MORGRAVE ADVENTURES

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 45
“THE CRYPT’S FIRST AREA ”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

Taylor castes a light spell on his staff and together, he and the artificer keep everyone within the light. They are quick to discover a body. It is skeletal and the clothes mostly rotted away. They spend little time with the body itself as they loot it. They find meager monies on it but Taylor finds a magical ring (Prot +1).

At the end of that hallway is a spiral stone stairway leading up. They go back to the main underground complex.

Carefully moving about to keep everyone but Gears within the light they enter the next area- a large 30x35 ft room with stone sarcophagi lining the walls. Two exits at the far end of the room, right and to the left. Gears, with his nightvision moves just ahead of her light to scout for them. The floor has strange ruins carved on them.

“I can’t fully read them.” Says Taylor.

“I understand a few words.” She answers in triumph.

“It is an ancient mix of elven and something. Very Very old.”

“I understand some of the elven parts.” She says so as not to be upstaged.

Kar-Draith realizes it is official. The contest has begun- artificer vs sorcerer.

“Well….?” Taylor challenges.

“Men,Elves….. Fiends…… battle. Not sure of the rest.” She admits but smiles as he didn’t know even that much.

“Thousands of years ago. I wonder if these crypts predate that or honor the dead from the war?” the sorcerer wonders out loud.

As they enter the second chamber Gears senses something in the dark.

“Uh-oh.” Says Diana.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 46
“THE CRYPT’S SECOND AND THIRD AREAS ”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

A six ft long snake slides across the floor towards Gears in the dark. Appears he is not the only one with Darkvision. Thinking it is not a threat, Diana okays an attack which Gears is happy to do.

The snake easily evades Gears’ first attack and returns the attack. It goes back and forth like this trading hits and misses. “This is no ordinary snake.” She announces as they move as quickly as possible to the battle.

The creature proves difficult to strike (Snake: Viper:Fiendishire: Horrid and Half-Troll ) and recovers from many attacks. Magic Missiles and electrical bites sear it and then it is shot and sliced by the warriors. It is defeated.

With the vile creature defeated, they look around. Though smaller, this room is much like the first one. Several stone sarcophagi line the walls but this room has three exits.

As they begin to debate which way to go Charger hears a female voice. Turning they hear it from behind them. Near the exit they ignored in the beginning.

Once more they send Gears in to investigate and find a beautiful (CHA 24) 1’2 elven glowing woman standing in the doorway. She has a wishful and pleading look on her face. A mix of need and fear. She motion to be quiet but to follow her deeper into the darkness that is in the next room.

Fearing she needs help, Diana and Gears carefully follow the spirit. She glides across the floor into the next room and heads to a far sarcophagi. Diana has heard of ghosts that cannot find rest unless they find peace. Sometimes this peace comes from acknowledgement of their deaths. She follows the spirit and suddenly, as she steps onto the main floor she is caught in an electrical trap.

Still smoking and steaming from the discharge, the halfling sees the spirit fly to a specific sarcophagi and float through it. Walking on the edges of the room the others go to the resting place with Diana in the lead. As she reaches the sarcophagi she searches it for traps. In turn- it searches her as two pods reach out and strike her. One sticks to her robe and holds her. The sarcophagi changes shape and it reveals itself to be a Mimic!” (the spirit is a Seeker’s Bane)

Charger rushes in and strikes the aberration hard but becomes stuck himself as his blade is an extension of his arm. A magic missile settles it as the warforged continues to wrestle and strike it.

Taylor is uncomfortable as Kar-Draith begins to open the sarcophagi and loot anything he can find. Coins are found and a nice longsword.

“Where to?” asks Kar-Draith, now thinking of greed instead of finding the explorer.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 47
“THE CRYPT’S FOURTH AREA”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

They enter a short hallway and encounter thick webs. Very thick webs. They want to burn the webs down but no one has open flames, only light spells. Diana pulls out a small metal tube and casts Heat metal on it. She tosses it into the webs hoping to somehow burn them down. Instead it alerts the local residents that something is here.

Several swarms of small black spiders charge first to the glowing rod then to the group.

