Labyrinths of the Lost - Session 2

After resting at the smithy, the party crosses Perdoli Manor by stealth, defeats hobgoblins in the chapel crypt and ruined library, finds hidden records and a chained basilisk, and learns from a ghost that Grimstone’s lair lies beneath the manor.

Timeline

• Oct 18, 1748 DR: The party crosses the manor grounds, defeats hobgoblins in the chapel crypt and ruined library, finds hidden records and a chained basilisk, and learns from a pirate’s ghost that Grimstone’s lair is below.

Cast of Characters

• ghost of J. M. (he/him, human): mourning sailor ghost.
• Folcan (he/him, goblin): released goblin informant.
• Grimstone (he/him, human): masked master inside the manor.
• Petrona (she/her, human): woman in the locket.

Places

• Perdoli Manor (pehr-DOH-lee; ruined manor estate in Western Cymea, Cymea): ruined manor estate in Western Cymea occupied by goblins, hobgoblins, chained monsters, and Grimstone’s hidden operation. During this session the party rested in the abandoned smithy prison room, crossed the overgrown vineyards and formal gardens to the ruined chapel, entered the chapel crypt, followed a secret tunnel to the hidden private archive, fought hobgoblins in a ruined library, avoided hobgoblin recruits and stirges, and explored interior rooms around the basilisk courtyard and the trapdoor to J.M.'s old hideout.

Combat

• Crypt Stair Ambushes: hobgoblin smokebinder, hobgoblin guard. The party uses grease and a snare on the chapel crypt stairs to kill a hobgoblin smokebinder and then a second hobgoblin before the wider manor reacts.
• Ruined Library Hobgoblins: hobgoblin library guards. After the archive rest, Loria’s accidental noise in the ruined library alerts nearby hobgoblins, but the party kills them quickly enough to continue exploring without raising a wider alarm.

Narrative

The party spends the night back in the abandoned smithy prison room rather than crossing the manor grounds in the dark. They share rations and apple brandy, clean the food and drink, sleep, and use the pre-dawn hours to prepare. With Folcan’s warnings still shaping the plan, they weigh the barracks, kitchen, and chapel routes before settling on the chapel as the likeliest way to reach the tunnels without walking into the main guard force.

At dawn, the party leaves the smithy side of the grounds and sneaks west through old vineyards and tangled agricultural plots. Loria catches sight of a shadowy hobgoblin patrol on the wall, and Gaudin keeps watching the pearl ring for signs of nearby goblins and hobgoblins. Dilion sends his magical dog companion east to bark and holler; the construct pulls attention away from the party even as they hear it being struck. That distraction gives them just enough room to cut through the hedge and reach the formal garden approach to the manor.

From the formal garden, the party passes a fountain and a stone medusa frozen while staring at her own reflection, then reaches the ruined chapel. The chapel still feels peaceful despite its open roof and broken walls; a search for a way in turns up a trapdoor hidden beneath a square of flowers. Below, the family crypt leads to a secondary altar room with tarnished silver, an icon of The Mother, old coins, and a yellow topaz. When tapping and digging above warn that a pursuer has found the disturbed chapel floor, they cover the entrance, grease the stair, set a snare at the bottom, and wait in the dark.

The first hobgoblin through the trapdoor is the same shadow-bound scout that chased the steampup, and the party’s setup catches it immediately. It slips on the greased stairs, falls into the snare, and is hammered by Loria, Acescale, Gaudin, and the steampup until the steel defender throws it down for good. Dilion recognizes it as a smokebinder, its shadow cloak more ritual effect than loot, and the party turns the same trap into a lure for the next patrol member. The second hobgoblin also comes down into the stairs, wounds Gaudin with a crossbow and alchemist’s fire, and dies before the alarm can spread.

With the crypt quiet, the party collects the second hobgoblin’s crossbow, bolts, coins, and alchemist’s fire before searching the old rooms again. Loria finds a sliding niche behind the stairs holding a scroll of Cure Wounds and a potion of watchful rest, while Dilion discovers that a loose torch bracket opens a secret passage from the altar room. The tunnel runs under the manor to a ceiling trapdoor. The room above is an old hidden archive: they find Perdoli family papers, portraits, and shipping records revealing the ancient history of the manor. They also find a fake-book button in the middle bookcase, pointing to the secret exit, but pause for a short rest before pressing farther.

After the short rest, the party finds the mechanism that opens the archive’s secret door, emerging into a small, destroyed library inside the main manor. Their first attempt at moving quietly fails when Loria kicks loose stone, and the noise brings hobgoblin guards charging in from the next room. The party kills them quickly and keeps the alarm from spreading, then resumes a much more cautious exploration. They hear hobgoblin recruits drilling elsewhere and the buzzing of stirges nearby, but avoid both groups. In the central courtyard, they find a chained reptile hidden behind a low wall. Gaudin tests the creature with Mage Hand, glimpses its face, and begins petrifying until the others hack the forming stone away from him. Acescale considers polishing the crypt’s silver plate as a mirror, then realizes the creature is a basilisk, not a medusa, and that its gut enzyme could instead become a depetrification salve if they kill it.

Avoiding the courtyard, the search shifts from the basilisk to the nearby private chambers, where the party finds a great hall full of lifelike statues, a study with broken mirror glass and older headless statues, and a bedroom haunted by a sailor ghost. Deciding to explore a little, they search the other rooms, finding a sheaf of papers (apparently pirate maps from a generation ago), and a silver locket with a faded painting, inscribed to “J.M., with love, P. Keep safe and come back.” There is also a packet of love letters, apparently from whoever “P.” is, suggesting that J. M. and P. were perhaps both pirates.

Feeling this must be a clue, the party goes to talk to the ghost again. Initially, this does not go well, and he is angry with Gaudin. However, in a moment of panic or inspiration, Gaudin uses disguise self to make himself look like P, the woman in the locket, and claims that the white-faced man, presumably Grimstone, is trying to hurt her. This finally breaks through to the ghost, who is clearly J. M., who died without knowing the fate of Petrona (P.), and was promised news and rest by Grimstone. Now, convinced Grimstone has been lying, the pirate ghost says he will guard no more, and reveals that Grimstone’s lair is below this bedroom, in the old pirate hideout under the manor. His last words as he fades away are that that Grimstone is crazy, constantly ranting about the immortality of stone.