Session 37 - Skeletons & Ants

The adventurers find a hidden tomb and confirm the existence of the rumored black skeletons. After a battle with undead skeletons, they encountered giant ants that they previously fought and other dungeon vermin.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our August 21, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to JoJo for the screen shot.

Continued from: Spiders & Ants

Date: May 23, 3517

Location: Mouth of Doom, Level 2

1:00 PM
We were in the giant spiders’ room. Lark checked out the door in the west wall; it was in bad condition, no lock, just needs to be pushed open and doing that will destroy it. Lark opened it with his strength, and stepped into an empty room. Looking at the walls and ceiling, it looks unfinished; 15-ft-wide and 10 ft. ceiling. Lark tapped on the west side wall; it sounded hollow, about 1-ft-thick stone. We searched the south wall for secret doors. Blaze checked her map, it showed an empty room on the other side of the west wall, with a scrawled message, “Dam it is alive. Have to sleep. Or die.”

Lark began tapping on the north wall – it’s all solid. Going back in the hallway to the east, Lark checked the door on the south side; it’s locked and quiet. Lark hit it, only damaging it; hit it again, same. It’s an iron-bound steel door. Artie tried to unlock it after all the damage, and checked for traps. He found no traps and unlocked it.

2 PM
Blaze opened the door; inside was another empty room.  After 20 minutes, we found two secret doors at the south end of the room on the east and west sides. We marked the ground in front of them to find them again. Blaze opened the east door panel. Looking in, there’s an altar on the far side with black candles on it.

Standing at the door, Artie used mage hand to pick up one of the candles; as soon as it connected, he fell to the floor, unconscious. Blaze checked him; there’s a slow pulse and it’s getting weaker. Parahelia used heal and he came to. Blaze used a healing kit and he was back to normal. Sinis looked at the candles to see if the candle moved, no. Lark looked into the room. It had a 10-ft -tall ceiling, 20 feet across to the altar on the far side, and 20-ft long. The candles have been burned, and there was dust on the floor; no one’s been in here for a long time. Lark went to the west side door while Blaze healed Artie. The door panel was quiet. The panel was made of stone and locked; somewhere was a mechanism that could open it.

Lark tried to force it open, but had no luck. Artie and Elron also tried it and failed. Sinis tried and succeeded; showed Lark which stone to push on.

Inside on the right, against the north wall, there were two wooden coffins with decayed lids. There were skeletons with black shrouding in them. There were three stone sarcophagi on the left against the south wall.

Lark stepped in, checked the two skeletons, and came back out. Blaze and Breena stepped in while Elron stood back from the door with his sling ready. Both skeletons were human.

Elron came in and checked the coffins, poking around with his knife; nothing of value in either. Elron then checked the stone sarcophagus at the far end to the west. The sarcophagi were plain; no inscriptions, but each had a stone latch. When he opened it, a skeleton with a silver necklace sat up as the lid opened.

Elron stepped back with his sword drawn. Breena yelled to the group in the other room, “There’s a skeleton!”

Elron dropped the lid on it, but the skeleton threw it aside and it crashed to the floor.

Breena cast mage armor on herself. Elron grabbed his sword and shield and cast ensnaring strike. He swung his long sword and killed it, taking the silver necklace from the scattered bones. Sinis rummaged in the sarcophagus, finding nothing else of value.

Elron checked the second sarcophagus; opened it, and found another undead skeleton. This one was black with a short sword in each hand.

Blaze recalled the rumor, “Magical black skeletons inhabit the dungeon. They are greatly feared, as clerics cannot turn them.”

Parahelia replied, “That’s what the mace is for.”

Breena cast witch bolt on it and its eyes glowed red when it was hit by the lightning; otherwise it appeared to be unhurt. Elron swung twice with his sword; the first swing missed, but the second one injured it. The black skeleton swung twice at Elron. The first swing missed, but the second hit, and Elron felt weaker, feeling his strength drain away with the blow.

Sinis cast acid splash at it, but missed.

Blaze tried to levitate it, so it couldn’t move forward, but the spell didn’t work.

Breena still had lightning connected to it, and seemed like she was damaging the skeleton.

Elron’s sword hit twice, shattering it. Elron looked through the bones and found that it had two bracelets and a necklace with a ruby. A quick appraisal estimated the necklace was worth about 500 gp, and the bracelets 100 gp each.

Elron, not a fast learner, opened the third sarcophagus without checking for traps. There was one: poison gas, causing nausea and writhing on the floor. Elron began to puke his guts out.

Breena was not affected, only smelling something bad. She cast witch bolt on the third skeleton as it stood in the sarcophagus. The skeleton attacked Elron with a short sword, but couldn’t get through his armor to hurt him.

Blaze levitated Elron to get him out of the room, while Artie used mage hand to move him 5 feet towards door. The skeleton tried to hit him again from the top of the sarcophagus but missed. Lark moved into the room under the floating Elron. Gas from the trap had filled the room. He felt a little sick from the poison, but being a dwarf, it didn’t slow him down. He swung his sword at the skeleton, killing it. Lark looked in the sarcophagus. There’s a golden scepter with a skull on it, and the skeleton’s sword. Lark picked them up and stowed them for later.

Elron returned to normal after getting back into the fresh air. Lark suggested using fire to clear the gas, so we tossed in a lit torch, and it worked.

We closed both secret doors and continued along the hallway to the east, where it turned south. Breena got to the end of the south hallway first, looked around the corner, yelled, “Ants up ahead!” and ran back to the main group.

Sinis and Artie readied spells and held their actions, Sinis with acid splash, and Artie with fire bolt. One giant ant moved into sight around the corner. It looked already injured with burns on its face and front legs. Then a second ant moved into view.

Breena cast thunderwave when they got to her position, blasting both of them. Sinis threw acid splash on both but missed. The first ant tried to bite Breena and Blaze but missed both. Elron moved up and used his sling on the front ant, hitting it twice for damage.

Parahelia, in the rear, heard squeaking around the corner to the north. She cast Bless on Breena, Blaze, herself, and Artie, and cast spiritual hammer near the ants. The spiritual hammer hit the first ant. Blaze cast flaming sphere and pushed it into the first ant, killing it.

On the north side, three giant rats came around the corner and moved toward Parahelia and Artie. Artie cast fire bolt, which barely singed one of them. Lark drew his weapon and moved up to the rats, preparing to swing.

 

Continued in Session 38: Giant Ants and Trapped Treasure Chest