Zedlyn Rathdor

True Neutral Male Gnome Fighter, Level 2
Played by Adje

Str 14 Dex 10 Con 13 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 13
HP 13 AC 16 Prime Attributes Strength, Dexterity
Height 3' 8" Weight 70 lbs Age 138 years

Racial Abilities Animal Empathy, Combat Expertise, Darkvision, Enhanced Hearing, Spells
Class Abilities Weapon Specialization (Trident)

Equipment 2 tridents, 10 javelins, chainmail, Potion of Plant Control, Potion of Healing

Description

Biography Zedlyn was born in a small gnomish town in a land far the west of Ember on December 4th. He lived there for the first few years of his life... a short time even by Gnomish standards (about 10 years). One day, after playing outside, he found a mob outside his house who were shouting about a witch. It turns out that Zedlyn's mom, who was a healer, had been accused of witchcraft. The angry mob grabbed her and pulled her out of their home; Zedlyn's dad resisted and was slain. His mom screamed as they beat her to death. The whole time, Zedlyn was hiding behind some trees on the outskirts of their property.

The villagers eventually found Zedlyn as he scavenged through the refuse during the night, trying to find food. They debated on what to do with him, considered killing him, but eventually decided to sell him to a mercenary captain that was passing through their town.

The mercenaries had a headquarters in a coastal trading town. Zedlyn spent his younger days spear fishing as directed by the mercenaries in order to help feed the troops. It was a tough life devoid of caring - a daily fight for survival.

As Zedlyn grew older, he went on numerous campaigns with the mercenaries. He faced many near death situations, which scarred him physically, but just made him tougher mentally as he had already been through enough serious trauma as a child to deal with most anything. Zedlyn became respected by the rest of the mercenary group for his fighting prowess, his direct and logical approach to problems and his tactical abilities.

Eventually, Zedlyn bought his own freedom with the money he had made. He briefly considered becoming a fisherman, but instead decided to become a freelance sell-sword. After many more adventures, he was eventually hired by Arik.

As a mercenary, Zedlyn spent time fighting various common humanoid races. This is why he's fluent in Goblin. He holds none of his peoples' animosity towards them as he was not raised by Gnomes.

Session 11: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 11

(Apologies if I've forgotten anything. It's been a while since the game and I don't remember all of the details.)

The party return to the room to the north, which they didn't fully investigate before. Searching the alcoves reveals a few coins but little else. They decide to take the southernmost of the two west exits from the room.

This exit, after a short passage, opens into a small room; a dead end containing more alcoves, and dominated by a pile of decomposing goblin corpses. Rummaging through, they find about a dozen goblins in various states of decomposition, ranging from approximately a week old to a month old. All seem to have died violent deaths, mostly to weapon wounds but also to claw and bite marks. There are no trails along the floor or any other indication of how the goblins got here, and the party are unable to determine exactly what happened. The alcoves contain a necklace, but otherwise the room has nothing else of interest.

The party next take the other western passage from the previous room. This passage contains a branch to the north, and also turns north at the end. Taking the branch to the north, the party discover that it ends in a dead end. Taking the time to search it, they find a secret door that opens into the room with 100 alcoves that they'd already explored.

Backtracking, they head to the end of the passage where it turns north, and follow it. The passage continues for about 50 feet before opening into a room, but as the party step in, they are ambushed by a pack of skeletons that emerge from around a corner. As the skeletons charge the side of the party's ranks, a second pack of skeletons emerge from further down the room, for a total of ten skeletons. The party sustain some injury, but after a few moments of confusion, Iriellis and Flossaria hold off the creatures, allowing the rest of the party destroy them.

Searching the room, the party find more alcoves and a passage to the north. A search of the alcoves reveals nothing, but the party do find a large gem rattling around inside one of the skeletons' skulls. The north passage is a dead end; searching it reveals a secret door into a hallway the party had already explored.

At this point, barring any secret passages that the group may have missed, the lower catacombs are completely explored. Iriellis stops to think for a moment, and realizes that she no longer feels the same compulsion from the Iron God that she did before. Thus, the party assume that those skeletons must have been the last of the undead within the catacombs. They decide to head back to visit the Iron God.

