Café de Nuit

Vorj nods and quickly moves to the other room. He braces himself and begins moving the table toward the pit. "Van, give me a hand with this," he says. "I don't want to accidentally smash Burdur in the head while rescuing him."

It takes some effort and time but the party, with Burdur's help from inside the hole, manages to put the table inside the hole. It's not big enough to cover the entire hole, but it provides a stable platform, 4' from the ground for a human-sized creature to more easily get out of the hole. Since Burdur has broken the stakes while the party was getting ready, falling on the table would be considerably less painful, so the party effectively has one less trap to worry about.

Kimber looks thoughtfully towards the chanting.

"Odd that all this racket has not drawn any attention. I wonder if there is something..."

She glances at Van.

"Good as your plan for luring them out is, I am a little worried that if they did not come to this, they will not come to anything. Maybe they are just ghosts, haunting that room..."

"They're not as close as we first thought," says Vorj. "I think the stone corridors are playing tricks with the sounds. Let's work quickly."

"I'm afraid that Kimber is right...there should be echo as well in here so there is no chance a living person hasn't heard us. There are undead down here and maybe ghosts as well. We need more help possible to get out of this house alive. So if there is Captain Esthenor in here we should put our differences aside and work with him. Make him part of the team. He is a coward yes, but also a good fighter and we will need him. So, Vorj, can you take us to him please?"

The party crosses the trapped corridor with the help of the table they've used in the bottom of the pit, using the magical light provided by Burdur for illumination. The stairs go down and turn to the west, opening in a large room, with pillars and two openings along the long southern wall.
The chanting is much louder here. It seems like many voices coming from one of the South passages, the eastern one. The party can discern clearly the words "He is the Ancient! He is the Land!" over and over by 10-12 people.

There are three unmoving forms sprawled on the floor. Two of them are rotted corpses dressed in the tattered remains of black robes similar to the ones the party has found above. The Sharp teeth and elongated claws show them to have turned to ghouls, probably as a punishment for their blasphemous crimes.
The two undead bodies are mutilated by deed wounds in necks, torsos and arms destroyed in a fight with captain Eshethor, the third person on the floor. His rhythmic breathing show him to be asleep.

"It's just as I saw before," says Vorj in a hushed voice. "I'll see if the captain lives -- warn me if the ghouls move."

He moves quietly toward the figures and kneels down to check the captain's neck for a pulse.

Captain Eshethor seems alive and in the midst of a troubled sleep... that Vorj interrupted. As he touches the fallen veteran, his eyes flutter and open. He immediately grabs his sword on instinct as he reacts to the touch.
His eyes fall on Vorj and after a brief moment, they lighten up with recognition. And hate. "Royalist scum! You escaped!" he exclaims, but before he can attack the paladin, his eyes fall on Van and Burdur.
"What? Did you release the captives?" the stone-hearted commander of the rebellion says as he pushes vorj away and jumps on his feet, sword at hand, ready to fight.

Van is happy that Captain Estenhor is alive but a bit embarrassed when he remembered that he used a kid as human shield...Without lowering his scimitars he says:

"Captain, we haven't released the captives. The cards on the table have actually changed. The situation is beyond our control. I don't know if you have noticed, but we aren't even in our land anymore...we are in a haunted death house with ghouls and ghosts around. So please put the hate aside and join us so we can survive in here. You know me, I will always be a rebel and if we return I will rejoin our forces and support our cause. But right now we all are the same. There are no rebels and royalists, we are just plain human that want to survive."

Vorj looks at Captain Eshethor suspiciously. "How did you get here?" he asks in a harsh whisper. "Didn't your fight with the ghouls attract the attention of whoever is chanting in that next chamber?" He indicates the direction of the chanting with an abrupt jerk of his chin.

Esthenor replies without lowering his guard
"You'll have to go ask them yourself, Royalist" These freaks have been chanting since the time I set foot in this God-forsaken dungeon. I don't know how long it have been since the ghoul's paralysis made me fall asleep. But I doubt they've stopped"

To Van he replies "I got in that place as I was chasing the mad wizard and got lost in the mists. I spent hours trying to figure what has happened until I found this awful house. I got in here from a secret door. Were you guys locked in that room I couldn't get in during the night? I banged at the door real hard, trying to break in. The least you could do was ask who it was...

What happened with the Caravan? Did we win? Did we lose the gems? The civilians would be enough to draw the attention of most the half-orc brutes hired by the royalists away from the blankets that hide the gems, but they wouldn't fool their officers or subsequent patrols once we lost Crownfalls. They will realize that we wouldn't put so many fighting men to accompany refugees. We have to get back and secure the gold, or destroy the treasure"
The last part brought an incredulous gasp from the dwarf. It seems few things horrified him as much as the thought of so many gems burned to be turned invaluable rocks.

Kimber watches him in silence, but there is, to the observant, a slight drawing away from Van and Burdur. With the Captain back their previous... understanding... might be in question. She shows no signs of aggression, yet, but is watching the situation unfold. Pugsley is flittering about the cellar silently. Chutney is sitting on her shoulders seeming as fat and placid as ever, but there is an air of watchfulness that was not there before.

"There's no 'getting back' just yet, Captain," says Vorj, edging closer to the chamber where the chanting is coming from, "although feel free to walk out the front door." He hears the continued chant of "He is the Ancient! He is the Land!"

"Maybe you're right, Van," he says. "Perhaps they are just ghosts... but we need to know for certain. I'm still willing to try the ruse to lure them out here -- if they're alive. Are you ready? You, Burdur? Kimber?" Vorj doesn't give much notice to Esthenor; the paladin feels he has neither the time nor the patience to bring the captain up to speed on the threat they all face.

"I really doubt they are alive. But I'm sure that at this point doesn't matter if they are ghosts or ghouls. Go there alone at this point is really risky. We need to make plan of how to defeating them. Make a trap maybe, have holly water or torches or spears to attack from distance. If they paralyse us we are all done. There might be other traps as well."

Turning to Estenhor he asks:

"Where is the secret door you entered Captain? Have you found any location that can grand us any advantage?"

VAN wrote: "Where is the secret door you entered Captain? Have you found any location that can grand us any advantage?"

The captain doesn't acknowledge the paladin, or the druid either, and replies to Van:
"I got in from a concealed trapdoor in the ground floor, in the room with all the hunting trophies. It led to the dungeon room with the big wooden statue with the big gem and the chained skeletons."
Burdur's ears perk up at the words "big gem". He intervenes. "Perhaps we should investigate that place..." he says.