Martenin the 20th, 888 ID.
A lengthy battle with the four 'dreads' ensues, due to the PCs limited ability to deal them damage. They eventually take control of the fight, but not before Fleshless Tess herself is reduced to a pile of her constituent bones. The party decides to leave her for now and then gather her up when they exit the tomb. They attempt to crack open the four sarcophagi in the chamber, and only manage one, which is empty, but causes a hidden door on the north wall to slide open just a bit. Through sheer strength, they manage to widen it enough that a halfling can enter, and they discover a timeless looking broad sword of intricate dwarven craftsmanship. They also notice more of the empty candle sconces, and decide to use the candles found in the corpse's bag to fill them all. Eventually they discover one in each of the five rooms, and fill all these sconces, and the five empty impressions on the altar, with lit candles, which causes a hidden shelf to open on the altar to Moradin. Within are a pair of fancy warhammers, a golden holy symbol necklace, and a pair of dwarven tomes.
Before leaving, they dip into the well from which the ghouls erupted, that the sheet phantom had been covering, and find a low-ceilinged natural cavern in which the tormented undead must have been held in for a long time. In addition there are some scattered coins and a strange ring of 10 featureless keys. Masaka discovers that he seems to be permanently stuck in the gorilla form that he adopted to face the skeletal 'dreads'. The PCs gather up the bones and armor of Tess and depart through the entrance to the dwarven tomb. They get lost without the skeletal soldier's guidance, but inevitably emerge from another loose grave into the Saint's Acre. They sneak their way back over the northern wall, and decide to head straight for the Gravers' Guild to report what happened. Although it appears closed, they cause a racket until Oskar lets them into the first floor. He serves them some thimbles of nasty whiskey, and they leave Tess' bones by the hearth for the time being. Masaka and Finian decide to rest in the store room, and Indrid heads back to the Seven Floods.
When the swashbuckler arrives, he is told that a note was left for him under his door in room #8, but when he gets upstairs, he discovers that his inn room has been thoroughly ransacked, and the note that was delivered has been shredded to pieces. The vandals appear to have arrived by his window. Indrid gathers up what gear he has, and heads down to the clerk to complain, get a meal and his bath drawn before resting himself. He is recompensed with coin and given a new room (#25) without window access. Hours later, Finian and the gorilla awaken and head off to find Indrid, only to discover themselves what has happened. They barge in on their companion, even though he's blocked the door to #25 with furniture, to wake him up. Afterwards they head to Sheoldred the Sage, fearing that whoever sacked room #8 might have tracked the note back to its source, and as they arrive they realize the sage's shop is closed up and even more disheveled looking than normal.
They decide to head off to speak with the Last Eidolorn about their situation, fearing that they're being stalked by Hosspotches. They are given audience with Major Rykki Winch, one of the 'honest cops' on Clodio's list, and she takes their grievances and then assigns Private Haskydd (another 'honest cop') to accompany them back to Sheoldred's. They climb the building to the second floor while Haskydd controls the crowds outside, and find the old man in the loo as he often is. He tells them to exit and he'll meet them downstairs, and then he tells them that he was in fact visited by a quartet of heavily armed, threatening halflings who were asking about the PCs' business there. Haskydd tells the sage that he'll have a few soldiers keep watch there that night, and Sheoldred tells them the name of the crypt they had already plundered, belonging to one dwarf priest Regnar Hammerbelt and his sons. He cannot help them identify their items but tells them to seek out either Teven at Teven's Tomes, or try to track down the Arkana Arkiva for their assistance.
