“So, you be one of them ranger fellows?” Kildo Hammerhand asked Imago as they walked back to the House on Haunted Hill.
“Yes.”
“Ye ever travel with any hobbits?”
“Shhh!” Kai said as the party approached the house.
It was late in the evening after they had bandaged their wounds, ate a small meal, and got some sleep. The haunting was the work of a group of bandits. The most likely scenario was a ruse to keep everyone away and prying in on them. However this far from town, raiding was unlikely, so their true nature and intentions were unknown. Any survivors had to assume the group would return, so the expectation was traps were in the process of being set. Therefore, the less time the party allowed the bandits to prepare the better. Lightning flashed behind the structure, as the wind off the sea picked up. They were all concerned about entering the house.
The group entered the front foyers and headed west, as before. The house was completely dark. The only intermittent light was from the moon outside or flashes of lightning in the distance. Dark bodies of the party members moved and huddled together for protection. They entered the room with the secret door to the basement.
“Welcome fools! Welcome to your death! Muahahah!” A deep and haunting voice howled from everywhere and nowhere. It surrounded them like before.
“Well, the magic mouth re-set itself,” Kai said.
Guo Gan checked for traps and finding none opened the door. The hole was pitch black leading down to the cellar.
“Alright, everyone can see in the dark, so that’s an advantage to us,” Kai said.
“I can’t see in the dark,” Imago replied.
“Yez, me either,” Zzee stated.
“You can’t see Zzee? What do you do just swim around on the surface waters then?” Kai scoffed rhetorically.
Zzee hissed at the paladin.
“Here, ye be the gem bearer now,” Kildo said taking the blue gem out of his backpack and handed it to the lizardfolk.
“Wait here. I’ll go ahead and check the stairs for traps,” Guo Gan said as he carefully made his way down.
“Don’t get too far ahead,” Kai replied.
“I’ll scream if there’s trouble.”
A few minutes passed, before they heard two short, deep “hoo” sounds followed by a long “hooooooo” from below.
Sighing at the obvious fake owl call, Kai said motioning from the group to follow him down the stairs, “Wonderful, the rare underground owl.”
Arriving at the bottom, the south side of the room still had the ten crude beds with a wooden box in front of each. However, they had all been opened and most of the belongings were gone. A long wooden table was in the middle of the room with only ten chairs. The mix-mash of plates and tin cups were also missing. In the north section was a tandoori oven, but its previous fire was out.
“Hey, there’s a chair by the south secret door to the caverns below,” Mufi said examining it.
“Probably be a guard that be stationed. They likely be knowing we are here now,” Kildo said.
“Yes, and the door with the room ‘DANGER’ writing on it has been wiped off and the board barricading it is now gone,” Guo Gan said.
“The bandits returned all right. Come on, I want to know if they took the plate mail,” Kai said and opened the northern secret door into the wine cellar. The two bins were still present, but now they had lids on top of each. Moving over to the north bin, Guo Gan checked it for traps and finding none, he opened it up.
The body was still inside, along with the armor, but something was moving in the dark. Inside, came the sound of rhythmic ‘clicking’, like hundreds of nails tapping on metal. The snapping and tearing of flesh also came from within. Four long, giant centipedes the size of a person’s arms, with over two-hundred legs emerged. Their bodies were long and flattened. Their exoskeletons had a dark, greenish-brown, orange color, with black bands, dark legs, and long feeler antennae. Like the rot grubs before it, they had been feasting on the corpse.
Mufi began casting; entangle. Grasping weeds and vines sprouted from the ground under the bin and grew up at a quick rate. Three of the centipedes maneuvered through the growth, with only one becoming stuck.
Zzee slashed at one, but the insect used the cover of the plants to dodge the blow. However, Guo Gan had more luck as two quick sword slashes, hewed two in half. The creatures’ puss-white inners sprayed the area. Kai also made short work of a third one.
