15. One Foot in the Grave

One Foot in the Grave

Encounters

Summary

After their encounter with the thugs in the warehouse, everyone felt like their day was spent and decided to head back to the tavern to rest. The next day they finally headed out to check out the Crimson Brush, an art gallery/shop selling a number of paintings, trinkets, and other assorted pieces of art. Crimson was a theme in many of the pieces of artwork found within, including more than a few where it depicted blood. Remembering the note attached to the silver daggers they’d found, the party questioned the shopkeeper, thinking maybe they would trigger something for him, but they only seemed to trigger his distaste. Turning his nose up at the daggers, he told them he had no need for such things as he was an art dealer, not a weaponsmith.

Standing at the counter speaking with the shopkeep, Aradaine noticed that the painting behind the counter was different than the rest. It depicted a scene in a graveyard with a statue and a mausoleum. Then he noticed that at the center of the painting, somewhat hidden in the glare of the paint itself, was the gylph mark they’d seen at the other locations. When questioned about the painting, the owner insisted that it was not for sale and was a part of his private collection. Not finding the mark they were looking for or any further clues, the party decided that maybe they’d missed something by not hitting the third spot on their map - or perhaps they could skip the last two steps altogether and head towards the City of the Dead, which is where the map seemed to indicate.

With a flash of inspiration, Footsteps guided the party to the City of the Dead, where he was sure the daggers would somehow lead them to the hidden treasure they sought - likening them to the wand that Hamidal had found earlier. Unfortunately, nothing he tried - from holding them at arm’s length, to tossing them into the air, caused the daggers to give up any secrets. Hamidal thought that perhaps trying to cast a spell to identify them would help - perhaps they had some sort of trigger that they weren’t aware of. He took the daggers, intending to head towards the market or the nearest jewelry shop in search of the required pearl, but then he noticed in handling them that they didn’t show any obvious signs of actually being magical. Other than being made from silver instead of iron or steel, they appeared to be mundane daggers. Discouraged by this, the party walked through the City a bit more, looking to find something similar to the painting they’d seen at the gallery, but to no avail.

The party discussed the clues and what they thought their options might be, before finally deciding to head back to the art gallery. Hamidal told the party he could suggest to the shopkeep that he show them the painting. They had the idea that the clues they’d thus far found were behind wherever the glyph was, so he figured that if he had the shopkeep show them the picture, they could get a closer look at it and what might be behind it. His spell cast, the shopkeep hesitantly brought the painting off the wall to bring it to the counter, explaining that the painting wasn’t actually his, but was owned by a private collector who would never part with it.

While distracted with showing off the painting, Veldrin snuck behind the counter to examine the wall it hung upon. The shopkeep didn’t notice the drow slinking around behind him, but Veldrin was unable to find anything unusual on the wall. Not seeming to like all of the questions about the painting, and somewhat coming to his senses about showing it off to the party, the shopkeep pulled it away from the counter, intending to hang it back up on the wall. Veldrin noticed a lock box behind the encounter and made a grab for it, but the shopkeep noticed and snarled at him. Hamidal suggested he forget that incident, and so the shopkeep told the party he was going to close early for the day, asking that they please leave. The pary wasn’t too happy with this, but they left without further incident.

While the rest of the party headed to lunch, Veldrin snuck around the back of the shop to spy on the shopkeep to see what he would do, but after watching for a while and not seeing anything significant, Veldrin left to meet the party as they came to the graveyard. By the time they arrived, a thick fog had started rolling in, leaving the graveyard shrouded in a cold white mist. Hamidal had recognized a noble family’s name in the painting - Gost. While he wasn’t sure of the exact location of the Gost mausoleums, he had a good idea of their general location in the City. After some wandering about they came upon the statue that was in the painting - it’s arm outstretched and pointing towards a mausoleum.

