In secret valley north of the ruins of Hurth Nessk lies the resting place of the Golden Pharaoh, reputedly the wealthiest of the queens of the snake people. Legend has it the valley can be found by following the Luna Way, a canal leading north from the ruined city that shines in the moonlight.
Travel options:
By land there are two obvious choices:
Following the coast through the marsh to the city, skirting the sunken ruins to the northern part of the lagoon is the most direct route, and probably the easiest to navigate. The distance roughly 55-60 miles.
Or taking the dhari trail into the highlands then branching off to the east at the old shrine and crossing the marsh for the ruins, some 60-65 miles. But, it is a harder route, and there is a bigger chance of getting lost. Also, the trail passes close to Lokra’s Tower.
By sea, it is 70 miles by the most direct route to the bay of Hurth.
Being professional adventurers you took detailed notes and sketches of the mosaics you found in the Ziggurat.
· In a market scene serpentfolk go about daily business in the background beastmen porters carry baskets and amphorae. Giant vipers doze in the sun.
· Atop the ziggurat a magnificent serpent pharaoh sits upon her throne of gold, atop a carpet of decapitated elf heads Serpentfolk prostrate themselves beneath her.
· In the shadow of the ziggurat a tall serpentman in glittering black robes sacrifices elves on a great black stone that drains their blood into large black amphora. Above the Ziggurat a blood red planet looks down on the grisly scene.
· Great procession of serpent people travels by river barges upriver under a full moon. In the centre of the procession on the largest barge bears a great gold coffin.
· The procession leaves the water by steep stairs into a valley, huge bare-chested snake men carry a golden coffin with a cobra’s head. Adults and children in mourning, follow tearing at their clothes.
· In a crude unfinished mosaic, a volcano erupts spewing molten lava as earthquakes ravage the city. Serpent people fall into fissures in the earth, choke in green clouds or are engulfed in great jets of fire.
(1)XVIII, Trekking
PC Crinna, Demigus, Gideon, Isileth, Splinters, Taeyendertygg & Yar
XP345Bonus XP Tracker Tyg +1000
30th Tebon (symbol Chariot) Kishar's Day- Sultan Suites, party plans Golden Pharoh expedition.
1st Sana (symbol Slave) Tiamat's Day - Skirt the lagoon (Tyg finds war party tracks) reach the Giants crossroads at dusk. Shriekers alert beastman war party and there is a battle, two sons od Nergal escape into the marsh. Demigus shows the party Krell's hovel.
Tyg locates the old canal all but covered by the swamp. 18:00 Gideon performs waterbreathing ritual. Row the folding boat upriver following the luminous scales of the zigzagging Luna Way to the Valley of the Snakes.
Midnight - A winding staircase leads the party to higher ground and the ruins of a tomb, where the snarling effigy of a monstrous creature with the head and wings of a bat and serpent torso greets you ....
01 Sana 2215, Midnight
(2) XIX, Tomb of the Golden Pharaoh
PC Crinna, Demigus, Gideon, Isileth, Splinters, Taendertygg & Yar
XP1000 eachBonus XP Yar the Worg +1000
2nd Sana Mitra's Day 2215
Splinters has disappeared (again).
Yar uses totemic power to scout the valley through a summoned owl. The experience of gliding above the jungle teeming with life is extraordinary and very moreish to the hunter's finely tuned instincts. From the bird's eye view, Yar sees that small valley sits above the sickly yellow mist that blankets the marsh and is sheltered by steep ridges north, east and west. But there is no sign of Splinters. The party of wannabe tomb robbers searches the hilltop ruins, using skill and ritual, and discover the altar beneath the demonic serpent bat effigy brims with loot. The tomb robbers demonstrate exceptional expertise in trap detection and packing.
In the early hours of Mitras Day, you enter the Tomb by way of a secret door hidden behind the wing of the unpleasant serpent bat creature carving. The Golden Pharaoh’s Tomb is trapped and guarded by the undead. But seems to be undisturbed, the guardians are sluggish and the traps simple. Gideon Galant almost succumbs to a diabolical transmutation trap but is saved from himself (twice) by Demiguz and Yar. Splinters reappears and nonchalantly swaggers past Tyg deeper into the Tomb. A strange opaque green wall falls on Demiguz as he admires his reflection, Crinna vandalises a mummified guardian, and Isileth kills (re-kills/un-deaths?) everything.
