Thessa's player couldn't make it, hence why she stayed out of the dungeon.
Arjun nods, distractedly. “Could be.”
Now that you’re all standing around, you can clearly see several things: This place hasn’t been used in a long time, first; to the east there is a series of low steps with a black curtain drawn across the east side, so although you can’t see what’s past the curtain, it is obvious that there is a room back there, second; and you don’t immediately see any doors, third.
Except for Cyr, she’s thinking about something else and so hasn’t noticed this yet.
Ajrun and Yudhisthir go to the curtain, and draw it open.
Beyond you see an alcove containing…a large stone sarcophagus. It is sealed shut with leaden glyphs and wires. The boys examine the sarcophagus.
Logan starts wandering around the room looking for any hidden doors, he attempts to stay away from the sarcophagus as he walks along the walls.
Cyr- “Logan, what are you oooooh there are no doors.” She also starts looking around for hidden doors.
Yudh can see that some of the iconography on the lead seals is similar to the kind of stuff they found in the sacrificial room (you know, the one with the triangular mithril dagger and gold bowl that will probably get Saluki marked for assassination later? Yeah, that one) but neither he nor Arjun can get anything else out of the sarcophagus.
Arjun “So do you think we’ve got some kind of undead priest in there?”
Yudhisthir, sarcastically “Let’s open it and find out!”
Phaedra sees the same, determines that the seals are meant to deter robbers, but not in necessarily in a practical (ie, explodey) kind of way. As far as the embalming bit, it’s not a common practice among Nerull worshippers, but not unknown either. They weren’t known to put many fancy things into the linen wrappings (not to say they couldn’t have), and she can tell they did the whole bit: organ removal and everything. The locations of the organs are not obvious. She doesn’t see anything magical except for her friends.
Phaedra says, “Looks like the markings are protection against robbers, but not magical. I don’t see anything magical in the sarcophagus at all, actually, and they weren’t known to put valuables in wrappings.”
Arjun nods “Since it still has all the same markings as the stuff from the altar room, it might be a good idea for us to destroy it anyway.”
In searching the walls that aren’t in the alcove, Logan determines that there is, indeed, a secret door on the north wall.
Logan, “Cyr, there is a door here.”
Cyr- “What? Oh okay, I’ll check it out.” Cyr does the rogue thing…”OK, I don’t think it’s trapped…” A couple moments later she presses a particular stone in the wall and the door pops open.
This reveals…a hallway. That turns to the left.
In thinking about it, Phaedra figures that embalming was not something done to sacrificial victims, but to high priests.
Phaedra - “They emballed high priests, not like victims or anything, so there isn’t a “letting the victim free” potential need for destroying it. Might still be worth it from a “don’t let them resurrect the high priest in a thousand years” perspective.”
Logan casually leans against the wall watching the new hallway while smoking a new cigar since he dropped the last one while fighting the zombies. Listening to the conversations about embalming and waiting to see if anything is going to come after them from the new direction.
Arjun looks at Yudhisthir triumphantly “Told you.”
Yudhisthir fires back “You specified undead. We haven’t settled that part yet.”
Arjun “Let’s open it, then!” He looks around for a prybar.
Items made specifically to open the sarcophagus seem to be in unsurprisingly short supply. The sarcophagus sits in the middle of the alcove on a small dias, so it’s easy to access from all four sides.
Saluki - “We could just hit it with an axe.”
Cyr, hearing this- “Oooh! Try with my adamantine axe! I haven’t had a chance to use it yet.” She heads over and hands it to someone stronger than her.
Arjun takes it and considers whether to hit the stone like a complete moron, or to break the lead seals. He eventually decides that it probably doesn’t matter, because adamantium, but goes for breaking the seals. He’ll hit the stone underneath anyway.
It takes both hits, but he gets through the first seal. Assuming he repeats this process enough, Arjun can break all the seals all the way around.
He works his way around the sarcophagus, breaking seals as everyone else watches, and Yudhisthir critiques his form.
