About a week ago, there was a gathering in a tavern in Westcrown, Cheliax. Yet another group of adventurers are looking to tackle Acererak's Tomb. Hollydiana, a plain half-elven woman, and Saren and Gralamin, robed humans, drew little attention to themselves as they spoke about their planned expedition. Sir Ravencourt, heavily armed and armored as he was, drew a few eyes, but any taverngoer in a major city has seen the odd adventurer or two. It wasn't until Shadassa slithered in on her thick tail that conversation REALLY stopped and attention turned to the quintet discussing Acererak's Tomb.
Warnings were given, dozens of adventurers have vanished into the Tomb, never to return. They wouldn't have it. The next morning, they set out to the Chelaxian wilderness, map in hands.
Within the week, the location of Acererak's Tomb was found. A low, flat-topped hill about 60,000 square yards protrudes from the otherwise low ground. Ugly, thick weeds, thorns, and thick bushes grow on the sides, but not the top, of the hill.
The north side of the hill is fronted by a 20-foot high crumbling cliff of sand and gravel. A low stone ledge overhangs this eroded area, and shrubs and bushes obscure it from observation at a distance.
There are no visible entrances, but every sign points to the tomb being under this hill. You're sure it's this hill.
5th - overland flight, suffocation, truespeak
4th - persistent blindness/deafness, enervation, enervation, solid fog, arcane eye
3rd - arcane sight, clairaudience/clairvoyance, clairaudience/clairvoyance, persistent ray of enfeeblement, revelation, harrowing
2nd - blindness/deafness, detect thoughts, glitterdust, invisibility, see invisibility, see invisibility, blood transcription
1st - anticipate peril, comprehend languages, mage armor, protection from evil, ray of enfeeblement, true strike, anticipate peril
0 - detect magic, prestidigitation, read magic, touch of fatigue
Perception:
Intelligence:
"Looks as likely as any other place for an ancient tomb, barring a graveyard, of course. It seems there are 3 entrances on the north face, but they're buried in. If, as so many people in Westcrown tried to warn us, many adventurers have come here and died, then the question is obvious: who reburied the entrances and why?"
Gralamin strokes his goatee for a moment, thinking, but shrugs. "The residents inside, no doubt, but who they are, or why they did so, is a mystery." He looks around at the others. "Gralamin Urdathar, by the way, in case I forgot to formerly introduce myself. Wizard, fortune-teller, and on-again off-again drunkard." He tries for a dismissive chuckle, but it comes out more an awkward cough.
Pulling out a deck of harrow cards, he says, "Would anybody like a reading before we truly begin? Alas, I only have the ability to do it once this day."
Garret was beginning to feel his years. He wasn't actually old, but professional adventurers tend to die young, or retire early.
He had done neither. It wasn't like he was ever in it for the riches. He'd made a few small fortunes, but most of it went to his family. Their information network and the protection they tried to give Ustalav wasn't cheap.
If he'd been a soldier he'd have long since been an officer by now, safe planning battles instead of fighting them, but he was always on the front lines of his family's private war. He'd put down more monsters than he could remember. Luckily, his axe did that for him. It's slate black head was covered in light veins of silver. They formed elegant writing in the language of Aklo, a most vile tongue. To those who could read it, it was a judgement, a running tally of the vile creatures who's existence it had ended. It was a record of the past and a promise of the future.
Garret had long ago stopped bothering to read the numbers. He didn't think the axe was actually intelligent, but it was certainly able to count better than he could.
His armor was grey and unremarkable. It bore only the crest of Pharasma across the chest. But for that, it was free of adornment or heraldry. It was a surprisingly lightweight and simple design. An odd choice for a knight. Odder for a nobleman.
He hadn't spoken much when this company had been put together, but apparently he'd been waiting for such an expedition for quite some time. He had apparently been on the verge of braving the tomb by himself by the time a group had been found.
When they arrived he sent his horse back with the porter along with a letter to be delivered to his family.
He didn't expect to be coming back.
He looked toward the entrances the wizard had pointed out, nodding affirmation but shook his head when the offer for a reading was made.
"I'm not much for fortune telling. I never hear anything good."
Holly is currently inside the large, sleek-bodied form of her centaur ... like ... mosntrosity ... thing. Still, from afar, she might look like a very fancy woman riding a horse until she gets close enough for them to see the pale torso is ... actually part of her.
