Bern
We gave the rag-man his ten skulls. In return, he told us that the portal could be closed by finding “the charge”, a strange creature born of fused chaos magic and divine magic, somewhere in the tomb of St Clewd. The creature would need to enter the portal – willingly or not. Then the portal would close, if the rag-man was being honest.
The rag-man also claims his taxidermied creations don’t animate. I’m skeptical.
We discussed options, and decided that Morin and I would make camp to recover while u-Heury and Pish asked the drunken monk about local sources of ale. It would take 100gp worth of ale to “paint the walls of the chapel” with it, plus a horse and cart to bring it, if we brought it ourselves. The ghostly monk said there was no ale in the abbey, we would need to bring it with us.
On the way to have that conversation, Morin noticed that the monk reacted to the fire slime in the fireplace, and remembered another monk who wanted to feel warm. The two of them convinced the chilly monk to follow them to the slime in the fireplace. The monk seemed to appreciate the warmth while u-Heury fought the slime. The slime engulfed the barbarian in an epic struggle.
The monk, once warmed, told us of a secret compartment in the chapel filled with treasures. The treasures are near the altar, and the key we already found hidden behind a hollow mosaic near the organ… and it was in my backpack when the rag-man ripped it off. We spent a day to find the key, and with it unlocked the cache of treasure.
- 1′ high gilded Chapes holy symbol (75gp)
- a solid gold spiked orb (400gp)
- a solid silver chalice (200gp)
- a gilded decanter (60gp)
- an electrum rod and bowl (35gp each)
Morin volunteered to fence it when we got back to town. She was concerned the religious authorities would confiscate it. To be fair, it’s a valid concern, but we might get less money going that route. Less is better than none at all.
She’s also worried we might need some of the items to close the portal, or otherwise deal with the situation in the abbey. That’s a serious concern too. Pish claims none of the items are magical, which isn’t necessarily dispositive. But there’s no real way to tell which items are important. That said, my guess is none are important. The ghostly monk didn’t specify anything specific by title, nothing like “The holy sceptre of St Clewd is stored here”… so my gut says these are cash.
