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Music by Kevin MacLeod.
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Keys from the Golden Vault Session 5

Starring
Varrow, level 3 gnome Thief Rogue
Stayzie Diamondz, level 3 orc Champion Fighter
Elowen Fernwhisper, level 3 wood elf Circle of the Moon Druid
Chéri Powder, level 3 human Illusionist Wizard
Taveen, level 3 aasimar Warrior of Mercy Monk

With a new little crystal-lizard, the party leaves the museum, finally regrouping with Chéri before returning to The Tiger’s Eye to report to Mr. Trench.

They have a lot to discuss — aside from the obvious “the stone was actually an egg” thing, there’s also the appearance of the organized team of Zhentarim, and their connection with the museum’s curator.

The party is a bit pissed that they didn’t receive all the intel, but Trench takes it in stride, reminding them that it’s party of their job to do their own reconnaissance for each mission. Running into other factions isn’t unusual, and the party should prepare accordingly.

Trench does promise to gather some more information on these particular rival operatives, however.

The group mentions that there deaths in the museum, but blames them on the Zhentarim. When Trench presses, Chéri confesses that his actions led to one guard’s death (poor Billie, who was slain by the curator’s killer guardian doll in her office).

Trench admonishes the group — the goal of removing the stone was to protect people after all, though he acknowledges the dangers of the job. But the Golden Vault is not the Zhentarim, and they value sentient life.

For completing the mission, the party gets 50gp and a potion of healing each, though any further rewards are held back due to the numerous deaths (we also totally forgot to identify the stolen items the party took!).

Trench also mentions a new base of operations he’s acquired, the nearby Trollskull Manor. It’s an abandoned manor turned tavern, and it’s supposedly haunted with a murderous past.

He suggests the party get a rest from their ordeals, then check out the manor in the morning. He wants them moved out of his studio apartment ASAP!

Freshly rested the next day, the party approaches the imposing, four-story manor. Its windows and doors are hastily boarded up, and the building is in obvious disrepair, and beginning to rot.

Trench had told them that something had happened inside, and most of the patrons and staff were mysteriously killed, leading to the building’s condemnation.

Stayzie pulls off the boards to the door and steps inside, followed by Taveen. 

The taproom is a mess of broken chairs, glass, and wooden shards. When Stayzie throws a chair outside to start cleaning up, the chair comes flying back!

When Varrow steps through the door, he’s flown backwards, and Taveen has a rather large chair crash into him, forcing him to show off his parkour monk skills (deflect attacks!). 

The chalk on the board behind the bar writes the words, “GO AWAY!”

Undeterred, Stayzie picks up the chalk and writes, “WHY?”

The chalk replies, “DANGER.”

Outside, Chéri spots a blinking light in an upstairs window. He tells Varrow, and the gnome gladly uses his grapple hook to climb to the upstairs balcony.

Reaching the window, he uses his collapsing pole to poke into the room, noticing a nearly invisible orb floating in the room. It softly glows, then dims. 

Cautiously, Varrow enters the upstairs bedroom and calls out that he’s not going to hurt them. But he doesn’t sound terribly convincing, and the orb lights up and flies through him, painfully shocking him as it does so.

Varrow hears the orb whisper, “I’m sorry,” over and over, and swears he sees a woman’s face in the orb.

Taveen decides to head upstairs, but as he steps through the doorway into an upstairs den room, he’s transported into a dark, shadowy version of our world.

The air is oppressive, and the windows show nothing but pitch black outside. Everything is covered in a hazy film, and Taveen must stave off the melancholic effects of the [redacted]. 

He continues to explore this strange version of the house, but as he opens another door, a screaming, monstrous shadowy creature charges him. He ducks out of the way as it flies through the walls, and he runs back downstairs, yelling.

The rest of the party hear his yells as an echoing, ghostly scream!

Back downstairs, Stayzie continues the written conversation on the chalkboard, until a book is thrown at her (another critical hit, lol). She picks it up, realizing it’s a journal. The journal belongs to Lif, which my party quickly changes to Gif, so they can subsequently argue about the pronunciation of Gif.

The journal teases what happened here: The owner of the establishment, Mr. Frewn, wanted to spruce the place up with a magical enchantment that makes getting around easier. Lif, the bartender, wasn’t impressed with the nervous, cut-rate wizard he hires, however.

When it’s time to complete the ritual, something goes terribly wrong, leaving Lif Gif confused, scared, and discorporated. Is he dead?

Shadowy monsters roam upstairs, and Giffrey (they really had fun with the name thing) tries to protect the bar from them — as well as keep anyone else out of the tavern, for their protection.

As Varrow returns from upstairs, Taveen runs screaming downstairs. But the taproom he sees is different, a dark shadowy version of itself. This time, he sees Gif as a fully visible ghost, while his teammates appear as barely-there silhouettes. 

Gif cannot speak, but the two communicate through pantomime. When the same shadow comes lurking downstairs, Gif and Taveen team up to hurl mugs at it, causing it to disappear.

The others simply see more objects flying across the room!

Taveen then takes over the written communication duties, and has fun messing with the party and pretending to be a ghost.

From reading the journal, and Varrow’s encounter with the ghostly orb, Stayzie realizes that the orb could be the wizard who caused this mess, though it may have been an accident rather than malice. That tracks with the orb-woman muttering “I’m sorry!”

Gif confirms that the monsters are upstairs, and the orb could be the wizard (he isn’t sure, he stays down here).

When Taveen asks how to escape this dark realm, he draws a picture, showing a room with bookshelves, and a large shadowy rift. He then points to Taveen, and draws an X over it. Gif then points to himself, and points to the bar, indicating that his place is here.

With the beating the party took (mostly from Gif!), they spend an hour short resting. Thankfully, Taveen’s monk serenity keeps him focused and alert while spending increasing amount of time in this dark place (WIS saves).

After the short rest, they head upstairs. Taveen and Stayzie take some chalk with them, and continue their conversations via written messages (Taveen playing up the creepy factor!). He warns that this is where he was ghosted, but Stayzie steps through anyway.

She also fails the mysterious Charisma save, and ends up in the same shadowy realm. At least she sees Taveen now!

Chéri and Varrow see runes along the doorway light up as she steps through, and disappears!

Live post-session discussion: 

Next session: The Upside-down!

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