Returning to the Iron God's chambers, they find them essentially unchanged from when they first visited. They speak with the Iron God, who confirms that the undead have been purged and that their mission is complete. It informs them that it is weak now, and intends to enter a period of sleep for a very long time. Thus, despite Arik's pleas, it cannot leave to go with him.

With the undead in the catacombs dealt with, Arik decides that there is no further use to exploring the monastery, as the Iron God will not leave to come with them. They return to the village of Asuna and rest for the night. The next morning, Hassan's caravan sets out, and they continue their journey towards the city of Viskha.

Districts of Viskha

The Docks

The docks are the only district of Viskha that is actually outside of the city's walls. As the name implies, the docks are a warren of wharves, warehouses, and taverns that cater to the many travelers and traders who visit the city.

Although the main thoroughfares are well patrolled, the docks are known to be the most dangerous section of Viskha as soon as one steps off the beaten path, even more so than the lower-class slums inside the city's walls. However, they are also the most lively and varied district as well.

The water level of the Yann increases drastically during flood season. Viskha's docks are built to accommodate the flood season, which is when the most travel and trade occurs. During the off-season, temporary docks and facilities are set up lower down the riverbank.

Palace District

The Palace District encompasses the Royal Palace of Viskha, but it also functions as the overall upper-class district of Viskha. Most of the nobles, rich merchants, and other powerful individuals of the city live in this district. Its streets are lined with luxurious manors and well-tended parks.

Apart from the Royal Palace itself, the other major landmark of the Palace District is the Grand Temple of Slid, the only temple afforded a place in the district. Other temples are generally found in Yahn's Market or the Yannreach.

The Palace District is lavishly decorated and strictly patrolled; order is well-kept here. Additionally, this district is not open to commoners. Only residents of the district, those with explicit invitations from residents, or people who work within the district are allowed in.

The Yannreach

The Yannreach actually consists of two separate districts: North Yannreach and South Yannreach. What these two districts have in common is that they are the slums of the city, where the poorest inhabitants of Viskha live.

The Yannreach also once included a third district, called West Yannreach. However, this district was re-purposed by Queen Ilthai in order to create the Barracks District. Because of this, the two districts of the Yannreach are even more overcrowded than a typical slum.

The standards of order are much more lax in these districts, and crime and poverty are much more common here. While officially, the Thieves' Guild of Viskha was destroyed over a decade ago, shortly after Queen Ilthai came to power, rumours persist that the Guild, or a new Guild (stories vary) thrives still in the Yannreach.

Barracks District

Once called the West Yannreach District, this district was cleared out and essentially rebuilt by order of Queen Ilthai, in order to be re-purposed for military use. The aptly-named Barracks District houses Viskha's large professional army, as well as the various support and upkeep staff that it requires.

Like the Palace District, entry into the Barracks District is restricted, although less so. In general, anyone who can get into the Palace District can get into the Barracks District, along with any member of the military and anyone on official military business.

The Barracks District was once connected to the two Yannreach District via gates, but when the district was re-purposed, the gates were torn down and closed off.

Yahn's Market

Named after the God of Wealth, Yahn's Market is both the commercial district and the overall hub of Viskha. It is the only district from which all other districts are available, and it is the busiest district of the city, rivaled only by the docks. Because of this, Yahn's Market sees a great variety of people, from rich merchants and noblemen making large purchases to peasants coming in to sell their goods.

Yahn's market is home to traders, craftsmen, and merchants of all sorts, as well as most of the city's temples, guilds, and other services. In terms of law and order, it is better than the docks or the Yannreach, but worse than the palace or the barracks.

Session 10: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 10

Backing away from the horde of skeletons, the characters stop to consider their plan. As they ponder, they are rejoined by Sharla, who declines to explain her absence. Several ideas are tossed back and forth until Sharla suddenly recalls the barrels full of embalming fluid they found in the monastery basement above. Knowing its extreme flammability, the party retreat back up to that level, retrieve the three barrels, then return to the skeletons.

After a small amount of further discussion, they put their plan into action. They open two of the barrels and pour their contents all over the hallway leading to the skeletons, then retreat around the corner, taking up positions behind the six animated statues. The trap set, Flossaria steps forward and fires at one of the skeletons with her bow before retreating behind the relative safety of the statues.

