Walia steps back from the carrion thingy and slings a pellet at it if hits
Fistep steps into the room and readies to attack it if the creature comes forward. Ferrous, look a new beast to hone our skills upon!
Seeing the others engage the creature, Zynazyr throws his ustar at it.
Ana casts sleep on the creature, not certain that the spell will affect it, but willing to try.
Ferrous charges the creature.
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Ferrous rushes at the beast, and swings his axe at the beast. But the beast rears back out of reach.
The beast trikes at Ferrous!
Four of the beast's tentacles strike Ferrous. Ferrous feels his body stiffen.
Round 2 Initiative:
Block 1: Ana, Brathas, Ferrous, Fistep, Wallia, Zynazyr
Block 2: Carrion Crawler
Ferrous moves to stand besides the swordsman. He readies himself to bring his ax down into the creature should it come within range.
Ana steps forward, her battle axe gleaming in her hand. She brings the axe in a downward swipe towards the creature's head, tearing into flesh and bone!
Walia slings another pellet in the direction of the beast if hits
Ferrous furies swings his axe at the creature before him.
slicing through a tentacle.
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Ferrous buries his axe in the crawler's head! The creature collapses.
Combat Over.
The party enters the room. The corpse of the carrion crawler smells particularly foul. You are not sure if you want to try eating something like that.
The sarcophagus is decorated with a variety of gemstones. There are twenty worth 50 gp each, and another five worth 200 gp each. They can be pried out pretty easily.
The party searches, but does not find any traces of magic, evil, traps, or secret doors.
"Good job, my friends. I can only imagine what might have happened, had I been able to get in there."
Walia picks up his pellets if he can and then looks around the sarcophagus.
He then says, "Ferrous, that was a very well run show, my son. The gods smiled upon us that time."
Walks up to the dwarf and slaps him on the back, Great swing of ye ole axe my friend... we shall need to mount this beasts head on the wall of your home!
Did ye all see it try to tickle me? Foul beast the Carrion Crawlers. I think I will pass on the trophy. But I think maybe we should take those gems. If we ever needed to trade for water or food the would be useful.
Walia says, "It probably wouldn't be an attractive wall decoration if we were ever able to get out of this desert. I think we should search a smidge more."
Walia listens at the sarcophagus for the tell tale signs of something living inside.
"Do you want me to search the sarcophagus again for traps? You do, don't you?"
Brathas resigns himself to more grave robbing.
He thinks to himself, I'm sorry, dead charioteer. But if your grave goods help defeat Zargon I hope your soul will understand.
Nods to Brathas, If you don't mind, that would be good
"Neither Zynazyr nor I can detect any magic from within. Is there really a need to open it?"
Ferrous peers up from being in the middle of prying away a gemstone. I see no need to open the sarcophagus if there is no magical items inside. But I won't object if we do so. Dead bodies are dead bodies and have no need for the items buried with them.
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Brathas and the others spend another 10 minutes or so checking for traps, and fail to fins any. But after 10 minutes Zynazyr does manage to catch a faint glimmer of magic from within.
The companions pry open the elaborate coffin. Inside is a mummified man wrapped in a burial shroud. Strangely, he seems to be short and stocky rather than tall and slender as he is portrayed in the depictions on the walls.
Once open, Zynazyr can tell that the glimmer of magic he saw is coming from the waist area of the corpse, under the wrappings. But he also detects some magic coming from a long bundle at the corpse's hip, and he and Ana detect some magic energy coming from the eyes.
The bundle at the hip turns out to be a short sword. Around the waist of the body under the clothes are concealed a set of thieves' tools. And on the eyes are a pair of gold coins which are magical.
Though the magicians aren't sure of the magical properties of the sword or the tools, Ana realizes the coins are gold coins of tricks.
Ferrous suggests heading West and then down the Southern hallway.
Sounds good to me!
