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Defenders Log Entry #12: Things to Do in Benct When You're Dead, Part II

Felix, 2nd level fighter, 24 hp, played by Alex
Drew, 2nd level ranger, 19 hp, played by committee
Morgan, 2nd level fighter, 12 hp, played by Alan
Tyveris, 2nd level cleric of Nevron, 12 hp, played by Joel
Quentin, 2nd level druid, 10 hp, played by Jeremy
Perry, 1st level thief, 6 hp, played by Sean


A REALLY COOL GAME SESSION!

I'll hit the general highlights:

The party continued its exploration of possibilities. Finding no response forthcoming from the room for several days. Eventually we decided to get a little more adventurous and tried to prop open the chest. It stayed that way for two nights, until the second night when something happened.

Four armed men, yelling about how they would kill those adventurers, entered the bar. They threatened us with 250 gp damages. Tyveris stood up and said something to the effect that they should be worried about the ghost as a permanent problem rather than blaming us. They tried to drag him away-- but then he pointed out that he was a deputy of Restenford.

The man punched him with a brass knuckle, hard enough to stun him. Then he left. Tyveris felt a vague sense of satisfaction through the dizziness, though.

It turns out that the ghost had appeared on the docks and chased three men unloading something into the water. By some accounts he threw them in, others he just pushed. It was definitely the same ghost in appearance.

The next day Quentin went down to the docks to speak with rats. It turns out they are quite intelligent, greedy, and all serve someone known as "the Commandant." We SUSPECT, though there isn't much proof, that he is a wererat. He is definitely the head of the underworld in Benct.

The Commandant in fact sent a note back the next day warning Quentin not to ask delicate questions. Quentin wrote back explaining we were just curious about the ghost on the docks. The Commandant wrote back saying that for 1000 gp he would tell us about the glowing thing on the docks. We politely refused.

There was, during this time, a new note in the room. It read, "She has my bones." (under our question of who is Brinea)

The next night, the innkeeper heard a loud crash and screams. They stopped after about two minutes. We kept watch the rest of that night.

In the morning, we found the desk trashed. Drawers were lying everywhere, though we noticed that NOTHING was missing. There was a small spot of fresh blood on the tub, and a grimy residue on the desk.

One theory is that this was a reenactment of the death of Captain Nbod. This works except for the damage done to our note. It was found with 2/3 of it burned away and the candle partially burned. This hurts our theory that the ghost thing doesn't like light, if it used the candle to light something on fire. Of course, it didn't have to be the ghost.

Possibly a thief may have entered the room and searched it, then been caught (killed?) by the undead that actually is in the room. There are a number of theories currently bouncing around.

It gets better. We took the residue to the biologist, who quickly identified it as "glowfungus." This grows in moist areas, though not particularly quickly. It glows bluish-white in the dark, JUST LIKE THE ZOMBIE/ GHOST THING WE SAW.

Certainly everything we've seen could have been reproduced by a low- mid level cleric (or even perhaps a mage)-- the Command spell, the Faerie Fire like spell, the glowing, the inexpensive magic powder...

Our suspicions heightened, we visited the pawn shop owner, who was willing to throw a Detect Magic (magic-user) spell on the three items for 100 gp plus some credit on the treasure, if we find it.

Interesting results: the three objects were all detected as VERY POWERFUL magic, conjuration. Furthermore, they were all the same magic. They had all been made at roughly the same time and had decayed to roughly the same rate of inconsistent flickering that occurs at the end of a semi-permanent magic item's lifespan.

The purpose of all of these objects appears to be a teleport, or more likely a gate. It doesn't remain open constantly, but activates by something unknown. Furthermore, the painting, which originally we detected as non-magical, detected as VERY FAINT magic.

We flipped it over, and found that the back was low magic. Furthermore, the pawn-shop owner indicated it was alteration magic. Finally, we called upon the carpenter who constructed some of the furniture in the room.

For a tidy sum, he showed us the secret panel in the bed, and we pulled out... a map! Of an isle called, Moon Isle (interesting considering our moon phase theories). It was in Captain Nbod's handwriting, and listed things like, "The lurker in the Shallows" a small picture of something very much like the tentacle thing in the painting, the "wreck of the Solaris" with a sinking ship, and the "Singing Cliffs."

We opened the cloth in the back of the painting, to discover it was a Bag of Holding! It contained:

* 2 torches
* shovel
* box with earmuffs
* pouch with 50 Petethalian pp
* brass sphere thingy
* pick

The brass sphere thingy was the only thing that detected as magical. Our first suspicion is that it is this fabled compass that was mentioned to us earlier. Furthermore, the carpenter checked out the desk for us, and found an ultra-well hidden secret panel. We opened it and found... the funky dagger in the painting of Nbod. It was a truly bizarre looking dagger.

It did not detect as either Trapped (from the 2nd level cleric spell Find Traps, cast by a Nevronian priest with us), nor did it detect as magical. Nevertheless, when Perry the thief attempted to hold it by the handle to check its balance (it has a really sharp blade), his eyes suddenly went vacant.

He handed the dagger back to Felix after about thirty seconds and explained that he had sensed the presence of something very sinister in the dagger. He had also sensed that he could perhaps control it. He sensed it was slumbering deeply, and didn't actually feel compelled to hold the dagger.

The Nevronian priest cast _Detect Evil_, and the dagger detected as VERY EVIL. (Hideous, sleeping, maybe even trapped?) In true SS tradition, we found a nice evil thing in a room at an inn.

The priest was shocked that though the dagger was clearly powerfully evil, it didn't detect as magical. It should definitely be taken the Church in Barnacus.

Our choices: should we take it out of here now, with the ghost still roaming around? Is it really a ghost? Will anyone else steal it if we leave it there?

Other things: apparently the three magic things have less than year's lifespan left. The pressure is on to go through them (if that is indeed what they do) and use the map to recover some massive treasure. We're thinking about it-- there has to be some reason why the other party can't get back though.

In terms of the ghost, we're still not sure whether it's corporeal, mortal (playing jokes) or what. Perhaps its a combination of both.
Interestingly, the room has never changed during the nights we stand in front of the door. Perhaps it is a connection.

Other thoughts are to drill a hole in the ceiling from the attic and observe events from above. If its really a ghost it might be bad, if its really a mortal this could be the perfect way to trap him.

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