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.
Session 12 - 31/05/2023
Done with that room, the party moved south, pushing Tangletop in front of them again. In the very next room, they encountered a horrible leech-like thing which charged them immediately. Tangletop ran away to the corner of the room. Grenk sang of the party's impending victory, and the creature spat a gob of viscera at Ashe after missing Mor twice. Thtaal sent Poppet to get behind the creature, and Ashe then held the thing steady for their allies' attacks after ripping a chunk out of it. Grenk sent more debris flying at the creature, but was largely ineffective. The leech thing dug its wet maw into Ashe's shoulder and began to drain their blood, nourishing itself in the process. Mor swept at the thing with her sword and noticed its flesh had been stitched together crudely. Thtaal conjured an enchantment on Mor's greatsword and the orc lept at the leech-thing, but missed her two strikes. Grenk healed Ashe, and the leech bit at Mor. Using the opportunity from her healing, Ashe leapt up on the table and put in a few good strikes. Following up on that, Mor managed to finish the creature off with one enchanted blow. However, the horrible thing exploded in a burst of viscera as it died, hurting Mor and Ashe enough to knock them both unconscious from the force. Thtaal and Grenk managed to stabilise Ashe, and Mor's bleeding stopped on its own. Whilst waiting for the two warriors to wake up, Grenk and Thtaal dragged them upstairs. Once Ashe and Mor woke up, the party spent around two hours recuperating from the fight.
At the end of this, Mor cleaned the viscera off of Tangletop, but the fey said some very unkind words to her during that. Fed up of it at last, Mor gave Ashe permission to bite the fey in twain. After Tangletop handed back the spyglass, Ashe chased them for a moment and got a good lick in, but the fey fled after that.
Descending back into the basement, the party were flummoxed by the blood leech creature, and the apparatus in the room it was originally found in. They grabbed the gemstone from the machine, a black onyx, and opened the door's southern room. It led to a long flight of stairs leading down. Rather than descend again, the party explored the room to the far north, which turned out to be a servants' quarters. Ashe and Mor found a small stash behind the chest of drawers in there, and it contained some minor treasures and a rune.
The party proceeded to the final door, and after unlocking it, found a complex laboratory inside. In a glass tank of water set into the wall floated a goblin in outdated servant's clothes. He was very dead. Mor found a small doll dressed up like a goblin on one of the lab benches that seemed to have an indent much like the doll that was Mr. Beak. Whilst searching, Thtaal found evidence of a secret door in the southern wall. She opened it using a lever that was hidden in a wall-mounted toolbox, and it revealed a staircase heading further down. Grenk deciphered a few of the texts on the shelves, and discovered the purpose of the workshop. It was once Volok Azrinae's personal workshop, focusing on necromancy and construction. He had dedicated himself to transferring mortal souls into constructs and swarms of vermin. Keen not to be too risky by heading down the stairs, the group decided to head back to Otari and regroup with Kargyn.
In town, the group sold their treasures and donated some of the texts from Azrinae's laboratory to the library.
Session 13 - 05/06/2023
That afternoon, after reuniting with Kargyn, the party headed to Carman's blacksmith shop in order to get their runic items examined. Mor asked the cantankerous craftman to appraise the slick rune, and he was happy to do it that evening. Ashe purchased a set of mighty handwraps from him, and Thtaal planned to do the same for Poppet, though Carman explained that the latter set wouldn't be in stock until tomorrow. Kargyn had the potency rune on his rapier transferred onto his shortbow. Mor purchased a steel shield, bastard sword, and transfer as well.
Later, Mor headed to the Dawnflower Library to research the soul gem that the party had acquired from Mr. Beak. The librarian told her that the gem was in pain, and that Mor was not to bring the gem into the library. The party spent some time digging through the necromancy section of the library, and eventually found a tome called Soulbound. Kargyn reluctantly had a dig through the tome, and managed to put together from the instructions on how to make a gem that Mr. Beak was certainly a soulbound doll. Unfortunately, the book had no instructions on how to un-bind a gem, so Mor resolved to try and pray for the soul's freedom. The prayer didn't work, so Mor smashed the gem, and a great wave of energy flowed over the party.
