Barrowmaze: Where-Rats III: Redeeming Mongrelmen

[Spearmint]

This will be the new thread to continue the consolidated teams from the Where-Rats group and Territorial Gains group.

After a morning exploring separately, you combine together to advance the exploration into the Crypts where the Mongrelmen that you befriended say various cultists dwell, led by a patriarch priest who keeps them in indentured labour or to use as spell-bound thralls.

I will open this thread once the two group threads are concluded

[Spearmint]

July 12th 1066:

Midday:

Health Status:

Isvand: 9/21hp
Cosmo: 6/14hp
Amos: 14/20hp
Sir Dewey: 13/22hp
Veryn: 6/6hp
Rum Lightbender: 8/11hp
Sigrid: 11/14hp

Callan: 12/12hp (C2)
Sundance: 8/8hp
Copperpiece: 6/6hp

Mongrelmen:
Dogface: 3/3hp
Ratnose: 4/4hp
Bugeyes: 5/5hp
Beanpole: 6/6hp

The two groups consolidate in the upper halls, sharing testimony of what they have discovered so far. The Mongrelmen share the last of their rations, lighting a little candle on a slice of some iced gateaux with a cherry on top. Characters take a piece (gaining your temporary hp which I will edit into the above when rolled).

In addition, Callan, priest of St Ygg can break out the last wafers of his communion set and bless participants who join him with a revitalising bonus health point of healing prayer. added +1hp to each injured person.

The Mongrelmen, given names according to their features tend to congregate around Rum as he bears the enchanted battleaxe of the Mongrelman champion (that actually Sir Dewey and Martell killed, the latter slain and dragged away by the Kampfult strangler-tree).

The Where-Rats gathered the quoted information from a sect priest before he died, poisoned by spores and dissolved into mulch by the Purple Moss fungi that inhabits the lower right crypt.

The priest was named Balaam, they serve a cult that is dedicated to 'the Underworld Angarach', worshipping aspects of each of the three known deities of Nergal, Set & Orcus.

The senior priests are named using titles rather than actual names: His deceased colleagues were Acolytes, while he himself is an actual priest. He is subordinate to a higher arch-Vicar, the Shrouded One. About a dozen others of the faith plus 'adherents both living and dead' dwell in nearby crypts, seeking knowledge of the Afterlife through various meditational rituals and sacrifices.

The Shrouded One is a necromancer of some esteem and possibly indwelt by an evil spirit.

They have a 'tool' in the form of the broken limb of the Gargoyle statue. Using a ritual, they can cause the statue to awaken and it can give knowledge of various happenings in other portions of the Barrowmaze. They are excavating a tunnel which supposedly leads to a sacred crypt that contains a desired relic.

Looking at the map: The vertical passage past the stairways:

Purple Moss crypt on the lower right.

The lower left is locked securely, broken picks making an open lock attempt extra difficult .The other two crypts are useable but ransacked crypts turned into bunk rooms.

The larger hall to the west has many pillars and coffers. It seems many zombies (normal shuffling types) congregate inside, at least a score or more of them. The passage of curtained alcoves to the top right was not explored very much. You know more 'rats of unusual size' scuttle about that way.

Balaam, the deceased priest was quartered in the very bottom left crypt, his room casually searched by Veryn who retrieved some of his personal goods from there which included a leather bound tome of cleric rituals, litanies and obligations and a scrapbook that has some loose leaf pages of inked skin upon which is written a 'Purify Food & Water' spell, 'Sanctuary' and 'Resist Cold' which could be cast as a single use spell by any other cleric classed character. for ease, Callan can take one sheaf, (the Purify food) and Amos can equip the other two..

Sir Dewey, who has a background gift for antiquarian books can spend some study time on the tome, gaining a +1 to any insight or discernment check regarding any 'death cult' wisdom or intelligence checks. Sigrid can avail herself of the same benefit, sharing notes and insights gained from her communication with Balaam after she charmed him.

Each of the spell casters can take time to renew erased spells into memorized spells and clerics can perform devotions to reset their Turn Undead abilities.

