Abomination Vaults Diary
In Abadius 4721AR, Wrin summoned a group of her friends and acquaintances to Otari. She tasked the adventurers with investigating The Gauntlight and the ominous lights that had recently appeared there.
Session 1 - 19/07/2022
Day 1
In the Rowdy Rockfish, ironically the quietest tavern in town, six adventurers gathered - Ashe, Kargyn, Mor, Rortimus Watherswitch II, Thtaal, and Alenthar. Wrin met them there, and explained that she was keen to get them on their way as the Gauntlight had started showing lights associated with a dark prophecy. She guided the party out of town, and left Ashe to guide the rest along the well-beaten track The Gauntlight.
At the eerie lighthouse, Mor and Ashe checked the perimiter before entering, at which point the party was set upon by mischievous Mitflits, who thought they had tricked the adventurers into believing they were good-natured fey. Three of the mitflits were slain, though Alenthar chose to take the final one prisoner and interrogate it. Mor was insistent that the captured Mitflit should suffer no more harm, and Alenthar reassured her in that he was only looking for information. Whilst Kargyn celebrated defending the honour of Rort's mother, who the Mitflits had insulted, Mor woke the fey with a gentle flick.
After some threatening in undercommon, Kargyn coerced the mitflit to give them information on The Gauntlight. They divulged the presence of "Boss Skrong" who was in the main building. They also mentioned some sort of creature in the swamp which Thtaal had deduced the presence of earlier, and warned the party that the drawbridge from the outhouse to the main area was very weak. The mitflit mentioned that there were other, worse things that they didn't know about, and agreed to stay out of the party's way. They moved on across the drawbridge, leaving the Mitflit tied up but alive.
On the drawbridge, Ashe made a dangerous misstep, and ended up badly damaging the bridge, which was only made worse when they attempted to fix it. They nearly destroyed the drawbridge, and attracted the attention of a frog creature from the swamp, which attacked the party. Mor lept into the swamp and dismembered the frog creature. Thtaal had her Eidolon carry her across and Kargyn balanced across the remains of the drawbridge, whilst Ashe and Mor helped the others up. Safely across to the other side, they made their way to the main building, only to hear unsettling fey laughter coming from somewhere further inside.
Session 2 - 27/07/2022
The unsettling fey laughter quickly turned out to be a trio of mitflits and a pet maggot abomination. Kargyn immediately started threatening the fey, and they responded by attacking the party. An unwise move. After the fight, Mor spent some time healing themselves using divine power, and the rest of the party searched the room. Thtaal found a secret door in the north-eastern corner, and Mor realised that the room had been the site of the battle between the witch Belcorra and The Roseguard. Inside the secret chamber, there was an expired teleportation circle, lacking its crystals. Unable to use the circle, the party moved on to the other rooms in the ruins, only to find two huge maggots eating a giant frog. Kargyn, once again, started disparaging the enemies, causing them to attack. The maggots, in true visceral and disgusting style, were dispatched by the party. Poppet investigated the frog corpse but found nothing, and Alenthar got distracted by a hole in the ceiling. In the room south-west of there, they found a carrion pile being feasted on by a giant fly. The party defeated the fly, and then another, leaving the room safe once more. With the sun drawing low, the party headed back to Otari.
Session 3 - 16/01/2023
Rort was caught later that night trying to swipe potion ingredients from the market, and sentenced to a day of community service. In the Rowdy Rockfish, after a failed attempt to deduce the link between Belcorra and the lights Wrin had seen, the bartender, Brelda, told the group that the owner of The Crow's Cask, Magiloy, had been looking for people to try their latest concotions.
At The Crow's Cask, Magiloy warmly welcomed the group, and soon began whipping up a rather worrying-looking concoction on Ashe's orders of "very spicy". Mor and Ashe held up admirably, whereas Kargyn and Alenthar struggled with the heat of the drink. Compensated for their time and reviews, the group were dragged by Ashe onwards to the Crook's Nook. Near as soon as they had stepped in the door, Ashe set about challenging the nearest toothless bastard to a wrestling match - over a trapdoor open to the river below. The other patron made a snide comment about Wrin, and was then very promptly dropped at great speed into the river below. Ushered out of the Crook's Nook by a rapidly forming mob, the crew moved on to the Otari Fishery. Tamily warmly greeted the crew, but was taken aback by Kargyn offering his services as a craftsman as soon as she mentioned pier repairs. Not dissuaded, the group headed inside for a last round before bed. Ashe picked Tamily's brains about the prophecy Wrin had mentioned, but Tamily, as a recent move-in herself, knew little more than Ashe.