Demigus finds a dirty old shaft hidden beneath a fountain. Narrow and dark, Splinters wriggles in and climbs down. Halfway down, Splinters finds a small nook with an enormous spider in it. Splinters makes a tactical retreat to the fountain room.
02:30 02.02.2215
(3&4) 02:30 02.02.2215 XX & XXI
PC: Crinna, Isileth, Splinters, Taendertygg & Yar
XP = 4670 each (Traps, Encounters & entering L2) + 1000XP Bonus for Trap Rat Splinters
After luring the giant spider up the shaft into the fountain room Crinna, Isileth, Splinters, Taendertygg & Yar climb descend the web riddled chimney to the level below. (Gideon & DemiGuz remain in the top tomb level and chat about being Atlantean).
Land of the Dead
The party drops down onto a little hill, surrounded by miniature landscapes. The dioramas contain tiny serpent people torture small humans in different terrains; desert, swamp, savanna, and an awful pit of worms. A powerful unseen force pushes the adventurers from the safety of the hill down into the scenes. The savanna's serenity is challenging to leave, whereas the desert heat burns and the tundra freezes metal to skin. Fortunately, no one falls into the pit of worms. But the adventurers have no time to comprehend the strange surroundings when guardians attack them. Poisoned arrows fly out of the darkness; the assassins melt into the shadows of the western tunnel.
Crinna assists Yar, and Splinters discovers a chamber to the east. The madness that is a gibbering mouther follows Splinters into the diorama chamber babbling about mother and is quickly slane. The rubbish in the eastern chamber contains several strange and seemingly magical artifacts, a coal rod sooty to the touch that radiates a peculiar smokey power, the desiccated heart of some humanoid creature, and a potion of dried yellow dust. Tyg refuses to leave the grassy savanna.
Following a short rest, Yar pulls Tyg off (the
savanna). Tyg's senses return, and he
empties his pockets of the sweet savanna grass that was so comforting. Rested and regrouped, you push on for a
reckoning with the skeletal archers.
Yeeeoow! Yar takes more poisoned
arrow punishment. The skeletal archers
catch you in a crossfire, but the ambush is short-lived, a very peeved
Yar exacts some revenge.
The corridors in this part of the Tomb are broader. At a
west / south junction, you follow the western route. Isileth sharp eyes have perceived a couple of
secret doors. A mound of gold attracts
Splinters, unfortunately for him, its a nasty illusion masking yellow
mold. The spores explode, making it hard
going for the resolute dwarf. The first
secret door leads to a chamber of mirrors, four mirrors with elemental designs
hanging on the chamber walls, in the center of the room is a bath full of
golden liquid. Again Splinters pushes
forward. At one mirror, he asks a
serpent version of himself three questions; at another, he sees his flesh
melted from his bones by steam, and at the third, he discovers it is not a
mirror at all but an Ochre Jelly disguising itself as a mirror. Behind the vain Ochre Jelly, another secret
door leads to a chamber with a stone octopus-like altar. A huge purple-red gem in the 'octopus'
forehead attracts Tyg, who climbs onto the Octopus' arms to pry out the
treasure. Tyg activates the trap. Tyg stuck to the altar's arm is whisked
around the chamber at high speed, as is Yar, who has tied a rope to Tyg, all
the time the gem pulses with red and purple light and harmonic sound. Fortunately, Isileth is at hand to shoot the
gem, which explodes and eventually stops the crazy subterranean carousel. You return to the mirror room play with the
bath of gold and rest but not before Splinters interact with the fourth mirror,
which reflects like a pool when Tyg hits the mirror with his axe the mirror
cracks, and water seeps from the break.
And here you rest, being very careful not to touch
anything.
PC:Crinna, Tyg, Isileth, Yar, DemiGuz
XP: 370 each
Exhausted - Isileth trances & Tyg sleeps while Crinna and Yar watch over them in the dirty old room where they found the Gibbering Mouther, Rod of Coal, potion of dust, and desiccated heart. Demiguz and Gideon climb down the shaft from the upper-level spending time in the soothing savanna chatting while the rangers recuperate. Tyg has the sense he is being watched (again).
1600
Yar finds stairs descending to the next level.
Party explores the secret door Isileth found in the west of
the Tomb. A crawl space leads to a
narrow tunnel running north-south. At
the southern end of the tunnel is another mirror of beaten bronze. Yar is startled by (his?) reflection
momentarily, then has the presence of mind to cover the mirror with his animal
skin tent.