While the boys are breaking and entering, Logan sees that there is absolutely nothing going on in the hallway. He can hear the sound of running water from beneath the floor, though.
Once Arjun is done with breaking stuff, Cyr gets her axe back and inspects it. “Not a nick. Awesome.” she says with a smile.
It looks as though ther is nothing keeping the lid on the sarcophagus but gravity at this point.
Arjun and Yudhisthir, therefore, work to push the lid off the box. It doesn’t work, because they are surprisingly weak, for fighters.
Arjun, groaning. “Man, we need to work out more.”
Yudh “Shut up and push.”
Saluki - “Don’t worry boys, I shall help!” He starts pushing too.
With your powers combined you push the lid off the sarcophagus! It falls on the floor with a resounding crash that probably does permanent damage to all your hearing, what with you being in an underground enclosed environment and all. But an undead monstrosity doesn’t sit up and start eating your faces, so that’s good.
Cyr goes back to standing with Logan staring down the hall. “So,” she says quietly, “it doesn’t sound like you have any special attachment to Kratha, do you?”
Logan shakes his head slowly, “It was something to get out of a bad situation, and then was just a job.”
Cyr nods. “Good. Look, as soon as we’re out of this dungeon I’m headed east. I’m not going back to Hochoch, I’m not - holy crap that’s loud!- going to work for Kratha anymore. I’ve done the gangster thieves guild bit, not doing it again. If you don’t want to go with me, thats up to you, but I’d consider it a favor if you don’t immediately try and haul me back to Kratha.”
Logan, “I can be persuaded, you should have a good plan. She will come for you. Just a matter of when and with what means.” looking around, “with how effective we have been I would say it will be quite the means if she has the ability to send it.”
Phaedra flies down from the ceiling where she jumped to at the loud noise. She floats over the sarcophagus to look in.
Inside you see a decayed wooden coffin. It looks very rotten and very old.
Arjun “Two layers? Seems excessive.” He pokes at it with a non magical sword to see if it falls apart.
Cyr- “I know we can get a head start. There’s no timeline for us to get back, we’re in a forest that is known to be extremely dangerous. It’ll probably be a couple of weeks before she even starts looking, and we have several scrolls that can get us out of here without leaving a trail. So unless these coins are magical beacons, she’ll have a hard time getting started.”
Logan shrugs, “I don’t know that much about how she operates when it comes to tracking people down. I just know she will. It is reasonable to not want to work for her, she is not a good person. Getting away from her is probably a good idea.”
The coffin crumbles almost like it’s already gone. Inside are nothing but a few bones with scraps of clothing on it. And a small bag.
Yudhisthir snorts. “That’s the extent of their embalming skill? Weak.”
Phaedra notices that a) this person wasn’t embalmed at all, and b) the scaps of cloth on this person don’t match anything in the embalming equipment set.
Phaedra - “This person wasn’t embalmed….?” She is waiting for someone else to pick up the bag.
Yudhisthir grabs the bag by its strings, and pulls it out of the bones.
Cyr- “I have other reasons for leaving the area, Kratha is just the dressing on the chicken.”
Logan gives Cyr a skeptical look, “so you are telling me you have a lot of powerful people you owe money too?”
Cyr gives a half smile. “They’re not powerful, and only in the sense that I wanted their money more than they wanted to protect their money.”
Logan laughs, “You need better plans before you go in to steal things. You come up with a decent plan and maybe I will back you.”
The bag clinks with the sound of money. Based on the weight, Yudh estimates it’s about 150 gp in the bag.
Yudhisthir pours a bit of the cash out onto the floor to see what they look like. Arjun examines the coins, too.
Cyr- “I don’t have any plans at the moment, cause I’m hanging out with you all. And yes, I don’t really plan ahead much, I’m a spur of the moment kind of gal.”
Logan gives Cyr an appreciative look then goes back to watching the hall.
They look like gold coins. Without ranks in Knowledge- numismatics, you’re gonna have a hard time figuring out if they’re worth anything else. They do have the ducal seal of the Grand Duchy of Geoff on them, but that seal is a couple hundred years old.
