The Crypt of Yeldoon

From Lexicanum

Hall of the Black Helm

 About a week or so after their first successful foray into Undermountain, Cidric started having strange dreams again – fragmentary visions this time - of a black helm floating above a stone chair; of an ornate gold medallion being  used as a key in a large rune-carved stone chamber;  of a sense of overarching evil and all pervaded by the scent of the grave. Fearing some powerful undead was stirring somewhere, he told the others of his dream. Excitedly Zeb pointed out that on one of the maps they had found one of the rooms was marked as the “Hall of the Black Helm” and he believed the way to reach it was via the portal they had found in the storeroom on the 1st level. Immediately they began preparations for another foray into the Dungeon and, after buying supplies, they made their way to The Yawning Portal.

Pausing only to deliver some treats to their friendly mimic, they passed through the portal  - backwards as instructed – and found themselves in a large, dark chamber which had seen better days. The remnants of rotting and burned tapestries hung on the walls, some intact enough to show pegasus-mounted knights battling flying dragons. The southern end of the room had the stone chair Cidric had seen in the dream. A battered black metal helm and broken black greatsword lay discarded on the floor. Chalk writing covered parts of the walls which informed them that to the north there was a “safe space for resting and resupply”
 
They headed out to explore the nearby rooms, occasionally seeing more of the chalk marks. In one room nearby they found two strange pillars – one of whom appeared to be a petrified roper and the other of which seemed to have a strange magical effect that caused things to stick to it – Cidric lost a gantlet – and from a not-so-hidden drawer in it they found a scrap of parchment with the word “Erembar” written on it.

They continued exploring, during which time Cidric discovered their map, though largely accurate, was obviously out of date somewhat with recent changes in Undermountain. After a close encounter with a rust-monster lurking near one of those annoying “curtains of darkness” - which  cost Cidric his shield, they found  a curious room. The floor of the room was smooth except for an L-shaped area of rough stone around three central pillars. Two dwarves quietly chiselled away at a short wall partially dividing the room, and two more were mortaring the stone fragments into an improvised barricade nearby. A few bedrolls were scattered around the area. The dwarves seemed friendly enough, although strangely they all appeared to be children of the Thunder Blessing -  twins or rather quads, which puzzled Thorik greatly. Attempts to communicate with them proved frustrating as they continued with their task and when they spoke they spoke in a language  none in the party understood. Cidric peered over the wall the dwarves were building but although he could sense a large room beyond, his light source failed to penetrate the inky darkness beyond to any extent.
 
Eventually, getting bored, Cidric headed off through a doorway to a room where Four ornately carved pillars hang in mid-air within a 20-foot-high, vaulted chamber. Fragments of pillar extend to the floor and ceiling, as if these had been hewn free and spelled in place. An open doorway to the east showed the corridor beyond had been blocked by one of the mortared walls similar to the one the weird dwarves in the other room were building.
 
They headed south into an oddly shaped room, noteworthy for two pillars of black rock on the north end, each carved in the shape of a tall and beautiful woman. Each stood on a 3-foot-tall cylindrical base, adding to its height. The statues seem to draw all light out of the room, like smoke going up a chimney. They were plunged into near darkness as they went forward, fortunately Thorik, using darkvision, spotted four misshapen humanoids approaching from the south part of the room. Each was armed with a stone battle-axe, and none of the creatures had eyes—where their eyes should be was smooth flesh. Battle was swiftly joined, Zeb launching several magic missiles, before resorting to his crossbow while Thorik and Cidric hewed away with sword and hammer.
 
The Party were ultimately triumphant, and in a pile of rubble to the south Cidric recovered a cache of treasure which included several potions. As the far half of this room was blocked by a ceiling collapse they headed back they way they had come and down past the working dwarves finding themselves at a room where tiles covered the floor and walls and extended a few feet into the hallway. On the far end of the room, several wooden doors had been placed on the floor. A bedroll had been spread out on each of the doors. Lounging on the bedrolls were four black-skinned, white-haired elves who, seeing them, leaped to their feet drawing rapiers.

The Crawler Hatchery

Things immediately got more complicated for two reasons, firstly one of the drow cast darkness and secondly when Cidric charged forward a trap on one of the flagstones tripped him up. As the drow began firing from their hand-crossbows the party moved forward into the shadows. Thorik and Silverbeard both fell afoul of traps in the floor, and were dumped unceremoniously to the ground. Zeb launched a magic missile before falling back on his crossbow, while Fodor charged forward, somehow managing to avoid all the traps and was first to close with the dark elves. Once his comrades managed to pick themselves up and join him in the attack they battle was swiftly over. As he searched the slain Thorik noticed that all of the drow were heavily scarred, and somewhat bizarrely, all were identical even down to their scars.

