Episode 1 -- The Raven's Strange Brew

<-- The team is starting this session with 0 xp -->

The Raven Brewery is the economic heart of Raven Brook village.  But recently vicious dog-sized rats  invaded the basement and rendered the brewery's lockbox and the funds it contained inaccessible. The brewery workers are unwilling to fight off the giant rats.   The lockbox's whereabouts have been unknown since the rats arrived. 

The Raven Brewery is owned by the mayor of Raven Brook, Lucius Blackwater.  Members of his family have held the mayors office continually for generations.  

Desperate to get the brewery operational again, Lucius Blackwater used his influence to summon people who might quickly purge the rats from the brewery and hopefully recover the lockbox's funds.  From the Holy Church of Eternal Light the mayor was loaned the services of the newly appointed paladin Arpina and the newly anointed monk Daumpney Terodyle .  

Tannery worker Mortimer Ravenswood was a bit flummoxed when his master (Old Tom Tanner) sent Mortimer fully equipped for anything to the brewery.  Tom told him to do whatever the brewery wanted.  When he arrived he supposed the brewery had coincidentally summoned him to repair some wineskins or leather furniture at the same time as Church officials were there for some business of their own.  

The local tea house owner and beer herb supplier named Lumi was also there.  Her intent was to collect an overdue debt for brewing herbs she had supplied.    Mortimer was acquainted with her but did not know her well.  She was well known throughout the village for her gardening skills, kindness towards animals, and aid to the ill.

The assembled exterminators met at the brewery's first floor.  The elderly brewery mistress met them at the door.  She looked like she may have been of Dwarvish heritage.  She described the rats and how their nasty bites and diseased appearance prevented her brewers from recovering or even finding the lockbox in the basement.

The brewery mistress promised she would pay each exterminator 25 gp if they remove the rats and recover the lock box.  She also supplied plentiful free beer as her guests inquired about the rats and the cellar floorplan.  (Lumi prepared hot tea and stared intently at the leaves as Mortimer and Daumpney drank beer.  She seemed to be trying to see something in the leaves.)

At this point Mortimer donned his home-made studded leather armor over his work clothes as he listened.  He surmised he was included due to the tannery's reputation for its dispassionate efficiency when eradicating troublesome animal pests.  Mortimer was the tannery's customary butcher of animals that find their way alive into the tannery  -- though like all tannery work that was never a job Mortimer relished.  Mortimer just happened to be better armed and more practiced for that work than the other tanners.

When the newly formed extermination team was sufficiently fortified with alcohol, the brew mistress opened the cellar doors and stepped aside.  Opening the doors immediately revealed wooden stairs descending into a dimly lit chamber filled with racks of glass bottles and oaken beer casks ranging in size from medium to huge.  Everyone heard sounds of scurrying padded feet in the dark far reaches of the room.  The room smelled awful, like rat droppings mixed into a long festering infected wound.  But for Mortimer this smell and the prospects of more beer left him upbeat.  The smell was actually an improvement over his usual working environment.

The dog-sized rats brazenly showed themselves and attacked everyone from many directions after the team had scattered into the cellar enough so that some members were isolated.  The ensuing battle was swift but some team members suffered serious wounds. Arpina attended the wounds as everyone was washing rat putrescence and gore off their bodies with wine and beer after the fight.  Daumpney in particular was bitten multiple times and blast damaged by some sort of indoor thunder clap centered on Lumi  and a rat that attacked her in a dark corner.   Daumpney was lucky to have not been splattered against a wall the way the rat was. 

After the team finished beer bathing and failing to locate the lockbox among the rat-wrought mess in the cellar, the team followed the retreating rats into their tunnel in the wall opposite the stairs.   

The rat tunnel ended after a few feet where it intersected a disused human-height underground hallway.  By the light of Daumpney's torch everyone could see rocks and rotten timbers collapsed onto the shattered ruins of an ascending stairway to the left.  This was no abandoned mineshaft or animal warren; the hallway floor, ceiling, and walls were paved with smooth flagstones.  A large wall mirror was mounted on the wall near opposite to where the rat tunnel entered the hallway.

The team turned right away from the collapsed end of the tunnel toward where the hall made a sharp left turn.  The floor beyond the left turn had a floor mosaic comprised of four panels.  Red (presumably rat) gore was smeared on the floor at the far end of the mosaic.  It was an elaborate trap that required use of a poem written on the wall behind the mirror. 

"Dawn breaks with stirring air, As sun shines down on new day fair.”

"Midday blaze bakes earth and grass, The farmer waits for heat to pass”

"Evening cool brings water, wine, Drink and laughter passing time”

"Night sees shining, roaring fire, as wood and coals burn on the pyre"

Lumi figured out the trap and the team proceeded to the door on the left side of the hallway beyond.  There was no other way to go.

Mortimer opened the door, which was unlocked.  Beyond the door was a large room filled with dead partially dissected Elven bodies on a large circular table, numerous other bodies wrapped up in shrouds and ropes stacked on the floor in the corner, tomes laying about on the floor, and a desk with a lit candle.  Mortimer exclaimed "That must be where the lockbox is!", as he went straight to the desk and replaced the almost burned out candle with a candle he brought.

The Necromancy Chamber

There were two papers on the desk.  There was also a quill and inkwell with fresh ink.  From the amount of dust on the it, Mortimer judged the first paper was quite old.  He read it to the group.

The second sheet had recently had ink spelled upon it.  A diagram at the bottom appeared new as well.

The team was looking around the room and looking at the corpses on the table.  Lumi was visibly saddened when she realized the dead bodies were Elves who had been slaughtered during the Great War.  

Arpina investigated water that was coming out of a large pipe.  She found it was another way out of the room.

Mortimer poked a few of the corpses in the corner with his rapier to make sure they were dead.  This might have been what caused the two corpses on the table to awaken and start attacking the team.  The team dispatched the two zombies on the table quickly.  In a blatant display of forbidden magic, Lumi cast the entangle spell on the space used by the zombie that was attacking Daumpney.  No one said anything about this violation of the Holy Church of Eternal Light's prohibition of magic use by lay people.

But then the other bodies started waking up and they were too numerous to be defeated.  So the team exited through a large diameter metal pipe near the table's 12 o'clock position.  

Mortimer grabbed as many books and papers as he could carry before leaving the room.  He was the last into the pipe.  He also noticed some large black feathers near the desk.

<-- The session ended here.  Everyone is now 2nd level -->

Post-Script:  Here is Riikka's description given after the session of the items Mortimer picked up at the end of the session from the Necromancy Chamber.

Mortimer scooped some books with him and I have put them into your inventory, but here are descriptions of the books: Ancient looking book with black leather cover with pictures of some sort of winged creatures and a distinctive triangle in the middle. The text inside the text doesn’t seem like any text any of the party members have ever seen. It’s full of diagrams and instructive illustrations that depict some sort of rituals; mainly involving humanoid sacrifice. The only words that are readable seem to be a note of someone else who was scribbled the words: Pulchra Morte - The Beautiful death The second book seems to be old too, but not as ancient as the first one. This one is in common, it has a finely bounded green leather cover with golden details. It is called: The Practical Necromancy: A Research by the Royal Archmage Edore of Astren Unlike the first book, this book is filled with philosophical papers that touch the art of necromancy and criticism towards it. It lists quite a few examples of necromancy gone wrong and the precautions one must take if they must involve themselves in the unholy rituals of bringing back loved ones. Some of the pages of this research have been ripped off, especially in the section that touches the old god of death. \