The boys shrug at each other, put the money back in the bag, and drop it in the bag of holding.
Yudhisthir “Well, that’s not a terrible reward for the place.”
Arjun pokes around a bit more to see if there’s anything else of interest in the coffin.
The hall is still quiet, except for running water.
No one finds anything interesting in the sarcophagus, but Phaedra thinks there might be something funny with the east wall.
Arjun “Okay, well, Cyr, would you take a look at the east wall, and see if there’s anything to find?”
Cyr- “Yeah, okay.” She heads over and starts poking around. “Oh! Yeah, there is definitely a secret door here. Give me a minute….” Another door opens. “Aaaah okay, so we have two places to explore now.”
Yudhisthir looks at the first passage they opened and considers the layout of what they’ve already been through. “That’s going to go back to one of the rooms we’ve already been to. That one with the statues, probably.”
Phaedra - “Let’s try the first door, then.”
The second door opens into an a natural cavern with the branch of the stream running straight through it. Aside from the sound of water, it’s silent.
Arjun “If it goes back to the statue room, we may as well check it on the way back out. We should check out the cavern first.”
Phaedra - “I think we should have Cyr at least check it for traps, it’s our best bet for getting out quickly if we need to, since I won’t have to poof anyone.”
Cyr- “Oh, the hallway? Well, okay.”
Logan just watches quietly now and continues to puff on his cigar.
Cyr creeps her way down the hallway, checking for stuff and things. After searching the length of the hallway, and going around the corner, she reports back. “I didn’t find any traps, and there’s the backside of a secret door here!
Saluki follows her a bit behind, in case combat support is needed.
Arjun “Good to know. Thanks, Cyr.”
Cyr, knowing that Saluki is more fun than the rest- “I’m gonna open it, whadda you say?”
Saluki - “Well, we haven’t gone far enough to get to the entrance, so seems like a good plan to me!”
Cyr pushes on a switch or pulls a lever or something, and the door pops open, revealing…. catacombs! That is, a bunch of sarcophagi in niches on the sides of the hallway.
[Saluki flourishes his blades in the door's general direction!]
Cyr- “Huh.”
Saluki peeks into one of the alcoves. “Huh. We’ll have to have the mage look at this one.”
Logan continues up with Cyr and Saluki, watching quietly for anything that might jump out of the sarcophagi.
The niche that Saluki looks into doesn’t have a lid, not a body, just a wooden box with the Ducal seal of Geoff on the lid.
Saluki - “Huh, did the duchy of Geoff used to be centered here?”
Cyr- “I dunno. School went out the window when the giants invaded.”
Yudh pokes his head around the corner. “Find something?”
Saluki calls to him - “More graves, we can check them out later.”
Yudh shakes his head “If this is going to be an escape route, we need to check them now.” he call the others over.
Arjun ambles over and starts checking alcoves. He doesn’t disturb any of the coffins, just yet.
Yuhisthir does the same on the other side of the hall.
In the second alcove on the right, Arjun sees a second chest with the Ducal Seal of Geoff carved into the lid. Looking but not touching ,every single sarcophagus has had it’s lid removed and tossed on the floor, and is being used as a storage bin by Zod and company.
Phaedra scans with magic sight. “You know, I’m almost surprised there haven’t been magic traps in additional physical ones.”
Phaedra finds only a single magic aura, in the fifth sarcophagus on their left.
Arjun “Zod must not have been able to afford a wizard…” He starts pawing through the stored items for anything of value.
Cyr, mumbling- “Or he used alls his magic items instead of storing them.”
Bottom Row, left to right (ie starting at the opposite end of the hall from the party):
Several open boxes holding a disguise kit, 3 doses of something (looks like antitoxin), and a box of letters (ie, correspondence)
A suit of masterwork plate mail, a suit of masterwork studded leather armor
A small gem (radiates magic)
A masterwork harp inlaid with small gems (wrapped in oilcloth)
The last three are empty
Top Row, left to right (starting opposite the party)
Two locked chests
Two locked boxes (less fancy than chests)
Two boxes
A chest
A small chest
A chest with the Geoff Ducal Seal
An oak case (not a chest, sorry) with the ducal seal on it
The boxes are all locked, except for the ones with letters.
