3-2 The Forgotten Abbey

Adran constructs another faithful mechanical companion. In his grief, not wanting things to change further, he understandably chooses to call the new Steel Defender Mara also.
Eozindra examines each of the papers the party has found. The note on the back of the barracks door is a charcoal sketch depicting the complicated secret handshake used by the guild members of the Lord Mayor's Men.The papers on the barracks desk appear to be a collection of passphrases used by the guild.The books on the Chapel desk are scholarly works of history and arcane studies...but the margins have been filled with scribbled text and sigils in the margins (and sometimes just over the pages themselves).
Inside the Chapel desk's drawer are scores of sheets of parchment filled with cribbed, tiny hand-written text, which appear to be detailed notes about the nobility and wealthy notables of Grayhaven.Faith retrieves her equipment, dresses, and takes her amulet in hand. Praying to Bealdor, her eyes glow with the Sun's holy light. The first thing that reflects and redoubles the light is the magic staff that the Lord Mayor had wielded.

Faith continues to wander the halls and rooms of the Abbey, but nothing else glows with the reflected glory of the Sun until she returns to the storeroom behind the carved figures bracketing the doorway (where the party found her equipment). Behind the stacked crates and barrels, the entire back wall glows. Ishi helps to move the containers out of the way, and the party can see that the carvings in the wall are actually large letters, though at first glance they do not read as anything.

With her eyes still glowing, Faith looks at the locked drawer in the "Noble's Quarters" and begins to pull out her crowbar, but Elysia steps in front of her. The little sister is self-conscious that she is perpetuating the dynamic of their youth but unable to stop herself. "Please! You don't need to do that; sometimes a softer touch will work." Elysia pulls out her tools and tries to pick the lock on the desk, showing off. After a minute she throws her tools down in frustration; this is just like when she was a kid and was always trying to impress her sister and Faith and then she would fail because she was so nervous! She exhales slowly and looks down, feeling very small and gathering up her scattered picks. Without looking at Faith, Elysia addresses her in a small voice. "You can use your crowbar if you want...there's also plenty of tools for picking locks in the Library - the room where the pool is. You might as well try; they'll probably work better for you...as usual..."

Faith shrugs and jams the beak of the crow into the drawer and then levers it open with a splintering crack.
Elysia winces at the sound. Pulling the broken drawer open reveals a finely-tooled leather bandolier holding three expertly balanced daggers, and a small parcel wrapped in black silk. Faith's glowing eyes confirm that none of it is magical.

She turns to the locked door, prepared to lever it open, too. But as she starts to gouge into the wood, working the beak into the gap, Morik clears his throat. With his higher passive perception, he noticed what the others did not: a key on a chain dangling unobtrusively from a torch sconce in the room. The PCs take the key and try it on the door: it fits, and the door unlocks with the clicks of well-oiled tumblers. A short flight of stairs leads down into a lower chamber where all the food and drink was kept. Further examination reveals that all the food and drink is stacked on and around four large stone sarcophagi, and Faith's eyes reveal that there is abjuration magic in each one (which means that the lids are less than a foot thick).

Going back to the Storeroom, Faith rejoins Ishi, who has finished clearing the path to the back wall, which is still glowing with the last of her Bealdor-enhanced vision. As the spell fades and her vision returns to normal, she pushes on the wall, but it is solid, not illusory. They step back and look at the large letters carved into the stone, each one a foot high:

THEFO
ATHBA
OLUND
ONELS

Morik consults with Jeffery, but the newt is silent with deep thoughts. ::It probably is a jumble,:: the druid thinks. ::Those aren't any magic words I've ever heard or read.::

Eozindra spends some time sorting through the papers, and determines that the current passphrase is:
"For Blood and Love"

While the others are investigating other things, she spends time reading through the dossiers of the Grayhaven nobility. Quickly she is absorbed in the study, and calls Elysia over to see, as well. The two of them realize that there are detailed notes on the schedules and locations of many of the most high and wealthy. Unscrupulous actors could use this information to orchestrate elaborate thefts, particularly by exact timing to avoid guard patrols and other surveillance.They do discover another item of interest in among all the other information about the rich residents: a section on Duke Dain Draymore himself. They read it with some excitement at first, and then some confusion. It reads:
"The Duke's great secret is that he is a respected man who loves his cheese: a goat."
Then, in a different hand, arrows have been drawn to the last word, along with:
"Goat?
Man??
GOAT??
MAN?!??"

As Faith says "The oathbound falls," the letters F A L L incised in the wall glimmer briefly.

Then the glow fades, the solid stone cracks, and the entire wall abruptly collapses into tiny chunks, no larger than a cobble, with a shuddering cascade. A dark hallway stretching into the east is revealed, along with a puff of truly ancient, stale air.

Ishi arrives then, and comes to a stop, astonished at the demolition of the stone wall. "Uh! I, uh....oh, I wanted to see if any of you could help. I discovered that there is writing on the sarcophagi in the other room - you know, where Faith revealed there was magic? - but I can't read it."

The party returns to the Crypt. Now that the sarcophagi have been cleared of all the food supplies, the adventurers see that each of the four have the worn remains of carved inscriptions on the lids. Each seems to be in a different ancient script.

Morik is able to read one in antiquated Dwarven runes, while Adran, Elysia, and Eozindra can read another written in Elvish runes. Everyone can read the third, using really old Drakalli letters, and none of you can read the fourth. But the ones you can read all say essentially the same thing:

FOUNDER OF THIS ABBEY
MAY IT PRESERVE THE GREENWOLD
AGAINST DESTRUCTION FOR
AS LONG AS IT STANDS

It appears as if there were also names inscribed originally, but they are no longer readable. Elysia checks the sarcophagi and confirms that they are not trapped in any way.