In the library we found various books, most notably a Book of Bones: an Almanach of Anatomy, which is a precious resource for healers … alas, in this barbaric era no more than a 100 gold to the right buyer, and mere heating fuel to the wrong one.

There were also a few fiction books that could be salvaged, but worth just 1 – 5 gold pieces each, at a weight of a full pound.
The rest of the books had fallen prey to the rot – but there were also 2 scrolls: Light, and a caster-agnostic spell of “Protection from Magic”!

Sarcophagus Hall

Minig received this last one for safekeeping, and then forged along the western path to the rubble, with his friends following some 20 feet behind.

The rubble in the west turned out to be the broken pieces of a door that had been smashed towards this corridor, from inside. Looking in, Minig saw three big marble coffins, so he called out: “Farin! Coffins! This looks like your kind of expertise!”

Farin had remained at the back to protect us from the rear until then.

Now Minig went in to look into the first coffin, expecting it to be empty – but it wasn’t! There was a terribly desiccating corpse in it! Also two altars, one on either side of the hall. And movement: “Something is in here! Hiding behind that sarcophagus over there!”

Willem came in just as a stinking ghoul was rising behind that sarcophagus, so he stepped forward and prepared to confront the fiend. Hermione also moved in and shot at the corpse-eater to soften it up. However, the ghoul was not alone: the two skeletal dead also rose up and went to town, hurting little Minig. Reduced to 2 HP and shrieking in panic, the little thief retreated to the western wall and shot at the skeleton, missing.

Willem sliced up his enemy, but then missed, and even got hurt – always bad news against ghouls, as they have three attacks and each of them can paralyze their prey.

The fight went not good until Farin finally came in and Turned Undead – success! The skeletons turned to run. One got cut down on the spot, the other fled through a doorway in the south. Hermione shot an arrow after it, but it passed right through the empty ribcage without effect – the creature disappeared in the dark.

The ghoul withstood the Turning, but Willem saved against the fiend’s paralyzing touch and shredded the abomination.

Choosing Loot

As a first instinct, the party ran in all sorts of different directions, some looking at the coffins, others at the altars, and Farin moving straight on into the next hall, where he found stairs leading up to a particularly large and imposing sarcophagus. He wanted to check that one out, but the rest of us regained our wits, organised and called him back … cowed by the sheer majesty of that resting place.

We strongly suspected it to hold something that would be a few steps above our abilities, so most of us felt this was not the right moment to wake it up.

The altars were full of interesting items: A golden chalice, a chain with a Holy Symbol of Tah reversed, on its head, made of gold, and a precious, well-crafted ring of gold, and candles.

Elyndor sent us all out into the corridor, then picked the items up one by one with mage hand. On the last one, the big book, he heard a strange hissing sound. He suspected poison gas, cried “run!” and fled with the gathered loot.

Gold or Faith?

Back in the library Farin healed Minig back up and we went through our items to discuss them – especially the perverted holy symbol. Some of the heroes wanted to deliver that to the Church for cleansing, but the thieves cried out in shock! They preferred the idea of melting it down and selling the pure gold.

Obstacle Course

Now we went to debate how we might take on whatever mighty creature was resting in that big sarcophagus on the elevated platform. A vampire? A lich or demi-lich? If it was a spellcaster we could neutralize that with the scroll. But what if it was a competent melee fighter?

Should we wet the floor with holy water to slow it down and inconvenience it? Should we pour oil out and light it? Should we mix holy water and oil? We did not really know but suspected that holy water would lose its blessing if we messed around with it too much.
One plan took shape: That we could drag the emptied bookshelves from the library out into the long corridor, then attempt to meddle with the sarcophagus – and if the creature in it would prove too much for us, we could run away and topple the bookshelves behind us so the creature would stumble in the rubble and fall behind, like during pursuit in cop-shows or action movies.

But Minig shot that down: “What if it can fly and just streaks past that? And the way from the sarcophagus all through the corridor is pretty far. What if it is faster than us? Will the plan then be that only the fastest of us topple the shelves and leave the slower ones behind to feed the uber-vamp?”

Between a rock and a hard place

Finally Minig said: “Let’s leave that uber-vamp for now and check out the east. Maybe there is something useful to find there that will help us.” That gave the group fresh hope, and we went along the corridor left, right right, left, until we ended at a door. Minig opened it, saw three massive hunter-flies gathered around a pit trap, and quickly closed it again.

Alas, from the back we heard the knickedi-knack of bones: Skeletons coming, and a bunch of them! Farin read the scroll for protection from Evil for a +2 AC and stepped up to meet them, with Elyndor backing him up. There was no room for any more. He attempted to Turn Undead, failed, and found himself face to skull with the lead enemy. The dwarf missed, it whacked him; then he struck it down! But another stepped up and they traded blows, both slowly grinding each other down with small cuts and blows.

On the other side we discussed what to do with these giant flies.

Willem drew his sword and shouldered past Minig into the room with the flies: He decided to fight them down to open up a potential exit if the skeletons turned out too tough to hold back. To protect the little halflings, he closed the door and confronted them alone.

A truly heroic deed!

But Hermione didn’t fancy heroic sacrifice. She quickly followed Willem to support him. And that was great, because in the first round everyone missed on all fronts – except for her: she shot and killed one of the flies, going a long way to even the odds.

Elyndor’s shots at the skeletons did very little, so Minig prepared an oil flask as a molotov cocktail, went to support him and wanted to chuck it around the corner. He could not, the angle was too awkward. So he asked Elyndor to chuck it at the back end of the visible skeleton group.

Fire in the Hole

Elyndor delivered a perfect pitch – in fact he missed, but due to BFRPG’s scatter mechanic to determine where a missed throw goes, it shattered at an ideal spot to pour down on the targeted skeleton and splash on two others. Flames erupted, and three skeletons died in a corridor that became a flaming furnace.

Behind the relentless duel between Farin und his foe other skeletons mindlessly walked into the fire to get to the front line and kill the dwarf and elf. They all took damage, cracked, blackened and perished in the fire. Smoke stung in eyes. At the same time, Willem and Hermione fought the flies and between his whirling sword and her stabs they killed a second one. The last fly failed a morale roll and chose to flee. A door to the south was barred, but the one to the corridor was open, so the only way out was past Minig. That’s where it went, wounded and buzzing slightly irregularly. Minig jumped up with his dagger as it passed over him and sliced at its underbelly – bringing its player-recorded damage count up to a stunning 11 hit points! Still the tenacious fly kept going. It buzzed past Elyndor, Farin and the skeleton and attempted to pass through the raging fire into freedom. Alas, it was already too damaged. The hungry fire licked up at its wings, engulfed the insect in an orange bloom, and the insect went down like a firy comet to be devoured.

And finally Farin smashed his skeleton foe to pieces, moments before the oil fire was spent and subsided.

Rest & Refit

We checked the fly-room and found that down in the pit lay a dead body pierced by spikes. Minig was let down by rope to retrieve the corpse’s purse and a small dagger. Then we took stock, counted our various wounds and abrasions, and decided to retreat to the safety of the first level, lock ourselves in and rest up a bit, maybe use healing magic, and then come back to find more loot on Level 2.

More Wildehaven