Session #43: Into the Crypts of St. Clewd

TL:DR Exploration of the Abbot's quarters reveals a staircase to the crypts below.  The mighty thews of Grak the Orc grind open a stone door to reveal a hidden sanctum of worship, full of ancient living worshippers, sonic fluctuations, a dimensional wormholes in the armoire, and a mysterious tale.

Dolmenwood and the Crypts of St Clewd are found in the Wormskin zine.

An uncomfortable but eventless night was spent dreaming of goats, ghosts and impotent rage.  Clonin found himself sitting on a cloven skull with gold teeth.  All woke early, eager for daylight.

Overgrown with moss, fungus and creeping vines, the old abode of the abbot was hardly more than an enclosed set of crumbling walls, though a sodden bookshelf told of a once erudite establishment.  The scrolls and tomes were long since victims of time and weather, but some fortuitous poking around revealed the tell tale sign of a hidden passage to the veterans of the barrow campaign.

Leaving above the sons of Heggid and the three rescued children (one named Violet, no doubt the scion of Harrowmoor), the intrepid adventurers descended in single file, the light of Erik's glowing sword dimly leading the way through a narrow winding passage in the rough direction of the Chapel.  Stepping over an underground stream that crossed the corridor, they turned and found themselves at a stone-filled arch with a bronze lever.  The lever cracked the door, but there was something heavy behind and it took all the strength of Grak and Danforth the Dangerous to shove it inward.  Passing within, it seemed that a large armoire had been shifted out of the way.

The room was furnished with pews, lamp light, frescoes and shrines but the sound in this place bent, reverberated and amplified in an unholy manner, sounding nothing so much like the opening notes to a drug filled nightmare.

The mind bending cacophony reduced all but Clonin to agonized writhing so that only he was alert enough to recognize and hail the group of clerics who then entered the chamber, demanding explanations for their presence even as the sounds returned to normal.  "Whence came ye to these protected crypts of St. Clewd and how do you ye bring with ye the chaotic happenings of the eastern halls?"

Even as the party attempted to get explanations of their own for these archaic monks, the weak reality in this place sunder once again, this time the armoire doors burst open to reveal a swirling dimensional portal forthwith flew a gargantuan pink and yellow worm, all eyes and mouth.  The clerics fled in terror.  Aliontus pulled out a Scroll of Wall of Iron, quickly spoke the eldritch syllables and a gate of solid metal crashed down, sealing off half the room, and the exit as well.

In the fracas, a further concealed corridor was discovered in a fresco of heaven's gate.  A short stair lead to a hidden library, where a single half blind scholar, related a story of ancient tragedy to the wondering party, now trapped in these crypts.

"Long ago, St. Clewd returned to us, but corrupted by chaos, which came with him.  The eastern crypts, where the chaotic effects of the dimensional cataract are still prevalent.   In the western crypts, wherein the Order of Wardens dwell to this day,  guarding the sealed tomb of St Clewd, who remains demented and warped. The monks have survived underground for three and a half centuries, renewed by the waters of resurrection, searching the archives for a ritual to resolve the chaotic energies..."

Dolmenwood and the Crypts of St Clewd are found in the Wormskin zine.