There's a Hole in My Casket, Dear Liza [Session 38]

<< Previous Session | Next Session >>

Current Situation

• Readied and rested, the Trollmates make their way to the Nandar crypt to, hopefully, solve the final mysteries left of Drezlin Nandar before his gruesome return to the material plane as a Lich and seeker of Shadowy control.
  

Session Summary

• The group decides to be as non-confrontational as possible, depending on what they find in the crypt. Barrett says he would hope to try and speak to Drezlin, if it's prior-Drezlin, and Dhann informs the group that he has Speak with Dead prepared, should the need or want to use it, arise. Ely relays to the group how to recall the potions she has within the Bag of Holding, should anyone need to call them from the bag if Ely is out of commission.
• On the way to the crypt, the gang notices that the hubbub about the "missing" The Nightstone has not died down in the least, many townspeople still out and about discussing it.
• The graveyard is empty aside from the group. Barrett and Elyana take a peek at a couple of the tombstones, seeing the names "Summerhawk," for two young children who died on the same day, about 18 months old. Clearly the children of Larlow Summerhawk and his wife. Other than that, no other names are recognized.
• Using their provided key, they open the gates to the crypt and look down the stairs. Barrett uses his Lantern of Revealing and lights it up. The stairs are clean, and there's a limited amount of light coming from below, confirming Mirt's information about magical torches being within the crypt.
• It's a fairly recently made crypt, well tended, and shored securely along the sides with beams. There are two short rows of benches on the left for prayer or reflection, Drezlin's sarcophagus in the center of the room with candles, and five others lines up along the rightmost wall, separated by four slightly larger than life-sized stone statues of deities. At the foot of Drezlin's sarcophagus is a small table, upon which rests the dark arrow that struck the killing blow against the High Steward.
• The likeness of Drezlin on his casket is rough, but it's obviously supposed to be his effigy. His name is inscribed, and that's it, really. Looking at the arrow, Ely notices that the arrow seems extremely old, even though Drezlin only died, really, a short while ago. There's no obvious iconography or make to the arrow that says anything Elvish about it. The fletching is rough, tattered, and nothing artistic about the arrow makes itself known. It's almost crude, if made by Elves. There's a slight nick on one side of the arrowhead, and Ely finds a small bloodstain dried onto the head of it, that whoever cleaned this arrow after Drezlin's death, missed. The carvings and decoration on the shaft of the arrow, very much, remind her of Cyric, even if there's no obvious indicators, like a skull or black starburst. The head is black stone, the shaft, dark wood, and the fletching, some dark-feathered bird of prey. As she returns the arrow to the pedestal, Elyana notices a small inscription on the stand, "Never Again."
  
• Barrett sits on a pew to begin ritually casting Detect Magic. Z goes to investigate the statues, accompanied by Dhann.
  • The northernmost statue is a human, bearded and long haired, a stout wizard with a staff. The plaque reads, "There was once a wizard who wanted power beyond all mortal reach. Such stories always end poorly. But luckily for the wizard, the Lady of Mysteries took a shine to him, and became his queen. She granted him powers, such powers, until he was no longer a mere wizard, but a god in truth. A god dedicated to his lady, and all who wore her crown." - Azuth, telling his story. Azuth is known in the pantheon as a minor god. While his story ended well, it is a cautionary tale on how the seeking of more and more magical power can go wrong.
    
  • The second statue is of a woman, somewhat shorter than the other statues, with flowing hair, a bow, arrows, and dressed in leathers. Unicorn symbology is woven into the vines and greenery carved into the stone of her likeness. The plaque reads: "The wood is a place of giving, not taking. Though we may hunt and consume creatures we find there, it is those creatures who are giving to us. Taking from the wood is evil and corrupt and will leave man with an empty heart and an empty belly." - Meilikki, a half-elven deity. She is the goddess of autumn, rangers, druids, the Hunt, and is known, in tales, somewhat reflects the balance of nature. She is known to clearly reveal herself to her followers, but usually one-on-one. She is considered the patron of unicorns, but her moral teaching is that hunting is a part of nature, trophy gathering is not.
  • The third statue is a tall, lanky, upright man, hands joined around the hilt of a downward, long bladed sword. His robes and sleeves are long enough to drape to the floor, and his countenance is very stern, but not harsh. A short trimmed mustache and goatee frame his jawline. The plaque reads, "Death is but part life - fear it not, evade it not, and view it not as evil. To fear death delivers you into the hands of those who can bring death down upon you. Die with dignity, neither raging nor seeking to embrace undeath. Do honor to the dead, for their strivings in life brought Faerun to where it is now. And to forget them is to forget, also, where we are now, and why." - Kelemvor, speaking of his views of death. Kelemvor talks much of the evil of the undead, concerned that they are evil because they are unbalanced and not within the circle of life. They exist outside the realm of balance. In his sternness, Kelemvor is regarded as right, and respectable, considering the evil he fought against.
    
