Exploring the Ashen Ossuary

**Story Arcs**

###### **ENTERING THE ASHEN OSSUARY**

As the two make their way down the steps, they take notice at the door which has been barred shut with a heavily damaged piece of thick heavy wood, strengthened with metal reinforcement. It is bent outwards, as if someone or something has tried to bash their way through from the other side, unsuccessfully.

There is a small gap from the slightly ajar doors, and Ozai peeks through. He spots a few lit candles in the darkness, but can't see anything else. He opts to karate chop the damaged wood beam, and heavily damages it but suffers some damage to his hand in the process.

Ashes is about ready to chastize him for not being patient and Ozai is already in the process of axe kicking the damaged beam, finally breaking it and knocking back the two doors in the process, knocking back a skeletal creature that is now visible in the darkness against a coffin of some kind.

###### **SKELETON ON THE RUN**

The duo make their way way inside and fight, and are surprised by another skeleton who ambushes them in the darkness. They fight, and end up defeating one of the skeletons but allow the other skeleton to run away and pound heavily at the door leading further into the crypt (likely calling for reinforcements) before being dispatched by the two. The duo take a few seconds to catch their breaths and get ready to make their next move.

Taking a moment to investigate their surroundings, Ashes and Ozai look around the room they are currently at. Ashes notices a desk nearby one of the skeletons they killed and see signs of sabotage, from what looks to be ashes and burn marks from a nearby bottle of alchohol that was used as a fuel source to alight whatever remained of the documentation here. The rest of the table is devoid of anything useful.

Looking in the center of the chamber they both spot the dusty, mud stained and lid open sarcophagus containing what looked like a body which seems to have either been moved, or moved of its own accord after being reanimated from whatever darkness lurks here. They spot a piece of headstone that matches the grave that was dug up, and comes from the same source as Ozai's door blocking rock that he used to wedge the entrance open.

Looking above, Ashes spots a rounded dome with another rounded "nipple" at the middle which contains some holy looking artwork of four birds flying clockwise around its perimeter.

###### **DEEPER INTO THE OSSUARY**

The duo hear the ever present sound of a rattling "thud" as the skeleton on the other side of the door begins to bash against it in an attempt to bust through the door. Taking a moment the duo relocate the burnt desk and chair in front of the door and wait until the skeleton barges through the doorway.

Around 15 minutes pass and the skeleton finally destroys the door, its shoulder partially shattered from its somewhat melodic shoulder tackles against the structure; nearly stumbling over the desk from the forward momentum as it finally breaks in. The duo begin to fight, and dispatch the two skeletons that investigated the call for backup.

Ashes takes notice to a coin that is imbedded into the skull of the only skeleton thus far that the duo have not destroyed in the process of killing these necromantic monsters, he's not sure of where it originated from but takes notice that it is made of gold, has an unfamiliar langue written on both sides. Ashes shows the coin to Ozai, who is able to read the Draconic text written on both ends, which say the words "*Obey*" and "*Power*".

Ashes pockets the coin and takes a moment to look around some more and notices in the hallway that they killed the two backup skeletons. Ashes finds a heavy and rusty looking javelin which was lodged against a wall, impaled on a long dead skeletonized corpse. He also takes notice to a strange pristine light purple leather bag, hanging off the end of the javelin. Ashes aquires a Bag of Holding.

###### **HALL OF THE DEAD**

Procceeding further Ashes and Ozai walk down the hallway and into a more open looking chamber, lined with many slotted holes in the walls and littered with small stone altar-like stone slabs, some with unmoving skeletons, some with powdery bonemeal, and some lacking any bones at all.

Heading Northwards, Ashes makes quick work of a skeleton "jailer" stationed near three cages, donned with a keyring on its waist. During its killing blow, Ashes deals a blow to the head and causes something metallic to bounce off a nearby stone wall and into one of the empty cages. Taking its keys and inspecting the area, Ashes looks at the cages and see's only one of particular note, a humanoid looking man who seems to have been dead here for a few days.

