“I wish that the most valuable treasure hoard in Opelenea be brought to us!” said Mahmud. “As you wish!”
As I read this, I was reaching towards the screen, slo-mo, shouting ‘Noooooooooooooooo!’, as I imagined behind the screen the players all reaching out in unison to press the big red “Give Me Trouble” button.
I was thinking the same thing.
“Here’s the most valuable treasure hoard in Opelenea being brought to you… by the most ancient evil in the land!”
You have to be impressed by the fortitude of the party though. When you get a Wish offered to you and somehow, it turns out that you end up giving treasure away instead of gaining treasure, you might wonder if adventuring is not really your thing.
But they keep on keeping on…
They got the XP, yes. They brought treasure back to civilization.
We allocated all the treasure, gave out the magic items... up until late in the session, they were planning to fight Utuk Xul.
I do wonder what I'll do if they kill Utuk Xul and take the treasure. That seems like an interesting loophole...
When they got back to the Oasis of the White Palm, the Fated realized that the Sheik was still under the sway of Utuk-Xul. “My friends, thank you for the wonderful briefing on the status of my friend, the Vizier of Utuk-Xul,” said the Sheik. “Did he say when I could pay him more tribute?” The Sheik’s son, Hassan, pulled Mahmud aside. “What is wrong with my father? How can you save him?” “We’re not sure what to do,” explained Mahmud. “We’ll think of something soon.”
The Fated did not linger in the Oasis to sort this out, instead setting out immediately to explore the Desert of Desolation. Following the ancient map they’d found in Al-Sindor’s library, and battling past a gang of five trolls, they came to an unfinished Zaharan pyramid. The structure had never had its final outer surface built, so it was still stepped, like a ziggurat. A tunnel gradually descended downward from the surface into the pyramid, intersected mid-way by a shaft that led downward from one of the steps. Senef explained that the tunnel was used during construction of the pyramid, and would have been sealed by dropping a great block of stone down the shaft when the pyramid was finished.
The party resolved to explore the ruin. Shikra promptly summoned a pair of berserkers, and these intrepid warriors were sent forward into the tunnel. They got as far as the intersection with the shaft before being torn apart by ghouls that dropped from above. Seeing the hideous things scamper off into the darkness, the party decided to approach with great caution.
They made it past the shaft without attack, finally reaching a three-way intersection. The path forward led deeper into the pyramid, while to the left and right it branched into alcoves, obviously intended as smaller tombs and chapels. These were smeared with filth and blood, for they had become the lair of ghouls – many ghouls. Many, many ghouls. The dungeon exploration turned into an all-out battle as cannibalistic undead descended on the party from every direction.
The party might have been overrun, had Balen not evoked a new dweomer, a circle of protection which kept the undead at a 10’ radius from him. Shikra used her dark arts to take control of the nearest undead and forced them to fight their own. Then Mahmud, Androcles, Rakh, and Sapphira waded into battle, cleaving down the left and right hallways leaving a line of bodies in their wake.
The fighters had just driven the enemy back when a Great Ghoul Sorcerer revealed himself, hurtling a bolt of lightning down the corridor from down the darkened tunnel. The fighters pursuing the ghouls were outside the blast area, but the rest of the party was struck. Suad, Zoya, Ceara, Ethlyn, and Wazir were all incapacitated instantly, while Balen, Shikra, and Senef were badly hurt.
Balen responded to the attack by blasting the Great Ghoul Sorcerer and his bodyguards with a fireball. That was insufficient to destroy it, so the fighters regrouped to charge the Great Ghoul. Androcles was paralyzed by the Sorcerer’s bodyguards, and slain a moment later, and Rakh was left paralyzed as well, though Sapphira managed to drag him back to safety. Balen sustained a barrage of magical fire, while Umar and Dornethan fired missiles. Eventually the Great Ghoul Sorcerer was slain along with his minions.
The aftermath of the battle proved not nearly as dire as it had seemed during the thick of the fighting. Androcles was dead, and Wazir had lost a leg, but the rest of the party suffered no more than minor scars and, in Suad’s case, a missing finger. The mage promptly declared himself “Suad Nine-Fingers” and turned towards searching for loot.
The Great Ghoul had accumulated a substantial treasure pile. The Fated surmised that he must have been raiding Zaharan tombs and crypts for years. Of particular interest was his library of ancient tomes. These were partially damaged from Balen’s fireball, but fortunately the Great Ghoul’s spellbook was intact, and it had several never-before-seen spells: Fist of Stone and Pillar of Sand. The Great Ghoul’s library also contained notes on his various magical items, including a wand of paralyzation and an amulet against crystal balls and ESP.
With this rich trove, the party marched back to the Oasis of the White Palm, returning on the 24th of Innelen. Senef turned his healing arts towards restoring Androcles and Wazir. Though a shaman, Senef was an apostate who had learned the Empyrean spell restore life and limb. Androcles was restored, but perhaps Senef’s shamanism bled through, for it was a partial reincarnation – and it seemed the incarnation was neanderthal, for Androcles returned brutish, hairy, and ill-visaged. Wazir was next. He returned outwardly normal, but his connection to the divine was severed, costing him greatly in spiritual power.
Despite seeing these worrisome complications, Balen asked for Senef to heal him as well. The war-mage had taken several maiming wounds that left him aching and slow, and he wanted these cured. This cure went quite well; Balen was shaken a bit by the trauma, but would be fit for action within a fortnight.
While their comrades were recovering, the rest of the party turned towards other matters. Shikra and Suad began studying the many books they’d found in the Great Ghoul’s library, and added to their repertoires.
Senef began proselytizing within the Oasis. With his ability to call dragons, raise the dead, and cure disease, the Besherab nomads soon fell in awe of the shaman, whom they called “Speaker With Dragons” and “Voice of the Desert.” 143 converts adopted his faith.