On the left of the covered mirror is a massive bronze
door, either side of the door is stone
carvings of skeletal serpentfolk warriors with war bows.
Yar shoves the door open and enters a chamber.
Beyond the door is a wide foyer that leads into a circular room. On the south wall of this hall is a jade death mask affixed at chest height.
Taking up the middle of the chamber is a cross-shaped dais with sets of stairs leading up to it along each of the four ends. In the center of the dais rises a cylindrical structure that appears to be made of transparent walls of crystal enclosing an oddly carved, stone pillar.
The stairs that face the room’s entrance are carved with the heads of many gods. The steps on the north side are bloodstained, and atop the landing stands a statue of a warrior. The stairs to the east, across the room, are partly obscured by shadow. The southern staircase is luminescent, appearing to change colors in the light.
Tucked into each nook where the arms of the cross come together is a low shelf on which are placed small offerings: silver bracelets, earrings, neck collars, anklets, piles of coral beads, and silver and jade statuettes.
Demiguz deliberately sets off the trapped death mask and is encased in an old iron cage, which he breaks with his ludicrous strength score. He then targets the crystal cylinder with a shatter spell. The cylinder seems impervious to the magic, but the dias it sits upon is damaged, the shelves between the stairs break, spilling the offerings to the floor. The massive bronze door swings shut with immense magical force, Demius disdainfully kicks it back open. A strange voice booms around the room.
Demiguz strides up the bloodstained northed stairs and battles the warrior, which springs to life with unworldly force. The party joins him, Yar dealing the final blow to the necromantic automaton. When Demiuz approaches the cylinder the voice echoes around the chamber again
“So you have passed the first test. Perhaps you are not the fools you first seemed. But it will take the best tool of your most clever person to breach these crystal walls. Your time is running out.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to open the cylinder, the party withdraws to the chamber with the skull. Whereupon, you are reunited with Gideon and Splinters.
Demiguz (DG) & Gideon (GG) have a chat in the Golden Pharaoh's Tomb.
GG. So what's with the blue hair?
DG. I think it is a side effect of being frozen for the last 300 years.
GG. Oh, any other side effects?
DG. Well, my memory is not what it used to be, and stairs make my knees ache.
GG. The sage, Hyar Thommel, drinks a tonic of cherries and cranberries every day to stave off gout. He also recommends lively conversation to keep the memory sharp.
DG. Hyar Thommel, the Katagian bookkeeper! Back in the day, he did my party accounts. Calling himself a sage now is he. Hah!
GG. There you go, that worked.
DG. Oh yes, now I remember. We were a fantastic party, reliable, well educated and very good looking. We were exploring a ruined villa in the serpent quarter of Ikath. It had been Skelos the Necromancer's Pied de Terre in the city. Of course, you know who Skelos is, Gideon?
GG. Yes indeed, Skelos, the architect of the grandest Nesskian Tomb (including this one), legendary wizard, trap builder supreme, and in his day richest mage of the Nesskian Empire.
DG. Yes, that's him, really hated Elves too, mind you who can blame him, they are somewhat aloof (both Atlantean's nod sagely). A Skelos designed tomb was quite the fashion for Nesskian royalty.
GG. I understood that he fell out with the ruling families of the empire and established a dragon cult.
DG. Yes, 300 years ago, my party sought the cult headquarters, apparently a castle filled with carved dragons. But we never found it. The legend has it the ground swallowed it up—that's how we came across the ruins of his villa in Ikath. I was looking for a map on Quill Street, you know in the Atlantean quarter of Ikath, and the bookseller with some snake blood told me of a haunted villa on the edge of the Serpent Quarter. Ah Ikath, what a place. Have you ever been?
GG. Once on a stag party, Yes, can't remember a thing and wake up on an altar in Jade Temple.
DG. Haha, splendid! We snuck into the villa ruins. There were the usual wards, traps, and a complex of tunnels below ground level.
GG. Skelos' was renowned for his work with illusion and conjuration enchantments.
DG. Yes, quite. We came across a chamber with an empty golden pool, set with draconic runes around the rim. (DG - Looks far away)
GG. Go on...
DG. It was a magical portal...but there was an accident. I wasn't entirely in the teleportation field and was ejected into a freezing vortex (DG shivers, despite the oppressive heat underground his eyes wide). I remember ...
