Catacombs, Sarcophagi and the Four Crusades

Choosing to take the stairs revealed in the temple, the party descended into the darkness nearly 100' until a light chanting was audible down below.  Edhas and Monk scouted ahead nearly 30' into room.  The lower chamber was dominated by four stone sarcophagi - three closed and one open with the cover shattered.  Further into the room, 5 armored figured were kneeling before an alter of some sort.  Attempting to amke their way quietly across the room, Edhas stumbled a bit near one of the sarcophagi and they were surprised to hear the booming voice from one of the knights, soliciting them to come and pay homage to Bahamut.  Going along with the ruse, Monk moved forward to kneel before the alter.  A closer look at the figures revealed older looking humans dressed similarly to paladins.  They (when you read this) appeared to be chanting a prayer but something was off.  Unclear how to interpret, Monk decided to join them in prayer.  Shortly after he knelt, a surge of creatures tore forward from his right and the knights turned on him.  Surrounded and imperiled, Monk and Edhas were forced to deal with the threat alone until the rest of the party could get to the room from further up the stairs. 

Once joined, Thorm noticed a look of horror and confusion on Sir Oakley's face.  When asked, Oakley insisted that he recognized the form of the largest paladin - Captain Havarr of Nenlast.  Oakley then explained that he was the knight whose fateful draw from the Deck doomed the Abbey and its paladins.  A hard-fought victory by the party threatened to turn them back.  The sarcophagi (text me the word) were each etched with carvings venerating Moradin, Pelor, Ioun and Erathis and bore the names of knights - Rombert, Toren, Fror and Sefgar.  The opened sarcophagus of Rombert contained the tattered remains of a skeleton long dead but missing its head.  Oakley prayed before the alter, consecrated it and a beam of fire connected to the two dragon heads across the top.  From this room, a door to the east and a door to the north were visible.  They party chose to listen and open the door to the north. 

The inside of this room contained four animated armored skeletons with javalins flanking another two closed sarcophagi.  Rather than fight, the group quickly closed the door and devised a plan to lure them into the other altered burial chamber.  Closing the door and anticipating their arrival seemed to be failing when Wyndham decided to reopen the door and bravely bring the fight to them directly.  The armored skeletons were joined by two skeletons blazing with fire and two heavily (dumptruck) armored, four-armed skeletons.  Outmatched and overwhelmed, Wyndham was forced to teleport back to the other room.  Only then did the skeletons, smelling blood, surge into the room with the heroes.  Facing the undead on ground of their choosing they were able to defeat them but nearly lost Edhas in the process.  After the battle, they cautiously inspected the antechamber and found a small fountain of water in the northern hall of the room.  Drinking the fountain water was both refreshing and fortifying.  The eastern part of the chamber contained a brilliantly detailed mosaic of the silver dragon of Bahamut.  Two doors both in the eastern part of the chamber - one facing east and one facing south allowed egress from the room, but they decided to fortify the area and rest.

The next morning, while the party began to recover their bedrolls and eat, Thorm located a secret door activated by a hidden latch.  The door opened on the eastern wall behind the mosaic.  This small antechamber was clearly a shrine to Bahamut depicted in here as a dracolich.  Alarmed by the sight, Oakley assured the group that often Bahamut is shown this way as a (and add an "arm slot item" of any level up to 13) fortifying message that even in death, Bahamut will be there.  No other exit seemed obvious, but similar hidden latches were identified on the eastern and southern walls.  The eastern hidden door swung open and revealed a 10' x 10' chamber/foyer with a door set to the north and a heavy curtail strung across the east.  They closed this door and instead went through the southern door. 

This dark chamber was filled with a thick coating of moss on four sarcophagi in the lower part of the the room.  A mass of thick, fibrous roots hung down from the ceiling rife with wide cracks.  The far wall seemed to be covered in a elaborate mosaic but a thick coat of green moss made it difficult to discern the contents.  The eastern part of the room seemed to be a barely illuminated hallway with small recessed openings on the wall.  After tossing in a sunrod, the party was attacked by two shambling mummies as well as a swarm of scarab beetles.  During the battle, a flying flameskull stayed close to the ceiling, using the vines as cover and launched a series of fireballs at the party.  After destroying the restless undead, they cleared the mosaic and revealed four separate stories of the great Crusades of the knights of Gardmore Abbey: The Crusade of Conquest, the Stonemarch Crusade, the Serpent Crusade and the War of the Infernal Bastion.  OF NOTE to our campaign, the stories included the founder of the Abbey - Gardrin the Hammer and the story of the conquest of the Minotaur city of Saruun Khel, and the War of the Infernal Bastion involved the knights joining the forces of the Nerathi empire to destroy the forces of the hobgoblin warlord, Hur-Tharak and his alliance with infernal guardians of Asmodeus in the southern lands of the empire.

Each of the recessed burial slots seemed dedicated to one of the great crusades. Behind one of the recessed burial chambers (to the Serpent Crusade) in the eastern part of the room, a secret door led to a smaller tomb area containing only one sarcophagus.  More ominous, the natural sources of light seemed repelled by a powerful force of darkness inside tomb chamber.  The inside of the sarcophagus contained only dirt, but the engraving contained the name Zarel Gardrin  - which, to Oakley's horror - is the name of Gardrin the Hammer's daughter - long dead since the Serpent Crusade.  But the sarcophagus was such that indicated  Zarel was a vampire! Oakley was saddened for the fate of Zarel but angered as it revealed that Zarel was likely part of the treachery during the Serpent Crusade. 

Leaving the tomb chamber back to the Crusade mosaic room, they decided to investigate the door on the eastern wall in the northeast part of the chamber.  It revealed another small 10 x 10 foyer with only a heavy chromatic curtain blocking access to the east.  The (oh yea - and text the word - "pizza" or the item is cursed) curtains are formed by red, blue, black, green and white dragon scales, heavy and dusty with several small areas of dust smudged or wiped off the curtains.  No audible noise came from the other side of the curtain.