We stood in the crypt, discussing our options. The sorcerer mentioned that this Giles person, the cleric in the area a week ago, had headed east when he left. As we thought he might have the bishop’s staff to keep the lich in place, following him might be a good idea. Still, we had no idea how long that would take, so a search for the phylactery still seemed a better idea in the short run.

My first thought was to burn the body we had in front of us, to make it take that longer in re-forming to trouble this town. The others didn’t argue, except to tell me to search it first! So, I picked up Roscoe and plunked him in the sarcophagus. He made quick work of the job, dropping one thing after another out of the coffin as it caught his eye. I would have scorched a lot of stuff, so I was glad I had listened this time. Finally, when almost done, he found a secret compartment underneath the body. Bravely telling us to step back, Roscoe opened it. He found a silk pouch, with diamonds, a ring, and a necklace.

The sorcerer eyed the pile, telling us which things had magic on them, and which did not. Sadly, nothing was of a powerful enough “glow” to be the phylactery. I told him he ought to search around for that powerful glow, but the others wanted him to try and figure out what kind of magic was on each item. I left them to it, sprinkling the corpse with a flask of oil that Roscoe was kind enough to give me. Bryrgar loaded one of the big magically burning braziers onto his wheelbarrow, and soon, we were off. I lit the corpse on fire on the way out.

This time, we followed Roscoe as he followed footprints in the dust. We ended up in one of the few places we hadn’t been before, looking down various passages and into doorways when suddenly, we heard a voice! The halfling quickly headed off into the dark, shouting, “Where are you?” .. thank Ubtao, it was one of the villagers, nothing worse. He’d been kidnapped and imprisoned by the undead. I shudder to think what his fate might have been... We got him unchained, healed, and fed, and sent him home.

The next place we checked turned out to be a torture chamber. Sprocket has a strange sense of humor, asking if this is how to make humans - by stretching little people? Ew! We headed off to the hallway of the spiked pit, gnome and halfling arguing about “big people” all the way. Charzth and I could have easily jumped across, but Roscoe found a switch, and he and Bryrgar got the thing to close. I gave it a good stomp to be sure it was safe, and we were all soon across. The tunnel turned, and we found ourselves before an iron door.

We settled in for a wait while Roscoe worked on the two locks. He did finally get them both open. I had an arrow nocked as he opened the door.. to show a well-searched room full of chests. It looked like everything of value was long gone, but Roscoe insisted on searching for a long, long time. My feet were well-rested by the time he discovered another pouch, this time under a flagstone. More coins and an amulet, but still, no phylactery! (I do want the place well-searched for the thing, but the waiting is getting to me, I think! Charzth, too...)

Eventually, we were off to open more doors. Bryrgar was opening them too, to speed things up. Suddenly, a familiar musty smell of death hit us! As the dwarf charged into a roomful of zombies, I saw one waving its arms like a spellcaster in back and let fly with an arrow. Roscoe tried to shoot one, too, but hit my husband instead.. again! Before we had a chance to react to that, however, Bryrgar raised his holy symbol and turned the group of undead to dust before our eyes. Wow! Roscoe took the opportunity to run away, shouting apologies, and I did first aid on Charzth while Bryrgar searched the room. He came out with his wheelbarrow full of coins, two golden Tiamat statues, and a copper bracelet. Wow, again!

By now, we felt like we’d exhausted our options in this place, and that perhaps the mausoleum in the village had more clues. With the pile of silver and gold that Bryrgar had found, we headed outside, back through the village, and into the graveyard. We got a few stares... at the mausoleum, Roscoe offered to check for traps, but Bryrgar had been there before with no trouble, and led the way. We soon found ourselves inside another crypt, staring across a roomful of skeletons in their niches at yet another symbol of Tiamat on a wall.

When Roscoe went to check out the symbol, he found out that this was as far as Bryrgar had walked, before! As soon as he stepped into the room, the skeletons began to move! He ran back, cursing (I think, I didn’t recognize the language but you could guess!), while Bryrgar raised his holy symbol a second time - and reduced another roomful of creatures to dust. This time, Roscoe was able to search in peace. He soon found a door, opened it, and we trooped off down a staircase into the unknown.

This time, the passage had only dead-end halls leading off it, and a chamber at the end, full of sacks of old grain. In a mausolem?! Even stranger was the sight of dead centipedes, and burned bits of cloak on the floor.. of course, we were now on the other side of the door that Ronya and Zym had opened earlier in the day. All that work to find the secret entrance and nothing else! Nothing else, except the surviving centipedes!

I passed my torch to the front, as Roscoe was bitten and poisoned. He got out of the way and Bryrgar used my torch to finish the things off. Opening the door, we found ourselves back by the altar room, to no one’s surprise. I guess we’ll be following Giles, after all, hoping he has the staff so we can get it back and contain the lich once again.

We’ve decided to risk a night’s rest in town before starting out. Roscoe’s foot is numb, but they say it will get better. Sprocket has gone over all the treasure (and we did a little shopping), but she’ll wait until we find a bigger town to find out what the magical items are for.

Ubtao, watch over us! We need all the help we can get!

Posted by Kate on November 7, 2004, 09:12 | Nosila’s Journal