The Pyramid of Shadows (Inactive)

Game Master 137ben

Yes, you are on the second floor.
To the east, there is another, smaller corridor leading further south, which appears to be empty. Further east, a set of stairs, about thirty feet wide, leading up to the third floor. It is far less grand than the stairway you came up to get here.

Still further east lies another set of double doors. These are carved from pale, nearly white wood. As you near the eastern edge of the corridor, the temperature drops considerably.

A lone kobold stands guard at the east door. At least it resembles a kobold, though its arms appear unusually frail, its scales are a shimmering grey, and it glows like a fey creature.

"Halt, explain thyselves!"
The kobold calls out as you approach.
"What business have you in this region of the Pyramid?"
His accent is reminiscent of natives of Arborea, with a bit of a draconic accent mixed in, though he speaks clear Common. He holds a spear in front of himself.

Mundarion says, "We would like to speak with Thoraska."

Diplomacy Check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

The 'kobold' furrows his brow, before responding with a growl.
"And what do you imagine gives you such a right? Mistress Thoraska is not to be disturbed now, for she slumbers deeply."

any other enemies around? i am thinking of readying an action to shoot him if he goes to flee from us

There are no other enemies that you can see.

Mundarion says, "The information we have is too sensitive to be discussed with anybody except Thoraska. However, there may be some wisdom in trying to find a better time to talk to her. Do you know when she went to sleep and when she would be likely to wake up again?"

Diplomacy Check: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

"Well,"
The kobold looks around nervously, stammering for a moment before he answers
"My mistress is wont to slumber often, as it is Her nature. I cannot say when She will arise."

Mundarion says, "Hmmm. This sounds like something my companions and I are going to have to think about and talk over."

Mundarion then leads the group far enough away that the kobold can't hear what they say. He makes sure that De is the farthest one from the kobold and that other group members block the kobold's view of De.

Mundarion says in a low voice, "Our two main choices are to go for a combat option or to try to finesse this somehow. If we go for combat we're going to have to plan on killing just about everybody in the blizzard caves including Thoraska who is probably a white dragon. And we don't know how combat capable she is, nor do we know if we have a reasonable chance of getting to her before she wakes up."

"Trying to finesse this would likely involve getting into Thoraska's good graces somehow and then betraying her. If we did not kill her outright when we did that we would have made a serious enemy for life. While Karavakos did not ask us to kill Thoraska, I see no way to get the information he wants without talking to her and making friends with her first. If we kill Thoraska though, the information Karavakos wants is moot."

"Yet another option is to see if we can get Thoraska's help in taking out Karavakos, though I am not sure what we could offer her for her help. Ideas anybody?"

"I am no diplomat. But if you can get Thorashka on our side against Karavakos, so much the better."

Psst, players? What are you going to do?

"We have no paeticular grievance with this supposed draconic, though that has not stopped us before from initiating aggression..."

The githyanki pauses momentarily, thinking.

"I agree with Gemheart - your option of alliance is for now, the safer option. Let us move closer and closer to Kravakoss by stepping from uneasy alliance to uneasy alliance - if we topple a stone or two along the way then so be it..."

Mundarion says, "I mentioned an alliance as a possibility, though I'm not sure how we would pull that off. We still need the tome of Vecna's breath to satisfy Hozelea's boss so we can free the harpies. The easiest thing might simply be to go back and try to kill the Karavakos splinter."

"I repeat, if anybody has any ideas, especially with regard to the alliance suggestion, I would like to hear them."

Sorry school at me
De'Arv'Ki flicks her ears slowly and remains out of sight. "I have only... one idea with... an alliance - dragonssss,... if ssshe doesss happen... to be one,... are very fond of... treassssure... Perhapsss we can... tempt her with... sssomething valuable...?"

Mundarion says, "So what do we have that's valuable enough to bribe a dragon with? Or where could we go to get it? The only thing I can think of off hand is the room with the demon in it. And all we know for sure is it will be one heck of a fight with a lot of traps to avoid."

