Village of Briarsgate, Gran March, Greyhawk
Day Seven. Night. Saturday, October 22nd, 576 CY
Cloudy, damp, cold, misty
Elsewhere and earlier...
The Grey Mouser pulls Hoom and the strange gnome out of their iron cages. "Wake up!
"The others are in trouble. We’re under the Church of Merikka. They’re all in on it. We gotta get out of here. Now! Can you walk?”
Hoom the elf struggles to speak, and then to stand. “Grey?... Are we dead?”
“No. Not yet. But we will be if we don’t hurry,” Mouser says, glancing at the cave door.
The freed prisoners are weak, slow to respond. Mouser says with growing urgency, “Hoom. Gnome. We’re not safe here. Understand? We have to go."
The dark, gnomish captive croaks, "Name's Urdur. I am hale enough." He collects his things from the wooden chest. "Does the name Onfre mean anything to you?"
"No," whispers Mouser. "Maybe. I dunno. The others might know. Ready?"
Urdur notices all but two of his oil flasks are missing, and half his coin. He rasps, "Let's get out of here."
Hoom is also missing half his coin. The elf slips on his leather armor and fastens the buckles they walk.
Lead by Mouser, they leave the cave of cages; the place they never thought they would leave again... alive.
They enter a dank cavern, 20 feet wide, extending left and right, beyond the illumination of Mouser's candle. (19)
The cavern has one smooth side and one jagged side. They entered from its jagged side. To their left, at the edge of shadow, is a door set into the smooth rock wall. Mouser turns right. The crunching of rocks and stones underfoot seems deafening to their stimuli starved senses.
They advance 50 feet to cavern's end where a tall wooden ladder leads up to a circular trapdoor set into the rocky ceiling. (T)
Mouser puts a finger across his lips and says, "We're entering Briarsgate's church now. We're still not safe there. No more noise." He scales the ladder and slowly opens the wooden hatch. They climb up into a small mediation chamber of wood and marble.
BONG! the church bell tolls.
Mouser leads them out into a dim warren of corridors (7). There is the smell of incense, and something else they can't place.
The tight, shadowy labyrinth opens into a dining room and private chapel for the clergy (5).
Stained glass windows glow luminous with spectral moonlight. Upon the altar of blessed Merikka are profane sacrilege objects of defilement.
BONG!
The tolling knell grows stronger. There is the sound of barking dogs and shouting men far away, but also getting louder with every step.
Mouser silently leads them through a secret door in the wall, into a grand marble corridor.
The opulence reminds them that Briarsgate was once a prosperous farming community.
They are at the corridor's end, near a door that is ajar.
BONG!
Tolling, barking and shouting are loud now. The trio peer through the crack in the door, into a magnificent, stone stairwell spiraling upwards. Torchlight flickers from above.
Mouser whispers, barely audible, "Our friends are trapped up there, beyond those dogs and men. The dogs could be on our side. I don't know. The old druid did something to them.
"Hoom, do you have any magicks to get past them?" he asks as he unsheathes Scalpel and Cat's Claw. "I just wish that damn, sanctimonious paladin could see me now!"
Actions?
Map:
Meanwhile...
BONG!
Engulfed in flames, skeletal undead horrors attack!
Telkis hurls his axe and it passes between the ribcage and pelvis of a fiery cadaver!
Bo turns away. He hurls his spear up into a small, high, stained glass window. SKRAASSHH! After collecting his weapon the grey druid assumes the form of a sparrow, ready to fly through the jagged hole to the night sky!
BONG!
Grothnak throws more oil on the fire, setting another gruesome corpse aflame! (S12)
Ingrid, Moogeye and Pelias hold their steel, waiting for the nightmarish carrion to come to them. It doesn't take long. In that brief moment, they glance behind them at Avril's body, laid out on the bench, and see that the valiant angel of mercy is breathing!
Then the undead funeral pyres charge through the burning transom, besieging the heroes closest to their fiery grasp!
Ingrid and Pelias move to meet the onslaught.
One charnel horror is consumed by the roaring flames in the doorway (S6), but the others savagely attack, one striking Moogeye Comcra dead!
Actions?!
Map:
Orange skeletons are burning.
Rolls and Rulings (non-required reading):
PC Status:
- Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: Move: 9", AC: 7, HP: -3/10, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl
Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 5, HP 10/10, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl. Candle
Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 25/28
Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 3, HP 8/8, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl
Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: Move: 6", AC: 3(1), HP: 4/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 0/3 2nd lvl
Long Bo, Human Druid 3: Move: 9", AC: 6, HP: 3/22, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl, 0/3 2nd lvl and 0/1 3rd lvl
Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: Move: 12", AC 8, HP -2/11, Lantern Dead.
Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: Move: 9", AC: 2(0), HP: 4/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: Move: 9", AC: 0, HP: 4/28
Urdur Shimmerstone, Gnome Illusionist 2: AC 6, HP 6/6, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl
- Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
Polymorph Self (Long Bo): Potion. Duration unknown.
