it. Then he opens it finding a small silver locket with two faded portraits in it.

“The locket, of the young lady,” Eathwund says.

“Surely, this final jewel box cannot contain that man’s arm?” Lakima says.

“Hand,” Eathwund says.

“What?”

“He was missing only his hand.”

Grasshopper is unable to pick the lock on the large jewelry box so Eathwund picks it up and tears the lid off ruining the fancy box. Inside, resting on a velvet pillow is a silver prosthetic hand. Eathwund holds it up triumphantly.

Brovin starts picking up all of the stolen treasure.

“We can’t keep it Brovin,” Lakima says.

“Why not?”

“It is not ours,” Lakima says with a sigh.

“Are you sure, no one will know?”

The treasure is handed over to Abbot Marta who promises to return it to its rightful owners using the information in the ledgers. The silver hand, locket, and golden cat will be re-buried with their owners.

“I guess when the thief Valcori was buried in the same graveyard he used to steal from it disturbed the rest of the dead,” Domago says.

“Let’s avoid that cemetery from now on,” Lakima says.