(6) 1700 02.02.2215
PC Splinters, Crinna, Yar, DemiGuz, Gideon
XP 3425 (Critters, Traps & Entering L3)
+1000 Bonus XP Crinna & Gideon
(+550 XP Yar,Tyg & Isileth for their part in the Kukulkan's Chapel
(Clever) Gideon uses (his best tool) dispel magic, removing the magical force field from the impervious cylinder, which encasing the antidote to the invisible, tasteless poison gas. Releasing the imprisoned Kukulkan. Benevolent Kukulkan was trapped here by the necromancer Skelos millennia ago. The evil wizard harnessed Kukulkan's celestial magic to power his traps. The grateful couatl gives you magic items, wishes you well, and flys off.
Splinters leads the way down to the third level setting off the stone dragon steam trap. The huge working statue runs out of steam is eventually destroyed by Atlantean magic. Steam fills the long stairs leaving them slippery when wet.
Level 3 Serpent Doors
A set of double bronze doors with a plaque depicting a two-headed serpent above them leads to an enormous chamber with mighty buttressing and a vaulted ceiling. Parts of the roof and walls have collapsed, and raw earth has spilled down from a gaping hole in the east wall. Crushed beneath a fallen block in the center of the room are humanoid remains. Elsewhere around the floor are the chewed and decayed corpses of baboons. Daylight and fresh air filters in through a hole in the eastern ceiling. The chamber is the lair of an amphisbaena, a giant two-headed snake. Lightning-quick the hungry serpent strikes at Crinna and Demiguz but dies before it can taste non-baboon. The human remains are, in fact, Demiguz old adventuring companions. Shaken the Eldritch Knight collects the remains finding a map of the Tombs lower levels. Four doorways to the Chamber lead north, northwest, southeast, and west.
Southeast leads to the slippery stairs up to level two.
Northwest is a corridor of pits filled with overgrown vegetation and lit in a ghastly magenta hue.
Splinters leads you north where you come across an awful room is a withered tree that looks like a leafless willow, rooted in a terraced depression. The hollow is full of oily water, a few inches deep. The tree is now tree but a foul Xilonen, a spider tree, and it attacks with far-reaching tendrils and ghastly mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth. The oily pond contains more adventurer remains. R.I.P. Bren.
Tomb of the Golden Pharaoh – Session 8+
(8) 2.2.2215 Isileth, Tyg & Yar
1930 Isileth and Tyg short rest.
2030 Isileth, Tyg & Yar cautiously retrace their steps up the stone dragon staircase and through the Tomb's upper levels.
- Yar summons a steady footed giant goat
- The magic forces in the diorama room have dissipated, the giant goat is left to chew the cud
Isileth finds a partial beastman footprint in the ash from the fire in the centaur mummy chamber.
2130 When team stealth reaches the Tomb's exit Yar summons a giant boar, which with much noise and commotion, squeezes up the narrow flight of stairs and into the ruins of the hilltop. The giant boar emerges into Thule's sweet night air and smashed by boulders.
A giant yell's, "I got the Dhari!" and is then shot full of arrows by Isileth.
The trap is sprung, but the reaver, beastman, and giant ambushers are flat-footed, and you manage to withdraw to the cover of the narrow staircase. Tyg doesn't seem that surprised the ambush is his sister Korin (leader of the MesQa Reavers). Korin's current employer wants the artifacts you looted from Nergal's monastery. She offered to let you go if you hand them over, but instead, you returned to the Tomb and set traps.
2200 The delicious odour of roast boar wafts through the Tomb
Paused behind the solid Yar built barricaded, you can hear the mercenaries in the upper level, their curses (and the occasional scream) seem to bounce about the Tomb. Perhaps the strange acoustics distracted you because a beastmen got down the shaft without you noticing, but Tyg's mantrap snapped on his leg (beastman stealth check 15), alerting you, and you pepper him with arrows, a vicious giant goat headbutt then rams into the unfortunate beastman corpse.
"YAARR!" says the goat, looking knowingly over its shoulder at the barbarian.
….
2205 Fog pours down the shaft, billowing into the diorama chamber until a thick blanket of grey completely obscures your vision.
"You are trapped, little brother" Korin's voice is light, playful.
"We have sealed you in the tomb, and Krell tells me it is full of nasty poison gas." She giggles
"It is so." rasps Krell.