Zoya sent funds and missives to her spies in Ber-Gathy. 10 days later, she got back quite interesting reports. Bathsheba reported, “The Emperor in Aura is near death. He is not expected to survive the season. When word reached Alakyrum, the Exarch of Opelenea began calling up his legions.” Kavus reported, “I have continued to listen for reports of caravans lost in the Howling Emptiness. A total of four major caravans have now gone missing!”
Mahmud decided to seek a cure for the Sheik. His first plan was to have Senef dispel the charm, but this failed miserably – twice. The Sheik came to say Mahmud, deeply troubled. “My friend, I fear Senef is in league with our enemies. He has twice tried to ensorcel me, and only my iron willpower has saved me from his enchantments. Something must be done!” whispered the Sheik. “Ah…I shall handle it, Your Eminence,” said the confused Paladin.
Mahmud now asked Suad to attempt to dispel the charm. Suad approached the Sheik. “Your Eminence, Mahmud sent me. He fears that Senef has cast a spell upon you. May I have your leave to dispel it?” “Of course, my friend.” This time, the dispel was successful. Clarity fell over the Sheik’s features. “No! I have been charmed by Utuk-Xul. But that means my friend Mahmud has also been charmed! Come quickly…”
The Sheik hastily grabbed Suad and dragged him to the paladin’s presence. “Free him of this sorcery now, mage!” Suad obligingly “dispelled” Mahmud. “Ah, thank you for rescuing me, Your Eminence,” said Mahmud. “No, it is who must thank you,” said the Sheik. “Had you not sent Suad to me, we would both still be charmed!”
“I am not ungrateful. My friend, it is time I introduce you to the wife I have selected for you…the lovely Alia.” And here our chronicle must temporarily halt in the interest of modesty, for as to the intimacy between husband and wife, even Imran’s light must not illuminate it.
Fist of Stone Range 150’
Arcane 1 Duration: instantaneous
This spell blasts its target with a fist of solid stone conjured from the elemental sphere. The target suffers 1d4 points of damage per level of the caster. A successful saving throw versus Blast reduces damage to half.
Pillar of Sand Range 120’
Arcane 2 Duration: 1 turn
The caster brings a pillar of solid sand (sandstone) into existence. The pillar of sand can be as large as 1,000 cubic feet. It cannot have a diameter of less than 10’. The pillar of sand must always be conjured in contact with the ground. If the caster desires, the pillar can bond itself to any surrounding nonliving material if its area is sufficient to do so. Its most common use is to create a raised dais or perch for archers, or as a “plug” to fill doors or hallways.
The caster can also create the pillar vertically resting on a flat surface but not attached to the surface, so that it can be tipped over to fall on and crush creatures beneath it. The pillar is 50% likely to tip in either direction if left un-pushed. Creatures can push the pillar n one direction rather than letting it fall randomly. Pushing the wall in one direction requires a successful Open Doors proficiency throw. Creatures with room to flee a falling pillar can do so with a successful save versus Blast. Creatures of ogre size or smaller that fail the save take 10d6 points of damage. The pillar cannot crush larger creatures.
Once created, the pillar of sand will last for 1 turn, or until dispelled. The pillar may not be evoked so that it appears where objects or creatures already are.
Whilst Mahmud was enjoying conjugal relations with his new bride, Bechir was dispatched for Khaibar, laden with gold, with orders to return with holy water, laboratory supplies, and precious books. The Fated had decided that if the Oasis of the White Palm was to be their home, they may as well have a home with a workshop and lab!
The next day, 8th of Nethelen, they departed for another of the Zaharan ruins marked on their tattered map. They were regrettably waylaid en route by a basilisk, which petrified Balen before being dispatched. Losing Balen forced the party to retreat back to the Oasis. From there, Zoya and Ceara flew by magic carpet to distant Alakyrum. This journey, normally measured in weeks, took them but two days.
At Alakyrum, Zoya hired a spy master named Abiram, and ordered him to recruit spies for her throughout the city. She and Ceara then headed to the shop of Urabi al-Chukri, where a quick outlay of gold secured the purchase of a scroll of stone to flesh in an annoyingly fancy scroll case. So equipped, Zoya and her loyal henchwoman headed back to the Oasis. The return flight turned out to be quite treacherous, as over the Desert of Desolation they had to evade both wyverns and gargoyles. Zoya was heard muttering something about “flying the friendly skies” as the carpet landed.
Balen was returned to his normal, soft and fleshy, form on the evening of the 13th. At dawn the next day they set back out into the Desert of Desolation, reaching the nearby ruins at mid-day. They set up a camp some distance from the ruins, and after resting and recovering, began to investigate them.
The ruins proved to be an ancient temple to Sakkara, Mother of Monsters, and her daughter Ninzagga, Princess of Assassins. Most of the temple was in ruins, with just an understory remaining. Hieroglyphic inscriptions at the top of the temple read “This is truth: That all is governed by the movements of the stars, which are eternal and unchanging. That the light of the stars is hidden by the false light of the winged sun is the first of its blasphemies.” Even Shikra and Suad were disturbed by these dire words. “How wrongheaded do you have to be to complain about the sun? I mean, really. The Zaharans are all, damn you sun, with your light!”
The party dispatched berserkers to head down the stairs to investigate. They reported backward that the there was an antechamber filled with statues of Sakkara and Ninzagga, beyond which was a four-way intersection. The statutes held marvelous golden scepters, quite valuable. These were soon claimed in the name of Imran, and the statues destroyed.
Heading into the dungeon, the party headed right at the four-way intersection, and came face to face with a war party of six Thrassians in ancient Zaharan battle-dress. These creatures proved formidable combatants, and the party was hard-pressed. Their situation grew worse when hideous scorpion-spiders emerged from the northern corridor and began to hurl acidic venom into their flank. Balen unleashed Earth’s Teeth on the spiders, slaying several, but Rakh and Ceara went down to poison before the fight was won. Only Senef’s prowess at healing avoided calamity and got the two heroes back on their feet.