Inspecting the other cage yields nothing, and the final cage houses the skeleton's gold coin, marked with the same draconic runes as before ("Power" & "Obey) as well as what looks to be a hefty bronze medal statuette of a dog.

The duo proceed, and inspect the Southern portion of this area next, finding a collapsed part of the Ashen Ossuary with another corpse, and two damaged prison cages. Inspecting the corpse, it looks like it had already been looted with their pockets and vest emptied.

###### **SKELETON ON THE RUN... AGAIN**

Proceeding back Northwards Ashes and Ozai notice two skeletons heading their direction. They engage in combat and fell one of them, but the other skeleton wielding a longbow stays at range and begins to flee once it takes a near killing blow. It runs to the East and down a long hallway before seemingly vanishing without a trace.

The two take a moment to investigate the area and notice two things, footprints leading through what seems to be a sheer wall, and a pressure plate. Ashes tells Ozai to wait a moment and jumps over the pressure plate, noticing a door, the path that continues forward, and a set of what can only be described as "skeletal" sconces of two humanoid looking arms keeping their grips held for a torch. The two sconces each are devoid of a torch.

Ozai looks investigates the wall where the tracks lead and it just looks like a sheer stone wall, with no edges or frame for a door. Ashes in the meanwhile pushes ahead and spots a door which he investigates, discovering it to be unlocked but barricaded. Using his raw strength he barges through and topples a few barrels and a bookcase which spill its contents over the floor.

Ozai hearing the commotion jumps over the pressure plate and follows, coming up behind Ashes as they both push onwards down the corridor and listen to the sound of skeletal footsteps walking ahead. Ozai makes a comment towards Ashes asking "How do you fare without your Sun, Ashes?", which Ashes ignores. They push on a few more steps and hear the sound of something fiddling with a lock, a door creaking open and then quickly slammed shut.

Moving to the source, the two are able to overhear some muffled dialogue coming from the adjacent room, a male voice speaking in Common saying through broken audible dialogue, "Fool" ... "Block" ... "Door". Ozai immediately shouts out to the voice "STATE THYSELF!". The threat came with no response but the sound of an individual quickly attempting to escape, as their footsteps reverberated on the other side.

###### **WIGHT FIGHT**

Ozai hearing this attempts to bash through the door, and does so with relative ease; pushing back the injured archer skeleton from before as it was attempting to hold the door closed with its broken and battered body. He quickly takes it out with his glaive and the two make their way inside.

As they make their way into this chamber, Ashes feels unease and casts a Divine Sense. He feels a powerful undead presence in the room they are in, and the two take a look around the direction the paladin feels this energy eminate from.

From the shadows, a Wight emerges. Not equipped with any armor but wielding a longsword, the undead creature targets Ozai first and slashes twice at him, missing the first swipe but taking a wound on the second. The strike of pain sends Ozai into a Rage and he grapples with the wight, holding onto it as he pushes it up against a nearby worn stone statue. He jabs his fist into his gut but the wight grins and takes the hit with ease. Ozai says "Go get 'em, Sunboy." and Ashes takes over.

Ashes swings his Light Hammer of Lathander, the wight takes a hefty blow to the skull and winces in pain but grins manically towards the paladin, who returns another swing this time imbued with a Divine Smite. This blow rockets divine energy into his body and detonates him into a mix of limbs and ash, killing it outright.

###### **ON THE NECROMANCER'S TRAIL**

Ozai investigates the powdery remains of the wight and finds two regular healing potions, and Ozai finds on what could only be assumed to be its altar a set of blackened leather armor, a longbow and a quiver with arrows. He leaves them there.

Ashes turns back around to double check something, he goes back to the fallen over bookcase and looks at the books. The books themselves seem to be nothing of note, childrens stories written in Common, but on the last book he checks he finds a hallowed out portion of the the book hidden with a yellow diamond gem inside. He snags the gem and proceeds to investigate the room with the wight.

