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!
Our heroes begin the session by having a long rest in the spider war room
They then returned to the L-shaped hallway
The party then explored what turns out to be a haunted washroom. A creepy, glowing energy writes the message, ‘I was Otari… save me from below!’ before it coils along the floor leading the group to the stairs leading back the the (dangerous) level 3. They agree to pick up this thread of story later.
Returning to the hallway, they enter rooms that seem to contain cleaning supplies before finding a small demon licking the floor clean in a room childishly painted with scenes of burning mountains and rusted buildings. Unable to communicate with the demon, a fight ensues and the heroes are victorious.
The group next enters one of the east-facing doors in the L-shaped hallway and find 2 morlock engineers trying to repair/modify a large ballista. The party kills the ‘mushroom-eyed’ foes. There are two exits to this room:
A barricaded door to the north
A door to the east
They check out the east door and find a room with a well along with what looks like adventuring gear. (which they correctly guess belongs to the missing theives guild pary) The heroes take:
1 lesser healing potion
13gp
From deep in the well, the group hears what sounds like splashing and a small crowd. A lot of discussion takes place around how the theives guild party got down the well before Gilgadan sends their familiar down the well to find a hiddeous Gibbering Mouther, which the party will deal with later when they explore the dungeon’s third level
They return and check out the barricaded door and find… the missing thieves guild party! The heroes agree to escort them back to Otari… after they explore a bit more.
They return to the L-shaped hall and go through one of the west-facing doors and find the ‘Punishment Room’ which is unexceptional except for a secret door on the south-facing wall. They go through the secret door
Here the find a hall with
a door leading east
another secret door to the south
South door: opens into a circular room with a moss covered skull engraved on the eastern wall. Touching the skull causes the room to become an elevator going down. The party decides to check this out later as well
Easter door: Large circular room that has no exits. Notable features
A giant long-dead purple worm
An arc of blue necrotic energy weaves from the floor to the ceiling
This room appears to be beneath the lighthouse on the ground level
Within the worm carcass they find +1 warhammer
At this point the group decides to return to town with the missing thieves guild folks
They are rewarded by Yinyasmera at Crook’s Nook with 50gp
The group agrees they may need to regroup on the 2nd level before continuing on the 3rd level, so they return to try and find a way to proceed through the dead-end stairwell. They find a secret door this time allowing them to continue.
They find a hallway leading North/South. They head north to a door…
Inside is a battle-wrecked room that contained the bones of a giant skeleton minotaur that slowly rebuilds itself in an attempt to attack the party. The group is able to defeat it before it fully reforms though (with the help of cowboy Nolam who rides the skull to keep it from fully forming)
Exiting the minotaur room to the east they find a large/long hallway.
There’s several exits from this room, but there is notably
2 double doors to the north.
Another single door to the north as well that is glowing
The group goes through the double doors
This L-shaped room contains 5 alcoves with dioramas showing Albsalom being destroyed in various ways. They detect magic around the alcoves and wisely avoid getting too close as they head through to the exit in the upper-east side of the hallway.
Here they find what looks like a web-covered war room with a model of Absalom as it once appeared long ago. On top of the table is a spider-like humanoid who demands offerings for the ‘Ghost King’
The party tries offering gifts, but the spider-man ultimately summons 2 smaller spiders and attacks the party.
Compared to the Mist Stalkers, the party easily dispatches these foes
The group returns to Gauntlight after leveling up in town and explores the NW area
In a boat house they find remnants of what looks like a group of people from Crook’s Nook (and their thieves guild, the Osprey Club) but there is no one found nearby
They head to the island in the NW to check out the build there
In first disheveled room they find a brownie (‘Spookywisp’) who tries to intimidate the adventurers into retrieving the ‘shiny’ from ‘the beak’ down the hall. They manage to discover that Spookywisp is really a tiny brownie who nonetheless offers information in exchange for ‘the shiny’
They find a stairwell heading down to a level 2
The adjoining hallway bears 4 paintings
First: It’s a landscape painting that depicts the city of Absalom in flames with ghosts rising from the city streets between the burning buildings. The picture’s lower frame bears a bronze plaque that reads, “So Shall the Fools Suffer.”
