Aldric - Turn 26

"Right," announces Aldric to get the attention of his comrades, "I want us to search that church for the way down to the crypts. Then we look for that richman's ancestor and collect what we are here for."

The group turn back to look at the place which has an air of dark, silent abandonment. There is a feeling of unease as the party approach the open doorway that leads inside the church.

The interior of the church is in the twilight caused by the beams of light which come in through the windows and the holes in the ceiling.

The floor has brown leaves scattered across it obviously blown in by the wind.

The place smells of a damp sort of rot and the couple of rows of pews present show their age through cracks, moss and crumblings. The pews lead the eyes to go to an altar which stands on a raised area.

Green moss grows over most of the stone altar and a gold sun symbol some ten inches across is stood in the centre of it.

Cautiously the party move into the small church and Aldric reminds them that they are to look for a way down. Sulima nods but whilst passing the altar, notices some black marks on the top of the altar and the presence of some heavily charred ashes on the floor.

It is Jihad who starts to clear the leaves from an area of floor which he claims sounds a little hollow. Revealed is a stone trapdoor with an iron ring handle and the two fighters take a hold of it to pull it open.

With effort it can be taken clean off to show that beneath is stone steps heading down into darkness.

A smell of ancient decay assails the nostrils of the two fighters looking down and Sulima lights a torch to illuminate the scene.

The steps go down some fifteen to twenty feet before there is a floor visible.

Aldric now holding the torch aloft, the group make their way in single file down the steps.

They find that below the area opens into a chamber some thirty feet square with seven opened stone sarcophagi against the walls.

The ornately carved lids lie smashed on the floor and each crypt appears empty.

In one wall Aldric can see a large crack some four feet wide which seems to head off as a crude tunnel. With no real evidence of what they are searching for Aldric leads the way down the tunnel which slopes downwards.

The tunnel goes for about fifteen feet before opening out into a cavern that is about thirty feet in diameter.

In the centre of the cavern is a three foot high, flat rock that has many skulls piled around the bottom of it. The rock is heavily stained and the cavern has many dark openings here and there.

The floor of the cavern meanwhile can be seen to be littered with ancient bones and bits of rusted armour and weapons.

Aldric's flickering torchlight reveals movement coming from the shadowy alcoves that turns out to be humanoid figures, coated in grave mold and possessing hideous-looking fangs and claws.

The green skinned creatures make hissing noises as their crawl out of their rubbish strewn caves.

There are four of them in total and one of them actually speaks.

"Who will be firssst to have their sssouls fed to the great Lord!"