"Thus I repeat - we are at the mercy of uneasy alliances of convenience. We skip from offering each new lord, boss or self-styled Imperator the treasure of another, until we are running from each to please the other. For now, let us treat with this Thoraska, perhaps even explain our own predicament, and thus owning it, hope she can deliver us further from all else."

Yessai wipes a gauntleted hand across her face.

"I yearn for freedom, as I am sure all do you. But without treasure of our own, or a meagre victory to sustain us, we are bereft of greater options. Unless we either stop and set ourselves up as petty lairds in a held zone of our own - of which we appear not to have yet found one not already unoccupied - or wipe a few of these meddlers from the board. And we can do not the latter without one of their number's aid. Gaaah. I tire of this place."

For all of her gloom wrought speech the githyanki appears unperturbed, as if such verbiage were mere passing the time of day from one gith to another.

Mundarion says, "Be that as it may, for the moment I do not see waking up a dragon out of a sound sleep to tell her that we have squat and need her help to be a wise course of action. So to pass the time, why don't we check out this level more?"

Once at least two of you agree on a course of action, I'll assume that's what the group does.

"Yes. Let us check more and come back to see if Thorashka has awoken. We should kill something in the mean time, to replenish our morale. Or at least find something of value."

Back towards the west, where you entered the floor, there are two corridors you passed to explore. One is narrow, about eight feet wide, and unadorned. The other, directly south of the Grand Stairs, is twenty feet wide. Along the walls of the wide corridor hang eight large, bizarre, masks depicting what might be described as faces of Far Realm aberrations. A door lies between two of the masks on the east side of the corridor. Another door lies at the south end of this corridor.

And here is a map of the second floor of the Pyramid, which I will expand as you explore it.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26
De'Arv'Ki quickly points out the glowing energy at the apex of each mask, fur standing up slightly. "Thisss doesssn't bode well..."

Perception check: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (20) + 16 = 36 Checking for traps.

Knowledge (Arcana) check: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Mundarion says, "Unless we want to risk getting teleported to some spot that only the Sovereign Host knows the location of we should probably go elsewhere. Let's check the narrow corridor."

"Hmm. I would like to think that these would teleport us outside the pyramid, but i shan't be so hopeful."

Mundarion replies, "Maybe, but there are places that are worse to be than here."

Knowledge (Arcana) DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14
Perception DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

Yessai murmurs something and merely nods in assent at Mundarion's comment.

Aside from the sharp rocks in the floor that you noticed earlier, you don't notice any traps in the wide corridor.

Mundarion says, "There are tiny holes in the west wall of the narrow corridor."

As the group enters the narrow corridor Mundarion is on the lookout for triggering mechanisms and other trap related problems.

Taking 10 on his Perception skill checks with his trap finding bonus will give him a result of 26.

"Holes. Off the top of my head - gas, bolts, vermin, scalding water. Likely not ventilation or some method of allowing sound to pass." Yessai offers, again without hint of annoyance. The doughty githyanki grips her blade tight.

"Hang on. Do we have a method of making it seem as if we pass through? Or could Dee climb through without walking?"

Mundarion says, "If I rested for a day and swapped some spells out I could summon a creature to send down the corridor. But it would last only a very short time before the spell expired."

The ceiling is low enough that De'arv'ki might be able to climb to it, and pass through the hallway without being seen through the holes. Whether or not she will figure out a way to get the rest of you across without becoming targets is another matter. is another matter.
Also,

Mundarion says, "There are creatures of some kind behind that wall who could see out through those holes."

De'Avr'Ki blinks slowly and tilts her head to the left, looking at the ceiling with a critical eye. "I could ssscout... out the corridor,... but my rope... isssn't long enough... for the whole corridor... and I'm not sssure... any of you could... ussse it even if... I piton it from... the ceiling... Perhapsss I could take... your familiar with me Mundarion,... if it hidesss in... my pack it ssshould... benefit from my ability... to hide from sssight..."

"I could just blast some fire through the holes and see what happens?"

Mundarion says, "I don't like the idea of starting a fight we might not have to make. Right now we have excellent reason to be careful and suspicious, but no reason to get hostile."

