Post
by mushgnome » Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:08 pm
Turn 28
The south end of the cavern splits into two lobes or alcoves.
The southwest lobe (where Dame Simonetta corralled the skeletons earlier) is thriving with small, harmless fungi, lichen and other cave flora. There are some rotted wooden shelves and cracked shards of pottery. Perhaps the cultists used this area as an underground garden, to supplement their pantry with fresh mushrooms and other underground crops? A druid might be able to make sense of it all.
The southeast lobe is damp, and there is a faint sound of trickling water. There is a small natural spring, now almost totally overgrown with cave moss, but if the moss were cleared away, it could be a nice fountain. This must be where the spider cultists got their drinking water.
There is something on the floor of the southeast lobe, near the fountain. At first it just looks like a pile of trash. But on closer inspection, it is a 13th skeleton!
This skeleton is human-sized, not hobbet-size. It is also wearing spider silk robes (badly rotted from the moisture) but more ornate than the other robes, intricately woven with garishly-colored thread. Also the skeleton is wearing a ludicrously tall silk hat or priestly headdress on its head. The skeleton is lying face-down in the muck, and the back of its robe is bloodsoaked and ruined by many stab wounds. There must be dozens of stab wounds; whoever killed this man really had it in for him, stabbing him in the back over and over and over! The dagger wounds are so vicious that the spine was completely severed, and perhaps that was what prevented this skeleton from rising as undead like the other twelve? The skeleton's hands are pinned underneath its body, as though the man was trying to protect what he was holding, as he was being stabbed. Looking closely, our heroes see a metal scroll case in one hand and a carved wooden staff in the other hand. The wood of the staff is pristine, despite the humidity and the ravages of time.
[f=59]
Stern (
Strong Hero, MV 9′′, AC 3, HD 4, hp 20, FC 4 men/hero, SV F4, L)[/f]