Write up follows:
They took the sloping passage down in the dark, their beetle sacks still providing grudging light for now. Eventually the slope ended at a fairly decent sized chamber. A small coffin was on the east wall and 4 brass jars were in each corner of the room. A single door on the north wall led out and the chamber was decorated with scenes of a dwarf dressed in jester attire entertaining King Alexander and Queen Zenobia.
They wanted to give the coffin a wide berth so Safir and Mark watched the door out while Volkan and Delsin gave the jars a once over. The jars seemed to be affixed to the floor and the insides of them had some smoky residue on the bottom that make looking within difficult. They waved the smoke away a bit and could see some sort of glyphs on the bottom of the jars.
Volkan wanted to read the words better so dropped his beetle sack of light within one – and when it hit the bottom of the jar there was a buzzing noise and the sack disappeared! What the hell? Delsin tapped the bottom with a sword, it sounded solid. Where did the sack go? They then tossed a clove of garlic in…buzz and gone! With a torch lit and Delsin light sack out now, they carefully lowered the torch in and buzz, it too disappeared!
They then were sort of looking around, unsure of what was happening when the group noticed a bit of smoke coming out from miniscule cracks beneath the small sarcophagus. So they discussed it briefly and decided the move the stone bier for now, Delsin had a strong idea. So it was a few people working together and a hard shove and when the stone coffin was shoved aside, they saw a hollow beneath in which was the torch, the clove of garlic, and the beetle sack – now burned, burst, and leaking liquid.
The best Volkan could come up with was that anything small hidden in the jars would instantly portal to the hollow here. As for the inside of the coffin? It was decided to check (not that a mystical weapon of Cyndicia would be in the jester’s possession) it out – but cracking the cover had it burst off – and a wooden oversized dwarven painted jester head on a spring wobbled back and forth and the group was disgusted with the “jack in the box”.
The left the jester’s room and went left down a long corridor. Very long. Some 50 paces until they arrived at a choice to turn right (north) or continue down into the far darkness; they opted to turn north.
A short passage led to a “T” intersection with a door at the “T” and 2 other ways to go. They wanted to check out the door first but thought they might have missed something, so they went back down the long hall and checked for secret doors – finding nothing.
It was back at the door at the end of the “T” that they gave it a listen, were sure there were no traps, and then opened it up. 40’ square chamber with a single mummified platemail armor wearing figure propped up and 9 skeletal remains standing in niches around the chamber as honor guard. Based upon the symbols on the walls and the murals, this was most likely the captain of the guard and his attendants here. Delsin eyed the undamaged and resplendent platemail with avarice and really wanted it – but the group was sure the other skeletal remains would come to life. So Mark was asked to get ready, and we entered the room.
And sure enough the skeletons all began to animate. Mark called out to Gorm to turn these foul undead from his sight and a wave of wind blew around him – his symbol flared to bright blue, and the skeletons in the room all fled back and away! They scrambled on the far side of the room, unable to escape and trapped there by the holy power of Gorm. Mark stood resolute; keeping them pressed back, while Safir, Volkan, and Delsin stripped the armor, helm, and cloak from the mummy and tossed the pieces out of the chamber. The minutes were passing by and Mark was growing tired, his arm shaking. The undead were no longer cowering at the back wall; they were edging closer as the collapsing glow of Mark’s channeled power was waning.
Finally the last piece was removed and Mark was raced out of the room, the door slammed closed. The undead on the other side beat and scrabbled at the portal a few minutes and then eventually ceased to make any real noise – and we assumed they went back to their original places to wait.
As for armor, Delsin removed his damaged set and put on the new one, along with the helm and cloak. He felt…really good and proud to be wearing it.
As for direction to go next, the group went back to the main hall and continued down, checking for secret doors as they walked. There was a side corridor on the left that they glanced down, but decided to keep going for now. As they walked, checking carefully around them, they passed the odd picture or bass relief showing the former Cyndicia and its monarchs in their glory. The passage turned north, meandered west a bit, and turned south, heading along for some serious distance until there was a crackling sound and the ghostly forms of King Alexander and Queen Zenobia appeared in the air.