Day 2
The next morning, gathered at Wrin's, Ashe finally got it explained that the Gauntlight's glow was associated with ill omens, and as Belcorra's death anniversary was coming up, Wrin feared that it might signal the return of the mad witch. With the threat hanging overhead, and a deadline of "all too soon", the group chose to return to The Gauntlight. Passing through the no longer mitflit-infested gatehouse, and on into the core of the ruins, the party found themselves once again listening at doors for monsters and storming rooms. The first room yielded a gang of mitflits, which refused to negotiate with Kargyn, and promptly met their fate. The last mitflit explained that their leader, Boss Scrong was hiding in the room to the southeast.
Session 4 - 01/02/2023
Recuperating from their skirmish with the mitflits, Ashe was healed by Mor, and the group was soon ready to go again. Kargyn slowly moved upon the room supposedly containing Boss Skrawng, and found naught there but a rusted suit of armour and a pristine morningstar. Mor pocketed the morningstar for now, and Kargyn deduced that Boss Scrong must reside on the other side of another set of double doors. Mor asked Kargyn to give the mitflits a chance to surrender, and then breached the doors with Ashe by her side. The room was revealed to be a cheap and nasty throne room containing three mitflits and their slumbering boss. Kargyn attempted to negotiate with the freshly awoken Boss Skrawng, but soon had to hand over to Mor. Once Boss Skrawng mentioned attacking Otari, Ashe immediately attacked, starting a brawl in the throneroom. After his lackeys were scared off, Skrawng summoned his pet spider and decided to deal with the group himself. After a rather protracted skirmish, Skrawng and Bite Bite were sent to the Boneyard. With the boss dead, the group set about searching his chambers for any evidence of his plans to invade Otari.
Finding nothing, the group moved on to another room of the keep, and found a haunted collection of kobold ghosts. Kargyn managed to scare the spirit away and dispelled it. The ghosts did however leave behind a smattering of items - some coin, a pile of snare components, and a bottle of venom. Given the late hour, the group chose to return to Otari.
Session 5 - 20/02/2023
Day 3
The next morning, after a night spent on weapon maintenance and study, the group returned to The Gauntlight to flush out any remaining critters from the ground floor. A few rooms yielded little but tuppence of treasure and a set of keys, though the few keys that weren't rusted away allowed the party to open the way into the lighthouse tower of The Gauntlight. In there, they found a strange and deep pool of very fresh blood. From Kargyn's memory, this tower floor was likely where the Roseguard defeated Belcorra in their final battle. The party ascended to The Gauntlight's Lantern, and found a strange swirling energy contained within the centre of the room. There was nothing else apparent in the tower aside from the uneasy pool of blood, so the group headed outside to a ruined boathouse. The collapsed building yielded little but mold, though there was a very fresh looking rowboat outside, which the group took across to the otherside of the pond, where there was another ramshackle structure. With some difficulty, the group disembarked from the boat, but the pier collapsed under Thtaal, and she was pulled into the swampy morass below. A strange wisp emerged from the swamp, and attacked the unready grippli. Rather quickly, however, Alenthar dispatched with the wisp, and Thtaal was pulled from the mud by a rapidly evolved Poppet. The ruined building turned out to be a tatty lighthouse keeper's workshop, revealing a bejewled spyglass as its only contents. Unfortunately, a strange bird-like golem animated in the corner of the room. It demanded to know where "Master Azrinae" was, and started attacking the group. Ashe managed to convince it to stand down, though it demanded that they bring it the Master or face its wrath.