“Crap!” calls out Kar-Draith as the creatures swarm over his clawed feet.

“Romeo! Take care!” calls out the old man.

Charger tries to slice the creatures with his built in armblade. “They are immune to me! How?”
That gets Taylor to shake his head. Obviously not the brains of the group he decides as he tries to move backwards while calling up an acid spell.

Spiders are everywhere! Thousands…. Hundreds of thousands of small spiders spread over them. Kar-Draith is overwhelmed by the moving mass.

Gears tries to scoop up and chew on them as they try to reach his creator. It is not long before they cover her and everyone else. Trying not to panic, Kar-Draith does what he can to step and stomp on them. Unseen by them, the heating up rod touches something other than a web within the mess and a flame erupts and burns the webs nearest to it.

Acid, magic Missile spells and stomping and crunching continues for over a minute until enough is enough and the spiders flee into cracks and crevasses in the floor and walls.

Returning to where the webs were, they find several items revealed, including a mound of webs that did not burn. Charger avoids that spot. He find a pouch , mostly burned away, that contained silver coins. He is quick to pocket these. Kar-Draith overlooks the mound of webs when he spots old damaged armor with what looks like a newly forged helmet. It has black and white swirls that move along the edges and face plate. He pockets this believing he cannot sell it but it must be magical (Cursed item- Helm of Opposite Alignment). Diana looks over the webs that remain. She pokes it with her cooled off tube of metal. It clinks like metal on metal. Finally, she picks it up and examines it. (Dagger +1 Frost) She likes it and keeps it.

They turn to their left and find shelves with urns on them. Some are knocked over and lacking ashes. They still avoid them and do not touch them. Next they go down a long set of stairs. At the bottom are stairs that lead up. Diana decides to climb these and the stairs go up a long way. Finally at 70 feet, they reach a small 15x15 foot room. On the ceiling is a trap door. It is searched for traps and when she feels a cold chill coming from it, she decides it is not worth it and they retreat (lead to outside where it is beginning to snow again).

Returning to the stairs they cross the web entrance to enter a large room. Here there three sarcophagi and a statue. Diana searches the statue and finds a sliding panel with healing potions. She takes them all.

Still fearing what may be within the sarcophagi they move past them. There is a long dark narrow ramp leading down from an exit here. Uncertain, Diana purposely hesitates and allows Charger to go first. A grease trap is triggered by he luckily avoids falling and sliding down the long hallway. Fearful of a pit trap or worse at the base, they turn back and retrace their steps past the webs.

SIDE D for the webs

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 48
“THE CRYPT’S FIFTH AND SIXTH AREA”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

They retrace their steps back to where the supernatural snake was (it is missing and no one thought to ask why……?!?”).

Randomly, Kar-Draith and Charger open a few sarcophagi. Nearly all of them have a skeletal human body with old weathered and aged shields and weapons. Some of the shields are metal and others made from a wood may once have been very strong.

Diana, watching when they do find something (silver and occasional gold) decides to work on some herself. She is nowhere near as strong or adapt to opening the sarcophagi but manages a few. A few too many. Time is short and it grows late.

They return to the mission of finding the missing explorer and continue away from the room of sarcophagi. Gears takes point and without his creator’s skills at finding traps, he must do it the old fashioned way- he sets them off.

Most of what he finds do little damage to his metal and chord body. Diana just wishes she could see more than fifteen feet away in this pitch black darkness created by the Gloaming. They bypass a branch of the hallway and go straight. Here there is a very large room filled with sarcophagi. At this point, their greed is getting the better of them. Taylor holds back. He is not comfortable tomb raiding a crypt that from what he has seen belonged to good people that died fighting evil.

The three others however begin to open sarcophagi one after the other. They are not even being careful to be quiet about it anymore. Open opened sarcophagi makes them hesitate however. There is a skeleton with a rusted shield and sword inside just like all of the others only this skeleton has a burnt black color. This worries them then Diana points out that he was burned in there, why didn’t his equipment get burned also? Charger and Kar-Draith team-up to replace the lid to this sarcophagi. At that exact moment, something drops from the darkness above- a skeletal creature with organs and a long tongue- a Sanguineous Drinker! Just like the one they faced near the Mournlands!