  • The fourth and final statue is of a handsome, young man in his prime, with a beaming smile and short hair, with a simple band across his brow, holding back his wavy locks. A long cape makes a silhouette around his fine, perhaps noble clothing, with a mace at his right hip. The plaque reads, "Offer prayers to Lathander, and his light will shield thee as it guides those from darkness. His light will hold thee as it repels those who carry evil in their hearts, his light will warm thee as it burns those who walk after." Lathander is also called the Morninglord, the deity of vitality, youth, dawn, rebirth, everything good about life. He also disliked the imbalance of the undead. While Kelemvor represents the end of death, Lathander is the beginning of life. He is often depicted with innocence, babies, and neutrality, but positivity in the world.
• Finishing casting Detect Magic, Barrett glances up and notices that beneath the table with the arrow, there is a small carving on Drezlin's casket. It reads,
  • "Drezlin Nandar: Loving Husband, Brave Hunter, Accomplished Scholar. Died 16 Kythorn, 1491."
• With his spell active, the torches show to be magic, the candles too. There is a glow from the southernmost casket. Looking closer, there is a plaque on the casket that reads,
  • "Draena Fillensong: Beloved Aunt, Born 1215 - Died 29 Tarsakh, 1385."
• Dhann notices this casket is very obviously sealed, compared to the other four in line on this side of the room. Barrett relays that Necromancy is the school of magic around this sarcophagus. Looking closer at Drezlin's casket, there's a seal, too, but it doesn't match. It is hastily, poorly, installed, as if with a rough hand and the texture is varied and similar to dirt rather than a sealing material for a casket. It looks like the casket has been opened since the original burial.
• Next to the furthest northern casket, there is a small amount of dirt on the floor that doesn't match the crypt. It's much more like raw soil, than stone or gravel. It's quite dry. Z suggests opening the top of the casket, and Elyana and he both move to shove the lid on the casket aside. Dhann, not liking crypts, moves to be within range to cast any radiant spells, but maintains a line of sight with both Drezlin's casket, and the southernmost, sealed, necrotically-glowing one.
• As they slide the lid two or three inches open, the Warlock and Bard can see into the first third of the casket, and a cool draft puffs up into their faces. Pushing the lid more, there seems to be no bottom to this sarcophagus. It looks like they've found a tunnel of some sort. "There's a hole in my casket, dear Liza!" Z hums at the discovery.
  
• While this is happening, Dhann notices, on the surface of the aunt's casket, a shimmering, rising blue. It's faint, covers three fourths of the slab, and looks like it's coming up and out of the casket. It is actively thickening and becoming more tangible. He calls to alert the group to what he's seeing, and from this angle, it looks very humanoid. It is very much a person's essence rising up through the slab. Without preamble, a woman's voice shrieks, "Never again!" and the sound resonates throughout the crypt.
  