During the fighting, Suad had managed to sleep one of the Thrassians, and this being was quickly tied up. Leaving him aside for the moment, the party decided to see what the Thrassians had been guarding. Faced with a choice of heading north or south, they chose north, and marched down a lengthy corridor that terminated in a sealed stone vault flanked by four golden urns. These urns were filled with the desiccated bodies of locusts. The party sent some summoned heroes forward to investigate, and these unleashed a veritable undead plague. A few seconds later, a thing staggered out of the insect plague, a thing of gore and bone and gristle, that might once have been a hero.
To deal with this hideous threat, Senef called upon the great spirits of the earth to send an insect plague of his own. Living locust swarmed on dead locust, and the entire passage way was filled with a million gnashing and gnawing insects. In minutes, the corridor was a landscape of carrion.
Though the way forward was now clear, their efforts had exhausted the Fated, and they decided to retreat to camp. Ethlyn gathered up the golden scepters from the fallen statues, while Suad tugged along their Thrassian captive. Upon reaching the tents, Suad unceremoniously placed the helm of alignment change upon their captive. As its addled brain began to become inspired by notions of law, justice, and liberty, the Thrassian began to talk.
“I was a servant of Navana, mistress of the Tower of the Worm. She sent us here to assist the undead priest Laukshar the Leaking in guarding the Sarcophagus Legion for the time of the Awakening,” the Thrassian explained. “What is the Sarcophagus Legion?” asked Suad. “A great force of hundreds of undead, in sarcophagi below the temple who will awaken should any disturb them,” it explained.
“Is there treasure in the temple?” asked Zoya. “Much treasure, but any who take it are cursed and ruined. Their flesh will betray them, and they shall rot as if dead.” “Oh damn,” said Zoya, as her fingernails peeled off. “That would be the curse,” said Senef, eyeballing the golden scepters that erupted from Zoya’s backpack. Zoya gazed at him with eyebrows raised expectantly, as her eyes began to leak puss. “Well, aren’t you going to remove the curse?” Senef looked almost embarrassed. “Er…perhaps if I were a cleric, but shamans can’t remove curses…”
The party erupted into chaos. Would Zoya still be pretty? Had she written down the names of her spies? Could they rush Zoya to Alakyrum for treatment? “The curse kills within hours,” hissed the Thrassian. Zoya stared into the desert sun, contemplating her own mortality, as her toenails began to bleed. Then Shikra said, “Oh, you know, I have a scroll of remove curse. Should we use it now, or wait until things get bad?” “Mebbe uth it nob” said Zoya, as her tongue degenerated into gangrenous ooze. And so did the warlock Shikra save the thief Zoya from a fate worse than death.
After these travails, the party rested for the night. The morning of the 15th Nethelen, the party decided to assault the temple again to deal with Laukshar the Leaking. As they prepared, Senef reached out to the spirits. “What will happen if we assault the temple?” he divined. Death lurks in the hieroglyphs, came the ominous warning. “Nobody touch any hieroglyphs!” said Senef. “Hieroglyphs are bad.”
So warned, the party marched forward to the stone door that led to Laukshar’s chamber. They formed up, read for battle, everyone ready to fire weapons or spells into the room beyond. They opened the door…and triggered the glyphs of death inscribed therein. Virtually everyone fell: Balen, Zoya, Rakh, Ethlyn, Sapphira, Dornethan, Ceara, Wazir, and Umar. Only Mahmud, Suad, Shikra, and Senef were still standing.
Desperation gripped the survivors. Shikra sealed the door with a spell, to give the rest of the party time to drag the dead out of the complex. The bodies had just reached the sunny sands when the door began to open – the wizard lock was dispelled. Senef had no choice but to unleash an insect plague again, and hope that the enemy had no way through. Whether he could not, or would not, Laukshar did not pursue through the insect plague. Shikra brought forth her ring of djinni summoning and called on her servant to begin to carry the dead back to the Oasis. By nightfall, the demoralized band were back at the Oasis of the White Palm.
Now came the terrible task of restoring the fallen. Wazir returned easily and seemingly unaffected. Ethlyn and Zoya came back exhausted, requiring two weeks of bed rest, but both feared lingering spiritual effects. Rakh, Dornethan, and Umar paid a heavy price, their souls having to be dragged back from the afterlife in a brutish fashion that lessened their connection to the divine (-3 WIS!) and left them utterly exhausted (30 days rest). Balen, Ceara, and Sapphira did not come back at all – and so Senef resorted to reincarnation.
Sapphira reincarnated as a male Nicean thief, a scruffy, lank, and in every way unimpressive character. Ceara, formerly a Tirenean male who had reincarnated as an elven spellsword, now reincarnated as a Southern Argollëan female fighter. Then Senef turned to Balen. All were shocked when the hard-bitten warmage returned as a comely female Elven spellsword. “I always knew I was meant to wield a sword,” said Ballena.
With so many casualties, the Fated were in disarray. They decided to wait for a month in the Oasis of the White Palm to give their party members time to fully recuperate. When Bechir returned to the Oasis with the part’s alchemical and research supplies, the arcanists seized the opportunity to engage in magical research.
Ballena began work on a new spell. The work was not yet complete, but the spellsword promised great things when it was ready. Suad identified various items for the party, figuring out the workings of several magic items they had never identified, including Shikra’s brooch of shielding and a curious statue which provided enough bread to feed ten men. Shikra pursued alchemy, formulating a potion of invulnerability from three phase tiger pelts, and experimenting with a potion of climbing using five huge tarantula mandibles.
Soon it was time for the Festival of the Reaping, the annual celebration of the arrival of the harvest. During the Festival, a fire is kept lit all night, every night, while little children are known to run around “playing at Reaper” in the shadows. Suad performed great feats of illusion each night, greatly impressing the villagers. Ethlyn befriended the children of the Oasis with gifts of candies and trinkets. Mahmud attempted to go shopping for festival supplies, but his wife, Alia, instead that as first wife this was her place, and handled all the domestic affairs.
