Date: 05/20/09

XP Awarded: 1925

Start: The basement of Foxglove Manor on the coast south of Sandpoint, about two months after the Swallowtail festival.

Bringing out the everburning torches for illumination, the party cautiously begins down the ancient, winding stone staircase. After descending for what seems like ten minutes, the stairs finally end in a limestone cavern. The walls drip with moisture, and swaths of black and dark blue mold grow in spiraling, tangles patterns on the floor, ceiling, and walls. Bits of rubble and broken bones clutter the floor, and a rhythmic breathing sound echoes through the cave from three tunnels that lead into the inky darkness. Faintly the party can hear shrieks and the sounds of what might be combat echoing from somewhere.

Choosing the centre tunnel, the party advances through a winding, narrow passage that widens into another chamber. Standing among the rubble and bones are three of the scarecrow-like creatures facing away from the party, apparently listening to the shrieking and noise coming from a tunnel on the far side of the chamber. When the party's light source illuminates the room, they notice and turn to face the party, but their distracted state allows Deivon and Signore to approach closely and get the drop. Gob rushes forward and crushes one with his staff. Quickly dispatching the remaining two, the party notices an additional tunnel leading from the room.

The tunnel enters an area of particularly thick and noxious mold growth where a few pickaxes have been thrown into one corner. When Deivon reaches out to pick up one that looks particularly well made, the thick yellow growth of mold belches a cloud of spores into the air surrounding the party. The adventurers retreat, having difficulty breathing from the apparently poisonous mold, but no further ill effects are felt. The party returns to the tunnel on the far side of the last room, again following a winding path deeper into the gloom.

The cramped tunnel opens into a vertiginous gulf with a cathedral-like roof arching far overhead and the floor dropping into a sloshing pool of foamy seawater barely visible in the dim light far below. A steep, slippery stone ledge winds around the perimeter of the room, dropping down into the pool, and on the far side of the room is a stone door standing open. Four goblins stand in the room listening to the shrieks coming from the stone doorway, but when they spot the party, they turn to face the party and the adventurers notice that they seem to be affected by the same scarecrow-disease they've seen before. The first few are dropped by Gob's spells or the blades of Signore or Deivon. In Kiria's weakened state, he can't manage the strength to effectively fire arrows from his powerful bow. As Deivon is backed into a corner by a particularly vicious goblin-creature, the others move to help him. Finally the teamwork pays off and the creature is defeated.

The party carefully picks their way around the slippery stone ledge to the open door. Inside is a damp, mold-encrusted cavern with several items of furniture. A rickety table stands in the center, its damp surface cluttered with all manner of garbage lying in neatly organized rows. A painting leans against the far side of the table, facing a leather chair that sits nearby. A smaller table stands against one wall, its surface heaped with silver platters of what looks (and smells) like rotting meat. On the far wall, the cavern has been overtaken by a horrific growth of dark green mold and dripping fungus. At the center, a blackened patch grows, its horny ridges and tumor-like bulbs forming what might be a humanoid outline.

Grappling on the floor near the table are the ghostly woman the party found in the attic and a horribly twisted humanoid with razor-like claws and a mouthful of too many teeth. As the party takes in the fearsome scene in front of them, the humanoid viciously swipes his claws across the woman's neck, apparently destroying her. She collapses on the ground as he stands up, and the adventurers notice that he is dressed in blood-splattered finery. When he spots Signore, his eyes widen in a mixture of fear and delight, and he shouts in a high-pitched voice "No! You were supposed to die! You still live! You still live!" His face is overcome with a mask of rage as he launches himself at Signore and roars in a deep, animal-like voice.

The creature wound Signore with his filthy claws, and a creeping numbness paralyzes the gnome. Before the creature can press the attack and leap on his helpless comrade, Deivon steps in and drives it back with several blows from his sword. When wounded, the creature jumps back and drops to its knees, sobbing in a high-pitched voice and begging the party to save him. As Deivon moves forward to press the attack, the mask of rage returns, and the creature jumps up to fight fiercely. Soon Deivon is badly wounded and forced to drop back to receive healing from Kiria's wand. Gob momentarily has to fend off the creature's attacks, and quickly becomes paralyzed. Deivon returns to the combat just in time to land the killing blow.