"What an awful way to die, choking to death in the dark, you were so frightened of the dark as a child little brother." she purrs.
"See sense, give up the relics now, and we might let you go." Is she getting closer?
"Or, stay down there and die. After breakfast, the beastmen can loot your corpses." Korin sounds like she's enjoying herself.
2210hrs You retreat down the slippery stairs (DC10 DEX check v fall prone and 1 damage) to level 3. You move east along a long corridor to the Chamber of the Second Sun (baboon chamber). The Atlanteans, Crinna, and Splinters are not here, and the collapsed wall has collapsed further, completely block the shaft to the surface. You check the chamber for tracks (Survival DC12=?).
The delicious odour of roast boar wafts down through the very unsafe looking ceiling of the chamber.
Following the tracks through the western door of the chamber leads you into a dusty tunnel.
The tracks lead to a set of thick bronze doors.
Dust of Ages
The room beyond the heavy bronze double doors has a thick layer of dust covering the floor. Across the room, opposite you, is another set of double doors. There are two empty nooks to the north and south. On small ledges in each corner of the room are pieces of what appear to be broken pottery. The footprints you have followed (evident in the thick dust) skirt the northern wall. As you move into the room, your steps send motes of dust and ash swirling into the air, and these clouds form into shapes. First, from the ash, a dusty phantom assumes the shape of a tall serpent-woman in a voluminous golden robe. Her face is forlorn and streaked with tears. She throws up her hands in despair and disappears into an alcove. Immediately afterward, a laughing phantom of a serpent man in black robes adorned with golden runes appears from where the women went. The doors to the east swing open, and the ghost of an immense snake with two heads slithers into the room and coils about the man. A loud bellow comes from the east, followed by a more distant clatter of metal. Angry nimothan curses rebound around the walls.
2215hrs
You kick up some dust, obscure the tracks, and exit through the massive bronze double doors in the western wall. The doors open to a corridor is 10' wide that runs north c.75' then bends at 45degree angle northeast continuing another c.30' then ending in another set of bronze double doors.
2217hrs Isileth listens at the doors
No sounds are coming from directly beyond the double doors. However you do hear the sound of doors slamming shut elsewhere.
Yar shoulders the door open, shield and spear ready. Isileth and Tyg behind him bows drawn. You fought the brawny serpentfolk champions here. The six-sided chamber full of stuffed snakes has doors in the north, northeast, west, and southwest walls and a cunningly designed secret passage behind a giant cobra carving in the east wall. Tracks and broken serpent manakins are evident in this busy room.
Footprints leading to and from all exits (including the secret door).
Let's try the closest door, immediately to our left. (Don't think that's one of the doors we tried last time. IIRC the door on the left of the screen led to the room which Splinters explored solo.)
Yar, the heavy-looking single bronze door to your immediate left opens into a 10' wide tunnel leading west then south after 30 feet. There are fresh tracks in the dust heading south. Isileth from your covering position, you notice small dust traces falling from the tunnel ceiling ahead of Yar.
A metallic clang followed by a scream comes from the east, behind the great cobra carving on the wall, perhaps. Taendertyg, you hear the unmistakable voice (more a bellow really) of Throd, a massive nimothan legendary for his strength and stupidity shouting "be quiet."
Then after a pause, the great ox shouts, "what?"
Yar charges down the tunnel, as sure-footed as one his giant goat friends. When he rounds the corner, he is out of sight, but Islieth's supernatural hearing picks up his hooves' fleet clop. Yar as you race around the corner, you notice another large carving of a snakes head (on the northern wall of the turning). Mouth agape, there is a round niche the size of a pigs head inside the mouth. The tunnel continues south beyond your dark vision.
….
Session 10 Shots in the Dark
PC Isileth, Taendertyg, and Yar
You follow the tracks of the other half of the party deep into the Tomb. The corridors lengthen, and many areas showing signs of wear, rubble, shale, and dust have fallen or are falling from the ceiling. You can hear the pursuers, the distinctive Nimothan and guttural Urgan whispers rebound along the tunnels. You lose the big boy's spore at a east west junction. With relief, Isileth shoots a gas spore. The explosion is noisy, so Tyg lays a trap for the hunters, and Yar picks up the trail again. You hurry down another long corridor in unusual fashion, this one is a ramp with stone rollers set in the floor. Isileth and Tyg ride their shields down the slide, while chooses to Yar holds a bedroll in front of him dashing at speed. At the ramp's bottom is a T shaped junction the southern route barred with a huge stone block. It is too big for you to move.
