Chapter Eleven – Escaping the Ghost And Re-Entering The Ground Floor:
The Adventurers flee from the Ghost back into Castle Ravenloft, through the 3 portcullises they had previously come through and into the main building through the same door into the servants area. Strahd suddenly appears on the Curtain Wall and is seen by Frimly again.
The Ghostis no longer in pursuit and did not enter the dead garden.
Thora: “Coward!”
Strahd: “I shall save you until last little Dwarf!”
Thora: “Hide behind your spells!”
Those who can understand, hear Strahd cast a spell in the Dwarves tongue: “Whither?”
Once all are inside, and away from the Ghost and Count Strahd, the door is slammed shut and the heads down the left-hand staircase!
Thora: “See you soon with an Axe in yer heed!”
Growls Thora.
We continue on downwards and into the room, fog/steam filled, with several doors leading amongst others to the kitchen and wine cellar. It is lit by torchlight.
The wine cellar hasn’t been checked yet. We are down a level and Father Tobias spends a minute scanning for Mirafir’s ‘Ring of Spell Storing’.
Meanwhile Frimly tries to pick the lock on the wine cellar. He succeeds. Inside Frimly finds a low ceiling over the wine cellar – some hungry rats that suddenly scurry away, but the fear of the Ghost is still there.
Father Tobias does not detect Mirafir’s ring.
Father Tobias: “Perhaps Mirafir is on another level? Is Mirafir at the top of the tower maybe? Or further down?”
Frimly and Galan examine the wine barrels. On one it says: “Champagne de la Stamp”. Frimly hits the barrel with the pommel of his sword. It sounds hollow. On the other side of the room there are more barrels containing “Red Dragon Crush” while the last have ‘Purple Grapemash’ burned on them.
Frimly takes Thora’s spear and thoroughly prods the barrel Sir Ly has knocked the cork off. Suddenly something black and oozy blobs out and begins to expand quickly. It is like a Black Pudding of the most unappetising kind.
Galan, Frimly and Sir Ly try and strike the monster. Sir Ly screams:
Sir Ly: “We are being attacked by a Black Pudding!”
The pudding goes straight to Sir Ly. Sigune and Father Tobias join the fray:
Sigune: “For St Cuthbert! And His Mighty Cudgel!”
Frimly misses, Galan and Sigune strike the Black Pudding, causing it to wibble and wobble.
Sir Ly also delivers a quivering blow with his flaming sword. The Black Pudding tries to splash onto Sir Ly, but misses… Frimly strikes and it is getting smaller, with pieces of Black Pudding sliced off. It is dead, its ichor slowly dissolving…
Frimly investigates the barrel it crawled out of. There is about a foot of liquid, wine, and Black Pudding fluids, in the barrel. Frimly makes a hole in the barrel with the spear and the liquid flows out. The Ranger steps in and finds a flask in the liquid after Sigune has ‘Detected for Evil’.
Galan finds a Potion and takes a sip and his lips turn into Orc-like, then Troll-like lips.
We assume it’s a magical ‘Potion of Polymorph’?
The rest of the barrels are smashed open to see if there is anything held in them. Nothing else of interest is found. The party also searches for secret doors, without success. We spend nearly an hour looking while some keep guard watching for the Ghost.
Frimly smashes the last barrel and there is some ‘Brown Mold’ in it. Galan and Sir Ly are attacked! It somehow draws the very warmth from the bodies of Galan and Sir Ly, but is immobile. The party decides it is better to leave the room.
Frimly goes to the end of the corridor to the double doors and listens carefully. He hears nothing except for the odd whistle of wind, which he hopes is not the Ghost.
They open the door to the kitchen and a horrible odour of decay fills the hot steaming room. Three Zombies suddenly bob-up out of the pot in a car boot sale of dismembered limbs and torsos:
Zombies: “Ouuuueeerrr! Ooooouuurgh!”