• Battle ensues. A ghostly woman appears from the coffin and flies towards the group. Barret tries to speak to the ghost, first, in an attempt to keep fighting from happening. Z hops up onto a sarcophagus to wait, Dhann blesses the group, and Ely holds an attack. The woman is freakish, and Elyana, Barrett, and Z become frightened by her visage. With another scream, the ghost causes rocks to fall from the ceiling, but none of them hit the group. "This will never happen again!" She screams, and flies into the statue of Lathander. Barrett uses a quick meditative moment to end the fear through his mind, and then runs in to help his friends. Z uses his drum to remove the fear on himself, as well, and Elyana sprints as far as she can from the ghostly woman, hiding behind one of the rocks that's fallen from the ceiling. Rascal, invisible and also scared, follows.
• What follows is an insane battle within the crypt. The stony Lathander comes to life, and moves in for the attack. Barrett punches and kicks chunks off of his still smiling face, while Z entangles one of the other statues - just in case. Elyana blasts Eldritch magic from a distance and eventually, the battle comes to a standstill when Dhann smashes open the woman's coffin, and holds one of the crypt's torches over the remains, declaring that he'll burn the bones - that appear to belong to a child - if the woman doesn't stop attacking.
• The maiden rushes to defend the remains, kneeling over the bones and saying, pleadingly, "Please don't." Everyone waits to see what will happen, and after a tense few moments, Dhann tries to talk her down from fighting. Z wraps up another statue, while Barrett and Ely hold attacks if fighting kicks off again. For a second it seems to have worked, but then she screams again, with more rocks plummeting from above. As they fall, two more blueish ghosts appear from the graveyard above, another woman, and a burly dwarf. The woman rakes her icy fingers down the back of Barrett's neck, who twists away from her reach, unharmed. He whirls to face the new threat. Still confronting the girl, Dhann presents his shield forward to Channel fear into the undead, and the woman attacking Barrett is petrified of the symbol, but unfortunately, the little woman-now-girl, and the dwarf, remain unaffected. Spiritual weapon makes for the dwarf, while Dhann, having warned of the fire if the fighting didn't stop drops the torch into the coffin, and everything inside seems to go up in flames.
• The dwarf, seeing the torch go down, makes for Dhann but the Cleric manages to dodge at the last second. His axe follows, but Dhann moves out of the way of that as well. A second swing, however, catches Dhann in the shoulder. Ely, seeing this, halves it and both, while not as much as would have without the halving, take some necrotic damage.
• Z leaps across coffintops towards the fighting, and Ely shoots Eldritch blasts at the dwarf, landing solid hits. Rascal also attacks, shooting a little arrow towards the dwarf in tandem with the Warlock's blasting. Dhann sees the girl's face twist into something horrible, and the girl flies towards one of the statues while Dhann tries to gauge just what's burning in the coffin, and seeing that the bones don't seem to be catching, fires off Sacred Flame inside the remains. The statue of Kelemvor attempts to come to life, the girl trying to possess it, but Spiritual Weapon hurls into the coffin and the remains are obliterated.
• Barrett, seeing the statue cease its twitching, rounds the new firepit and flanks the dwarf attacking Dhann and thwacks him solidly with his Staff of Striking. Furious, the dwarf once again makes to grab Dhann by the throat but his attack misses, and so does his axe, distracted and battered by Barrett from behind, and eventually finished off by the Monk's solid hits. Z sees the statues stop moving altogether, but whips and snags Kelemvor to entangle him a little more - just in case. Can't be too careful. Elyana, eyes on the second ghostly woman, shoots more Eldritch attacks towards her and the ghost begins to look even more dead. 
• The ghostly maiden flies straight towards Z, her attack going wide, and Barrett, seeing their Bard harried by the dead, strikes out with his staff and the ghost rips into ghostly streaks, back to the place from whence she came.
• Within the coffin, a little stone statue of a swan lays in two pieces.

-

She was already dead. She had been dead. Her teeth - that wasn’t a child anymore.

Barrett, seeing the elven woman's spectral figure reaching out for Z, leaps behind her and whirls his staff through the shimmering blue energy.  He can feel it briefly connect with her essence, doing enough damage to dissipate her form.  Even as he finishes the swing, part of his brain tells him that he needs to add a ounce of weight to the far end of his new staff to correct for a slight imbalance.  It's silly what things the mind will turn to in the middle of a fight.
He whispers a quick prayer to Valkur that the elven woman's soul will truly find rest with this second death. Seeing no remaining threats, he takes two steps back, retrieving the Lantern of Revealing from the floor where he set it down when the chaos started.  "Is every one okay?" he asks, giving each of them a quick visual inspection.  He doesn't see much physical damage evident on his friends, but a second glance at Dhann shows there's something going on behind those eyes. "Dhann, what...what was in there?"