After catching their breath, the party looks around the cavern and finds that the organized piles of garbage are actually items stolen from Signore - empty potion bottles, a belt, a lock of hair, a used handkerchief - as well as many charcoal drawings of Signore showing him standing in various heroic poses. Mixed in with the drawings is another letter written in a graceful hand. Nearby the table, on the ground in front of the disgusting patch of mold lies a shattered, ornate seven-sided box. On the table with the rotting meat is a small silver key ring with two keys - one is a tarnished iron key set with a small opal, and the other is an unusually long brass key with a head that looks like a roaring lion.

The party returns to the large cavern and finds another tunnel leading from it. The passage leads a short distance before widening into another foul-smelling cave heaped with bones. Among the mess are four more of the scarecrow-like creatures, gnawing on what seems to be a large leg bone. When they see the adventurers, they drop the bone and spread out to encircle the group. Deivon immediately kills one, but another sinks it's teeth into Signore's leg and the gnome drops to the ground paralyzed. Kiria tries to reach the gnome to pull him to safety, but another of the creatures has got him backed against the wall. Gob uses his wand of magic missiles to weaken the creatures, and Deivon drops another, allowing him to grasp Signore by the hair and yank him back to safety. Eventually the party dispatches the last of the creatures and Kiria heals the worst of the group's wounds with his magic wand of healing.

Returning to the first cavern at the bottom of the stone staircase, the party enters the last tunnel they haven't explored. The passage squeezes into a very narrow point and winds through the rock before widening gradually. After a final turn, it opens into a long, tall, narrow room. When the adventurers advance part way in, a bat of enormous proportions shrieks as it lunges from the darkness ahead towards the party. Too badly weakened from their ordeals in the manor house and caverns, the party is forced to retreat through the narrow passage where the bat cannot follow. Gob follows, using the last of his spells to conjure fire to shield the party's escape.

Climbing the stone stairs to the manor house above, the party again tries to leave through the front door only to find the flock of undead birds still circling outside. Kiria makes a stealthy attempt to sneak away, but is quickly set upon by the horrid undead. Wandering around the manor house, the party hacks at the mold to try to clear it, but it oddly seems to grow back just as quickly as it can be cleared away. Heading to the attic, the party tries to set fire to the building, but the damp wood just won't seem to catch and hold a flame - a gust of wind always seems to blow out the fires before they're large enough to spread.

Gob has an idea and leads the party back down to the caverns below, to the disgusting growth of mold on the wall above the shattered box. After splashing it with lantern oil, the mold goes up in flames easily. The hisses and pops of the mold being destroyed almost sounds like screams of pain, but soon there is nothing left on the wall to burn. The adventurers return to the manor house above and find that they now have no problems using lantern oil to set portions of the house ablaze. Soon a raging inferno is consuming the house, and the party escapes into the gusting midnight winds outside, the ground littered in bird corpses.

The party slowly and cautiously pick their way back along the path through the light fog towards the Lost Coast Road, but when they reach the spot where they'd tied up their horses and ponies, they find only savaged corpses. Exhausted, they begin the long walk back to Sandpoint. By the time they reach Sandpoint, everyone is feeling quite ill and they collapse into their beds. Father Zantus rushes to the Rusty Dragon Inn to examine them and finds the adventurers have acquired several nasty diseases, including ghoul fever. He goes on to explain that the scarecrow-like creatures the party has been battling are ghouls, whose bite can infect victims with a fatal disease that will turn them into ghouls after death. Although he lacks healing magic to cure everyone immediately, he promises to have everyone fixed by by the next day. Sheriff Hemlock also shows up to debrief the party after their grueling adventure. With a half week of bed rest and a lot of healing magic from Father Zantus, the party eventually recovers enough to begin additional training and studying.