On Godsday the surviving adventures rest and give thanks they survived the savage terrors in Kraken Cove. Lavinia Vanderboren in the meantime has already been making plans for a trip to Farshore, a colony her parents established on the Isle of Dread and that she has learned about through the journal they recovered from the family vault.
She has had flyers posted around Sasserine calling for settlers and sailors for an expedition to the distant island colony. The adventurers except her proposal to crew The Sea Wyvern but she informs them she doesn’t intend to leave until the start of next month, so if they have any business in Sasserine they should take the next few days to sort it out.
Meanwhile an aquatic elf named Shallasar has managed to track down the new owner The Sea Wyvern. He originally mistakenly believes Lavinia could have been responsible for the devastation at Kraken Cove. After speaking with Lavinia he discovers her brother was actually responsible, but it’s still not entirely clear where the savage pearl came from originally. Shallasar figures the best way to find out more about the event is to stick with the people most closely related to it, the adventurers and Lavinia.
Tamzana Alteresine wants to visit her family summerhouse to confront the spirit she encounter there, before she leaves Sasserine. She persuades the other adventurers to accompany her, and excepts Shallasar’s offer of assistance as well. The adventurers trek out of Sasserine into the foothills south of the city, where the summerhouse overlooks the river.
On the trip there they engage a group of gnolls, lead by a half-fiend gnoll cleric. Strangely they seemed to be heading to the summerhouse as well.
The outside of the summerhouse was overgrown with plants and obviously had not been used for many years. Inside four continual flames continued to burn in each corner of the room, the flickering light showing that this had once been converted into a library of sorts. There were a number of cracks in the domed ceiling that have allowed water in and it appeared from the tracks by the doors and the smell from within that a number of animals had at one time or another called it home. Neither the water nor the creatures have shown any respect for the books stored here, they smelled mouldy and lay in tatters scattered about the room and piled in corners and used as nesting material.
A brief search of the books showed they shared a common theme, demonology. Repulsed by the graphic nature of some of these works the adventurers piled the books into the centre of the room intent on burning them.
As they were in the process of gathering the books at ghostly apparition of a knight appeared through the back wall of the library. It challenged Tamzana accused her of being ‘bastard spawn a sea-hag’ rather than a noble. On the knights shield was the Alteresine Family crest. The party tried to negotiate with the spirit, but on seeing Trantil1 it becomes enraged and attacks.
The party manage to defeat the spirit and investigating the wall it appeared through they discovered a hidden stairway leading underground. The stairway and the large double doors at the end were warded with magical traps, that appeared to let some pass without incident but triggered when those of a evil or chaotic alignment passed over.
The double doors at the foot of the stairs were marked with the Alteresine Family crest within a glowing white circle of protection. They opened into a large chamber, the floor of the room was black marble, although it veins of some sort of silvery metal. There was a distinct lack of dust in this room, no signs of spider webs or other signs of age. The chamber had a vaulted ceiling, from which globes of continual light illuminate the entire room. In the centre of the room was a large circular metal plate set in the floor. The plate had a seam running across it as if the two parts could slide apart, and across the seam was what appears to be a great sword.
At the entrance to the room where three clearly marked magic circles, which glowed a similar light to that of the entrance door. At far side of the room was an altar or marble table on which rested an open book. Behind that was a small alcove, flanked by two statues, in the alcove was a stone sarcophagus.
1 The ghost detected that Trantil was evilly aligned. A house rule in our group is that alignments are assigned by the rest of the party based on how you play your character. Trantil has been doing his best to work of his NE alignment since.
(more to follow)
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