Arjun immediately opens the letters to see if there’s any useful information.
Yudh looks at the harp and says “Thessa should like that.” He checks out the antivenin, and shoves everything non magical from the bottom row into the bag of holding.
Logan looks interested at some of the locked boxes for a second, then loses interest and starts watching for enemies again.
The letters are clearly written in elvish script, but he quickly notices that it’s not…surface elvish.
Arjun “Huh.”
The letters are mostly instructions from an “Eclavdra” to Zod on how to run his slave smuggling ring, some specific tasks and actions to take, as well as some people to talk to in Goldport, Moffatt, and Shibboleth. There are the dates and locations for a couple of meetings for him to meet with Eclavdra’s minions, with the next meeting being in three weeks. Some of them also get pretty racy, it sounds like Zod was Eclavdra’s boytoy.
Phaedra picks up the gem and tosses it upward to see if it starts spinning around her head. It does not. “Welp, not an ioun stone.”
Arjun “Okay, well, this all might be useful information, though I’m not sure to whom. Looks like Zod was working with dark elves.”
Phaedra gives Arjun a worried look. “I’ve never encountered them, but isn’t that…. Bad? Like, could be really bad for a lot of people? Especially us since we killed him?”
Arjun “Depends on how many other boyfriends Zod’s contact had, I guess.”
Cyr- “Working with dark elves to do what?"
Arjun gives the summary. “It’s pretty different from the elvish I’m used to, so there are probably specifics I’m missing.”
Logan, “So we could easily end up with dark elves trying to hunt us down for killing their supplier.”
Cyr- “Sounds like something to dump in the Duke’s lap and then get far, far away.”
Yudh muffles a laugh.
Arjun “Definitely. You want to open those locked boxes, or shall we just take them with us and open them once we get out?”
Cyr- “Can we wait to open them on the surface? The light’ll be better.”
Arjun “Sure.” So various party members manhandle the boxen into the bag of holding.
Once the alcoves are picked clean, the party troops back to the other secret door, and into the cavern.
Unless Cyr wants to make sure there’s an exit from the other end of the catacomb.
Cyr heads to the end of the hall, where there is definitely a door. She…opens it, and finds herself looking at the back of the statue of Nerull from the octagonal room. “There’s your answer, we have to squeeze past the statue to get out of here.”
Phaedra - “Oh good.” She also thinks, “now I won’t have to worry about the possibility that I would have to choose between survival and saving everyone else.”
Now the party troops back to the cavern.
The cavern is still silent with the stream flowing through it, into a tunnel at the far end and out of sight. As you round a corner, you see a figure seated on a throne. It is a skeleton, dressed in brown robes, it’s eyes two pinpoints of red light. It has clearly noticed you but it hasn’t moved, except to turn it’s head and look at you.
Skeleton- “HELLO.” He sounds like Discworld’s Death, only not as much.
Phaedra gets the impression he’s more curious about the party than anything else.
Arjun replies “Hello.” He’s kind of at a loss for what to say. “Is… this place yours?”
Skeleton- “I SUPPOSE. IT IS NOT MY GRAVE, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE ASKING. I’M JUST THE GUARDIAN.”
Arjun “What are you guarding?”
Skeleton- “I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE SEPULCHRE BEHIND ME.”
Arjun “Whose sepulchre is it?”
Skeleton- “I DON’T KNOW, AS I AM NOT CREATED TO KNOW.”
Arjun considers. “Are you guarding against intruders who would disturb the sepulchre, or are you guarding against whomever is in the sepulchre?”
Skeleton- “AH! A CLEVER QUESTION. I GUARD THE SEPULCHRE FROM THOSE WHO WOULD DISTURB IT.”
Phaedra - “Why would anyone want to disturb it?”
