Bloodlines
Trajan 12th (Ftr2/Jazumai 5/ Sword Saint 5)
Anne-Marie 11th (Monk 2/ Ftr 6/ Sword Coast Duellist 2/ Psychic Warrior 1)
Tania 9th (Necromancer 8/ Black wizard of Morannon 1)
Taran 10th (Rogue 10)
M’ir 9th (Seer 9)
Zherinda 9th (Cleric 9)
At one of the many parties and balls, they recieve a proposition. One of the local nobility, Baron Noliss von Purry, introduces himself to them. He claims that he is related to the royal line of Tanor, despite living as a relatively minor noble here in Bridlerest. If he can find the evidence he needs, he will be able to advance in the royal court.
Some of his research seems to indicate that a hundred years ago a prince of the royal family might have been living in an old family estate of his, now ruined. History never really speaks of this prince, but if evidence exists in the old ruins… he will provide them with 20,000mks for such evidence.
It is a compelling proposition, and it is the kind of money they could do with.
The party gather together and meet a week later at his hunting lodge near the edge of the woods where Baron von Purry gives them further information – the location of the ruined keep, an ancient key that will provide entry into the underkeep and so forth. He sends a woodsman named Olaf along with them to help them find the way.
Four hours walk through the woods lead them to the shattered remains of the keep, overrun with vegetation. It doesn’t take long for them to find the overgrown trapdoor which, when unlocked, leads into the ruined wine cellar. It doesn’t take long to find a concealed passage – not a secret door but a bricked up passage which has been plastered over. Perhaps not so much a concealed passage but a sealed passage?
With the help of picks and hammers the wall is broken down and there is an exhalation of stale air, a musty, ancient smell. The corridor has faded murals of royal splendour, and finally it enters a square chamber with three exits out of it and a small plinth in the corner.
As Taran moves to scout the room out a horrid stench fills the room as four ghasts lurch into the room, crying “Food! Food!” The experienced adventurers make short work of them however.
The plinth in the corner seems to be an altar to a storm god, an ancient incarnation of Asura. M’ir centres himself and allows the years to roll past his inner vision in this room. He sees decade after decade of stillness, punctuated by an occasional ghast slouching through the room. Then about 80 years ago the room is filled with howling and murder as dozens of robed priests are massacred in the room, then going back further there is a decade of peace with monks moving in and out, then there is another 40 years of emptiness with no plinth, and then again a sense of terrible evil as individuals scatter through the room pursued by something clouded in evil and hatred. And beyond that it was a brightly lit series of rooms filled with courtly laughter.
Half an hour has passed before M’ir opens his eyes again, and he recounts his visions to the party. On at least two occasions there have been brutal massacres in this place. Hmmm.
They decide to take the northern exit from the room and find their way to a rune carved door. Taran scans it for traps and proclaims it clean, then starts to open it and with a flash of dark energy a curse glyph explodes, and his Strength drops dramatically as weakness drains his already slim limbs of energy. He curses, and the others move past the now disarmed trap and look into a room, a burial chamber filled with sarcophagi.
“I bet there’s mummies in there” Someone says.
They enter the room, scanning carefully for danger and suddenly the lids are thrown aside from six of the sarcophagi along the walls and mummies leer out. Their appearance is so supernaturally fearful that Zherinda the cleric and Anne-Marie are frozen in place in terror, and the mummies lurch to the attack.
The battle is fast and furious. The tough old mummies resist their blows, but are eventually cut down; but everyone has been exposed to mummy rot – and Taran and Tania suddenly both find their skin sloughing off their faces and arms as the awful curse grips them…