Aradaine examined the statue and found a part of the plinth that appeared to be of a separate piece, but couldn’t seem to find a way to make it budge. Meanwhile, Hamidal made his way through the growing fog to examine the mausoleum the statue was pointing to. It belonged to the Gost family, and was made of stone shaped to look like a Waterdeep manor house, with metal gates blocking the front entry. Unsure of approaching the mausoleum, Hamidal turned back and noticed the fog had rolled in even thicker, obscuring all but the statue in its gloom, so he hurried back to the party.

Done with the statue, Aradaine handed the daggers to Footsteps, who wanted to see if they’d lend a hand in finding the treasure now that they’d found the location shown in their latest clue. Just as he went to take them, they floated up into the air and zipped through the fog towards the mausoleum. There they floated outside of the doors for a moment before zipping back towards Hamidal, who plucked them out of the air. Footsteps was excited to see his plan had worked after all, only to find that it was all a ruse on the part of Hamidal’s unseen servant.

The party next decided to examine the mausoleum. They found only a dangling chain blocking the door, with no lock to be found. Inside, the mausoleum itself had seen better days. Tiles blocking the graves had been crachked, floor tiles, lifted, and chisel marks and cracks showed along other parts of the stonework. In one corner, Aradaine found a map that also seemed to lead to the mausoleum, but gave an entirely different set of clues. The party against discussed what they’d found and where they might find the next clue to further their search.

It was just then that a man came to the entry to the mausoleum, intent on closing the gates. Shocked to find the party inside, he told them the Watch would soon be along to stop them as they didn’t appreciate graverobbers. Convincing the man that they had no intent of robbing the mausoleum, he told them that he was a gravedigger for the City. Feeling that they weren’t the band of ruffians he’d at first assumed they were (even though they had a drow with them), he told them that if they would help him with a problem he’d been having he would gladly lead them to an entrance to the crypt they were looking for - a secret entrance that wasn’t trapped like the they were looking for was.

The gravedigger led the party to a small barn hidden within the bushes with a small paddock for sheep. He showed them the corpse of a sheep he’d put beneath a tarp. The sheep are used to keep the grass under control in the spring and summer months, but it seems something thought they made a good winter meal. The gravedigger asked them to find the sheep killer, so the Footsteps used his tracking skills to follow drops of blood leading from the scene. Along the trail he found wolf tracks, which eventualyl led them to an actual wolf tracking through the snowy ground with a fresh kill in its mouth. Footsteps used his natural affinity for speaking to animals to convince it they meant no harm. It approached, and Footsteps could see that it was carrying a freshly killed rabbit in its mouth and showed obvious signs of recently having pups. The wolf growled towards a nearby mausoleum, warning Footsteps of some danger. He left her some dried meat as a thanks, which she quickly buried before running back to her pups.

Bursting into the mausoleum, the party found a pack of ghouls crouched over the rotting corpse of a sheep. They hissed and immediately set to attack the party, but were eventually overwhelmed. Returning to the gravekeeper with a ghoul corpse, he was satisfied that they’d uncovered the problem plaguing his sheep, so he led them to a mausoleum containing a secret crypt entrance. The party was a little wary of the gravedigger’s kindness, but they ventured into the tunnels nonetheless. The hidden stone stairs quickly led to a tunnel carved in the dirt below the graveyard. After another set of stairs down, it soon ended in a stone wall with an obvious door carved into it.

Pushing open the door, the party saw a dark crypt beyond, a large room shaped like a coffin. Polearms and shields lined the walls, sarcophagi sat in alcoves to the north and south, and two iron-bound doors showing the mark of a wolf rampant. The thing that stood out the most, however, were the skeletons mounted on skeleton warhorses forming a defensive circle in the middle of the room. Seeing the undead, Grick charged forward, his holy symbol before him, driving them back with its radiance. Unfortunately, a few of the horses resisted his attempt at turning and quickly trampled him. Bloodied, but not quite down, Grick retreated towards the entrance while the rest of the team took out the horses and other skeletons.

Once the undead were nothing but a pile of bones upon the floor, Grick called for the party to take a rest before venturing further into the tomb so that he might catch his breath and heal some of the bruises he’d sustained from being trampled.