Gathering Between Life and Death (part2)

Catacombs of Ogrebound's cemetery

1- Ghouls and skeletons
2- Walls with trapped undead attempting to grasp the living walking down the corridors
3- Undead Centaur with warhammer
4- The riddle chest
4b- Obstructed passage
5- Cave where the PCs meet the mojh
6- Garsh and Ivor Hogfist
6b- Hidden Chalice's location
7- Exit to the surface (through a ruined mausoleum)

Struggle

Granted, the exploration of the crypts began with a fall in the stairway beneath the sarcophagus. But it was a brilliant fall. The adventurers now have to struggle against many undead. William is able to determine that the corpses were probably animated because of an unbalance in the energies of the place. The Chalice is not whole; its parts need to be put back together.

The adventurers fence their way through the crypts, fighting ghouls and animated skeletons mainly. But the biggest undead challenge of the crypts was ahead of them: a centaur of the Great Host has been animated, and it swings a great warhammer at whoever wants to go further beneath the cemetery. The combat is tough, to say the least, and greatly complicated by the presence of shadows trying to grapple and pull them within the walls of the crypts. William and Nuwah-Kawah are both swallowed by the demonic walls, but finally, the adventurers prevail, and the victims of the shadows are literally regurgitated by the walls.

In the crypts’ next room, a huge chest is standing, a door just behind it obstructed by a giant stalagmite. Opening the chest, the adventurers find it empty beside a sentence written on its bottom: “Put Your Worth On Me.” Jezabell tries a number of options on the chest: put some gold, some dirt, among others. Nothing happens. Then, it becomes clear. “Your worth on me”… in weight! Jezabell jumps inside the chest, and the huge stalagmite barring the door moves out of the way. The confrontation is near, and our adventurers step inside the cavern that lies ahead.

Confrontation

This is a huge cavern cut in two halves by a flowing stream that is possibly a subterranean arm of the Altalus. A bridge joins the two halves. On the adventurers’ side, a mojh is waiting. It greets them rather ironically, and tells them calmly that he is waiting for the Chalice “to be delivered to him”. Perhaps the thieves were ordered by this mojh to still the Chalice in the first place? Or perhaps the mojh has the intention to buy it but has nothing to do with the reason of the theft. No matter the answer to this question, the adventurers decide they have no time to spare with the mojh. They just spotted Garsh, the goblin sneak, on the other side of the stream. William is the first to step on the bridge, while Bischen flies ahead and looks at the human “friend” of the goblin running away, then starting to scarify himself with a his dagger.

Whatever it is… this is not good.

When William reaches the other side of the bridge, the mojh, suddenly invisible, crosses the bridge as well and attacks her. It proves to be a gifted mage blade, and as the battle rages on, Bischen witnesses the metamorphosis of the “human” into an absolute monstrosity: a 9 feet tall wereboar. Things almost get out of hand, but thanks to the combine powers of the group, with spell and swords, all enemies are brought down. A search of this side of the cavern allows the group to retrieve both halves of the Chalice. The whole group of goblins helping them has been decimated within the crypts, with just one survivor who killed his leader himself. He wanted to be the last warrior standing, and does not care for the obsidian part of the Chalice. In exchange for the silence of the adventurers, he is willing to let the obsidian half go. William connects with the akashic memory and puts the two halves back together, ending the cycle of undeath within Ogrebound’s cemetery.

The assault on the cemetery's catacombs had all the players focussed on the Dwarven Forge set-up.

Next time: The Tale of the Last Captain begins with the PCs starting their trip towards Laelith!