Before heading to the pub, the party returned to Carman's workshop, where he offered them forty-five gold for the slick rune. Mor invited the blacksmith to the pub with them, and they all proceeded to the Otari Fishery. It was a typical evening, the pub was fairly busy, an Tamily was on great form. Grenk and Ashe spent some time trying to canvass the patrons to see if anybody had odd jobs that needed doing around the town. Carman mentioned to Mor that he was looking to take on some apprentices - Kargyn leapt at the opportunity. After the apprenticeship was agreed, Carman headed back to his shop. Grenk and Ashe met Doloria, the female human who operated the delivery station, who offered some odd jobs running deliveries. The group soon left the fishery, and headed to get a sound nights sleep.
However, as the party went to return to Wrin's Wonders, they saw a bright blue beam emanate from The Gauntlight and lance down into Otari graveyard. It was clear something was wrong - Ashe went to check on Wrin whilst the rest of the party moved at speed to the graveyard. Wrin was rather mesmerised by the light from the graveyard, but Ashe managed to get the absent-minded curio collector inside her shop.
Up at the hill, the town guard explained to the party that the dead had risen from their graves and that some of them had been throwing themselves off of the cliff. After Kargyn borrowed a shortsword from one of the guards, the group charged into the cemetery to try and deal with the undead. After advancing in formation towards the skeletons and zombies, the combat broke out fully - Grenk threw a loose pebble through one of the skeletal skulls as Kargyn, Ashe, and Mor got stuck into the melee. Kargyn managed to slice in half a skeleton immediately after identifying its lack of will, and the rest of the party pulled their weight exceptionally as well. Ashe finished the final zombie with a crunch, and the group proceeded to recruit the four guards and head towards the stairs down the cliff. However, on their way there, the party were hit by a blue beam from The Gauntlight.
It dazed them momentarily, and as their eyes cleared, the party clocked the spider-like creature that had manifested in their rearguard. The beast lunged at Grenk and Thtaal immediately. In the wake of that, Thtaal and Poppet switched positions whilst Kargyn tried to identify the peculiar creature. Mor and Ashe both struck the creature, but it ran from them and sprayed the group with poisonous oil. After Grenk healed Kargyn, Ashe finished the creature off with a headbutt.
Kargyn deduced that the light from Gauntlight was what had teleported the spider-creature in, and that the threat was largely over now that the light had gone out. The party returned to Otari proper, and were swamped by panicked townsfolk. the group reassured them that they would be dealing with any chance of Belcorra's return. Ozif, the mayor, approached the party to thank them for their actions that night, and entreated them to keep on supervising the Keep. He even offered them fifty gold pieces each if they were able to stop the Gauntlight from ever shining on the town again.
Session 14 - 14/06/2023
Day 9
The next day, the party set out into the unusually quiet streets of Otari to retrieve their armaments from Blades & Glades. Kargyn stayed at the blacksmith's shop to work as Carman's apprentice whilst Ashe and Kargyn set out to Gallentine Deliveries to work as couriers. Kargyn did a hard days work at the forge whilst Mor watched the perimeter of the shop. At Gallentine, Ashe and Grenk got a little distracted debating the name of the spider from the previous night, but soon got to work. Grenk ran on to The Fishery to deliver his first package, whilst Ashe took two parcels to the farmers' guild and one to Morlibint the bookshop owner. Grenk managed to find his way with blazing speed around the streets of Otari, even outstripping the advantage of Ashe's raw strength. After the three workers had been paid, Kargyn nipped back to Blades for Glades to get some arrows, and Carman was good enough to let him have them for free.