"De, as far as your request goes, Nightwing really doesn't like you, and I'm not sure what you need him for."

Where/when did your familiar develop an opinion on De'arv'ki? Or is it just a cat and bird thing?

It's always been a cat and bird thing, exacerbated by De's comments back when we started playing that she wanted to eat the owl. Also, I am unclear what benefit De seeks to gain by having it with her. All I can get from the familiar are indications of its emotional state. Which would be stressed out and anxious while being carried in somebody else's backpack. Furthermore, the owl is stealthy enough on its own it is almost invisible in its own right.

"I remember with little pleasure the chamber studded with holes that spears emerged from. I do not relish another encounter with foes or hazards we cannot impact. We have all the time in the world in this place to use our wits and not rush. "

The githyanki smiles at Mundarion's statement, and make an apologetic gesture to Dee.

"I think Gemheart may have something - though please allow, I am extrapolating somewhat. Perhaps we could make a fire of the available stock in the very first chamber we arrived in this damn'd pyramid - bows, arrows, shields, even leather will burn. Air seems not to be in short supply in this place - we burn the corridor and... wait to see what happens. "

"Then we burn our only supply line..."

Mundarion says, "Not if we burn just bodies and only bodies. Seeing that the only other way to dispose of them would be to feed them to the otyugh we would almost be doing them a favor. As well as making things that much worse for whatever is behind the wall."

Huh....

Getting back to the entry pit poses little challenge. Something appears to have happened here since last you were present. Spots of blood are splattered around the room, and smashed teeth line the floors. A pair of gold dragonborn you haven't seen before lie dead right above the pit, with impaling from some trident-like weapon on their chests.

The pit also contains less than it did before--a great many weapons have been removed, and the heap is a full two feet shallower than before.

Perception check: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (20) + 15 = 35

Mundarion says, "That's interesting. The pit is getting refilled somehow. Also it looks like sahuagin did in the dragonborn."

Mundarion's superior elven senses allow him to observe something everyone else (probably?) missed:

Mundarion says, "It looks like there's a tunnel down there. We would have to dig through a bunch of stuff to get to it though. Looks like it might lead to some place under the sahuagin's lair."

"Hmm. Shall we go?"

Mundarion says, "Ok, let's see if you will fit."

Mundarion jumps down into the pit and starts moving things around to open a way to the tunnel.

It is about 12 an a half feet of a drop from the top of the pit to the top of the heap, but the pile of equipment is malleable enough to soften the landing, so that even one who is not a skilled acrobat can jump down unharmed.
Mundarion and Gemheart start digging out the pit, slowly but surely tossing weapons out of the pit.
Before long, however, the items on which you stand begin to russle, and a buzzing noise begins to sound.
Millions of mosquitoes rise from the cracks between the equipment, swarming around the pit and biting. These mosquitoes have an unnatural, unsettling aura around them.

Mundarion initiative: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Gemheart initiative: 1d20 ⇒ 17
Yessai initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Hozela initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Mosquito Swarm initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

There will be no grid for this encounter, as it will not be needed. The swarm is spread over the entire pit, so if you are in the pit, you are sharing a space with the swarm. It is 12 and a half feet vertically from the edge of the top of the pit to where Mundarion is. Mundarion said he was in the pit, and Gemheart (I think?) implied he is too. Yessai and De'arv'ki should specify whether they are starting in or out of the pit.

Hozela is the first to notice what is going on. From the edge of the pit's mouth, she calls down
"Alas, I can do little to these creatures. Perhaps they could be entangled, but I would hinder thee, good elf, as much as the vermin."
She holds her action.
Gemheart's turn.

Initiative order:
Hozela--20
Gemheart--17
Mundarion--10
Yessai--9
Swarm--5

I dont have either of those knowledges

i had actually planned on waiting to see what Mundarion discovered as far as a hole is concerned, but no matter.

"Similarly, there is little I can do to such small creatures."

climb: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

Gemheart attempts to leave the pit.