Adventure #1 - The Jolly Toad

Coughing and groaning, Maius moves toward Elodie hoping to assist her in lighting the new torch. "What happened?

R & R - THE REST OF COMBAT

Init 9 & 8
The entire party scrambles around in the dark, feeling for something, anything, to start a fire with. The only thing they find are a few fist-sized rocks ... but hey, it worked once before, maybe it will work again.

Init 22
The ghouls make their exit, closing the door behind them, and leaving the party in absolute darkness.

Init 17
Feeling returns to Maius's limbs, so he stumbles around, trying to find Elodie, so he can help get the fire started.

Init 9 & 8
Banging rocks together, the heroes eventually get one of the make-shift torches lit ... these are a little tougher to light than the ones provided by Randall, probably because they haven't been soaked in anything flammable.
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OOC: We'll call that the end of combat, because the monsters have fled (for now). If you re-engage, later, we'll re-roll initiatives. Go ahead and post actions, freely (that is, "out of combat" style), for now.

Jeremiah will exam the door the monsters fled through to see if he can barricade it. He will then search the room for other entrance/exits and try to find things to barricade the door with, if possible. He will also include the pit in the search for things to use to barricade if need be...

OOC: If we can barricade this area, would you want to try and rest here?

OOC: It has only been a few hours since the party woke up, so resting will be difficult. (Not saying you can take a breather, but you only benefit from a full night's rest once in a 24 hours period).

Jeremiah examines the far door and discovers it is very much like the first and second doors, but he sees no way to bar it. As far as something to barricade the door with, there are seven bodies in the pit and several more in this room. He checks the perimeter of the room, for exits and entrances, but finds none.

He does, however, find almost 70 loculi carved into the walls, which is clearly where all these bodies came from ... but there aren't nearly enough bodies here to fill them all. Scraps of cloth and other relics left inside the tombs suggests that each loculus once held a body, but now there are less than a dozen left. What happened to them? Did the creatures you just fought really eat them all?

All told, Jeremiah figures there are maybe 16 or 18 bodies (between this room and the pit), which could be piled up in front of the door to prevent it from opening.

Elodie follows Jeremiah around the room, helping to provide light as he searches for things to help the current situation. "What if they bring more back? Maybe we should go after them...we almost had them at the end, there."

OOC: I don't think we can expect to hole up safely in this room for 24 hours, so we might as well press on. If we can catch just those two, then we can probably take them.

"I'd rather take my chances with two injured, scared ghouls, than the giants on the other side of the pit," Elodie says, listening to Maius. "Searching everything in here is a good idea, though. Let's see what we can find, and then make a decision about which way to go. What were those things, anyways? Does anyone know anything about them?" She starts to move around the room, hunting for things that might be of value. She stops to pick up her spear along the way.

Taking a few minutes to search all of the mummified bodies and all of the burial niches, Elodie and Maius find quite a few artifacts ... some of which may prove useful. Jeremiah has time to join the search, as well, and turns up a few additional items from the corpses. Among the items they find...

• An old spyglass made of wood and brass
  
• The signet ring of General Gnaeus Marsus, Legate of the Legio Martis
  
• Five gold rings, engraved with the names of the Augustine officers serving under Gnaeus Marsus
  
• A very, very old bottle of wine, sealed with a wax-covered stopper (not a cork). The bottle is unadorned, so it's difficult to know if its still drinkable.
  
• A dozen short swords and half a dozen spears, all of which appear to have been of masterwork quality, once, but centuries of neglect have ruined their craftsmanship. Still, the Augustine markings might be worth something.
  
• Three pearls of ordinary size and luster
  
• A slender wand of bone, maybe 7 inches long, and inscribed with the word "Sana."
  
• A wicked-looking axe that is clearly NOT of Augustine design. The entire head is forged from black metal and etched with gold runes, which none of you can read. The haft was cut from a dark wood you don't recognize and the grip is intricately wrapped with an unusual shagreen (it does not appear to be ordinary rawhide). The entire axe is about the same size as an ordinary hatchet, but it is noticeably heavier.
  

Talmut is able to discern that the signet ring and the five gold rings are probably worth around 150-200 gold pieces each. The bottle of wine might be worth 500 gold pieces, while the swords and spears might be worth 100-150 gold in total. Using his detect magic ability, he discovers that the wand, the axe, and all of the pearls are magical!

Talmut and Maius both recognize "Sana" as the Augustine word for "heal." Talmut shares this information.

Elodie takes a ring and slips it onto one of her fingers, testing the size. "Let's try to get as much of this back to town as possible, and sell it...unless any of it looks useful to us." She hoists the heavy axe in the air towards Jeremiah. "Do you think this might be better than the one you have now?"

She also takes a look at the wand, curious about what it might actually do. "Do you think this will actually heal us?" Grinning, she points the wand at each party member in turn. "Who wants to try it out?" Without waiting for a response, Elodie rests the wand tip on her other arm, bracing herself for what might happen.

When Elodie activates the wand, it heals her.

- 7 Hit Points Healed. (d8+3; 4 on the die) ... but she isn't sure how many charges it might have.