After a month of luxurious living (11,800gp living expenses), the Sandvoyager’s Guild quarters were transformed, with beautiful decorations, silk hangings, and cushions everywhere. Many of the local villagers were being employed as servants and the wealth was attracting traders to dare the desert.
Along with the traders came reports from Zoya’s spy network:
· Heydar (Ber-Gathy): “A riot broke out in the Old Quarter as soon as the legion moved out. There’s no love for the Empire here.”
· Abiram (Alakyrum): “The Patriarch of the Great Mosque has been having clandestine meetings in his chambers, but I could not discern with whom.”
· Bartimi (Alakyrum): “The Butcher has left Tavic Marcello, Sacker of Cynidicea, in charge of Alakyrum.”
· Cainan: “The great hero, Abdulla al-Rassan, last of the Swords of Imran, is leading a cell of rebels seeking independence for Opelenea.”
Amidst these reports also came word that several of her spies were caught, but none faced charges worse than eavesdropping.
It was by now the 9th of Vinethelen (early fall), and the party decided it wanted revenge on Laukshar the Leaking for the hideous blow he had dealt them at the Tomb of the Sarcophagus Legion. They had done some reconnaissance via magical means, and interrogated their Thrassian captive-recruit. The latter, having been converted to Lawful alignment, was illuminated in the Light of Imran and given the name Mohammed by Mahmud and Rakh.
They arrived at the Tomb on the 10th. They decided to approach cautiously, wary of glyphs of death. This wariness proved wise – six summoned berserkers died in agonizing ways to traps laid by the malicious Laukshar. Neverthless, the group pressed on, deeper into the Tomb, until finally they confronted the hideous being.
Laukshar was covered in gaping wounds and rotting festers. Flies swirled around him like a tempest of filth, and these creatures were his to command, swarming over various members of the Fated and paralyzing them into inactivity. Worse, Laukshar was a powerful necromancer, and he had brought back all of the creatures that the Fated had slain in their prior battle – the serpent-scorpions were at full strength, and the Thrassian guards were now skeletal warriors.
Ballena dealt with the spiders by unleashing a devastating fireball onto them, but a moment later Laukshar’s insects swarmed her and she was unable to cast again. Laukshar himself then began to cast a deadly flame strike from behind his wall of guardians. This spell might have wrecked the party, had Androcles not somehow managed to toss his magic sword past four Thrassian skeletons and into the mummy, disrupting his casting. Realizing the danger, Mahmud plunged forward in a bold over-run that carried him past the Thrassians and at Laukshar, where he dealt a rain of deadly blows. Rakh behind him cut down the undead Thrassians.
With Laukshar destroyed, the party fell back from the dungeon. Several of their number had been poisoned by the skeleton-scorpions, but Senef’s healing arts were able to treat them. The next day, they re-entered the Tomb.
They approached Laukshar’s lair warily. They soon found themselves in a stone vault adorned with complex hieroglyphs on all sides. The party was terrified these might be glyphs of warding, until Ethlyn managed to decode the writing and reported it was some sort of spell formula. Shikra and Suad soon realized that the walls contained the formula for dozens of necromantic spells – the vault was a spell book, graven in stone! This was a great find, but none of the party felt comfortable spending weeks in the vault recording the spells.
The Fated pressed onward and soon found Laukshar’s lair. It was as awful as the creature itself: Surrounding a statue of Ninzagga were countless decapitated heads, each a zombie blinking in endless torment. Mahmud and Rakh gave mercy to these poor souls, then destroyed the statue and poured holy water on the area. Meanwhile, Suad’s divination revealed a hidden compartment in the lair, rife with old temple treasures, and these soon found new ownership.
As the party made its way out of the dungeon, Suad’s spell revealed a previously unseen secret door. Shikra ordered one of her berserkers to investigate. The warrior called back, “there’s a long natural staircase… it leads to a huge cave with a bubbling pool of mud – there’s niches in the cave walls, with some sort of statues – AHHHHH.”
The Fated pondered their next move.
I’m trying to read through the actual plays for Opelenean Nights. I’ve already done the first thread, but Opelenean Nights II seems to be broken. Is there anyway to read them? I very much enjoy this tale.
The Fated descended down onto the underground chamber beneath the Tomb of the Sarcophagus Legion. It was a huge cave dominated by a bubbling pool of mud – there were niches in the cave walls, lined with gemstones, each niche populated by a jackal-headed gargoyle. As the party advanced into these chambers, Shikra sent her berserkers ahead to wade into the mud-pool.
The bubbles, it turned out, were caused by the mud being boiling hot, a state of affairs that left the berserkers screaming in agony as their flesh steamed off their bones. Sadly, the gargoyles decided to use this occasion to animate and attack. They were perilously tough, and Saphokos lost a hand in the fighting. By the time the gargoyles were defeated, the berserkers had finished dying in horrible agony and vanished back to…wherever summoned berserkers come from.
Zoya soon set about prying all of the gemstones from the niches, a 12,000gp value. Shikra was convinced that the mud pool held further treasure and tried to convince Androcles to wade in to investigate, hinting that he’d be better off dead than living as a neanderthal. After much wrangling, Senef resolved the question by spirit-walking into the mud pool, discovering it was nothing more or less than a boiling pit of mud heated by the earth.
