The party gather at the door at the end of the small corridor, Finn once again cast his professional eye over the door, searching for any possible traps he gives the all clear and steps back. The Halfling conjures a spectral hand next to the door, our heroes prepare to react to whatever may lie on the other side. As the door swings open, the stench of death wafts into the corridor, a voice booms from within "You have something of mine and I want it BACK!". Rezmir, former owner of the Black Dragon Mask has returned from the dead and he wants what was taken from him. He takes a step towards the Party, Garrick immediately strikes at their foe with his prepared Toll of the Dead, Finn fires his crossbow but the bolt bounces harmlessly off the blackened amour. Lucian recognises their foe, it is not just a resurrected Rezmir, he is a Death Knight and should not be taken lightly. The Wizard casts a spell on Farraine as he charges towards the risen Rezmir, his blades a whir of slicing metal, gouging deep cuts through the black armour. Sigrid peeks out from the corner of the corridor and takes in the situation, there stands a formidable enemy, next to him, her ally. "Will you be ok?" she yells at Farraine. Catching on quickly, the fighter replies "I can survive a fall from 200ft I'll be fine", without hesitation the Druid unleashes a flash of magical light that scorches the chestplate of the Death Knight, but the Death Knight remains unhurt by the Spell, Farraine on the other hand is not so lucky, "Ow...Fuck...My eyes, why didn't you warn me". Realising her mistake, Sigrid quickly drops her concentration on the spell and Farraine slowly opens his eyes once more, bright spots still speckling his vision.
Rezmir stands firm undaunted by the attacks and utters a spell of his own. A ball of magical fire erupts from his outstretched palm that explodes at the end of the corridor. Finn's elusiveness kicks in just in time and he manages to roll out of the way of the deadly flames. Sigrid and Lucian also manage to dodge out of the way of most of the effects but Garrick and Farraine are not so lucky. Flames wash over their bodies, burning their flesh and melting parts of their clothing. Farraine doesn't even have time to pat out the flames on his armour before Rezmir unleashes an attack on the fighter. Standing above him the Death Knight swings his mighty sword, the flambéed fighter tries to parry the attack but fails. Rezmir leans forward, his face inches from Farraine's, with a voice sounding like the pounding of tombstones, the Knight smiles, "FLEE!". Confusion spreads across Farraine's face, never in his life has he run away from a fight. It is a concept completely alien to him, yet his body has already turned away from his enemy and his legs are now taking him at speed down the small corridor and out into the large colourful passageway. The rest of the party are just as surprised as they see their normally fearless and more often than not violence-hungry meat wall, running away and down the passage.
Lucian pats at his singed robes before unleashing his own ball of flames at the Death Knight. The spectral flames wash over the knight's armour disappearing to reveal steam rising from his shoulders, his smile is gone, replaced by fearsome determination. Garrick takes the opportunity to cast a healing spell on the party, blisters gradually begin to disappear from their exposed flesh and vitality returns to their blood. Getting to his feet the Cleric conjures his spiritual weapon next to the knight, the spectral hammer swings at Rezmir's head but he ducks out of the way with cat-like reflexes. Moving forward, bearing down on the party as Sigrid casts another healing spell on her comrades. Lucian looks up and into the face of the Rezmir, "Oh shit".
The death knight pulls no punches, unleashing a devastating series of attacks on the poor Wizard. Lucian falls to the floor, his robes stained red as blood oozes from deep gashes in his side, death is near and is sharpening his scythe. Gathering all his remaining strength Lucian casts one last fireball before Misty Stepping from sight and reappearing in the relative safety of the colourful passageway. Fire definitely seems to be the running theme in this mighty battle as Garrick launches his own fire-based spell and a lance of heated flames crash into the chest of the Death Knight. Further down the corridor, Farraine seems to have regained his will to fight, drawing his blade, he turns back and charges toward his foe. As he rushes past Sigrid, the druid, yells, "Wait, I have a plan", The fighter skids to a halt beside Rezmir as the druid casts a spell on the vile knight.
Alas her carefully thought out plan is ineffective, Farraine shrugs, "Fuck it, here goes" his sword slices through the air, blow after blow after blow strike his enemy, blood trails arc through the musty air. Rezmir forces a chuckle as blood builds in his throat his laughter coming to a swift halt as Farraine's blade slices through his neck. The Death Knight's body slumps to the floor, it's head rolling off to the other side of the room. A moment later the remains of Rezmir disintegrate in a black mist.
