Ganorok, R, and Orionet still to act.
Ganorok puts in the Portable Hole the eight platinum ingots, the 24 gold ingots and the four bags of gemstones.
He checks the scrolls and smiles, his front teeth glinting.
"Just what the doctor ordered! I hope you don't mind!"
He starts using the scrolls of cure serious wounds for healing himself.
"That is much much better!"
He takes one of the Cure Serious Wounds potions and give 2 to Glade and R, and one to Orionet.
"I think we are going to need these. Also, this should be on somebody's neck."
He shows them the Periapt of wound closure.
He stores in his Haversack the three potions of water breathing, the leather bucket containing the scroll of irresistible dance, scroll of transformation, maps and the six worthless marble figurines of merfolk with magic aura cast on them.
====
"Wait! We are not thieves! We got commissioned by your descendants! We can prove it!"
Seeing that Glade has already acted, he uses the Fireball wand from the Haversack and fires it so it explodes next to the humanoid creature in front of him (the one 25 ft. away), hoping to get the one nearest to him in the effect area too.
Then he moves behind a column in the middle of the room, to get cover.
R has been toying with one of Mouse's gifts in his hand while walking, contemplating when to use it. As the creatures appear, and fatigue setting in, he decides now is as good as any.
After Mouse fires his blast, R moves along side him.
Geez, more ghosties? What's the plan this time? R asks, with moderate concern on his face.
More creepies*?
You all smack, slash and grapple your way through the water demons in a matter of seconds. Proceeding down the stairs once more, you come to a sad vault that stands as testimony to the alarming mortality of Adellan offspring during the last thirty years of the House’s existence. A flight of stairs shrouded in fog leads up to the south, while opposite these stairs is a large stone door with the same Madusa carving as the first door you encountered.
While there are over two dozen small sarcophagi in this room, some hold more than a single occupant, as indicated on the lids. From the carved dates, it is obvious no occupant made it past the age of six—many were actually infants.
Moving on to the next room, you find large rug of Qadiran design that features prominently in the center. The chamber’s ceiling rises to a height of twenty-five feet. Ice cakes the stone doors to the east and west, unlike the doors to the north and south. A few seconds after you enter these doors fall downward into the ground and supernaturally cold air floods the room.
Two huge monstrosities of bone emerge from each door and advance on you! Just behind them are two insectoid monsters that exude hate and calculating destruction. The cold exudes from them in mind numbing waves.
Mouse shrieks!
"Be careful!"
He uses the Fireball want to blast the icy bony creatures, aiming behind them, so all four are caught in the area of effect, but without impacting his allies.
glade will strike at the one in front of him 3 times.
b and p damage and with his radiating acid
b and p damage and with his radiating acid
b and p damage and with his radiating acid
1
2
3 22
4 22
5 22
The fireball goes off and the ice devils, in spite of their insectoid heads, seems to Smile. They appear completely unharmed.
The bone devils aren't so lucky, but even they seem to be a bit less effected than you think they should have been.
A shower of counter attacks rains down on R and Orionet, but only one each makes it through their defences (for 6 damage each)
R darts up to his first target and does what R does, latches onto it and starts ripping it apart.
Orionet Begins to cast a spell.
The party takes 3 cold damage as the supernatural cold exuding from the ice devils seeps into your bones and steals your breath.
Mouse keeps using the wand of Fireballs.
glade will shift left and continue swinging at the one he was swinging and then will swing at the other one if that one dies.
b and p
and
Glade does clobber down one of the bone devils while R gets his teeth on the third. Orionet summons in some aid. The Azata seems to be immune to the cold and attacks one of the I've devils with a fury. Things really start to swing in your favor.
The counter attack is desperate and furious. R is hit, as is Glade (for 17 each).
Party takes cold damage, then party up!
Mouse smiles while licking his teeth, hoping this battle end soon. AS it is working he keeps using the wand of Fireballs.
glade 5 foot shifts to the next one add 23, 18 and 13 to the rolls.
b and p
acid.
Glade gets three good hits in, then Ganorok's fireball goes off and blows the last bone devil to bits. With all the bone devils reduced to their component bones, R charges the ice devil on the right and joins the Azata. That ice devil tries to take over the grapple, to no avail. The azata, in the mean time, gets several good hits in.
The other ice devil on the left steps from his room and casts a blistering cone of cold at Glade, Ganorok, and Orionet. Orionet manages to duck under the worst of it, but he still gets some icicles formed in his hair and a splitting headache.
