Crypts of Gluttony

“Crypts of Gluttony”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 91
Date	2010
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Leave in Silence" "Vaults of Greed"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes enters the ravenous crypt of gluttony and encounter undead monsters.

Crypts of Gluttony

The lich Kazaven.

We went down the corridor to gluttony. As before there was a strange maze-like effect trying to stop us, but Velicia and I came through to a round room with ten alcoves along the walls. On the opposite side a corridor continued on, leading up some stairs. In the alcoves were mummies, and they moved. Velicia drew them out using her magic only to throw them all up against a wall. I ran along them, dodging their blows, making them attack themselves. As I had passed them I quickly turned and threw my dagger into one of them. Velicia followed up with a sword burst catching them all and the fight was on. Nathaniel came through the doors and quickly smashed five mummies to dust. Unfortunately the dust carried mummy rot and covered him and Velicia, but I dodged out of it. Velicia burst out magical thunder from her sword and I threw my dagger and retreated up the stairs and hid. A mummy chased after me, but I sidestepped it, threw my dagger into another mummy, and slid into an alcove and hid. Peeking out I saw an opportunity and threw my dagger again, hitting another mummy. I moved to another alcove and used my magical dress' ability to enhance shadows. The mummy came looking for me but couldn't find me. Instead I threw my dagger into it and then, with a leap I came out from the shadows, tumbling past it. I threw my dagger into another mummy and rolled into another new alcove. Soon the remaining mummies were destroyed and looking around the room, all of us but I coughed.

When we had caught our breath we continued up the stairs into a corridor, with me sneaking ahead. It zig-zagged up into a circular room with seven doors. There were six statues standing in front of most of the doors. Most were holding different kinds of food, but one had candles and one held nothing but had its arms crossed over the chest and a wide grinning smile showing sharp pointy teeth. As the others caught up I continued through the first door to the right. It lead to a room that was some kind of entry hall with a painted door on the other side. I guessed their pretend guests would come through that pretend door. There was a door leading to the left, just before the room so I went through there. Honeypot followed further behind as I went through a back room where they apparently had clothes to greet their pretend guests. I ended up in a new corridor that to the left looked like it would lead back into the circular room with the statues. As Nathaniel was still there I headed left and opened the door groaning with as dark a voice as I could. My giggles however lessened the effect. I told them to follow as we were about to head down the next corridor. Velicia who had followed said that the entry hall wasn't for pretend guests but for visitors from other planes. Anyway the next room had some kind of altar and behind it there was a secret door, but I spotted it. Sneaking in I saw a crystal sarcophagus, with ghosts moving within, standing in the middle of a big magical pentagram. I was quite sure that it would be bad to enter the pentagram. As it obviously was magical I stepped back and let our mages work it out.

After some thinking Velicia said that it was some kind of source of power. Somehow it trapped souls inside the walls and fueled this part of runeforge with unholy necromantic power. She described some of its workings so I could disable some of its defenses and started bleeding off its power back where it came from, but some just leaked out. Honeypot said that she needed to counter it with a positive life affirming ritual. There were some plants sprouting from dirt but she wanted to celebrate fertility even more and asked Nathaniel to join her right there. He had his sword readied and wasn't in the mood for any shenanigans. Honeypot looked to Velicia but she was occupied with trying to banish any spirit energy leaking and were doing well. Honeypot was trying herself but when she looked to me I hesitantly retreated. I was definitely not in the mood for anything like that. Velicia did however with her religious training take care of the unholiness and Nathaniel finished by smashing the sarcophagus with his pickaxe. I looked around for anything valuable but didn't find any. I did however find another secret door. Inside was a room filled with books in a silly language I couldn't read. Apparently they were about necromantic magic.

