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There was no furniture in the small room. The opposite wall seemed to be newly constructed from wood, and there was a locked door as well. The opposite wall, and the wall behind the party, had silvery runes scribed on them. After studying them for a few moments the party discerned that they were meant as protection from undead. Apparently someone had spent a lot of effort in making sure the two undeads in the room would stay there. It looked like they were placed there as guards.
Gabriel searched for traps, and finding none, picked the lock on the door. KA-BOOM! The runes on the wall exploded, sending shrapnel flying around. Miraculously Gabriel was the only one not hurt. Once again Drik had to heal Radagast.
The door opened into a weirdly shaped corridor or room. There were shelves of skeletons by the walls, but no animated creatures. At the end of the hall there was a door, which opened into a 5 feet wide corridor. It eventually came to a bend, at which there was one door, barred from the outside. The corridor continued a little while after the bend to another door, and the corridor ended in a pile of rubble, where the ceiling had collapsed.
The door opened into a small room. On the opposite wall there were large double doors, made of some metal. The party decided to go back to the small door that was bolted from the outside.
Wiglaf said he could sense evil behind the door. Gabriel cast Cat's Grace on himself. The door was opened, but the room appeared to be empty. Wiglaf wondered how that could be, and walked into the center of the room. Immediately we was surrounded by skeletons attacking him, some even dropping from the ceiling! There was a door on the opposite wall as well, with small window in it. There was somebody behind the door, controlling the undeads!
Wiglaf, and Gabriel who was at the doorway, immediately took some cuts. Recovering from the surpise, Wiglaf quickly dispatched of two skeletons, and Radagast finished the one that had managed to find its way into the corridor. To Radagast's disappointment, the magical flame had not appeared on the sword. Drik tried to turn the undead, but somebody was bolstering them and Drik could not affect a single one. When Radagast moved into the doorway, he could hear a spell being cast. He felt a wave of lethargy, but it quickly passed. He recognized somebody had just tried to cast Hold Person on himself. Gabriel had to tumble into the room to get a piece of action, which he did very skillfully, and smashed a skeleton from behind. Radagast and Wiglaf both hit the same creature, and it fell into a pile of bones. This time Radagast was trying to think about hot flames bursting from the sword, and he could feel a faint response, but still no flames. Wiglaf went into overdrive skilling the skeletons, and Radagast and Gabriel finished the last one. But the man behind the door summoned a foul creature, which immediately attacked Gabriel with its claws. Drik pointed at the creature, and a searing light burst from his hands, striking the creature. It boiled and cracked, but did not die. Radagast took a wild swing at the creature, shouting aloud "Flame!" in the hopes of invoking the magic in the sword. The flame did not appear, but the creature vanished in a puff of smoke.
Drik quickly healed Wiglaf while Gabriel picked the locked door. Everyone managed to notice the caltrops that were scattered behind the door; the priest had used them to slow the party down when he retreated. There was a short corrdidor, which again was barred by door. Gabriel could not figure out a way to open it, so Radagast tried to kick it in. The door held fast. Radagast realized that Wiglaf was probably the strongest man in the group and would stand a best change in breaking the door. Radagast also helped the odds a little by casting Bull's Strength on Wiglaf. Wiglaf's nostrils flared, and his foot twiched as he borrowed an axe from Drik and hacked through the wooden door in world record time!
As Wiglaf stepped into the wide corridor behind the door, he was greeted with crossbow bolts. He quickly stepped back, and the party made a quick battle plan. Wiglaf gulped two healing potions while Radagast cast Shield on himself.