The skeletons, finding themselves under attack, respond instantly. Marching in disciplined ranks, they charge around the corner and engage the statues. As the fight begins, Iriellis hurls a lit torch over the combatants, and in a few moments, the front ranks of the skeletons are engulfed in a roaring inferno which quickly consumes them.

Skeletons, being mindless beings, are completely obedient to their last orders, and apparently whoever gave these skeletons their last order failed to consider this situation, as the orderly ranks of skeletons continue to march two-by-two directly into the fire. Many of them don't even make it to the statues to fight, and those that do are held off by the iron beings, although two of the statues are destroyed in the fight.

As the embalming fluid begins to burn out, with no end to the skeletons in sight despite dozens having been destroyed, Arik and Flossaria hurl the third barrel over the combatants after unstoppering it first. The inferno is re-lit and many more skeletons are destroyed.

As the fire runs out, the skeletons are still coming, but the party hope that their numbers have been sufficiently reduced so that the remainder is manageable. The statues keep fighting, but eventually all six are destroyed by the advancing skeletons. Arik and Zedlyn step forward to fight, but at this point there are only four or five skeletons remaining, few enough to be easily mopped up by the pair of warriors. Zedlyn suffers minor wounds which are healing by Iriellis, but otherwise the party has managed to destroy 50 skeleton warriors with no other injuries - although their animated statue escort is now completely destroyed.

After destroying so many undead creatures, and with no other obvious passages to explore, the party wonder whether their task is now complete. Iriellis prays and attempts to ask the Iron God directly; while it doesn't respond with words, she feels a sensation in the back of her mind that their work is still not done, in the eyes of the Iron God.

Leery that the room could be the prison of the Eater of the Dead, and taking heed of the poem that they found earlier stating that "he who sees him frees him", the party enter the chamber with their eyes pointed directly at the floor and attempt to search the room in this manner. Sharla quickly grows frustrated with this, and uses her mirror to scan the room, hoping that seeing the Eater of the Dead indirectly through the mirror will protect her from whatever would normally happen. She doesn't get to find out, because her inspection quickly reveals that the Eater of the Dead isn't here, a fact that she informs the rest of the party of.

Taking the time to thoroughly search the room and the remains of the skeleton warriors, the party make several discoveries. Amongst the skeletons, they find a gold bracelet as well as a finely made shield. Among various alcoves in the room, they find a dagger, five gems, a potion, and a wand, all unidentified (and since none of the spellcasters prepared the proper spell, they cannot tell if any or all of them are enchanted). Finally, Arik discovers a secret door leading to the south.

As there are no other directions to take, the group head through the secret passage, which winds its way to the west before depositing them in a small chamber with many exits. In addition to the passage they came from, the room contains two western passages and a southern passage. They are about the start searching the room when Flossaria catches the sound of shuffling movement coming from the south. Assuming the noise to be that of the undead, the party put aside the current room and head to the south.

After a short passage, the south exit opens into a larger room that is crawling with zombies - about 20 of them. Shouting a battle cry, Arik charges into the fray and attacks, with Zedlyn not far behind him. As the zombies begin to swarm around them, Flossaria and Iriellis call on their respective deities to drive the creatures back. Between them, over a dozen zombies are affected; combined with the zombies that Zedlyn and Arik had already cut down, this leaves only a few left to fight them, which they easily finish off. Adokas joins the two warriors, and the three of them systematically cut down the remaining zombies one-by-one, as Iriellis and Flossaria hold them back with their holy power.

With the zombies dealt with, the party investigate the room, which turns out to contain about 100 alcoves in the walls along with three large sarcophagi sitting on the ground to the south. Investigating carefully, they discover a trapped latch on the center one. Adokas attempts to disarm it, but is unsuccessful. The party stop to decide how to handle the trap, but impulsively, Arik throws caution to the wind, walks up, and flings the sarcophagus open.