Cosmo, when you entered past the archway of Darkness, the phobia you have kicked in. In the panic at the thought of the darkness swallowing you whole like a sphere of annihilation, (what you picked up from the Nergal Alcove 'Green Devil face'), it causes your panic to manifest. Somehow you summon the arcane verbs and somatics to invoke Invisibility upon yourself which is only dismissed once you calm down in the fellowship over birthday cake. You can script the spell as the bonus for advancing in Illusionist level into your spell book during the study respite.

It is worth others noting the effect Darkness has on the gnome, which will manifest repeatedly until the affect is dealt with.

The other thing that you can do while joining together is investigate the Cats Paw staff. It seems designed to hold something. Trial and error, it does not wield any weapon or pen or piece of cutlery. Instead when Veryn places one of the ornamental stones his group shared out in the Cat's Paw palm, the paw digits close over it and Cosmo, (who actually began to take an appraisal skill), by holding the staff he gains insight into the gems value. You can repeat that action for several of the Agates and pieces of Jet but each subsequent use seems to weaken the energy within the staff, giving rise to the suspicion that it needs some kind of recharging to keep the Appraisal ability. The gems value circa $500gp as a job lot with a 10% 'give or take' margin (and you might assume then that Gur Hirwen would offer a starting bid of around half to sixty-six percent of that value if you traded in the Rosy Quartz).



So, Rum, Veryn, Sigrid join with Amos, Isvand, Cosmo & Sir Dewey plus npc's, to continue their explorations.

Actions and any comments, questions please.

[Spearmint]

Here is the description of the Gargoyle Statue chamber when first encountered:

Proceeding South, the passage opens into an almost triangular chamber, about 40' ft by 50'ft wide along the perpendicular sides. There are two crypt doors set into arched stone frames, one in the south wall the other in the diagonal wall.

There are rotting wooden cabinets against the diagonal wall, they contain various folded linens, rusted toolkits, scrim netting for woodland camouflage, lengths of long creeper vines being trimmed and twisted into hemp-like ropes

A large and imposing statue looms in the corner, a gargoyle of grim features though its left arm seems deliberately amputated from the elbow down. The missing limb is not in the room.

[OGRE MAGE]

Amos is impressed by all the action the other group has seen in here already.

"I wonder what would happen if we retrieved the tool arm and tried to repair the statue."

He looks at the others in the group making the hard decisions. "Are we to root out these cultists with force then? Or do we have other ideas on how to proceed?"

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn
Veryn replies with interest
Indeed, the arm is taken by the cultist though.

He then elaborates his mind for the team

"We do know broadly where the leader, this "Shrouded One" lies. His room is on the right side of the crypt if we are to fight against them. I disagree against full bloodlust raid though since we've managed to not alert a single soul in this crypt, apart from the rats, the centipedes and the cultists that we've put down. These cultists, they're digging for something, an artifact or some sort. If they find it, things will get a lot harder, probably.

[OGRE MAGE]

Amos nods.

"I too renounce unnecessary violence against the living."

"But I also agree that we cannot allow these cultists to grow more powerful, if we can prevent it."

He looks around the group for any more ideas or input.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

"There is one problem though to address if we're going to cut the serpent head."

Veryn points towards the Zombies room

"There are about 10 heads and more of these in this chamber. If these undead are bound to the leader, they will definitely march out from their rooms and worse case scenario, we would have to fight both side. We need either a giant spike to bar their double door or a priest or two to turn them back. I'd prefer the latter, and this for good measure.

Veryn takes out a bag of caltrops and the Skeleton tripwire mine out from his bag.

How many spikes that we need to bar the zombie room?

[Spearmint]

Callan, Rum, Veryn & Vann, each add 'black hand skull' to your inventory if shared out or choose to put them in one carriable sack.

So you have three of these devices.

How many spikes that we need to bar the zombie room?

Interesting as the crypt doors open into the chambers, so away from you. In that sense it is more difficult to stop it being opened from outside whilst in the passage. The zombie crypt has double doors and I wonder if you could use these black hand skulls to trigger once a door was opened? Set a trap, knock on door, run away ... boom?

[ateno]

"I too renounce unnecessary violence against the living."

"But I also agree that we cannot allow these cultists to grow more powerful, if we can prevent it."