Wiglaf and Radagast looked each other; it was now or never. They yelled and charged towards the other end of the corridor where the evil priest was instrucing two soldiers with crossbows. Radagast lead the charge, and the crossbowmen aimed for him. The magical barrier around him deflected the arrows easily, and he was just about to take the final leap to let his sword taste the blood of the 'bowmen when he noticed the floor strewn with caltrops! He changed his headlong rush into tiptoed dance, and sunk his sword into the belly of the man standing on the left. The man grunted, but even though he was in pain did not withdraw; he was well aware that he had the priest behind him, ready to heal. Wiglaf reached Radagast, but was unable to do anything because the doorway was so narrow. After his next swing at the sword, Radagast stepped back and gave Wiglaf the change to close in, which he did, killing the wounded man. The priest was trying to cast some kind of a spell, but lost his thoughts when Radagast's two magical bolts hit him. Following the missiles, Radagast tumbled his way through the doorway and tried to hit the priest, but missed. That was enough for the priest though, and he bolted for safety.
The remaining 'bowman was giving Wiglaf a hard time. Drik's heal came just in time. That gave Wiglaf enough of courage to really put his strength into a blow: the head sailed off. It was a gruesome sight, but effective end for the fight!
While Drik started to search the bodies, Wiglaf sprinted after the fleeing priest. Radagast had also planned on some looting, figuring that the priest was too fast and with familiar terrain; it might even be dangerous just running after him. Like they had already learned. But Radagast did not want to leave Wiglaf face the dangers alone, and jogged after him, thinking dark thoughts about a certain unnamed orc who also had had the tendency of charging first and thinking later...
Radagast's fears were confirmed, when Wiglaf run headfirst into a horde of skeletons. Luckily the 5-foot wide corridor only gave one skeleton at a time a change to fight, but there were a lot of them and Wiglaf was still pretty badly bruised. Radagast tried to carefully suggest that Wiglaf could rest, while Radagast took care of the weak but numerous undead. Wiglaf had none of that, almost singing with joy as his weapons crushed brittle bone.
Finally Drik and Gabriel caught up, and Drik went to turn the undead. His first attempt made four skeletons cower, which made Wiglaf's job easy. Next Drik turned three skeletons, which Wiglaf also promptly smashed into pieces. Finally Drik had really good connection with his deity, and his next two turns practically obliterated the skeletons then and there, leaving just a cloud of bone powder lingering in the air!
The corridor came into a T-intersection. On the left there was an open door, through which the party went after some arguing. The place turned out to be like a prison full of skeletons stacked on the walls. Quick search did not find anything interesting, but the door was barred shut just in case.
The remaining stretch of corridor also ended up at a door after a couple of bends along the way. This door was closed, though. Grabriel, after some investigation, went to open the door and just barely managed to avoid a lightning arc from the door! He nearly wet his pants, though, and he had to go and take a leak (there were plenty of skeleton eye sockets to aim for). After that sacrilegious act, Gabriel finally opened the door.
Behind the door was a corridor, the way on the left climbing upwards. To the right was a structure like the prison, this time without a door. Drik found a loose stone at the end of the hall, but when Gabriel came to investigate it turned out to be just that - a loose stone.
After that false start, Wiglaf finally noticed some bloody spots on the corridor going upwards. The corrdior soon opened to a large temple. There was an altar with a pool connected to it at the center, and a statue of Vecna. While Wiglaf was demolishing the altar, Radagast kept an eye on the statue with his crossbow. It turned out to be just a statue, and when Wiglaf was finished with the altar he cut the arms off from the statue.
Wiglaf also found the bloodied tracks leading through the temple to a wall. Gabriel quickly found a way to open the secret door. There was a small closet behind, with stairs leading upwards. Gabriel proceeded first, while Radagast was providing cover with the crossbow. Gabriel made it to the top without an incident. When he listened, he could hear muffled voices. Carefully he opened the trapdoor, and found himself in a wine cellar. The rest of the party followed.
The cellar seemed to belong to a pub of some sort, judging by the sounds that were coming from the door. There was a bloodied armor scattered before the door, on the staircase. Obviously the cleric had decided to blend in with the crowd.
Gabriel made himself invisible, and went to check out the bar. He bumbed into a barmaid, but managed to stay invisible nevertheless. He could not see the cleric, but after some thinking and observing he realized there were a couple of fellows who had a good view of the cellar door, so with any luck they might have seen the cleric come out.
