In attendance were;
Kumak Morudall: Half-Orc Bloodrager
Tiberius Lionheart: Human Paladin of Sarenrae
Susan: Human Universalist Wizard
Thaddeus Whisperheart: Gnome Trickster
Cradling Susan protectively Kumak brings her to the library and lays her on a couch to recover. Thaddeus reappears and warns Kumak that she will need to be restrained until the Suggestion wears off. Tiberius remembering his previous experience in the library refuses to enter but elects to stand guard outside. With nothing left to do Kumak and Thaddeus build a pillow fort and rest for the next 5 hours. Dozing fitfully, Susan, Thaddeus and Kumak experience disturbing dreams. Susan that she is being chased by a malevolent being through the house unable to escape, while Kumak and Thaddeus feel themselves being crushed by an ever shrinking house. Thaddeus and Susan wake feeling troubled but nothing more, Kumak however takes the experience to heart, far too reminiscent of the thorn patch outside Thistletop the dreams weigh on his mind.
Using their wands to bring the group to fighting health the Redeemers return to explore the 3rd floor. The first rooms seem to be storage for linens and such. Thaddeus and Tiberius push ahead and find a sort of study at the end of the hallway, across from which soft sobbing can be heard. Kumak enters the 3rd floor windowed overlook and is filled with the unmistakable sense that he is on fire and the only salvation lays in leaping into the surf below. The half-orc manages to push the sensation aside before his body can react though and continues his search. Tiberius and Thaddeus open the door to the sobbing and see a bunched up blood stained sheet shaking ever so slightly along with the sobs. Getting closer Thaddeus spies an eye peeking out from underneath, not looking towards him but towards the full length mirror before it. Creeping along and careful not to move into its eyeline Thaddeus pulls the sheet back and sees that the woman underneath is clearly undead, drawing upon his bardic knowledge he feel certain that whomever she was in life she has become a Revenant in death, any violence she intends would only be towards herself or her murderer. Tiberius recognizes her from some of the visions he has been having in the mansion and upon seeing her undead nature wastes no time and just as Thaddeus shoves the mirror over the Paladin swings his sword into her flesh. Thaddeus moves away from the combat while the Revenant lets out an unearthly scream, sinks her nails into Tiberius's shoulder and with uncanny strength lifts the paladin off his feet and begins clawing into him. Kumak and Susan both chilled by the sound cower momentarily in another room while Tiberius finds himself in a losing battle. Kumak soon regains his limited wits and moves to join the fray, the undead woman soon put to rest.
With nothing further to be gleaned upstairs the group moves to the basement where Tiberius spends several minutes battering down a sturdy door while Kumak and Thaddeus search the remainder of the floor. Lending their shoulders Kumak and Thaddeus pop the door off its hinges and the Redeemers find themselves in a sort of workshop with more stairs leading down. Passing by the stained glass on this level Susan suddenly realizes what has been troubling her about the windows on each level. They are depicting a transformation into a lich. Thumbing through a few books that are so rotted that they crumble as she reads them Susan learns quite a few tips should she ever wish to make a similar transition.
The stairs down lead into a cavern branching off in 3 directions, Kumak takes the lead down one path, followed by Thaddeus. Then Tiberius charges down another with a reluctant Susan in tow. Kumak finds himself in a large cavern with a high ceiling. Looking around he finds a corpse in one corner and as he moves towards it notices something detach from the ceiling and come gliding down towards him and Thaddeus screaming. Thaddeus is overwhelmed and collapses, his body fighting against the paralysis but Kumak having gone into a rage shrugs it off. The battle is fierce, but with Kumak standing overtop the gnome the bat creature can not find easy fare. It lunges at Kumak and dropping his ranseur Kumak finishes it off with his bastard sword. Pulling Thaddeus up the 2 search the body and find an adamantine blade as well as some loose coins and particular ring. Thaddeus recognizes the ring and now knowing what he is looking for identifies the corpse as belonging to Red Shiv, supposedly called so for his blood stained blades but Thaddeus recalls that the name stuck after he was kicked in the bits by a woman and pissed blood for a week. During this time Tiberius and Susan had moved further into the caverns only to walk into a small nest of ghouls. Tiberius backs up to a choke point so all 4 cant surround him but then sees 3 more arrive and move past them down a side passage and appear at the 3rd, unexplored passage. Susan moves back to back with Tiberius and sends her owl down the passage Kumak and Thaddeus went to get help. Tiberius swings his sword taking chunks of flesh off the ghouls while his celestial dog rips pieces off. Susan is soon paralyzed by the ghouls behind who move in to finish her but Tiberius dog backs up to protect her as Kumak and Thaddeus arrives. The battle soon won, Susan and Tiberius heal themselves while Kumak and Thaddeus inspect the 3rd passageway to ensure there are no more surprises in store. Finding a small alcove in the rock and nothing else the 2 are about to leave when Kumak notices that one of the mining picks seems to have weathered the time surprisingly well. Prying the pick free from the patch of mold that has overgrown the area Kumak stirs up a cloud of yellow mold. Kumak has a brief coughing fit and is soon weakened but still in fighting form. Thaddeus however inhaled far too much for his smaller lungs and coughs for almost a full minute, phlegm, bile and some blood coming out the gnomes complexion having gone dangerously pale and gaunt, Thaddeus finds himself light headed and in need to real medical assistance.
