In the crypt where we fought the Sons of Kyuss, we found what could be the Staff of Osiris. Per the Prelate’s letter, if we found Valeria we might be able to use the Staff to bring her back from undeath.

The session began in Mykedios’ tomb. Lycovyne searched for secret doors, finding none. 2 large holes gaped in the wall, used by the tunnel worms to traverse the area. The ichor-like blood of the slain and wounded worms dripped grotesquely from the edges of these holes onto the dusty, rocky, broken-glass-strewn tomb floor

Finding nothing more of interest we left the room and were immediately set upon by a band of the ghasts of the long dead civilization of Kn’yan, which hopped out of the darkness like kangaroos from Tartarus, their red eyes burning, their overlarge mouths brimming with teeth, their razor-sharp claws extending outward from twisted hands on too-long arms – and the stench which accompanied them assaulted us before battle even began.

• initiative tie
• the whole party save vs. poison due to the rancid stench, staying upon our feet and resisting the urge to vomit – an urge assailed us all
• Cathal got hit for 5 points, save vs. paralyzation
• Seamus got hit for 6 points, save vs. paralyzation
• Seamus pounded the disgusting fucking ghast for 10 points in return
• Gonchar hit one for 27 points of damage
• Cathal hit one for 14 points
• initiative win
• Gonchar re-killed a ghast
• Cathal hit a ghast for 15 points
• Seamus hit the same ghast for 6 points
• Cathal hit it again, destroying it
• three left
• initiative win
• Seamus hit a ghast for 10 points
• Gonchar hit the same one for 12 points
• Cathal did 14 more, then got hit back for 15 points
• Gonchar got raked for 15
• initiative win
• Seamus hit twice for 12 points, felling a ghast
• Gonchar hit his enemy for 11 points, felling another
• Cathal hit the last ghast for 9 points, and it hit the deck
• 5 ghasta of Kn’yan, 40, 35, 35, 32, 32 hp

Cathal healed Seamus for 2 points. Frey was now known as Olaf, while Cathal preferred to be referred to as The Little Mermaid.

Stanley Roper#

We entered the room with the strange, mottled, thick green pillar in the middle. This chamber was very large, diamond-shaped, of similar dimensions to the entry chamber to the north, with a large, 20’ corridor exiting to the north. We entered via a 7’-to-10’ wide corridor in the west wall, and a similar corridor exited the chamber on the other side of the green pillar on the east wall. The walls of this room, like the corridors, contained burial niches and alcoves, two or three placed vertically on top of one another for every 10 feet of wall. These niches appeared to have largely been looted and the bodies within appeared crumbled to dust and bones, though there appeared to be some bodies intact and relatively whole lying interred in these niches. The south wall of the large chamber was solid rock, not lined with niches or alcoves. The floor was scattered with bones and skulls, and bits of other detritus, throughout the large chamber.

Cathal entered. The DM’s tentacle porn kink became manifest in the pillar, and the tentacles caressed Cathal as he entered the room. A number of tentacles whipped out from the mottled green pillar towards us. The tentacles got hold of Menka and began dragging him toward the pillar. Gonchar and Cathal – also struck – began to be drawn toward the pillar, as did Freyvior. Those of us who were trapped observed as we were being dragged towards it that the pillar had a giant, gaping, toothy maw and a single large eye.

We all made our strength checks and did not get pulled in.

• initiative win
• Cathal attacked the pillar, doing some damage
• Menka hit the pillar the pillar for 8 points and used the Drain ability of his flail to get 6 points back (58/61)
• Gonchar hit the pillar for 14 points
• Frey hit it with an arrow for 20 points, then again for 10 more
• Seamus popped the pillar using his Ring of Power and did 34 points of damage, destroying the foul thing
• Stanley Roper, 84 hp

The roper’s tentacles had an ugly effect. Cathal, Gonchar and Frey had had their strength reduced to 9, while Menka’s had been reduced to 8. Seamus showed no such weakening. Walking around in plate mail was all-of-a-sudden very difficult.

Armor, weapons and other gear lay on the floor around the roper corpse.

Roper loot!