In the ensuing melee, Thora chops an arm off one of the Zombies which later attempts to attack Thora, before the party finish the Zombies off.
The party leaves the kitchen, to another door in the corridor and Frimly listens again. Frimly hears nothing and sees that the door is locked. It’s a very good lock. Frimly tries to open it – and succeeds!!!
Just.
Sigune, her Magical Shield at the ready opens the door. It is filled with clutter and old weapons. Father Tobias suspects that the room is the cook’s sleeping quarters. There is a tapestry of Castle Ravenloft.
BUTLER’S QUARTERS:
This 20’ foot square room is filled wall to wall with clutter.
A long, sagging bed sits to one side under a huge faded tapestry that depicts Castle Ravenloft. Dusty Lanterns sit in various places, and bright curtains are draped haphazardly about the room.
Thousands of pieces of junk cover the floor. Broken swords, crumpled shields, and helmets lie in piles all about.
Apart from this there is nothing in the room as we spend 20 minutes searching. The Adventurers then go to check the double doors key an eye out for the Ghost.
It is a large room beyond with scores of Skeletal bodies, 4 piles of bones in each corner and the entire room is decorated with bones! A chandelier of sculls, a table of bones! Everything bones! There are doors on the north and south walls of this hall. There is a large shadow above of the party. Father Tobias does not want to enter this hall. It is ‘Desecrated Ground’ there must be an aura against good.
HALL OF BONES:
Dark stains cover the floor of this area. Large oak tables, scarred and beaten, lay scattered like toys about the room, their wood crushed and splintered, replacing them are furnishings made entirely of human bones.
The walls and the 20’ foot high vaulted ceiling area sickly yellow colour, not because of faded or timeworn plaster but because they are adorned with bones and skulls arranged in a morbidly decorative fashion, giving the room a cathedral-like quality. Four enormous mounds of bones occupy the corners of this ossuary, and garlands of skulls extend from these mounds to a chandelier of bones that hangs from the ceiling above a long table constructed of bones in the centre of the room.
Ten chairs made of bones and festooned with decorative skulls surround the table, resting atop which an ornate, bowl-shaped vessel that is made of yet more bones.
The doors to the NORTH and SOUTH are sheathed in bone, but the steel-banded double doors in the centre of the east wall are not. Above these eastern doors is mounted the skull of a dragon.
There are discussions about what to do next. Enter this hall and risk another distraction and not finding our way to the Chapel? Or going back the way we came and going past the trap, up the spiral staircase, where Father Tobias descended, and then into the hexagonal room with the 8 Gargoyles. This must surely lead to the chapel.
Sigune uses her cloak and ‘Spider-Climbs’ past the trap, Father Tobias uses his Boots and ‘Levitates’ and Thora tosses herself across the trap towards the spiral stairs. Once across, the party takes a moment to heal, some taking their last ‘Potions of Healing and Extra-Healing’ as they prepare ready for combat.
Father Tobias casts his spell ‘Prayer’.
Mirafir has now been gone for about two and a half hours and may be a Ghost himself by now.
At the top of the stairs, on the ground floor, there is a hexagonal room in complete darkness. There are 8 ‘Gargoyles’ in the room. The party is expecting trouble from the Gargoyles. But the attack comes from behind them; the suit of armour suddenly ambles towards the party.
At first we believe it to be a ‘Magical Construct’ but it turns out to be a Zombie in the suit of armour and it is soon dealt with. The party forms a vanguard to protect themselves from the Gargoyles and then move towards the bronzed double doors we expect will lead us to the chapel. Frimly checks the Bronzed double doors and it is locked but there is not lock.
The 4 of Gargoyles swoop down and charge the adventurers – Sigune slashes at one of the Gargoyles delivering a vicious blow before the Gargoyles also attack. Further blows from Galan and others mean that the first of the Gargoyles are now down.
A second quickly follows but the Gargoyles are not showing any signs of relenting.