"All better," Elodie smiles. "Now, I wonder how useful this will be in the future..."

Concentrating on the wand, Elodie attempts to figure out how many times she will be able to heal people before the magic is exhausted.

Cast Detect Magic.
Spellcraft check (to determine number of charges): 10 (4 + 6)

Elodie is unable to determine the properties of the wand at this time (other than the fact that it heals people).

Elodie shrugs after a moment. "Well, it heals us, and that's what we need right now. Maybe I'll be able to figure it out tomorrow." She approaches Maius and takes his hand, laying the tip of the wand in his palm. After healing Maius, Elodie starts to gather anything that she can carry from the pile of goods that they gathered (OOC: Elodie can carry 2 1/2 pounds of "stuff" before she is encumbered...depending on how much everyone else is carrying, though, I guess she could deal with being encumbered for a little bit). Once the party has everything split and packed up, she says, "So...after the ghouls, to try and find a way out of these ruins?"

GM Edit: OOC: She heals Maius for 6 hit points (3 on the die)

Maius gathers up his own belongings and begins to search the walls of the room for writings he may be able to decipher. "Hey, I could really use one of those heals too!

Linguistics: +6
?Knowledge(History): +6
?Knowledge(Local): +8

O.o.C.: Not sure which of those apply here, or if I roll them or GM. Amend as necessary.

GM Edit: OOC: She healed your for 6 hp.

When Maius inspects the walls, he finds the names and ranks of the dead inscribed above each loculus, and determines that they are of August origin. These were imperial soldiers of some sort, but why they would build such a crypt is a mystery ... was this site reserved for military burials? Or did they all die at the same time?

Maius has heard tales of Legions that were unable to return home when the Empire was driven out, but if that was the case, they wouldn't have had time to build such an elaborate catacomb. Perhaps they retreated here when pressured by local resistance? Or maybe they were one of the few "defector" legions, who broke away from the main forces, long before their kinfolk were defeated. There is simply not enough information here to be sure ... but Maius definitely has enough to start with, if the opportunity arises to further research the matter.

Elodie tucks the spyglass, rings, pearls, moonstone, mirror, thieves' tools, wine, and wax into her bag. She makes sure that the gem and pearls are secure in a small pocket. She then tucks the wand into her belt pouch, where it will be easily accessible. She picks up the scroll and hands it to Talmut. "You should probably hang onto this, but I'll carry it for you if you want." With all of the smaller items stowed away, Elodie manages to strap five spears onto her back. "This way, at least some of us can move quickly, if we need to."

OOC: This leaves the swords, one spear, the axe, the shovel, the backpacks, and the scroll (unless Talmut takes it). 

Talmut will hang onto the scroll. 

OOC: I will add it to his character sheet.

Jeremiah will only grab the axe. 

OOC: He hangs it from the opposite side his waist that his other axe is on..
OOC2: Are there any arrows laying around?

Once Elodie has as much of the loot strapped to herself as possible, the party is ready to move. She will be moving much slower than she was before, but as agreed to take on this burden (no pun intended). Talmut takes the scroll and Jeremiah takes the axe, but both decide that the rest of it isn't worth carrying. Maius looks over what's left, but decides to take nothing (OOC: There isn't anything left that weighs less than your one-pound limit ... unless you want to have medium encumbrance). That leaves twelve swords, a spear, an old backpack, and a shovel left behind.

Jeremiah looks for his fallen arrows. He fired four during this battle, but he only recovers two of them (the other two broke when they hit the stone wall).

Still, wounded, Talmut asks for a heal from the wand, as well. (OOC: He's still down 2 hit points).

After that, it seems the party is ready to move ...

Talmut moves to the door again and presses his ear to the door, just like before (but this time, he does not fall into a pit). He hears nothing and tells the party as much. Slowly, he jerks the door open, revealing another darkened hall, roughly the same size as this one ... at the far end, however, a beam of sunlight reaches down from the ceiling ... it's difficult to be sure (in the dark, from this distance), but it seems the light is coming from a part of the ceiling that may have collapsed. Where it touches the floor, the light is illuminating a throne, with a corpse still seated in it. The throne itself looks to be made of stone and wood.

The corpse looks very old, withered away by exposure. What's left of its rotten flesh hangs from its bones in pieces, long strands of white hair still held in place by a bronze helm. The corpse is nobly dressed, it's once rich clothing faded and warn.

"Ack! No! Leave us alone!" the ghastly monsters howl from the shadows on your left and your right. As far as you can tell, there's still only two of them. "Go! Go! Get out of here!"

Elodie wrote:"What were those things, anyways? Does anyone know anything about them?"

After pondering the question, Talmut finally comes up with an answer. He tells Elodie that these creatures are called "ghouls" -- undead scavengers that feed upon the dead. Legends has it that the first ghouls were cannibals who's hunger for their kinsman's flesh brought them back from the grave ... but their true origins are unknown. They are notoriously resistant to "turning" and those who survive an encounter with a ghoul sometimes contract a deadly disease known as "ghoul fever."