While Gabriel was observing the men, he realized they were actually pickpockets! While they were trying to rob one man, he tried to use ventriloguism to spoil the attempt. The victim got his money back, and even though the thugs tried to cover their act, the barkeep grabbed a double arbalest and told the men to come forward and empty their pockets. It appeared the scam had been going on for quite some time, since many patrons got their possessions back. The barkeep motioned for his orc bouncers to teatch the thiefs some manners. The orcs escorted the thugs out, and some bone crunching sounds could soon be heard from outside, with some cries for help.
After the bouncers returned from outside carrying bloodied wooden bats, Gabriel slipped outside. One of the thugs was painfully crawling away, but it seemed the other one was actually bleeding to death. Gabriel treated him as well as he could, stopping the bleeding, and headed back for the wine cellar.
Wiglaf told Gabriel to go and check the bar name so that the rest of the party could meet outside (the rest would take a different route out). Gabriel found out the place was called the Body Widow tavern. While Gabriel was waithing for the rest of the party to arrive, he amused himself by playing ghost on the people that tried to approach the beaten and unconscious thug - he was still invisible.
While Wiglaf, Radagast and Drik were backtracking their steps, the heard crying from behind the double doors in the corridor where they were ambushed by the crossbowmen and the cleric. Radagast nor Wiglaf were afraid of crying, so they opened the door.
Behind was an octagon shaped room. It was obviously the headquarters of the priest. There was a bed, a table, a chair and two girls chained to a wall. It looked like the priest had taken advantage of them as well. While the girls were afraid at first, they realized the cavalry had arrived when Wiglaf broke the chains. They said their names were Anya and Lucritia. They quickly told their story of becoming slaves. Wiglaf grabbed some sheets from the bed for the girls to cover themselves with.
Radagast found a small iron chest from under the bed. He detected magic on it, possibly a trap, so he did not open it. Drik went through the desk, and found some unfinished letters and other papers. One letter was addressed to "P.". The letter talked about plans not progressing as planned, monsters in the catacombs, Alayn's new ranger and so on. Other papers listed money changers in town, people who could met valuables without asking too many questions, merchants like Gustav and Cordwellyn and so on. There were also books, forbidden tomes of necromany and Vecna. Wiglaf and Drik piled the books on the bed and set it on fire.
Once on the streets, Wiglaf took the girls to the temple. Drik and Radagast went straight to the tavern. They drew a lot of attention, although people did give them way: a man in shining armor and another man carrying an iron chest must have been a rare sight even in a city such as this.
The companins decided to rent a room from a nearby tavern. Drik then went to fetch Wiglaf. While waiting, Gabriel and Radagast were investigating the supposedly flaming sword of Radagast. Finally they spotted some writing on the blade. It was a part of an old poem written in Old Hanseatic. When Radagast read it aloud, the sword burst into flames! The flames died when he thought about it, but they reappeared only by reading the poem aloud.
When everyone was preparing for the night, there was a knock at the door. There was a huge man, at least 6 and a half foot tall in full armor! Drik nearly panicked, until Eomric stepped into the room. Somehow he had found where the party was staying.
Drik bragged about how he, and the party, had killed the undeads down in the crypts. Eomric was not very surprised, but seemed to be interested in the chest. He dispelled the magical protection on it (taunting it to be apprentice magic) and knocked it open with another spell. That sent small darts flying from the chest, which luckily missed everyone (Gabriel thought he could see poison on the darts). Inside were 50 onyx gems, black as night, each worth 50 gold pieces or so. Eomric seemed to be pleased, and he explained that such gems could be used as the focus to animate undeads. So not only had the party destroyed a lot of undeads, they had also forced the evil cleric to flee and had even stolen his means of creating more undeads.
The party told everything to Eomric on the condition that they could go and finish the job. Eomric seemed to agree. He also adviced the party to get rid of the chest, since it would be easy to locate. He casted a spell to hide the chest from scrying, but told the party to loose the chest as soon as possible, and go to another tavern in case the priest was already aware of their location.