The gem cutter can scrape together 2000gp to pay you for the mithral if you are interested.
The locals can arrange a boat for you to return to the monastery in the morning.
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Having gotten clear of the cloister and back to civilization, Lefty has a chance to examine the sword and ring recovered from the corpse of the mummy that killed Ting. Lefty: The ring was responsible for the spell that bounced back at you, it is a Ring of Spell Turning. The longsword is magic as well, it is a +3 Anarchic Longsword
The sword and ring that you took off the mummy deserve to be examined.
"Sorry to hear of your losses." the captain says. "Those monks were demon worshipers?" he seems surprised. "They always smelled funny, but I didn't think they were that bad." "I can get you back to Zelkor's Ferry where you can rest up and these poor souls can get a hot meal. It looks like they could use it." The riverboat travels back upriver to Zelkor's Ferry. There you offload the prisoners you rescued on some helpful townsfolk (who seem used to taking care of refugees) In the tavern you find an enormous half-orc, arguing with the barkeep over who makes the best ale in Mendev, and the little girl's mother, who looks at you hopefully.
A you returning all the way to Egede in Mendev, or just back to Zelkor's Ferry? Either way, you'll be waiting down at the bottom of the hill for the boat when it comes back. A number of the prisoners you rescued are still hanging around waiting for someone to rescue them. The captain arrives on time, steering his river-boat up into the shallows to get you all loaded. "Looks like you lost some companions and picked up some strays. No little girl though... " "What was going on up there with those monks?"
Flask is not magic.
Lefty:
You identify the metal as mithral. You've seen it made into weapons and armor before. Lefty is able to use his mage hand to fish out 70 gold coins and a masterwork dagger. Then he swims down to the bottom and pokes about, finding a heavy iron bottle that despite being immersed in the water for some time shows no sign of rust or corrosion. The rest of the material on the bottom of the pool consists of bones and debris left over from previous victims of the harpies and the pool.
What are your plans for trying to get the treasure from the pool? Lefty recalls that the liquid burned him while he was in it.
No problems separating the ring and sword from the mummy. Wyran collects up the metal bars and tucks them away. You can trace a fairly easy path back to the surface through one of the exits in the hillside from where you are, is that your plan? Lefty also has a scroll of teleport that he could use to return if you didn't want to walk.
The shelf swings back into place, blocking off the intense cold.
John shoos his dog out of the room. "Get lost Lucky!"
Malinor:
You notice that the sword the mummy was dragging around seems pretty nice. The mummy also has a fancy platinum ring on a finger of its right hand. In the bottom of one of the trunks, Wyran finds six bars of a heavy silvery metal. Wyran can find a collection of ropes, leather, and wrappings to fashion a carryall for Ting's remains. As he pokes around the room, Malinor finds that a bookshelf on the south wall is actually hinged to open up, revealing a hidden space. The space behind the shelf is blocked by a wall of swirling blue mist. The mist radiates an intense cold that can be felt if you approach within eighteen inches....
Malinor's bullets blow two more big holes in the mummy and it drops shakily to the flow. It lets out another wailing moan and seems to deflate in on itself. Everywhere you turn in the room, there are shelves of dusty glass implements, ceramic containers, boxes, dried homunculi, mummy wrappings, spices and so forth. There are also great trunks full of crumbling garments, heavy laboratory equipment, ruined components and bottles of barely potent acid. There is also a recently deceased Tengu with a fancy glass sword laying next to the fallen mummy.
Looks straightforward enough
Drop the mummy and there is plenty to cover a raise/resurrection. No difference to me if you want to swap characters. Lefty can teleport back to civilization when needed.
Lefty has the ability to teleport you back to safety and you have the resources to be up and at it.
Wyran's glowing starknife slashes past the mummy, but fails to connect.
I believe you are correct. That natural 20 took me by surprise. Your sponsors back in the city did help to prepare you for this eventuality.
Ting's overhand slash at the mummy is deflected at the last moment by its longsword. It lets out a dreadful wail as it makes two-handed slice at the slayer with the sword.
It follows up with a second slice in the opposite direction.
The mummy's strikes are particularly nasty, with the second slashing deeply into Ting's neck and putting the slayer down! It groans out an additional challenge at the rest of the party as it surveys the damage it has done to the bird-man. Lefty makes a quick incantation and directs a shaft of burning light at the undead. To his surprise, the ray reflects back from the mummy and strikes him in the chest!
Wyran:
The undead creature is a mummy. It has an intelligence of it's own. They are known to spread a deadly disease through their touch. You've already experienced the aura of fear and despair they project. Smoking holes appear in the mummy's chest, as Mallinor's bullet's blow through the undead and out it's back.
Holy cow. This week got out of hand at work. I can't believe it is Friday.
As Ting enters the room he notices that 3 ancient sarcophagi rest against the far wall. After he takes a few steps, the lid of the middle of these three crashes to the floor and a terrifying mummy steps forward from his. A moan issues from deep in his chest and he drags a longsword alongside as he steps forward.
Everyone needs to make a DC16 Will save versus despair or be paralyzed! Then Ting, Wyran, and Malinor can act.
The secret door at the end of the hallway is easy to open from this side. Ting opens it a crack and peeks in. Beyond he sees a dark, cluttered storeroom. This tables, benches, and chests within all look to be covered in a layer of thick dust.
