Date: February 2, 2023

The Gnomon Talisman of Concordance, now worn by Ella, pulls us in the direction of Ella's hometown of Meadowlark Hill. We head to the Sunrise Church and knock, where we meet Brother Felix Chasman. He looks happy to see Ella but seems to have been saddened by something. It turns out Mother Lahanelle is sickly as she is quite old.

Ella goes to visit Mother Lahanelle as the rest of the group goes to dinner. There is an acololyte named Villars attending for her. He goes to dinner as Ella watches over her. She tells her of the story of her one love. She believes she caused his death, an wants us to find the amulet he gave her in the crypt, as she wishes to be burried with it. She dies soon afterwards.

We prepare for her funeral, asking to go into the crypt, but it is a dangerous affair, as things may escape. Ella is also given a letter from her mother. If we find the key however, they can lock the door again behind us and we can go into the crypt. Brother Felix says the groundskeeper Paxton might know something about the location of the key

We head to the racetrack to find Paxton. After Lini helps healing the horse, and Elrond and Ajax help out the workers, we are finding some more information about where he could be. He has a horse farm some 6 miles to the north called the Honeysuckle Stables.

We head to the stables in search of Paxton. As we walk toward the stables, we come along a horse running at us at full speed. Lini leans that the horse is not running at us necessarily, but running away from something. After Lini calms the horse some, we hear a scream coming from the direction the horse came from. Ella runs in the direction and comes upon a fenced in area with horses, the groundskeeper, and an owlbear, all in close proximity. The others run up behind to help.

We start to attack the owlbear, and it almost immediately kills a horse, then frightens everyone. After some time, but not as long as previous battles, we defeat the bear. Lini grabs the horse that ran away, and Paxton will think about giving us him, Benji the warhorse. He tells us the spare keys are hidden behind a "rounder" rock, but he would be happy to accompany us back and show us where they are.

When we get back to town, Felix was promoted to Father. Paxton helps us along with Felix to find the keys, which includes the antiquated key for the crypt. We decide to head into the crypt that night, as Villars stays guard to unlock it for us when we come back up.

We walk through the crypt past tombs as we approach a trapped door. The first door we try is locked tight, so we move on to another door. We obviously don't check for traps and Ajax, Fafnir, and Droogami get hit by spears and poisoned. We enter the new room and find a skeleton (halfing) on the floor. Nearby, there is a decayed backpack nearby. Searching this, we find a Halfing sling staff and a gold ring among other things. We take the gold ring, and 4 shining bullets and many regulars.

The door at the end of the room has a sarcophagus. Fafnir moves it aside and we look into the next room, which is yet another hallway full of sarcophagus. Which immediately upon entering, we enter battle with a Skeletal Champion on a Skeletal Horse. During the battle, another set of these come up from behind, so now we are enclosed by the two of them.

After a thrilling battle, we defeat them. Strewn about are skeletons of others who probably didn't fare as well as us. The bags of the dead skeletons have 20gp, 2x Potency Crystal, a Lesser Healing Potion, and a Scroll of Water Breathing.

We head to one end of the hallway where there is a pair of doors, which open to yet another new room. But this one isn't filled with sarcophagus! At least not initially. It also smells like there might be a source of fresh air coming in a bit. As we walk down the hallway, a trapdoor opens beneath Fafnir and Ajax. The latter falls down into the trap onto spikes.

All the sudden action also spurs a wasp swarm that came from the a crack in the wall to attack us. Apparently the source of fresh air was crack in the wall that lead up to the surface. After some time and much being poisoned and healed, we have killed them! Then we spent more time being damaged by poison.

After the poison takes its toll, we head back up out of the crypt to rest before continuing our quest.

To Be Continued...

Rewards

+6 xp
20gp
2x Potency Crystal - Used (Affixed to Ajax's and Fafnir's weapons)
Lesser Healing Potion
Scroll of Water Breathing