Session 6 - 01/03/2023
Keen to make use of the daylight, the group proceeded to explore the rest of the island that Mr Beak's shack was located on. They attempted to re-enter through a set of rotten doors, which were jammed. Keen not to anger the bird creature, they headed back to the main building, and cased the exterior. The northern building appeared to be some sort of chapel, with stained glass depicting scenes of ghosts rising from overgrown graveyards. There were no new entrances to The Gauntlight to be discovered, so the explorers headed back into the keep via the tower. However, at the tower, as the sun set, they discovered a female figure rising from the unnatural pool of blood. It screamed a terrifying wail, and Ashe felt their blood lurch toward the figure with terrifying pain. Realising they could not hope to fight this ghast, they retreated, and vowed to return and fight it with better preparation. With their main escape route cut off, the group had to retrieve their boat from Beak's island. On the swim across to the island, Ashe spotted a cave entrance underneath the boathouse.
The gnoll dived beneath the boathouse and heard something breathing in a damp dark cave. Ashe swam back up, and suggested that the party swim down together. They anchored themselves to the weighted frame of the ruined boat, and dived down into the cavern. Proceeding carefully into the dimly lit cave, they heard a roar, and a river drake emerged from the drink, which was clearly its lair. The three divers fought valiantly against it, though they struggled a great deal due to the flooded cave. The drake struck down Ashe, leaving them to sink to the bottom of the flooded cavern. Kargyn soon followed, beated into the land of nod by the serpent's tail. The drake swam away however, lured by some more interesting prey. Battered and bruised, the trio swam back to the surface and climbed into the boat, desperate to return to Otari.
Session 7 - 08/03/2023
They returned to Otari nearly at midnight, and collapsed into Wrin's tent. There was a suprise piece of news there - Alenthar had chosen to leave the party in search of a safer and more lucrative means of employment. In replacement, Wrin had secured the services of a goblin bard named Grenk, who quickly endeared himself to the battered trio.
Day 4
The next morning, the whole group, Thtaal included, headed out into Otari to secure healing and craftsmen's services. Thtaal was still under the weather, and managed to bungle stitching up the rest of Ashe's wounds. Meanwhile, Kargyn headed to the Dawnflower Library to try and secure some divine healing, which he was successful in. Mor had chosen to spend the morning investigating the morningstar she had found in The Gauntlight, and found some luck at Blades for Glades, though the proprietor was a little gruff with her. Ashe arrived, and managed to negotiate a decent price with Carman on Mor's behalf, though the champion's greatsword was out of comission for a day. Thtaal went to ask Wrin about what had happened to Alenthar, and in the meantime, Grenk and Kargyn went off to explore the town. They ran into Mor halfway through their romp, and had a chat with Kargyn about social groups and grief whilst she healed the last few injuries of the kobold ranger.
After lunch, the group reunited to go ask Wrin about Master Azrinae that Mr Beak had mentioned. The scant information that Thtaal had unearthed that morning pointed towards the library, and Wrin suggested that Azrinae was responsible for some of the destruction at The Gauntlight. Ashe headed to the Dawnflower Library, and unearthed that Volluk Azrinae was a resident of The Gauntlight during the time that Belcorra was in charge, going so far as to descirbe the artificer as "Belcorra's Master Craftsman".
After a slow evening, the group took a night's rest in preparation for heading to the Gauntlight the next morning.
Day 5
Bright and early, Mor retrieved their greatsword from Carman, and managed to appease the misanthropic smith by offering him the morningstar for free.
At The Gauntlight, Ashe explained a complicated plan to defeat the blood ghost of Belocorra, but the spectre was not there in the tower when the crew went to check. Instead, they proceeded to the chapel they had seen from the perimeter yesterday, but came across a giant scorpion on the way. The huge creature knocked Ashe unconscious immediately, and then made short work of Poppet whilst Thtaal revived Ashe. Ashe retreated from the room, but the scorpion chased her down and beat her senseless once again. Thanks to many bursts of healing magic, the group managed to hang on long enough for Mor to beat the scorpion into the ground.
Session 8 - 22/03/2023
Given Thtaal and Ashe's wounds, the group made a swift trip back to Otari in order to procure healing services before returning to The Gauntlight as soon as possible.
Back where they left off in the Gauntlight, the party searched through the ruined furniture in the scorpion's room. There was little of value, but Mor did uncover some strange-looking skull markings on the walls. Nobody in the party could identify what exactly the markings meant, and they elected to move on swiftly to the strange chapel north of there.