A clicking sound precedes a cloud of gas spraying out of the coffin, and moments later Arik stumbles out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering but otherwise unharmed. After the gas clears, the party step forward and search the contents of the sarchophagus. Inside is nothing but a plain, unadorned skeleton, but Zedlyn finds a false bottom, concealing a small cache of gold coins and a magical scroll. The other two sarcophagi are untrapped. The first contains a skeleton fully bedecked in gold and silver jewellery, which the group take, and the second contains a skeleton wearing a gem-studded necklace, which they also take. Finally, a search of the alcoves reveals a ruby gem, which the party take as well.

Session 9: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 9

Before heading to sleep for the night, Arik, Zedlyn, and Adokas discuss how they will handle the head merchant, Hassan, in order to convince him to give them another day (Iriellis and Flossaria being at the healer's, and Sharla being nowhere to be found). While he can surely be compensated with gold to convince him to delay, they attempt to find a cheaper solution.

For their first attempt, they try to make a mild poison, just strong enough to make him too sick to travel. Adokas and Zedlyn purchase the needed reagents from the healer, claiming that they need them for an antidote. Unfortunately, Adokas fails to make the poison in the short amount of time they have.

Next, they go speak to Hassan and attempt to convince him to drink with them at the common room, hoping to get him drunk enough to be hung over the next morning. However, Hassan's tastes are too refined and he has no interest in partaking of the local ale.

They then try explaining to him that they've made a bargain with the Iron God to clear out the catacombs, and given that the God has already shown itself to be vengeful against those who betray it, they would be risking disaster by leaving without fulfilling the bargain. Hassan is unhappy to hear that they've entered a bargain that conflicts with their duties as guards, and he is unconvinced by their argument. He reasons that if the Iron God takes any sort of vengeance, it will be against them and not himself.

With all their ideas exhausted, the trio finally fall back on their last option, simply compensating the merchant for any profits lost due to the delay. After a short haggling session, they agree to compensate him 140 gold pieces for each day they delay.

With another day secured before the caravan needs to leave, everyone beds down for the night, with several characters making use of the healer's services once again. Bright and early the next morning, they head out to the monastery and back into the catacombs.

Back in the catacombs, the characters return to the central dial room, and head through the western passage. Beyond are several passages which lead to two rooms full of alcoves, and well as four different dead ends. Three of these dead ends are searched, with no results, but the fourth one is protected by a pit / pressure plate, spotted by Flossaria. They decide to leave this particular dead end alone for now, as it would be very difficult to search it while skirting the pit.

Inside the first alcove room, Flossaria catches a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye as they're inspecting the area, and she moves to investigate, holding out the pole-mounted ceremonial lantern to light up the alcove where she saw it. This turns out to be a good choice, as a giant, foot-long centipede leaps out of the alcove and attacks the lantern. Iriellis hurls a flask of embalming fluid at the lantern, which hits it directly and explodes, charring the creature to a crisp. Searching the rest of the alcoves, the party find nothing more than a smattering of coins, which they take.

The second alcove room contains about 60 alcoves and is uninhabited. Searching all the alcoves, the party find two items of interest: a scroll case and a small book entitled "Hymns to the Iron God". The scroll case contains a single piece of apparently blank parchment; they party try several different ideas intended to reveal hidden writing but are unable to make anything of it. The hymns appear to be mostly prosaic and uninteresting, but as Iriellis is reading it, one particular hymn catches her eye, entitled "The Eater of the Dead", and reading as follows:

"Fear the Eater of the Dead,
Stalker, tomb-walker,
Clothed in stone.
He who find him cannot bind him,
He who leads him soon feeds him,
He who sees him frees him."

The group spend some time discussing the implications of this hymn, ultimately deciding to completely avoid the Eater of the Dead if possible, and to take special care to not look at it.

With this area fully explored, the party head to the northwest from the dial room, heading to the passageway where they heard movement the previous day. As they step forward into a room, they are ambushed by a ghoul, but its clumsy steps mean that nearly everyone hears it coming; only Flossaria is caught by surprise. Iriellis commands the creature back as Arik steps forward and takes a swing at it, but as it retreats, its four zombie allies advance and attack the red-skinned warrior. The party has some difficulty getting everyone into the room to fight, with their bulky statue allies blocking the hallway, but with the aid of Iriellis and Flossaria's holy power, they make short work of the creatures, with only Arik sustaining minor wounds.