• 2 shields (1, magic)
• 2 long swords
• mace
• bastard sword (magic)
• nasty clothing

We exited the roper room through the wide, alcove-and-niche-lined corridor to the north which led to the entry chamber. We headed back outside for some fresh air. It was indeed much nicer, outside. After a brief respite our strength returned to normal levels and we made our way back to the roper room.

Mrs. Hillgauntlet#

Marching east down the hallway (this hallway, like all of them here, lined with alcoves and niches every 10 feet) we found that this mirrored the corridor to the west, with double-doors in the middle of the northern and southern walls of the corridor, after which the corridor continued east. The double doors to the south stood open.

Double doors to the north were closed and mortared shut. A plate to the side identified the occupant: “Here Lies Dina Zainab-Hillgauntlet, Murdered by her Lord”. We proceeded through the open, southern doors. The room beyond the open doors held 4 sarcophagi, which had been looted quite thoroughly.

Menka cured Seamus’ more serious wounds. Seamus used his heal other ability on Cathal, then healed himself, fervently, and with strange, ape-like sounds, while we all averted our eyes.

Cathal and Gonchar saw unnatural light down the hallway to the east. Investigating, we found 5 of the ugliest gnomes we’d ever had the misfortune to meet. One said “look Noddy – we got visitors”. Another of them answered: “That we do, Noddy. Lucky for them they found themselves the caretakers of the tombs.” They announced that they were charging an entrance fee – 100 gp. Gonchar scoffed and offered the ugly little assholes a drink from his keg. They accepted and had a drink, and seemed to mellow. “Hey you’re good fellas, we’ll take 50 gp”. The notes did not mention the transfer of any funds into their scabby little hands.

The ugly gnomes continued to sip at the offered drinks, and explained that they’d been asked to look over the tomb and were happy to accept a reduced fee of 50 gp – “for the lot of ye, not each, like, on account of Youse bein’ good enough to share yer hooch”. They also offered that “Another party wandered through here about a week ago, and THEY paid, sure ‘an they did”

We noticed that dead rats were piled around the room. Apparently, these disgusting pukes had been feeding the roper. Menka wanted to attack but Cathal interceded, preferring to parley.

Frey, meanwhile, had been back down the eastern hallway chipping away at the mortar around the doors of Mrs. Hillgauntlet’s tomb. Out of nowhere, he took off in the opposite direction, whining fearfully and running like his ass was on fire. Two Sons of Kyuss lumbered after him. Menka turned them and they shambled away. We said good day to the band of unattractive gnomes and headed back to Lady Hillgauntlet’s tomb door.

• 2 Sons of Kyuss, turned

The undead beasties had not come through the doors Frey was chipping away at – it was still sealed. Gonchar made short work of the remaining mortar around them. Flint deftly removed the aged, bronze nameplate and handed it to Cathal.

We stepped cautiously into Mrs. Hillgauntlet’s tomb. The continual light spells in action dimmed considerably and it was very cold, and smelled very bad in there. The sarcophagus began to tremble and the lady herself rose from the dead before our eyes: the rotting corpse what was clearly a once-beautiful woman, her long, once-lustrous black hair lank and hanging, her eyes had been gouged out, and foul black liquid seeped from her mouth and nostrils. The legs appeared to have been transformed into huge grey claws. As she arose, the reek of sewage emitted from the open crypt.

As we watched, aghast and horrified, Mrs. Hillgauntlet slowly crawled out of her coffin into the center of the room. She did not attack, only inhaling several times, as if to fill her rotten lungs with the dank tomb air and then turned to focus her unblinking, empty eyes at us: “I ssssssssssmellllll Hilllllllllgauntletttttttt…wwwwwwwwwwheree issssssss heeeeeeeee…” She smelled her hated husband on us and asked where he was, cursing him the while.

We told her of our meeting with Hillgauntlet, far away in both time and space. She listened, her hideous head cocking quickly and grotesquely several times. Thereafter, she proceeded out the tomb door, the dank sewage air following her, her gait disturbing, lurching, yet rapid, purposeful and deeply disturbing. The sound of her gamboling shockingly down the hallway receded, on a mission (presumably) to exact revenge upon her murderous spouse… Bonus! We should check back in on that particular lich. Cathal would very much like to do this.