In the chapel, the party were greeted by an unnaturally cold breeze, and soon spotted a moldering human corpse with their hand stuck in a wall. Ashe approached the corpse, and gave it a poke with a length of timber. It fell away from the wall, and revealed a broken secret door. The hidden passageway led back to the hidden study where the party had found the ring of keys, and appeared to yield no further secrets. The corpse was remarkably well-equipped, and yielded some useful items. When the party approached the large altar at the end of the room, the skeletons in the corners of the room animated and charged towards them. The crew dealt with them quickly enough thanks to Grenk's magic, but the skeletons left behind strange blue wisps as they "died". Even worse, one of them unhinged their jaw and released a gout of blue energy that put a mote of fear into Grenk and Thtaal's hearts. Mor brutally executed the final corpselight wisp, and a gold tooth dropped out of the floating skull.
After the party had rested, and Mor had buried the thief's body, Thtaal dug through the altar, finding a spell scroll and wand. Furthermore, Ashe picked up a battered magical amulet from one of the skeletons. Mor approached the altar, and felt an evil presence watching her. Together with Ashe, she smashed up the stained glass windows depicting scenes of undeath. Confused by the lack of exits they had found so far, the party returned to the sinkhole, and had a dig around in the rubble. Soon enough, Mor found a buried staircase in the rubble, partly blocked by rubble. The party spent much of the rest of that afternoon trying to excavate the staircase, but when the sun started to go down, the party once again set off in search of Belcorra's blood ghost.
Session 9 - 29/03/2023
As the party left their little dig site, Kargyn arrived from town, where he had been researching snarecrafting. Ashe re-explained their slightly convoluted plan, and the group headed to the tower to enact it. Thtaal used Poppet's magical source to bless Kargyn's weapon, and the kobold let off a volley of arrows as Ashe opened the door and the ghost came into view. The gang repeated Ashe's plan on loop until Poppet's blessing ran out, and then charged the ghost. Through Ashe's martial prowess, Poppet's undead powers, and Mor's Pharasmin magic, the ghost was banished from the tower. However, the blood flew to the ceiling of the room, and seeped through the stone. Ashe handed the magical rapier they had found to Kargyn, and Thtaal showed off their new wand to the kobold. After a short period of questioning about Thtaal's experience with wands, the group ascended back up to The Gauntlight Cupola. Up there, they found the room bathed in a red glow, as the blood swirled and sloshed around the Gauntlight's lantern. As the quintet arrived, the blood sloughed away from the lantern and formed into a vaguely humanoid mist. Tired of fighting this horrible creature, the party charged it, and thanks to Kargyn's knowledge and Mor's conviction, soon triumphed, though not without the vampiric mist draining some of the life from Mor. After a hard day's work, the group chose to play it safe and return to Otari that evening.
Session 10 - 11/04/2023
The party returned to Otari, which was all present and correct, and chose to hit the hay.
Day 6
Awoke the next morning rested and recuperated, and set off into Otari to try and sell some treasures from the keep. Ashe headed to the Crook's Nook to try and sell the gold tooth to a suitably shady patron - surprisingly, the trade went well, though only really thanks to Mor's intervention. However, as Ashe went to walk away, the shady patron made an untoward comment about Wrin. After a harshly worded exchange, Ashe challenged the bloke to a wrestling match. It almost went poorly for Ashe, but they rallied, and dunked the guy off the bridge.
Before Ashe and Mor could leave, three burly-looking gents approached the pair. Ashe elected not to wrestle anymore, and Mor stepped in to offer the three dudes some work. The smaller of the trio was rather lewd to the champion, which resulted in him visiting the drink. The remaining pair were eager to accept Mor's offer of a gold piece for a day's work. Thtaal arrived at the pub, and the five of them set off to the market to procure some digging tools.
At the bustling market, the group headed to the agricultural equipment emporium to purchase a trio of excavation tools. Although the purchase was concluded, it turned out Thtaal knew the store-owner, and the two elderly folk had a lengthy chat. With that done, Ashe, Thtaal, Mor, Kipp, and Byrne headed up to The Gauntlight.