With the undead dealt with, they take a closer look at the room, which turns out to be yet another room full of alcoves (about 30 of them). Searching the room, they find two items of interest - a stack of 4 silver plates, and a heavy mace in perfect condition. The party assume that its perfect condition means that it must be magical and take it; they take the plates as well. Finally, each corpse in the room has two silver pieces placed over its eyes, for a total of 60 silver pieces. They discuss taking these as well, but, remembering the cursed bowl of silver pieces from the floor above, they decide not to risk it.

The party return to near the room where Iriellis was poisoned the previous day, taking the western branch instead of the eastern branch. The western passage leads to a long, narrow room containing about 100 alcoves. They again take the time to search through the alcoves, but this time they turn up nothing of interest; the alcoves contain nothing but decomposing bodies.

At this point, they know of only a single passage left unexplored, the eastern passage at the bottom of the long north-south passage near the dial room. Stepping through the passage and peeking around the corner, they look into a room containing dozens (or more) of armed and armored skeletons, standing in orderly ranks. The skeletons either don't notice them or don't react to their presence, but the group is left with the question - how exactly will they handle taking on so many undead creatures at once?

Session 8: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 8

As the session begins, the party are standing to one side of an open pit trap, with Zedlyn and Flossaria just having been rescued from it and healed of their injuries. The statues cannot pass the trap, but Adokas slips by to inspect the room beyond. It turns out to be a mid-sized room with no exits and no occupants, filled with alcoves like so many other rooms in the catacombs. Adokas gives the alcoves a cursory inspection but finds nothing obviously amiss. The group discuss performing a more thorough search of the room, but Arik points out that their time is running short, so they should focus on more important exploration.

The characters head back to the wide north-south passage that they passed by shortly before, and head to the south. The bottom of the passage has openings leading to the east and west, along with another pit trap that is spotted by Iriellis (which fortunately doesn't block either of the openings). The group pick the western opening, which leads to a passage the turns south then opens into another room full of alcoves.

A small side area of this room leads to a single, slightly larger alcove, which Iriellis steps forward to investigate. A clicking noise sounds out, and a dart shoots out of the wall at her, penetrating her armour and striking her shoulder. Iriellis collapses and the rest of the party rush forward to help her. Flossaria is unable to determine what's wrong with her, but Adokas takes a look at the dart and recognizes the substance that it's coated it. It's a poison distilled from a type of local spider, slow acting and not particularly powerful, but in rare cases, potentially fatal. Since Iriellis has a fairly weak constitution, everyone agrees that she needs immediate attention.

Unable to care for Iriellis here, the party decide to take her back to Asuna to get help from the healer. Arik points out that they don't all need to go; half of the party can stay behind to investigate areas that they skimmed over earlier. Flossaria lifts Iriellis's unconscious body to go and Zedlyn joins her, leaving Arik, Adokas, and Sharla behind.

As Flossaria and Zedlyn head out, the remaining group decides to head to the room full of inscriptions in the upper catacombs, so that Sharla can attempt to translate them. Arik and Adokas stand guard while Sharla works, a process that takes about an hour and a half. She identifies the runes as an archaic script used to write the Common tongue; the inscriptions themselves seem to be nothing more than a list of names. Sharla notes a few of the most recent names, to ask about back in town.

Meanwhile, Flossaria and Zedlyn have made it to the healer with Iriellis. He gets to work immediately, with Flossaria aiding him. After an hour or so of applying poultices, tonics, and remedies, he announces that the poison seems to be defeated and Iriellis should be fine, although she will not awaken for another few hours and definitely shouldn't adventure for the rest of the day.

Back at the monastary, the remaining trio head nearby to loot the chest of coins near the Eater of the Dead's apparent prison. While they're there, Sharla takes the opportunity to investigate the area of magical darkness some more. As she steps in, she hears something new: the faint, clicking sound of metal footsteps pacing. As she steps towards them, they stop, but she doesn't venture the courage to reach out and touch the source of the noise; instead, she attempts to address it.