Her eyes are large and pale blue and when she gets close, its apparent that she's completely alien - pretty - but alien.
"Is this the place?" She's a bit out of breath from her canter up the hill towards them.
"I'm Hollyberry."
She figures she might need to introduce this shape.
"I'll take a reading, Gralamin. My name is Shadassa Nal'p, formerly of Outsea of the River Kingdoms." The merfolk oracle's surname sounds more like the gulp and tweet of a whale or dolphin. She bears herself on odd side fins that undulated like an eel, with a more rounded tail fin than most merfolk, giving her the slight impression of being half centipede.
Her eyes flick on Holly's summoner shape. "Well, you win, humanoid. I am usually the most unusual sight in any land I travel in. What are you? I am a healer, cursed to be a conduit of the powers of the Plane of Fire. The curse does have some incendiary benefits."
Saren explore's all around the hill looking for any clues to what had been caused the entrances to become buried. His crossbow out and loaded in case anything pops out trying to catch him off guard. Saren grabbed some dirt from around the entrances to study and closely looking at the plants for any sign of a specific contamination. Seeing nothing in particular of note he heads back to the party.
A Harrow reading? I would usually say yes to one of those but I think I know my fate...
Anyway, there is nothing special about the collapse or entrances, save for the obvious contamination of the surrounding area. Assuming Gralamin to be correct, the denizens of this place took great care to make this look like a natural occurrence. How do you propose we get through one of the entrances? None of them looked particularly easier than the others? I don't suppose anyone brought shovels. Haha
"Gralamin, do you have an excavation spell handy?"
Gralamin gives Shadassa a once over and smiles slightly. "Can't say that I've ever done a harrowing for a merfolk before. Should be...different."
Gralamin takes 10 minutes to sit with Shadassa and casts a harrowing for her. "Interesting, interesting. No cards in opposition to you - that is a very good sign. Though the path ahead of you is dark and full of danger, your skill and strength will see you through these trials and tribulations, but only if you are wise and do not act with impatience. Overconfidence could be the downfall of everything for which you have worked."
"I have not personally encountered any magical spells that would particularly aid in digging, though no doubt some exist."
Shadassa looks at Gralamin, her deep red eyes thoughtful. "Impatience has led to mistakes in my past," she says slowly, "Or rather, impetuousness, which I suppose is overconfidence married with impatience. There is wisdom in this...Varisian land magicking, is it not?"
Holly observes the Harrowing with great curiosity, leaning over them as she towers over them. The pale torso of the horse creature is oddly sinuous and, upon close inspection, a little too long, so she can sort of lurk ... over ... things, more like a snake with arms than anything. Meanwhile, her glossy tail switches at patterned haunches.
"Very interesting. I suppose I can dig if I need to." She frowns.
...interesting bunch.
"I have a shovel." the knight says, rifling around in a satchel and retrieving a short handled entrenching tool. "Not sure which entrance we should try though."
"It is indeed Varisian magic. I was fortunate enough to learn it from a true harrower, despite my Taldan heritage." He glances at the cards again before shuffling them together and standing. "I must say, your reading is far more positive than any I've ever done for myself. I'm not sure what to make of that."
Turning to the digging efforts, Gralamin says, "It might be wise to excavate all three. For all we know, two of them might be traps designed to look like entrances. For that matter, perhaps all of them are." Gralamin frowns at the thought and waves his hands in a few graceful motions while intoning a couple spells. He rises off the ground and flies upward.
The hill is shaped like a skull!
Gralamin flies closer to the "eyesockets" in the skull (about 35 feet above them), looking down to see if there might be an entrance. He calls down to the rest of the party and tells them anything he sees.
"I can summon an earth elemental; does anyone speak Terran? It would make quick work of the digging," offers Shadassa.
"...hate to get our heroic hands dirty," she jokes.
"Is it smart enough to understand sign language? We could always play charades with it." Saren mimes out very exaggerated digging. "Think he'll get the point?"
"As for which entrance to dig firrrrssst... I chooooose that one!" pointing in between the center and right one.
"I am familiar with the language of earth elementals, as it happens, though I have never been much interested in the binding of them to my will. If you are to summon one, perhaps a better use of its time would be to move into the various entrances and report back what it sees?"
"I also have a spell that allows me to communicate with any creature that has thoughts."
Awww, gonna spoil all the fun Gralamin? Don't be so serious, that is what undeath is for. But I suppose you are right, let's see how this works out. Even better is if you can summon three. Get them all done right away."