Ganorok manages to quickly scurry by outside of the cone area of effect (has Evasion, so no damage for him), and position between both ice devils. He keeps firing the Fireball wand, not against the ice devil currently not in melee.
glad moves to the next devil
Ganorok checks the rooms, starting with K2b and K2c.
K2b and c are empty save for massive icicles that hang from almost every surface. In the only remaining room the ceiling is fifteen feet high. Large arched niches fill the east and west walls; various bones are mortared into the niches in artfully arranged patterns, and each is packed with the jawless skulls of countless humans. Each skull has a name painted on its surface, along with dates of birth and death. A ragged hole in the ground to the northeast drops into what appears to be an even deeper cavern.
The hole in the floor drops 10 feet to a rough hewn cavern. Removing a skull from its niche requires a DC 18 Dexterity check, or the whole stack tumbles to the floor in a ghastly cascade.
In the northwest corner of the room, a skull bearing the words “Thrasillus Daellum Adella, 4321–4418” still has its jawbone attached.
Ganorok takes the Thrasillus skull...
"Alas, poor Thrasillus! I knew him, Glade; a fellow of infinite jest!"
Ganorok smiles, his whiskers moving.
"Anyone remembers something about his guy?"
The skull is removed from its niche and reveals that it has an exquisite oval ruby etched with the symbol of the cross-eyed medusa clenched between its teeth, radiating transmutation magic. This ruby is probably one of the items needed to activate the entrance to the third level of the Tomb.
"Shiny, sweet!"
Ganorok grabs the gem.
You make your way down the hole and encounter a woman who appears to be crying blood. She pleads with you to escort her out of the Tomb, but soon turns on you and reveals her nature as a vampire! She quickly tries to dominate Orionet, but his faith protects him and a couple seconds of focused fire sees the end of the Undead. There is no sign of her "daughters", and you suspect that it was a ruse to get your guard down.
You inspect the room and find a dagger that is probably the last key to the teleportation circle that leads downward and onward.
You fall back and meet no resistance. Back at the beginning you insert all the keys and are instantly overtaken by the tingleing-squish of teleportation. You land in a room with four beautiful fountains and more sarcophagi. Ganorok suspects a trap, and turns out to be right. A few seconds later no one is turned to stone and you proceed to a room with a large tank of slowly circulating water.
Chained therein is a man in fine breastplate with a sword sheathed in his torso. A plaque reveals via riddle that This is the founder of the Adella line, Barotlomae Adella. Ganorok is elected (by everyone looking at him) to retrieve it. As soon as the sword is pulled free three slime demons appear out of the air and assault the party with acid fog and a disturbing tendency to dive down their target's throat. R is almost drowned in this way when he does what he does and rushes headlong into the foe. Literally.
Orionet saves the day with a summoned being with control over the winds who disperses the fog in just enough time for the group to splatter the demon inhabiting R's lungs.
After that fight, you move on to another room. You think that the sword Ganorok retrieved is the sword you're after, the Infensus Murco, the name is written on the hilt, but you aren't sure. The ancestral blade was said to be intelligent, but Ganorok hasn't started hearing voices yet.
The next room bids you to insert the sword into a construct that looks like a madeusa. You do. It animates. You clobber it to pieces.
In the process of reducing it to scrap, some of the dust inside the construct is scattered on the floor. The air above the spill turns red aand crimson energy impacts you, inducing a vision of incredible intensity:
Braziers light a general’s command tent. The general himself—a towering man with handsome features, clad in elaborate breastplate armor—stands on the edge of an elegant Qadiran rug. A gaggle of junior officers, priests, and aristocrats stand before the tent flap and an armor mannequin.
Judging by the attire and furnishings of the chamber, this vision is of a time during Taldor’s campaign against Qadira.
The general is the head of the Daellum line, Bartolomae Adella.
“Well, let’s get it over with,” the general intones haughtily, gesturing to an Arodenite priest carrying a fancy cage containing two fine roosters. The general casts several types of honeyed grain on the ground to the waiting fowl, but to everyone’s chagrin, and the general’s fury, the sacred birds do nothing. After an impossible silence, one of the nobles mutters in an awkward tone, “They… do not eat.”
To everyone’s horror, the general grabs the sacred animals by their feathered necks, storms over to an elegant bathtub (which you recognize from your fight just minutes ago) and holds them under the soapy water, hissing, “Then by Aroden’s damned eyes, let them drink!”