“Right, I be knowing what to do with you,” Kildo stated as he walked up to the centipede squirming in the vines. Bringing his war hammer down, there was a high-pitched ‘squeal’ as the fourth one was smashed into pulp.
Mufi dismissed the vines, as Kai, mindful of any remaining rot grubs, began to carefully remove the plate armor from the corpse. The armor reeked, like what rotting fire-giant heads would smell like, if kept in a bag for any length of time.
A check of the second bin determined it was empty.
“So, do we be going down after those bandits, or do we be checking out the upper part of the house?” Kildo asked.
“I don’t want to have to worry about something attacking our backs, so I think we should clear out the room with the danger sign,” Kai said.
“Are ye daft? Even them bandits not be wanting to go in there. They even be erasing that wording hoping we go in there,” Kildo explained.
“Am I hearing right that a dwarf is shying away from a fight?” Kai asked looking to Hammerhand.
Grumbling under his breath, Kildo tightened his grip on his war hammer and shield and stood next to Kai.
“Fire Team Flaming Orchid is ready to go,” Guo Gan said nodding to Imago.
“Alright, Imago, you get our six,” Kai said moving over to the eastern door and then continued, but saw the lizardfolk hesitate. “Zzee, get your little tyrannosaurus rex arms over here.”
As Guo Gan checked the door for traps, Kildo looked into what must be the captain’s quarters. The human book of erotic poetry was gone. Further grumbling continued. This didn’t bode well. The bandits definitely had been back. He smelled a trap.
As the door was opened, Kai bellowed, “Alright, time’s up! Let’s do this! Leeroy Jenkins!”
“He just ran in!” Kildo exclaimed. “Save him! Let’s go! Let’s go!” The dwarven cleric, charged after the paladin. Blue light from the gem Zzee was carrying spilled in from behind, lighting the room, which was 12’ feet across, dingy and dirty. The air was stale, smelling of decay.
“By the gods!”
In front of him, was Kai swinging his long sword wildly. A bone wall of six jerking and shambling skeletal bodies descended on him. Leering skulls with sinister grins with a sickly-green necrotic glow from their eye sockets advanced wielding crude and rust-covered weapons.
“Life is death! Death is rebirth! Rebirth is life! Let’s fight!” Kildo bellowed quickly, as Kai, Guo Gan and Zzee began to glow from the cleric bless spell.
Seeing his body began to glow, realizing he had been blessed, Zzee rushed into the room. “Jesus Christ!” The lizardfolk skidded to a halt. His clawed feet dug and scratched long marks into the stone. The undead ‘hissed’ in resentment as he entered. He threw his triton wildly into the mass of bones, but it passed through the midsection of one and clanked harmless to the ground.
One skeleton slashed at Zzee, but the lizardfolk threw himself backwards in panic avoiding the blow. A second slashed at Kildo, but it rang harmless against his shield. Kai was surrounded by the undead and they all slashed and thrusted their rust covered swords striking the paladin, who was overwhelmed by the attacks. He fell within their midst.
Guo Gan entered the room and stopped for a heartbeat seeing Kai fall within the mass of walking bones. Kildo was fending off blows with his shield and Zzee was slashing wildly trying to back up and avoid the mass of undead. Batting outward with his quarterstaff, it smashed through the first skeleton. It crumpled like strings cut from a marionette puppet. It’s necrotic green-glow dissipated, like smoke in the wind.
Behind the wall of bones, the eastern wall began to glow blue. Something was happening that these undead seemed to be guarding fiercely.
Mufi entered the room and began casting; frostbite. The fourth skeleton’s bones began to freeze over. Its movements slowed even further. He also began casting; healing word. The most grievous of Kai’s wounds began to seal, as blood pooling on the ground was pulled back into his body.
The paladin rose within the undead ranks. He drew a long sword and pulled the shield from his back. He slashed at the frozen skeleton, but the edged weapon didn’t cause much damage to the mainly hollow body.