"I don't believe I've ever summoned an earth elemental," Holly says thoughtfully, "But I think I could as well."
Holly lets her Eidolon fade from her, slowly emerging as the rather disappointingly plain half elf underneath, set to cast Summon monster V for 1d3 +1 medium earth elementals.
"Hmmm, I think you mis-summoned there Hollydiana, we need three, not two." Saren chuckles a bit jabbing her lightly in the shoulder, "Just giving you a hard time, I know how fickle magic can be when you need it the most... well I suppose now isn't the best example of needing it the most. Anyway, it is now Miss Sha-Shas-Shasadda's?? turn to bring one up." Saren's cheek tinge a little pink, "Sorry I can be bad with names from time to time."
"'Shah-dah-ssah', Saren. Is your name related to Sarenrae? Holly, a pleasure to see another facet of yourself," says Shadassa, drawing her wand of Summon Monster. "I would not deign to say your 'true' self, being as I am of a race of both water beast and human combined, and cursed to be of opposing elements. What is 'true'? Thus is it always with the ever changing soul.". She completes her flourish and summons one earth elemental.
Three earthen figures, humanoid but made of stone and without fingers or discernible facial features, rise out of the ground and stand to attention just in front of their respective casters.
"My earth elemental won't last nearly as long," Shadassa says to Gralamin, her speech threatening to slip into Aquan.
Already out of his depth, the knight waited to see what the spellcasters' tricks would accomplish.
Gralamin speaks to the elemental summoned by Shadassa first, telling it (and translating for the other party members afterwards) to go through the earth on the westernmost entrance until it reaches a door or other way of egress for non-earth elementals, then report back to me quickly, as it doesn't have long before returning to its home plane.
He instructs the other two elementals to carefully move through the buried center and easternmost entrances, looking carefully for anything that might be of interest or danger. When they find a door or other entrance, report back for further instructions.
Once the elementals have started their work, Gralamin turns to the others, translates, and then says, "Let's see where this goes."
Listening silently to Gralamin's commands, Shadassa's elemental snakes off into the hill, melting into its surface, emerging some twenty seconds later from the hill's surface. Moving towards you, it stops right in your face and says, voice rumbling and crackling like rocks falling on top of one another, "West entrance. Past fall rocks and dirt is worked stone hall. Short. Wood door at end. Nothing else." After a few more moments, the rocks that compose it fall apart into a neat little pile on the ground.
Hollydiana's elementals glide into the hillsides at two differing points in the hill, and the heroes wait several minutes for them. The one on the easternmost side emerges first, minutes before the other one. Gliding back to Gralamin, it relays in its gravelly voice, "East entrance. There's buried dirt. Then worked stone hallway. Six paces in, then door. Wood, no stone. Nothing else."
The elemental that went into the central area of the hill emerges after about seven minutes, gliding up to Gralamin to join its compatriot. Its information is much more detailed.
"Past fallen rocks is hallway. On top of floor is walkway. Walkway crosses hallway to end. On walls are life-images. At end of hallway, walkway pulls apart from walkway. One part of walkway goes towards horn-face. Other part of walkway goes to small room. Room has curved-circle-entrance. Walkway ends in air-not-see-through in curved-circle-entrance in small room and in front of horn-face."
Shadassa scuttles back and forth on her fins, the equivalent of pacing for a landbound merfolk, and casts a bit of water on herself without thinking about it.
"The third way is intriguing...but multiple walkways, pictures, and...mist, I gather...sounds like a lot of dangerous variables. We should assume that everything in that tomb is designed to kill or incapacitate intruders. Perhaps one of the other doors? I can see through the mist...and I can tell if it's poisonous."
"The third way seems like it goes on, though I guess if they can't go through wood," Holly scratches at her head.
"No reason not to use them all. We can start with any of them, go in, look around, pull back if we get to anything that is obviously a trap, go into one of the other doors and start again."
"In that case, we better get digging, yes?" Holly says, flashing a grin at Garret, "You should get on that!" Now that she's not wearing her Eidolon, she seems content to let other people do the work. After all, she is used to using summoned creatures to do things for her.
"Gralamin, can not Holly's summoned friends stick around another minute to do the digging for us?" Shadassa is amused by the summoner's delegation of labor.
