Session 13 - Chapter 4 - Deeper into the Crypt

Hello and Welcome!

With the ghost banished from this plane of existence, the battered Chard helped Torsion regain consciousness and the two exchanged knowing glances as they had a short rest and recovered from their wounds. Torsion did thank Chard who quipped back "Yes of course, but you sure put up a tough fight while possessed - it shouldn't take you being possessed to fight like that!" Torsion grumbled at this but then he did let out a good guttural laugh at the awkwardness of the situation.

The door at the end of the corridor opened now and the four saw more stairs heading downwards, deeper into the Crypt. 

Dafnae led the way, checking the walls and steps for any kind of trap. It was dark, despite Pipp's torch adding a bit of ambient light, but despite her Darkvision, all that Dafnae could feel were some chips on the left side of the stairwell wall which otherwise was nice and smooth.

She cautiously descended to the platform which had a turn. She repeated the process as she continued, Torsion coming behind her to offer some protection from what may be further down. Chard and Pipp stayed a bit further back. 

While checking the next landing for any kind of mechanism she felt a slight tug and heard the tell-tale sound of an arrow being loosed, followed by a grunt from Torsion as an arrow flew at him from a narrow slit in the wall above the landing she was on which he was not able to dodge. Dafnae apologised and Torsion replied that there may be more so keep a look out. 

The stairwell continued with a few more landings. Chard and Pipp came down the stairs, staying one landing behind the other two. Dafnae lit her own torch to see if she could have better chance to spot anymore hidden tripwires. While searching, she felt a very slight tear at her hand, as if she had broken a spider's web, followed by the same notching sound and again unfortunately another grunt from Torsion. Another apology from Dafnae was met by Torsion asking her to look more carefully. 

At the final landing Dafnae really tried hard to have a look, even with some Guidance from Torsion but she just couldn't quite detect it before the third hidden arrow trap was triggered with yet another grunt from Torsion. Now perturbed, Torsion grumbled and said "Right, maybe I should check for the bloody traps next time then!". Dafnae knew she was at fault but she couldn't help but think to herself "go ahead because I'm sure I would have been able to Dodge away better than you" but she bit her tongue and refrained from commenting and instead ventured further into the Crypt.

At the base of the stairs, they came to a labyrinth of corridors to explore. With all four now, the began to carefully look amongst the different passages. It was cold and eerily quiet. Too quiet. 

As they navigated the paths, suddenly, the entire crypt started to rumble and shake and the walls started to move and rotate, changing the maze-like corridors. Rubble fell from the ceiling and the Heroes had to try to dodge away falling objects and shifting walls. Sustaining only light damage, they agreed to stick together as best they could in order to reduce the chance of getting separated.

They ventured deeper, not seeing anything out of order. But after moving into a larger room, again, the same shaking and rumbling ensued, everyone bracing themselves. But luckily they were able to stay together, even if a little bruised.

Cautiously moving forward, they were then confronted by a loud booming voice "We are the Guardians of the Crypt. Intruders are not welcome. Leave now or perish and stay here forever!" And then two Phantom Warriors appeared, wispy forms of knights in armour brandishing longswords. 

Pipp tried to implore them that they were not intruders and instead Adventurers here to seek the assistance of Riddlermaster Elvira for a quest of great importance. Unmoved, the Spectral Guardians attacked and then battle ensued.

They exchanged blows, Torsion's magical attacks landing harder than everyone else's non-magical attacks which seemed to pass more through the figures than they should.

Every two rounds of combat the walls would again shift and move. So the brave warriors had not only two attackers to deal with but continual shifts in the field and potential damage from moving walls.

But they were able to do reasonable damage to the two. But as they were starting to get the upper hand, two more spectral figures joined the fray.

Fighting was fierce, both sides landing blows. And it was observed that the shaking and rumble was preceded by one of the figures vanishing behind one of the walls.

The Party took a defensive position up against the main wall and valiantly fought back.

After a strong blow, one of Guardians started to tremble, head leaning back, arms stretching out, as it then started to let out a howl before it blinked with a blue flash and vanished from this plane. 

The Heroes were able to concentrate their attacks but as they were about to vanquish the second one, an Allip joined the battle. It managed to cause havoc amongst the Party by using its Whispers of Madness to cause the members to attack each other as well as use its Howling Babble to stun Torsion for a round.

Chard and Pipp were taking heavy damage and got knocked down a few times but thanks to Torsion's healing, they recovered and could re-join the battle.

But with strong blows and good hits from Torsion's War Hammer and subsequent Bonus Action Sacred Flame, the enemies were all defeated.

Once the last Guardian blinked out of existence, the air and room went all still and the cold dissipated.  They were able to explore the rest of the maze freely, the walls no longer moving.

In one of the corners, they came across two dismembered bodies and a chest. 

Carefully investigating, they were able to determine one of the bodies had Mithril Splint mail, which Chard took to replace his regular Splint armour. After investigating the pack the other body had nearby, Torsion learned that it was in fact a Handy Haversack. He turned it inside out and two healing potions dropped out of it. 

Meanwhile, Dafnae investigated the chest and didn't find any traps in the mechanism or on the floor. So she took her lockpicking tools and tried her hand at picking the lock. With a bit of a jiggle, she heard the satisfying click as the lock gave and the latch fell open. Inside they found 800gp worth of coins and several finely cut gems as well as several other valuable trinkets which they would need to try to sell back in the City.

Most importantly though, near the bodies they found four stone circles with carvings that matched the engravings on the pedestals in the rooms on the higher floor which they took.

The swiftly moved through the rest of the walls, not encountering any foe or treasure. At the exit, they found a door which they went through. In this larger room, they saw a 4x4 grid on the wall with circular indentations in the middle of each block. Pipp checked that the indentations were the same size as the emblems they found by the bodies.

Remembering how the engravings were on the pedestals above, Pipp took the emblems and placed them into the indentations. As each one was placed, the indentation lit up with the matching symbol.

Working in turn and placing the different stone pieces into the different indentations, each one lighting up with the correct symbol, and, once the last one light up, the entire display began to pulse with light. Torsion remarked "Aye, I've heard of these sorts of puzzles in our ancient tones back in the library. They were from long lost ancient civilisation and I think they called this type of puzzle a 'Sudoku' - that ancient civilisation was truly strange!" 

Suddenly, when the pulsing intensified, the room was filled with a bright piercing light and the Adventurers felt themselves get transported away.