At first, Sharla's attempts are completely unanswered, but after a dozen or so questions, the thing finally responds, telling her that she's wasting her time, and that it is merely a guardian against the Eater of the Dead. Questioning it along this line of inquiry finally gets it to respond more freely. When Sharla points out that there's actually a room between the darkness and the prison, where the Eater of the Dead could easily escape to the rest of the temple, the guardian responds that it knows the creature will come this way, because the Iron God lies beyond the darkness.

Sharla asks how they can pass through the darkness, and the guardian responds that they must merely "step forward with faith". She steps back and relays this information to Arik and Adokas, and they decide to try the guardian's suggestion. Stepping boldly forward into the darkness, the quickly pass through to the other side into a passage they've never seen before. There are a few short branches, but the main passageway leads forward to a smooth, solid iron wall, containing a featureless iron door with no obvious handle or other means of opening.

Sharla steps forward and announces that they wish to speak with the Iron God. This causes the door to smoothly slide upwards into the ceiling, and they step into the room beyond. It is a massive, circular iron chamber, lit by the glow of machinery placed all along the perimeter of the room. The chamber is dominated by a massive iron pedestal topped by a huge glass cylinder containing a near-opaque, greyish fluid. Tubes and wires run everywhere, connecting everything together.

The voice of the Iron God rings out from all around, questioning the characters as to why they have come. Sharla and Adokas question the Iron God, trying to get any information they can out of it, but it is reluctant to speak on most topics. It tells them that it can still sense the presence of many undead creatures in the catacombs, although not their exact locations. They request that it reverse the curse that turned the books in the library and the hidden chests to iron, but it refuses.

The Iron God rapidly grows tired of the conversation, requesting that the characters leave and continue their appointed task. Before they go, Arik steps forward and explains his predicament, asking if the Iron God would be willing to leave and accompany him to his homeland. The Iron God refuses, saying that it is bound to this place, and despite the trio's efforts, it apparently cannot be dissuaded. Arik dejectedly leaves the chamber, with Sharla and Adokas following.

Arik is upset that all of this effort is apparently wasted, since the Iron God will not leave this place, but Sharla points out that they have at least made some progress - at least Arik knows now that there are gods out there that can be directly met and spoken to. This one was unwilling to join him, but perhaps others in the future will be different. Furthermore, they have not yet accomplished the Iron God's task, so perhaps it will be more amenable to suggestions once they have finished clearing out the catacombs.

It is now evening, so the three adventurers decide to return to Asuna to rest up. When the rejoin the rest of the group, they divvy up the treasure and head to the inn to rest. The next morning, they'll need to meet with the merchant in charge of the caravan and convince him to stay in Asuna for another day.

Session 7: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 7

The party discuss their next action, and decide that they're still well enough to continue onwards without returning to Asuna. With Zedlyn and Flossaria recovered from the ghoul paralysis, they return to the second level of the catacombs to search the area where the ghouls attacked them. They find nothing of value on the ghouls themselves, although Zedlyn chops off a ghoul's hand, hoping to be able to somehow extract the paralytic poison from it. The room contains about 40 alcoves with corpses, so they get to work searching all of them, with Zedlyn keeping watch as the others search.

A few minutes into the search, Zedlyn catches a sound in the distance, a sort of oozing, squishy sound. He alerts the others, but they decide that they only need a few more minutes to finish their search, so he stays on guard, keeping an eye out for whatever might be making the sound. The source of the noise turns out to be a huge, nearly transparent ooze creature making its way down the hall. Its transparency means that Zedlyn doesn't see it until it's too late; he only has time to shout a warning before it engulfs him.

The rest of the party turn to attack this new foe. The melee fighters and the statues advance to attack, while others pelt it with missiles. Adokas hurls his grappling hook at the creature, which penetrates into it and lodges itself near Zedlyn. Inside the creature, Zedlyn is being eaten away by acidic ooze, and he struggles to turn and grab Adokas's rope. The creature advances towards the first rank of statues and engulfs them as well, but the party's attacks are starting to show as large pieces of the creature are being lopped off. Just as Zedlyn manages to grab the rope, Sharla hits the creature with a dagger, which turns out to the last straw, causing it to collapse into a pile of slime and discharge its contents.