Kildo also swung with his war hammer. It impacted and crushed a few ribs of the second skeleton. The blunt weapon having a more noticeable impact.
“If I die, it’z Aquaman’s fault!” Zzee shouted as he was backing against the wall and pressed in. He slashed striking the third skeleton.
The other five undead pushed recklessly into the party. A sword thrust got past Kildo’s defenses. The dwarf cringed at the power of the blow. They continued to surround Kai and slashed that the risen paladin, but he quickly fell again under their onslaught. Another slashed and cut Zzee across the forearm.
Guo Gan pressed in swinging his quarterstaff overhead. It smashed through the second skeleton, as it crumpled to bones. The monk then noticed the eastern wall blue glow had continued to increase.
“Don’t worry guys! I’ll save you…again!” shouted Imago as he raised his bow. An arrow streaked through the room and shot off the skull from the fourth skeleton. Its animated body reduced to a pile.
Trapped in the room, Kildo continued to swing and hit the fifth skeleton with a glancing blow.
Moving up, Zzee spat, “Zuck it Zkeletor!” He leapt into the air, bringing his scimitar down in a powerful slash. The weapon cleaved through the entire body of the third skeleton. Its frame crumpled under the lizardfolk’s mighty blow.
The tide seemed to be turning to the party’s favor. However, Zzee’s berserker-like attack left him open. A skeleton thrusted with a broken sword into Zzee’s side. The lizardfolk fell. Another skeleton’s short sword leapt forward in a bloodthirsty assault on his foe. Guo Gan was struck on the side of the head. The monk also fell to the ground.
Mufi casted frostbite again. The fifth skeleton’s bones began to frost over. Its movements slowed.
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life! Get up!” Kildo touched the down Kai. A wave of healing energy washed over the paladin. However, the paladin didn’t move and remained on the ground. What was he doing!?
Mufi frantically weaved his hands and casted again. The sixth skeleton’s bones began to freeze up and lock into place.
Stepping over the still forms of Kai, Zzee and Guo Gan, the last two skeletons moved on the remaining party members. Imago was unable to get a bow shot off. Mufi was defenseless against the approaching undead. Kildo was seriously wounded from a sword thrust and wouldn’t be able to take another blow.
It was then when the heroic actions of Kai manifested. Playing dead as the skeletons passed him, the paladin reached out simultaneously, touching Zzee and Guo Gan. Their grievous wounds stopped bleeding and began closing, but not entirely. All three party members, rose up behind the undead, gripping their weapons tightly. They were ready to fight.
Inspired by the paladin, Kildo’s moral soared striking the sixth skeleton. Imago pulled back his bow and let fly his arrow. It sailed through the skull of the fifth skeleton, destroying the creature.
The last of the undead gripped its weapon and ‘hissed’ at the three party members in front of it. A lout ‘snap’ of heavy feet, crunching on bones of its fellows emanated from behind it. The sixth creature turned its head. Its vertebra cracking as it moved. Its jaw dropped open and the necrotic green energy in its eye sockets seemed to quiver, as Zzee, Kai, and Gou Gan’s weapons pulverized the creature to a pile of broken bones.
As the last of the green necrotic energy from the undead evaporated, there was a grinding of rock, as a secret door slowly opened to the east. An azure blue light pulsed from within. A scraping, like someone dragging bone, preceded another skeleton. This one was hunched and wore tattered alchemist robes with a pointed hat. An azure blue wisp, clung to its skull’s bony jawbone, like a beard. In a horse, raspy voice it spoke, “Secrets found, secrets lost, and found again that your paltry minds can not fathom.” The skeletal alchemist threw a bottle, striking Imago. As the glass broke and contents spilled, his clothing and skin started to bubble from the acid within.
Kai began casting; fog cloud. A thick grey smoke began to billow from the ground around the paladin. It spread around the area and obscured the party from the undead’s sight.