Skeleton- “YOU’D HAVE TO ASK THEM. I PRESUME TO LOOK FOR TREASURE, BUT NO ONE HAS BEEN DOWN HERE SINCE I WAS CREATED, SO I DON’T KNOW.”
Phaedra - “So Zod and co didn’t find this spot. How long have you been here?”
Skeleton- “NO ONE NAMED ZOD HAS VISITED ME. YEARS AND YEARS, ALTHOUGH I DON’T KNOW EXACTLY.”
Arjun “If we don’t disturb the sepulchre, would you be willing to let us examine it to maybe find out who is in it?”
Skeleton- “NO. YOU MAY NOT PASS ME OR MY THRONE.”
Team huddle!
Phaedra - “I mean, this obviously doesn’t have anything to do with why we’re here. So we could just leave it alone.”
Arjun “I’m leaning that way myself. Anyone else for leaving the guardian to his guarding and getting out of here?”
Cyr- “Sounds good to me.”
Yudh nods “No reason to attack someone who isn’t hostile.”
Logan shrugs.
Break!
Phaedra - “Mr Guardian, were you created by priests of Nerull?”
Skeleton- “YES.”
Phaedra - “And you’re just supposed to stay here and guard, and never leave?”
Skeleton- “YES. I AM BOUND TO THIS PLACE.”
Neither Phaedra nor Saluki notice any kind of writing that looks particularly useful.
Logan whispers quietly, “Umm, Nerull is evil, correct?”
Cyr, also quietly- “Ayup.”
Logan, “Do we want to leave something evil to maybe be found by evil drow, that might decide later to use it when they eventually come after us for killing Zod?”
Cyr- “Dammit, that’s possible.”
Yudhisthir asks the skeleton “So are you supposed to guard this sepulchre against anyone who might disturb it, even if they’re Nerull’s worshippers?”
Arjun queries Kuracisto.
Kuracisto belives the skeleton is telling the truth in everything he says. It has no reason to lie.
Skeleton- “THE ONLY ONES WHO MAY PASS ME BY ARE THE MOST POWERFUL OF NERULL’S PRIESTHOOD. EVEN HIS LOWER RANKING DEVOTEES ARE NOT ALLOWED.”
Yudh speaks quietly “Well, even if the drow come here, they’ll get attacked too.”
Logan, “that is hoping that they will be stopped by this guardian.”
Yudh “Look, we have no idea if we can even take this thing. We could try, but if we do and we can’t, we’re dead. I’d rather not die just yet.”
Logan, “we could have died against Zod.”
Yudh “Not the point.”
Presuming Phaedra turns on her Magic Vision, she can see that the skeleton is indeed magical, but he has no magical equipment.
Phaedra - “He doesn’t look like he’s got any magic equipment. I think it’s called a crypt thing?”
Arjun asks the skeleton “So how do you know if you are strong enough to guard against intruders?”
Crypt Thing- “DEPENDS ON THE INTRUDER, I SUPPOSE.”
Arjun “Just hypothetically, what if a group like ours came in. Would you be able to win against that?”
Crypt Thing- “FOR ME, WINNING IS NOTHING MORE THAN KEEPING INTRUDERS OUT. IF THEY LEAVE BECAUSE I INTIMIDATE THEM, SO BE IT. IF I MUST FIGHT, THAT IS MY DUTY.”
Arjun, quietly to the group. “Alright, I’ve changed my mind. We should break this thing.”
Yudh rubs his face. “Why?”
Cyr- “Great, okay.”
Arjun grins “To see if we can.”
Yudh makes strangling motions with his hands “This is no time for your favored soul thing to kick in!”
Logan, “fight here, fight later. Fights are coming.” Putting out his cigar with a slight smile and flexing his hands.
Saluki - “It would be terribly heroic to free the forest of the blight of Nerull’s ancient curse!”
Arjun “Exactly!” He draws Kuracisto, and advances on the crypt thing.
The Crypt Thing sees this, and prepares to fight you.
Round 1!
Seeing Arjun advancing, Crypt Thing’s eyes flash, and the Crypt Thing briefly seems to be far more terrifying to him than it had been, but the feeling passes.