They first visit Teven the Worm, but the bigoted, unusual old dwarf manages to infuriate them to the point they won't use him to identify their items. They storm out, but notice over their shoulders that one of the spiked armor suits on display out front of Teven's shop seems to swivel its helmet towards them as they leave. They next stop at the Cathedral of Blades, but are not permitted to enter with Masaka as a gorilla. An acolyte named Breglan tends them on the steps, casting a detect magic which reveals that the broad sword, two warhammers, and the ring of keys are indeed magical. Since they don't have enough to coin to pay for healing, the calm priest trades them his daily array of curative spells for one of the warhammers. They are offered healing potions for the other, but they decide to hang on to it for now. Next they ask about for 'electrum eels' at the Eastern market, and are directed towards the brewery at the Twin Lizard Tap. A barkeep there tells them that they don't use the eel's oil for their own brews, but some moonshiners or shady brewmasters use the substance in strong rums, some of which might be sold at seedy establishments like the Dirty Dagger Alehouse.
The PCs make their way to the notorious basement tavern, sending Finian in unarmed while Indrid and Masaka remain outside the bulkhead entrance. Apparently the last bottle of rum which would have included the electrum eel slime was just sold moments before to a rough cut character named Bludgy. Finian approaches the brute to see if he can purchase the rest of the bottle, but is then told to 'fock off', a fork being hurled at him. The halfling deftly catches the utensil, but an unseen, familiar force chooses that moment to hurl a glass at Bludgy from the bar. This angers Bludgy, and a bunch of other afternoon drunkards at the Dirty Dagger decide to enter the fracas themselves...
PCs: Finian Redfoot, Indrid Hosspotch, Masaka Reddenbalm
NPCs
Bludgy (human male): A swarthy, porcine man wearing a heavily stained
butchers’ apron, Bludgy looks as if the right half of his face was caved in at
one point in time. All the teeth on that side of his mouth appear to be
missing, his chin and cheek are crushed and there are permanent purple bruises.
He wears a floppy white cloth hat and a cruel looking rooster is perched on his
fat shoulder, and looks as if its been roughed up more than its master has!
Breglan (human male): A soothing-voiced, but businesslike acolyte of Eleste, quartered at the Cathedral of Blades. Wears cream-colored robes bearing the symbol of his Saint, and has a smoothly-shaved head and face to conceal the graying of his hair. Possesses a strong loyalty towards the protocols of his faith and especially Regent-Archprelate Luciot.
Jek (human male): A man so fat his jowls have jowls, whose
handlebar mustache gets lost in the folds of his face, Jek is the barkeep of
the Dirty Dagger Alehouse in Floivin Keep. A decent sort for information, but
the protocols of the tavern must be followed for him to serve any new clientele
(a weapon must be jabbed into the countertop of the bar, to show the shady
patrons there will be peace here).
Major Rykki Winch (dwarf female): A mobile suit of plate mail containing a
freckled and friendly dwarf female face, the Major carries a lance bearing the
Last Eidolorn standard, and a footman’s flail with three spiked heads. A tower
shield is slung across her back, and she has a machinelike grace to her
movements.
Private Haskydd (human male): A tall human soldier with a patch over his left eye,
his gray hair is tightly cropped on top, but left long in the back, and the
stubble on his cheeks and chin shows he’s not one for a regular shave. He
carries a halberd and a pair of hand axes at his belt, and by the look of the
rusted links on his mail, he doesn’t take very good care of it.
Sheoldred the Sage (human male): An aged man of 70+ summers, with the slightly dusky-hued skin of a Melethezsian. Has wisps of gray-white hair on his balding scalp, and wears plain robes and thin-wired spectacles on his gaunt frame and thin face. Sheoldred suffers from some degree of incontinence and stomach problems, and is often found on the loo at his shop. His areas of specialty include zoology, geography and geology.
Teven the Worm (dwarf? male): The oldest dwarf you’ve seen in the Empire, this
emaciated, thickly robed man squints out of two hazy blue eyes. He carries a
steaming cup of tea, laced with ‘something’, and his teeth are brittle and
yellowed. More disturbingly, his right leg seems gimped to the point that he
walks at twisted angles, and part of his jaw seems to have decayed due to some
necrotic affliction, revealing bands of bluish-red muscle beneath.