Cidric, still struggling to reconcile his map to the altered geography of the dungeon around him, led the way through various passageways to a large room near where  the northwest corner had a recessed pool full of mud. The room stank of rot and skeletal remains were visible among the debris near the pool. Growing around the pool were hundreds of brown and purple mushrooms, some of the faintly luminescent, and ranging from only an inch tall to some well over a foot in height. Thorik cast detect magic identifying sever magic sources amongst the mushrooms and in the mud pit. As ever, Cidric was first to volunteer, despite the clouds of spores he disturbed as he moved forward, he managed to reach the first of the areas Thorik identified – a fungus covered skeleton - before exposure to the spores caused him to collapse paralysed. Fodor moved forward to try and rescue him, but as he did the surface of the mud bubbled and rippled as a segmented wormlike creature with many legs and flailing tentacles pulled itself out of the foul smelling ooze and lurched towards them.

Fodor successfully managed to drag the paladin back to safety while Zeb used his wand of burning hands to clear a path which enabled the dwarves and Fodor to attack and defeat the carrion crawler. While Cidric recovered they retrieved the skeleton and a pair of silver-wrought bracers and a potion from it. Once he had recovered, Cidric volunteered to climb into the mud-pit, and stripping down to his smallclothes began rooting around in the mud. Apart from a large number of what he suspected were carrion crawler eggs, he managed to find some studded armour and a ring. A dousing from a create water spell from Thorik allowed the paladin to clean up somewhat, but they decided to would be prudent to rest and Zeb suggested they investigate the chalk marks they had seen earlier promising a place to rest and trade.

Somewhat surprisingly they chalk marks led them not to a trap but to a large L-shaped room where three men sat around a campfire cooking. One of the men introduced himself as Malvar and his colleagues as Dorn and Grim. He explained that his brother was a merchant in the city above and had the clever (but risky) idea of setting up a trading post in Undermountain where adventurers could sell whatever they found and buy basic gear without leaving the dungeon. They had a small supply of goods but could order-in pretty much anything from the city above on request. Silverbeard negotiated a trade of the drow hand-crossbows in return for a meal and a night’s rest.

They eventually stayed a couple of days in the camp, resting, playing dice and swapping stories with the merchants, before setting out once again for the crypt, eventually finding themselves in a large chamber where an oak table lay against the north wall. Four skeletal humans with elongated features and carrying greatclubs stood near the centre of the room where discarded items were piled in the northwest corner. Cidric gulped a potion of hide from undead and moved into the room. Thorik following tried Turn Undead, managing to make two of the skeleton run to the back wall and cower. Fodor and Silverbeard then engaged the remaining two skeletons, while Zeb launched a couple of magic missiles before drawing his hook-hammer and entering the fray.  The skeletons were swiftly despatched to their final rest, but as they moved to search the room Zeb suddenly spotted someone watching them from the corridor and he and Cidric moved to guard the exit while Thorik and Fodor searched the debris pile.

Yeldoon's Crypt

Cidric led the way into the next room, moving cautiously forward - at least until Fodor charged past him! The barbarian ran straight into a Melf's acid arrow and a burning hands  spell. There were four undead dwarfs in the room dominated by six huge statues of a human man in various athletic poses, and as the others deployed into the room battle was joined. The undead proved resistant to Thorik's Turning attempt and in the ensuing melee both Fodor and Silverbeard were nearly slain - saved only by potions and Thorik's healing. Cidric's magic longsword proved the most effective weapon against the undead, cutting a swathe through them while Zeb used the last of his magic missile  spells commenting dourly that he would probably regret using it!

Once the undead were slain they searched the room finding some useful items in  a pile of discarded equipment in one corner. Cidric also noticed that the statues all seemed to be wearing a carved version of the medallion he had seen in his dream. They were then faced with the entrance to Yeldoon's crypt which was blocked by a heavy iron door. Although the lead seal that had once closed the door had been broken it proved remarkably resistant to being opened. Eventually they went back to the merchant camp and bought a couple of crowbars, which after some effort proved an efficient method of gaining entry!

Within the crypt was a stone sarcophagus, behind which a portrait of the same human as the statues in the adjoining room. The lid of which slowly ground open and a pale withered hand reached from the darkness to grasp the edge, pulling behind it a desiccated male corpse in funeral garb. It resembled the human in the portrait and wore the gold medallion and hissed, "Who dares disturb my eternal rest?"

Cidric confronted by this evil charged forward to attack only for the wight to slam attack him, filling  his soul with the cold of the grave. As the others moved to attack a ghostly figure - an allip, similar in aspect to the wight rose and also attacked  them. After a fearsome battle against the undead monstrosities, the party were triumphant as Cidric claimed the medallion that he had dreamed about. After looting the sarcophagus of its treasures, Zeb used the horned ring to teleport them to the upper level and they returned to the Yawning Portal.