"Well I am getting tired of going hand to hand with undead, my talents are better wit hthe living. Ha. But I don't kill anyone unless they ask me to.

But I have dealt with cultist before, I am willing to do so again."

Cosmo

[Darithe]

Sigrid

Greets all those she knows from Sir Dewey's group, giving each a hug and a lingering one to her former roommate. When the book is broken out for study by the knight, Sigrid will flit about trying to look it over, having long had a passion for the written word even if it about a subject that she might find pedantic.

[Spearmint]

"The arm of the gargoyle holds a trinket of power. Many do. They took it to use in their spells and come back to glue the arm on again in order to access the mystery."

The Mongrelmen do not know the exact nature of the trinket that the stone gargoyle held. Sigrid & Sundance will have seen that Sven had a stone gargoyle's arm, in whose palm was a box that when opened sprung out a conjured Troll. (The Troll-in-a-box).

The east passage down the steps:

The corridor extends more than sixty feet joining another passage that goes north and south. At ten feet intervals there are large yellowed stained curtains raised over side alcoves or crypts on each side, blocking vision beyond. But the curtains do not muffle every sound and the trap-searching echoes noisily. Veryn stops with bated breath, listening intently. To the immediate right, behind a curtain you hear a squeak and hushing sound, a step forward and then a halt. Further down from under a curtain, a long whiskery snout pokes out inquisitively, a rodent of unusual size.

To the Zombie crypt:

To the right of the platform, Rum can see that some double doors bar the way, thick Oak panels that have a ceremonial depiction though the designs are very scratched and defaced.

checking the double doors
Veryn can see that many of the rosethorn designs are scratched or clawed off. To one side in the door frame is an inset glass vial with a small furled parchment rolled up inside. You cannot find an obvious trap on the article and can wriggle it free at the point of a dagger. The vial can be unsealed without breaking it and the parchment taken out, unfurled it reads the lines of some religious proverb. The thin strip of vellum is soaked in an incense and passing this to Callan for inspection. He notes that the words are a prayer for favour and blessing but scripted to 'a foreign god' rather than a lawful or good aligned deity. As a result he suffered a temporary bane, affecting his Turn Undead attempts by a -2 penalty.

Without entering further than the threshold, you can only make out the barest details peering through the slightest of cracks in the ajar doors. The room beyond seems to be a very large crypt with a multitude of pillars that hold up an arched roof and between each pillar is a stone slab plinth used as the final resting place of the interred deceased. Who now huddle together as a shuffling, meandering, mindless horde of zombies.

Creeping to the double doors again, a careful inspection suggests even the slightest movement will whine loudly upon the rusted hinges and alert the zombies to intruders. Presently though, they stay in a tepid state, milling around aimlessly, eight figures walking one behind the other in a constant circle of shambling feet and slack jawed sedation.

Crypt doors creak? vs 1-3 [1d6]=1Zombies investigate: vs 25% [1d100]=76 number provoked [3d4]=8

No traps were found on either branch of the passage at the steps junction. The yellowed mouldy curtains drape the full width and height of the alcoves, thus veiling whatever lurks behind.

Actions everyone please.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Ensured that the undeads are not going anywhere, Veryn steps back from the double door, forbidding anyone to go into the double door for its tendency to creak. He will set the Skull wire trap on the corridor towards the double door if the undead are going out in horde from the door.

-1 skull trip wire trap

"Anyone got a chalk?"

If there is someone here that have a chalk, Veryn would like to borrow it and draw a grafitti of a skull with a thread above a two crossed bones, a signal for other adventurer of the trap and the danger ahead.

Afterwards, Veryn is going to get to the alcove where he hide the body of the one and a half dead acolyte and ask someone strong to help him bring one to the upper right corridor, where he can throw it for the giant rats to feast and leave the party out from the menu as they head towards the corridor with him leading first to scout out ahead.

[OGRE MAGE]

Amos is impressed with the ideas Veryn suggests, glad to have another logical thinker in the group.

"We could come back here with a larger, more powerful group to attend to those zombies. I believe Sven has a spell that could ignite them all in one blast. That might be a good way to handle such a threat."

The bald headed half-elf has a look at the maps that have been drawn so far.

