The heroes begin by descending the eastern staircase leading down to level 4 of the vaults. In the stairwell they find another ghostly message, “The Gauntlight is a weapon built to raze Absalom – it must be stopped!”
The staircase leads to large cavern with a raised platform centered over a still, underground lake.
The cavern is occupied by a feral looking man and a wolf who barks commands at the group to leave immediately
The party attempts to communicate further, but the man instead attacks the party
He quickly reveals that he is a werewolf
During the fight, Suman contract the Curse of the Werewolf
Before either the the enemies are killed, the man surrenders and offers to provide a reward if they spare him (which they agree to)
They learn that he is Jaul Mezmin who was involved with the murder of Ayla Lathenar some 30 years ago
He has retreated to this cavern for dozens of years in solitude because of his sins in the past
He tells the party what he knows about this level
There are nightmare stairs to the north
There is a ghost on an island to the south
They let Jaul and his wolf leave through the north east cave
He gives the party Ayla’s amulet (non-magical)
They head south and find a cave with a metal chute that empties out into slimy water. (They could maybe climb up the chute) There’s also a long dead otyugh in the room.
Continuing on, they find another large room filled with 3 feet of water that has an island at its center with skeletal remains.
When they approach the island
A ghost appears from the skeleton
Also 2 flickerwisps and a Will o’ Wisp appear and attack the party
The ghost reveals itself to be the ghost of Otari and helps the heroes fight the wisps (by jumping out of the shadows of different members of the party)
Otari unintentionally gives Nolam and Suman Filth Fever by appearing out of their shadows
The party defeats the wisps and is now ready to speak with the ghost of Otari Ilvashti…
The group begins by exploring the scriptorium where they find both the remains of a long dead drow elf AND her ghost.
The ‘drow elf ghost administrator’ orders the party to get to work on transcribing books before disappearing into the east-facing wall (which they later find to be hiding a secret door)
The skeletal drow elf remains contain:
chain-shirt + 1
A framed painting of Volluk Azrinae
The ghost returns to the room and a fight ensues. The heroes are able to lay the ghost administrator to rest (through force)
They explore the hidden room to the east and find a secret workroom that is otherwise unremarkable except that it contains the infernal contract Korlok requested.
A second staircase to the 4th level is found
The party heads back to Korlok and give him the contract. He finds a loophole that allows him to return to his infernal home. Before leaving he informs the heroes of other devils that he knows reside in the vaults
Zebub the janitor that they already know about and have killed
Urevian is a contract devil on a lower level and that ‘he is shrewd but is well known for keeping his word’
The party finally returns to the ‘main boss room of the level’ and finds The Temple of the Canker
A large, 15′ tall sculpture of Belcorra made out of bits of flesh for various ‘sources’ is in the back of the temple
2 canker cultists and a ghoul priest are busy adding to the sculpture as the heroes arrive
The priest demands the party give up and become part of the sculpture. They decided NOT to do that so everyone rolls for initiative. The heroes prevail.
The priest had a staff of necromancy which the party grabs
The party spends 3 weeks leveling up, crafting, and earning extra income through odd jobs around towns. During that time they pick up the following additional Otari info:
Carmen Rajani:
Owner of Blade for Glades weapon store
Descendent of Vol Rajani who was one of the founders of Otari
Is angry that he’s not a leader of Otari
The Otari market closed in remembrance of the store owner’s wife’s murder of 30 years ago. Some suspect the killer could still be alive.
The mayor’s daughter, Dorianna Menhemes, has become further withdrawn and disconnected from those around her
Upon returning to the vaults, the heroes find what appears to be a rough and incomplete cave that was to become another room for the library.
They find a +1 striking pick
They then find a furnace room that is haunted by two arguing ghosts. After a rough fight the party is able to dismiss the haunt through a combination of exorcism and intimidation.
The heroes begin by entering Belcorra’s office which is lit by a chandelier with an ever burning torch. They find a west-facing locked door stylized with an engraving of a book. Luckily they already found a bronze key on the first level with a book engraving that unlocks the door
Here they find Belcorra’s reading room which is occupied by Lurker in Light that is reading some unsavory books about torture. He attacks the party after being interrupted. After taking an enormous amount of damage from Suman, the Lurker uses a dimension door spell to try and escape, but is unable to outrun the party.
