The House of Abbathor

• Rested and ready, the party resumes their exploration of the abandoned temple around 10pm.
• Faced with four door options, Sigmar takes point and heads for the southern one, attempting to dispute Nundro’s assessment of the structure’s symmetry.
  • He finds a small corridor that leads to another, perpendicular, one facing east to west.
  • To the west it ends on a door.
  • To the east it continues and veers southeast.
• Sigmar heads southeast, followed by the group in single file, and ends up at a door.
  • They open the door and find themselves on the entrance hallway facing the once secret door that the dwarves uncovered.
  • They had been led back.
• On the other end of the corridor, the door leads to a partially collapsed room.
  • Dwolf searches it and finds a small box in the rubble containing gemstones.
• Going back to the main chamber, they now head to the door to the north.
  • This also leads to a small corridor that opens to another perpendicular one.
  • This other tight east/west corridor is blocked by rubble to the east. It would seem to connect with the rubble-filled secret room found by the dwarven brothers.
  • It continues to the west, ending in a door.
• With Dwolf in front, followed by Sigmar and the rest of the group, they head to the door and open it carefully.
• Inside them find a humble bedchamber with two stone bunk beds.
  • On both the lower bunks, too shapes can be seen under rotting sheets.
  • The room seems devoid of points of interest, otherwise.
• Sigmar confidently moves in and pulls the sheets, revealing too ghoulish dwarven corpses.
  • At this disturbance, the creatures reveal their undead nature by rising and snarling at the group.
  • The party defends itself swiftly, making short work of both creatures, which barely have time to move and strike.
• Danger averted, Brannus enters the room and searches it.
  • Now knowing what to look for, the human cleric easily detects another concealed door in the southwest corner of the room.
• He opens the door slightly and sees a row of wooden lockers.
  • He then lets Dwolf take the lead, and the dwarf opens the door fully.
• It opens to what is left of a vestry, walls lined with lockers built with wood that is now rotten.
  • The ranger searches the contents of the room and the lockers, only finding worthless remains of tunics and leather armours dyed red.
  • To the south, there is a door.
• Dwolf heads for the exit of the vestry, and finds himself in another east/west corridor.
  • In front of him is another door.
  • To the west, a door of reinforced wood seems blocked by rubble.
  • To the east, apparently a dead end.
• The party gathers in the area and investigates.
  • On one end, it is unclear if the blocked door has been barred with rubble on purpose or not.
  • On the other, the dead-end is not really one: there is another concealed passage.
• The group decides to leave behind the blocked door, as well as the one to the north, and go explore the passage oriented towards the main chamber.
  • Opening the door fully, they find a corridor that heads north to south.
  • The south end is full of collapsed rubble.
  • The north end veers northeast.
• Dwolf and Sigmar have a clear image of what to expect, so they head northeast.
  • They find themselves back in the main chamber where they rested.
• A curious Nundro sees Dwolf emerge and asks him if everything is okay.
  • When responding to the young dwarf, it occurs to the ranger to ask the mining brothers for help removing the rubble out in front of the blocked door.
  • The brothers jump at the opportunity to help.
• At this point, everyone gathers back in the tight corridor where they came from as the dwarves begin to work.

• Without much to do while the dwarves work, and not willing to wait, Sigmar heads back alone to the main chamber to open the last concealed door, to the southwest, that and no one had checked.
  • His boldness is rewarded with a hit to the chest from an ochre jelly that was in wait behind the door.
• A fight breaks between Sigmar and the creature.
  • Everyone is too far away to notice, except Grunden who raises the alarm.
  • One by one the party members head to the main chamber to answer the cry for help.
• The ochre jelly proves a challenge, as it oozes around the pillars of the chamber.
  • Sigmar and Dwolf chip at it slowly.
  • Droop’s aim is consistent but not very damaging.
  • Kiara, somewhat misty-eyed from all the dust around the place, keeps missing the target with her eldritch blast.
• Eventually the beast is killed by a powerful hit from Sigmar’s hammer, spreading ooze everywhere.
  • Dwolf is specially hit by a lot of it…
• The party chastises Sigmar’s carelessness, but no one is much worse for wear.
  • The dwarven cleric drinks a healing potion, regardless.
• A few minutes later, the dwarven brothers return to check on everyone and inform the group that the way to the blocked door has been cleared.
• Everyone heads there, with the trio of brothers staying in the main chamber.
  • Dwolf is in the lead, followed by Sigmar and the rest.
• Before dealing with what might be beyond the reinforced door, but group collectively agrees to first check the plain door to the north.
• The ranger opens it slowly and discovers another collapsed room, the worse they have seen yet.
  • In it there is a skeletal corpse of a dwarf, his head crushed by a large rock.
  • He is wearing what is left of a red leather armour under a ragged tunic.
• Fearing this might be an undead creature, Dwolf shoot an arrow at it but there is no reaction.
• Assuming it is safe he goes into the room, searching it and the corpse.
• The dwarf makes a discovery that upsets him, and Sigmar, greatly.
  • Around its neck, the corpse has a tiny jeweled dagger on a silver chain.
  • This is the holy symbol of Abbathor, the dwarven deity of greed.
• Brannus is also somewhat familiar with the symbol, and believes that red is the color of the clergy of Abbathor, which would explain the rotten vestments they have been finding.
• The party now believes that this place might not be the temple the dwarven brothers think it is.

