The Characters
Pendleton Torst, rogue anatomist
Catarina Redmoor, prioress of an unusual convent
Geradd, dissolute swashbuckler
Panthalassa Laurentide, a very weird orphan
Raoul Carathis, necromancer
Daytona Midnight, dhampir gunslinger
Asudem, a drowned antiquarian brought back from the dead
Events
One of the first things the group discovered in their exploration of this level of the Necropolis of Omera was a stone font filled with a silvery fluid. When Catarina gazed into it, she found herself apparently looking through someone else's eyes at a massive corpse golem, clad in a knight's helmet and holding a fearsome metal bar, set back into a niche. At least now they knew what they might be up against later.
The also found the fresh corpse of a man in robes who had let go of a staff topped with a bronze lizard's head as he died. Pendleton examined the corpse and determined that he had been hacked to death with axes--they correctly surmised that the degenerate dwarves they had encountered prior had gotten to him. According to the journal they found on him, this man was Harbecker Rohm, a sorcerer who was charged with setting the magical traps meant to keep the foolhardy from setting Dorian Margrave loose from his prison.
The next chamber they explored in detail announced its presence with a stink like spoiled wine before they even reached its door. Speaking of the door, they couldn't fail to notice that there was a large stone block above it that seemed poised to seal off the chamber should some trigger be sprung. And speaking of triggers, as most of the group dithered over whether they should open the door and risk triggering the stone block, Geradd got a running start and shouldered the door aside--to no ill effect.
Inside, a single ray of light shown down from the ceiling onto a gilded sarcophagus. The walls were decorated with stone dragon heads, which were determined to be the source of the vinegar-y wine smell. Raoul discovered that one of the dragon heads could be removed from the wall, and he and Geradd took it off to see what lay beyond. It had been covering a crawlspace; Geradd and Daytona entered it, but eventually they decided to send Raoul's familiar Annabelle to scout ahead.
Annabelle reported that there was a huge drum of wine within the crawlspace attached to a mechanism that could dump it into the room--potentially flooding the chamber. The crawlspace ended in a chamber where the floor was decorated with an occult symbol drawn in coarse salt. At each of the symbol's five points was a "object" of magical significance: the shell of a monstrous undersea creature, a patch of livid purple and pink mushrooms, a statuette of a fanged worm rearing up, a book with coiled chains, and a fossil of an ancient “lizard” head.
Making note of occult chamber's location, they retraced their steps to try another path and found themselves in a room with murals depicting a variety of people impaled upon swords. On the chamber's floor was a bas-relief of a dragon's claw; in the center of the bas-relief was a small shaft leading down into darkness. Since he can see in low-light conditions, Daytona peered down into the murk. Daytona saw a bubbling stone font of green slime positioned beneath the hole. A shadowy figured had its back to font; there was something about the mysterious person that unnerved Daytona.
It was determined that Pendleton would toss a bomb down into the hole. When the bomb went off, Daytona was inexplicable thrown against the wall as if he had been in the blast; he was wounded as if he had been in the radius of the explosion. Pendleton yelled down into the hole to see if the mysterious figure was still down there and got shot at for his troubles. The voice that came up from below sounded exactly like Daytona's. The figure left the room below; unsure how to proceed, they continued their exploration of the second level of the Necropolis.
They knew they were entering a strange section of the Necropolis when they passed through a hallway in which three zombies were chained to the wall, their mouths champing around metal bits. The tomb beyond had a chariot bearing a sarcophagus, statues of drakoi knights, and six purple glass cauldrons filled to the brim with human bones. Nothing happened when Panthalassa demolished a statue, but when the sarcophagus was opened, skeletal warriors began to crawl out of the cauldrons. Some of the characters, particularly Daytona, Catarina, and Asudem who were armed with guns, took out the cauldrons so that skeletons would not continue to be spawned from them, while the others took down their undead attackers. Once the dust settled, they collected their spoils from the sarcophagus: an amulet that warded against plague, three golden cups, a torq, and a shield bearing the legend "Unbroken."
In the final chamber on this floor, the party encountered a lich wearing a laughing "comedy" mask who was working away in his study while a number of severed hands scampered across the desk and floor. He introduced himself as Witherstock, and told them that he had been elected to stay within the Necropolis to maintain the binding magic that kept Dorian Margrave trapped within the tomb complex. He did not fancy their chances against Dorian, but he was able to tell them the following:
- Dorian could be found on the sixth and final level of the Necropolis
- The shadowy figure they had tried to explode was a magical construct that took on the identity of whoever was first to look upon it; this meant that somewhere on the floor below was an angry copy of Daytona
- The Necropolis existed well before Dorian Margrave was trapped within with his wives and lieutenants
- The skull in the jar they had been carrying around belonged to the daughter of Harbecker Rohm
- Rosaria has no great loyalty to Dorian, but Laoirshe is fanatically loyal to their husband; Thomasina, the youngest wife, is under Laoirshe's sway
After bidding Witherstock adieu, they descended the stairs where they opened a chamber emblazoned with graffiti that read "What are saints but heralds deceived?" Beyond the door was a corpse golem; when the golem removed its helm, it revealed a hideously asymmetrical visage that sent Pendleton into a spiral of fear. However, the golem was destroyed...but what had it been guarding? We'll find out next time, of course.