Heading back upstairs, the party returned to Laukshar the Leaking’s lair, to investigate a hidden compartment they’d previously noted. The compartment was filled with platinum pieces. Shikra summoned berserkers to gather all the treasure. Sadly, the first of these hapless servants expired when a hidden trap in the treasure pile sliced off her arms. Two more berserkers died in dismembered agony before Ethlyn got frustrated and jammed the trap with a big piece of rock. Clearly, the horrors visited upon the Fated must have left them callous about life and death, for they were allowing their servants to suffer horrendous pain rather than be bothered to check for traps. In any event, once the trap was dealt with, the platinum treasure was quickly scooped up, along with a mysterious scroll that purported to transport its reader(s) anywhere in the world, by way of the Land of the Dead…
Thus reminded of the dead, the Fated decided to investigate the actual crypt wherein lay the Sarcophagus Legion. This vast vault held over 500 sarcophagi. But what did the sarcophagi hold? Skeletons? Zombies? Wights? Mummies? Worse? What would happen if the Fated were to desecrate the vile altar that overlooked the grim cemetery? The altar desecrated awakens centuries of foes for the Fated, warned the spirits.
Despite this dreadful warning, the party seemed intent on destroying the altar and awakening the slumbering undead. Normally Suad, as the voice of wisdom, would counsel against such things, but he had recently discovered a new use for his crystal ball “You must teach me ways of pleasure such that my husband never strays,” he heard the beautiful Princess Alia say, as he scryed her tent. “I will teach you such secrets as no man may ever know, for it would turn even the most pure of heart to depravity,” said her hired instructor, a famous Alakyrum concubine…
Shikra, uncertain of the right path, decided to contact certain dark powers which she dared not name. Channeling her black arts, she reached out, risking her sanity and soul. When her meditation undead, she reported back that “If we attack the Sarcophagus Legion, it will awaken other undead in this complex, but if we attack other undead in this complex, it likely will not awaken the Legion. Moreover, fire will do little against the Legion; we would need magic.” These revelations persuaded the Fated to leave the Sarcophagus Legion at rest – for now. The party headed out to rest and explore further tomorrow.
On the 13th of Vinethelen, they re-entered the tomb, this time heading towards the so-called Tombs of Kings in the northern half of the complex. Knocking open the door that sealed this section, they sent their berserkers ahead to explore. As these mujahedeen strode forward, sarcophagi opened in hidden alcoves, and countless millions of locusts began to spill forth. More and more and more… Fireball could not kill them all. Sleep spell could not stun them all. The Fated fled desperately, sealing the door behind them. Again the excruciated wails of the summoned berserkers rang through the halls as their living flesh was devoured by the monstrous insect swarms. The very stone of the tomb-door began to crack under the pressure of the chitinous armada. Then in a blink Shikra knocked the door open, and Ballena and Suad unleashed more fire and sleep…the insectoid assault was ended.
Though shaken, the Fated decided to proceed ahead. They soon came to a grotto with a beautiful pool in its middle and a copper disc on the ceiling. Ethlyn and Bellona spotted a hidden balcony near the ceiling, and a lever that might raise or lower it. The Fated left the room while Shikra summoned her minions. She then ordered the hapless berserkers to pull the level in the room. This triggered a powerful magnetic force that caused the metal-armored berserkers to hurtle to the ceiling. A moment later, horrific four-armed bone golems strode out a hidden room. These creatures, carrying no metal, were undisturbed by the magnet; they deactivated the lever and held their bone spears upward. The berserkers were impaled gruesomely as they fall onto the bone spikes. The Fated justified this horror because it meant the trap was sprung. The party quickly attacked, and was dispatched the golems before they could activate the lever again.
Pressing forward, the Fated now came to another trapped room. The chamber featured a sunken floor, filled with quicksand, and a ceiling that sloped so low that a man could not hope to even crawl through the room without going through the quicksand. The Fated stared glumly at the wet, sandy muck ahead. Then Shikra summoned more berserkers. The first of these strode forward, making it only a few feet into the quicksand before being pulled under by something. A trickle of red blood mixed with the sand. A second berserker met the same fate. At this point, Shikra had decided enough was enough, and she drew forth a wand of paralyzation, unleashing enough charges to paralyze every living thing in the entire room several times over. In this way, the foul pack of blood worms that lived in the quicksand were dispatched.
The Fated decided that they could not have been the only party to face this trap, and decided to thoroughly search the quicksand. They soon found several corpses, which they dragged to the surface. These bodies proved to be long-dead adventurers of a seemingly chaotic persuasion, judging by their holy symbols. That said, they possessed several items of power, most notably a set of gauntlets of ogre power which Mahmud claimed, as well as bracers of defense, fastened in the shape of coiled serpents, which Senef seized.
And they strode forward…
We're working on it!
I’m imagining this control room as in Cabin In The Woods that’s answering the summons spell, porting in cloned berserkers, and then monitoring the results.
The party continued to explore the Tomb of the Sarcophagus Legion. Past the quicksand, they found the way blocked by a collapsed stone door that Zoya estimated would take six hours of manual labor with picks and shovels to dig through. Not being inclined to unnecessary manual labor, the party decided to fall back in favor of exploring a door they’d left unexplored earlier.
That door had a sinister-looking “open palm” graven onto its face, with a single keyhole in the middle of the palm. When Zoya attempted to pick this keyhole, the stone palm suddenly animated into a rocky fist, which came within an inch of crushing her. Ballena rushed forward to help, piercing the stone with her magical spear War Brand; horrifically, the stone fist seized her weapon from her grip and sundered it! The party, proceeding more cautiously, managed to smash the stone fist after a minute of fighting, but it was not clear how to pass through the door it had guarded. Ultimately, Suad knocked it open.
The treasure beyond was worth the struggle. In addition to 20 pounds of gold coin, there was a half-size ceremonial chariot of gold, a marvelous jeweled chess set, a silver mirror, and a ceremonial basin. Mixed in with these mundane treasures were a magical amulet fastened in the shape of a scorpion; a necklace bearing an all-seeing eye on a pyramid; and a Zaharan khopesh, its hilt fastened in the shape of a scorpion. Rakh claimed the necklace, though its powers were not evident to him, while Shikra claimed the scorpion scarab, and Bellona claimed the khopesh to replace her lost spear.