Meeting up just after noon, the party returned to The Gauntlight and proceeded down the unearthed staircase to the lower levels. The staircase ended in a concealed door, and Kargyn took the moment to recon the adjacent room. There was speech in undercommon coming from the next room, and Kargyn had to persuade Mor that sometimes its not worth giving all things a chance to repent. The party snuck into the room, and Kargyn loosed an arrow at the creatures just after Mor frightened one of them half to death. Ashe finished the wounded creature, and Grenk nearly drove one mad with his traditional Goblin ditty. One of the creatures tumbled through his friend and landed a hit on Ashe, and Mor responded by driving their sword through one of the creature's skulls. Ashe and Kargyn finished the penultimate critter off, and the final one tried to make a break for it. It got past Ashe and Grenk, but the latter hurled a rock at the creature before Mor went pelting after it. She managed to grab the fleeing creature and drag it back to the party. The creature revealed that there were many more of its kind, and their King was nearby. Kargyn grew tired of the conversation going in circles, and forced the creature to take the party to its king. They proceeded down the corridor that the creature had been fleeing towards, and found an office-type room at the end.
Through into the next room, the party found two larger variants of these creatures. As the smaller creature escaped, Ashe ripped it to shreds whilst Mor moved into fighting position with the two others. Grenk strummed his usual inspiring melody and Kargyn peppered the bigger creatures with arrows. The creatures tried to reset the traps in the floor, and Grenk used the opportunity to cast protective magics on Mor. Despite Grenk's efforts, Mor suffered some harsh blows, and Ashe tried to close the distance to save her. Kargyn finally figured out that these things were morlocks, brutal and crafty monsters that dwell in The Darklands. He then loosed an arrow at the one remaining morlock. Mor retreated from the morlock after landing another blow on it, and Kargyn finished it off with an arrow shot down its throat. The ranger also spotted that the top part of the room was triplined, which was what had been causing Mor and Grenk so much trouble.
The party retreated up to the ground floor of The Gauntlight to recuperate for some time.
Session 15 - 20/06/2023
Back in the depths, the party returned to the location they had previously been hurt by morlock traps in. Kargyn listened at the door of the northern exit, and could hear more morlocks, apparently in discussion with their leader. The ranger deduced that the new voice must be that of some sort of spellcaster. The party stepped in to the room and the morlock king introduced himself. After some extended back and forth, Kargyn determined that these were the morlock tribe of the ghost queen, inheritors of Belcorra. The king tried to ask for the party's help with something, but Kargyn set Ashe on the pair of morlocks before he could finish. As the skirmish kicked off, the morlock king mentioned they were having issues with some other monster, but the combat descended into chaos quickly. The non-royal morlock was dispatched quickly enough, but Graulgust put up a fight - slinging spells, cursing Ashe and Mor, and dashing about all over the room. As the party wore him down, Graulgust summoned a horrifying betentacled beast from the adjacent room. Kargyn identified it as a mindless fleshwarp, and it forced the party to steel themselves as they fought it. Despite some excellent shooting from Kargyn, the large beast seemed largely unaffected by the arrows. However, as Ashe stepped toward the creature, she slew the king with a parting strike. Between the strikes of the party, the fleshwarp was slain, and it died in a blast of viscera as Ashe sunk their teeth into its neck.
With the danger past, Ashe and Mor retched to free themselves of the gagging viscera of the fleshwarp. Kargyn headed south to check out the creature's nest. It yielded very little of note, and nor did the bodies or throne room. He continued through to the east but couldn't find a way through the ruined wall. After the party had rested for a half hour, they proceeded west out of the room and turned north, soon finding the river drake's lair just beyond. The party crept up to the shore of the water, and Kargyn loosed a pair of arrows on the sleeping drake. It awoke, and ran at the party as Grenk span up his ditties. The drake closed the distance towards the party and projected a huge ball of acid at them. After Ashe took a harsh beating from the drake, Kargyn responded with an unerringly precise arrow shot into the joint of its wing. Ashe piled on top of that arrow with their teeth, ripping the drake's wing off. Kargyn tended to Mor's acid burns to stop her skin peeling in pain.
The party took a wade into the drake's lair, and soon enough found a large treasure chest containing a magical axe, a wand, a strange compass, and a small pile of gold. They retreated to dry ground to assess their next steps.