Arjun makes a brief prayer and keeps moving forward.
Logan charges forward and throws a punch at the Crypt thing, hitting it relatively hard in the ribs.
Yudh flies over the river and slings rocks at the crypt thing, hitting it once.
Saluki flounces up to the crypt thing and gracefully slashes away.
Cyr points her ring of the ram at the crypt thing and fires! She misses and knocks a chunk out of the throne behind it instead. “Dammit! That was three charges!”
Phaedra repositions herself and fires off an eldritch blast. She hits and fries some of it’s clothing.
Round 2!
The crypt thing has taken a lot of abuse. He steps back and focuses his energies again.
Arjun, Yudh, and Saluki disappear!
Logan uses flurry of blows against the crypt thing, managing to hit with all three attacks, wasting two of them.
The crypt thing flies apart at Logan’s first punch, and he, Phaedra and Cyr hear an audible sigh of relief when he does. His bones clatter onto the stone floor.
Cyr runs up. “Do you think they’re okay?”
Logan looks around, “I have no idea.” Trying to see if there is anything attached to the pile of bones that might be a reason for where they went.
Phaedra - “well I assume they got teleported somewhere. We’ll need to search for them on the way back. Or maybe there are cells behind the crypt thing.”
Neither Cyr nor Phaedra are completely sure what the spell was.
Logan looks around, “time for me to take point?”
Cyr- “Yeah, please.”
Behind the throne, a series of steps rise to a simple cave (partly worked but mostly natural stone), in which sits another sarcophagus. Unlike the last one, it’s long axis is oriented away from you, rather than across. So you’re at the foot. Or the head. One of the two.
Phaedra scans for magic. There is a small point of magic inside the sarcophagus, but it’s faint, as well as abjuration on the outside. “Just a bit of magic in the box.”
Logan nods and starts heading up steps.
At the near end of the sarcophagus is an urn full of gold coins.
Logan glances over the urns and then keeps moving, he moves around the sarcophagus and starts walking around the walls of the cave looking to see if there are any more secret doors.
Cyr follows Logan. She gets her handy haversack off he back and puts the urn of money inside it.
At the far end of the sarcophagus Logan sees a second urn, this one with silver coins, but Logan doesn’t notice any secret doors in the room.
Logan barely glances at that one as he searches the walls even though he doesn’t find any secret doors, then he just turns and looks back to the room, “well not sure, if there is a way deeper into this place. Do we want to do anything to the Sarcophagus?”
Cyr- “Part of me says open it, part of me says wait a bit, part of me says go outside and see if the guys are close enough to be helpful. Was there anything else over there?”
Logan points at the urn, “More coins.”
Cyr- “Oooh neat.” She collects this as well.
At this point you can her the sounds of several people moving quickly through tunnels, not trying in the least to conceal their presence, and then someone asking “Hey, are you all right?”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Elsewhere….
Arjun, Yudh, and Saluki suddenly each find themselves in the woods again. They can kind of see the hill the town is built on, about 140 yards a way.
Saluki - “Aw man!”
Arjun “Well, that could have been a lot worse for us. Let’s go, and hope they don’t need our help.” He starts running toward the town.
Yudh flies ahead, because he’s faster than the ground-bound.
Saluki runs toward the hill as well.
Thessa, who was napping, jumps up at your arrival. “What?! What happened?”
Yudhisthir “We got teleported out by this crypt thing.”
Thessa yells- “What’s a crypt thing?” as the other three run past.
As soon as Yudhisthir reaches the well, he dives in, and flies for the room with Nerull’s statue, hoping Cyr didn’t close the door behind it.
Saluki shows up next, heading for the building with the tunnel and ladder. He jumps down gracefully, probably wall running or something.
Arjun shows up last. “Skeleton guardian!”
He follows Saluki but has to climb down more slowly, not having wings and/or super reflexes.
Yudh and Saluki pass through the octagonal room without incident.
Arjun pauses to catches his breath before attempting it.
All three cross the octagon without incident.