This second painting depicts Gauntlight Keep as it appeared before its upper floors collapsed. The lighthouse rises above the stately keep into the night sky, with its beacon emitting a pale blue light in which ghostly faces sneer and grimace. Its bronze plaque reads, “Let the Light Shine Forever.”
Third, a shredded painting labeled “The Artist at Work.”
Forth an image of Belcorra herself. Its plaque reads, “The Lady of the Light.”
They discover what appears to be the lighthouse lens workshop where the animated puppet ‘Mr Beak’ is found and is waiting for the return of ‘Master Azrinae’. He then attacked the party.
After defeating Mr Beak the group finds
A gem encrusted spyglass (the shiny)
A soul gem in the back of Mr Beak’s back
The party returns to Spookywisp with the spyglass and learns the following
The building used to belong to someone named Volluk Azrinae.
Volluk was an apprentice to someone else named Belcorra, and even though this Volluk person seemed like someone who was mean and dangerous, Belcorra seemed much worse!
The lighthouse can also shoot a beam full of ghosts
The group heads down the stairs they found earlier in this building (level 2)
The find a study/bedroom.
A note with list of books
‘What The Worm Knows’
‘Grave Feasts’
‘Secrets of the Skull’
At bottom of note, ‘Transcription will take months, but I’ll try to have these books back to you as soon as possible, my love!’
South of the study they find a table and contraption used to create undead.
There is a a large lump/pile of flesh in one corner that the party avoids
To the south of this room are stairs leading to level 3
The group checks out the room north of the study and finds what looks like a servant’s quarters
A large barrel that looks like it contained pickles at one time
Behind a secret brick in the wall
a jade shard worth 15 gp
a silver statuette of two succubi worth 35 gp
an oily-looking slick armor rune
Heading back to the east of the study, they find a locked door that the silver key from the Vampiric Mist unlocks
Inside they find a workshop that appears to be for making constructs
There’s a vat in north wall with remains of a goblin
a goblin doll with no arms or legs with an indentation the same shape as Mr Beak’s soul gem
The party puts the soul gem in the doll and it comes alive
The soul in Mr Beak’s gem was actually the goblin in the vat, named Borbo. He was tricked/manipulated by Volluk Azrinae into becoming a construct and was his slave.
Borbo gives the party the following information
There’s a secret door in the southern wall of this room (with another set of stairs leading to level 3)
Master Volluk was a “powerful mastermind drow occultist artist craftsman” who had a relationship with a “book lady down below” and who worked for “Mistress Belcorra, who is very frightening and absolutely none of my business.”
Master Volluk is vain as well as cruel. If you present a nice image of Volluk (such as a painting) to him and then threaten to destroy it, Volluk will lose his composure and likely make a tactical error the heroes can use.
Borbo wants to be set free, so Suman smashes the soul gem. The god Pharasma is pleased with this and grants Suman a +2 to a single skill check as a boon.
The party decides to head down the stairs in the workshop to Gauntlight 3rd level…
The party ascends to the Gauntlight cupola to investigate the ‘thumping’ they heard at the end of the last session after defeating the Belcorra haunt.
They are attacked by a Vampiric Mist (that only appears at night). It is a tough battle but (and some folks get knocked out) but the party succeeds at killing the enemy.
They find a silver key where the mist dissipates
Shortly after defeating the Vampiric Mist, the Gauntlight lighthouse comes alive and shines a spooky blue light towards Otari… specifically at the graveyard!
The heroes quickly hurry back to town to see what is happening.
At the graveyard they find that the blue light is raising the dead, which are mindlessly running toward Otari and jumping off a cliff to reach the town. Fortunately the cliffside fall kills any of the zombies making the leap, but a group of skeletons and zombies remain rooted to the graveyard; just hanging around.
The town guards are pretty useless and differ to the adventurers to handle the lingering undead
The party disposes of 5 skeletons and 4 zombies before the Gauntlight again shines on the graveyard and ‘teleports’ a large spider-like monster called a Scalathrax.
It is the party’s toughest fight yet, but they manage to inch out a win here and defeat the spider!
The town rejoices and recognizes that the party are the town’s greatest chance and figuring out what is going on at the Gauntlight ruins. They offer a reward of 50 gpeach to continue exploring the ruins to make sure the the threat to Otari is crushed.