(The hunters split their forces the Nimothans and a few beast-men head west, while Krell takes the east route through the high vaulted chamber still burning with bits of exploded gas spore. When Krell's party descends a long tiered staircase, they trigger a trap, and a colossal millstone rolls down the stairs crushings many beastmen.)
Screams rebound around the walls, then wails of pain, dust falls from the ceiling, and a far-off sound of rock falling or a wall collapsing. The screams (in Urgan) continue for some time. You hurry east then south following the tracks of what you hope is your comrades. A flaming arrow pierces the darkness behind you. The Nimothan mercenaries are close. Tyg starts coughing again, and you realize the yellow gas is thicker here lower in the Tomb, a bronze door in the southern wall is the only exit.
Through a door, and you are reunited with the party. But the Nimothan's have caught up with you, and there is a shootout, three beastmen trackers die, but the Nimothan twins and Korin have caught you up. Yar holds the heavy door shut, and you can hear the metallic clang of the mercenary's arrows clang on the other side of the bronze.
 |
| Korin, Leader of the Mes-Qa Mercenaries (&Tyg's sister). |
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(9) 1930 2.2.2215 (Gideon short rests) Crinna, Demiguz, Gideon & Splinters
1930 Chamber of the Second Sun
Crinna's preternatural senses spot an odd baboon with golden eyes apart from the other baboons. It is and neither making noise nor looking agitated by your presence like the others. The baboon is gingerly testing the collapsed shaft that leads to the surface. The strange baboon prods and pokes, then the shaft collapses in on itself, filling with rubble. It looks dangerous. Splinters climbs up to test the collapsed wall beneath the rubble-filled shaft and is pinned under an avalanche of rocks that momentarily suffocate the rogue.
2030 The Atlantean Map
Demiguz is having a flashback from being frozen for 300 years. You can't understand him, and he is having trouble reading the map. Despite this, you push on to the west through room featuring phantasms of a distraught golden pharaoh, smug-looking necromancer, and a giant two-headed snake. The chamber leads to the hall of stuffed snakes. Crinna insists on being taken north to the Fane of Set.
2100 The Fane of Set.
After a frightening encounter with the Fane's guardian Xipe the Oni, Crinna vandalizes the serpent god's shrine, and Splinters loots Xipe. Demiguz's vision has not improved, causing much concern when he waves the lightning wand around. Splinters leads you south, back through the room of stuffed snakes into a large complex of tunnels. The main shaft has comical serpent heads carved into the north and south walls some 120' apart. The mouths of each head are open with a round hollow niche inside. Beneath the stone heads draconic runes made from a dull crystal. Pressing further south, you come to ramp with smooth stone rollers descending gently to the south. At the bottom, a massive stone blocks a junction. You all put your backs into it and push the block into the southern tunnel and take the eastern tunnel before turning south again.
2130 Shouts echo around the Tomb.
Human's shout in a language you don't recognise. It isn't easy to ascertain from where. You travel south again through more bronze doors and enter a chamber named on the Atlantean map as the SLEEPERS. Two sleeping serpent women are laid out on two stone beds, between them a crystal decanter and two glasses. Splinters shoots the closest one. The sleepers awake and attack. Demiguz waves his wand around again, and everyone ducks, Gideon, and Splinters blast the Kungfu serpent women to smithereens with rays of Atlantean fire.
2200 The delicious odour of roast boar wafts through the Tomb
Demiguz checks the map (again).
"It's not working." he moans.
Demiguz shakes the map then points the wand of lightning at it, muttering to himself. Gideon gently takes the map from Demiuz, turns it up the right way, and consults Crinna and Splinters. There are exits to the east and south (and the north from whence you came).
2300 (after Gideon & Crinna short rest)
Game 11 Crinna, Demiguz, Gideon, Splinters, Tyg, Isileth, Yar
XP 1600 Splinters - 2100 Demiguz, Gideon, Tyg & Yar - 2600 Crinna & Isileth
Traps 7700 + Monsters 3450 Bonus awards for finding the teleportation gate (not Splinters), leadership = Crinna and relentlessly pursuing zombies/anything undead = Isileth.
Crinna, Demiguz, Gideon, Splinters take some time out to rest and study the map. Crashing sounds and screams come from elsewhere in the dungeon.