"Not the charioteer at all, but a thief? Did he steal a prime burial spot? Well, then I believe he will understand."
Brathas takes the short sword and thieves' tools if nobody objects. He follows Ferrous West and then South.
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The party returns to the corridor.
The group travels west, and then south. After the turn south, the passage runs 40', then narrows for 10', and widens again for another 20'. The passage then turns west again and fades out of sight.
At the corner is another door, leading east. The party hears nothing and detects no traps, but the door has clearly been broken open. This looks more like the work of a crowbar than the claws of an animal.
Looks like someone very strong has been this way before. I suggest we check it out lest we find said strong person at our back.
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Confident there are no traps, the party pushes the door open.
The walls of this room show painted scenes of a man signing documents and organizing tax collection. A wooden coffin that has been smashed open is lying on the floor in pieces, atop a small dais raised about 18" above the surrounding floor. Eight pale-skinned humans wearing masks stand around the coffin. They all have wounds bad enough to kill a normal person.
One of the humans looks up blearily at the part as the door opens and light shines in. "What are you doing?" it says in a coarse, distant-sounding voice. "We're supposed to be friends."
Wallia detects evil coming from these "humans."
Neither party is surprised.
Round 1 Initiative:
Block 1: Ana, Brathas, Ferrous, Fistep, Wallia, Zynazyr
Block 2: Wounded Humans
"Who are you?" Ana asks. "What do you mean that we are supposed to be friends?"
Zynazyr eyes the group suspiciously and looks to Wallia for some direction.
Steps into the room and draws his sword and shield, readying to attack if attack Stand down and state your business!
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Anything that is a gross violation of natural law will detect as evil. Whether it is immoral or not is up to your own interpretation.
Things like:
* Mind control spells (a person under a charm person spell would detect as evil, though it is the spell, not the person that is evil)
* Undead creatures
* Elementals
* Constructs (note that for the last two here, it is the act of imprisoning a spirit inside inanimate matter and forcing it to do your bidding that is evil. An object that is mindless and animated through some type of telekinesis is not evil)
* Summoned creatures and outsiders (even a good intentioned outsider has violated the rules of the universe by coming to this plane)
Evil clerics wield these kind of energies and also will detect as evil. Some magic-users also might. But ordinary humans definitely will not.
Walia seeing the inherent a-natural state of the men in this room and says, "Friends,It seems as though something has afflicted you, and we have come in order to extend you a helping hand. May I examine your wounds?" in a cautious manner.
Brathas delays for now. He has his hand on his new magic short sword, but it is not yet drawn.
Ferrous moves into the room to stand on the opposite side of the door as Fistep. He grips his axe tightly ready to drive into anyone who approaches with hostile intent.
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The "humans" begin walking towards the group, fists upraised. They move with a shambling gait that is deceptively quick.
One of them shouts, "Wait! No, don't!"
Then the creatures close to melee range and begin swinging.
But Fistep and Ferrous are ready. Nevertheless, the agility of the "humans" takes both warriors by surprise, and their strikes miss their targets.
Another one of the creatures shouts, "No, please!". And then they are upon Ferrous and Fistep.
Their fists have an unnatural power. One of them strikes Ferrous a telling blow.
Round 1 Initiative:
Block 1: Ferrous, Fistep
Block 2: Wounded Humans
Block 3: Ana, Brathas, Wallia, Zynazyr
Round 2 Initiative:
Block 1: Ana, Brathas, Ferrous, Fistep, Wallia, Zynazyr
Block 2: Wounded Humans
Ferrous will reluctantly fall back from the front line.
Brathas will draw his bow and shoot (round 1), then shoot and move back to 8:15 (round 2). He'll aim for whichever one he has the clearest shot at.
"We have a bottleneck, let's use it!"
Zynazyr is surprised by the sudden attack. "It seems not all of them want to parlay," he says as he throws his ustar and then a dagger before moving to let Wallia get to Ferrous.