The shocked gathering is paralyzed by the general’s hideous blasphemy. He stands seething at the edge of his tub, the limp, dripping carcasses gripped tightly in either hand, glowering at the witnesses to his monstrous sacrilege. Finally, a junior tribune blurts out, “Brother, I will fetch your warhorse!”
Using fowl to seek good omens by observing what types of grain they eat was a Taldan tradition until General Bartolomae’s outburst saw the practice fall from favor.
The junior tribune is recognizable as that ghost you dispatched when you first entered the Necropolis.
The general rouses from his rage and drops the ruined birds on the rug, striding to the tent’s entrance.
“Tribune!” he shouts to the nearest lieutenant, indicating the long map-covered table. “Gather my battle plans! We march on this Qadiran rabble at once!”
The military tribunes scatter to their duties. When the general attempts to plow past the collection of onlookers at the tent entrance, a red-haired prelate grabs him by his rich cape and speaks in a cold, furious tone:
“I know not what will happen this day, Bartolomae, but be assured of this: the tree of thy family shall wither and bear fruit no more. This is the last of your blasphemies in Taldor’s name. From this day forward your name will be cursed along with that of your whole arrogant brood!”
The general shoves the indignant cleric to the ground, and shaking his blade hisses, “You may thank your damnable Aroden that I have other blood to spill today, lackey; otherwise I would take Infensus Mucro and run you through!”
You now clearly recognize the sword you just retrieved.
The vision swirls and throws you into disorientation for a moment. When your sight clears, the general’s tent is empty. The mannequin lies on its side, the dead birds still heaped on the floor. The brutal cacophony of battle can be heard in the distance. Suddenly, the general bursts through the tent flap, gore-caked sword in hand, face smeared with dirt, blood spattered over his flamboyant breastplate. The military tribune who broke the silence earlier follows him, also splashed with the filth of battle.
“All is lost, Cadimus,” he pants to the younger man. “Those damned dervishes rolled up my left flank as though it were made of paper!” Cadimus’s silence is his assent.
The general shakes his sword before his own face, cursing, “You! You have done this to me! All of it! You have murdered us all!” He turns to Cadimus, nodding as though finishing a conversation. “‘Sheathe me in my master’s blood’ was the line, no? To put the damned thing back to sleep?”
Cadimus nods back, still speechless. Staring into space, trance like, the general whispers hoarsely to him. “Do what you can to salvage this, my brother. Beldam would have our heads. Pressure Micheaux to aid us—he will be king before long and we must use what leverage we have. Perhaps you could prevail upon our dear sister to utilize her... relationship, with him? If not... ha! Maybe Asmodeus will assist. I go to face the gods’ wrath. You are the head of our House now, brother. Bury me with sufficient irony.”
A strange look of calm comes over the general’s face as he gets to his knees at the corner of the rug. He plants the pommel of Infensus Mucro and lifts his armor at the waist, allowing the blade’s point to taste his bare abdomen. With a suddenness that makes Cadimus gasp, Bartolomae springs forward, forcing the blade up into his chest—a torrent of blood splashes out onto the Qadiran rug, the florid stain spreading as he collapses to the ground. A moment later, a vertiginous blackness sweeps everything away.
The vision shifts to a completely new setting after a momentary period of vertigo following the end of the previous vision.
A fire burns in the hearth of this well-appointed room. Three men stand about a bed—a handsome man with rolled-up sleeves holding a crying newborn, and two others. In the bed lies a frightfully pale, sweat drenched woman, her dark hair cascading over damp pillows. Her bedclothes are soaked with blood, and her eyes stare into space; she is not breathing.
You one of the men as Cadimus from the first vision. You also recognize the third man as the same man who Cadimus called Parsimus in that overcame you near the wrecked carriage.
The man holding the newborn child is a relatively famous person—none other than Grand Prince Micheaux, one of Taldor’s former rulers and the father of Stavian I. He appears much younger in this vision than he does in the majority of the art that depicts him in the modern day.
The woman on the bed is recognizable as the vampire your dispatched.
“Just as well,” the handsome man says, a single tear running down a cheek, “with all her ranting about seeing the boy grow up. She knew she could never have been a part of his life.”
His attention turns to the child he holds. He nods approvingly, wipes the tear from his cheek, then lays three fingers on the squealing infant’s forehead.
