Vapourware [Play-by-post] Lamentations in Averoigne

[nikolokolus]

You exit the empty room and go out into the passageway to the south. There is another door along the vaulted hallway about 3 paces farther along on the south wall. Its door is made of heavy stone and is split down the middle and appears to open inward (its hinges are not visible). On the face of the door where the two halves are joined, there is a large stone disc abot a handspan wide about waist high. around this raised stone disc are four diamond-shaped points spaced like ticks on a compass rose. Gently pushing on the door reveals that it is indeed firmly shut and latched somehow.

 

[nikolokolus]

 

[SoupNazi]

"Next room should be the bricked up door back in the main hallway. I've a sledgehammer, Requin's got a pickaxe; I say we break that room down, clear this area." Finn theorizes, explaining exactly what he means.

Spoiler

 

[nikolokolus]

The puzzle door is left alone for now, and the troupe goes back to the main artery connected to the entrance, where there is a bricked up door. Apparently these mauls and picks you bought in Les Hiboux are finally going to be put to good use . . . After about 30 minutes of careful sledge work (just chipping out the top half of the bricked up doorway) the group stands back and lets the dust clear and Ganelon holds his lantern on the end of his wooden pole and illuminates the chamber beyond. Everyone is startled to see a horrific demonic figure leering at them and then quickly recover their composure when they realize that it's just a statue -- albeit an eight foot tall statue of a bull headed demon with bat-like wings and a broken bronze whip in one hand. At the foot of the statue is a large basin full of glittering gold and silver objects and all along the walls are rectangular alcoves; perhaps 100 to 200 in total.

 

[nikolokolus]

Marcus says he will stand guard, How many of you will search the alcoves and the room in general?

 

[nikolokolus]

(Presumably) all six of you search the various alcoves and sift through the bowl of bones and coins in front of the demonic statue. After about 30 minutes you dump out your haul on the ground and quickly tally it up. All told the alcoves yield 66 silver pieces, and there are 10 gold coins of antique mintage, and another 130 antique bits of hack silver.

 

[L'ennui]

"Say, Marcus, does that statue ring any bells? It's just an artistic representation of some mythical creature, right? ... Right?"

 

[nikolokolus]

Marcus shakes his head, "Some demon of the underworld . . . their forms are as varied and inconstant as there are grains of sand in the ocean. I have never seen this depiction before."

 

[nikolokolus]

The troupe moves further along down the main passage and goes back to the room that was only partially searched nearly a month prior. There are perhaps another 100 or so alcoves yet to be turned over and the group busies themselves at this while Marcus keeps watch. About ten minutes later, Marcus lets out a hue and cry that there is trouble. When you poke your heads out the door you see 7 rotting corpses animated and shambling down the hall.

 

[L'ennui]

With his spear, Guillemin comes up behind the first rank of fighters to attack from a distance.

 

[nikolokolus]

Marcus invokes a prayer to Mithras and the 7 shambling corpses turn and start to flee, but Requin and Finn give chase.

 

[nikolokolus]

A pitched fight ensues in the hallway, with Requin, Finn, and Guillemin bearing the brunt. After Finn and Requin take a couple of grievous wounds, Marcus wades into the fray and start invoking spells to bolster his comrades. A flurry of blows is exchanged and less than a minute later the seven animated corpses lay hacked to pieces in the narrow passage.

 

[SoupNazi]

A pitched fight ensues in the hallway, with Requin, Finn, and Guillemin bearing the brunt. After Finn and Requin take a couple of grievous wounds, Marcus wades into the fray and start invoking spells to bolster his comrades. A flurry of blows is exchanged and less than a minute later the seven animated corpses lay hacked to pieces in the narrow passage.

Requin and Finn were extremely badass in the fight, having shielded the rest of the party by blocking off the hallway, dodging, weaving, deflecting, guarding and slashing, I should add.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah they even killed a few zombies.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah they even killed a few zombies.

Each

 

[Snorkack]

"Oh my, Finn, Requin, are you well? Those blows sure looked like they were hurting, but Marcus' miracles do impress me I must say."

Spoiler

Should Daphne attepmt some healing or are you guys okay?

 

[Grimgravy]

"Stop attacking undead that are running away, They're not worth it!"

 

[SoupNazi]

Finn cleans his blade from the putrid, black blood of the shamblers by flicking it, letting the blood splatter on a wall.

"Think we're fine thanks to Marcus, Daphne, thank you." he then sheathes the bastard sword and turns to Ganelon "They would have come back. We had the opportunity to take them out on our terms, so we took it. I prefer that than to wait for them to creep up on us from behind later."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Finn cleans his blade from the putrid, black blood of the shamblers by flicking it, letting the blood splatter on a wall.

Far too late Requin realises the tedium and work involved in removing bits and pieces of his enemies from a greatclub with nails affixed on it. Perhaps letting the nails rust would make them more dangerous, he would just have to remember to not let anyone borrow it for backscratching.

 

[AdamReith]

Grima inspects the slain corpses for any items of value on their person.

 

[nikolokolus]

The bodies carry nothing on themselves and are only adorned in rotting funerary garb -- linen wraps, and that sort of thing.

 

[AdamReith]

"Oh well". Grima gives one of the corpses a kick and proceeds to the next door.

 

[SoupNazi]

Finn proposes the following next course of action:

"We know that the entrance we've got is probably the westernmost of this place, based on where the mounds are on the surface. So, I think it makes sense to explore its edges, while clearing the accessible locations inbetween. We have a chamber just south of us that we've not checked, so we should do that now, and then go for the southwest door in the bigger room we found earlier."

Spoiler

Red = first
Blue = second

I checked with Nikos and apparently knowing we're more or less as west as possible is not too metagamey

 

[nikolokolus]

With the interruption of the animated corpses behind them, Requin's flood of endorphins and adrenaline subside and he looks down and sees that he is quite badly wounded in fact (something that seemed to fade into the background after being enchanted by Marcus' spell). Meanwhile, Guillemin, Ganelon, Grima and the rest go back to the room they were searching and finish up the task of sifting through all of the urns. In total, they recover an additional 72 silver denarii scattered among the alcoves. The coins are all etched with the heads of men in antique helms and latin inscriptions and dates -- mostly between 750 and 800 After the founding of Rome (which roughly corresponds to about 0 to 50 AD. It doesn't escape notice that only some of the burial nooks have money whilst others do not. The room didn't appear to have been ransacked either.

 

[nikolokolus]

The septet doubles back down the hall and moves cautiously along the parallel southern passage that goes east. A few minutes later they enter a large vaulted chamber about 40 feet east to west and 30 feet north to south. In the eastern wall is a large double-door made of stone. The room appears empty except for piles of rubble and refuse scattered around and several heaps of dung and garbage. The place smells singularly awful (but no worse than any major medieval city).