“Of course we leapt through the portal. With those bone devils closing in, we figured anywhere was better than Hell. We were wrong. “Cairson died in the Void before we’d even conjured a light. Meli was trying to rouse him when his wraith took her—reached right into her chest and stopped her heart. The rest of us drove it off, but by that point the chill of death was in our bones. Then Jewel… well, she’d spent a year apprenticed to a necromancer, so she tried to end it quick. I still wonder what she would have called the babbling thing that rose from her corpse. “So I went back through the portal. Surrendered to the inquisitors. Even in Hell there’s hope. In the Nothing, there’s just… nothing.” — Langnam of Absalom, slave of Dis"
Session 02 - The Boneyard
Climbing upwards through the tomb, our heroes found an altar to the paladin Ervin Roslar, which had a strange puzzle lock. They also found a pile of dead fey creatures, gross bobble-headed beings with more brain matter than body, being feasted upon by giant cockroaches. After destroying most of them, a roach scurried to safety through a crack in the wall. Going after it, Skchar wiggled his way through, and made two important discoveries. First, he realized the tunnel connected this floor with the floor below. Second, he discovered the crack lead to the surface. After Esmerelda tried vainly to follow in his tracks, Skchar went off to find help, leaving the others with one less able-bodied hand while they faced the tomb.
The puzzle proved difficult for the heroes, and when they tried an incorrect combination, it punished their hubris with electrical shocks, eventually forcing the party to stop trying combinations, and to keep Kel away from the puzzle board. They also found the leader of the bobble-headed fey, and while he was a little tougher than his minions, he was quickly cut down.
On the leader’s body, they found some treasures and some strange stones painted white on one side. They used these stones to hit the buttons on the puzzle from a distance, eventually solving it through trial and error and claiming the treasures hidden within – the mithral breastplate of Ervin Rosler. They also opened a door, containing a metallic skeleton who went by the name, Number 3, which was suddenly and violently attacked by both Esmerelda and Mordant, before he could explain he was one of the crypts guardians. After chastising them greatly and showing them around the second floor a little more, our heroes made their way upstairs.
They came across a trophy room containing a strange metallic hide, the Hide of the Gorgon of Lastwall. Chewing on the hide was a large caterpillar, which attacked Kel when he disturbed the armor and walked beneath it. After a difficult fight which nearly took Kel’s life, the catapillar was killed and the heroes were both weary and exhausted. Still they needed to press on, so they took the hide along with the Mithral rapier Rosler used to slay it. They opened the door and saw a statue of Rosler on horseback, which reared up when they saw it. The statues movements were so frightening, several of the heroes attacked the statue, chipping off pieces and marring its surface, before realizing it was only a statue. Their fear was getting to them, and while Drank attempted to mend the statue, the damage of their paranoia was spreading. Still, they had reached the top, and were able to exist past Number 1 and Number 4 to the outside.
Before them, a dense fog stretched across the earth, and crows gathered about them in the trees, watching their movements. They found a path and followed it, with the crows flitting from tree-to-tree to keep pace and keep their eyes on the heroes as the murder continued to grow in number. They began calling out for Skchar, hoping to find him, hoping to find some sign of Rosler’s Coffer, but each time they called out Skchars name, the crows cawed in reply. Finally, the path turned upwards towards a hill and they were able to emerge from the fog, seeing not the green valley of Rosler’s Coffer as they expected, but an endless graveyard, filled with dead trees, and with an ominous skull moon looking down upon them. They were in the boneyard, the land of the dead.
Some remained calm, others went into shock, and others began to panic. Seeing a scythe-wielding winged skeleton approaching, they readied themselves for the worst, when the voice of Thoot, a Nosoi Psychopomp called out to them, coming from the small crow on the skeletons shoulder. They relayed that they were in the boneyard, along with everyone else from Rosler’s Coffer. The entire town had died, though they didn’t seem quite dead, instead possessing bodies, weapons, and armor. Something was logged in their hearts, pinning their bodies to their souls, keeping them alive and “whole.”
With the news of the entire town’s death, Mordant ran off in a sprint to find his dog. Eventually, the rest decided to go to the ghostly copy of Rosler’s Coffer to try to help – convince the people of their death in exchange for information on how to return to the material world; passage along the dead roads. The group caught up to mordant easily, and they reached Rosler’s Coffer together, with Mordants dog, Tankard, running up to meet them, jumping on Mordants chest and licking his face.
They tracked down the mayor and exchanged information. The mayor accepted that they were in all probability, dead, but needed help convincing the town. This required getting the town council informed and breaking the news to the children. The town council were difficult to convince, having a ghost trying to convince them they were still alive, which needed to be dispersed before they would listen. The children were much easier to convince – in fact, they already knew they were dead, as the Psychopomp Mictena had told them and reassured them via speaking through her familiar, a witchcrow. Mictena promised the heroes that she would visit them soon to rectify the strange error causing them to be alive in the boneyard, and that once they were dead, all things would be well. Fleeing her crow and returning to their families to visit with them personally, the crow ended up following and killing Drank.
An hour later, the town council gathered the town together. Drank was found alive but badly hurt and with 17 years of age plaguing his body. The mayor spoke to the town, explaining their death and reassuring them both regarding the judgement to come and the fact that the Survivors of Rosler’s Coffer would return to the world to find out what happened and alert Vigil. Goodbyes were said to remaining family, and the Survivors headed out to the dead roads, hoping to cross back into the mortal world before Mictena could track them down.
