Many years ago, Torin the Black Prince led a bloody campaign to subjugate the kingdom under his iron rule. When his enemies united to drive him off, he made a deal with a dark god to gain incredible power. Despite this, the forces of light and good were able to drive him back. Defeated, but unwilling to die, he sealed himself away inside the temple where he first gained his powers. Now, this temple may have been rediscovered, and any who venture into it fail to return. Fearing what might come out of it, the king has sent an envoy to check out the abbey to prevent whatever evil within from returning.
Coming up to the reported location of the abbey, the air gets colder, and the group can see the snow lingering on the mountains still.
The dwarf is the first to spot a tower, leading them to ruins covered in fog and ivy.
Parts of the building are built into the cliffside, and Ethalynn, with her keem eyes spots a possible entrypoint. The dwarf manages to lift away a plate that covers the entry, and they see a religious symbol. None of the people recognize the symbol, but Ethalyn figures it must be some old god.
Bertram sends the party in to do what he paid them to, while he waits outside with the horses.
As they enter the cloister, cold air riches past them. The long hallway is covered in darkness, so the party uses various methods to battle the darkness.
As they slowly, not so stealthily, move forward, Ethalyn almost falls to her death in a fall-trap.
They slowly move further, and as Ethalyn rounds a corner, she sees a room filled with people. There are 5 people in there, they mumble but do not appear to have noticed the people.
Ethalynn disappears as she sneaks in, but Rurik gives their position away with his clanky armor.
“Intruders! Kill them!” the hooded figures erupt. There is a battle!
The battle quickly starts off with Ethalyn getting hit by claws, because apparently these creatures have claws! She is paralyzed by the effect. As the fight goes on, Ethalyn goes down, but is in turn helped by Ash. Slowly they manage to kill off the Ghouls, and they have a look around the room. The room smells strongly of death.
In the room there is an elvish looking creature with no discerning features. On the podium Ansgar finds a book, written in infernal, keeping track of the offerings that have been brought in recently. Gold, silver and people. It also confirms it is indeed the temple of the Dark Prince.
Ash dons one of the cultists' capes, and cuts one shorter for Ethalyn. Ansgar cleans one of the capes and puts it on.
The stench of death is stronger in the next room. In the room is one more of the elven statues. In the middle of the room there is a well with a red liquid. Inside the well is a lot of coins and precious gems, but the smell is so strong both Ethalynn and Ansgar are physically ill by it.
They decide to make a tactical retreat back to Bertram
After a short rest, the party ventures further. In the next room Rurik discovers a handful of ghouls in addition to one ghast. After some debating, Rurik rushes into the room. The others follow, but Rurik is clearly the MVP in this situation. Ash turns into a giant spider. Rurik uses mayhem. It’s super effective.
Once the enemies are dealt with, they investigate the room. Some of the corpses seem fresher, and can be assumed to be the more recently acquired.
They open one of the doors, revealing a hallway. The other door reveals a wall. Spiderash gives Ethalynn a push and she sneaks in to have a look in the hallway. She continues through it and comes to an opening. It’s dark though, so she takes the hood of her lamp, standing face to face with something enormous. Lots of eyes and mouths? She turns tail and rushes back as fast as she can. “Giant blob with lotsa mouths!” she yells to them.
As they come upon the creature, they are all disgusted by the look of it. They hear whispers in their heads, and the whispers eventually get to Ethalyn, and she just stands there, doing nothing. They eventually manage to take the thing down.
They slowly make their way through many hallways and various rooms with broken barrels and furniture, until they happen upon a room with a table that has not been ruined, but is still fairly rotten. They hear something in the room to the west, but when Rurik moves to open the door, the floor disappears from under him, revealing another trap. They try to use the table to cover the hole in the floor, but it works against their plans and makes it more difficult.
They decide to try another way that takes them to what looks like a kitchen that has been overgrown by some kind of mushroom. Ash recognizes the mushroom as a very volatile and poisonous mushroom. And Ethalyn pokes it with a dagger. It explodes and sends a cloud of spores into the air. They all manage to resist the effect. Ansgar and Ethalyn check the drawers and cupboards, and the rogue finds a pouch of 80 platinum pieces. She tries to spirit away half of the money, but is caught red-handed by the giant SpiderAsh.
Ash drops the beast-shape and puts their brains together with Ansgar, and together they attempt to make a bomb with the effect of the spore-cloud.
They manage to make a bomb with the confusion-effect that is throwable at 10 feet.
After, they make for the last unopened door where they earlier heard some noises. They move the rotten table over the trap and make it ready to enter the room. As Ethelyn opens the door, an adornet figure looks up from his prayer, turning his attention to the small creature in the doorway. There are many other creatures in the room as well, and the adorned creature simply utters “kill them”. There is much back and forward, with Ansgar almost falling prey to the ghouls. He is saved by Ash, who later on pulls a giant goat out of a bag of tricks. The goat stubbornly attacks the priest. While Rurik smashes his way through most of the enemies.
After a short rest to recuperate, they push on, entering a room with a large chest in front of an elven statue holding a specter. They see the same symbol as outside of the chamber, and the elvish statue looks like the ones earlier in the dungeon, but still.. Kind of not the same..
They all agree the chest must be a trap, even if the rogue could not find any. She also hears noises behind the door leading to the south. Ash takes a closer look and finds that the chest is indeed trapped. Ethalynn bravely tries to disarm the trap, but instead the trap is triggered, the doors open and ghouls enter.
BATTLE TIME
Afterwards Ethalynn searches the chest properly and finds lots of coins. In the room adjacent there’s a body of a guy who’s been dead for a while. He’s got an empty bag of holding.
Rurik goes to the statue in the chest room and pushes on the scepter in its hands. Nothing. Ethalyn tries to pull it. Also nothing. Cain uses detect magic in the room. Can’t find anything.
They decide to bring the chest back out to Bertram, but on the way they almost fall into one more trap, before Ash eventually discovers a hidden door. As they move on, they happen upon Torin, followed by two ghouls. The conversation that follows is dripping with toxic hospitality, talking about birth rights, before they break out into a battle.
Rurik falls at Torin’s hand, and Ash summons a bear. Ansgar empties his entire wand into the Prince as he is being grappled, as he then is split in two at the hand of Ethalyn. Ash saves Rurik, and there is much rejoicing. There is a little more back and forward before the fight is finished, and Ansgar burns the remains of Torin’s body. They gather up their loot and exit the temple to meet up with Bertram.
They get a good night of sleep, before they set back in to have a look at what’s hiding behind the hidden door. They find a mural with the same figure and symbols, along with a lot of books.
Ethalyn finds a secret drawer with some gems inside.
They divide the spoils, and Bertram plans to return with some friends to help him with the research. He promises to put in a good word for the group back in the city.
The party then returns to the “well” where they try to find out what the deal with the well is. Ash discovers it is magic, has hints of necromancy, illusion and [insert other school here]. When they throw stuff into the well, it simply gets sucked in. the “view” however, does not change.
They go back to Ravenforge, where they get their rewards and warm thanks from Bertram. The King, himself, is too busy. He asks if they are interested in further quests, if it is needed, and they all accept.
Theravan Ga… , the royal Wizard, enters with Bertram, and asks their names. He notes them in a small notebook. He points out that Ethalyn Stakes is a peculiar name. He greets them all, noting Ansgar as a “colleague”. They all then go for drinks.