Freed from the ooze creature, Zedlyn's body is covered in acid burns and much of his clothing and equipment are destroyed; however, the acid doesn't seem to have had any effect on metal. His armor is still wearable for the moment, but the haft of his trident is destroyed, so he arms himself with Iriellis's old flail and Flossaria's old shield. The statues, being made entirely of metal, seem to be unharmed by their brief exposure to the ooze.

Arik takes over on watch as they party complete their search of the alcoves. Most of the bodies inside seem to have been chewed on, which the party assume to be the work of the ghouls. In terms of valuables, they find a bag containing 80 silver pieces, and a box inlaid with ivory (empty, but likely of some value on its own). One of the alcoves contains not a body, but a dozen hands, all severed at the wrist. The group are puzzled by the hands, but eventually decide that they must be the severed hands of convicted thieves, due to the fact that there are more right hand than left hands, and no matching pairs.

Continuing their explorations, the party check the western passages near the ghoul lair; both are dead ends, but a careful search of the second reveals a secret door, similar to the one they found earlier. Passing through it leads to a concealed room, containing two iron chests placed in alcoves. On closer inspection, the chests are actually fused shut, and not easily accessible. The party decide that, hopefully, they will be able to break the curse on the monastary, which will turn the chests back into wood, as they are far to heavy to carry in their current state. They leave them behind for now.

The secret room eventually leads to a west-facing exit, protected by a pit trap which Flossaria spots. The party circumnavigate the trap, but are again forced to leave the statues behind. The exit is the back side of another concealed door, which opens into the largest room yet seen in the lower catacombs. The room contains four exits, in addition to the concealed door through which they enter; one on each wall. The southern exit is a stairway leading up, and a quick trip confirms that this is the stairway from the upper level that they hadn't investigated yet.

The main feature of this room is a ten-foot wide circular table in the center, with an iron spike mounted on it that points to the north. On closer inspection, the top of the table is covered in runes, and it is mounted on a circular track that allows it to rotate. Sharla mentions that she could probably translate these runes as well, but time is still at a premium. The party decide to take the northern passage, hoping that it'll reconnect with the area that they'd explored previously.

The passage does indeed connect to a room they'd already been to, where Sharla left an empty flask on the ground as a marker. The passage also continues to the west, so they collect the flask and continue onwards. Listening as they go, they can hear footsteps from further down the passage, and they assume these belong to zombies. They decide to back off, due to them not having their statue escort with them.

Back in the room with the circular table, they head to the east, hoping to find a passage that will allow them to bring the statues through into the room. The short passage leads into a much larger north-south passage that runs farther than their torchlight illuminates to the south. As with many other areas in the catacombs, it is stuffed with alcoves. There's an eastern passage almost directly across from where there came in, so they head through there, ignoring the southern passage for now.

Heading east, they enter a small chamber which they don't have much time to admire, because they are immediately ambushed by a pack of two ghouls and three skeletons. The undead creatures get the drop on them and attack, but with the aid of Flossaria and Iriellis's holy power, they are able to drive back the creatures and default them fairly easily. Zedlyn is struck by one of the ghouls, but he manages to resist the numbing paralysis.

Searching the room, they find one very unusual occupant in one of the alcoves - a golden skeleton. Unlike the iron skeleton from before, this one is very realistic and life-like. Zedlyn scratches a bit of the gold off, revealing that it's actually a gold-plated skeleton. The party pack up the entire skeleton to take with them, figuring that it must be quite valuable.

At this point, the party decide not to explore the southern hallway, as it will only take them further away from the statues. They instead return to the hallway where they were first attacked by ghouls and explore the south end of that. The end of that hallway has both eastern and western passages. The western passage is an apparent dead end, but close inspection reveals a secret door, which leads them right back to the room they just left, where they found the golden skeleton.

As they explore the eastern passage, Zedlyn and Flossaria trigger a pit trap, with both of them falling in and sustaining damage. The rest of the group help them out, and Flossaria and Iriellis use most of their remaining healing magic to remove the injuries caused by the fall. At this point, with their healing spells nearly used up, the group decide to move Arik to the front of the marching order and continue on.