Session 12 - What's Behind the Door? (recap)

In this session, our heroes heard a scream…

Room 7A. Sun Pit:

  • Our heroes completed their short rest in the meager light of the sun pit without incident, healing up and generally recovering from the harrowing series of encounters they just survived.
  • While they rested, they listened at the door to Room 7B and overheard a drunken voices and comments about being trapped and a feminine voice asking a stern masculine voice for a sip of something. Throughout the hour, they also heard a third voice, but overall whoever or whatever was behind the door remained rather quiet.

Room 7B. Crematoria Niches:

  • The party prepared for the worst an approached room 7B with extraordinary caution. Pliny checked for traps then stealthily climbed over a makeshift baracade to look in the room.
  • The walls of this long room bear hundreds upon hundreds of niches; most of which bear a small urn or box, and a trinket or two. - all that is left of those whose remains have been cremated
  • In the back corner, Pliny spied an elf, a tiefling and a hiccupping half-orc crouching on the far side of the room, clutching swords in their shaking hands.
  • After a brief parley, the party convinced the ragged band to drop their weapons and accept both food and drink (Aegar received a gregarious hug from Grok the half-orc in thanks)
  • Grok, along with Petcan the elf and Ekxire the tiefling were Welcomer bandits sent to rob the graves. They didn’t count on the undead, and were chased into this room by the zombies outside.
  • Before letting them leave the room, Brother Keefe sternly convinced Welcomer bandits to return the gold and trinkets lining their pockets, and the act of saving these 3 removed the Enmity of the Welcomers earned in the slaying of the Welcomer back in Phlan (removing the disadvantage on Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) checks related to Welcomers. (Given the priority of the undead outbreak, Brother Keefe seemed open to looking past the presence of the Welcomers)

Room 8. Obelisk:

  • Aegar investigated the room of the Obelisk, and found the walls of the semi-circular chamber lined with nearly a hundred loculi, each containing the bones of one or more deceased residents of Phlan. He rather spectacularly failed to comprehend the black obelisk standing in the center of the chamber and its four faces covered in mysterious runes.
  • Brother Keefe, however, knew that the obelisk carvings are in Celestial and use its intricate, flowing script to speak in general terms about the goodly lives of those interred in the chamber.

Room 6. Rickety Stairs:

  • In the fight with the zombies, the stairs collapsed, impeding access to the hallway above.
  • The party, with a lift of Zoyana and a toss of a rope from Grok the half-orc, easily climbed up.

Room 4. The Bone Pit:

  • Zoyana explored briefly, but decided not to skirt around the bone pit to explore further to see into Room 5

Room 3. First Families of Phlan:

  • The party were somewhat disgusted by the practice of scenes of normal daily life: richly-dressed people seated around dining tables, or at writing desks, or in luxurious chairs, but made of the skeletal remains of the affluent — carefully posed and interred among their favorite possessions.
  • The party (wisely, thought Brother Keefe) looted nothing

Room 1. Cloister of Kelemvor:

  • The party said goodbye to the Welcomers they rescued and sent them on their way from this room of stone biers where the recently deceased can be placed for viewing by family members and friends before they are carried deeper into the catacombs for interment.

The Scream:

  • As the party regrouped to possibly explore Room 5, they heard a woman’s scream
  • Outside, they found the Welcomers backing away from the body of an obviously-murdered accolyte of Kalemvor named Cassyt. The murder obviously happened some time in the past hour, but still long before the Welcomers exited the catacombs. The characters deduced that Cassyt was murdered by Rorreth the Red Wizard.
  • The characters followed Rorreth’s footprints to Xandria’s Crypt and then down into the Crypt below, ultimately stopping at the teleportation circle, which Rorreth obviously used to escape. In a fit of rage, Brother Keefe destroyed the teleportation circle.

The Plan:

  • The party delicately carried Cassyt’s body back to the rectory of the graveyard and discussed plans with Brother Keefe.
  • As a group, they decided that Brother Keefe and the other keepers of the graveyard would stay to re-concecrate the graveyard and follow up on the Pool of Radiance as much as possible, while the Looting Luters would take the message of what happened in the graveyard to Leosin.
    • The Looting Luters plan to use the Token of Teleportation to travel to Brother Keefe’s family crypt in the Berdusk graveyard, and leverage Brother Keefe’s blood brother Bartholomew Wardows to get supplies for the ride to Greenest.
    • As thanks, Brother Keefe provided the party with 100 gold pieces and a pair of Goggles of Night.

NPCs Interacted With

Locations Visited

Hanging Threads / Outstanding Plot Points

  • What’s in Room 5?
  • What’s in Room 13: The Necropolis and beyond? (how far down does the rabbit hole go?)
  • Who is Leosin?
  • Who is Rorreth, the Red Wizard and where did he go?
  • What is the Pool of Radiance and why did the Red Wizard want it?

Loot

  • Goggles of Night (to Aegar)
  • Brother Keefe: 100gp
  • Removed the Enmity of the Welcomers from the party

Experience Per Character

Session Task or Accomplishment Wylder Aegar Pliny Zoyana
12 Where’s Wylder? 0 - - -
12 Room 7B Helped the Welcomers escape - 50 50 50
12 Room 7B Welcomers left their loot behind - 25 25 25
12 Room 8 Obelisk Necropolis - 5 - -
12 Room 4 Avoiding the Bone Pit - - - 5
12 Tracking the Red Wizard - 25 25 25
12 Keeping Brother Keefe alive - 50 50 50
Total 0 155 150 155