The door to the North in this chamber is locked, and the door to the East is unlocked. The two decide to investigate this end first. Heading into this room, they discover a source of natural light coming from a ladder leading towards the surface. Ozai takes a peek to see where it leads, and it pokes out towards a false or dug out grave in the Jaskir Cemetery. Ashes takes a moment to step out to bask in the sunlight for a moment to recollect himself from the darkness, and then heads back in.

Ozai and Ashes attempt to break down this locked door leading to the North, but are unsuccessful as it seems to be quite sturdy. The two of them continue to investigate another Northern route, the hallway connecting to this wight chamber. The two see a turn leading to a door in the East, a collapse to the North blocked with stone and earth rubble, and a turn to the West leading back towards the room with the pressure plates.

The two look at this collapse and as Ashes begins to place his hands to investigate it, he nearly topples over as he unexpectedly shifts through it with no resistance. He passes through the illusary wall and Ozai follows too.

###### **HIDDEN CHAMBER**

Inside this hidden chamber of the Ashen Ossuary, they spot embers of a campfire. Taking a closer look they see remnants of documentations and books as well as shards of a glass bottle. Piecing together what happened earlier at the entrance with the burnt table, the two come to a conclusion that whoever was here was attempting to destroy evidence or documentation. Ozai attemps to take some of the burnt pieces with him but it crumbles into dust in his hands.

Shining the torch around they find a door to the South that leads to another chamber, this one fitted with three things of note. An ornate chest with a unique lock, a hefty pile of coins, and a bedroll. Ozai attempts to pry the chest open with his glaive but severly damages it with a permanant bend as the chest resists the effort.

Ashes looks at the lock and attempts to figure out how to open it. The square shaped lock looks like it might fit a coin so he sticks one of the draconic gold coins into it with no success. He takes a moment to think things over and pulls out his yellow gem, rotates it slightly and comes to a eureka moment as he realized the square shape makes a diamond shape. He slots the gem in and a slight glow of light pulses as it unlocks the chest.

Inside they find a gold locket with a portrait of a human man, a pair of engraved bone dice, a carved bone statuette, two silver ewers, and 100 scattered gold pieces with the same draconic writing reading "Power" and "Obey" on each side. Ozai looks at the bone statuette and it depicts a woman with wings and long hair, so long that it obfuscates her face entirely. It looks like it was made recently as the bone still has some flesh and sinew attached. He also looks at the dice, which look much older as they show signs of aging and weathering.

Ashes looks inside the gold locket and looks at the portrait. It does not look like Draven Barlow, and he attempts to remember if he has seen this person before. He takes a moment and does, as he remembers looting some equipment off this mans body from the Ruined Church of Oghma. He pockets the locket and looks at the ewers, they seem of no historical significance and just seem like expensive wine vessels.

The duo swoop up all of the coins in the pile totalling 3250 mixed coins of bronze and silver.

###### **MAKESHIFT RITUAL**

The two exit out the previously locked door they couldn't bash down and exit from this chamber back into the wight's chamber. They loop around and check out the room the the East and find another ritualistic summoning circle, with a pile of ash in the center and a bucks skull resting on it like a pillow.

The two investigate but come up empty, they find obvious signs of something happening here but besides the skeletal remains and other gross sights they come up empty handed. Ashes persists and wants to figure out what the purpose of this room is and compares the carved bone figure of the woman with wings to the bones found in the ash pile and find that they are a similar match. Ashes takes a look around the room and see's that there's only one animal carcass on this circle, and asks Ozai to collect the other animal corpses to bring them here.

Ozai begrudgingly agrees and collects the carcasses as Ashes looks around some more. He looks into the small ritual altar in the North of this chamber and sloshes his hand into the small bloody pool in the stone basin of it, finding 5 marked gold coins with the same draconic text as before. Ozai brings two carcasses and heads out to bring the final two.

Ashes looks around once more and only stumbles on one more marked gold coin before Ozai returns with two animal carcasses held over both shoulders and plants them down the empty points in the pentagram ritual circle. Nothing happens.

