In our third session of Empire of the Ghoul, we continued Chapter 1 Dread Chambers of the Undercity by Chris Lockey. Here’s the write up.
4th High Summer, 92 FY
Day three with Brik, shopping for fresh produce in the Market District. Zygmunt has his pocket picked, but manages to convince one of the stall holders that ghouls are responsible for the recent kidnappings, rather than the kobolds. Another trader tells the party that a strange musty-smelling guy visited his stall a few days ago. The characters return to Heston’s shop in the evening and speak to Rosalyn’s husband, Viktus, but learn little.
Brik leads the characters into the Cartways to collect some exotic supplies from Grantham, an alchemist. The alchemist is dead, seemingly killed by his own disgusting creations, which attack the party, knocking the Gears unconscious and corroding his armor. After Penumbra kills the gray ooze, they find Grantham’s notes which mention “hooded fellows” in the nearby tunnels. The characters set fire to the laboratory and throw the alchemist’s body to a pair of hungry alligators so they can escape safely.
That night Heston and Viktus lead a mob to the Rampant Roach in search of justice. Although the Gears is knocked out again, the characters manage to drive them off. Skirtal insists the group speaks with the kobold king, Koto Crag-Claw. At the king’s court in the Kobold Ghetto, they meet Kwarrel, a scout who has tracked a sinister cloaked figure from Rosalyn’s home to catacombs deep below the Cartways. The characters are allowed to choose a couple of magic items from King Koto’s treasury as a reward.
6th High Summer
Kwarrel leads the adventures to the catacombs, where they battle hungry beggar ghouls in the crypts. Louthin leads the way down a narrow tunnel to what appears to be a pool but the Gears realises it’s some kind of ooze and warns him away.
After destroying a suit of animated armour, the characters enter a chamber where a Red Priestess of Marena is meeting with a masked ghoul. The priestess flees while the ghoul and his skeletons attack the party. The Gears turns the undead; Zygmunt kills the ghoul and the party finishes off the skeletons.
A letter on the ghoul’s body reveals that the ghouls and Red Sisters are plotting to influence Zobeck’s consuls. More ghouls attack. Then, when the party head through the secret door, Louthin triggers a trap collapsing the roof on top of him and Zygmunt. Return to the Cartways to rest.
Richard Green | Game Designer 