What to do with Digin’s corpse? The group ruminates and decides that a trip back to the outside is in order. They depart and make their way back to Rosegate House. The noble enclave is still abuzz with tales of the midnight raid on House Vladaam, but it doesn’t seem as though they have been directly implicated. Some quick bargaining is completed and the Inverted Pyramid pulls some strings to get DIgin returned to the land of the living. He is handed a shiny new axe, dusted off and returned to the front of the party. The group makes haste to reenter the warrens, hoping their slender lead is still large enough that they can reach the goal ahead of those who will follow.
Proceeding along, the group enters an older portion of the structure as they ascend. THere are some statues and symbolism that reminds them of guardians or watchers, set to oversee the area. There are numerous secret doors, some exceptionally well hidden, that lead to strange and interesting places. One such door gives access to a passage with three sealed doors set into the wall and a folding screen that blocks the view of the room beyond. At this point they recall that they are carrying a hand that has worked to open other unopenable doors, so they try it and unseal the doors they just discovered. This leads to an attack from some summoned air elementals. While those are vanquished, the victory comes at the cost of Digin’s new axe. Digin reassesses his axeward bent. Perhaps it is not to be. He must axe himself some tough questions.
The vault doors are unsealed and some strange items are retrieved and a strange sphere of swirling green gas is left untouched – too strange by any one’s standards to mess with. Another area is chock-full of traps and attracts the group’s attention. Several hours are spent in pursuit of traversing the floor and trying to converse with the ‘ghost’ trapped in a suit of slowly rusting armorr. In the end some complicated hijinks are undertaken with the mostly unclothed Sniffles riding along on Zaal like a flying carpet. Alas, the time and energy spent here does not seem to have borne any fruit. All they have learned is that there are great evils sealed into the vaults – collectively known as ‘banes’. Yep…well…anyway…off they go!
A new door is located and opened by the hand. This leads them upward and into a series of chambers that have a distinctly angelic decor, but most of the place has been defaced – so there are some shenanigans going on behind these sealed doors that indicate the presence of others. Investigating a few rooms eventually brings the group to a familiar looking object – the large brass sphere atop a metallic shaft that they have seen in an incomplete state near the door they used to gain entry into the entire area. Some ideas are tossed about as to the device’s use – but the attack of a band of wights led by what might be a vampire puts the conversation on the back burner for now. IN the battle that follows, Fingers catches a bad case of the runaways and vanishes into the darkness. Zaal, Sniffles and Kegdrain all lose energy levels to the ravenous beast, but they eventually fight it off and make it assume a gaseous form to flee the area. Bayga wants to chase the vapor, but others are worried about the roaming gnome. In the background is the certain knowledge that the church of Lothian and whomever organized the umber hulk to make the initial tunnel are bound to be here soon, if they are not here already.
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