They turn to face it then they hear the grind of moving stone. The blacked skeleton is animated and trying to lift the lid off.

Without even looking, Charger sweeps his armblade behind him and removes it’s hands in one sweep. The lid crashes back down onto the now handless skeleton! (nac 20- had to give the player something for the effort)

Kar-Draith knows the danger of the undead they face and makes it clear to be quick about destroying it. They are quick to take it down.

Having defeated the primary and secondary creatures here, they finish searching. Diana finds a nice Gem worth 200 gold and the others find coins ranging from copper to platinum.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 49
“THE CRYPT’S SEVENTH AREA”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

The hallway goes straight and to the left. Straight is blocked by bars. The group move left. Gears nearly falls into a pit as they reach another branch in this hallway. They hop across the 5x10 ft pit opening and go into the next room.

Stairs lead up. With nearly no visibility they walk up the stairs and find a small room with several sarcophagi.

With great energy they begin to open the sarcophagi. Coins and another gem are found while Taylor stays back. Diana spots another small room next to this one and moves to it to begin opening the sarcophagi here.

She finds a mosaic tile floor here depicting knights battling fiends. She hopes this room has commanders and magic stuff…. Especially the magical amulet she is secretly searching for that gives immortality (see Storyhour- Eldeen Heroes).

Charger and Kar-Draith find something they wished they didn’t find. Black wisps of smoke are emitted from a sarcophagi they open. It churns and moves as if there are individual parts within it. Taylor calls out an alarm. It is some sort of undead swarm (Shadow Rat Swarm) and knows these two are in trouble. The swarm quickly spreads and overruns the sorcerer also. Kar-Draith and the old man both hunch over as the undead swarm suck their very strength away (maxed…. Very bad for the old man). Charger becomes frustrated as he knows he is striking them (100% concealment in Gloaming conditions) and they are forced to flee even as the old man already has.

He and Diana use magic to take the undead swarm down but the damage is done. The staff is heavy and requires two hands to hold for Taylor and the others are not doing well either.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 50
“THE CRYPT’S EIGHTH AREA”
04/03/16

VULT 22, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

Weak but still wanting to move on, despite Taylor’s advice and protests the group exit this area and enter a new unexplored area.

Gears is immediately met with a jarring strike as a moldy and rotting Flesh Golem steps out of the darkness from behind a wall and slams him.

Diana calls out in alarm and Charger attempts to blindly charge into the deep darkness and hit the golem.

He misses.

The Golem doesn’t.

Taylor decides to sit back and allow the boys and Diana have their fun. Its what they wanted after all.

Diana tries magic but it fails each time. Gears does his best but is warned by Diana not to “juice” him with his electrical bite.

“She’s learning.” Mumbles the weak old man from the safety of the prior room.

Kar-Draith pummels it with arrows as Charger and Gears tear into it up close. Gears tries to trip it. For his effort he is kicked harshly with metal bending strength.

“Help us!” Calls out Diana to Taylor.

“No Strength….. too weak……” he says while hiding his smile. At this point something pokes its head out of his robe. A ferret. “Aren’t I Romeo.” He snickers.

The golem gives as well as it takes but in time it is taken down. Gears gets in the final bite which brings pride to Diana. “First the Barghest and now this Golem. Good pup.”

At this point everyone stumbles and tumbles next to Taylor. “Time to listen to me finally?”

They camp now to recover.

No one has restoration spells which bodes poorly for the team. Diana decides to do what she can to help people and attends them medically. Except for Taylor (The player rolled a nat 1 when healing him) He decides he will take care of himself- thank you.

VULT 23, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING
Even with careful attention to rest and healing with natural and magical means, the group is in bad shape. They decide to stay here for one more day.

Kar-Draith and Diana are amused when they see Taylor reading a romance novel. “Only soft men read a woman’s novel.”

“Hurm…..” answers the old man as he turns the page. Then they finally spot the ferret as it also checks out his book.

“What is that?!? Calls out Kar-Draith prepared to attack once more.

