16. Favors and Sins

The mad men are down on the crypt floor sleeping through their favors and sins

Encounters

Treasure

Summary

After giving Grick some time to recoup from getting trampled, the party decided to explore the two doors in the crypt. Both were made of metal and embossed with the heraldic symbol of a wolf rampant. Veldrin decided to check the southern door, opening it to find a hallway with a set of stairs leading up before turning to the east. Stealthily moving towards the stairs, he failed to notice the floor was false before it gave way under him. Luckily, he landed softly at the bottom of the 20’ hole, taking no damage from what would otherwise be a painful spill. Unluckily, it was because he’d landed on a pile of bodies that began moving and groping after him shortly after landing on top of them.

The team responded quickly, attempting to keep the zombies off of him and offer what help they could. Grick put his 10’ pole down into the hole as an aid for climbing. Veldrin was able to make it out of the pit before being overwhelmed, but still took a few scratches off of the undead. Peering down into the dark pit, Hamidal saw that all of the zombies showed signs of bruising and wounds prior to their deaths. He was able to surmise that the zombies were most likely victims that had previously fallen into the pit. Seeing as the stairs led up, the party determined that it was most likely leading back towards the surface and abandoned further exploration.

Learning from this encounter, Veldrin was much more careful when examining the hallway behind the northern door. It was a mirror to the southern door, except with a set of stairs leading down. With no traps to hamper his progress, he came to a long hallway leading east, where it ended at another metal door.

About fifteen feet from where the hallway ended, a pair of alcoves to the north and south held statues - one of a warrior with shield and sword, and the other a woman in stately robes. Upon examining the statues, it appeared that both held their hands in a fist and contained an opening fit for some kind of staff or rod. There seemed to be hidden openings in the stone behind the statues but they didn’t budge when forced. While examining these statues, a ghostly form of a human female appeared in the hallway to beseech the party to find her sister, whom she feared dead. Perdita recoiled upon seeing Gozrien, explaining that rats were the last thing she saw before things went black and she awoke in her current form. She said she lost her sister Suri in the hidden door behind the southern door. She showed them a pendant of Sune she wore and said her sister wore a matching one of the sun.

After Perdita somehow pushed open the hidden southern door, the party investigated the hallway beyond. They found cracked and decaying old crypts, and several corpses from a fairly recent battle. The hallway led around to the north again and ended at another crypt - with a wererat waiting tautly in the middle of it. Footsteps was in the lead, and try as he might to defuse the situation, he couldn’t quite back down from the site of a giant rat and so gave over the diplomacy to his fellow party members.

It seems that Perdita and Suri were ambushed by a group of wererats. Perdita perished in the battle, but Suri was only injured. Through that injury she ended up contracting lycanthropy and was now cursed to the form of a wererat. Knowing her sister’s fear of rats, she hid out in the crypt hoping her sister’s ghost would fade. She didn’t want her sister to know what she’d become, ashamed to show her that her need to explore the tomb had led to her becoming this creature. The party talked her down and suggested they’d help her find a way to cure her lycanthropy - they knew some priests in the city that might help. Suri was still reluctant to show her face to her sister, and so the party decided to attempt to sneak her out, hidden under a cloak.

Meanwhile, Veldrin was speaking with Perdita, trying to prepare her for her sister’s new situation. As Suri tried to sneak past, Perdita called for her, hoping to see her, to know she was still alive and well. Suri froze, not knowing what to do - but eventually responded to her sister’s pleading and let her know that she was well, but that she didn’t want to be seen. Perdita pleaded, and despite the party trying to assure her that it was better to wait, Suri showed herself to her sister. Perdita was frightened of what she saw, saddened by what had become of her sister, but was ultimately glad that she had lived. With both sisters sobbing over each other’s fate, Perdita faded from the hallway, on to whatever afterlife the gods had chosen for her - released from her burden of knowing what had become of her sister.

The sisters’ dilemma resolved, the party knew they had to finish investigating the tomb, so they sent Suri to wait for them in the initial tomb they’d entered, warning her away from the other doorway, before continuing on. The door near the statues led to yet another hallway, this one with two sets of stairs leading further down and looping around to end in a door to the south. Upon entering, it led to another coffin-shaped tomb, this one for a noble instead of a warrior. Two sarcophagi sat on a 5’ high dias at the southern end of the room, flanked by two sets of armor. Between the sarcophagi was a 3’ high stone pillar, with a pillow resting on top of it. On the southern wall behind them was a portrait of a smirking noble, with a fan of three sword blades hanging above it.

Upon investigation, Hamidal saw that there was a stone rod resting on the pillow. It looked like the proper size to fit the hole in the statues in the previous hallway. But as soon as he grabbed the rod, the suits of armor awoke to attack him. As the party ran into battle, the swords started flinging themselves off the wall to attack as well. Hamidal noticed the portrait had some magical effect, but was able to resist it. As Grick stood upon a sarcophagi to attack the armor, and Aradaine helped to flank it, Aradaine fell under the portrait’s spell, going slack jawed until Grick had an opening to shake him from it. The animated items proved fierce, injuring most of the party to some extent, and so they decided to take another rest once they were all defeated. Examining the room, they found that the sarcophagi were also empty of bodies, but Aradaine found a pair of goggles decorated like bat eyes that turned out to be a pair of Goggles of Night.

Once a bit rested, the party placed the rod into the remaining statue, opening the hidden door to the north. Another hall led them to anther crypt. This one had a single sarcophagi and multiple coffins propped against the wall. Bats had taken to roosting in the ceiling above the coffins. As soon as the party entered, a mist rose from the sarcophagi, resolving itself into a wraith-like form that immediately lunged to attack. The sounds of battle roused the bats, who were now harrying Veldrin as the others tried to finish off the attacking mist. Once both foes were defeated, they noticed another hidden door in the western wall of the crypt.

Grick took the lead into the hallway beyond the hidden door, but it only went a short way before coming to another small room - but this one wasn’t unoccupied. Shortly after entering the hallway he heard the deep growl of wolves and saw the form of two human guards holding spears and the wolves’ leashes guarding another doorway. The party had rested, but was still injured from their previous encounters. Bracing themselves for another fight, they moved cautiously forward towards the guards…