Dust falls from the ceiling at one point, and the northern walls shake. Somewhere in the Tomb, someone is crying.
Isileth pops in to say hi in the middle of a shootout with Nimothan Reavers. Yar and Tyg follow her. You barricade the door with a massive stone block that was the sleeper's bed, Gideon advising on exactly where it would best match the stone coffee table. Crinna takes the west exit into a corridor with over a dozen dried out mummified corpses. When Splinters runs through them, they turn into zombies. They attempt to run away to the south, but you destroy all but one of them with your awesome firepower. The survivor (well brought up) slips through a secret door the shuts it behind him. Crinna notices the door despite it being closed, follows the undead, and kills (unkills?) it. A great hall lies beyond the secret door depicting scenes from serpent folklore, the Golden Pharaoh is the centerpiece reigning overall. Demiguz pockets a magical bracelet from the serpent spirit statues.
Splinters takes an eastern tunnel, his attempts to locate a route back to the upper levels succeed, but when Tyg and Isileth follow him, they are trapped in a nasty sandbox. Yar's immense strength rescues them from certain death. However, Splinters is trapped on the other side of a thick gate and thousands of sand tons. Splinters does what he does best and melts into the shadows, stealthily picking his way around the poisoned Tomb.
2330 Splinters makes his way through a spacious, vaulted hall, weathered and cracked from the ravages of time. The walls are charred and scored. Scattered around the floor are several stone statues of beastmen, chipped and tipped over. The remains of a few once-living baboons, partially eaten, lie nearby, with fungus covering their corpses. Fragments of a gas spore burn illuminating the hall. Splinters helps himself to seven silver pellets in a sack of fish skin when he here's an angry conversation coming from the passageway west.
"Krell what happened? Says a beautiful nimothan woman with a commanding voice.
"A rolling boulder trap crushed the warriors, Korin" Rasps the beastman.
"So, you, too, have failed me." The Reaver captain says sourly.
"We caught them, but they barricaded a door even Thrud could not breakthrough." She continues.
"We go back to plan A, leave this cursed place, and wait for the gas to kill them."
"Wait, Korin, Krell did not tell all Krell learned." rasps the beastman.
"My warriors were crushed but not Krell. Krell spoke with the critters that live here. The critters followed the adventurers for Krell, Krell knows where they are."
"Why didn't you say that in the first place."
"You interuppted Krell"
Korin sighs and looks to the ceiling.
"Carla, Leona, return to the surface. Tell the giants to reopen the hole in the roof and bring them down here with the others. Krell show me the way."
0000 3.2.2215
South, the reverse of the route the Atlanteans, took 300 years before, through the great hall and south again, a find a strange cave of crystal with a freezing pond. The Nereid and her pet lightning Eel are not entertaining guests, so you kill them. Crinna finds the Nereid's stash, giving Tyg a pair of leather finger-less gloves of the style he had always wanted. On wards through a muddy room with several exits to an obvious collapsing corridor trap that Isileth spikes, you finally reach the Tomb's very bottom. A single heavy stone door with no fixtures and a carved image of a serpent man in black robes with golden runs stand ajar a little. The party (tired & bloodied) decide to split in to two groups. The Atlanteans will investigate the workshop and the others will scour the trapped tomb for treasure.
Crinna, Isileth, Yar and Tyg search north of the mud room. You have been arguing in the corridor outside the secret door for several minutes. Crinna notices something fall from the ceiling onto Isileth's head. Instinctively she brushes her hair—you all lookup. The roof writhes with maggots. Who is pushing the stone block?
Gideon's investigation of the cubicles has proved his theory.
The cubicles contain models, schematics, and designs focused on specific locations, and some unique items have survived.
A. A citadel with sweeping dragon carved hallways. Robes with a dragon design.
B. This tomb, all of its levels and traps. This cubicle had the jar of blood Demigus is applying to the teleporter
C. An underground monument with three hillside entrances (stones from the ceiling crush the rest of the model).
D. The ziggurat at Hurth Nessk. Black robes with golden runes hang on a peg.
E. A riverside plantation with a sprawling villa. A black walking cane with a serpent head for a handle and a menu from leStraads.
F. The sixth cubicle has just a map of a glacier (ravines, heights, etc.). A rotten cape of fur hangs on a peg.
Demigus has applied the blood to the runes on the teleporter and is standing inside it. Blue light momentarily blinds you both as the metal vibrates hovering slightly above the floor. Dust, paper, stones, old clothes blow about the room.