Most curious of all was a mummified crocodile, painted with runes. When Suad examined this crocodile closely, he unleashed a powerful spell – and found himself accompanied by a crocodile companion that appeared as the mummified crocodile crumbled into dust. “All the gods be praised!” he said. “GRAWWRGHGGHGH” said his crocodile, which Suad understood to mean, “I am pleased to meet you, wise scholar. Are these other two reptiles also in your service?” The creature tilted its head at the two Thrassian Gladiators. “Yes, they work for me” said Suad. The crocodile gave a toothy grin. “It is excellent to be in the service of such a great magician!”
Laden with loot, and a crocodile on a flying carpet, the Fated decided to return to the Oasis to deposit there treasures. The return trip was uneventful. Back at the Oasis, Mahmud vanished into his harem, where his wife was waiting to teach him new things she had learned. In the mean time, Bechir, the Fated’s hired caravaneer, was dispatched with funds to launch a 120-camel caravan to ply the trade routes through the desert and into Alakyrum. Bellona had just settled down to begin spell research when Mahmud, emerged exhausted but seemingly quite pleased, the next day. “Imran be praised,” he said. “Let us now finish our work at the Tomb.”
With picks and shovels in hand, the party soon excavated into the last room of the complex. Within they were confronted by an ancient Zaharan vampire and his undead Thrassian minions. These foul creatures were dispatched after a hard fight, fortunately without any of the party being afflicted by the deadly touch of the vampire. In its passing, the Fated collected a valuable golden gorget and a magical whip, which Shikra seized.
Only two mysteries remained within the complex: What to make of the strange sarcophagus that led into a seemingly endless pit; and what to do about the Sarcophagus Legion itself. Senef’s divinations offered answers. With regard to descending into the black pit, “If into the Pit of Fangs you descend, you will never be seen again.” With regard to fighting the Sarcophagus Legion, “paralyzed by centuries of terror, you die for your terror error.” “That seems very clear cut,” said Shikra.
Forewarned by these dire auguries, the Fated left the remaining mysteries of the complex behind and headed to the surface. There Shikra summoned her djinni servant and commanded it to seal up the steps into the Tomb with stone, and then conceal the stone entrance itself with a permanent illusion. “Let none tread here, so that the Sarcophagus Legion is never awakened!” “Your wish is my command, oh voluptuous one.”
The party returned to the Oasis of the White Palm, where Bellona made it clear that she required several weeks of isolation in order to finish her research into the secrets of the elements. The elven spellsword was very firm on this.
The next day, the Fated departed the Oasis to seek out the Pyramid of Amek, a very annoyed elf in tow. “I just need 2 weeks. 2 weeks!” “You can have your two weeks just as soon as someone dies,” said Mahmud. “Knowing where we’re going, that will probably be soon,” Shikra cheerfully offered.
On the 17th of Vinethelen, the Fated reached the Pyramid of Amek. Illuminated by the setting sun, it was a magnificent structure, hundreds of feet square at its base, soaring upwards hundreds of feet, a master piece of ancient Zaharan engineering. A formidable temple complex was built adjacent to the pyramid, and that seemed to promise to be the best entrance in.
The party camped out a few hundred yards from the Pyramid, planning to enter it at daybreak. These plans were interrupted by a midnight attack: Dozens of desert nomads assaulted their camp in the night. The watch barely managed to rouse the party in time to combat the assault, and it was a harsh battle. The nomads were berserker-like in the fury, fighting headless of casualties, and they were supported by clerics with dark magic. Still, the Fated triumphed, and as dawn broke they lit pyres to bury the fallen and praised Imran for another glorious victory.
It should be fixed now.
What?! No dead berserkers? No pitched screams of agony? No hacked limbs and hollowed torsos of the berserker horde?
sigh
Oh well, maybe next session.
It was the 17th Vinethelen. The party headed towards the great pyramid of Amek two hours after dawn. As they approached the walled temple that gave access to the pyramid, they espied observers on the balconies – desert nomads, swaddled in robes. The nomads had composite bows at ready and warned the group away in harsh Opelenean. Ballena had none of it: “Be gone from this place, or we will destroy you!” the fiery elf warned.
Seeing the group’s numbers, the nomads fell back into the temple interior. The Fated clambered up the steps and entered the dusky temple. Zoya and Mahmud took the lead in the exploration, Zoya investigating each location and then Mahmud striding forward. This puzzled Shikra, who thought these risks were best absorbed by her summoned berserkers. Rakh agreed, saying “why don’t we summon our…10’ poles?” But Mahmud seemed to be finished asking others to take risks for him.
In any event, the temple had clearly been occupied quite recently and the party found no traps, and little of the dust and detritus that they’d expected. They found bunks and beds, suggesting 20 or more desert nomads lived here, and several statues of the great satrap Amek, many of them bearing star sapphires for eyes. These were claimed when it became clear they were not trapped.
One statue of Amek radiated magic, and led into a secret closet. Cryptic hieroglyphs on the back of the statue said “Though his spirit lies far from us in heaven westward, into this likeness do his spirit come that he may commune with men.” Suad tried to speak with Amek. “Oh mighty satrap! What traps will we encounter here?” The statue said nothing, not to him or anyone else.
At the back of the temple, the party found an exit that led to stairs that ascended the face of the pyramid. Here was a way into the great structure! Since the nomad guards hadn’t been found in the temple, the Fated surmised that the nomads must have retreated to the higher point in the pyramid. Suad was quickly able to confirm this with his crystal ball. The party began to ascend up the steps in pursuit.
The nomad guards showed themselves at the top of the steps. “There is no need for bloodshed,” they called down. “Turn back and leave this sacred place and you may live another day, idolaters!” The party responded to this veiled threat with bloodshed. One of the nomad guards was quickly dispatched and the other was captured. Ethlyn set about interrogating him. “I will tell you nothing!” the nomad spat. Bellona slapped him in the face. “Show some respect to the lady!” Ethlyn looked over in confusion. “Aren’t you a lady now, Bellona?” The two beauties laughed, then killed the useless guard.