Yudhisthir reaches the cavern and sees… scattered bones. He lands and walks over to the throne, presumably hearing the voices of the rest of the party. He calls out. “Hey, you all alright?”
Phaedra floats in their direction. “We’re alright! Are you all alright?”
Cyr- “Yeah, Logan punched the crypt thing into oblivion just after you guys left!”
Yudh “Good. It dropped us just outside of town.” He sits to catch his breath after his nice little aerial sprint.
Cyr- “Better than the river. Ahhh so another sarcophagus, as you can see. Logan didn’t find any secret doors, I haven’t looked, and we haven’t tried to open the sarcophagus yet.”
Tudh “Eh, wait until the others get here.”
The others arrive momentarily.
Arjun “Oh, good, you’re not dead.” He leans against the wall, panting.
Saluki looks a bit disappointed. “Already finished it off, huh?”
Logan looks back, “I think it just had the power to attempt to banish people that attacked it.”
Arjun straightens up “It could terrify as well. Seems a little harmless for an evil god, but what do I know?”
Yudhisthir stands and settles his wings. “There’s another sarcophagus. Now that we’re all here, we can open it.”
Cyr sighs. “You want me to look for traps, don’t you?”
Arjun “Better safe than sorry!” He grins charmingly.
Cyr is persuaded by his charmingness and commences searching. After a minute or two…”I don’t find anything
Arjun proceeds to examine the seals on the sarcophagus (there are seals, right?) for anything arcane. Yudh examines them for differences between the last set.
There are seals with glyphs on them a well as wires, just like the previous one. The seals are identical to the last one, making it pretty obvious the last one was just a decoy.
Arjun “Phaedra? Have you already examined this for magic?”
Phaedra - “Yes, there’s something inside that’s faintly magic, and an abjuration spell on the sarcophagus itself.”
Retcon: in addition to something inside, there’s abjuration on the outside.
Yudh fingers the hilt of his kukri. “Maybe that’s where the promised blasting comes in”
Saluki - “ I had almost forgot about the blasting.”
Phaedra - “We could get out of the room and I’ll throw a blast at it?”
Arjun “Sure. I can only protect a couple people from energy so the fewer of us in the way the better.”
The party troops out and tries to find spots that would not be in the blast field.
Arjun bestows protection from energy on Phaedra, if she thinks she needs it. She requests fire, and thanks him.
Once everyone is situated, Phaedra leans into the stairwell enough to see the sarcophagus, and throws a blast at it.
She chips the lid, but that’s it….except for a magic effect that only Phaedra feels. Her eyesight dims momentarily, and the abjuration effect disappears.
Phaedra - “Well that could have been worse. That got rid of the enchantment, anyway, and I’m not blind.”
Arjun “Are you otherwise hurt?”
Phaedra- “Don’t think so.”
Arjun “Let me know if that changes.” He looks her over with healerly concern.
Cyr- “Anyone want to try my adamantine axe again?”
Arjun “I’ll let someone else have the fun this time.”
Yudh jeers “But your form will be so much better now that you have practice.”
Arjun punches him in the arm.
Cyr- “Ugh, fine” She starts swinging at the lead seals. It’s takes a lot longer cause she’s wimpier than Arjun, but eventually she cuts through them all. “Someone else gets to lift this.”
Arjun and Yudh step up again.
Logan goes to let them help him.
After some heaving and strength checks you’re able to get the lid off, revealing…a coffin! It’s in good repair. There are also about half a dozen sealed jars sitting in the space between the sarcophagus and the coffin.
Phaedra - “Before you open those, they’re probably guts.”
Cyr- “Ew.”
Phaedra - “Also the magic item is in the coffin.”
Arjun steps forward to pry the coffin lid open with whatever non-magical sword he pulls out of the bag of holding. Assuming it needs prying.
The coffin opens fairly easily, revealing…a mummy! But it doesn’t sit up an attack you, it just lays there, and looks like it hasn’t moved at all since it was installed in the coffin. It is heavily bound with bandages, but it looks like it’s wearing some armor underneath that.
