Into the Heart of the Chant

The chanting never stopped.

From the moment the party first stepped into the flooded, stone-cold depths beneath Death House, the whispering chorus had been everywhere—unplaceable, directionless, impossible to trace. But now, after a nightmarish spiral of crypts, catacombs, and child-sized coffins, they had finally found its source: the Temple of Sacrifice.

Here, surrounded by alcoves carved with half-forgotten faces, the familiar words—
“One must die… one must die…” —echoed like ritual drumbeats through the dark.

But the moment an attack spell arced across the chamber and struck the largest alcove, the chant changed.

Not diminished.
Not silenced.
Changed.
“Lorgoth the Decayer… we awaken thee…”

And something answered.

Twigs, bones, sodden cloth, and years of discarded rot began to twist into shape. The mound of refuse lurched upward as if taking its first breath in centuries, wet roots sliding across the stone like tendons. The entire temple vibrated with movement.

The fight for their lives had begun.

The Battle with Lorgoth the Decayer

Lorgoth surged forward with terrifying speed for something made of dead matter, slamming the ground hard enough to send ripples through the floodwater. The party scattered.

Maple’s Panic and Improvised Magic

Maple, panicked, began rifling mentally through every spell he knew, only to forget half of them in the moment. It was pure, frantic instinct when he conjured a mote of Produce Flame, cupping the fire between shaking hands.

What happened next was entirely Maple:
he bowled it across the chamber like a flaming bowling ball.

The flame hit. Lorgoth groaned. Smoke hissed from the wet debris—but the party quickly realized the creature was resistant. Fire singed it but did not stop it.

Fluffy’s Heroic Moment

In one of the session’s most memorable moments, Fluffy—the mysterious pet who has become a table favorite—leapt bravely onto Lorgoth and proceeded to burrow inside the writhing monster.

From within the creature’s core came muffled squeaks of determination… and the audible ripping of important internal plant-parts.

Doc Falls, Again

The creature slammed into the group with its full weight. Kiril staggered back, nearly pulled under the water. Without warning, Doc took a full hit across the chest and went down hard, disappearing beneath the surface.

Death House struck its first killing blow of the night.

Raven grabbed Doc, dragging him upward while the others kept Lorgoth occupied. While water and blood dripped from Doc’s armor, Kiril rushed in, stabilizing him with practiced hands. Doc’s life hung by a thread, but he would wake in a few hours—barely.

The Final Push

With Maple’s flames flickering, Fluffy still shredding away somewhere inside the creature, and the party scrapping together every last ounce of courage, Lorgoth finally shuddered.

The mound collapsed in on itself.

The chanting stopped.

After hours of dread, fear, and noise, the sudden silence was deafening.

The Cost of Victory

In the settling quiet, the party realized the chamber was not still. It was missing someone.

Zarkoth.

They had fallen during the fight, and unlike Doc, no spell had reached them in time. The cruel truth of the moment set in slowly—this wasn’t a close call, or a nasty injury, or a brush with danger to be laughed off later.

This was death.

And for these players—most of them young—this was the first character death they had ever experienced in Dungeons & Dragons.

The table grew quiet in a way the dungeon hadn’t.

The party gathered around Zarkoth’s still form. They lifted them together—carefully, reverently—and carried them through the tunnels to one of the unused stone crypts the group had passed earlier. It wasn’t a home, or a proper resting place, or even a peaceful one, but it was the best they had.

They laid them inside.

Carol traced a protective sign over Zarkoth’s chest. Someone murmured a prayer. Someone else asked whether magic might bring them back, or whether they might rise again as something undead. Death House had made such fears feel real.

Nothing in the house spoke back.

Nothing stopped them.

And nothing comforted them.

Zarkoth was gone.

Aftermath in the Deep

The party gathered themselves. Doc remained unconscious, but safe. Fluffy crawled out of Lorgoth’s remains smelling absolutely awful, but triumphant. Maple still looked shaken. Raven had gone quiet. Kiril, for once, didn’t have a joke ready.

They were alive.

But the house wasn’t done.

A distant, groaning creak echoed through the beams overhead. The walls shivered. Dust trickled down like sand through an hourglass.

They exchanged looks.

Death House had one more secret to reveal.

And it was waking up.

To Be Continued…

As the house above them shifted, groaned, and began to wake in full, the party braced themselves.

They were wounded.
They were missing a friend.
They were exhausted.
And the House had only just begun its final trial.

Escape—or burial beside Zarkoth—awaits in Session 9.