Zoya now volunteered to scout ahead. Shrouded in her magical cloak and boots, she was undetectable. Entering the pyramid, she found a route forward, as well as a pair of rooms, one to the west and the other to the east. Both contained large statues of Amek, but the rightmost statue was poised holding a brazier of ever-burning flame, with steps leading up to the brazier. This statue was guarded by a warband of nomads, seemingly on watch.
With a powerful divination, Suad was able to read the mind of the nomad’s leader. He learned that he thought the brazier was somehow key to entering the pyramid, and that the nomad chief and his minions had disappeared therein some days ago. More importantly, Suad discovered that the nomad leader was hoping the Fated would get lost in the northern corridor.
Having a dislike of doing what other people want, the Fated instead resolved to attack these nomads directly. Shikra turned the spellsword invisible and the party attacked. Between earth’s teeth, a quick blast from a wand of paralyzation, and an assault by Mahmud and Rakh, the battle was over. Amidst the dead, Ethlyn discovered a white-leather book with gold bindings, entitled The Tome of Amek. While the writing was in code, the canny bard was able to decipher it. The first half of this ancient work purported to be a diary by the ancient satrap, explaining how Amek’s father’s tomb had been despoiled whilst he was a young man, and this outrage had led him to dedicate himself to making a theft-proof tomb, such not his opportunity to live again during the Awakening would not be lost. The second half of this ancient book seemed to be by a long-dead Zaharan priest, and offered cryptic hints about the tomb.
The party now turned its attention to the fiery brazier. A marked coin tossed into the brazier instantly disappeared; Suad’s crystal ball located it, in an octagonal room with a copper domed ceiling, and numerous exits concealed in an orange mist. Levers jutted out from every wall. A skeleton seemed to point off towards one exit. The Fated surmised the brazier to be a teleportation pad that would take them into the pyramid. Just to confirm their suspicions, Shikra sent a berserker into the flames, and he emerged next to the coin. Senef demanded an augury from the spirits. “If you escape from the maze’s worst, you will be the very first!” The group decided the risk merited a full communion. Do we have to go through the maze to get the tomb of Amek? Yes. Are there any other external entrances we could use? No. Is the skeleton pointing at a safe path? No.
The party decided that exploring this “maze” would require its full strength, and headed back to camp. The next day, 18th Vinethelen, they returned. Zoya volunteered to take point and stepped onto the brazier. When she confirmed that the far side was safe the rest of the group came through. Over the next thirty minutes, they painstakingly searched the room. Zoya deduced that all of the levers were attached to an apparatus in the walls. Hieroglyphs read “pull me” in every known language. The levers could be pulled upward.
The lever seemed suspicious so Zoya decided to investigate the strange orange mist. Tying a rope about herself, she walked out of an exit into the mist. Almost immediately she found herself baffled and confused. “Where…am…I?” she wondered. Finding a rope about herself, she followed it back and re-emerged in to the chamber she’d left, clarity returning to her mind as she exited the mist.
The lever now seemed less suspicious than the mist. Senef augured the likely impact of pulling it, and learned “where the lever goes, you shall follow!” So Mahmud pulled it up. This proved a bad idea, as it activated a magnetic field in the copper dome overhead that immediately yanked all of the metal-armored characters up to the ceiling and pinned them there. “Didn’t we encounter a lever in a copper-domed room once before that did the exact same thing?” shouted Shikra at her pinned friends. “Yes! I shouldn’t have pulled it! up Fine!” said Mahmud. “Just get us down….Safely!”
Getting everyone down from the 30’ ceiling was as easy as yanking the lever down, but this would have been a painful fall, so the group found a safer way that took 20 minutes and required four potions of climbing, a potion of slipperiness, and a flying carpet. Once everyone was safe and sound, they realized their only choice was to head into the mist. This was a risk that required careful management.
First, the Fated dispatched a skeleton into the orange fog, while Suad monitored its progress with the crystal ball. Though the mist was opaque, the skeleton did occasionally emerge from the mists at periodic intervals, suggesting that the maze was a mix of magically confusing misty hallways and small rooms. So enlightened, they strapped themselves together and stepped forward one at a time, with the party members outside the mist calling out guidance to their magically bewildered comrades…
SESSION FORTY-FOUR
The Fated feared that they would be trapped in the misty maze forever. Suad worsened their fears when his detect magic spell revealed that everything around them was enchanted – the entire complex, not just the orange mist. “Perhaps we are under the sea, or in another plane of existence,” he muttered. “More likely we’re asleep and this is all a dream,” said Senef. “I think we all died in the caves of Kirkuk and everything since has been a dream within a dream,” proffered the ever-optimistic Shikra.
Seeing that the arcanists would be of no guidance, Zoya took charge. The speedy thief was soon slipping from room to room, leaving markings of her passage with coded glyphs to mark where she entered and exited. Guided by these glyphs, Suad soon had a working, albeit discontinuous, map of the maze sketched out. It seemed that Zoya was taking a great risk by traveling solo, but in fact her elven cloak and boots made her almost undetectable. The party was somewhat more detectable, and soon attracted the attention of a wandering band of minotaurs.
By the time the horned foes had been dispatched, Zoya had found a promising path: A route that led to a room, 30’ by 30’ with a domed ceiling overhead surrounded by a balcony. Treasure chests were piled on the far end of the room, while skeletal corpses lay piled on the left hand wall. This was, if nothing else, much more interesting than the endless orange mist that the party had otherwise encountered, so they soon conglomerated by the room.
Zoya knew that the room was trapped, so the party used great caution in advancing. Mahmud first tossed his great helm in. A spear flew from the far wall and struck like a thunderbolt, pinning the helm to the wall near the pile of corpses. “Ah, that’s a strong spear trap! I presume it strikes anything moving within,” said Suad, waving his staff within the room. The mage barely pulled it away in time to avoid it being sprung from his hands by another flying spear.
