Expedition 10: The Fields of Moseley

 

The Southern Face of the Cathedral-Like Building

Expedition Party: Feodor, Barnaby, Gossamer, Gregor, Koga, Stram, (Jack)

On the 13th day of Maltster’s the largest expedition party yet assembled heads south of Stortherhine in order to dive deeper into the strange cathedral-like building that had been previously discovered during expedition 7, and entered for the first time during expedition 8. They hire Jack the farmhand to come with them and gather a few supplies before heading out into the clear hot summer day.   

They make a path through the waist high grass and encounter the child-like figures that dart in and out of the grass and wear macabre skull shaped masks. Having dealt with these spirits before they know what to do, Feodor tosses a ration to a spot in the grass where one of the figures had been spotted. It disappears the second it touches the ground, and so do the figures.

By the end of the morning the group arrives at the ruined tower, they check the basement to see if there are any new notes from their goblin friends, but see the same illustration, which they assume means the goblins are asking for a wolf pelt. Wanting to make good time, they don’t stop to rest and instead enter the grasses to the south traveling till the end of the afternoon, when they finally reach a region that is hilly and dappled with isolated bodies of water ranging from small ponds all the way to large lakes. They search for a minute longer and find the familiar hill that they plant to make camp at.

The hill has a small stone shrine, a blackened oak, and a well that is actually the entrance to some kind of tomb, but the group is here because the hill gives them a good vantage point to look out over the grasses, and the shrine acts as some amount of shelter. They see a rope draped into the well and decide to take it. They hear a guttural moan in the well and decide it must be one of the walking dead, and think that it is best to ignore it for now.

That evening they make camp on the hill. Not long into the night, the first watch made up of Gossamer, Gregor, & Jack spot a group of skeletal figures passing through the field. There are 4 of them, and one appears to be much larger than the others. They wait quietly watching them pass, hoping to avoid a confrontation. When it is time to wake the second watch the group of skeletons has made it due south of the hill, the first watch wakes the second, Koga and Stram, and points out the figures. Koga immediately recognizes the larger skeleton as one of the skeletons that attacked him and Feodor while they gathered feral corn several expeditions ago. They keep a watchful eye on them and eventually the skeletons pass out of sight to the east. 

As the threat of a fight passes Koga and Stram notice something else, large swarms of insects gathering over the pools and ponds in the area. The flying bugs appear in such large concentrations that they look like clouds undulating above the water. Time passes and before long it is time to wake the third watch, Barnaby & Feodor. Little happens during their watch, but Barnaby is curious about the insects and collects 5 of them in a jar.  

The next day is clear and abysmally hot and humid, it is draining to travel in this weather but the group knows they are not far from their objective so they head south. On the way they find a fat squat tree that they recognize as a “Gristle Pear” tree, it has four fruits on it, and they take them all (they first discovered these during Expedition 9). They keep traveling and by the end of the morning find their makeshift river crossing as well as the spot where they had left a cache of rations. They discover some animal has dug up the cache and eaten some of their rations, but the rest are in good shape. They decide to leave Jack behind to watch over Barnaby’s donkey and wagon.

At around midday the rest of the party cross the cool river and make their way up the entrance of the cathedral-like building. The space is made up of stone pillars with twisted vines that make up a foyer. To the north there is a massive brass door with a rising sun carved into it, the long walls on either side of it is covered in large stained glass windows. To the south is a smaller tower that above the foyer connects to the main building. They enter the wooden door on the tower and are greeted by an aggressive fetid aroma as well as the five rotting bodies they had left there the last time they visited. 

They decide to drag the bodies outside and dismember their limbs, tossing half of them into the river and leaving the other remains to rot in the summer sun. Barnaby lights his lantern and the party reenters the tower and passes through the small windowless room to a spiral staircase. They head up, and enter a dormitory-like space, light shines in from east and west windows, under which the walls are lined with beds. At the foot of each is a small wooden blanket chest. The group looks around the room and starts to loot what they can. Before long they hear movement coming from beyond the door to the north of the room. 

Feodor goes to the door and cracks it open, light pours in from the ceiling of the room beyond. He opens it wider and sees a large mezzanine space that wraps around the area and disappears into the six different alcoves. Below the rectangular hallway the ground floor can be seen beyond a railing. Directly across from where he stands he sees a large set of stairs that disappear downward, and at the top of the stairs he sees a massive hulking undead figure dressed in vestments and dragging a mace behind it. He recognizes it as one of the undead he had fought before, and one that rumors have been told about “Brother Gareth the Corrupted.” He attempts to mimic an undead groan and the figure begins limping toward him. 

He backs into the dormitory and warns the rest of the party of the incoming trouble. They drop what they are doing and grab their weapons. Stram rushes to the door and positions himself just inside of it so that it will be challenging for the monsters to swing with the mace. The others gather behind him and prepare to strike. The massive undead priest rushes the door and swings his mace with all of his might at Stram, it catches in the frame of the door and gives Stram an opportunity to thrust his sword directly into his unguarded gut.  

