O&F5 Session 7: Finders Keepers

7 Oakenfall, 103 III-Inter, Sir Ogiero's Keep    The party returns to collect Oloward from the courtyard and re-enter the castle through an unexplored corridor that takes them to the castle chapel, which is adorned with a statue of Saint Rubia standing on a pyre and the heraldries of the first Twelve Paladins. Nykkaen and Tavi, on impulse, light the pyre, revealing a hidden passage behind the statue, finding a secret storeroom where they find Letters from Sir Gilead to Sir Talefer, ostensibly written by two of the first Paladins but considerably younger than that.   In the meantime, however, Nykkaen has entered Sir Ogiero's study and draws the ire of the Beholder Zombie over the mantelpiece, which attacks the party. However, the party makes short work of the monster, leaving it a pile of ashes soon after they rush in to help Nykkaen. There they find the deed to the castle (and unsurprisingly keep it, much to the furstration of the DM, who should really have seen this coming) and a valuable painting by the famous Middle High Imperial painter Fra Giallo, the Village with the Chickens, which they take with them "to save it from the bad conditions".   They explore the rest of the castle, dispatching a banshee in the kitchens, before entering the castle's magnificent, though defiled, Great Hall, which has a magnificent stained-glass roof (cracked in a few places) depicting a religious scene. After finding a sword that causes ghosts to enter and dispatching these as well elsewhere, and clearing up some of the vermin, the party rests for the night, proceeding to Cappebraccia the next day.