"I don't see any more passages that lead further south. It is possible we have reached the southwest corner of this massive maze, which is a great reference point, if it is indeed valid."

He listens at the door across the hallway from the purple moss room.

[Craigers07]

Rum

Rum gets caught up with the group upon meeting the others. Most of his time is spent with the Mongrelmen to keep their morale high and fully invested in their mission.

Knowing the dangers met so far, he agrees with Veryn that a strategic trap is better than rushing in to attack the zombies.

"I'll help gather the bodies to feed 'em to the rats. It's a sick job, but they would be consumed anyway."

He coordinates with Veryn to move the acolyte bodies to the corridor.

[Spearmint]

Exploring beyond the Mongrelmen Crypts

He listens at the door across the hallway from the purple moss room.

Silent as the grave. The door locked, disabled from being picked because of previous failed lockpicking attempts.

Trap creation [1d100]=4

Veryn takes his and Callan's explosive skull, setting up trip wires across the corridor just a few steps away from the double doors. Once drawn open, the cords will pull the singular tooth out the black-hand skull's mouth and ... well you trust the enchantment and chicanery imbued in the item and warning, 'face towards the enemy' actually does what it says.

The next act is to try and feed the deceased acolytes to any feral mutant rats, tempting them to feast upon the bloody offerings and leave the party alone, free to explore beyond the western passage of curtained alcoves.

Sacrificial offerings: vs 25% [1d100]=44 [1d100]=34 [1d100]=49

The act is rather clumsy though. The remains laid out upon a lower alcove curtain then dragged up the corridor and into the passage, the Mongrelmen taking a corner each to pull the meat feast along. Not quite sure Sir Dewey really condones the desecration of the dead in this way, but he stays silent, catching up with Sigrid.

Veryn scouts ahead, sneaking to the corridor end and checks the next passage out, a north-south corridor. Looking north, it goes about sixty feet, ending in a closed door. Set into four alcoves are four statues, each chipped and disfigured as if vandalised.

To the south is an open pit. Amos has experience of pits and this one contains much the same fungal dangers as the one he ran into in the Fungal Corridor area, a narrow but deep chamber lined with lurid mushroom growths.

The deceased acolyte morsels do not tempt the mutant rats into making an appearance. Perhaps there are just too many of you in attendance.

No one yet dares investigate behind the large curtains, nothing lurking in alcoves or passages beyond springs any surprises upon you.

next actions please.

[ateno]

It appears I missed the last turn, apologies.

Cosmo goes to pick the locked door, but watches the item attached to the door instead.

He takes a inventory of the broken statues and looking at the curtians.

Cosmo

[Spearmint]

Cosmo goes to pick the locked door, but watches the item attached to the door instead.

So that would be the door in the nain N-S corridor (the explored rooms are two bunks rooms and one with dangerous purple moss in)

Silent as the grave. The door locked, disabled from being picked because of previous failed lockpicking attempts.

There is no 'item' attached. Basically old lockpicks are broken and mangled inside the lock which prevents further picking attempts.

He takes a inventory of the broken statues and looking at the curtains.

I will action the first (checks the broken statues) as you scripted that first. The curtains are big thick mouldy fabrics that drape from ceiling height across each alcove. I will need a specific 'I search behind curtain xyz' to resolve any finding out what the curtains hide.

[ateno]

There is no 'item' attached. Basically old lockpicks are broken and mangled inside the lock which prevents further picking attempts.

Ah that would interest him. Can he take time and the Hand of HooDo and work on the lock to make it pickable again, or is it beyond hope? He will not stick more pocks in unless he thinks he can do something.

For clearing out the lock to start.

OL Vs. 44 [1d100]=36

The other actions will wait.

Cosmo

[Spearmint]

sure Cosmo can action to pop this disabled lock.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Veryn takes a torch, light it up and put them on the floor near the southern corridor as a ward, remembering the purple moss tragedy, not wanting it to happens again. He then takes a 10 foot pole and a mirror, tapping the floor, searching for and disabling potential traps on the northern corridor, during approaching the statue, Veryn stops at the corner and put the mirror to make him see the statue without getting near the statue.

find trap vs 20% [1d100]=28 remove trap vs 25% [1d100]=3

What figure these statues resemble and how disfigured are they?