“Stavian,” he croons. “You, too, shall be king in your turn.”
“Our bargain, Micheaux,” stammers Cadimus, almost absently.
The other man’s eyes flash with grief, and then fill with anger as he whirls upon Cadimus. When he speaks, his voice is cold and grim.
“Our ‘bargain’ died with your sister, Cadimus. You are the last of your damned line, and even that is too much. But I shall grant you one last mercy nonetheless—leave Taldor by dawn, and I’ll not send my army after you. The next time I see an Adella face in my empire, it had best be in a grave.”
He turns with the baby in his arm, walking regally for the door, oblivious to Cadimus’s trembling fury.
“We go to meet our destiny,” he coos to the squealing infant.
Micheaux’s assurance to Cadimus seems very insincere, and judging from Cadimus’s expression, he noticed this insincerity as well.
You feel time pass. In the same bedchamber, now oppressively hot, the same woman lies lifeless in the bed, though someone has mercifully closed her eyes. Micheaux and the infant are gone and Cadimus hands a baton to the apron-clad man.
“Hide this downstairs before we leave, Parsimus. I know you saw it in the bastard’s eyes. He has no intention of honoring even his last promise—he’ll have his thugs on us within the hour. We must seek the only safe place left to us—the Tomb of the Iron Medusa. There we can rest and regroup and make plans for the future. The baton contains the key to finding the tomb—if I die before you, ensure that someone you trust knows where you’ve hidden it. Someday, someone will need to know the truth.”
He looks over at his sister’s dead body. “And secure a coffin for my sister. I am not going to leave her here. She comes with us.”
He turns to face the other man, who still seems frozen in shock. “Go, damn you!” Cadimus spits, and finally the other man turns and leaves the room.
You now get a glimpse out the door and recognize the common room of the Lion Sleeps Inn
“The Adellas are truly abandoned by Aroden,” Cadimus says with dismal certitude to an empty room. “The gods laugh at us... but perhaps my brother was right after all... perhaps there is one left who might listen...”
He pauses, a look of dread and determination washing over his countenance. He takes up his dead sister’s hand in his own, holds it to his brow, and then utters a prayer of blasphemy.
“Asmodeus! Asmodeus, I call on thee! Blood and my everlasting soul if you would but allow me to protect my family and bring my dear sister back to me!”
A sudden light flickers in air, shimmering as if heated by fire. Then the shimmer grows more substantial, becoming a shapeless mass of tangible evil and immense power. A voice sweet as honey and sharper than any razor emanates from the malevolent presence.
“A bargain? You would seek to bargain with me, mortal?”
With this final development, the vision suddenly ends and you are return to where you were standing.
At the same moment, the conviction that, somehow, Asmodeus noticed your observing the secret events fills each of your minds.
With a flash obnoxious smoke, four vile shapes manifest in the room.
These devils vaguely resemble 12-foot-tall human women with large clawed wings, hideous fanged faces, and bodies clad in strips of metal and leather that seem almost to be growing from angry wounds in their flesh, and each wields a grisly metal scythe that seems almost to have grown from its arms.
These devils, manifestations of Hell's judgement incarnate, go Invisible and attack. R manages to get a hold of one, and you use him as a tracer to light up that target. You all take some grevoius wounds as you repeat this process, most of all R, but it works in the end, and you stand victorious. Then you pass out the magic healing.
You have the sword, which has started expressing it's displeasure with anyone standing nearby. It is totally loyal to Asmodeus, and is rather miffed that you have managed to survive the devils. Orionet ends up taking the sword as he is best suited to deal with the random suicidal urges that the thing keeps sending out.
You find nothing else on this floor, so you make your way back to the surface and enter the only part of the tomb you have not explored, the central crypt. Hidden in the central Sarcophagus is a staircase leading down hundreds of feet into the earth. The catacombs you discover at the bottom are composed primarily of narrow, low-ceilinged (8 feet) corridors riddled with burial niches. Some host one or two full skeletons in tattered rags; others are packed with bones stacked in an artful, if grisly, manner—one niche may hold nothing but thigh bones, another jawbones, another an array of vertebrae. Some of the walls feature decorative brickwork, others are adorned with frescoes, and still others have bones and skulls mortared into place as though they were the most convenient and mundane building materials.
The air is stale, and all areas are lit as though by flickering
torchlight, though no such illumination can be found.