They find a book called ‘Ineffable Hauntings’ that can teach someone the Ghost Weapon spell. It also contains the ritual to create undead, specifically a poltergeist
There 1 bulk of books here
There are two doors exiting the reading room
South leads to a abandoned guard closet with stairs leading down to a lower level
North just leads to an unusually clean washroom
The heroes return to the main hall and head north to an unexplored hallway
They find an east-facing door that leads to a large room lined with books and a map of Absalom… but as it appeared 500 years ago. There’s also a large wooden statue of Belcorra… that lurches to life and reveals itself to be a Wood Golem when the party enters the room.
A very tough fight for the heroes ensues, but their fire-based weapons and implements turn the tide and they overcome the golem.
The books in the room seem to be focused on the history of Absalom sieges (as of 500 years ago), almost like someone was studying up on how to attack Absalom. There are 4 bulk of books here
The heroes return to Otari to lick their wounds
Even though they are just shy of leveling up, they are allowed to take out a loan on the gap in xp so they can become 5th level adventurers.
The heroes start by finding a secret door leading south which leads them to an abandoned guard room. They continue though the passage leading south
They discover a large natural cavern that contains a large pool of water:
This is the room that the well from the level above led to
A Gibbering Mouth that was living here fights the party, but loses.
The find 190 cp and 64 sp from the well
The cave to the north head down to level 4 of the vaults
They continue west through a natural cave until they find the back of a secret door leading north
The cavern continues on and leads to the troglodyte room from the first Otari adventure
They discover a reading room with couches
A friendly-ish morlock-ghoul, named Augrael, is found here reading books
The heroes convince Augrael to leave the room to go feast on the remains of the Gibber Mouther
An eastern exit leads up to the 2nd level
The group continues north leading them to a hallway they discovered on their first trip to the 3rd level
Another reading room is found, but it contains a ‘watching wall’ that attacks the group with psychic visions of paranoia. They destroy the wall to stop the haunt.
There is a secret door leading to a watching room behind the watching wall
They also find 2 more inactive teleport runes
Yet another reading room contains a message from the Ghost of Otari, “Belcorra fell to the Roseguard, but we never knew of these vaults below…”
Heading north they come across a room with a devil guarding a long empty cell
His name is Korlok and he gives off bored vibes; he lazily tells the group to give up and get in the cell
After negotiating with the devil they learn he is under contract with Belcorra to ‘wait here and let no one out until I come for you’. He knows Belcorra is dead
He agrees to let the heroes go if they promise to return with information of how to break the contract.
The heroes wrap up some town buying and recovery stuffs before returning to the 3rd level of the vaults
They pick the lock of a door leading to the book repair office that appears to be occupied by the ghost of a female human who is compelled to repair ghost books ‘forever’. After some sleuthing the heroes determine that she took her life long ago to avoid the ghoulish intentions of her colleagues.
Removing the book repair tools from the room allowed her soul to rest and pass on.
The party found a gold paper weight worth 10gp and a crafter’s eyepiece
In her attached bedroom they found 2 bulk of books
They went back around to the tattoo-ghoul’s room to explore some side rooms
First room contained a butcher block with a +1 low-grade silver hatchet
Second room was filled with 5 dead morlocks who were ‘being aged’ by the ghouls. The party detects the presence of the disease blueblisters and leaves the room.
They find the firefighting supply closet which contains a wand of quench
A room with book repair supplies is discovered. It contains a 2nd level scroll of mending and scroll of hypercognition
They explore the northern section of the main library hall and find a washroom that has been otherwise ignored by the ghouls and can be used as a safe place to rest
They move on eastward to the restricted collection hall. Here a canker cultist and 4 ghouls try to coax the heroes to head north to see ‘the high priestess’. The party instead dispatches the ghouls here in this room first.
They find 6 bulk of books
Before heading to the high priestess, the heroes decide to check out the two doors in the south in the restrict collection hall
Here they find a gruesome room covered in blood and gore where the cultists store infected persons. (so that they can turn into ghouls) The heroes kill two more canker cultists that were found arguing over whether some meat was done ‘ripening’ yet.
