Our little group today consisted of Gnorcia (and Arnd), Tatania (and Kyro), Lhoss (and Hilja), Armaziti, and the sudden but welcome reappearance of Blizzard the monk. We left the room that serves as a Temple of St. Cuthbert and traveled back through the large room with pillars, where we had battled brigands the day before. This time we headed into the north hallway where we remembered our previous victory in a large room to the east with yet another group of brigands from the Black Hand. This time, however, we went west and Lhoss opened a door on the south side of the hallway into a large room filled with burial crypts, and with a strange map on the floor.
The group quickly sketched out the map for future reference, then began combing through the crypts, searching for treasure. We also noticed that all the bones in this crypt had been laid out in unusual arrangements, with the legs, skulls, arms, and really all the bones out of their usual positions. We discovered a ring with a red ruby and a topaz. Armaziti considered trying on the ring but decided against it, so Lhoss plucked it from his hand and tried it on herself. It was pretty, but seemed to be just a ring. For a moment she thought it was stuck on her finger, but it was just a snug fit and came off with some gentle twisting. The ring and the topaz were added to the bag of holding and we decided to search the large room further. We spread out through it, but as we searched much of the floor, ceiling, and walls and didn’t find anything interesting, we soon grew bored and wandered back out into the hallway.
Heading north through another hallway, we noticed an open door on the east wall into a room that we had not investigated before. Tatania, Blizzard and I entered and found lots of rubble about the floor. Tatania pulled out a broom from her pack and began sweeping vigorously. I started searching through the rubble and found a small flawed black sapphire, which was added to the bag of holding. I also tried in vain to collect some nails from a broken keg, but they all broke off and crumbled. A search of the east wall turned up nothing interesting and the sweeping was creating a lot of dust in the room, so Blizzard and I headed back out to see what the others were doing.
We followed around a corner and found Lhoss, Arnd, and Armaziti investigating another room through an archway to the west. Inside there was a plinth set into the floor with the word “Solace” written on it and a carving of a sun in the ceiling overhead. Armaziti recognized it as the name of the god of the sun, but was hesitant to step onto it. Lhoss was most curious, however, and stepped up, then felt drawn to look upward toward the sun carving. Thinking she should make an offering to Solace, she took out a gold piece and held it over her head, but as she did she felt compelled to lift both arms toward the ceiling. As she reached upward, she felt a wonderful feeling and stumbled back off the plinth, her face a picture of joy and bliss. All I knew was this god didn’t take her gold piece, so I immediately jumped up on the plinth and raised my arms. Wow! What bliss I felt flow through me! I stumbled off the plinth as the blessing coursed through me. Slowly, each of the party followed and received the same blessing, Armaziti at the last.
From there we turned to another door at the west end of the hall and Lhoss opened it to find another room full of crypts. We entered and began searching for treasure in the burial chambers. I got lucky and found a small bag with 6 platinum, along with some sort of lever. The lever was jammed solidly into place and although most of us tried, no amount of pushing would move it. Armaziti then noticed something strange in the wall just north of the crypt with the lever. There seemed to be a handhold of some sort, and as he pushed on it, the wall slid back to reveal another room!
On the floor of the room there was a series of indentations, and something matching them on the ceiling above. Tatiana investigated but as I looked more closely at them I noticed a plate on the floor behind them. It covered the width of the room and appeared to be a pressure plate of some kind. We considered triggering it, but Lhoss decided instead to use her pole to vault over it. She got safely to the other side and couldn’t see anything interesting there so she vaulted back. But Blizzard was very curious about the pressure plate so she and Lhoss took out two of our 10-foot poles and decided to work together to trigger it.
As they pressed on the plate, the lever popped back in the direction we couldn’t push it before and a portcullis rolled down into place, blocking off the room and opening another doorway in the back! Suddenly there was a horrifying ghostly figure moving toward us! It was a phantasm, the likes of which we had hoped never to see again. Terrified, we all took a step back, but as the phantom moved toward us it appeared to be trapped behind the portcullis! Blizzard got out her magical crossbow and was going to shoot at it until she realized the bolts weren’t magical and would likely go right through it. Instead, Tatiana cast magic missiles at the creature and hit it! Armaziti tried to use his turn undead ability and was unable to affect it, but Tatiana hit it a second time with more magic missiles. Then Hilja hit it with faerie fire, turning it to glowing blue, and I was able to attack it with my new color spray spell. The phantasm fell to the floor, stunned! We were out of spell attacks but the creature was down so Arnd ran and pulled back on the lever, raising the portcullis. Armaziti swung the hammer Melissa over his head and smashed it down on the creature and damaging it further, and I ran around to its back, swiping down through its ghostly shape as I screamed, “Slicer!”, bestowing that name on the blade. The phantasm shivered and then vanished! It was defeated!
We all moved toward the back of the room where the phantasm has emerged from and found another long room with some sort of figure at the end of it. I carefully investigated as I stepped forward and discovered a pit in the center of the room, but there was just enough space along each wall for Lhoss and I to shimmy past it. Creeping forward, we saw that the figure at the far end of the room was a collapsed human, clasping a small silver coffer. I quickly slipped over to the corpse and slid the coffer from its hands. The box clinked as if there were another metal object inside. "Coins!" I thought. But as I opened it, something even more interesting was inside: a small silver key. I slid the key onto my key ring, adding it to the key collection, and deposited the coffer in the bag of holding.
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