Unearthing

Since I managed to snag all the DMs as players for my game, Ian was kind enough to step out and run a game for the poor lost souls I had cast out. In his place stepped up Adam, who I had originally invited but was initially out of commission for various reasons. Adam managed to create Father Pavel, a Cleric who's heart and mind sought transcendence, but hands and eyes remain firmly within the earthly realm.

Like the rest of the party, Father Pavel was apart of the Two-Brothers-Adventuring-Troop. Sometime in the past, he made the decision to stay behind and place his help where he saw it was needed most; a small budding community. It was here, after an indeterminate amount of time, that a messenger, sent from Jeremiah and Patrick, managed to find him and deliver the message for help. Using his knowledge and wit, Father Pavel, like the party before him, managed to gain access to the portal to Sigil, and then find his way onto Jeremiah's plane. Greeted by the same servant, and discovering the same horrid horrid horrid truth about not having the proper means of communication, Father Pavel is shown to Jeremiah, caught up on the situation at hand, then shown proper quarters.

Next morning, he runs into the rest of the party, on the way to question the Gardener.

The party reaches the Kitchen, the way to the inner cloister of the Gardens, and find it locked. Apparently the only one with the key is a maid, who is off cleaning a guest room - a guest by the name of Keisinger. At this news, Patrick is enraged. It is found out that Patrick is actually an outlaw to this area; framed for the murder of his wife. Keisinger is the man responsible for this. This is actually Patrick's backstory for how he became apart of the Two-Brother's-Adventuring-Troop. Jeremiah is promptly confronted with this information, and is found to have no knowledge of Keisinger, except that he may have been a temporary guest of Bethany's. (Keisinger, the party is told by Patrick, dabbles in magic.)

The party continues to Keisinger's room, and discover an interplanar portal to Oreinos, a dreamscape realm. (They promptly report this to Jeremiah.) The sky is dark and morose, constantly bleeding red. As one looks up or down - or what seems up or down - the sky transitions into a whiter color until eventually you're left staring into a bright, illuminating, sun-like phenomenon. It's almost like looking at galaxy from far away. Despite these bright points in the sky and under-sky, lighting appears to be dim. Ruins, rock formations, and architectural fragments tumbled through the ether as the players step out onto an outcropping. Where they stand has stone-tiling, but all that they see seems to be in a state of decay. They traverse through this realm over several rock formations littered with the remnants of architecture, battling an elusive creature they have never seen before, a creature with the ability to meld and move through the terrain. Escaping over a bridge which forms out of the ether, the group captures a fist-sized Golden Dragon's Head, then dive through another portal that manifested in a well.

After traveling through the portal, the players find themselves back in the closet, with the Maid's body. She is dead, key clenched in her hands, and bleeding upwards towards the ceiling for no explainable reason. They take the key, head down to the Gardens through the kitchen, and question the Gardener. The Gardener has an important bit of information; He's seen Lizbeth! It was just the other day that he was walking towards the estate, when he saw her on the hillside, watching him. The party has the Gardener lead him to the place where he saw Lizbeth, and the inspect the area, then move on to family Mausoleum.

While approaching the family Mausoleum, they run into unexpected company. As the party heads up to the main gate which allows entrance to the Mausoleum grounds, the are caught unaware by Lizbeth, who taunts Father Pavel, the first of the party leading them up to the gate. "You're more of a meal, than a man!" she says, then chortles as she runs off at a fast pace around the Mausoleum. Father Pavel recognizes her new form; a wight, and also takes the bait. In a flurry of righteous wrath, he kicks through the gate and gives chase. The rest follow suit. They lose her, and are ambushed by two "Howlers." After the combat, they inspect inside the Mausoleum. Despite years of layered dust, there had been activity in the area recently. They discover the two primary sarcophagi of the Mausoleum (progenitors of the family line in this area.) They are defaced, and one is shattered. The other contains another Scroll of Power. The party also inspects the open wing of the Mausoleum, and discovered two open graves; Lizbeth's and her mothers. Both graves are empty. While the Mother's grave looks carefully opened, Lizbeth's looks violently rended open - from the inside. Through careful inspection and time, the party deduces that Lizbeth was actually buried alive, and tried to claw her way out. Ultimately, she was successful, but only after she had died and transformed into a wight was she able to escape.

It is at this point that the party hears another howl, with sounds from the roof. William "Badass" takes the lead to leave the Mausoleum, and upon exiting is pounced on by another Howler - except for this particular one is large sized. Toledo Hanes launches a volley of arrows at the beast and does damage, and in retaliation the beast lunges at him (reminiscent of the first encounter with a howler) and severely wounds him. The beast is eventually slain, but not before dealing out its fair share of damage.

The party makes it's way back to Jeremiah's estate, arriving near midnight. They inform Patrick and Jeremiah of their findings. In turn, they are told a little about the past of this area, more specifically, an old church and nearby catacombs, as well as a small island with some Standing Stones. They are also told a bit about Jeremiah's father, who apparently took up an interest in the occult.

It was then recommended to call it a night for DnD, and everyone decided to end this session early.