We pick up with the party quickly slaughtering 4 ghouls that were peacefully devouring some expired Morlocks
They try a door leading south and find a horrific workshop where a stronger ghoul has been tattooing flesh as some sort of artistic kink. The heroes are able to cancel this fella’s art show.
They find 2 bulk of books
They head further south to find the bottom of the elevator they discovered on the 2nd floor
Pushing further south the come across a room with 2 violet fungi. After defeating them they find enough of the fungi remains to be able to craft 2 douses of Violet Venom
They head westward into an absolutely disgusting room where 2 Canker Cultists are worshipping a stinking, rotting gibbering mouther corpse. A messy fight ensues but the party is able to defeat the ghouls
A door north leads back to the library reading room
The heroes head to the 2nd level to wash up and rest before continuing
The party spends 2 weeks in Otari leveling up to level 4, crafting stuffs, and doing odd jobs around town
They return to the hallway on level 3 of the vaults to continue their exploration. They had the option of continuing to explore the west side of L3 but decided to check the door leading east where they find…
The vaults main library which is occupied by a group of 4 ghouls in blue robes.
The ghouls ask the party if they are here to “donate flesh for the Canker”. (whatever that means…) The heroes decline which causes the ghouls to attack
They defeat the first group of ghouls… but enough noise is made that a 2nd group from the hall to the south joins the fight; 2 more ghouls and a larger ‘Canker Cultist’ attacks the party
The heroes defeat the 2nd group, but note that the Canker Cultist is strong enough to paralyze the party (unlike the weaker, ‘plain’ ghouls)
To the south, where the 2nd group came from, they find a large circular library reading room with a necrotic blue light arcing from floor to ceiling (which they’ve seen on the 1st and 2nd floors leading to the light house beacon)
Nolam finds a secret door leading to a room with silver inlayed runes and shaped which Lunasan deduces might be some sort of teleportation device… that still needs to be activated via an unknown ritual
The group heads back to the main library hall where they have several doors to explore, but decide on one leading to ‘Personal Quarters’
Here they find 3 more ghouls devouring a long dead morlock. The ghouls immediately attack the heroes …which will be resolved at the start of next session!
The heroes leave the crypt to find a kitchen that was converted into a shrine to Belcorra
They then entered the servants’ rooms:
Found 4 Morlock scavengers
Defeated 3 of them before one of them fled towards…
.. the old office to get help from 2 more ‘full sized’ Morlocks. The party kills them all:
The find a fancy gear in a broken clockwork assistant which Gilgalad is able to remove without breaking. Worth 40gp
There’s two exists from the old office, the group takes the more northern of the two which leads into a hallway with junk, wood and gears on either side
There are four spike traps in this room
Gilgalad normally checks for traps in every room but forgot this time and sets one of them off
He successfully disarms the other 3 traps before continuing
They enter the throne room of the Morlock leader, Graulgust. He recognizes the party for being capable and offers them a chance to appease the ‘Ghost Queen’ by defeating the ‘water monster’ that is preventing them from foraging. The party agrees.
They head down a natural cave that leads out of the throne room which exits into a disheveled dock next to a small, swampy underground lake.
There are stairs leading east so the party checks that out first
They find a room octagonal room with silvery runes on the walls that looks like it does something… but they don’t (can’t) know what it is yet
Further along they find a raided pantry and another stairwell leading down to level 3.
They return to the lake and throw stuff into the water to get the water drake to attack them… which it does
They kill the water drake
In a chest they find
Axe of Retribution
Wand of Magic Missiles (1st)
Wayfinder
They return to Graulgust with the drakes head and he is visibly surprised. He leads them on a tour of his domain after naming them ‘ Lackeys of the Ghost Queen’
At the end of the tour he gives them another ultimatum, go kill a group of ghouls called ‘The Cult of the Canker’ on level 3 or become prisoners.
The party instead attacks Graulgust and his 2 Morlock guards
During the fight Graulgust calls for his Fleshwarped pet, Grothlut, who arrives after three rounds fighting.
It’s a hard fight with a couple people reaching 0 hp (or close to it) but the heroes succeed in ridding the dungeon of the Morlocks!
