GM Otha's Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Inactive)

Game Master Otha

Yuri lifts the sarcophagus open. "Knock, knock! Anybody home?"

Yuri lifts the lid of the sarcophagus and finds within...

...a necklace of gold with a small globe of crystal suspended from it. Within the crystal is a human finger bone. A bronze plaque inside the sarcophagus reads, Vespacio Voxus Adella, 4349–4401…

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Alie stays focused on the two remaining keys. ”Thraillius’s voice and a sister’s s keepsake. And the two open areas were an oval and a starburst shape. I don’t think either of these will be what we are looking for...”

Yuri admires the necklace. "Purty... I guess someone gave ole Vespacio the finger..."

Jack grimaced, but still managed to let out a laugh in spite of himself. "Well it's certainly tempting, but unless someone has a good reason to besides, 'Ooo, shiny,' then it can probably be ignored. There is the possibility that it may be the sister's keepsake, but seems unlikely."

Rokgurn smiles at Yuri's attempt at humour.

"And they say that dwarfs do not tell jokes..."

He turns his attention to the bard.

"So what does it do?"

Are you doing anything more in this chamber?

Alie will cast detect magic on the necklace as the group prepares to leave the room.

Alie detects a magical aura emanating from the necklace...

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

”Does anyone else think that nexklace could fit in the oval depression in the key room? I’d hate to leave it behind if it looks like it could be a key. It is magical though. ”

Does it look like it could fit that oval spot, GM?

"Well, we can come back for it if we don't find anything else suitable."

Is Alie identifying the necklace?

Spellcraft 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (5) + 19 = 24 on the necklace

Alie can’t quite identify the magical properties of the necklace...but she’s reasonably sure that the necklace is not a fit for one of the slots in the Medusa head carving...

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

”Alright we can leave it for now. Let’s keep going. Who wants to lead us onward?”

Daathiel also try to identify the necklace.
He can Take 10 on such Spellcraft checks, for a 40.

Then he will lead the party to the central crypt, with Find Traps and Blink active.

Daathiel identifies that the necklace functions the same as a greater ring of energy resistance (cold) (if worn, it takes up the neck magic item slot).

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

The Druid nods seeing the utility in the necklace. He looks at the Bard.

"Perhaps you or Alie should use that necklace. It might help in here."

Daathiel will put on the necklace.

"It suits ye - veree fashionable!"

The bird chirps out agreeing sarcastically with Yuri's outrageous comment.

"It has a certain rebel without a cause vibe. You would definitely be the belle of the ball in Geb."

Whisper eyes Yuri and smiles briefly as he is clearly very amused by the dwarf's observation. He then retreats to the safety of his familiar satchel.

Daathiel puts on the necklace and nothing happens...at least not for the first few seconds...

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Fortitude: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
"Well, that was not good."

Daathiel replaces the necklace in the sarcophagus.
"Cursed."

Daathiel tries to remove the necklace...

...and has no trouble doing so. He quickly places it back in the sarcophagus and the wave of nausea ceases...

Where to now?

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Lol, seeker tier, where Spellcraft 40 ain't good enough! :-)

Jack glanced back towards the previous room. "Well maybe the ghost's warning was less about actually threaten us and more along the lines of to keep us from dealing with cursed items. First time for everything. Should we check the other side room or hit the stairs?"

"Let's check the other side room."

Rokgurn looks a bit surprised.

"That is odd. Generally removing a cursed item is more difficult."

"Sorry about my suggestion to wear it."

You go past the stairs going down and straight to the other side room...it looks very familiar...

A marble fountain, the basin of which resembles a huge shell, sits near the entrance to this room, its waters cascading from between the fingers of reclining mermaids. The chamber beyond is empty, save for a single sarcophagus at the far end of the room.

This chamber looks like a mirror image of the previous chamber with the exception of the inscriptions upon the fountain and the sarcophagus. The fountain here is marked with the word Fellowship while the sarcophagus here bears an inscription that reads, Courage Is King and Commerce His Queen.

Daathiel detects no traps within the chamber...

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Jack took the initiative at cracking open this sarcophagus. "Well might as well see what cursed item is in here while we're at it."

Upon opening the sarcophagus, Jack finds a necklace of gold with a small globe of crystal suspended from it. Within the crystal are three human teeth. A bronze plaque on the sarcophagus reads, Vincenzo Voxus Adella, 4349–4401.

Alie and Daathiel identify that the necklace is magical and functions just as the one in the other chamber does, as a greater ring of energy resistance (cold) that takes up the neck magic item slot.

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

"We know the Voxus brothers went to war with each other... perhaps the curse on these items is tied to their conflict.
I suppose we can move on to the stairs in the middle. If we find later that we need to lift this curse, we can try to figure out the significance of the inscriptions and the fountains."

”Thats a good though, Daatheil. Giving someone a cursed necklace would probably spur on a conflict,” Alie says, not touching the necklace. She follows the aasimar towards the stairs.

Again leaving the relic in the sarcophagus, you move back to the stairs (H3 on the map) leading downward...