This area of the tomb is small by this Necropolis' standards and once you have dealt with a few minor guardians, you arrive in a surprisingly gorgeous room. It appears to be a beautifully decorated bathhouse, complete with a large pool of crystal-clear water that dominates the center of the room.
A pair of stone statues depicting reclining medusas decorate niches to the east and the west, while a large caption along the southern wall reads, in the common tongue, “Have you ever beheld a smiling face and not named it beautiful?”
Reclining in one of the pools is a madeusa, and an ugly one at that. She sits up as you enter and a murderous gleam enters her eye. She says nothing, but casts a spell on herself and cackles in glee.
okay my movement is 40 feet, so I will move to melee and attack.
and
Ganorok starts uttering some strange words and his feet leave the ground.
He activates his Celestial Armor granting him 60' fly speed.
He uses his new ability to move behind the medusa, flanking with his friends, and threatening attacks of opportunity.
R and Orionet are hot on your heels. As they approach, the Medusa attempts to cast something again, but the spell fizzles.
R, being R, Immidiately runs up and bites her. Orionet makes his way around the pools, but his slower speed means he cannot do anything but get close.
and makes 2 good swings, but the 3rd is sloppy, not to mention his last hit is almost always a bad one.
b and p
Seeing that the Medusa is flanked Ganorok unleashes against her with incredible speed.
1: 91
R lays into the medusa and does good damage, but it's sapped of his strength slightly as well. Orionet readies a spell.
The medusa screams in fury and pain and unleashes her legendary stare that can turn a person to stone in desperation! R resists, but Orionet gasps as he goes from Oracle to ornamental statue!
upon seeing this glade will drop his weapon as a free action, shift back and draw his bow as a move action. as he can still use his +3 str composite longbow effectively.
He will then shoot at it
Ganorok keeps looking for lapses in the Medusa defenses, trying to bring her down as quickly as possible.
Ganorok sees Glade move back and he also takes a 5' step back.
He quickly rummages in his backpack, draws a scroll from it an recite the words inscribed within.
He vanishes in thin air.
R and the medusa have at each other. Both rip chunks out of the other as they thrash about and the water turns a ominous red. One doesn't appear to be able to gain the upper hand over the other, though both now look like they're ready to drop.
Ganorok, taking advantage of his invisibility, uses his Lunge feat to attack from 5' away, looking in lapses in her defenses to bring her down.
After he finishes attacking her he moves 5' in diagonal, trying to make his location unknown to the Medusa again, while at the same time threatening her.
Though Glade's arrow goes wide, both R and Ganorok get some good hits in, Ganorok especially. The madeusa trashes and swings wildly, finally catching R across the face and tossing him, and a mouthful of her own flesh, into the nearby wall. It's a good hit, but not as forceful as her frame is capable of producing thanks to Ganorok's hits. Now gravely wounded and bleeding freely, she sloshes into the water and draws her own bow, but doesn't have time to shoot.
more arrows to fire at her
+3 str composite bow
Ganorok flies to follow the Medusa and makes a single charging attack against her.
Glade's bow hits the medusa, but it's Ganorok's brutal attacks of opportunity and final charge that do the medusa in. His invisible feet splash through the water and there is no time for the beast to shift it's defense. His blades hit several major organs and she collapses under the weight of her wounds. A slowly expanding pool of crimson leaks from her many arrow, tooth, and blade wounds.
A secret door to the northwest hides a small room that contains a large circular bed, five fine silk dresses (worth 200 gp each), and six potions of cure critical wounds. A small shrine to Asmodeus sits in the northeast corner, on top of the shrine lies a single piece of parchment upon which is inscribed Stavian I’s record of birth—a simple but powerful document that has the ability, if proof is found to support it, to discredit almost four generations of Taldan Monarchy.
The Tomb is plumbed. It's foes defeated. You make your way back to the Lion Sleeps in with a much heavier Orionet literally in tow. Haoris is waiting for you.
What news! Have you found it? He asks eagerly upon your arrival.
"We found it... but I am not sure you will like what we found."
Ganorok will hand out his employer the sword and the parchment.
"A deal is a deal. We have upheld our part of it."
And you have your reward. I'm sure the treasure is more than enough to un-petrify your friend and provide more pay than I could without liquidating a warehouse or two. I thank you for this service, even if the result was... disappointing.
You're welcome, and I am officially retired from adventuring. Seriously I came this close to dying and or killing an ally. I have not found what I am looking for, and I probably never will as glade remembers all the tough battle he fought.