Session 16 - 27/06/2023
The team chose to explore the eastern side of the underground lake. It terminated in a damp moldy beach, behind which was a flight of stairs leading up. Ashe stepped across the beach and it emitted a blast of freezing cold. Mor also fell afoul of the mold. Ashe followed the staircase up to a single door, the other side of which was silent. Mor took a moment to refocus whilst Ashe explored the next room. It contained a broken table, some sort of polearm, and a scattering of large bones. Ashe quickly left the room when the bones started moving.
The crew took a moment to heal up before heading back into the room. The bones animated into a large minotauran creature, which was dealt with swiftly by the party, but not before it dealt a few devastating blows to Poppet. The crew took another few minutes to recover and then followed the eastern door into a corridor that eventually led to a strange glowing door. The glowing door led to a washroom that was also, unsurpisingly, glowing. The glowing energy formed words - "I was Otari, free me from below". Ashe knew this must be associated with the member of the Roseguard who helped found the town. The words formed into a snake of pure energy which slithered out of the room. The party followed it to a previously unidentified secret door near the underground lake. Behind the door there was a set of stairs leading further down. Carrying on exploring this level, the party found a torture chamber, and in the southern wall, another secret door. The secret door concealed a corridor - and another secret door, which lead to a strange circular chamber. When Ashe touched the skull set into the wall, and the room descened with them and Poppet in it. They emerged a storey down and found naught but a corridor leading north and south. They re-ascended, and followed the concealed corridor. In a huge circular chamber, floored with sand, there was an enourmous purple wurm carcass. Ashe checked the wurm's entrails, and found an entire dwarven corpse holding a warhammer. Assuming this thing was somebody's pet in a past century, the group carefully skirted around the edge of the room and headed south.
The southern exit revealed a long crypt, in which a strange shadowy creature immediately attacked the party. Despite being uncomfortable in the light of Ashe's shield, the shadow managed to drag the fighter's shadow away from them, hurting them badly in the process. The skirmish dragged on, with Ashe only staying standing due to Mor's magic. Eventually, thanks to the combination of Mor and Thtaal's magic, the majordomo shadow was defeated. Poppet charged in to clean up the lesser shadows, to great success as Ashe's shadow was forced back into them. Poppet, Ashe, and Mor ganged up on the final lesser shadow.
With Mor's shadow returned to her, the party dragged the large skeleton's armour and weapons back to town before it got too dark.
Session 17 - 01/08/2023
Back in Otari, Kargyn, Ashe, and Mor went to Blades & Glades to ask Carman if he was interested in any of the weapons they had found. To cut a long story short, he was, and the trio made good use of their new funds to purchase new arms and armour. Moving on, they went to see Wrin - both to give her the purple wurm scale they had salvaged, and to enquire about vital potions. Kargyn purchased a couple healing potions off of his mate, and Wrin also weighed in that Otari's soul seemed to be trapped given the message. She explained that the Roseguard's rogue had been trapped in the Vaults for some time, and eventually surrounded by Belcorra's minions. Wrin also corroborated the idea that the purple wurm husk may have once been Belcorra's pet.
The gang kipped off early.
Day 10
Kargyn spent some time working as Carman's apprentice whilst Ashe and Mor worked back of bar at the Otari Fishery. At the end of day, Ashe purchased a repair kit from Thtaal's merchant friend, who was annoyed that Thtaal hadn't been visiting them recently. Kargyn was good enough to fully fix up Ashe's shield that evening.
Day 11
The trio rose bright and early to return to the keep, finding themselves back in the majordomo's crypt. They inspected the graves therein, and deduced that the Majordomo's name was Phirrok, and was a loyal servant of Belcorra. Continuing their "no surprises" policy, they surveyed the rest of the floor. Happening upon some morlocks, Kargyn tried to convince them that Mor was now their king, but once that failed, Ashe charged straight into them. The morlocks used nasty improvised junk launchers to try and wound the party, but were largely ineffective. The two 'locks were slain, and the room was revealed to be largely barren of value. However, a conversation from the next room revealed the morlocks had taken prisoners at some point. The prisoners were three thieves from Otari that used to operate out of the Crook's Nook, who had been kidnapped by the morlocks and had their stuff stolen. Kargyn found their gear pile and pilfered a healing potion before the party escorted the thieves safely to the exit.
The trio found a few entirely empty box rooms, and after that, a strange shrine with a skeleton on it and a dead man in front. The shrine had a few interesting offerings, and was clearly a morlock shrine to Belcorra. Futher rooms passed in a blur before the trio found a locked door near the river drake's den. Kargyn picked it open, and the door revealed a huge magic circle carved onto the floor. Unfortunately, the trio were not magically talented enough to activate the enchantment. In the next door over, the party found a staircase down to the lower levels.
Session 18 - 12/09/2023
Rejoined by Thtaal, the group proceeded to the north end of the dungeon to check out the unexplored rooms up there. They entered a room that contained holographic representations of potential futures. As Ashe and Mor stepped into the room, the various depictions lashed out at them with energy, knocking both of the martials unconscious immediatley. The group retreated back out of the room to recover. Thtaal recognised that the enchantments could be avoided or potentially disabled. When Kargyn tried however, he was lanced by energy from the traps, and Mor had to revive him.
A few hours later, after an extended rest, the group raided an old cleaning cupboard, and were lucky enough to find a posh silver cane. As they went to move on, a devilish bug-hybrid entered the room. It was piled upon by the frontliners, and quickly surrendered. To bargain for its life, it displayed a memory of the thief Otari fleeing through this level of the dungeon. When it refused to repent after that, Mor killed it. The room it had come from was a filthy living quarters with blood pentagrams on the floor, with little else of note. The other room nearby housed two huge stone statues which were once clockwork assistants. Kargyn managed to salvage some gemstones from the ruined mechanisms.
With little else to do on that floor, the party descended deeper, to some sort of library level. In a huge hall lined with books, the party squared up to some ghouls. With the undead dispatched with ease by Mor and Poppet particularly, the group looked around at the huge stone shelves that surrounded them, and decided to head after a glimpse of movement they saw to the south. That movement turned out to be a further group of ghoul cultists. This group was easily enough dispatched like their predecessors. The group appeared to have congregated around the swirling energy mass that marks the centre of The Gauntlight. The party found a secret door leading off from the ghoul's chamber, containing another teleportation circle.
The party sketched the teleportation circle and took it back to town to ask Vandy at the Dawnflower library how to activate it.
Session 19 - 03/10/2023
At the library, Vandy informed the party that the sketch they had made of the supposed teleportation circle was exactly that, but the circle would be dormant until some ritual is performed to link two circles. The party thanked Vandy and offered to bring some academic texts from The Gauntlight back for her.
Back at The Gauntlight, the party pored over the books that the ghouls had been reading, checking for any sign of ritual magic. There was little of value, as Ashe only managed to find some information on a religous figure called Canker. Reading the other stone shelves offered nothing else of value regarding magic.
The party soon found another Ghoul book club, and barged in on them. Poppet sustained some injuries during the fight after being paralysed and had to retreat to the boneyard. After the fight, Kargyn salvaged some books of decent value, whilst Ashe and Thtaal investigated a door engraved with a depiction of the dark tapestry god Nimbaloth feeding on the soul of her followers.
On the other side of the door, a huge flesh effigy of Belcorra was revealed, being tended to by a ghoulish high priest of Canker. After a brief exchange, the inevitable fight broke out swiftly. The skirmish ended swiftly when Mor used Pharasmin magic to smite the ghoul and then Ashe finished off the caster with a particularly brutal beatdown with her own dismembered arm.
Kargyn searched the cult's hideout comprehensively, and found a secret library containing a horrific book about Nimbaloth and her followers. There were also some other papers detailing the layout of The Gauntlight, how to use the teleportation circles, and a personal journal of Belcorra's. Unfortunately the former and latter items were written in undecipherable Aklo.
Ashe severed the head from the dead ghoul and Thtaal stole its casting staff. The group then returned to town.
Day 12
The next day, the group sold a huge amount of treasure, before returning to The Gauntlight.
Session 20 - 14/11/2023
In the Gauntlight, the party raided an abandoned office. Ashe found a room with a locked door, and took it personally. That door doesn't exist anymore. Inside, there was a wood golem that knocked Ashe back with a hail of razor sharp splinters as soon as she stepped across the threshold. Mor closed the door to cover Ashe and the party retreated.
After a rest, the party once again encountered a locked door. Ashe was not having a good day. Thtaal had the bright idea of knocking, which brought the party face-to-face with a strange glowing fey creature. They weren't fond of the home disturbance, and attacked the party. Bad choice. The party drove it off and ransacked their stuff. An adjacent door revealed an abandoned guard post and a stairwell leading deeper.
Elsewhere, the party were ambushed by a mist stalker. Then there wasn't a mist stalker. RIP. Beyond that they saw a room that was glowing in spectral energy like the room above. The energy formed words "Belcorra fell to the roseguard but we didn't know of these vaults below" and then slithered away. The PCs tracked it to another set of stairs leading down. They descended.
On the level below, the PCs found wordsnake again. It spelt the message "Gauntlight is a weapon, built to raise Absalom. It must be brought down." In that room, the characters happened upon a bloke, Jaul Mezmin with a massive white wolf. He was not overtly hostile, but was unimpressed by Ashe and Thtaal's attempts at humour. Thtaal recognised that the bejewelled necklace that Jaul held belonged to Ayla Lathenar, related to the marketkeeper. Jaul explained that he was a werewolf, and had mistakenly slain a few Otari citizens in his moonsickness nearly 30 years ago. Jaul was amenable, and promised to not hurt the party unless they caught him on a full moon.
Session 21 - 12/12/2023
The group returned to the higher level and sought more monsters of the darkness to fight. Happened upon two Canker cultists. Despite Mor getting paralyzed, and Kargyn having a mental spell driven into his brain, the ranger finished the final cultist off with a magnificent arrow shot through the heart.
After a little time recovering, the lurker in light rocked up again. It elected to be an annoying prick again, so a scrap quickly broke out. During the fight, the fey permanently blinded Kargyn. Despite that, Kargyn got a shot off before fleeing. As the fight wore on, the lurker in light was beaten down by the remaining sighted members of the party, and it managed to flee the scene.
The party returned to town to get Kargyn treated at the Dawnflower Library. After two rounds of casting, Kargyn was healed! Thank Sarenrae!
Session 22 - 17/01/2024
Day 13
Ashe and Mor, accompanied by the newly not-hungover Grenk, headed back to the Gauntlight. Grenk regaled his beaten-up travelling composers with the tale of the circus he had been working with for the last few days.
Down on the library level, the party figured out that the lurker in light had fled down to a lower level. They later bumped into a spectral woman named Chandriu. She took the party to be scribes, and asked them to start transcribing some carols. She was clearly confused and had no concept of time. Mor tried to bait the ghost into going to see the bookcases, which worked - unfortunately! Chandriu went mental and started accusing the party of destorying her library. She let out a mournful despairing cry, but the wail had no effect due to Grenk overplaying it with a deeply annoying ditty. The skirmish got painful for Ashe quite quickly (as usual). Eventually, through magic and some grit, Chandriu was dispelled. The party found a magical maille short amongst some nearby remains. Grenk proved he could read (just about).
In a nearby room, Ashe found firefighting supplies and a wand of quench. A further room revealed a trio of ghouls. The ghouls were dispatched. In an adjacent room, the party wound up fighting a strange ghoulish tattoo artist. The fight was going poorly, especially for Mor, until Grenk's healing magic revitalised her enough for her to land a greivous wound on the ghoul. Ashe managed to follow up her sister's attack with a dire bite that dismembered the artist entirely.
The trio looted some of the artist's books and headed back to Otari to sell their loot. They also handed over some of the contraband books they had acquired over the past few days to the Dawnflower Library. The wand of quench was sold to the Otari Garrison.