Next I went to an even more chapel-like room. There was another secret door. Opening it, I was met by an awful stench. Within were the decaying bodies of several humans in light blue robes. I entered trying hard to make my stomach agree with the stench. I looked closer at the clothes and suspected that the bodies were what was left of the inhabitants of envy. Continuing on there were crypts and workshops and other rooms designed to handle the bodies of the dead in different ways I didn't even want to think of. There was one room with a more elaborate sarcophagus with partially butchered cattle on the sides. It was empty, but whatever family was buried there had been rich. The walls were covered with slots for the bodies of the family. Some still had stone slabs covering them but most was open and empty. There was a column where all slabs was still in place. I was suspicious and soon found it to be another hidden door, hiding a small tunnel. I went in followed by Nathaniel. It turned and the stench increased again. It ended in a room with three tables. On the one furthest away there lay a body and a creature was cutting it, studying it. I recognized the creature as a lich from what I remembered from Foxglove Manor and retreated behind Nathaniel. Velicia sneaked up to the room and looked in. She told us it wasn't a lich but a powerful ghoul. I knew I had recognized it from my family, but it was more like my brother, not my grandfather... We all sneaked up and readied us for attack.

I started it all by throwing my dagger straight into the back of the ghoul. It buried itself deep between its shoulders but ghouls are tough creatures and it only let out a wheeze from the hit. Velicia teleported up to it and teleported it back to between Nathaniel and me. I attacked but missed it and slid away and hid behind the table with the body on. It was hard to get any good blows in and the others had a hard time doing any real damage to it too. Then the ghoul turned into darkness and disappeared only to reappear, bringing terrible darkness with it, next to Nathaniel. He shrugged from it but fought on. I noted a hidden door not far away from where I was standing in the room. I leaped at it and in flurry of feints I stabbed it over and over again using the opportunity when it was distracted, only to retreat back in the room and hide behind a table again. It was heavily wounded from my onslaught. I felt confident we would soon kill the foul ghoul, when the hidden door opened. This time I was sure it was a lich. It emerged and cast evil spells on Nathaniel. Honeypot ran up to it and kicked it only to return out the tunnel we came. There she herd noise from the crypts further away. There were more undead creatures coming our way.

The ghoul tried to escape and ran through the door the lich had come through but at the very end of the corridor, where it was trying to hide around the corner, I could still see a little of its neck. I threw my dagger and hit it square in the neck. It fell out into the room, dead and my magical dagger reappeared in my hand as it usually did. I started to move away from the lich when Velicia shouted we should all engage it, so I did. It turned out that she herself didn't plan to do so at all. She ran out into the tunnel instead to fight the mummies coming from that way. Nathaniel who had been slowed by the lich's evil magic couldn't hope to catch the lich who backed away into the corridor. Instead he charged a mummy and burned it with his flaming sword. I was left alone with the lich. So much for listening to tactical advice from Velicia. Fortunately I anticipated the lich's attack and avoided being hit by its evil magic. Honeypot used her glittering dust and made almost all mummies blinded. From where I stood I threw my dagger into one that stumbled into the room and thereby felled the first of the mummies. Inspired by that Nathaniel and the others soon followed my example destroying some of them. Honeypot decided to help me out and attacked the lich. She danced around in front of it just outside the archway it had backed into, kicking low. I ran up to Honeypot and putting a hand on her back I leapfrogged over her and the lich, who tried to swing at me with its staff but missed widely. Landing behind it I twirled around and stabbed it hard. It got so scared by my move that it cast some magic and disappeared. I was stunned at how easily I and Honeypot had scared away a lich. Nathaniel and Velicia destroyed the last of the mummies soon after.

The room where he had come from was another laboratory and this one contained a stuffed baby crocodile and Velicia said that it was what we needed from gluttony. I didn't like the idea of leaving a lich, but I definitely wanted to be finished with runeforge as soon as possible. I really missed freshly cooked food. I wished that I could have brought Kaven somehow. We felt that we should get some rest before the last part of Runeforge so we returned to pride. While we were taking a refreshing rest Velicia made magical items and lots of Potions. Still missing Kavens cooking so much, I couldn't decide on what to ask her to do and ended up without. The others had shaken the effects of the mummy rot and all felt better.