With a mighty retribution and whack of his flail, the evangelist of St Ygg sends divine wrath splattering ectoplasm and ghostliness into the atmosphere, thwarting any insidious plans the apparition and the DM had.
and so, we will never know what would have happened had Big Bad John touched the half-orc again and brought him to zero dexterity.
As it is, jelly legs falls into the arms of everyone else.
It will take a while for Orgoth to regain heat and balance again, at least an hour. During that time as he rests on the table, what else would you like to do?
Going down the BBJ passage, it goes east 20'ft then turns north ending after 10'ft. Lots of rubble and pick marks of excavation are chipped in to the north and east walls. Under some rubble, a broad shouldered human skeleton is found. This must have been the body of the ghost. It is however quite looted, pouches and boots even already taken.
Sven will examine the skeleton closer to see if it holds any further evidence of what happened here.
“Good to see you still unpossessed, Orgoth! Take a break while we search this passage for any clues. You deserve it.”
After an extensive search of the unfinished passage, Sven turns his attention to the last door, cautiously approaching the stone coffer tapping in front of him with his staff for a peek inside. If there is no apparent danger, he investigates these hallways as well.
"I think we should check all these passages for secret doors or compartments. That miner really wanted us to find something in here."
"Good to have you back with us Orgoth, that was close."
She examines the tunnel with the others, then answers Sven.
"Yes, he really went on about that 'second secret door', didn't he. Although I can't see why that caused his soul to linger restless? There seem to have been no injustice done to him, more like...an accident? Anyway, yes we should really search this room thorougly. Isvand and Amos, will you help us with that?"
She thinks again.
"Or when he said 'not-so-secret door', did he really just mean that other door over there? It's certainly not so secret? They're both passages that lead in the same direction. I'm getting a bad feeling there''ll be another cave-in there. Why did he want us to 'break through'?"
Gerdal changes her mind and has Drew open the other door (which was unlocked and untrapped) and shines some light with her lantern in there.
Truro, in youthful exuberance, gloats in his dispelling of the ghost. He pats his Ygg heavy mace in its spiked head and sprinkles a drip of incense and holy water on it. "I christen thee, 'Exorcist'" he says, swinging it over his shoulder. He goes to take guard by the entrance to watch for any intruders coming up the corridor.
The two gnomes check over the fossilized skeletons, detailing the effects of the mineral water and stuffing the broken bodies into spare alcoves to tidy the room. They take a few samples of the calcified bones.
Amos tags the miner's body in a linen shroud, making note of another 'big, bad John' Doe'.
This leaves the characters to investigate the passages. The breach looks like it was knocked through where a secret door may have been as the passage has been deliberately built not hewn out. The north square of that passage has lots of rubble which comes from hacking into each face of the cube. The east and north wall have been predominantly hacked with a pick but even the west, ceiling and floor have been hit. So that might make you think there was some madness, randomness, lack of specific knowledge in the excavation. Checking the north and east wall does not reveal any portals, it is hard stone.
Beyond the door is an odd shaped room. After 20'ft it opens to a 20'ft chamber whose south and east walls join as a diagonal rather than a square. This brings that wall in line with the long diagonal corridor that you saw before.
The stone coffer set against the wall is open. Inside are some petrified hands. At least stone sculptured, realistic looking hands. They are human span in size but some are obviously not human in size, ending in clawed fingers. Some hands are rolled up in a fist, others open in a grasp, one posed in a rude sign, one has a pirate like hook. There must be a dozen severed stone hands
which as an aside is not a penchant of the DM who seems to have severed hands in many of his games.
In the south west corner of the room is a shelf unit that has some folded black linens on. They are quite mouldy but dry.
Sven pats the young cleric on the shoulder after his gloating is over. "I truly believe that Ygg favors you, Truro. Tell me something......do you consider all types of undead as abominations to be destroyed? Are there no helpful spirits in the eyes of Ygg?"
