(Copied from previous site)
The group of intrepid adventurers approached the door to the old observatory. Jerad looked at the others, then walked up and knocked on the door! Of course there was no answer. Filge was asleep in the upper room and the only person who had reason to call on him had his own key anyway. Romanova opened the door and graciously allowed Stonan to go in first. He was greeted by Filge's 'welcoming committee,' three of poor Alastor Land's relatives animated as skeletons.
The undead had barricaded themselves behind some overturned tables on the far side of the room. Broken furniture and other debris was scattered about the floor making footing treacherous. The skeletons raised up as Stonan entered, each firing a crossbow bolt tipped with greasy poison at the dwarf. Luckily for Stonan, two of the bolts thudded into the wall around the door and the third sailed over his head, alerting the rest of the group to the imminent danger. Stonan rushed into the room, successfully picking his way through the debris, and slammed full-speed into the large table that two of the skeletons were behind. The skeletons both hit the wall and then the ground. One of them crumpled into a pile, the magic holding it together dispersed.
Nader and Phil rushed in, making quick work of the other two skeletons and clearing the room. The group looked around and found nothing of interest. Moving on to the one inner door, Romanova proceeded cautiously, searching for traps. Finding none she again let Stonan open the door. He went out into the hallway and saw only more doors. The group quickly searched the four small cells on the north wall and found a small pouch of platinum and gold cleverly hidden by one of the observatory's former tenants. Searching the abandoned office yielded only useless debris. The last door opened into the communal living space of the observatory, and a truely gruesome sight.
In the middle of the large room there was a table, set for dining. Around the table were ten chairs, nine of which were occupied by putrid decomposing corpses with half-filled glasses of wine and recently fresh food in front of them. The stench was overpowering to most of the party, but Phil's own BO was covering enough of the smell that she sauntered over to the table and grabbed one of the half-full bottles of strong red wine. She guzzled the bottle greedily and sat down in the empty chair at the head of the table.
As Phil's ample bottom hit the chair the bodies seated at the table becan a macabre scene. They began to clumsily mime eating the meal in front of them, then they spoke! "Filge, you really are the greatest wizard in the realm, the guild was daft to throw you out!" said an elf with a head wound. "I didn't love you in life, but now I love you forever." chimed in a delicate corpse that once may have been a woman. "You sure taught me, Filge old boy!" exclaimed a fat one in merchant's clothes.
When Phil stood, the zombies returned to their previous state. A quick search of the room and cupboards turned up only some serving ware and other possibly valuable dining implements.
Along the north wall the stairs up to the observatory proper beconed.
Filge had awoke when the creep show around the table began and quickly gathered his wits. When Romanova tried to creep up the stairs from below he went up to his laboratory to make his stand. Romanova heard Filges footsteps on the staris and motioned for the rest of the group to follow her up.
When she poked around the corner Filge had already cast his spells for battle. "Why have you entered my sanctuary?" he asked. Romanova explained that she was looking for the skeletons from the Land farmstead. Filge knew the half-orc had given him up and decided to fight. "ARISE MY CREATIONS!" he bellowed to the undead creatures kept in stasis jars around the room. Bursting forth from the four glass tubes came the animated corpses of three lizard like creatures and a large, furry bugbear.
The zombies all approached Romanova at the top of the stairs. She ducked and dove through them to try and get to the wizard. She was brought up short by another of Alastor Land's relatives. The skeleton made a viscious blow to Romanova's abdomen, and when she tried to get away again, the skeleton slashed her across the neck. Romanova hit the floor bleeding. Stonan was battling the zombies at the top of the stairs with a bit of help from Jerad. Filge had brought a spectral hand into being and used it to try and touch Stonan with a debilitating spell, but failed every time. Mercurio conjured grease on the floor underneath the zombies, causing two of them to slip and fall. As they got up Stonan and Jerad beat on them soem more. Stonan's axe worked fine, but they seemed to more or less ignore Jerad's mace. Nadaer prayed to his god and made himself larger. He grabbed the lip of the stairs from below and made for Romanova's lifeless body to see if he could save her.
The zombies started to fall under the relentless swings of Stonan's axe, Filge was beginning to worry. He had hit the dwarf with several spells, but he just shrugged them off. Nadaer made it to Romanova just in time, her life's blood was almost gone. He used a spell to heal her enough to keep her alive, then turned his attention to the necromancer.
Stonan clove through the last of the zombies and he and Nadaer caught Filge between the two of them. The last Land skeleton dropped quickly (not as quick as it dropped Romanova though) and the two barbarians pounded poor Filge. He tried to plead with them to stop, but there's no treating with raging barbarians. One last blow from Nadaer and Filge lied dead on the floor.
The group split up and turned their attention to searching the rest of the observatory. Filge had little in the way of useful supplies, a minor magical trinket or two and some potions along with a few gold. There was a mysterious note on Filge's desk signed simply S. The note asked Filge to come to Diamond Lake to research a strange worm found in the Dourstone mine.
The group is considering using the observatory as their new base of operations, but given the note is obviously signed by the owner of the building who was friends with Filge, that might not be the best idea...