The party has arrived in LaMut and has time for a layover. Adolphus says he needs to speak to the local Kingdom bureacracy about obtaining travel passes and maps for the next part of their journey. Since the party will be here for some time, Aldur and Greywind commission some better weapons. Some of the party seek out trainers to improve their skills.
About two weeks into their stay, Adolphus arrives at their inn, visibly disgruntled. He sends for the innkeeper and asks for a private room and everyone's meals are moved inside. Once the serving staff have left, Adolphus cast a spell on the door. The party is a little surprised, but become even more so when he tells them that he is actually a semi-retired priest of Lims-Kragma, the goddess of Death. He has been contacted by the local temple for assistance, who in turn have been approached by the city's Thieves' Guild. The thieves report that a section of the catacombs has been taken over by some undead, and there was a grave robbing last week. The thieves sent some enforcers to deal with the zombies, but the zombies were immune to their weapons, so they sought the aid of Lims-Kragma. Goblins have also been seen in the same area.
Adolphus has agreed to contract out for the temple's aid, tomorrow the party will enter the catacombs and hunt down the undead and see if perhaps a necromancer is behind the attacks. Yurten goes to his local temple to pray before battle and to get some holy water. Jacques tries to get a map from the local thieves, but since they don't know who he is, they refuse. Greywind goes out into the woods and returns with a bundle of fallen sticks.
The next morning Adolphus shows them a map the guild gave him and takes them to their rendezvous. Along the way they see an area of burnt out homes, they are told a wizard lived there but apparently let his magic get away from him, he died in his house when it burned down, taking some neighboring houses with it. A local thief lets them into the catacombs and closes the passage behind them. The follow the map and as they approach the area, Jacques hears the sounds of tools. They stop to listen and Yurten announces it sounds like at least three people mining. Giric and Jacques sneak ahead of the party and find two zombies with a lantern guarding an intersection and they are wearing swords. They fall back and the party decides to attack, with Yurten and Rhiann leading the way. Rhiann takes the first zombie completely off guard and runs him through, he screams and falls dead in a puddle of fresh blood. Yurten attempts to turn the other with no result at all. Jacques attacks the second zombie and Rhiann finishes him. Examining them they see that they were live humans, but made up to look like zombies with dirty clothes and stage makeup. Something is not right…
Moving further into the catacombs towards the tool noises, they are attacked by a group of three troglodytes, then a few minutes later three volts. The party dispatches them, then the bodies dissolve into ectoplasm. Aha, they are phantoms created by a Monster Summoning spell. Somewhere is some kind of wizard trying to fool the Thieves' Guild into staying out of his way!
The party advances and encounters a group of summoned gnolls and finds another group of "zombies", just standing around with tools next to a freshly dug passage. The party takes them prisoner and Jacques and Giric sneak forward again. They find the tunnel has broken into a basement, filled with dirt, mud, and debris from burnt wreckage. A warrior and a wizard are searching the debris while the wizard mutters, "It must be here somewhere!"
The party attacks and concentrates on the wizard, while keeping the fighter busy. They slay the wizard and the fighter, taking in his odds, drops his sword, raises his hands and cries "Yield!" He is taken prisoner and the party searches the area, coming up with a ruined spell book and other items showing this was the basement under the burned house. This wizard was a rival of the dead wizard, they had a mage duel in the house, causing the fire. This wizard then came up with a plan to secretly dig into the dead wizard's basement to get his treasures. The party seizes all of the wizard's and fighter's belongings and turn their prisoners over to the town guard.
Quotes and Smart Remarks
Konrad "I feel like when Chmiel's samurai trains, it's like the montage from Mulan"
Jim, talking about Matt's thief Jacques
"Somewhere, a circus is missing their midget"
Emily stopped in after work and was playing with a sensor that plugs into your iPhone to make it a portable EKG machine (she's a veterinarian)
"I could shove it in my bra and use it as a heart monitor"
Kevin adding up his bonuses to hit a spell blinded gnoll
"Unless Blindfighting <skill> gives me a bonus to attack the blind"
Konrad was very tired and almost fell asleep sitting at the table
"I do max damage…to my bed."