Demigus looks perplexed. "Now, if I could remember how to activate it?" he says.
WHOOMP a blue pulse of energy beams throughout the tomb, unsettling dust and hair. Everyone (except Isileth and Tyg) gains a level of exhaustion.
The Stone Block The tightly fitted stone seals off a passageway. The limestone block is covered with wet, caustic lime. (Those of you who are pushing and have not declared you are covering your skin take 1 acid damage, so that's Yar and Tyg. Crinna, you are using both hands, the wet lime is burning through your bearskin cloak. Isileth is not pushing, so takes no damage.) With your combined might of STR 50, you manage to push the enormous block back a little. The grinding of stone on stone is loud. Your efforts seem to be working. White maggots fall from the newly exposed tunnel. Yar, Tyg, and Crinna push the block back, further and further, for around 10 minutes. Tyg, your shield is useless (from the battering ride down the rollers and the corrosive water). Beyond the plug is a small foyer holding three sealed urns on the east and west sides. To the south are double doors of bronze with glyphs worked into their faces. Crinna scrutinizes the door, but fatigue clouds his vision, and a wave of nausea momentarily overwhelms the goliath. Isileth (not tired) notices a gleam in the seam between the doors. There is a sphere attached to the doors just above the lock. The doors are trapped.
Tired, fed up, Tyg, Yar and Crinna leave Isileth in the antechamber On your way back to the workshop, you notice the warm red glow of fire beetles in the mudroom; they must have followed you. As you turn south into the corridor with the log trap, you can a bright blue light coming from the teleporter room. Small items of flotsam and jetsom buzz in the doorway, and above a loud whirring sound, you can hear the Atlanteans shouting at each other.
The Workshop - A brilliant blue light emanates from the active teleportation vortex, which is now spinning a high speed. Debris and dust fill the air around the metal vortex. Demiguz is inside it, Gideon outside, they are shouting above the noise of the whirring magical engine when Tyg walks in.
Crinna - You cross the mudroom, the warm red glow of fire beetles illuminate it contrasting with the bright blue coming from the workshop, dust whirls about the door, and you can hear your friends are shouting above a loud buzzing inside.
Yar - You cross the mudroom, the warm red glow of fire beetles illuminate it contrasting with the bright blue coming from the workshop. When you reach the broken door, you see torchlight reflecting from the water cave's crystal walls. You hear the low conversation in nimothan as the reavers wade through water. To your keen ears, it sounds like there are many, perhaps a dozen.
Isileth - As Crinna crouches to move through the narrow 6' secret passage, you feel a presence on the other side of the trapped doors. It is cold and damp, the green-yellow mist laps at your boots like shallow water rippling on a pond. But there is no wind. Alone you feel very exposed and set out to leave. The stone blocks' inner face is covered in scratches; deep claw marks have torn the stone, scoring the face exposed to the tomb'. You feel a dreadful presence on the other side of the door, suddenly swarms of bats fill the antebcamber and the mist thickens around your legs. You run.
Game 12
XP 1000 each for finding the Tomb / except Gideon who gets 3000 for saving evryones ass.
0100 3.2.2215 Back at the Teleporter
Yar announces the bounty hunters arrival and Gideon hatches his plan to get everyone out. A tearful Isileth says goodbye to Tyg then hops in the teleportation contraption and hugs Yar. She doesn't even look back at Tyg when Demiguz engages the device. Crinna, Demiguz, Isileth and Yar hurtle through time and space arriving in Ikath with a hitch hiker. Isileth's determined exploration has freed the Golden Pharaoh. Cursed and trapped in the tomb for millennia, Tloques Popolocas is now free and returned to the Serpentfolk, her people (albeit somewhat more vampish than she was as the ruler of the Hurth Nessk empire a 1000 years before).
 |
| Tloques Popolocas, The Golden Pharaoh |
Gideon dimension doors Tyg and himself to the river where they make there escape from the this cursed tomb and the marsh.
Deep in the tomb Korin hurls angry curses at the walls, swearing she will have her revenge on Tyg. Some of the reavers are coughing from the poison gas, she orders the return to the surface, but then Krell suggests they investigate a large set of glyph covered bronze doors behind a narrow recently unblocked passage. (Why does he always wait until after I have given the orders she thinks annoyed.)
The End!
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