Feodor attempts to slide underneath Brother Gareth, but doesn’t have enough momentum and ends up stuck in the doorway directly before the brute. Gareth frees his mace and attacks Feodor with it, using both hands to drive it down as if he were churning butter. Gareth then backs up a few paces, positioning his back only a few feet from the railing. Feodor wraps his arms around Gareth’s feet as the rest of the party rushes the figure. Barnaby holds his crowbar wide and attempts to push the figure over the railing. As he makes impact so does Stram cleaving a wide wound in the priest’s shoulder. In that moment Gareth’s eyes roll back and his body begins to slump, fall over the railing, but taking Feodor with him. 

They fall to the space below and land in a strange depression on the floor. Feodor is badly injured but still conscious. He slowly gets up and sees that he stands in a wide hall lined with 6 sets of ornate pillars. The hall runs for 120 feet before it ends in a massive staircase that goes to a landing on the north wall and then continues to a second level. The pillars support a floor on that second level that overlooks the one he currently stands on.

There are three sets of alcoves evenly spaced along the east and west walls. Inside each alcove is a door leading away from the hall. Feodor also notices that hanging from the ceiling in line with the sets of alcoves there are three huge chandeliers that appear to be decorated with precious metals, gems, and crystals. Far above them, the pitched ceiling is mainly glass and the light coming in shines through the chandeliers causing them to sparkle and reflect the light in a dazzling way.

Beneath each chandelier is also a circular shrine. One is made of red and yellow hued stones with flame motifs, one is made of grey and black stones with skull motifs, and the third is made of pale blue and green stones and is covered in a foreign script. Each shrine is surrounded by a ring of ½ foot stones. In the middle is a bowl-like depression in the ground made of the same stones with several small holes in it. Moldy murals on the walls depict the depressions filled with water and figures being dunked in them. The depressions are empty now, and it is the southernmost one that Feodor and Brother Gareth fell into. 

The rest of the party runs to the stairs to make sure Feodor is okay. As they make their way down they see three massive tapestries on the walls. They arrive at the ground floor to see Feodor standing and trying to regain his breath. Seeing that he is still breathing, they decide it may be best to open the large brass doors to the south, as it will give them an alternative exit. The doors open without trouble but as they do a breeze rushes in the room and puts out the lantern that Barnaby has been carrying. 

Barnaby relights his lantern and the group examines the room as well as the remains of Brother Gareth. They remove Gareth’s vestments, which are still in better condition than most they have found and carefully remove the tapestries from the walls, it takes two of them to carry each of the tapestries out, but they decide that this is a decent haul and decide to make their way back across the river to the small camp Jack has made.

The three tapestries.

There the rest for the night. Gossamer, Gregor, and Jack take the first watch and spot a strange plant. It is 15 feet tall, with deeply lobed leaves 4-feet wide. It has a stout, bright green stem with extensive dark reddish-purple splotches and prominent coarse white hairs, especially at the base of the leaf stalk. Gossamer recognizes that it is likely related to carrots and parsnips, but also water hemlock and cowbane. Despite the dangers he decides to cut it up and bundle it up to bring it back with him, Gregor helps, and the two both get covered in a milk sap that smells strongly of fresh parsnips. 

The next watch Barnabry and Stram hear movement and see the grass beyond the camp shake. They choose not to approach it and before long the movement stops, they go to investigate the area where they saw it and see deer scat. During the final watch, made up of Koga and Feodor, the two spot four Equus Hound charging the camp. Feodor tosses a stick from the fire at them, and manages to hit one of the hounds. This spooks the group of horse skull headed beasts, and they run away into the darkness. Following this, Feodor eats a gristle pear, it disgusts him, but knows that he needs the strength it will give him.

 

The next morning is still miserably humid, as the sun rises Gossamer and Gregor erupt in gruesome blisters and rashes everywhere the plant sap had touched them. Despite this setback the party is eager to make it back, they dig up the remainder of their cache, load up the wagon and the donkey and head north. By the end of the morning they reach the area dappled with lakes and ponds, there they leave a few supplies in the shrine on the hill, and then continue making their way through the tall grass heading north. By the end of the afternoon they arrive at the ruined tower.

The party is exhausted; they hastily make camp in the ruins of the tower. Gossamer, Gregor, Jack take the first watch, and quickly spot more Knitting Onions (the party learned about this plant in expedition 9). The long green threads of the grassy tops of the plant weave together in uncanny geometric patterns and spell out three words “king, misinterpret, prophecy.” After reading the words they harvest the plant. 

During the second watch Barnaby & Stram see three skeletons charging the hill that the ruined tower sits on. Stram rushes the skeletons and lobs his fireflask at them, it shatters at their feet and erupts into a wall of flames 10ft high that burns the skeletons to nothing more than blackened bones and ash. The rest of their watch passes uneventfully and they wake Koga & Feodor for the final watch of the evening. During this watch they spot the skull children briefly, but they disappear quickly, leaving three gold coins on the ground. The next morning is clear and not, but far less humid than it has been and the party packs up their things and travels north until the afternoon when they finally reach Strotherhine.