Our heroes gather in the larger room, wiping blood from their weapons and patching their wounds. "I need to rest" says Lucian breathing heavily, his robes covered in his own blood and quite a lot of it too. Reaching into his backpack Finn takes out some food and hands it around to his companions. They sit there for a while, regaining their strength and planning their next steps. Two doors lead out of the room on the southern wall and one more to the East. Once everyone is well rested, our party get to their feet and Finn heads over to the doors and checks them for traps. Over the course of the next hour or so and in the interests of narrative expediency, Finn shows off his honed roguish skills at finding a series of secret doors, traps and other hidden mechanisms that would otherwise have limited the progression of our heroes through this complex labyrinth. Eventually they find themselves in a small rectangular room on one of the walls they find seven stone stone extruding from the surface. Lucian presses one, it slides slowly inwards, there is a click and then it returns back to its resting position. He tries the next stud and the same thing happens. The wizard moves along the wall pressing the studs as he goes. Nothing untoward happens and the Wizard returns to the first stud.
He tries a slightly different approach, rushing down the line of buttons he presses each of them in quick succession, there is a series of clicks and the grinding of stone on stone as part of the wall slides back to reveal a small 10ft by 10ft room. Lucian, bolstered by his success thinks that Finn has had enough of the spotlight when it comes to finding secrets and runs his hands across the walls searching for some kind of switch or hidden door but he finds nothing. Finn shrugs and pushes past the Wizard walking straight up to an indistinct area of the stone wall, his finger flicking a small recessed lever. A familiar sound of stone moving against stone echoes through the small room as another secret door opens to reveal a larger room beyond. Painted murals adorn the walls of the room, in each of the paintings creatures, beasts and humans are seen holding mystical orbs of varying colours. On the opposite side of the room is a door which Finn checks carefully, he notices a mechanism of some sort, it is definitely some kind of trap.
"Stand back" instructs the Halfling as he himself, steps to one side, conjuring his mage hand. Finn concentrates and the hand moves over to the door handle and pushes it slowly, the door swings open and a number of spears streak out of the room on the other side and bounce harmlessly on the wall opposite. Finn slowly closes the door as the sound of the mechanism resetting warns of the dangers beyond. The party begin to stroll around the room, gazing at the painted images on the walls looking for any kind of clue or pattern that might reveal the way forward.
"I found something" states Sigrid as she stares at the flagstones beneath her feet, "look, footprints". The druid follows the faint prints along the length of the room until they turn and head straight into the wall which, upon closer inspection, shimmers almost imperceptibly. Finn walks over to Sigrid, his mage hand following close behind him. The spectral hand moves passed the two of them and pushes against and then through the wall and disappears from sight. Binky who up to this point has barely had a mention, hovers close my Finns shoulder.
"Binky why don't you try next" asks the Druid
"Fuck off" replies the impudent Imp it's middle finger extended toward Sigrid to further emphasise his refusal to follow her instructions. The Imp looks at Finn with a smirk, Finn returns it in kind but asks politely if the Imp could check the wall for him. "For you? Of course" he replies before flapping his leathery wings and flying up to the wall and then beyond it. Finn needs no further encouragement and follows his familiar finding himself in a narrow stone passageway carved through the rock itself. Binky and Finn continue through the passage, the rest of the party finally deciding to follow as they turn a corner. The passage angles down slightly as it turns back in the direction they came from. A tunnel up ahead runs beneath the room of murals. Through the darkness they tread carefully, always on the look out for potential traps but their passage is unusually free from both incident and intrigue. Finally the passage opens up to reveal a large temple-like room. There are scenes of normal life painted on the walls, but the people have rotting flesh, skeletal hands, loose flesh hangs from withered bones. Yet there are also depicted various religious symbols of good alignment. There is a mosaic path leading between four rows of wooden pews that face the worship area. In front of the pews, a wooden railing divides the room. South of it is an altar in front of a tiered dais, on which sits a wooden chair. The chair is nicely carved and padded but seems unremarkable.
As one, Lucian, Farraine, Finn and Garrick turn to face Sigrid, "NO!....Don't you bloody dare". The Druid, her eyes locked on the chair, halts mid step.
On either side of the dais are large, free-standing brass candelabras each holding five white candles. In each corner on the southern wall is a large white pottery urn stoppered with a brass and wood plug. Sprawled on the floor near the west wall is human skeleton in black chain mail that is badly rusted and damaged. The skeleton's outstretched arm points to a stone archway set in the wall. The opening is filled with opaque, bright orange vapours. There are no glowing buttons this time.
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