Tiberius declares he will take the lead and marches forward but fails to see how slick the winding ramp ahead is and tumbles down crashing into walls as he slides ever further down the 60 foot drop to splash into a pool of water that 4 goblins were playing in. Only on closer look they are not just goblins, they are ghasts. Kumak from his vantage point above cant make the jump to aid Tiberius so he draws his bow and fires an arrow into one. Susan lets loose a single magic missile from her wand but it is all for naught. The 4 ghasts tear and rake at the paladin who under the onslaught finds that even the protection of Sarenrae can not hold up forever as his body seizes. One ghast tears an arm off while another rips his throat open. Between Kumak and Susan 3 of the 4 ghasts are finished, the final one leaping below the water as Tiberius corpse slides below as well. Without a moments pause a door suddenly opens halfway down the shaft and out steps what once was Aldern Foxglove. Now the man has succumbed to ghoul fever and has eyes only for Susan. Kumak retrieves his ranseur and gives Foxglove 2 hefty stabs but the man barely registers them as he makes his way unerringly to his prize only to collapse at her feet and beg her help. Kumak arches one eyebrow and hesitates for a moment before running Foxglove through again. Susan backs away and calling on arcane flames, tries to ignite the undead Foxglove but to no avail. Aldern seemingly retreats back into his undead nature and lunges at Susan cutting a deep gash along her arm. Kumak lets loose a roar and stabs Foxglove again, though the undead form is in tatters from the onslaught Foxglove is still standing, his eyes firmly fixed on Susan. As he is about to leap on Susan and finish her off she focuses her arcane fire and Aldern's body erupts in flames. Screaming her pulls himself free of Kumak's ranseur and plummets towards the pool in an effort to put out the flames. His broken and burning corpse shudders and falls still a few feet from the pools edge and the cavern falls quiet save for the crackling of burning flesh below.
Thoughts:
Was a bit of a rough session. The parties penchant for splitting up wasn't hurting us while exploring the house but really hurt us when we went below.
Apparently if Tiberius had waited one round before attacking the Revenant of Foxgloves wife she would have ran downstairs and fought him for us, which would have really helped with all the ghouls.
Unfortunately Tiberius was too far away to make the jump even ignoring the 60 feet of fall damage. The second round with Heroism from the bard would have needed a Nat 20 but by then it was too late. I realized later that there was a chance if instead of trying to make the jump in one move I could have tried to jump half way down, make the acrobatics to stay upright, then move again to jump the rest of the way down. But then I would have eaten the 10 or so attacks, prob 8 hitting and even with a now +12 to fort there would have been a good chance for 2 paralyzed characters, then a now 10 hp max (due to yellow mold) bard and a Wizard to fight against 4 ghouls plus Foxglove who took close to 100 damage before dying.
Doing the math there was a good chance we could have sold the loot from the house to bring Tiberius back since the healing fund didn't have enough in it he would have had to repay the rest of the party their share eventually. The player elected to instead let Tiberius die and is doing up a Ranger with another dog animal companion. There is also another player from his 5e game coming to try out. So we will be adding a Halfling Ranger and Human Oracle next session.
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