We searched her tomb, finding nothing of interest or value. No secret doors, nor anything hidden in the room. Heading back into the hallway, we noted that the gnomes and their treasure are gone, their lights extinguished, only dead rats and piles of bones remaining. The caretakers had run off.

We formed marching order and headed south down the hallway. Two doors were at the southern end of the hallway, where it ended and turned west.

In that corridor-end are two doors, each mortared up. The first has been mortared up, and there is a plaque on the door with a crest, but the name and crest have been effaced. The second crypt door in the corridor has also been mortared, but the mortar seems more recent than the type used on other doors. On this door is a plaque with the name “Mezzagano” and a worn crest in which a dagger can still be made out.

Turning west is another corridor, similar to those found to the north. Two more sets of doors were in the middle of the northern and southern walls of this corridor, across from one another. On the northern side, a plaque hung which read “Here lies, Vasila, unlucky in love.”. The mortar around the door is intact, but showed signs of impact, with chunks of something sticking to the wall around the impact points. Someone or something had tried to break into the crypt, without success.

Directly across, on the southern wall, another plaque read “Here Lies Mochlari the Miser, who took his fortune with him”. The mortar that sealed this crypt had been removed (and was apparent in bits on the corridor floor), but the doors are closed.

The Skeletal Dragon#

We continued west along the alcove-lined corridor to a door at the end of the corridor. We listened, and detecting no sound within, opened it. The door led into another large diamond-shaped chamber, similar to the entry chamber and the roper-room, this one completely strewn with bones, a similar set of alcoves and niches on the wall as featured in the similar chambers to the north, a door in the western wall, a 20’ corridor exiting to the north. A huge pile of bones stood in the center of the room. Cathal detected evil everywhere. A chest sat on the south side of the room. Large and ornate. Lycovyne hit it from across the room with knock. It opened and exploded, pushing the chest away from the wall.

Cathal entered the room and the pile of bones in the center formed itself into a huge, skeletal dragon.

• initiative loss
• the bone dragon clawed and bit Cathal, doing 19 points of damage
• Cathal struck back with his sharp sword, doing 11 points
• Lycovyne hit it for 13 points with his sword
• Seamus missed twice, chipping a nail
• Menka flailed it for 8 points
• Frey’s arrows disappeared among the bones, but he still managed to do 9 points of damage
• initiative tie
• Seamus hit it with fists of fury, doing 13 points
• the dragon clawed Lycovyne for 6 points, then bit him for 19 more (31/56)
• Frey switched weapons (to what?)
• Menka missed
• Lycovyne, Sword of Sharpness, natural 20, did 22 points of damage and severed the dragon’s bony spine, destroying it!
• skeletal dragon, 96 hp

Gonchar, Freyvior and Menka each broke a tooth off the monster. The dwarf and the ranger for trophies, the cleric for spell components.

Flint opened the previously exploded chest and pulled out a scroll with Cathal and Lycovyne nearby. As he opened the vellum scroll he saw the words “THIS belongs to Zar-Thogar, FOOL!”, and it exploded, doing massive damage to himself, the elf and the knight. Cathal bound some wounds and then cured Lycovyne’s lighter wounds twice. He then cured his own more serious wounds.

Zar-Thogar’s scroll appeared to have been spells, but was now utterly illegible and useless.

• Chest loot!
• exploding scroll
• 1000s in gold and silver

Lycovyne searched the chamber for secret doors and found one in the southern wall, praise Skerrit! There were no traps apparent on the door, so Cathal opened it. It contained a large, bare octagonal room, at the center of which was a sarcophagus carved in the shape of a female warrior in (vintage-looking) plate mail and sword. The crypt was sealed shut.

Menka switched weapons, stowing his flail and holding the Staff of Osiris.

The elves searched the room for additional secret doors, finding none.

Flint had walked back into the chamber of bones, looking around. Abruptly we heard him shouting. Cathal and Gonchar ran back into that room to find Flint being attacked by giants, which seemed uncannily similar-looking to the ugly gnomes, only way bigger. Exiting the room to the east, down the corridor, were four more giants, again quite similar to BIGGER versions of the ugly gnomes, two of them carrying the large chest of gold and silver.