Watching the gnomes take samples of the calcified bones makes Sven wrack his brain even harder. "I will ask this again. Does there seem to be any correlation between these fossilized bones and anything else we have encountered in here? This seems to be important somehow, but I cant for the life of me figure out why." He lets Smokie sniff and gnaw at one of the bones to see if he has anything to add.
He helps Amos with the body of Big John, interring it with reverence into one of the alcoves. "Who knows, maybe someday when you are more powerful you can come back here and speak with the poor chap. He may have secrets yet to tell."
"Does anyone fancy trying to excavate in the breach any further? I am not sure if the extra noise will be worth it, but maybe we could come back to it before we leave again."
Sven digs one of the stone hands out of the coffer with his staff, preferably the one making the rude gesture. "This is beyond creepy. What's with all the stone hands? Kind of a weird collection if you ask me." After looking them over a bit more, he prods at the pile of black linens lightly from a distance with his staff, trying to determine if the mold on them is dangerous or not.
I can respond to a number of those actions or questions to open up more discussion rather than waiting for posts.
It seems the dripping mineral water created the flaky hard lumps and calcified scales on the skeletons which seemed to harden the bones. (improved AC). From Sven's first impression of the room, the skeletons seemed to enjoy being in stasis under the water effect, maybe it soothed their undead existence. The mineral water itself doesn't hold any healing properties from a taste test. It could be another feature of the Barrowmaze to make subtle environmental changes that are a boon or benign to those interacting with them or creates a malignant influence in the case of undead.
Truro, "Perhaps by Ygg's grace, the meritorious and noble spirits of saints might come and bequeath us of their wisdom but beyond divine blessed visitations and angels, all undead are imbued with a necrotic essence that gives a unholy existence. They must be destroyed, it is divine law and holy retribution." you can leave him to repeating his sermons and lectures. His own practical experience is very limited.
The two gnomes carry pick-bows so could add extra tools to an excavation task but in the passage you have no idea of any depth to breakthrough the other side. Remember the blocked up wall, only a few feet thick would probably take at least three turns + to knock down. Hewing a solid passage would be long hours.
The dirty black cloaks come in a variety of sizes but are fairly uniform in design, serving as a cultists black robe, though no distinguishing cult motif is embroidered in them.
You can pick up and handle the stone hands without problems.
Sorry, been crazy days, will post properly within next 24h... Looking for new assignment and have had several job interviews, which really drained my energy
For now, Gerdal will turn her attention to the hands and examine them thoroughly.
The day wears on. Taking a break to cook up while searches are ongoing, the group consider what options to take next.
Despite their worst fears, the black cloaks are just mouldy cultist robes and the collection of stone hands do not animate or attack. Neither do they cast any of the famed 'Bigby's Hand spells' though the clawed one could serve as an ogre's backscratcher.
Among the options are the mausoleum rooms (74 a-g) and the iron door room. The Sunstone room is worthy of more research and the table could be manipulated further. Within the block of small rooms in the corridor centre are two locked doors and further you have some Ale Pools and can try again to go behind the blocked wall into the iron cobra chamber. Unexplored areas are beyond portcullises, one curtained and one at least covered in oil and barring a deathly knight. Finally you have the long corridor with the sacrificial pit or you can fulfill the longings of 'Big, bad John' and hew out another back passage.
As Truro notes a swarm of giant rats scurrying in the corridor, chasing each others tails and nibbling what mouldy growths and morsels are left behind, you can decide on next moves.
After an hour, Orgoth regains another point of Dexterity.
Sven takes one of the cloaks that might fit him, cleaning the mold off as best he can in the water droplets. He takes the obscene gesture hand and the pirate hook hand as a memento, wrapping them in the dirty cloak but storing it away from any of the important stuff in his pack.
"If Orgoth is up to it, lets check out this room right next door."
Leading the way to the next chamber, he has the thieves look around for traps in the hallway or on the portcullis.
"Lets get a look inside this room before we move on."
