Having just destroyed all of the gaming tables in the luxurious room the party decided to take a 5 minute rest. Demin having gone through the trap door pushed on south in the passageway carved from native rock. The rest of the party examined the room with Mara trying to retrieve a "magical" light from the chandelier to no avail. Melisana did an Arcana check in the room and had a sudden vision.
Melisana felt as if she were no longer standing in the chamber - perhaps even the world - where she was. The passages around her were now made of rough-hewn rock, apparently dug directly through the earth. The floor was worn smooth. Along the walls farther ahead a series of images were once painted, but they had largely worn away; she could make out a few vaguely humanoid figures. There was a sense of emptiness around her - the peculiar feeling that whatever life and magic had once flowed through this place were long gone. Then in the blink of an eye, Melisana was once more back in the Feywild with her companions.
The rest of the party had not noticed anything but Melisana staring into space for a moment. Lythandar said he had a similar but not the same vision while looking for magic properties of the tables. While discussing what to do Melisana and Mara decided to head back to the tapestry room to make sure they had looked behind all the tapestries. While there Melisana had another vision.
The world shimmered and changed around her. Walls that were constructed of bits of stone now have evenly carved brickwork, which appeared to be mortared with oozing black goo. The goo dripped slowly down the face of the stone. Moans echoed from afar, and feelings of despair assaulted her. And then it was over. She found herself back in the Feywild with Mara watching her as if nothing had happened.
Finding only stone walls behind the tapestries the party joined up in the "Gaming Room" and headed down the trap door to find Demin. The party followed the rock hewn tunnel south and then southwest to where Demin waited at a T intersection. In the back of the party Gofin pointed out a trap door in the ceiling, which Demin proceeded to check for traps and then he unlocked it. Mara was boosted up into the narrow corridor which curved around in some unusual patterns with other passages leading off of it. Pretis moved to the north seeing the hallway lead to the north east and Mara headed down a south passage where she found another trap door in the floor. Demin worked his skills again and the party found that the door led down into the underground passage, and met up at the T intersection.
The group decided to follow the tunnel which lead southeast to where an eastern passage led away. Following to the south they found a cave on the side of the cliff face, which Melisana had noticed earlier when the exited the Hag's cave. Deciding to go east the group found a dead end where several members noticed a door in the ceiling. After Demin's skills were applied, Mara stuck her head into a cavern like structure and as she stepped up a sudden dizziness washed over her, and she almost stumbled she stepped "down" into the chamber. She saw randomly shaped stone walls that were pitted, and the black mortar between the stones shed flakes that look like dried blood. A faint chill emanated from the walls - a chill of melancholy and despair that struck at her soul.
The rest of the party moved up and saw what looked like a natural chamber or grotto. In the center of the chamber was a rough heap of haphazardly piled stones. Melisana examined the pile of stones and found broken pieces of holy symbols, headstones, name plaques and the like. She determined that some desecration of graves had occurred. The party saw trickles of a strange black substance, darker than the mortar through which it leaked, run sporadically down the face of the stones. Some of the party exited out the western hallway which turned south. There were doors on the north and south of this hallway. Mara opened the north door and saw two obelisks and a pathway. North farther was the tapestry building. Melisana moved down to the south doorway where the hall turned to the west. She saw an obvious catacomb, several burial niches lined the walls, and three marble slabs stood apart, all clearly intended to serve as somebody's final resting place.
But their rest was anything but final. Broken bits of stone indicated spots where holy symbols, name plaques, and similar adornments should be, but were now missing. More disturbing was the fact that although various shrouds and garments lay within the niches, the bodies were absent. Melisana determined that it would be possible to reconstruct and reconsecrate, at least some of the graves, using the pieces from the previous chamber. She attempted to find such a piece and succeeded but when Demin and tried to place the piece back on a marble slab a skeleton like creature appeared in the rubble room and attacked Alhellara and Pretis who had remained behind. The battle was on as the skeleton moved to the western hallway and bottled up several characters standing there. Pretis moved up next to the skeleton and found that it had threatening reach. Mara moved through her fellow adventurers to stand with Pretis at the creature, while Demin attacked and moved away finding himself attacked with opportunity twice and he swiftly moved south and rested with extreme damage.
Gofin was near the north door and stepped outside to let others into her space. She felt a strange jolt as she stepped out and found that she couldn't see the monster inside the building. On her next turn she moved back inside and found none of her party and felt a sudden sense of vertigo, and the walls shifted. What was walls of stone and brick mortared together she now saw hewn rock, as though she was standing in a tunnel dug from the living earth. Every sound she made echoed around her, giving a sense of vast emptiness. Looking to the east she saw an uneven cave that had a broken stone floor, In the cave's center was a broken ring of stone about four feet high. To the south the catacombs were she saw a rubble pile in the center as though the hall had previously been divided. Everything was different although the floor plan seemed the same. She stepped outside and back in to the same area. Going back out she desperately tried to catch the attention of her partners.
While the battle was going on Alhellara saw Gofin and stuck her arm out of the door, which Gofin grabbed and was pulled back into the area with the rest of her party. The Boneclaw continued to attack and when bloodied send out a Necrotic Wave which gave everyone damage. Several criticals fell the skeleton but Pretis and Mara seemed to take some damage and were slowed in the rubble room. The party continued to try and restore the graves and were having much success until Mara failed to find a piece described by Melisana. As they searched for that piece a shadow moved into the catacombs from a hallway yet unseen by the party. Three party members found themselves pushed back and immobilized by a blast. Mara charged forward to attack the monster, and we will pick up next week at this point.
Scorecard: The party gained 343 XP in this encounter, they believe that they will have to finish restoring the graves to accomplish their task. They now have 23026 XP and need 2974 to reach 11th level.
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