Rappan Athuk [Pf]

Game Master Chris Manos

Thanks to expeditious retreat, I have a speed of 40 feet for about 3 more minutes, so I could help loot probably as I'll get to the mausoleum faster.

As he sees Belle engaging in ill-advised donkey shenanigans he pauses his hauling of his friend's recently deposed corpse to yell at his yet-living companion.

BELLE! Leave the blasted mule and get into the crypt! We haven't the time for this!

Belle will ignore Reynaould's plea and continue her mad dash for the Mule. Her unloaded floating disk dissolves into nothingness as her pace quickly outstrips the range on the spell.

Pill, who's name stemmed from her nebbyness and, if anything, excess of intelligence, has managed to stretch her neck back and nibble open a corner of one of the feed sacks and is obliviously licking away at the corner as the food dribbles out, an escapade she has attempted numerous times during the trip only to be thwarted by the alert travelling companions.

Tony follows Reynaud, getting ready to lock the mausoleum door to block the ghouls entrance.

Tony makes it to relative safety, even overtaking Reynaud in the proccess. He also manages to close one of the double doors, leaving the other one hanging open for the rest of the party to enter through, even as he scrambles to produce his specialist lockpicking tools from his pockets.

The rest of the party already know this, but Tony only experiences it now; The doors are balanced so they swing open under their own weight if not kept closed, either by the locking mechanism, or by someone pulling on the iron rings that serve as handles on the inside.

Keeping the door closed is not at all hard work, but it will swing open if he lets go of it.

regaining consciousness, Magnus searches his pack and pulls out a scroll, then casts Ant Haul on himself. Then he lifts one of the gargoyles and begins to run towards the the Mausoleum where the rest of the party are gathering. He uses Dimension slide along the way to increase his speed.

Almost all of the party makes it inside the mausoleum, huddling in the cool shadows.

Belle, the only one still outside, has made it almost halfway to Pill. The mule is kicking the ground nervously, showing little sign of desiring to come closer of her own volition.

The hunting calls of the ghouls are close now - they're loud enough that it's actually a little baffling that you can't see them over the edge of the hill yet.

I can't abandon her, but I can't let Tony and Magnus die alongside her.

Reynaud sighs.

He then turns and mutters an aside to Tony and Magnus.

Lock the doors if the ghouls show up or we aren't back inside in seven seconds.

He walks outside, yelling at Belle and re-drawing his weapons.

BELLE! You have five seconds to get inside or the door's getting locked behind you!

Belle skids to a halt and briefly considers her options.

"Pill you stupid fool."

Reality forces its way through her grief and she turns back, tears streaming down her face, making a break towards the one remaining open door.

Belle has barely turned around when the ghouls show over the hillside. They're significantly closer to the door than she is, even measuring a straight line, which she can't run along due the curve of the hill, and the clusters of gravestones in her path - she'll have to backtrack quite a bit.

By the time she reaches the statue and the gargoyle-debris from the last fight, the ghouls have tumbled haphazardly down the hillside, gotten themselves untangled from the resulting heap of limbs, and are sprinting towards the yawning door, running on all fours like an ape might.

She overtakes them, barely, and makes it to relative safety.

Reynaud is the only one to get a good look at the things hunting them. They're humanoids of indeterminate origin, naked, rail-thin, and covered scalp to claw in dirt and grime.
Their bellies seem distended, and their mouths warped, all of them having grown a small but prominent 'muzzle', jutting out from their lower face. Their lips are clearly too small to cover their teeth. Most of the hands and feet have been elongated into claws, tipped with bone-like curving nails. The leader appears to have had the front-most part of her nose cut off at some point, after which it grew back in a snout of sorts. The growth seems out of control, thick flaps of skin and tissue hanging over the sides of her muzzle, adding to the hound-like image.

Reynaud is the last one to make it inside; you slam the doors shut, plunging you into near perfect darkness as the ghouls howl in rage outside.

Hang on, I got somethin' for this...

Reynaud pulls a small stone out of his pocket and holds it up to his head, where it starts to orbit.

Ioun torch

The light glows from the ioun stone, lighting up most of the mausoleum.

As before, stone caskets line the walls, two of the lids lying shattered on the floor, which is otherwise sparsely littered with twigs and patches of mud. The bones of the dead inside the caskets are dead and still - no danger here.

The back third remains shrouded in darkness. Besides, you investigated this place before in quite some detail, and the ghouls outside are going nuts, banging on the door and pulling the handles with all they've got. That's probably more interesting right this second.

Never been in a siege before. Know if that'll hold 'em?

With a haggard look, streaks from tears having emphasizing what wrinkles she has as they flowed down her face and strategically cleared the dirt, she turns towards the others and states, simply, "Sorry", her face briefly crumpling before she restores control.

Is it really worth it? Was the chance at better art worth Tessai's death? Was HER final thought 'this was worth it,' as those horrible monsters tore her to shreds as she protected the rest of us by madly swinging her sword as she stood in the middle of all of them?

Tony finally collapses into a heap, after running for so long and injured to boot. He has a strange smile on his face.