A wide flight of stairs descends down into the earth here. After a few steps, thick white mist fills the stairwell, obscuring further vision. Three circular tiles are set into the floor inside of the archway at the head of the stairs; each tile depicts a different medusa’s face—one howling in rage, one mocking with a forked tongue, and one with crossed eyes.

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Daathiel has Echolocation active. Does he see anything beyond the mists?

Daathiel's echolocation detects nothing beyond the mists...neither does the archivist find any traps along the stair area...

You do notice that the three Medusa heads at the head of the stairs can be pressed for lack of a better term...the howling medusa head appears to be in the pressed position at present...

Soon after this discovery, four disembodied spirits materialize and swoop up from the mists, swirling about you, disconcertingly whispering a few repeated phrases in your ears:

“Are you of the blood?”

“Have you come to pay your respects, cousin?”

“Is his name still spoken?”

You soon find that they answer no questions, nor react to you much at all, other than continuing to swirl around and repeat such phrases as this...

You discern that these bewitching, beautiful spirits are a harmless but unnerving annoyance...

Tomb of the Iron Medusa (Slide 14)

Jack looked at the three medusa heads and at the spirits. "Wonder if something pressed changes how the spirits act or what we have to deal with. Mouth-open one is pushed in and we're just hearing a bunch of babbling. Other may be casting a spell or magic effect and the eye one may turn us to stone or clear up the mists?"

"Or maybe I'm just overthinking things and there's nothing going on here at all."

Daathiel tries to identify the spirits as being one sort of undead or another.
Knowledge (Religion), Lore Master, Heroism: 10 + 20 + 2 = 32

"These three tiles represent the three branches of the family. The howling head corresponds to the Sardisi branch. As I mentioned before, the scandal in this branch was two sisters' murder of their husbands.
Possibly they had it coming."

He will lead onwards.

Yuri takes another swig from his Cayden flask and rubs his eyebrows. "These dungeon builders - why ain't they never just straightforward about it all?!?"

Rokgurn turns to ask the party.

"Are we not going to press on the other Medusa heads to see what they might do?"

We have seen what is behind door 1 but what is behind door 2 and 3 I wonder?

"Aye, might as well! What could possibly go wrong?!?" Yuri will press the mocking medusa.

I had wanted to continue on down the stairs with the howling medusa pressed.

Daathiel falls back and lets Rokgurn and Yuri take the lead.

I had wanted to continue on down the stairs with the howling medusa pressed.

Daathiel falls back and lets Rokgurn and Yuri take the lead.

I'm fine with that - I hadn't realized that we had a set of stairs we hadn't explored yet - I was just trying to help move us along since things can easily get bogged down in the PbP format.

I'm not sure why Rokgurn thinks we have already seen what there is to see. Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought we hadn't actually gone down the stairs yet.

You have not gone down those stairs...the post I was planning on had y’all going down the stairs as is...let me know if that’s changing...

Clearly I misunderstood the situation. We can proceed with the original plan to go down the stairs with the howling medusa head pressed.

Before flying down the stairs Rokgurn enchants himself to hear like a bat (Echolocation). He also taps himself with a wand to heighten his reactions (Heightened Awareness).

Echolocation has a duration of 2h40 minutes due to a use of Place Magic and a Power component expended.

@GM Otha - How long has it been since the fight with the Efreeti? I am trying to track buffs.

Whisper camps out in familiar satchel fully protected from the outside world.

You follow Daathiel’s lead down the misty stairs and find yourself entering a crypt as you reach the bottom...

Flickering light dances on the walls of this room, thrown from fat, black candles in silver fixtures wrapped around supporting pillars that rise twenty feet to the ceiling. Frescoes cover the walls, all depicting a handsome, red-haired man of noble mien engaged in acts of heroic prowess: single-handedly dispatching a cohort of fearsome demons, speaking movingly to an adoring throng, and leading a column of Taldan soldiers toward an enormous mob of Qadiran infantry. On a raised dais in an alcove on the northern wall, an elaborately carved mahogany coffin, decorated with motifs of vines and eyes, sits on a stone base...

While Daathiel detects no traps in this area, you all notice your annoying guests have followed you down the stairs...they flitter around muttering...

”See, they are of the blood!”

”Of course, they came to pay respects to dear sister!”

”Yes, but will she pay respects to them?”

”She was always very attentive...”

Sardisi Crypt (Slide 15)

Daathiel is rather nervous about Dear Sister.

"That coffin probably houses of the red-haired man shown in the frescoes. Since this seems to be his crypt. So then who is Dear Sister?
But, we were looking for a sister's keepsake. There are no doubt other sisters interred in this complex... it might not be what we seek..."

He will use another charge from his wand of Bestow Grace (now at 20 charges) and walk forward, looking around.
Take 10 on Perception for a 49 if Acute Senses (13 minutes) is still active, 29 otherwise.

If he doesn't spot anything alarming, he will go look at the coffin for any inscription.

Whisper pokes his head out of his satchel to discuss the nature of these spirits with his master.

(Knowledge-Religion 37 with a Take 10)

Rokgurn scans the area for anything of interest.

(Perception of 39 with a take 10. He also has Blindsight 40')

@GM Otha - How long has it been since the fight with the Efreeti? The party will need to track time to manage their buffs.