“This? This is a ferret. His name is Romeo.” The ferret bobs his head up and down as if trying to communicate with the others. It hops from one shoulder to the other and does the head bop again.

Gears growls.

“Old man….. do you have any more secrets you should tell us?” suggests Diana.

He smiles and hums a happy tune. Romeo bops to it.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 51
“THE CRYPT’S NINTH AREA”
04/04/16

VULT 24, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

Except for Taylor and Romeo, everyone is becoming bored. Sitting in the gloom surrounded by sarcophagi and the thick cobwebs in the corners.

Diana announces she and Gears are going around a little.

“have not yet learned” thinks Taylor. “Call when you need me.” He calls out.

His jibe doesn’t escape her. “Hurph! When indeed” she grumbles as they move around the pit trap and back to the barred exit.

Searching for a little while she discovers a hidden lever and decides to pull it. It lifts the bars with minimal noise. Gears runs ahead and immediately falls into a deep pit trap.

“GEARS!” She calls out.

Gears is lightly damaged but cannot climb out of the fifty foot pit. She has no spells and no rope. She refuses to ask for help from Taylor.

“Gears- It will be okay- I’ll be right back.”

She leaves her creation in the pitch black darkness. With his dark vision however, he spots several skeletons with broken bones. So much for relaxing. He goes back to clawing at the wall for his master.

“Kar-Draith….. Kar-Draith!” she calls harshly from the stairs.

The lizardfolk walks over to her. He is recovered enough from the strength taking undead that he no longer limbs or drags his tail. “What is it?”

“Do you have rope? Maybe fifty foot of it?”

“Something wrong?” asks Taylor with a smile.

“Nothing Kar-Draith and I can’t handle. Go back to reading your romance novels.”

He holds up his book. He is reading a book about History in Aundair. “New book.”

They go to rescue Gears.

Taylor finishes his page slowly and gently closes his book. “Yes Romeo. I know she needs our help. I will agree to help Gears…… Her…. Well she can sweat it out a little longer.” He slowly puts his book back in the pack and he stands up. Romeo remains on his shoulder smiling himself. He wants to help Gears also. “Charger…. Could you help me?”

He barely jumped across the pit before. In his weakened state he is uncertain if he could make it. He has the strong warforged jump over the pit with him. He looks at the missing gate as he passes under it and comes to a strange sight.

“Are you sure of this?” asks Kar-Draith.

“Absolutely.”

“Wouldn’t Charger be better of a choice?”

“Then the old fart will know I screwed up and – OH HI……. How long have you been there…. Eavesdropping?”

“Long enough. But do go on.” Says the old man as he scratches the head of Romeo whom leans into it.

The rope is tied to her waist and the lizardfolk holds the other end. He offers it to the warforged whom carefully wraps it around his none bladed arm and braces himself.

She begins to go down into the pit.

“Just curious…. How long is the rope? How deep is the pit?” he asks.

With pride Kar-Draith offers “That strong rope is fifty feet long.”

The sorcerer nods his head. “And the pit?”

“Not sure. She said something about it being about fifty feet.”

“Interesting.” He leans up against the wall and watches. “Hum? Oh don’t worry. Eventually she’ll get him out.” The ferret sinks into his robe and watches laying his chin on his folded paws. It sighs.

She goes down ten feet….. twenty feet…… thirty feet…… forty feet and now she can see Gears below. Then the rope ends. Between the height of the warforged, the length of rope wrapped around him and the length wrapped around her…. She is too high to reach Gears. “Could you jump to me Gears?” she asks.

With their mindlink she knows that to do so would mean he would need to bite and claw her a great deal and that may not even work.

The halfling curses words that the Grandmother clause on EN World prohibits.

“Pull me back up …” she shouts then in a quiet voice ….”you damned stupid construct.”

She climbs up and gives a hard stare to the old man.

“No Gears?” he asks.

“The rope is too short.”

“Pity. Romeo will miss him a great deal I fear.”

“We can’t just leave him down there!”

“No good ever comes of running off by yourself in a crypt or dungeon.”

“So how do I get him out? Do you have a spell to use?”

“If I could but levitate…….”

“I don’t have the means….” She stops as he gives her a disappointed and harsh frown.

