Characters: Tienarth/Tre, Chubb/Henry, Memnon/Jeff, Azrak/Nick
Again, back into the crypts went the brave adventures, but first they stopped in the church of the anointed one to hire a cleric for they had faced many undead and the previous cleric was still nowhere to be seen. The priest who received this motley band of two elves, a hobbit and a dwarf paused push down his distrust of demi-humans, reminding himself of the absolute love bestowed by the creator on all creatures with free will. Plus, he knew this band as the one who’d been annihilating undead recently in the old fortress crypts. By good fortune, a young cleric from the east had recently arrived in the fort and he agreed to join the party merely for the chance to smite the undead. Thus joined Ghevont the cleric, making them five.
The party first returned to dropped portcullis in the eastern part of the crypts. The skeletons had vanished. Ghevont had no trouble lifting the bars, allowing entry. The party found a fountain filled with dark water and some coins. Chubb stumbled upon an invisible chest while searching for secret doors. Inside was a complete set of plate armor which fetches a great sum.
Turning to the southern segment of the crypts, the party made a plan to kill the six snakes they’d previously found by avoided by shutting the door. They opened the door suddenly and tossed burning oil at the snakes. Magic missiles, arrows and axe strikes finished off the rest. Despite the high danger of death or blindness, the party prevailed.
While examining a door opening south from the snake room, Azrak impatiently opened the door and immediately fell into a shoot to be delivered into a candlelit room, the lair of a skeletal owlbear. The odds of this one-on-one fight were not in the dwarf’s favor. Memnon dove through the hole to assist. Chubb and Tienarth waited above, believing they had little change to help. Ghevont by this time was barely hanging on after being struck by a zombie previously.
The owlbear crushed the life out of Memnon, but Azrak somehow survived. The party made haste out of the dungeon to the safety of the fort. The loot was of high value and the party rested and trained. They were four again, with Jeff taking over the former NPC cleric.
Returning once again, the party went past the stirge lair and puzzled over a door going east. It had no visible locks, nor hinges. No traps were detected. Out of ideas, they used a scroll of knock. Not being locked or stuck, but simply a door that lifts up, the spell had no effect. The party may come to regret this waste of a valuable scroll in the future. They ended up resorting to smashing the door to bits over the course of half a day of hammer blows.
Beyond the door was a stone sarcophagus. They pushed the top over to find a mummy clutching a hammer. They cut off the mummy’s head as a precaution, though it did not turn out to be undead. After clearing a ghoul from another burial chamber, the party found what seemed like the resting place of an important individual. Against one wall, the body of an adventurer, 100 years or more gone, lay still. Amongst the effects were a ruined journal that hinted of a tomb raid made by way of a tunnel up into this chamber. The sarcophagus in this room was ransacked. A hole in the floor lead out of the crypts into the day light.
The party had read poetry speaking of the Sword of Virtue, and having found a greatsword in a burial chamber, they assumed they’d found the great treasure. When they returned to the fort, however, they found this to be an ordinary sword except that was of antique quality. The hammer held by the mummy, though, was magical and especially damaging against dragons. They won’t be fighting dragons any time soon, but it’s definitely a fine weapon for the dwarf.
The crypts were cleared, but where is this Sword of Virtue? Perhaps it was spirited away a century ago. Perhaps it’s only fable or misdirection. Perhaps it’s somewhere in the lower level of the ruined island fortress. Regardless, the party will go back to see what’s beyond that room where they killed the carnivorous apes.