Session 15: Get Ready for Spooky Season

The group stealthily scouts and secures the surrounding area. They find a new control panel and a steel gem-encrusted statue of a dragonborn, but refrain from touching either, since they want no more casualties. They find a large forge, where Grombrin gathers some unattended ores, some of which have strange unidentified minerals in them. In the next room, they find two ghostly dragonborn and two ghostly tabaxi, angrily looking at each other across a makeshift barrier. Arran bluntly yells at them that they are dead. The ghosts are stunned and pondering, so Arran impatiently continues past them, with the rest dragging behind. They find a room with large barrels containing a viscous liquid, which Grombrin tastes and determines to be rum. Peeking into the next room, Arran spots a group of undead tabaxi, which the group skulks away from.

They return to Ahrm’s body, where Grombrin uses his magic to communicate with his spirit. They ask who to talk to in Glyckheart and what to watch out for. He says to talk to Sarla in the stonework district, and to be wary of kenku. When asked if he has any unfinished business, Ahrm’s body suddenly rises, and he proclaims that he’s going to kill Thaddeus Forston. Despite being partially decomposed, Ahrm’s hatred has brought him back as a revenant. He is fully focussed on his mission to kill Thaddeus, but he will first loot the dungeon to collect weapons and gold for his quest.

Grombrin tells Ahrm that the group of undead Tabaxi is blocking their path, prompting the two of them to charge into that room. The tabaxi pounce on them and a mad brawl breaks out. Grombrin roasts the skeletons while Ahrm methodically breaks their kneecaps. One of the skeletons gets a hit on Grombrin, but Bear-Vojta grabs it by the leg and holds it up, so Grombrin can beat it up like a boxing ball. Arran wraps them up with some knee-bound arrows, then nonchalantly collects the gold from their bodies while the others are distracted.

The path leads back to the door that jammed when Ahrm tried to force it, now from the other side. Ahrm and Grombrin bust through it, returning them to the central hall. Arran has a rematch with the remaining doors and deciphers the opening mechanisms. One of them leads to a trashed dining hall with a dragon skeleton. Grombrin opens the double doors on the other side, which awakens the undead dragon. The group tells it that they were sent by Nahlot to check on the duke, and it hesitantly lets them pass. Beyond is a dragonborn statue seated on a throne, alongside a magical bone construction projecting a mana beam, which Arran recognises as the imprisonment spell. Branching off is a hallway full of dried gore and mummified tabaxi corpses. The dragon explains that the duke was imprisoned by a profane ritual from the tabaxi, requiring lots of sacrifice.

The group backtracks and finds another room with four praying dragonborn statues, holding up a central object that is missing. Beyond is a room with two shredded dragonborn skeletons and a tabaxi apparition, which attacks. The spirit skulks through the shadows while draining their strength, but Vojta turns into a bear and sniffs it out. The others wound it, but it turns invisible again, so Grombrin taunts it out of hiding with a vicious insult. This time the other pile on it and destroy it.

In the next room, they find a heavily-armoured tabaxi with the same carvings as the one who killed Ahrm. Arran tries to communicate with him, but Ahrm charges to attack. Arran facepalms and backs away while Ahrm and Grombrin start fighting the Tabaxi. The tabaxi summons shadowy allies that perform blinding kamikaze attacks, but Vojta calls for a rematch and again transforms Ahrm into a giant yeti. Ahrm repeatedly smashes the tabaxi into the floor, until the tabaxi stabs him in the chest with his greatsword. The yeti form bursts, but Ahrm jumps out and punches through his damaged armour. Caustic gunk oozes from the tabaxi’s body, reducing its entire form to slag. The group gathers several healing potions and spell scrolls from a nearby table, then head back to the undead dragon.

The group decides to free the duke, and that their only shot is to break the bone structure. They try various ways to physically destroy it, but it proves untouchable. Eventually Arran shoots his magic missiles at the source of the mana beam, which violently explodes the construct. The statue on the throne turns back into Duke Arech, fully alive, and he thanks the group for freeing him. They tell him how much time has passed, but he is already aware, as he was conscious in his imprisoned state. He intends to stay in Iger, but will make an arrangement with the rockbacks to let them live here. They ask him about the altar with the missing object, but he says that it is trapped and advises against touching it. Ahrm asks him for something that will help him kill his nemesis. The duke opens a hidden treasury and grants the group a large amount of gold and jewels as reward for freeing him. The group then exits to the surface, alongside the duke, who wants to see the new state of Oda Iger.