• They head back and talk to Nundro and Tharden about their discovery.
  • The brothers can’t dispute the evidence found, and are quite crestfallen.
  • Nundro in particular seems quite distraught, and still argues that something could be wrong.
  • Brannus finds the young dwarf’s behaviour strange, but doesn’t really see malice in it; just frustration.
• Regardless of all the signs pointing to this not being a temple to Dumathoin, the group decides to open the reinforced door that still awaits them to the west, and find out for sure.
  • They head out with Dwolf in the lead, Sigmar second, and then Kiara, Droop, and finally Brannus.
  • The brothers tag along but stay at a considerable safe distance.
• The thick door is not locked and opening it slightly, Dwolf sees a bit of the north side of the room ahead.
  • By that north wall is an alcove in which stands a statue of a dwarf that appears to have been depicted smiling at something he is holding in his right hand, held in front of his face.
• Once the door is fully open, the group sees that the room is relatively small (no more than 40 meters square).
  • It is featureless, with absolutely no furniture.
  • It has smooth stone walls that are completely black.
  • The alcove seen to the north has a twin on the south wall, but this one only has rubble where a statue should be.
  • Finally, in the center of the room, a large square pillar stretches from the ground to the ceiling.
• Dwolf walks in slowly and, while at first nothing seems to happen, once he steps near the pillar he hears a light rumble and watches as the side of it facing him crumbles.
  • In it, a dwarven corpse stands clad in a spotless chain shirt, red cape, and clasping a jeweled dagger.
  • The dagger is just like the holy symbol the ranger found earlier, but this one is actual size.
  • To Kiara’s piercing eyes, both the armour and the dagger shine brightly with divine magic.
• The creature opens its eyes, and smiling malevolently acknowledges the party’s presence.

More gifts have come for my Lord…

• It snarls at Dwolf, and a fight breaks!
• While Kiara tries to blast the creature, but fails, Brannus holds aloft his holy symbol and loudly denounces the undead in the name of the Shining One.
  • The creature shields its eyes and cowers at the sight of the holy light.
• A barrage of attacks follow, but they all seem to miss the monster.
  • And while this is happening, two other zombie-like creatures crawl from behind the pillar.
  • They don’t seem interested in the party, and instead they are trying also to move away from Brannus and his holy symbol.
• Eventually the heroes manage to strike the main creature, and that seems to snap it out of its state of flight.
• Sigmar moves in to attack it with his hammer, and is met with resistance.
  • The creature tries to slash him with the dagger, but fails.
  • However, it manages to scratch him with its claws and the cleric recoils as he feels necrotic energy sapping some of his life-force away.
• But with coordinated strikes and spells from the rest of the group, the creature is eventually beaten to submission and ends up collapsing on the floor with a final bone-chilling cry to the Trove Lord.
  • All that is left is to contend with the zombie creatures that are still in a state of unrest.
• Meanwhile, Brannus has slipped into the room and made way to the alcove to the north.
  • He eyes the statue and notices that what it is holding is a shining green gem.
  • Instinctively he reaches to grab it, and the next thing he knows, he is on the floor.
• Everyone in the room watches as the statue on the alcove explodes loudly, projecting Brannus across the room, his limp body hitting the central pillar and falling to the floor.
  • The human cleric lands in bad shape, but still conscious.
• Startled, but with the greater danger averted, it is not long until the zombies are disposed of by the party, and the battle ends.
• Brannus tends to his wounds, feeling foolish but wiser.
• Dwolf searches the room, but finds absolutely nothing.
• Sigmar inspects the corpse of the foul creature, interested in its gear.
  • When he takes the dagger, its jeweled finish crumbles in his hands, revealing a plain dagger.
  • When he removes the chain shirt of the corpse, a cloud of shiny, metallic, dust fills the room and all that he is left with is a shiny red leather armour.
• While the creature’s gear is now revealed to not be exactly what it seemed, Kiara assures Sigmar that it is still very much magical.
• The dwarven brothers finally approach, as the party settles down…