Session 19 - Peril In the Catacombs

Half-air spirit monk Aubrey eventually tracked down the group's dog and found his friends at the Palace of 1000 Pleasures.

The next morning, half-orc fighter Phryne, half-elves Arindrake, a paladin, and Percival, a druid, and Aubrey set out without half-elf bard Haeven, who was otherwise preoccupied. The companions decided that they should continue their investigation into the disappearance of the young spellcasters, Zachar and Olli, and this strange tome that was found in the archives of the Arcane Academy.

When they showed up at the Academy Percival presented the Champion of Excelsion to the students, to limited admiration. They promised to have lunch with a couple of the students before pressing on into the archives.

Within they found Head Archivist Eko, a nervous young woman who had taken over the job less than a year prior. They began questioning her about the tome and the two students, and at first she resisted their interrogation before admitting it was Zachar and Olli, not herself, who had found the tome. She admitted from the drawings within she believed it to be concerned with the forbidden art of necromancy, so she turned it over to the Archmaster. It disappeared that night, and Olli and Zachar were reported missing soon after, but no one believed the two could be connected. They were just children, after all.

She explained the two boys had found the tome in the catacombs, although she seemed frightened of the subterranean tunnels and would not go further than the doorway into them.

Thus began the group's journey into the catacombs, at first finding their way following footprints and broken dirt. They took a wrong turn and found themselves faced with a grubby, disgusting man who commanded three enormous rats and a swarm of regular sized rats. They had stumbled onto the lair of the Rat King.

Percival lobbed off a spell of icy daggers, tearing through the giant rats, while Phryne and Aubrey charged into battle with the swarms of rats, hacking away at them. The rat king closed in on Phryne, gnawing at her, while she entered a state of rage against the rat swarm due to her obsidian blade, Mildred, not escaping the notice of her companions.

Arindrake had held back but strode forward to deliver the final, smiting holy blow to the Rat King. They searched his small domain but found only a few gold and a couple jewels.

The continued on, deeper on into the catacombs beneath the mountain, following the old trail they assumed the boys had left. Eventually Phryne convinced the group to backtrack, and then when she heard the sobbing of a child she believed she'd found them. Percival cast his magical fire ahead when he noticed the crying girl was incorporeal. When he mentioned it to the companions, she turned and her sobbing took on a violent, terrible pitch as the ghost attacked.

Phryne and Aubrey charged in to attack, their magical weapons harming the ghost as if they were attacking flesh, while Percival lobbed off his magical fire. Arindrake drew his holy symbol and invoked a prayer, but the ghost did not seem to be affected. The ghost screeched, frightening Aubrey and Arindrake, shaking the latter down to his very soul. He felt himself age decades, effected by the ghost's attack.

They continued fighting when the supernatural being slammed into Aubrey's body, collapsing him. When he stood, Percival noticed his companion had changed. Aubrey insisted on leaving the catacombs, and Percival and Phryne seized on Aubrey, while Arindrake prepared some holy water, which did nothing but soak his possessed companion.

Possessed Aubrey wriggled out of his friends' grasp and escaped, but didn't get far before Percival cast a spell that paralyzed the monk. Arindrake remembered that to expel the spirit they'd need a specific spell, or to knock Aubrey unconscious. Arindrake and Phryne wailed on their companion while Percival prepared a healing spell. As soon as they knocked him unconscious the ghost flew out of Aubrey, Percival brought him back and Aubrey destroyed the ghost that had possessed him. After a quick prayer for the soul of the girl, and healing Aubrey a little, they continued on.

They pressed on with little incident, eventually feeling a draft from further in the catacombs. Eventually they came to a circular room with a huge pentacled eye on the ceiling, a stone altar and five statues of dragons looking down. They explored a little, Arindrake figuring out that the altar sank slightly into the ground when pressed down. They were wary of traps and Aubrey was convinced the dragons were the trap, but they continued on.

One passage seemed washed away by a subterranean river that coursed through the mountain, with caverns beyond. Aubrey could swear there was someone living from a light he saw glinting further on, but they traced their steps to examine the room with the altar. Percival accessed his divine sense and realized there was an evil resonance coming from within the centre of the eye, an object perhaps. He also felt an evil presence of stone coming from the dragon statues.

They resolved to raise Percival, using Aubrey's air spirit power to levitate. After Percival had ascended to the ceiling he found an obsidian covering in the centre of the eye. He took out a dagger and attempted to pry the covering open.

His friends below were so fixated on him that they didn't realize the stone dragons had begun to move, and were creeping forward.

ACTIVE QUESTS

-Evade imminent death at the hands of five moving dragon statues

-Arindrake has been magically aged by 30 years

-Phryne is allowed to request a boon from the worshippers of Excelsion

-Figure out the source of the undead in the Port-of-Utopia Cemetary, perhaps speak to some of the Arcane Academy's students about Zachar and Olli, or Head Archivist Eko about the missing tome, or else investigate the Necropolis further

-Gain an audience with the Elven Senate of Elysium to present what they know of the goblin activity (perhaps using Lady Aevara of Victor's amulet)

-Investigate the encroaching dark forces from the East for the forest spirit (party thinks that the magical and destructive properties of tealstone, these goblin factories and Ghazek from Gobelton have something to do with it)

-Escort Edlee to Elysium