Ashes on a hunch decides to plop the yellow gem into the bloody pool. The room begins to shake violently for a moment and then the gem hovers out of the blood pool, vibrates with energy, and slams into the forehead of the bucks skull laying peacefully on the ashes in the center of the room. Some smoke wafts into the air and fades shortly as Ashes picks up the helmet and gives it a rudamentary arcana check. He feels a magical energy and pockets it into his bag of holding.

###### **REPORTING BACK TO LAWRETTA STOWEN**

Seeing no other routes to explore, the two decide to leave this dungeon using the ladder exit they found. They both make their way back to the manor of Lawretta Stowen to report their findings.

Making their way to the front, they encounter the male servant who speaks to Ashes and then unlocks the door. Inside is a spread of food and they are allowed to feast freely as he lets the mayor know they are there. The two eat and he returns shortly, waiting a moment longer to let the heroes finish their meals.

The two are led to the office of Lawretta Stowen who seems just as upset as before, but she perks up her appearance as the two enter to make herself more formal. She welcomes them and asks the two to sit down.

Ashes reports his findings to her regarding what he found inside the Ashen Ossuary, and tells her that he might be using the sewer systems to travel undetected. She says that she will post more guards in the cemetary and that she will also let her guards know to keep an eye on the sewers as well. She begs Ashes to continue pursuing this lead, and Ashes in return asks if she had made up her mind about allowing Smitty Jaskir back inside with his citizenship.

Lawretta reluctantly agrees, saying that she gives her word that if Ashes catches Draven Barlow, she will reinstate his citizenship and allow him back inside of Jaskir. Ashes shows her the golden locket and asks her if she knows the man, to which she replies yes. She hired the man, who was part of the same team that Draven Barlow to investigate the Ruined Church of Oghma. She knew that they had some sort of friendship or bond, and seemed somewhat distraught at his loss. She was confused as to why he still held onto this, as it could only spell trouble.

The portrait of the man in the locket was named Temen Nikku. She thanks Ashes and Ozai for their efforts and they both take their leave.

##### 👥**MAIN GROUP - CHAPTER 15**

###### **ODDS AND ENDS BEFORE THE END**

Ashes sees the hour grow late and leads Ozai back to his home, the Ramshackle Smith. The two of them make their way there and spot a transaction between Bogladin and two peasants, the same two peasants who were in the trash dump, Yohan and Pauls. He hands them off 2 platinum coins each for their service in helping move things from the Sewer Hideout into their home.

The two depart and Bogladin welcomes Ashes and his new friend Ozai, who offers a handshake which Ozai accepts. Bogladin is familliar with the story of the Teri-Ahk Clan, and asks him if its true. Ozai replies by saying that it is all slander, and gives him a quick recap on his desire for vengeance.

Ashes departs saying he has some small things to take care of before the days end and makes his way to the Trade Square. There, he heads into the Jaskir Bank Branch Einer and speaks to the woman over the counter. He places all the coins he collected from the dungeon and also some of his own coins and converts them into easy to carry gold and platinum.

There he also places a tapestry that he brought out of storage from home, the tapestry he found in the sunken chest along the Bloodied Coast. The woman is in shock, and after a short time examining it gives him a staggering estimate of 140 platinum coins. He's shocked at the value and asks for its history, to which she replies by saying that it depicts the cities founder, **Einer Jaskir**, as he started construction on the foundation for the **Gatehouse**. He thanks her and heads off much richer.

The hour grows much later and as his last trip he heads back to the Flyin' Griffin. The owner, Sir Braford is happy to see his repeat customer Ashes again. He asks for what he would like, and Ashes presents the newly imbued buck skull with the yellow gem. He offers a identification for the price of 100 gold, and he accepts.

His eyes flash with arcane light for a moment and he tells him that this is a Helm of the Third Eye, and that it's quite powerful but comes with some trade offs. Ashes thanks him and begins to head home, and finally comes to a long rest.

**Story Arcs**