Saren was lying down on the grass relaxing when the final earth elemental returned. From his position he speaks casually to no one in particular, "I second the notion of the elementals doing the digging. How much loner are they going to be of service to us? I'm not going to be of much use, unless you have another shovel in there Garret."
"I have a mattock." Garret says fishing it out and passing it to Saren with a shrug.
Then he moved to the closest entrance and started the slow process of digging.
The group begins digging into the entrance areas with varying degrees of effort, with the earth elementals helping for the first few minutes. It does take about an hour to clear away the entrances, and approaching mid-afternoon there is a hole large enough for a person to crawl through at each of the entrance areas.
In the eastern and westernmost entrances, there is only enough hallway to barely see (each hallway is about 20 feet long), with a sturdy-looking wooden door at the end. In the central entrance is a long hallway that extends into darkness, mosaics covering the walls, and a thin red brick pathway winding back and forth inside the hallway.
Eastern entrance:
Western entrance:
Central entrance:
ACERERAK CONGRATULATES YOU ON YOUR
POWERS OF OBSERVATION. SO MAKE OF THIS
WHATEVER YOU WISH, FOR YOU WILL BE MINE IN
THE END NO MATTER WHAT!
Go back to the tormentor or through the arch,
and the second great hall you’ll discover.
Shun green if you can, but night’s good color
is for those of great valor.
If shades of red stand for blood the wise
will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of
magical metal—you’re well along your march.
Two pits along the way will be found to lead
to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.
These keys and those are most important of all,
and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.
If you find the false you find the true
and into the columned hall you’ll come,
and there the throne that’s key and keyed.
The iron men of visage grim do more than
meets the viewer’s eye.
You’ve left and left and found my Tomb
and now your soul will die.
Holly starts at the center entrance, since she liked the sound of that one the best, peeeering down into the gloom once its been cleared. (Holly is no help with digging at all!)
"Heeeeey, Acererak is a dick, right? Do we believe what he says?"
"Well..." says Shadassa cautiously, after seeing the writing as well. "Holly, we should run detection on everything, everywhere. Yes, anything could be a lie. Poisoned. Cursed. Explosive. Although perhaps he--is it really a he anymore? It?--enjoys luring adventurers to their doom. Perhaps it drains them of life force."
"Anyhow...beware of explosive you know what's when reading something."
Shadassa scans with Detect Magic, then Detect Poison.
"Well, I'm not exploded yet," The sardonic half-elf says, but nods a bit in agreement with Shadassa.
She casts Detect Magic, and then also casts Read Magic just in case.
Gralamin inspects all three entrances. "The western hall's ceiling is latticework holding back loose unworked stone. You'd have to have the luck of Desna herself to not trigger whatever trap lies in wait there."
After reading the inscription allegedly etched by Acererak him(it?)self, Gralamin sighs. "Riddles. So very cliche. I would hazard a guess that if we can correctly decipher it, the clues are true. However, I can all but guarantee they're misleading. Still, we should absolutely keep them in mind." The wizard takes out a piece of paper and copies the words down.
Looking at the words Holly had spotted, Gerret just shakes his head and moves to the other entrances.
"A cryptic verse we shouldn't probably trust too much, and a pair of traps at the other doors. This fellow certainly has a high opinion of himself."
"Would someone mind checking for magic auras while I take a look at these?"
"Traps?" Holly goes to peer into the Western-most tunnel, wrinkling up her nose at the ceiling.
"He is a dick!"
"The western hall's ceiling is latticework holding back loose unworked stone. You'd have to have the luck of Desna herself to not trigger whatever trap lies in wait there."
Saren chuckles, "Hmmmm, Desna does indeed smile upon me, but I don't believe in going left unless necessary. I'm going to go check out the right one."
Saren pulls out his Expedious Retreat wand and checks out the East entrance."Well looks like this one is trapped as well. Little metal ball in between the stone work, not sure what it could be. Not as obvious as a rock fall trap. You magic users see anything of note?"
"If there is nothing magical about these traps I say we set them off and check what is on the other side of these doors."
"As long as you're on the right side of the trap when it goes off, Saren. ...Holly..." Shadassa smiles in spite of herself at the half-elf, once again centauroid, and her directness, her red eyes and hair flashing in the daylight. "...I believe that the quality you speak of is a requirement for being a lich. Although it does raise the question of who would not want to be a vampire and at least keep some skin and meat on one's bones, even the, erm, ability to create Dhampir offspring. I suppose liches don't mind the asexual skeleton look in lieu of greater power."