Pizazz's Ravenloft and Beyond

Mordekai watches Ulthan, slightly anxious about opening yet more crypts, but interested enough in what he might find to not try and stop him. Besides, Mordekai opened his fair share of crypts, he could hardly stop someone else. 

"Find anything? Or, anyone? A caution, we may want to avoid any of Strahd's wives. He has prepared a crypt for Ireena, who he was planning to marry before we saved her. That suggests that he would make her undead and have this as her bedroom. Which makes me question what's in the other wives' crypts. "

"I am afraid there is no question here - a vampire spawn. Would make full sense to guard all these treasures with something unkillable." If Ulthan tries to open a crypt with word "wife" on it, Lionel is asking him to stand back for a moment (Divine Sense to check if "the wife" is undead)

Meepo trundles along, skipping a bit as he moves now. He scuttles into the newly opened crypts, searching around for anything that is lost. He continues to heap more atop his floating disk, smiling happily as he is able to truly get back to his calling once more.

     “Who is to guess the mind of such a creature?  The tomb could have been a threat to encourage compliance?  ‘Live with me forever or die and live in the tomb below’ type of threat?” Ketch suggests as he adjusts his gear.

     “I’d not be against crushing each and every skull as insurance of them not raising against us, would that even work Meepo? But if a wife or else-thing was guarding these tombs they’ve done a piss poor job so far...”

     “I say we take those,” Ketch says a bit more quietly as they move into the latest tomb and see the jewels.  “A little more grave robbing won’t make us anything we’re not already.”

Since group came over... "hrmpfh ulthan think magic help more than gold can come back for gold any magic here hrmpfh". If anyone says no magic, Ulthan moves to the next one doing his best to open the door and not be straight in front of it in case there's some kind of think launching itself out down the center of the door. So he ignores jewelry for now unless group says it's magical, then he'll use his two handed sword's tip to try and remove said jewelry closer (or maul, depending on whatever gets the item closer while avoiding stepping in) err... or grappling hook and rope....

(According to my notes in page 7 of the game PM, which I also quoted a couple of pages ago, we still have 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37 and 40 that had some kind of magic.)

     “I had detected no magic here,” Ketch will confirm and step aside so Ulthan can move on.  Ones he’s left, Ketch will grab the valuables, smashing the bones if need be.

     “Don’t plan on coming back if I don’t have to,” Ketch says to himself and any that inquire or raise an eyebrow.

     The cleric will then catch up to where Ulthan heads next, or point out the closest tomb he recalls emanating magic. 

Meepo casts detect magic as they move around (in addition to his sticky hands adding to the growing pile of trash on the disc).  There actually is a faint aura of magic in here....a mixture of necromancy and conjuration...though it was too weak to reach through the door.  Neither the gems eyes nor amber teeth are magical....but they are valuable.  (Ketch, 2 opals worth 1000 gold each, and 25 amber teeth worth 100 gold each.)   (let me know if you do anything else in this crypt, besides crush the skull and take the jewels...which is accomplished). 

Ulthan moves to the next crypt that had magic within...(28)...which reads "Bascal Ofenheiss - Chef Deluxe".  A skeleton draped in white linen lies atop a marble slab in the center of the crypt, clutching a bell to its sunken chest. Fitted over its skull is a tall chef's hat. 

Meepo tries to figure out what is 'magical' in the crypt where he detected the faint magic.

     If Meepo is in the crypt with the now crushed skull that once had opal eyes, Ketch will linger with Meepo in case he needs any help.  Otherwise Ketch will toss the bounty onto the floating disk with everything else and then follow Ulthan once more.  

Now they can be officially called graverobbers. Did not sit well with Lionel, but he followed without a word, ready to offer a hand if one of the dead turns out to be not un-dead after all.

Meepo stares about at the magic.  It seems to be...."the air" in the crypt.  So, it's a spell or something in the area, rather than an item. 

As the group seem focused on this crypt, Mordekai will quietly wander over and open Crypt 23, with his own name in it. 

"Meepo think just spell..." Meepo says out loud, then heads out of the crypt, unsure if it is wise to stay around where an active spell is located after all. He moves to join Mordekai in his own crypt.

Mordekai walks up to his own crypt, and pushes it open. A horrid stench of decay wafts out and within you see a corpse lying on the marble slab within. The rotting corpse does indeed look like Mordekai.

Mordekai, trying not to appear shaken by the image, reaches out to touch the body, to check if it's real and physical, or just an Illusion. 

As his finger presses down on the rotting flesh, pressing against its cool spongy surface, the body begins to rapidly decompose. As he and Meepo watch the body crumbles away into dust leaving no trace behind. 

Mordekai whispers to Meepo, "Don't tell the others, they'll just go on about it."

Mordekai leaves the crypt, with no intention of returning. He stands and watches what the others do from a distance. 

"So, what was in it? It's "your" crypt, right?" Lionel was not going to press, it was nothing more than polite now-dwarven interest. "If we are done here, how about that big one with traps around? If we are sweeping the place, that raps must be an indication of something important behind."

"There's nothing there, see for yourself."

(Meepo's detect magic, that's picking up a faint spell in the crypt, that's in crypt 15?  On first reading, I thought that was at Bascal Ofenheiss's crypt (28?).  From reading the description of the Sunsword in Lionel's inventory, Khazan was the wizard that Strahd tasked with destroying the sunsword, who only managed to destroy the blade and not the hilt.  Not sure if that's relevant or useful information.  Not sure if Mordekai would know that, or whether any of the characters would feasibly know it either, but thought it worth mentioning the connection, since there's still some magic in that crypt.)