The two with the chest ran away with it, and one turned around to fight Gonchar and Cathal. Cathal just kept running after the two with the chest. Gonchar stayed in the room to fight two of them (and the third, engaged with the thief), who remained, and who loudly warned the dwarf that he could LET them have the chest, and they’d fuck off.

Battle ensued, with the three giant/gnomes in the chamber being slain by Gonchar, Flint and Menka – Cathal chased the other two and slew them single-handedly, with similar banter (“fuck off and let us keep the chest, ‘an we’ll let you live, short stuff”) and combat. Damage was taken by all, although Cathal killed the two w/ chest himself before Gonchar caught up.

Menka, still back by the secret door, joined the fray with Flint.

• initiative win
• Flint hit a giant gnome (does that mean it’s 6 feet tall?) for 18 points with a natural 20
• Menka hit the same one for 8 points with the staff
• Frey shouted something from the back but managed to get an arrow through, doing 12 points to the same gnome, felling it - it returned to normal gnome size
• Seamus ran into the room and popped a different giant gnome twice for 17 points and stunning it
• the remaining gnome attacked seamus but missed
• it then attempted to parley and we told it to fuck off
• initiative win
• Flint hit it for 5 points
• Menka missed
• Kyril hit the gnome for 8 points
• Seamus hit it 3 times for 27 subdual damage, down but alive
• Frey killed the giant gnome with an arrow
• 5 spriggins 46, 37, 43, 44, 41 hp

Menka cured Flint’s more serious wounds, and Cathal cast Heal upon himself from his sword (once per month).

We searched the spriggins, finding nothing of worth.

Valeria!#

We set to opening the sarcophagus in the southern room. Valeria emerged from the crypt, a clearly deceased warrior with an ugly, glowing welt around her neck, heavily armored, her eyes burning red, an agonized look on her face, a powerful-looking sword in her hand – she attacked, telling us to “GO AWAY! FLEE FROM HERE! BEGONE!”

• initiative win
• Menka held forth the Staff of Osiris and spoke the words of power
• the dark cloud dissipated, and a very much alive and mortal Valeria stood in front of us
• the Staff is now little more than a decorated stick

She thanked us for removing the curse of undeath, but was overcome with guilt and remorse and not particularly happy to be alive. Valeria claimed she would need to redeem herself or die trying, preferably the latter. We talked her into heading north back to the temples and gave her supplies for the road.

A mummy attacked us out of nowhere and she stepped in its path, attacking and killing it with savage single-minded vigor. Cathal cast cure disease on her, just in case. She thanked us again for our help, sort of, and stalked off toward the cliff face and into the night.

We headed back to the room filled with bones and headed northwest. On our way we stumbled upon 2 chimera and their child. The chimerae attacked immediately, one breathing acid down the hall.

• initiative win
• Cathal hit one for 21 points
• Gonchar hit the same one for 15 points
• Gonchar got hit for 7 points
• Cathal got bitten for 18 points
• Gonchar hit it again for 11 points
• Cathal hit it again for 12
• initiative tie
• Lycovyne zapped both chimera with magic missiles for 14 and 16 points
• Menka cast Aid on Cathal
• acid breath down the hallway again
• Cathal saved thanks to the Aid spell, and Menka and Kyril saved
• Lycovyne and Flint did not save, taking 14 points
• one missed Gonchar, while another bit him for 9 points
• Cathal killed the mother
• Gonchar killed the father
• 2 baby chimera appeared
• Cathal attacked one as it was readying a breath weapon, interrupting it
• Cathal and Gonchar destroyed the juvenile chimerae, though their hearts were not in it
• 4 chimerae, 63, 56, 23, 16 hp

An unfortunate battle. A grim end to a long day. We poked around in the nest left behind and found some treasure.

• Chimera loot!
  • 24 gems - the dwarves thought that the 24 gems ranged in value between “not very” (~10 gp) to “VERY” (~1000 gp)
  • 10 pp
  • around 1000 gp, we did not stop to count

end