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After nearly a month of basic guard duty in for the Venture Captain, you all start to grow restless. Fortunate for you, VC Heidmarch calls you all into her chambers. On her desk is a large map. She points to it, Deep in the River Kingdoms lies Thornkeep. Its a small, lawless town of no renown. But unknown to very few but myself there is a dungeon there. Many hundreds of years ago a powerful wizard by the name of Athemon put powerful wards on this dungeon to protect its secrets. Up until now, no one has been able to break these wards and find the treasures that are inside. I saw now, because for some strange reason, the wards are collapsing, leaving the dungeon free to explore for the first time in an age. Explore Athemon's dungeon and bring his artifacts back to me. Completing this will bring great prestige to both yourselves and the Pathfinders!
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Slypher huffs a quick sigh of impudence.
"I'm sure something or someone is going to try murder us and strew our entrails about the place. Otherwise you wouldn't be sending pathfinders." He leans back against a wall, casually positioned with his staff.
"So what is it? Any ideas what's going to want to eviscerate us upon arrival?"
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Sheila Heidmarch simply smiles at you all, Don't worry, I trust that your abilities will lead you safely through the dungeon. That is why you have been chosen! I have arranged for a boat and then a carriage to get you to Thornkeep. The journey should be simple. I've included a few maps of the area so that you can find the entrance without much problem.
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"I'm looking forward to travel with these gentlemen and the lady to unearth those unknown treasures." The halfling, who has a bald head, a considerable girth and is clothed in functional but well-made travelling-garments turns to the group of Pathfinders: "To introduce myself: I'm honored to be Aasif Spicetongue, humble merchant and entrepreneur."
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The next day, Lady Heidmarch wishes you all well and had a boat prepared for your journey. Your boat leaves at sunrise, sailing into the Steaming Sea towards Conquerors's Bay. Once in Korvosa, you leave the open seas and start sailing down navigable rivers through The Bloodsworn Vale. From there your journey takes a turn on foot, hiking through the mountain pass and into Skelt. From there you are able to hire a boat to Caliphas, the capital of Ustalav. The River Kingdoms now so close, you are able to hire a smaller boat to row you up the West Sellen River and into the Echo Wood, home of Thornkeep. All in all, this journey went smoothly.
During your travels, you had time to study the maps given to you by Heidmarch. They don't show much. The town of Thornkeep is small and like other River Kingdom areas, is mostly lawless. You are able to get to the Thirsty Ogre, the tavern in town. Rooms are paid for with money from the Venture Captain.
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At the Inn over a warm meal and some ale:
I´m glad we are out of Ustalav without any incidence. I heard so many horrible stories about undead and ghosts there, don´t like them.
Pai Song falls quiet for a moment, then looks around in a sudden realization.
We are going into a crypt or something like that which was sealed off for centuries! Who knows what lurks there! Could as well be a hoard of undead! Or maybe there is one of that storied lichs who caused the crypt to open after preparing to make all of the surroundings into his minions unleashing vile magic that was researched in those centuries past!
Osric, you are a religious man, what does Desna say about undead? Does she give you some might to thwart them? I know a minor magic trick to hurt them, but it´s not much.
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Osric shrugs "Desna grants me no special powers against the undead. The energy she sends to heal you will damage such a foe, however."
After a moment, he speaks again " I hope there are no liches in this crypt. From what little I have heard of them, it would turn out ill for us. From what I know of dungeons laden with treasure, it is the humans around us we need to worry about - those that also seek the same treasure we do"
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Something that burns mh? For some coins more you might get some distilled water that burns in your throat. Even here. I don´t like fire magic so much. have something forcefull though that can knock you out of your boots.
Razmir grants me this beam of energy which should hurt all undead, even a lich! But it´s good to have someone else with magic abilities, just in case.
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While you don't see any evidence of the undead in this lawless town, you do see plenty of brigands, bravados, and thieves.
The next day you start your way out towards Brokenhelm Hill, an innocent looking piece of brush and trees that is indicated on your map. After looking around the hill for an hour or so, you find hidden in the deep brush a stone door that has been attempted to be hidden by some type of humanoid.
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I´m glad we left the undead grounds, my magic is more suited to deal with the kind of people we have here. Pai Song says smiling.
I heard there are ways to even charm the undead and bend them to my will though. Magic power that is yet beyond my grasp and knowledge, but one day it will be mine. If i could only figure out.... she trials off mumbling to herself about magical incantations and rituals untill the stone door is found.
Is this the place? Her eyes take on a blue shine. Let me see if there are magic auras or traps.
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Sorin starts clearing the brush to get a better look at the door, but not actually touching anything as Pai works her magic.
"Pai. I was thinking about the undead...and you know, for the most part, you just hit them until they stay down. That is the easiest way to deal with them." Sorin says grinning.
"Does the map say anything about the door?"
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Aasif squeezes himself through to get a look at the strange stone-door,too.
"Now, dear companions, the interesting part of our journey is about to begin." he says with a quiet smile.
Waiting until after Pai is done inspecting the door for magic he adds
"Let me take a look to see if anything unpleasant is trying to keep itself from us."
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While the door isn't magical, anymore, it does radiate faint powerful magic that has faded. This confuses Pai a bit, since it is like nothing she has seen before. There are runes placed on the door, but Pai doesn't recognize them at all.
Aasif takes a look around the door and is determined that it is not trapped. In fact, the door has been opened recently. The brush around the door, was likely placed there by whomever is inside Aasif comes to understand.
It is a large stone door, easily able to let someone of the size of Sorin enter with comfort. A simple push seems to be all that it needs...
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The door creaks open with ease, and you look down into a short stairwell that opens into a larger room. Moving cautiously, you enter into the dungeon. You notice that the walls were crafted expertly from masonry and the floors are made of flagstone. Taking a few steps onto the stairs, you see several braziers lining the walls lit with magical flames.
At the bottom of the stairs is a large square room (25'x25'). As soon as you enter the room, you are assaulted by the smell of rotting meat. The room is empty save the excavated flagstone in the center of the square.
At the opposite side of the room from the stairs is an old door that has been sealed with blocks. The flagstones that were pulled up in the middle of the room reveal a staircase that leads down.
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Aasif is sure that there isn't any traps on the stair in the floor. In fact, it was likely hidden very well before the flagstones were upturned. The sealed door doesn't appear to be trapped either. However, the stones seem to be placed and sealed with type of mundane glue. It could be opened but would take a long time.
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Looking around the room, you can see that there are two monsters hiding in the corners! They appear to be enormous Centipedes!
The two centipedes manage to strike before the heroes. Their large powerful jaws drip with some type of sticky saliva.
But both attacks fail to penetrate the warriors armor.