Back at the sinkhole, Kipp, Byrne and Mor got to work excavating the stairs whilst Poppet and Ashe stood guard. After half a day's work, the team seemed to be making progress at a fair rate, though it would likely take a while longer. By the end of the day, it seemed that there was still another day's worth of work left in the project, so Ashe made sure the digging pair were willing to work another day, which, thankfully, they were.
Back in Otari, Mor bought the two labourers a flagon of ale each as agreed, and Thtaal had a glass of wine (it was not good). Ashe explained the party's activities to Byrne and Kipp, and was greeted with tentative belief. When Ashe made moves to call it a night, Kipp called them out on it, and so started a drinking competition. Kipp started out with a four pints on the challenge, but Ashe quickly upped that an entire keg of ale. Unfortunately for Kipp, Ashe managed to finish the keg as they reached their 9th flagon - bringing the score to 18-20. However, Kipp was looking far worse for wear, and elected, surprisingly sensibly, to concede to Ashe after his 19th pint. The crew left Kipp and Byrne in the Crook's Nook to get some rest.
Day 7
After heading to the market to acquire some rations, the crew made another full day's work of the staircase, this time finishing the job. With the entrance to the lower level of the Gauntlight uncovered, they headed back to Otari that night for some well-earned rest.
Session 11 - 03/05/2023
Day 8
The next morning, Ashe, Mor, Thtaal, and Poppet set off for the keep once more to kill Mr. Beak, dark artifact of Belcorra's servant Master Azrinae. The quartet sailed around to Mr Beak's island on the small rowboat with the intent of killing the horrible doll. They busted down its door, Thtaal stalled a little, and then Ashe started a fight as soon as it confirmed it was a servant of Maester Azrinae. The skirmish was over terrifyingly quickly: Poppet tripped the doll, Mor demoralized it, and then Ashe crushed it to "death" between her jaws. Mor plucked a small gem out of the doll's wings, and it reverted back to being a simple object. Mor pocketed the bejeweled spyglass, and figured out that the gem was a soul gem - it contained whatever remnants of Mr Beak's soul that still existed. Ashe suggested freeing the soul remnant and then selling the gem.
The group proceeded to the hallway to the north, where there was a series of four portraits, the paintings were decayed and rotten, but some details could be made out. The first was an image of Absalom in flames, with ghosts rising from the city streets. The plaque read "so shall the fools suffer". The second painting had a plaque reading "let the light shine forever" and was an image of Gauntlight Keep in its heyday, with the light shining brilliantly into a night sky, revealing a ghostly face in its pale blue light. The third picture was utterly shredded, but the plaque read "the artist at work". The damage seemed to be very old, and Thtaal reckoned that the thing that did it wasn't at home in its body. Finally, the fourth frame held a portrait of Belcorra, entitled "The Lady of The Light". Scratched into the stone next to the painting was some text in another language.
In the next room over, a fey creature was flitting in and out of sight, annoying Ashe. Mor stepped in and tried to talk to it. When Ashe mentioned they had killed Mr. Beak, the small creature approached. It wasn't until it had returned to its corner of the room that the group realised it had lifted the spyglass from Mor's pockets. Ashe was immediately irate, and threatened to kill the creature. Mor was mor(e) reasonable, and managed to lure the creature into coming back over to her, where she then coerced it into giving the spyglass back with the threat of Ashe. After the little creature calmed a little, Mor asked it what was in the adjacent rooms. It immediately started acting shifty once more, but eventually disclosed that one of the rooms contained a staircase leading down to somewhere else. Poppet looked in the other room, and found very little of intrest - mostly just farming equipment. However, on a closer look, Poppet did manage to find a large silver key.
The gang then forced the little creature to go down the stairs first, with Mor leading the group after the little fey. It was dark down there, and the fey summoned a few floating lights. It told them that it was scared of the basement because it used to be the domain of Volok Azrinae, and that apparently the Gauntlight could "shoot a beam of ghosts". The fey gave its name as Tangletop, and Thtaal gave their name as well (which is apparently not their true name). The party took the left fork of the corridor, pushing Tangletop in as a warning beacon the whole way. The first room they came to was a ruined bedroom/office, where they found a note describing some titles, transcription, and something about love.