“Go back! Death awaits! Flee!!” and then the forms seemed to waver and crackle and burst – everyone but Delsin ran from the haunts, the fighter watching with a bemused expression as the apparitions faded away. The other 3 ran for a few minutes until the strange feeling of fear from the specters faded. Sheepishly, they walked back to Delsin who was waiting for them, head shaking.
The group marched on. The passage turned west, went a short distance and turned north…and the crackling sound returned as the apparitions once again coalesced. The 3 who had run before ducked back around the corner and covered their eyes, going “nah nah nah” to prevent hearing the two ghostly figures yell for the party to run away – before they faded to smoke once more.
They then walked north and made the turn around back to the south, but according to Volkan’s map, this corridor south should dead end after 80 feet or so. And then the figures appeared one more time – and again Mark, Safir, and Volkan hid around the corner until Delsin informed them it was safe to return.
The party walked south, the ground felt gritty and their feet scrapped on the sandy covered stone. Volkan was unsure and used his staff to check the floor…finding a pit trap! The other side was a small landing with a treasure chest there. Volkan, not wearing any armor, tied a rope to his waist and made the jump; ended up near the chest. He wanted to get the chest back across to Delsin so Volkan untied the rope from himself and tied it to the chest’s handle.
But when he went to pick it up and toss it – the figures of Alexander and Zenobia appeared again! With nowhere to run, Volkan stood there frightened…but after the buzzing and fading – he didn’t run! He had mastered his fear of the haunts. Good thing since he had no rope on his waist!
Taking a new grip on the chest, he lifted it, swung it a few times, and let it fly to Delsin who was waiting to catch it; but Volkan had flubbed it and the chest instead wobbled across and smashed into the other side of the pit and broke open, spilling coins and something glass into the hole.
No!!!
The group then worked on funneling Volkan back, going down the pit, getting the silver coins (60 or so) and the two potions still not busted from the fall and then getting back up. They split up the treasures, laughed about what had happened, and decided to head the long long long walk back through all the twists and turns to the first option to turn off.
There was a short hall that went south to a door that looked like had been forced opened. Getting closer, the group could hear snarling and swallowing noises within. So they crept closer and took a look. The chamber here was grand and well decorated, however, the sarcophagus in the center of the room had been forced open and there were three humanoid figures tearing the mummified remains within to pieces and shoving the gobbets of desiccated flesh into their mouths.
Suspecting they were undead, the party drew closer and once more, Mark led the way with a benediction to Gorm to TURN these foul creatures. Once more the blue glow and racing wind flowed out from the priest, but this time the undead were not fazed by his command and left their meal to race towards the party.
The group charged in and brought their weapons to bear. Safir fired, knives were thrown, Delsin’s sword swung wildly. The undead monsters were battered and struck, one of them died almost instantly, but Delsin was caught and even though he fought wildly, he was battered and beaten and fell over dying and bleeding out while one of the ghouls continued to try to eat his still whimpering form. The rest of the group redoubled their efforts and although hit points whittled away, the 2nd ghoul was killed and then finally the last.
Mark tended to Delsin, using our dwindling supply of healing potions to bring our fighter back to the positive side of the hit point total. We then policed the bodies, dragging them outside the room and shutting the door, propping the cover of the sarcophagus in front of it to prevent it from being opened. We then realized it was getting late so we broke out our food and water, cleaned ourselves up, and decided that we were going to end it here and rest for the night – pressing on tomorrow morning after we all get a good night rest. We were going to rotate guards on watch in 3 hour intervals and allow everyone to get a full night’s sleep.
1 comment:
1. Kids are way more programmed than we were, don't you think? They have activities scheduled most days. I was "enriched" a lot as a kid and still had a ton of time especially in the summer to play D&D.
2. You have a great narrative voice, and I suspect a lot of it comes through in the game. The kids are very clever and it's fun to read your play reports about them.
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