Taking advantage of the cover, Imago emerged and shot with his bow. The arrow struck the alchemist. Kildo followed and fired his crossbow, but it went straight through the skeleton not causing any damage. The fog cloud bulged, as Zzee burst forth. His scimitars glowing from the bless spell, as they struck the creature. Guo Gan appeared from the mist, his quarterstaff batted outwards, shining brightly from Kildo’s spell, as it smashed into the skeleton.
The alchemist shrieked at the party, as it clawed wildly into the fog cloud.
The wailing was all Kai needed to hone in on the creature. The paladin lunged forward with his longsword, putting all of his weight behind his blow. It sunk into the skeletons chest with a pleasing ‘crack’ and he drove it upwards, shattering the entire rib cage and hewing the head from its body. It crumbled into a pile of bones as its magical blue energy dissipated. Snorting in satisfaction, Kai stated, “That was my bad guys. However, I feel a little redeemed killing that thing.”
In a deadpan tone, Imago replied strapping his bow across his back, “Yes, it was a team effort.”
“This be weird,” Kildo said as he bent down and he shifted through the bones and picked up a rib from one of the skeletons. Holding it up in the light of Zzee’s gem, he continued, “This appears to be gold? Wait, there be another one.”
Examining the curved fragment, it did indeed appear to be covered in gold. The party eyed one another and then frantically shifted through the remains and pulled out a total of six, gold covered ribs. Checking the alchemist bones didn’t reveal anything except his ratty robes and a hat.
Finding nothing further on the undead, they entered the eastern secret door. The floor was cluttered with broken glass and earthenware. A bench ran down the west wall and the room appeared to be a laboratory. There were various jars of powders and remains of dried liquids in glass apparatus. There was also a table along the south wall forming an ‘L shape’. On it were a candlestick, a book titled “Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone” and along with 47 gold pieces were a variety of items which shined with the warmth of pure gold; an apple, a rose, five small disks, and a human skull.
The party then very carefully examined the rest of the room. Guo Gan found a concealed drawer and upon opening it up found two objects. A round, smooth stone that could fit in the palm of a person’s hand and another book with no title.
Kildo took the tomb and flipped through the pages. Fortunately, he didn’t find any erotic drawings of hairless humans in various mating positions, but something of equal dislike. The swirling scribbles of magic. It was a wizard’s spell book. “Bah, I can’t be reading this book. It be making me own eyes hurt.”
Loading up all the valuables, the party retreated back the bandit’s barracks. Kildo went into the captain’s quarters to rest. After an hour of bandaging and treating wounds, they went through the wine cellar and up the stairs to explore the rest of the house before heading back into the underground cave.
Heading up the stairs, when reaching the top, a horrifying, hideous scream rose up from behind them in the cellar below, like a woman being murdered. Having just been below, the party knew instantly it was another magic mouth left by the bandits to scare any would be intruders.
In Kildo’s mind it meant one very important thing and never a good sign. They had a wizard in their midst.
They entered a scullery area, which had signs of dampness and decay. Moldy patches were all around with broken crockery. A large copper boiler was split and empty. A door was slightly ajar to the west, which led into a kitchen. It was dirty and damp with old cobwebs. In the southwest corner of the room were some iron cooking equipment and a stone sink, which was cracked. There were also broken cabinets and a set of stairs leading upwards, but decayed and didn’t look as stable as the one in the foyer. The exit was to the south and the party made their way back through, passing another east and west door, and back into the main entrance hall to get their bearings. They went back west when they first entered the house and examined the northern door across from the library room in the south. It appeared to be a study. A large wooden writing desk riddled with rot was in the center of the room. There were three drawers broken open, but the central one was closed and locked. Guo Gan pulled out his security tools and soon had it open. Inside were documents, receipts, and a small cloth bundle used to protect two glass vials filled with an unknown liquid. Finding nothing further of interest, the group went back to the main entrance and went to the east door off from the kitchen.
There were two stuffed arm chairs next to a fireplace. Rummaging through the room, the group saw movement coming from the fireplace. A lot of movement.
