Summary
The adventure began at the Inn of the Flying Swordfish, a small inn in the old section of Tagentium. It wasn't a place where adventurer met. Rather it was a place for tired fishermen, farmers, tradesmen, laborers, and the like to rest after a long tiring day.
This proved not to be the case on the evening of our tail in late summer in the year MCCLXXVIII since the founding of the Imperium's First City, now under the rule of the barbarian lord Marcus Olbar. While enjoying their drinks a half dozen skeletons, un-dead creatures with coldly glowing blue eyes, burst into the front and rear of the inn. The patrons drew whatever they had with them to battle these skeletons. For most, this was little more than a knife though there were some out of work mercenaries - mercenaries armed but not bloodies. Sadly a scribe quickly fell to their weapons though by overwhelming sheer numbers the remaining patrons overwhelmed the skeletons.
After the battle an old-timer, Quintus Decius came up from under the bar. He told them how he remembered as a young lad he saw skeletons like that. When the barbarians were raiding the island the priests of Pluto aided in the defense of the island with skeletons just like them, complete with glowing blue eyes. The shrine was a few miles to the west of Tagentium. He remembered as a child people would buy pigeons and seagulls to release into the entrance of the shrine, a tunnel descending into the earth - and the birds would die! But the priests could enter unharmed, though it was rumored that any mortal not sworn to Pluto would die as well. It was there they supposedly kept their vast wealth. The battle against the barbarians was successful, though all the priests died in it. The citizens sealed the shrine with a great boulder, fearing more of the un-dead more than they coveted the riches.
Riches? That was an incentive for these now-bold common-folk. The thought of not needing to worry about every copper... They agreed to meet early the next morning to venture to the Shrine.
Not all of them showed up. But enough of them did - eleven bold would-be adventurers. They came with swords, nets, pitchforks, and livestock. A walk of about an hour took them to the old ruins - a small village from the Imperial Era, now abandoned. Decius had told them of a geyser immediately in front of the entrance to the Shrine, one which they quickly located. And indeed a great boulder had been rolled clear of the entrance. However they neglected to examine a nearby ruined building which housed four barbarians of the warlord Marcus Olbar, including one of his feared shield-biting berserkers. A javelin ended the career of the would-be adventure Vishner the fisherman. A battle broke out, much bloodier than the one at the inn. Yet they proved victorious despite the butcher's bill, consisting of the fallen fisherman, a petty cut-purse known as Otto, and a pair whose names none recalled - a corn farmer and a trapper.
Yet surely the gods had selected these seven survivors for greatness? Unbowed, they approached the shrine's tunnel entrance to seek their destiny...
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