Session 01 - The Midsummer Pageant
Our adventure began in Rosler’s Coffer. Named for Ervin Roslar, a hero of the Shining Crusade, the town has survived over 800 years despite sharing a frontier with the orcs of Belkzen, even trading peacefully with several tribes who seasonally wander nearby. Either growing up here, being stationed here as part of a garrison from vigil, or coming in for seasonal work, the various heroes of this story settled into the sleepy town over the last several years. Apart from Mordant Cailean, a relatively new face having wandered in the previous season as a migrant worker, everyone else has known each other for the past several years, if not the past decade. Hazel Diggory came in with the garrison following an attack by the Twisted Nail Orc Tribe in 4707 and has helped maintain its defense ever since, with most of the others helping in reconstruction and recovery. Esmerelda helped design new buildings while Drank, a warpriest of Iomedae, helped heal spirits through his preaching and Kurt aided with rescue and rehabilitation efforts. Phlare’s family was particularly generous, donating thousands of gold pieces to pay for food, shelter, and clothing, as well as investing heavily in local business and creating jobs for much of the town. In fact, everyone seems to have helped the town recover, except for Skchar, whom seemed to be paying too much attention to peoples secrets and needs to notice how much help they needed, and Kel, who was destitute before the attacks and didn’t much care if people had to live like him for a while.
The Midsummer Pageant, a holdover from older days in smaller farming communities, is celebrated on the Seventh of Erastus, and is a day of thanksgiving to Old Deadeye as well as a day to petition for blessing upon the community, summer hunts, and the upcoming harvest. With planting season over and the flaxseed not yet emerged from the soil, it’s also the perfect time to showcase the town’s craftsman and the local talents. Brewers and bakers were giving out free samples alongside sales, filling the air with the smells of fresh bread, spiced meats, and sweet malt whiskey. The temple of Shelyn had pulled out every piece of art from storage to display before the people, and while the priests gave blessings on livestock and families, performers cajoled the crowds to come and see singers, jugglers, fire-eaters, and storytellers. Carnival games crowded the streets, each offering prizes to the capable, while recruiters enlisted volunteers for the tournaments at the paltry cost of one silver per entrant.
Our heroes, unknowing of their fate, either worked security for the festival, volunteered at the temple, or else moved through the crowds to experience the energy and life of the festival. Several went drinking and sampling foods, while others tried their hand at the carnival games. While Esmerelda managed to win a durable brass arrow, decorated with an eagle tip, while playing Shoot the Moon, Kurt walked away empty handed after paying for ten separate tries. Finally, the competitions began. At first, things didn’t fair well for them, loosing at archery and falconry, Schar Whylie impressed everyone by winning the Strength and Skill competition along with a magical ring, and Kel the Beggar won the Hunt, bringing in a large dear he tracked and killed with his magic missile and winning the Midsummer Cup.
The winners were presented their prizes on stage in the town square, followed by the Mayor praying to Erastil, Shelyn, Iomedae, and Gorum on behalf of the town and giving an offering to each. Then, the town was presented with something wonderous: a piece of the Shattered Shield of Arnisant, a legendary artifact of precious value, brought here from Vigil to display during the pageant only. As an extra reward, all the various competition winners, including Schar, Kel, and Hazel (whose friend Jerod won twice and offered her a spot) got to touch the piece of the shield which was still pulsing with divine positive energy. Afterwards, the heroes went out celebrating and drinking or else heading home with their families. The only one to stay out late was Schar Whylie, who took his time getting home in the hopes of spending as little time with his family as possible. Around midnight, just as he reached his home, he remembers a bright green flash and a loud cacophonous sound.
That night, the others who slept had strange dreams. Dreams that were so vivid, so clear, so… different. Not all bad, but not all good. Dreams that seemed to mean something. Dreams they needed to remember…
When they awoke, they found themselves suffocating in a box. Breaking free one after another, our heroes found themselves in sarcophagi, each with only a few things on their person. Drank has his sword and used it to bring light to the room, and in a nearby box they found tools and clothing, which they each ended up putting on either to hide their indecency or else blend in with the strange styles they expected must be prevalent. They wondered, they argued, about where they were and how they got here, and eventually, they began to explore.
They found strange skeletal chariots controlled by small blue creatures. They quickly smashed them, only for the blue creatures to skitter away into the darkness. They searched the area and continued exploring, finding equipment and artwork depicting a hero with a spectacular mustache – a mustache they would come to be suspicious of later. This hero was Rosler, champion of Rosler’s Coffer and paladin of Arazni during the Shinning Crusade, and they began to suspect they had somehow been transported in the night, while they slept, to the sealed tomb just outside the city. As they explored, they found more bone chariots, including one made from the bones of a Rosler’s horse, they dealt with collapsing shelving, they killed one of the blue creatures and identified it as an Osvite, and they encountered a particularly dangerous metal snake – which latched to Schkar’s face and nearly took him to his grave, an encounter that seeded a growing fear towards anything that slithers and hisses.
As they climbed upwards, they found some red glowing bugs, and Esmerelda caught and ate one, discovering that while the taste was horrible, they did give her tongue a red glow. They also found several busts of Rosler’s family, one of which was complete with incredibly lifelike hair and a mustache to match. The mustache leaped at Kurt’s face, latching on and attempting to control him, while horribly gross bobble-head shaped fey emerged from behind the busts to attack the party. Squishing them and smearing their brains around the room, the party was finally able to corner and cut apart the hair and the mustache before they could get any of our heroes to turn on each other. Now, they catch their breath before opening the next door, sure that whoever opens it is destined to be struck by the next nightmare waiting around the corner.