“I thought you were an artificer. An artificer with some skills and knowledge.”

“I am! But that won’t help me or Gears right now.”

“So ….. unlike most artificers…. You cannot imbue spell-like abilities into everyday items? Like a levitate spell into …. A ring?”

[DM NOTE: The player completely forgot about this ability which in my mind is what makes an Eberron artificer so powerful and fun to play.]

It takes time but she empowers her metal rod and brings it to Gears. Gears clamps down on it and wills himself up and out of the pit.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 52
“THE CRYPT’S TENTH AND ELEVENTH AREAS”
04/04/16

VULT 24, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

Diana is quiet as they resume exploring the crypt. Taylor has humbled her completely. If he feels bad, he doesn’t show it….

They largely skip the sarcophagi in the hallway and go straight until they reach a short set of steps leading down.

It appears to be another hallway of sarcophagi. “Oh happiness.” The artificer mumbles.

They turn to their left and come to a small room with a statue of a cloaked figure standing there with it’s arms spread. Most of the team hold back while the halfling searches the statue. Before she gets to searching she is attacked!

The white skinned undead strikes her and she feels her life energy drain.

“Wight!” calls out the sorcerer. He immediately strikes it hard. As does Diana and the undead creature is destroyed before it do anymore harm. Not wishing to find more wights, they turn back and go to their right up a set of stone stairs.

Diana and Gears has not yet cleared the stairs when they are attacked by strange looking scorpions. They have blueish-purple crystals growing out of their shells. The creatures have them bottle-necked as they are in a narrowed area and on stairs. In time, they work through the creatures and claim the area free of scorpions.

THE MORGRAVE ADVENTURES
“05 ELDEEN”
SEGMENT 53
“THE CRYPT’S ELEVENTH AND TWELTH AREAS”
04/09/16

VULT 24, 1000 RUINS NEAR THE GLOAMING

Looking around briefly they find nothing of interest so they move onto the next area. They come to dark stairs that lead down. They take the stairs carefully. The light spells still only give about a fifteen foot viewing space. Gears walks just ahead of the light using his darkvision.

The homunculus walks slowly ahead of the team scouting for trouble. It finds it. Another Flesh Golem. Once more he finds himself in trouble but Diana and Charger rush up back him up. Kar-Draith attacks from the distance with his bow that was enhanced by the artificer. Taylor holds back in case anything else attacks- something he can use his magics against.

Learning it’s weaknesses now from the prior battle, they make short work of it.

Moving along deeper into that room they set off a trap. Dozens of little needles are fired by are easily deflected off of Gear’s and Charger’s metal framework.

They decide not to search the stone coffins any further. Hopefully the book they seek is not within a sarcophagi. If so…. What a waste of time and energy.

They decide to go through the doorway at the bottom of the stairs they skipped when the golem attacked.

They face a large locked door. Diana cannot open it and found no traps. Charger does what Hardfist used to do- non-magical or skilled door opener. He breaks down with a loud crash.

Taylor swallows hard. If there is anything on the other side of that door, it is aware of them now.

As before, Gears goes in first with Diana’s light spell revealing everything directly behind her creation. His metal paws click on the black marble floor. Dark Grey marble columns appear near by. They carefully and slowly walk down the hallway lined with columns on the side. At the end of the hallway is a large stone raised sarcophagi. On the surface is a raised stone image of a woman in full plate armor with a large shield and sword.

Diana insists on opening this one. It takes time but the lid is removed. She grows pale looking inside the open sarcophagi. It is empty. No body. No armor. No weapons. No coins. No items. And worse- There are no cobwebs, no dust, no signs of anything. It is as if the sarcophagi is cleaned carefully daily.

She looks around for another few minutes then they move to explore the next area.

Trying the door, a fiery burst of energy is released. The door is forced open and Gears leads the way.

“What do you see?” asks Taylor and Kar-Draith.

“A rusted…. Metal (?) floor….” She passes on.

She goes in and looks around. She finds a secret panel and opens it. Inside is a cut off mummified hand. On it is a magical ring (Protection +1). Satisfied she has found everything she turns and they leave.