It takes a few moments for the Monk’s words to sink past the chill that’s overtaken him, and Dhann looks up from staring at the smoldering mess with a shaky, “What?” His face full of confusion. His brain catches up, then, albeit poorly. “She had…had fangs, I-“ Dhann gestures at his own face as he speaks, and then has to press his fist against his mouth to stifle a cough. Backing away to the southernmost wall, Dhann leans against it, trying to catch his breath. He’s absolutely freezing. “M’sorry, I just- I need a second.”

Barrett starts forward to give the cleric support, but seeing no active fear or possession in his eyes, decides to let Dhann have his moment to recover. He must have seen something pretty intense to convince him to drop that torch, because Barrett was sure he was bluffing. "What about you two?" he says to Ely and Z, "You both okay? Anyone need healing?"

Testing out her limbs, a twinge hits when Elyana rotates her left shoulder and accidentally stretches the ax wound across her upper left chest. “I’ll take it only if you have magic to spare. That ax left quite the scratch.” Ely says. She clocks the identical wound on Dhann but doesn’t say anything to him, deciding to give him some space as she moves closer to Barrett, the group and the now burning sarcophagus. “Ow! Careful Rascal.” Her shoulders shift as an invisible weight settles on them.

Barrett reaches out and touches Elyana's wound, influencing the Ki in her body to accelerate her natural healing process. "Does anyone have any idea what Draena - I'm assuming that was Draena - meant by 'This will never happen again?' All we did was move that lid, correct?" He gestures towards the slightly opened sarcophagi at the north end of the room. "What did you guys see in that one?"

“Thank you.” Ely responds softly, the gash reducing to no more than a large cut. “I honestly don’t know. But in the other box there was a hole. A very deep one.” She raises a hand and pets a raccoon that isn’t there, eyes transfixed on the sarcophagus in front of them.

"A hole? Like a tunnel entrance?  Interesting..." Barrett thinks for a moment, then sighs and shakes his head. So much for simply coming to 'pay our respects'... "Okay, well, I guess we are going to have to go take a look at that. I suppose we can discuss if we need to rest up before we go, or if we should stop to tell someone - specifically Mirt - about what just happened and what we've found here." He looks around again, surveying the destruction wrought in the last minute.  His eyes fall on the arrow and Drezlin's casket. "One thing I think is that either Ely or Z should make a copy of the markings on that arrow for future reference and study. Then there's the question of opening Drezlin's casket...is that something we should do?  Something we...need to do?"

“I’m sure Mirt’s occupied… comforting his lady.” Ely mutters, more focused on the fire. “But I think we should reduce these flames,” and she simultaneously waves a hand over them attempting to put out the fire with Prestidigitation.

“Yes,” Dhann speaks up at this, looking over at the sarcophagus in the center of the chamber. “It’s the one thing we came here for.” He straightens, then checks his shield is securely against his arm. “The more we find, the more I can’t help but think Drezlin’s tragic death was planned from the start.” Dhann glances at the trailing smoke from the remains the others are gathered by before moving his eyes to take in the statues, and the other three sarcophagi that are yet undisturbed. “She had fangs, though.” Dhann repeats, looking back at the coffin. “Vampirism- it would explain her age, just being a ch…so young.”

Ely sighs heavily, peering into the coffin, "So the face of a child but definitely not the mind of one. She would have likely attacked you the minute you stopped threatening her bones." A small pause for thought. "You did the right thing."

"I wholeheartedly agree," Barrett adds. "We gave her every chance to resolve...well, whatever her issues were, without violence."  He thinks for a moment, trying to decide if this is the time or place to bring it up, then decides to press ahead. "You know, I'm not sure if it's because I got to know Captain Linithed so well, or because I'm sorta' unnaturally alive myself now, but I've started to feel less revulsion for undead things. I guess I'm feeling more...I don't know what the right word is quite yet." He thinks some more, but just can't come up with it. "Regardless, I'm still going to put an end to any Intellect Devourers we run across. That has not changed."

Switching gears, he asks, "So, knowing that she was probably some flavor of vampiric being, does that help us understand what "never again" might mean?"

"Never again to be awakened? Never again to die? Never again to disturb the balance of life and death?" Ely ponders aloud before pointing into the sarcophagus, "There's a stone swan in there. But it's broken up. Just looks like a chunk of head on the base of a neck and a wing. Barrett do you still have detect magic up?"