Still alive, still alive

"I thank you all for your marvellous assistance, I couldn't have got this far without you. I regret the loss of our comrade, Tessai, but her sacrifice was not in vain. We have one of the fiends' corpses here, and I shall dig out the eyes which I believe we can sell for a fortune. Even if the ghouls take the rest of the gargoyles, we still have these. Now does anyone have a dagger? I'm pretty sure my knife will be too small."

Belle waves vaguely towards the small pile of weapons from Tessai. The pile includes a greatsword, elven curve blade (exchanged by Belle for the longsword), mace, and a morningstar and were carried in on her floating disk before she began her mad dash.

Quite a pile for one person to lug around. She seemed ready for anything.

Magnus' short speech elicits more of the shrill hunting calls from outside, and renewed banging on the double doors.

Short of the ghouls starting to employ heavy duty tools to break down the doors, it seems likely that they will hold.

Agyen's crystal also glows like a torch. Prismatic Crystal
A whisper is audible in everyone's ears.
Do not despair. Tessai died an honorable death, as befits a paladin, and she will have her reward. Through her death we can continue forward, and finish what has been started. Her death will not be in vain.
Message. And because Tessai's dead, I can talk to the whole party! Yay!

Belle's head jerks up in response to the whisper, momentarily in wonder that something greater than her responded to her thoughts, only to wonder at her naivete that one would really care as she looks around for the one responsible. "Well, I guess I should keep busy. Magnus, would you mind if I copied some of your spells into my book? It seems that the spells I've learned were less geared towards dealing with gargoyles and ghouls and more towards games and shows. You are, of course, welcome to take a look at what I have and we could trade. I do have a limited supply of materials for that purpose here with me. Seems only fair that if you share your knowledge I share my ink. I do have a few spells for personal defense like Mage Armor and Magic Missile but I know that you have those too. That color spray seemed to work pretty good on the gargoyles..."

I took stone shield which might be illegal. I think stone shield is Oread specific and it may not be a legal choice for an elf. If it is illegal I could swap it out for blend (an elven spell dealing with color no less) which I think would fit her personality or any other spell you choose.

"A more than fair offer. Let's see what we can learn from one another."

Glitterdust and Color Spray seem to be the only ones I don't have

Tony mage hands a dagger to Magnus.

"Have at it"

I think you looked at my spells prepared instead of my spellbook. See discussion tread for spellbook contents and other crunch

Olaf, how long do we have to sit around and be busy before we turn in and get rest?

I'd say you can go to sleep at around 8 at the earliest. Whether you work out a watch schedule is up to you.

The party busies themselves with various tasks as the ghouls rage outside. They scratch at the walls, at one point even jumping atop the roof. Special attention is paid to the door, and an hour or two into it, you have quite the scare. Apparently, they've found something large and heavy to use as a battering ram. After ten or so bashes against the door, it becomes clear that they're not going to get through with that either.

It takes quite some time for the ghouls to grow bored, and aknowledge that they're not going to breach the mausoleum.

There's more hunting calls, and then a few minutes of silence.

There's an almost polite knock on the doubledoors. It's accompanied by a raspy voice.

"Talk?"

Reynaud is clearly unsettled.

Someone with better knowledge of corpses pitch in here. Can ghouls talk?

@Agyen: Ghouls were humans, or at least humanoids once. The literature doesn't speak of talking ghouls, but as far as you know, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to talk, in theory. Zombies don't talk because they're stupid, not because they're physiologically incapable. Ghouls do go through gradual metamorphosis as they age and feed, and that might end up deforming their mouths and throats enough that they lose the ability to produce coherent speech. It'd take a ghoul decades to reach that state though, and that's assuming that it has ready access to humanoids for eating.

Belle is busy copying Burst of Radiance into her spellbook when they are interrupted by the raspy voice.

"Who could that be? Surely not one of the ghouls!"

If dead people can walk, talking doesn't seem out of the question.

"Ghouls can talk"
Can I use message through the door?
Leave us you foul abominations, or in Pharasma's name I will rip the cursed flesh from your bones.

You have to roll to decipher my writing first. DC22 Spellcraft check for a 2nd level spell

Magnus looks at Belle's spellbook, attempting to decipher her notes

Magic Missile: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14
Snowball: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27

He is able to write one spell into his spellbook.

The rest of the time is spent gouging out the eyes from the gargoyle.

So long as you have the ink for it, that's fine. As for message, casting it requires line of sight, to the target, so no.

Magnus has also pried the two sapphires out of the gargoyle's skull. At a glance, he thinks they might roughly be worth a thousand gold pieces each, to the right buyer.

"They say we should leave. They don't really want that, do they? We don't think they do. We wants to tra-ade." The voice seems gleefully malign, taunting.

"Who says you should leave?"

You have to roll to decipher my writing first. DC22 Spellcraft check for a 2nd level spell

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

... wait. I think Read Magic gets you past that check. Please verify!?!?

"They say we should leave. They don't really want that, do they? We don't think they do. We wants to tra-ade." The voice seems gleefully malign, taunting.

