GC Dungeons and Dragons Part 3

In this session we explore a haunted basement and meet our doom.


When we left off, Sadun and Elle had been possessed by the ghosts of the house's children; Sadun was trying to barge down to the basement and Elle was somehow preventing her from opening the door.

Sadun finally managed to push past the pleading gnome, and plunged down the dark staircase, stomping as she went. She wasn't sure why she was throwing a temper tantrum at having her decisions questioned, but something was different since Rosavalda had possessed her. Elle, still protesting that it was too scary in the basement, nevertheless followed and climbed back onto Sadun's shoulders, with Talna, Balazar and Gilligan following behind, a little bit taken aback. At the bottom of the stairs was a dark tunnel, and the party could hear a muffled chanting emanating from somewhere beyond them.

Sadun, tired of the house's shenanigans, stomped over to the door of what looked like a crypt, and forced it open. Inside were two sarcophagi, one labeled "Walter Durst" and the other blank. Possibly left for one of the unfortunate adventurers? Not finding the promised monster of the house, Sadun turns and begins heading down a passageway, when Talna suggests they look into the other two crypts. Seeing a good opportunity to let out some anger, Sadun agrees (if grumpily) and goes to open another door, while Balazar and Talna start working on the third. Gilligan keeps watch in the hallway, still unsure what is happening.

Talna and Balazar succeed at opening their crypt, and inside are again two sarcophagi, one labeled Gustav Durst and the other Elizabeth Durst. Balazar opens up Gustav's to find it empty.

Meanwhile, Sadun breaks open the door to the final crypt, and inside are are two more sarcophagi, one labeled for Thornbald and the other for Rosavalda. Elle bursts into tears at the sight of Thornbald's tomb. Sadun feels that this is part of her mission to help these children, and so she opens Rosavalda's and lays the girl's skeletal remains to rest inside. As she does so, Rosavalda's spirit disconnects from her, and moves on with a whispered "Thank you". Sadun instantly feels more in control of herself.

Seeing the reaction, Elle forces herself to lay Thornbald's bones to rest in his tomb, and as she does, her possession too ends, and she regains her normal demeanor.

(Side note: The DM and we kind of agree this is an odd way to resolve this. Our DM specifically said it's the one thing about the adventure as written that he absolutely hates. It's so strange to take the bones of these neglected children and lay them to rest in the terrifying basement (full of monsters, they were told in life) AS WE CAN HEAR HIGHLY DISTURBING CHANTING from elsewhere in the basement. It would make more sense, if the players wanted to help the children's spirits move on, for us to take their remains outside the house and lay them to rest away from the terrible environment they had lived and died in... but we went with the way it was written. It was hard for me to play Sadun as a bossy character, and Elle's player was getting tired of being a scaredy cat and wanted to return to her sarcastic ways. END OF NOTE.)

Back in the other crypt, Talna and Balazar are having trouble opening Elizabeth's tomb, so Gilligan moves to help. As soon as the lid comes off, a swarm of insects pours out and attacks the poor goblin, but his discomfort is short lived as Elle emerges from the tomb of the children, sees the commotion, and skewers half the swarm on one arrow (Natural 20!), and the remaining insects bug off.

The party explores the dungeon

The party determines the chanting seems to be coming from the north(?) part of the basement, so Elle and Sadun head off to look South. The group finds a room full of discarded utensils, and littered with the bones of dead people around a table. Gilligan, trying to be the best goblin he can be, starts gathering bones, but Elle is bored and directs Sadun to continue. In the next room, they find a painted wooden statue of a tall pale man with one hand on a wolf's head and the other hand holding an orb. Elle, seeing potential treasure, has Sadun lift her onto the statue, but as soon as she touches the orb five spectral shadows appear and attack! Gilligan attempts to hide, and attack from the shadows, but he misses his incorporeal target. The shadows them attack the group, and after several rounds of combat, Sadun loses control of her rage and tears at one of the shadows until it dissipates (she was on 2 HP, and had lost 5 points of her strength ability). The team takes out two more shortly after, and Talna finishes the fourth with a gout of sacred flame. Gilligan bashes the final one with his mace and it too disappears, and Sadun is able to calm down (I took a Wisdom save against a difficulty based on my strength, which had been drained, in order to end the Rage. If the shadows hadn't drained my strength I actually would have failed that save and attacked somebody in the party. Elle's player suggested that maybe Sadun's budding friendship with Elle might help with these checks in the future, and I think that's a good idea.)

Fighting the shadows (skeleton minis were the only ones I had available)

Elle takes the orb, which is a simple object made of wood, usable as an arcane focus but otherwise not worth much.