Dhann ducks his head slightly, still feeling torn about what happened, what he did, but refuting his friends wouldn’t do anything. The girl’s faces, and that…cold, will be with him for some time. He moves carefully around the fallen boulders, to the pews, where he can see all of the sarcophagi, and the arrow. “Perhaps another question for Lady Nandar.” He says quietly, thinking. “She did carry the arrow and make sure it was interred here, with him." Even as he speaks, the odd arrow catches his attention more strongly and Dhann approaches it, crouching down for a better look. “I don’t know much about crafting arrows, but…something about this one gives me the feeling it was made for the sole purpose of being shot as a killing blow…archer’s skill not withstanding.”

He frowns and runs his hand through his hair in thought. “I don’t know. Maybe not. And I’m unsure if we should take it, or leave it.”

Barrett looks into the smoldering casket with his Detect Magic spell. “I’ve got good news and…other news. The good news is the necrotic aura that was here before is completely gone. The other news is that nothing else has changed, which could be good or bad, I suppose.” Barrett turns and heads for the north end of the room and the slightly open casket. “I’m going to take a look down this hole before the spell fades, just to see what I can see.”

Reaching into the coffin, Elyana picks up the broken stone swan. "I wonder what this was."

Barrett gives the casket a once over, then peers through the three inch crack.  He searches carefully for any traps and is convinced there are none. He’s about to report this to his friends when he stops, leans in closer and sniffs.  Then sniffs again. He straightens and says, "I'm smelling something here that I can't exactly identify.  It's coming from the tunnel, and it's something I've smelled recently. Like in the last couple of days, but it's escaping me.  It is kind of an earthy smell mixed with some sort of sweet smell, like bark freshly pulled from a tree.  I don't think it is the mushrooms or fog - it's got that sweetness to it as opposed to rot. The closest thing I can liken it to is bread pudding...but that’s not quite right either." He leans over and sniffs again. "Maybe...maybe with a faint undertone of a wood burning fire?"

As Elyana inspects the stone in her hand, Rascal falls a little bored with her staring at the little figurine. He hears Barrett call out to the group and invisibly flies over to check out the new smells he might be interested in.

Several memories pop into Ely's head as she inspects the swan that she realizes is made from sandstone, and she's about to share what she remembers with everyone when Rascal's thoughts interrupt her own. Her head perks up to look towards the hole. She can't see him, but she can feel him and he's getting all excited for food. "Rascal's going on about sweets, it seems? Similar to what we had for breakfast at the Keep. Aaaannnd..." She pauses, sifting through hungry familiar stream of consciousness, "...uncooked sausages. He's particularly excited about sausages. He's sure all of that is coming from the hole..."

The sudden topic change has Dhann’s head bounce up to look across the room. “Sweets?” He stands, and approaches the moved lid, stopping next to Barrett. “Maybe this leads past the kitchens, underground? We’re a ways from the Keep, though…” He also leans forward to take a whiff.

And then leans back, frowning at the curious smells. He drops his voice instinctively, even though he says, “Well - if someone is down there, they have to have heard some of what just transpired…I don’t think my nose is as sharp as either of yours, but it smells, to me, like what you’ve said. Sweet, like porridge or something similar. A fire, too. Whatever it is, it’s not what I was expecting.” He suddenly grimaces, looking a little ill. “I hope it’s not uncooked Drezlin that Rascal has scented.”

Stuffing the stone swan into her pouch, and reminding herself to bring it up later, she walks over to the northern sarcophagus and feels around the air by the hole trying to place where Rascal is. “I can’t imagine year-old body smells like uncooked sausages. Maybe jerky? But sausages?” Her hand bumps a face and some whiskers. She grabs him pulling him away from the three inch gap he was probably burying his face into. She places him on her right shoulder.

“So we have a hole with some smells. An arrow made for killing, a vampire, Drezlin’s poorly sealed coffin. And Never Again. They have to be connected somehow.”

Dhann steps back to give Ely more space to locate the invisible Rascal, a slightly abashed look on his face. “Sorry, bad joke.”

Ely shrugs and smirks slightly. “All good.”

-

Next time on...

Another dead kid, but this one isn't originally the fault of the Trollmates - no kidding. There's a way-deeper-than-it-should-be pit in the northernmost coffin, with the tantalizing smell of...breakfast? That's certainly odd. Wonder what's down there?