Lefty: You detect necromancy. but it's unclear what the purpose of such magic might be.
Ting turns over the skeleton, finding nothing underneath. The skeleton itself seems to be faintly breathing. This is strange and curious magic.
Ting's footsteps stir up a thin cloud of milky white mold spores, causing him to feel an urgent need to sneeze. Skeletons seem to be real dead people. It seems as if the sound of breathing emanates from one of them.
Wyran: You hear the faint breathing as well. It sounds as if it is coming from the two mold-covered skeletons laying in the middle of the hallway.
Ting, you're pretty certain you still hear the faint sound of breathing.
no sign of movement.....
Ting: You think you hear the faint sound of breathing from somewhere in the corridor. The mold doesn't look healthy, but it also doesn't look like any of the overtly dangerous types of fungus found underground.
Ting discovers and disables a trap that would have blasted fire out into the room if the concealed door wasn't opened carefully. Beyond the door you find a hallway that heads east. The walls and floor of the hallway are coated with a thick layer of mold. Three skeletons lie in the passage, having fallen prey to now defunct spear traps in the walls. They are covered with a thick crust of moldy growth. At the far end of the 50' passage there seems to be another concealed door.
Ting finds the first set of doors safe and not too difficult to open. Inside, the room has been ransacked: The coffins in the room have been broken open and their contents despoiled. Soot and ashes cover the floor. A bent brass plaque, discarded
While studying the room, Ting notices the what appears to be the outline of a concealed door in the far wall.
One set goes down (east end), one set goes up (west end).
No undead are detected in the long line of coffins. Looks like just the regular dead. None of you are experts, but they seem like they've been down here a long time.
Coffins appear to be old wood. The spell shouldn't have any trouble penetrating them. Wyran: no magic detected
Ting proceeds south down the passage. It opens into a large hall. Inlaid into the floor at the entrance is a sign reading "The Hall of the Brothers". The hall is 30 feet wide and extends north-east at least 180 feet. The walls are lined with old dusty coffins. They look like they haven't been disturbed in a very long time. There is a stairway up at the west end of the hallway (right next to where Ting enters) and a stairway down at the other end. An unmarked passage leads due east from the far end of the hallway. Two double-doors are set into the south-east wall of the hall, and one double-door in the north-west side. Ting spots a shaft in the ceiling, raising up into the level above about halfway down the hall.
Lefty:
This is magic you've never heard of before. You're guessing it is really old (buried in solid rock afterall). It looks like the undead are frozen in the glass. Whether they're stuck there to preserve them for the future or imprisoned to destroy them is uncertain. Ting: You shimmy across the rubble choking the room. You see part of a faded fresco on a wall. It seems to have some religious significance, showing a group of supplicants in hooded robes.
Beyond the rubble you find a tunnel headed south.
They don't appear to be animated. More of a "frozen in torment" sort of vibe. Ting: You think you could squeeze over the rubble to what looks like a bigger space on the other side.
You dig out the fissures in the wall some and you reveal that the shiny objects in question are sizable slabs of sea-green glass, with shadowy, humanoid skeletal forms frozen under their smooth surface. There are five slabs in all. wyran:
they radiate magic and evil. Lefty: they radiate magic.
Ting explores the cavern. It is fairly large with a 30 foot ceiling. Another connecting passage loops in from the north, revealing where one of the northern branches from the Amber Pool room goes. The floor is fairly level, but seems natural - not worked stone. Two main things that catch your interest: (1) In the south-east corner of the cavern there is an entrance to what looks like it was a worked stone part of the dungeon. The room seems to have collapsed, choking it and the entrance with rubble. There are a couple of feet of space between the top of the rubble and a slab of rock that seems to have shifted to become that room's new ceiling. A tight crawl if you proceed that direction. (2) You notice odd fissures in the northern wall with something gleaming within them - reflecting the light from Lefty's spell, drawing your curiosity.
The alcove that Ting examines does continue into a tunnel that opens into a larger cave. The tunnel to the north splits into a "y", one fork headed east and the other north-west. The harpy definitely took the left hand tunnel to the north-west. Every part of this place you explore seems to reveal even more twists and turns.
The large stones surrounding the pool are carved with ancient petroglyphs that don't relate to any language you are familiar with. The six-armed man is definitely male in form, but there aren't any distinguishing features. The harpy fled out an entrance to the north, and the passage you entered from continues west.
Ting notices that a small collection of items have settled at the bottom of the pool. He can see an iron flask, a fancy dagger, and a pile of gold coins. The tree growing next to the amber pool is pretty weird. You don't see that every day. It looks as if sometime way back in the past some group of ancients built up a place of worship around this ancient pool. Looks like a long time ago, because there's been time for a tree to grow. It only takes a minute or so for Lefty's paralysis to wear off.
Ting drags Lefty out of the pool. The remaining Harpy, its morale broken by the loss of her sisters, shrieks in anger and flaps north. She flies out the exit at the north end of the room. Wyrann doesn't detect any poison. The paralysis is a function of the odd amber pool, but he thinks that it likely isn't permanent.
As he overcomes the harpy song, Lefty becomes aware that he is sinking in the stinging amber liquid, heis limbs refusing to move. His eyes bulge as he panics. Lefty is awake, but paralyzed.
Sorry, work kicked my butt yesterday.
Ting and Lefty are free! Wyran's attacks kill the harpy he is squared off against!
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