As we look around the room, we notice a secret door! Behind the door are some stairs going up to a ladder, which leads to a trapdoor. Poking a head through we see that the trapdoor leads to the den on the first floor (with the bottomless wine cask... nobody tell Balazar!)

The group proceeds to the next room. Talna finds a bottle of alcohol, and smashes it on the ground claiming it's probably gone bad, which vexes Balazar. The rest of us find a treasure chest. Wary of the house at this point, Elle pokes it with her sword, which turns out to be a good idea, as the chest proceeds to grab the sword with a weirdly adhesive lid, and attacks the party. A mimic! The group settles in to attack except for Balazar, still angry about the booze. He wanders off down another passageway. As he rounds a corner, he realizes something has followed him, and turning finds a ghoul.

We're all fighting a mimic... Balazar where are you going?

In the previous room, Sadun loses her patience and begins attacking recklessly, smashing the mimic to pieces, and as the echoes of her blows quiet down the group hear's Balazar's shouts as he fights off the ghoul. Talna and Gilligan rush to his aid, but Elle decides to explore the bedroom down a different corridor, where she finds a crate with some stuff in it. But as she goes to lift up the crate, two ghasts fall out of the walls and attack her! (We have got to learn about splitting the party...) The ghasts resemble the people we saw in portraits throughout the house, Gustav and Elizabeth, but terribly aged and rotting undead versions of them. Sadun hear's Elle's shouts and runs to help her friend. Elle is surrounded, but lashes out with her short swords, managing to take out Elizabeth with Sadun's help, but a blow from Gustav knocks Elle unconscious. Sadun again loses control of her anger at the sight of her friend going down under the ghast's claws, and makes a running leap off the bed, swinging her axe down as she drops, and cleaves him in twain.

Why did we split the party?

Talna and Gilligan come into the room at this point, having dispatched the ghoul. Hurriedly searching the crate, Talna discovers four healing potions, and she uses one of them to restore Elle to consciousness. All four then set off after Balazar, who had continued further into the basement.

Balazar goes down another set of stairs into an entryway, surrounded with 13 odd talismans of the former cult placed reverently in niches along the wall. As he steps off the stairs Balazar can suddenly understand the words in the chant: "He is the ancient, he is the land" repeated over and over. Two paths lead from this room, one going down into some shallow but murky water, and the other remaining on the same level. The group catches up with Balazar, and we all decide to take the second path (no murky water please). Talna and Elle take point this time, and discover several prison cells filled with bones and rusted shackles. In one, Talna spots a gold ring on the finger of a skeleton in a tattered robe, and pockets it. In the room behind her, Elle finds a concealed door. The group gathers, and cautiously (for once) opens the door. We find a large circular room, with ledges on the sides and the middle filled with two feet of water except for an altar on a raised dais in the center. On one side of the room is an alcove filled with garbage. Balazar steps forth, and as he does the chanting suddenly stops.

Balazar approaches the altar, as the rest of us enter and spread out on the ledge. As he reaches the top of the dais, 13 robed figures appear, spread out on both ledges, and begin to chant: "One must die! One must die!" Talna and Balazar grin (nervously?) and join in the chant, but to our relief to not then attack us.

Elle noticed the garbage in the corner seems to be breathing somehow, and shoots it with an arrow. With a roar, the Shambling Mound stands up. (A Shambling Mound is a D&D creature that is made of plant life or fungus, and in this case is the rotting garbage dropped by the cult. We have no idea how long it was there, and if it was something the cult venerated or it it came later...)

Sadun swings at one of the robed figures next to her but misses. Talna then attempts to Turn Undead, and the robed figures disappear, but the chanting continues.

Balazar charges the Shambling Mound and breathes fire on it, but it is unfazed. The rest of us move in to attack, Sadun standing beside Balazar and swinging with her axe while Elle pops in and out of cover on the ledge to loose arrows. Talna stands well back and launches fiery magic at it, while Gilligan leaps to the dais, and then charges at the Mound with his lance before retreating again. Our attacks knock pieces of garbage off but the mound keeps coming, and it now seems to be chanting as well "One Must Die!" With one mighty swing it engulf Balazar in sludge, and hits Sadun for enough damage to knock her unconscious.

Gilligan rushes forward and feeds a healing potion to Sadun, bringing her back to her feet as Balazar struggles free of the Mounds grasp before he suffocates. Elle continues her barrage of arrows and unleashes a spell of her own, causing a hail of thorns to rain on its head.

The dinosaur is the Shambling Mound

Then the mound swings twice at Balazar, knocking him unconscious, and then hits once more. His face engulfed in garbage, it looks like he is dead.

And that's where we ended the session, after playing for 5 hours trying to finish the adventure up. Tonight I'll find out what happens next!