“I shall obscure the room with smoke,” said Senef. His shamanic powers soon conjured an obscuring cloud within the chamber. Suad waved his staff within again, and again came the remorseless attack of the spears. “Spears don’t have eyes to be obscured,” said Zoya. “It senses movement of matter.”
As the entire party was composed of matter, this seemed to be a prickly problem. The Fated soon began a heated discussion. “We should summon a rust monster and allow it to rust all of the iron spears as they fly through the walls!” “We should see if we can run the spear trap out of ammunition!” “We should grab lots of dead bodies and use them as meat shields while we run for the treasure!” None of these plans meet with great acclaim.
Eventually, Suad cast his detect secret doors spell and drank a potion of gaseous form. The misty mage then drifted into the room. His airy aspect did not trigger the trap, and his detection spell revealed that there was a secret door on the balcony directly overhead! He drifted through it, and confirmed that it was an exit from the maze.
Shikra now grudgingly brought forth a much-treasured wall of stone scroll and used it to shape a stone staircase that blocked the spear-trap and allowed the party to safely trot up to the balcony. “That was easy,” said Ethlyn, oblivious to the dagger-eyes of the warlock.
Suad, still gaseous, noticed that there was a sigil carved on the floor on the far side of the secret door. Fearful that this was another ruinous glyph of warding that would harm his comrades if they passed through the door, he halted the party until he’d had time to decipher it. Fortunately, his fears were misplaced! Indeed, he was overcome with giggles when he read it- laughing gas, as it were – for the symbol was merely a compass sigil pointing to north.
The Fated passed through the secret door and left the terrible maze. Despite their fears, they had spent not even two hours wandering within. They soon came upon a trio of hooded figures muttering in prayer, “Bar-Ethel” – true death in Ancient Zaharan. These figures turned out to be wraiths, but they were dispatched before they could harm the party. Shikra managed to seize control of one of the wraiths and forced it to explain itself. The undead had once been a priest of old Zahar, and it confirmed only that the great pharaoh Amek and his staff of ruling and star gem did lie within the complex. “Bar-Ethel”, it turned out, was a sword of undead slaying, a pale white scimitar of antiquity. Remembering his quest under Imran to destroy the Thrassian undead, Mahmud passed Cyclone of the Four Quarters to Ethlyn and took up True Death as his blade.
At this portentous moment, Suad re-coalesced in physical form, quite naked, prompting Ballena to note “it’s not that cold in here, is it?” After Suad dressed, the party pressed onward. They soon came upon a pair of large sarcophagi. One sarcophagus was a secret door to a hidden chamber; the other held a mummified corpse, a victim of “botched necromancy” per Ethlyn’s diagnosis.
Past this necromantic failure the party came upon a huge block of stone, graven with dozens of coffins. Evil radiated strongly from them, and the party was certain this was a large nest of undead. “Is this the most mummies we’ve ever seen?” asked Senef. “There were way more mummies at Kirkuk,” countered Mahmud. “Those were actually Thrassian zombies, not mummies,” said Senef. Mahmud decided to prove Senef wrong by opening the graves, but as it happened the occupants were actually a half-dozen desert ghouls. Bar-Ethel proved itself a formidable blade, and Mahmud cut down all 6 foes before anyone else had even drawn their weapons.
Past the graves of the desert ghouls, the Fated came to a great gallery or kitchen of some sort. The ceiling was cracked and torn asunder, one crack being so large as to hold several men. While wise and cautious me would normally avoid a room whose ceiling was clearly near collapse, the Fated is not composed of such men. Instead Suad, Mahmud, and Rakh flew up the great crack by means of Suad’s flying carpet. The crack became a shaft, and the shaft led to a rough-hewn chamber; and this chamber had a far entrance, and the far entrance was guarded by a dao (earth genie) and four mummies.
Since they were approaching from the rear, the party might have escaped without being noticed, but the sight of the mummies paralyzed them with terror. Frozen in place, they were eventually spotted. Their hearts beat with horror as the dao conjured up a wall of stone that sealed off the path behind them. The paralysis broke as the mummies attacked, but Rakh was knocked unconscious by their fell blows. Fortunately, Mahmud held off the other mummies long enough for Senef to dispel the dao’s wall of stone and the heroes fled down the shaft.
They might have continued their retreat had the dao not used his powers over earth to attempt to crush them with a landslide. The enraged members of the Fated decided to teach this genie a lesson! Ethlyn was enchanted with ogre strength, and then she, Mahmud, and Androcles soared upward again on the flying carpet while the rest of the party manually scaled up a rope dangled behind. Again, Bar-Ethel proved its worth as Mahmud began to carve up the mummies. Meanwhile Ethlyn took Cyclone of the Four Quarters to bear against the dao, wading through its feeble stone magics, ignoring its rocky attacks, and cutting the great genie down.
The formidable foes turned out to have been guarding a canopic jar which held a still-beating heart. “Is this the heart of Amek?” said Shikra. Suad recalled that the genie and mummies seemed to have been guarding another entrance, with their backs to the shaft. “My friends – I believe it is – and I think we have found it by flying up the back door!” he said.
Mahmud unsheathed Bar-Ethel again. With two great blows he cracked the crystal canopic jar, and with a third he smote the ancient, undead heart.
The question you have to ask yourselves after destroying a phylactery-type item: Are you dealing with a Lich which is destroyed when you destroy its phylactery or one that merely needs its phylactery to resurrect? I’m sure the PCs will find out soon enough.
The question the Fated actually asked themselves was “where can we get some rest? We’re all out of spells.”
Yeah, finding every metaphorical beehive of ancient evil in the desert and hitting it with a big stick is tiring work. It does seem that they are gaining both the strength to break the hives they hit and the wisdom to avoid the ones they cannot break.
Wisdom, or fear. It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes.