Gnomes, Tomes & Catacombs: Episode 06

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== Synopsis ==
The party sets up an ambush by the river, using Gerald's illusion of a deer to lure out a Troll, which they successfully kill and burn. After finding a Light Pebble, they clear a tomb entrance blocked by a boulder, taking two days during which Gerald learns new spells. Inside, they fight ghouls and gargoyles, stabilize Midori, and rest before continuing. They encounter statues of deities, fight skeletons, and face a giant skeleton, barely surviving before retreating to recover. They return, exploring further and looting sarcophagi, discovering a giant skull statue that reveals secret stairs when lit. On lower floors, they navigate traps, finding unfinished work and bodies staked ritually. In the final chamber, they disturb the desiccated body of Cassandra, a vampire, who reanimates and spares them for freeing her, giving Brad a magic ring and vowing revenge on her captors.
==Recap==
===Day 53 (1510-10-03)===
The party is back by the river and get up in ambush positions. Gerald Knott creates a silent illusion of a deer by the river's edge to lure the Troll out. When the troll appears, Gerald has the deer walk inland to the ambush spot. The Troll dives into the illusion as the party attacks. Gerald puts down a Grease spell behind the troll, as Midori casts "Chill Touch" to stop regeneration and Locke & Brad Barbo melee the Troll.
The Troll dies inside the greased area. Gerald sets the grease on fire. Gerald spends the next hour burning the Troll.
Brad and Locke head to the river to look for the magic item. Gerald lights up the spot where he detects magic and Locke picks up a Pebble, which turns out to be a Light Pebble.
The party had over to the tomb's entrance, which is blocked by a boulder. They get to work moving the boulder away but it takes 2 days. During the 2 days Gerald learns the spells Tenser's Floating Disk & Magic Missile. Brad tries to make the Light Pebble smaller to fit into his empty eye-socket, but he accidentally breaks the Light spell.
===Day 55 (1510-10-05)===
The entrance to the tomb is dug out to reveal the tomb doors. Gerald detects a faint magical aura on the doors. Locke pushes the door open; it falls over and breaks into 1,000 pieces. The inside is full of stale air. This level of the tomb lacks any metal at all, except for the hinges on the front door; everything is carved out of stone about 500 years ago.
The party come across the illuminated antechamber and enter the tomb proper. They find a dried up fountain. Gerald has his Owl familiar scout around and it sees several undead Ghouls. The party fights the ghouls and 2 gargoyles come to life and attack the party from behind. After a hard-fought battle the creatures are defeated. Midori goes down, but Gerald uses her Medical Kit to stabalize her.
Brad carries Midori to the antechamber and the party rest there an hour for Midori to wake up.
After Midori casts "False Life" the party head back into the tomb for more adventure. They come across statues of Voraci (Death) & Martha (Life) with a statue of a skull in the middle. In the statues, the gods appear more primal and barbaric. Midori prays before the Voraci statue. The skull statue has burn marks in the eye sockets. Further in the room is another set of 3 statues, Astair (Order) & Malkis (Chaos). Between them again is a skull statue with burn marks in the eye sockets. Nearby is a set of stairs down a level.
Shortly past the statutes are 4 Skeletons that the party attack and defeat. Then the party come across a giant skeleton with a fire inside it. The giant skeleton throws the fire as a fireball at the party, knocking out Midori and Gerald. Locke and Brad charge the giant skeleton and defeat it. The giant skeleton knocks down Locke but somehow he stands up again and defeats the giant skeleton, which shrinks when defeated. Brad stabilises Midori & Gerald.
The party retreat from the tomb and camp outside for a week to recover.
===Days 56-62===
During the week of rest Gerald learns more spells. Midori gets to know Brad better and Brad gets to know Locke better. Midori also tells everyone that she would never kill them as a Death Cleric if it isn't their time to die.
===Day 63 (1510-10-13)===
The party return into the crypts. They encounter several skeleton and ghouls as they explore. Locke and Brad loot sarcophagi along the way. There are some important sarcophagi along the way. The first is of a barbarian warrior with a steel battle axe; the second is of a Shaman with a head dress & staff. The room behind the giant skeleton contains the graves of children, as well as a chamber with a male and female chieftain interred within. The party also find a perfectly spherical wooden ball that has been made of a light wood that is stained dark.
The party then come across a giant Skull Statue that is much larger than the other ones they have seen. This one doesn't have the scorch marks in its eyes. Gerald tries to use firebolt on the left eye, but the scorching disappears. Lock and Brad use torches to light both eyes at the same time and secret passages opens up revealing stairs that go down 2 levels.
In the 3rd floor of the crypt, the technology appears to be more advanced; there are metal work and traps, however, the ends of the tomb are not finished, like progress was interrupted. All the bodies on this level that the party find are staked ritually though their limbs and chest. Some have their arms torn off and some have their arms shackled.
The party have to step on the darker tiles on this floor to get though. Stepping on the wrong tile causes bolts to shoot out of the walls. They reach some stairs and head down to the 4th floor.
On the 4th floor, the party walk along the edges to avoid the tiles. However, the rooms on this floor radiate strong evocation magic. In one passageway is a bronze skull statue. There is more unfinished work here, such as a statue that wasn't finished being carved.
===Day 64 (1510-10-14)===
In the final chamber they come across a large desiccated human body staked to the wall on a raised platform. The woman is adorned with raw diamond earnings and brass bracelets with small gems on them; her clothes are very fine aged barbarian style clothing. Brad determines she isn't of Barbo lineage.
The party attack the desiccated body, still attached to the wall, and nothing happens. Brad cuts the head off. Then he and Locke remove her earings. Locke wants to stay to look for new jewels, against the urging of the rest of the party. Locke removes the woman from the wall and starts removing the riches when her body starts hydrating and de-desiccating. Locke, in a panic, starts putting the riches back on her body & removed head, and the remains disappear into a vapour.
The vapour reforms and the Vampire Cassandra of the Stone Men appears, whole again; even her clothes are repaired like new. Cassandra is tall, bulky, well built, beautiful, with dark deep eyes lined red and long flowing jet black hair tied back with wolf fur. She then charms Gerald and Brad.
Locke attacks her from behind but it doesn't do much. Midori then breaks the charm on the others. Cassandra shrugs off the damage and tells Locke to stop.
500 years ago, Cassandra was turned into a vampire after she and her patrol tried to hunt down another vampire and were defeated, and she was made his servant. The other vampire went off to fight the Blue Dragon in the mountains, but was slain, freeing Cassandra. For the next four years Cassandra wreaked havoc on her own people, the Stone Men. Eventually the Stone Men captured her and trapped her in this place, leaving her to dry out.
Cassandra tells that because the party freed her from her 500-year prison, she will spare their lives. Those who captured her couldn't kill her, so she was strapped and tied here. This tomb was built for someone yet to be born, the greatest Barbarian to ever live who would hopefully conquer Arcadia.
This tomb was built by dwarven slaves of the Barbarians. Cassandra's mission now is to find the surviving Stone Men and make them pay for what their ancestors did to her.
She gives a magic ring to Brad and thanks the party. Brad asks Cassandra if she could kill Major Tavington, but she'll only do it if the party trade a life for this task. The party decline. Cassandra tells Midori that she has no power here as Death doesn't hold her.
Locke tries to stop Cassandra from leaving, but Cassandra almost kills him in one bite to his neck. She then turns into a bat and flies away.
Brad tries on the magic ring and feels light on his feet.
Party Level up Level 4:
Locke: +10 HP (38 HP Total)
Midori: +2 HP (23 HP Total)
Gerald Knott: +2 HP (18 HP Total)
Brad Barbo: +4 HP (29 HP Total)
Category:Gnomes, Tomes & Catacombs Episodes