“Spiders!”
Seemingly unafraid, the swarm charged the party. The group began to frantically yell, stomp, smash, and even Mufi casted poison spray on them. In short order, the insect were scurrying away in defeat. Imago entered the room at hearing all the commotion and saw the squished remains of the bugs and said, “Good job guys! I was worried I’d have to come in and save you…again.”
Mufi then began to check the fireplace where the swarm originated. He found a stone out of place above the fireplace. Removing it, inside was a wood box that contained 10 gold and 30 copper pieces.
Moving over to the west door, inside was a long table with broken dishes piled in a corner of the room. There was nothing else of interest.
The party then met back in the entrance hall and move to the east wing of the house, where there were two southern doors. The first was empty except for a clump of red mushrooms growing by a fire place. The second was also empty, but plaster was everywhere fallen from the ceiling. Due to the dampness seen above it was clear the floor above this room would be weak and walking on it would be at one’s own peril.
Returning to the entrance, the group went up the stairs. They creaked and groaned in protest under their weight. At the top, there was a west, north, and east wing. The party headed to the east, where there were three doors to the south. Opening the first, like the other rooms, it was dirty and walls decaying. While the room was empty, cobwebs were everywhere. However, from the doorway, something glinted in the fireplace.
Kai moved into the room and headed to the hearth.
“Spiders!”
Looking up, hundreds and hundreds, of bloated spiders were falling from the ceiling attached to silver, silky strands. There was nowhere to run. Whatever direction he turned, he would run face first into the biting insects. His eyes went wide as they landed all over, clicking, snipping and biting.
“Get them off! Get them off!” Kai yelled as he started to spin, slapping, stomping, and crushing the vermin.
Zzee began crushing the arachnids that scampered his way. Guo Gan began smashing his quarterstaff into the floor. Ichor splattered everywhere. Killing some of the larger ones, but others took its place and began to crawl up his staff. Kildo systematically began smashing several at a time with his war hammer.
Mufi moved up and casted; poison spray. The spiders moved to avoid the gas.
Guo Gan ran into the room to help the flailing Kai, who continued to crush and swipe the bugs from his person.
“More spiders!”
The monk looked up as a second swarm descended from holes in the ceiling, drawn to the commotion and thoughts of a juicy meal. They fell on him.
“They’re in my clothes! They’re in my clothes!” Guo Gan shouted frantically. He began sweating profusely. Foam seeped from his mouth. His body began to shake and convulse. The monk fell to the ground and went into a seizure from all of the spider bites.
Zzee naturally armored with scales for skin, continues to smash the swarms with his feet. Kildo also continued to crush the spiders under his hammer. However, it was Mufi, like the legendary Orkin Man, continued to cast poison spray killing hundreds of the creatures. Both swarms began to eventually thin out and dissipate.
Kildo stabilized Guo Gan, but he had dozens and dozens of red, swelling welts all across his skin with likely many more under his clothing. “He’ll live, but he needs to recover. I wouldn’t want to be him when he wakes up.”
Mufi retrieved a shiny, small crystal bauble from the fire place. It was pleasant to look at and hold, but he wasn’t sure if it was magical or worth anything.
Kai smashed one retreating, wounded spider with at least one broken leg, and grinded it to paste. “I’ve had it with these mother fucking spiders, in this mother fucking house!”
07/17/2021 – Treasure
· 6 gold covered skeletal ribs
· 47 gp – Party Split 9 gp
· Magical Stone (aka Philosopher’s stone)
· Book - “Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone”
· Gold items - Apple, rose, five small disks, and a human skull
· Magical Hat – (aka Alchemist’s hat)
· Wizard’s spell book (in Alchemist’s lab).
· 2 vials of liquid (Potions found in the Study).
· 30 cp and 10 gp (Spider chimney) – Party Split 6 cp and 2 gp
· Small crystal bauble (Spider fire place)
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