Arjun “Okay, where’s the magic?”
The magic is emanating from the mummy’s right hand, which is along it’s side, rather than crossed over it’s chest in the Egyptian style.
Phaedra - “Right hand. We’re destroying this anyway, right? We should probably get all the armor and stuff off it. I’ll start cutting. Saluki, you have a lot of swords, you help. Someone should start a fire.”
Phaedra pulls out a dagger and starts cutting away wrappings.
Ajrun and Yudhisthir go gather up the remains of the throne, and start
The game of operation commences. Underneath the wrappings, the armor turns out to be a gold breastplate with inlaid gems, and Phaedra also finds a total of 15 gems in the bandages as well. She notes that the breastplate clearly has markings associated with Nerull. Also also, once the breastplate is removed, everyone can see that the corpse was slain via arrows, with multiple wounds clearly visible.
In the corpses’ hand is a small cube, about ¾” inch on a side. It radiates evocation if Phaedra stares at it long enough.
Saluki grabs the breastplate. “One more for my cursed item collection!” and sticks it in his bag.
Once everyone is sure that we have thoroughly looted the corpse, Arjun and Yudhisthir bring over all the burnable items they could find.
Arjun “Is there any reason to not burn it in the sarcophagus?”
Logan, “I cannot think of one.” Smoking his newly lit cigar.
Cyr- “Nope, lets do it and get out of here.”
They arrange the burnables under and around the mummy. They toss on the crypt thing’s bones for good measure.
Logan happily drops his cigar into the sarcophagus after everything is ready to burn.
Fwoosh! The various embalming resins burn brightly.
You proceed to the octagon room. The door behind the statue is open, the main exit door is open, the two pulverized skeletons are still laying on the floor where you found them.
Yudhisthir flies across to the exit door, seeing no reason not to.
Yudh crosses easily.
Saluki is walking in front, so he goes next.
Saluki crosses just fine.
Arjun crosses next.
Arjun crosses just fine.
Phaedra floats across the room.
Cyr follows Phaedra into the room, and as she walks across, steps in a particular place that no one else has stepped yet. There is an audible “clunk”, and both doors start to close.
Both Logan slips out the nearest doors, putting Logan in the crypts. Cyr froze just long enough to not be able to get out. Phaedra can’t keep the door from closing, cause her Strength is like 9. As soon as the doors close the ceiling starts lowering, but it’s kind of slow.
Logan attempts to stop the doors from closing, but steps back as soon as he realizes he is not strong enough to keep them closing.
The ceiling lowers from 10 feet to six feet.
Phaedra instead flies for Cyr. She grabs her arm, shouts to Loga, hoping he can hear her, “Logan, wait there, I’ll come for you!” and kinda looks at the ceiling surprised at how slow this is.
Cyr grabs onto Phaedra tightly, a look of fear on her face.
Phaedra poofs them both to the rest of the party. Phaedra thinks a moment to make sure she can make it to Logan’s side of the room directly, and then poofs over there.
Cyr looks relieved.
Everyone can hear the clanking of machinery as the ceiling keeps lowering to re-pulverize the skeletons. Everyone hears the illusory screams of fear from the major image Phaedra left behind in the octagon. It only goes on for a few seconds and then stops, while the clanking continues.
The boys look pale.
Arjun “Okay. Good thing we left that room for last.”
Yudh shakes his head. “Zod was nuts, using that as his main entrance.”
Cyr- “If you know how to set off the trap you just don’t step there.”
Phaedra appears next to Logan. “You okay?”
Logan nods, “yes, that looks like it could have been uncomfortable in there.”
About the time Logan and Phaedra re-poof themselves, the clanking stops, there’s the large “boom” of a really heavy object stopping. About a minute later the clanking restarts, and you can all tell the trap is resetting.
Phaedra - “Sorry about the screaming, I sort of forgot about the image.”
Saluki mutters, ‘Sorry about the screaming, she says.”
After that last unnecessary bit of terror, you can climb out of the dungeon into the sunshine and finally be done with it.