"Don't tell me you have someone captive out there, because that is about the only thing that would tempt me to make a deal."

There's another, difference voice. This one is far less raspy, but seemed to have trouble with certain sounds. "Your priestling. Threthens fires of his god, he does. Not nice to -"

She is cut off by the first voice. "Captives in there. You. We don't think you know a way out. We think you can't get away." Again with the taunting, singsong tone.

Tony is a little startled that they can talk, but very happy that the wall is making them negotiate.

"Let'rm talk. We have some time now to rest and catch our breaths. Hey, maybe they'll break their arms trying to break in. I'm going to dig around in here.

He turns to the dark end and starts to check every nook and cranny.

Perception: Take 10: 10 + 10 = 20

Two rows of sarcophagi line the walls, with a broad pathway down the middle of the room.

It seems otherwise quite empty. The sarcophagi have all been opened, the heavy stone lids casually discarded on the floor. Some lie broken. Others have obviously been stripped of inlaid gemstones and other such finery.

The long-dead skeletons inside seem to have been moved around multiple times, anything of value removed.

Aside from rubble and bones, there is little of interest in the large chamber.

Agyen spends the time using occult skill unlocks for divination, then using treat deadly wounds on himself.
Prognostication (Sense Motive): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19 Fail.
Automatic Writing (Linguistics): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16 Fail.
Heal: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23 ... If I'd put one more rank in... :(
Believe what you will. You have until dawn to run and hide, but no matter where you go, Pharasma's judgement will find you, and your souls shall be freed from your wretched corpses.
Intimidate: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12 Meh.

"Don't you have some place to be? A master perhaps that you have to report to? If coming out means our death at your hands, we would just stay in here and die of starvation anyway. Then you have NOTHING and if you have a master he will be quite angry. But I'm not worried. We destroyed the gargoyles. We can destroy you with a little rest. We have fire too you know. Lots of fire. Nasty, burning, blinding, hurtful fire."

Magnus Tate wrote:

You have to roll to decipher my writing first. DC22 Spellcraft check for a 2nd level spell

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Bad day, I guess. I'll have to try another day.

... wait. I think Read Magic gets you past that check. Please verify!?!?

Looks like you need to make a DC 15 + 2*spell level check after an hour anyway and that stinky roll failed even that. I think we could do an aid another to bump each others rolls over the threshold though.

"They blaspheme. The servants won't be very plesed."

"Yess. Does they hear that?" knock knock "What will they give us, I wonder, if we swears not to tell the servants? The servants has the key. And they serve. It would not end well for their souls, if we tell."

"Who are the servants? who do they serve? what key do they have? Why should we care if you tell?"

"Riddles! I hate riddles. Why can't you speak plainly!"

This is as bad as trying to decipher one of Magnus spells.

Olaf. What time on the clock is this conversation taking place at?

Sense Motive w/ burst of insight: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (8) + 16 = 24
Now I'm really out of spells

Reynaud interjects as Belle mentions starving to death rather than being eaten alive.

For what it's worth, I have some supplies on my person. We ought to last a little while to patch ourselves up.

And once the "servants" are mentioned.

Well, they mentioned souls, and given the history of the place, maybe they mean servants of the demon lord Orcus?

Magnus' questions are answered slowly and enunciated, as if speaking to a somewhat stupid child. "The servants serve the master, and has key to the door." a claw knocks on the doors to illustrate. "Does it not care for its eternal soul? Most things like it do."

Reynaud's casual mention of Orcus is met with sudden shouting from outside.

"The Master!"

in answer, a great cry from a dozen voices. "IA!"

There's a brief pause. "Darling mortals. They're so sweet and stupid."

"Taste sweat too."

"We could tell them secrets. They come to take things, yes? We know where things are, treasure, secrets, tunnels, openings. We knows a way in." There's the singsong voice again.

"Not allowed. We mustn't."

"Whod know?"

That question is met with deliberative growling from the others.

@Agyen, everything they said has been true. That said, there's one thing that has been carefully worded; the 'servants' do have the key to the mausoleum, and if these ghouls tell them that you're hiding in here, they would come and do something bad to your souls. The snag is, the ghouls would much rather like trade you a promise not to tell the servants about you, than they'd like to actually tell the servants about you. They might not actually contact the servants at all if you refuse, you think. That's a pretty big 'you think' to gamble your eternal soul on, but there it is. Still, the ghouls think they're on the up and up here, posing this deal of theirs.

@Belle, current time. 5:30.

we need to keep them talking. They've already revealed that there's a secret entrance, who knows what else they might reveal?
"What's your offer?"

"One of them is dead, we knows - there was heartsblood here. They don't need that one, does they? Give it to us, and we will promise... Not to tell the servants!"

Another voice cut in. "They don't need their ears, too! We could give them secrets for those."

The leader hesitates. "Yes... One ear, one secret."

"And fingers. They pop. One little piggy..."

There's a few horrible animal cries from outside, not disimilar to the hunting calls, but shorter, perhaps more excited.

"How about you tell us your secrets, no fingers, no ears."

"Why?"