Characters
Aria, a paladin struggling with her true nature
Heck, an affable revenant looking for answers
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell
Garazi, up and coming witch with a bird familiar
Willard Corn and King Beebo, a farmer and his monkey (?)
Events
We left off in the last session with the characters descending into the ossuary they had uncovered beneath the cemetery behind the Usher House. The walls and ceiling of the subterranean dungeon were lined with bones arranged in unnerving decorative patterns. Any doors they encountered were stolen from the crypts above; they were merely leaned against the portals they covered rather than being attached in any meaningful way.
Daytona immediately triggered a spiked log to swing from out of the darkness and crash into the party as he went to inspect a crushed skeleton laying on the ground. In another chamber, Beebo noticed that the chandelier made of bone could be lowered; that also triggered something--but they never figured out exactly what that something was. In yet another room of the ossuary, they found a necromantic lab, complete with a pile of severed arms. They determined that someone had tried to cast a spell to preserve the dead flesh, but had failed. It should be noted that none of the arms were Panthalassa's missing limb.
As the group explored further, they discovered that the "ossuary" part of the caverns was connected to an undecorated system of caves--one of which opened out onto an underground river, complete with a violently swirling whirlpool. Tied to a rock was a rowboat meant for traversing the underground river.
Another chamber in the ossuary was clearly a devotional room, as it was fitted out with an altar of bone and several pews. The altar cloth showed the symbol of the Fraternite du Cadavre. Upon the cloth were a number of scrolls, which were titled "Lord of Blood," "The Black Prince," and "Hymn of the Nightmother." A member of the party recalled that the Nightmother was a pagan death goddess, who wasn't worshiped so much as placated. She was also depicted as a multi-armed deity. Heck destroyed the altar, hoping to find something hidden within, but alas, now it was just a broken altar.
Garazi spotted one of the Ushers' skull masks in a corridor, where it had presumably been dropped; Panthalassa put it on, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, a strange red rune briefly appeared on Daytona's forehead. The group determined that someone was trying to teleport him elsewhere. Panthalassa attempted to dispel the runes, but all she got for her trouble is a familiar voice in her head telling her that she was not a match for whoever was casting a spell on Daytona.
The party then examined a statue of the Grim Reaper that was stationed in an alcove. The base of the statue bore the legend "Beyond Death Lies Truth." When Heck moved the Reaper's scythe, the statue slide aside, revealing a small hiding place. Inside was an object wrapped in a cold wet cloth. Inside the cloth was a locked tome that Beebo was able to unlock. The book was titled Compendium of Death Gods and Major Spirits of the Dead, but its contents would require translation.
There was also a great deal of tomfoolery with some chairs sat at the base of statues of various necromantic figures, such as Dracula, Countess Alcesta, Count Magnus, the Grim Reaper, the Black Prince, and an uncouth and unfamiliar figure. Switching out who was sitting in which chair had no discernable effect.
As a change of pace, the group encountered someone who was actually still among the living in a tomb when they stumbled upon a snow elf named Eshrevaal rummaging around in piles of bones, hoping to chance upon repositories of necromantic energies. When they found him, he immediately assumed a defensive stance and drew an ice dagger, but Garazi managed to get him to drop his guard. The front of his shirt was covered in blood, but he explained that the blood was fake--it was intended to make people assume he was dangerous so they'd give him a wide berth. He explained what he knew of the Fraternite du Cadavre, as well as informing them of the presence of a foul-smelling chasm within the caverns, but also told them that he hadn't encountered any of the Fraternite members in the ossuary. The talked Eshrevaal into accompanying them as they finished exploring.
Meanwhile, more runes had appeared on Daytona's body and they were getting brighter.
In one of the caves, they found a number of wheels held aloft on spikes; the wheels had skeletons woven through them. Predictably, the skeletons animated when the group got near and clambered down the spikes with their wheels to roll menacingly at the party. The wheeling skeletons were not difficult to take down, but they kept reforming--even joining together to form new creatures when they were too damaged to continue on their own. Willard and Beebo figured out a novel way to circumvent the skeleton's constant reformation: they grabbed the skeletons' wheels and hurled them down the stairs.
Some of the wheeling skeletons made a pleasing splash as they fell into the underground river and were swept into the whirlpool. The rest of the group began to follow suit with grabbing and throwing the wheels, but one of the skeletons managed to grab Aria's sword and take it with him into the river. Since that sword is near and dear to Aria's heart, she quickly tied a rope around her waist, handed the other end to her companions, and dove into the river after it. It was a tense moment, but Aria was able to wrest the sword from the skeleton's grasp just before it went down into the whirlpool.
The only thing left in the cavern was the chasm and the small underground lake nearby. There was a severed hand that had been gnawed upon at the lip of the charnal-smelling chasm. There was a small island at the center of the lake upon which stood a thin plinth. Beebo had the bright idea to retrieve the rowboat they had found earlier and use it to cross the lake. This was a wise move as they felt something touching the bottom of the boat as they crossed; if they had tried swimming instead they would have met whatever it was head-on.
Beebo was able to climb up the plinth and retrieve an item from the top of it--it was a bone whistle on a leather thong. The whistle was determined to be magical. Tired of the dithering about it, Panthalassa blew the whistle; it summoned two monstrous humanoids garbed in ragged hoods from the depths of the cavern. The two figures claimed to have another of the Ushers' masks, but they would only trade it for FLESH. They preferred ROTTING FLESH, as it turned out. Beebo remembered the pile of arms they had found earlier and that made for the perfect exchange. The group now had two of the missing masks in their possession.
Having explored the extent of the ossuary, the group reemerged in the cemetery. Unfortunately, Daytona now found himself surrounded by a circle of runes that threatened to whisk him off to parts unknown. Before he vanished he handed Panthalassa his hat--a sure sign that he would make his way back to the group come Hell or high water.
Where did Daytona go? Read this to find out.
