Terra Povos: Some trickery, but mostly undead

We are standing in an L-shaped hallway. There is an armoire sitting at the bend of the hall; there is a doorway on the right slightly before it. We use the ten foot pole to check the floor. It sounds like there are three creatures crammed into the armoire. Amergin uses Produce Flame to aet the armoire on fire, and the doors flip open; a rectilinear zombie with three heads sits there and burns until it collapses. As they finish burning, each has black onyx for eyes; we grab all six. 

We turn to the nearer door; Whisper checks it over for traps. The door is unlocked. Amergin opens it, and we behold a small graveyard with a small room back in the right corner, behind another closed door. Amergin uses Detect Magic and detects some from the small locked room. 

We carefully enter the room, with Amergin scouting; nothing bas happens. One of the headstones says, “Indra – fuck that guy,” Another says, “Vecna, what a bitch.” The coffin on the left says, “madness and wisdom” while the one on the right says pain and treasure. That one rattles when James pokes it. He thinks there’s more than one thing in there. 

Whisper defaces the tombstone insulting Vecna, There’s also a note that says “Stand before thy reflection to begin" on one of the other tombstones.

Whisper opens the Pain & Treasure coffin, and four kobold zombies pop out. James goes after them with the pick, hits one, and does a little damage. They appear to be annoying little sacks of hit points. Whisper withdraws and gets his crossbow out. He takes a shot, though the kobolds have cover from the gravestones. He misses. 

They swarm around James, and he swings at one but misses; they attack him and miss. Lithos realizes that we’re in combat and starts throwing acid splash; he actually hits. James swings again and misses. Baldy moves up behind a gravestone and attacks with his rapier, flanking with James. Whisper reloads and fires again, missing. Amergin also sees an expensive-looking blue gemstone in the coffin. Lithos throws another acid splash for a teeny bit more damage. 

James swings, misses. Baldy attacks with his rapier: “Have at thee, stort-stuff!” and misses by a country mile. Whisper reloads and fires off another shot. They flail at James again and miss. Lithos throws more acid; he’s not doing much damage, but he is at least connecting. James swings at the wounded one but misses. Archibald: “Will you hold still, you scaly little son of a bitch!" Whisper fires again, misses. 

The zombie between James and Baldy tries to rear back, and just…stabs itself on Baldy’s rapier and kills (well, destroys) itself. Lithos throws more acid. James swings and misses. Archibald swings around and stabs another kobold zombie. Whisper fires off another crossbow bolt. One of the zombies trips. Amergin stabs one with a spear. Lithos throws more acid. 

Baldy: “I’ve done it once, I can do it again!” He stabs another zombie. Whisper puts a crossbow bolt in the back of one’s head. 

Lithos continues throwing acid; he’s melting them a bit at a time. Archibald finishes a zombie: “I am unstoppable!” 

Whisper hits with a crossbow bolt. The fallen zombie stands up, takes a stab from Baldy on the way, and swings at James but misses. Lithos throws more acid, hits again. There is one zombie left. James swings and hits, doing a bit of damage. Baldy and James shift to flank the zombie, but Baldy misses. Whisper fires off another bolt, Amergin hits the thing, and Lithos finishes it with acid. 

James looks at the sapphire and James adds it to out treasure. It's 1500 gp worth of Sapphire. Amergin uses his spear to pop open the Madness  & Wisdom coffin; a shadowy figure flows up out of the coffin. It’s some sort of phantom creature made of pain and darkness; it alternates between screaming and laughing. It also alternates between being material and immaterial.

Lithos throws acid and manages to hit; James switches back to the flail and cries: “Archibald, is this one of your exes?” He swings, but the flail passes through it without touching it. Archibald takes a step, stabs the thing with his magic rapier, and smiles. Whisper moves up a little and angles where he can shoot without hitting Baldy – which is good, because his crossbow bolt goes straight through the phantom.

It grabs at Baldy but he slips out of the way. Baldy and James start babbling like Crazy Dave from its aura of madness. Amergin is unaffected; he casts Produce Flame and burns it; Lithos tags it with Magic Missile. Whisper manages to damage it as well. This time it grabs at Archibald again, but again misses. Amergin misses.

Lithos hits it with more acid; Whisper puts another bolt in it, and it phases over to Whisper; Amergin burns it as it retreats, damaging it a bit. Whisper avoids its attack. Amergin moves in and touches him with magical fire and immolates it; it dissolves into wisps of smoky shadow as it fades. There's another clue in the bottom of the coffin.

 

(I haven't been describing these clues very well, but now that we've got six or seven of them: they seem to have a number of dots on the left half, like the face of a die; then a dividing line in the middle; and then an angle or an arrow and/or possibly a number on the right half. So far, this has proven indecipherable; I'm hoping we'll find some sort of puzzle that these provide clues/instructions for, since they don't seem to have anything to do with the maze itself.) 

Baldy: “That’s a restroom over there. I need a moment.” He goes over to the door and knocks on it. 

Voice: “Is everything dead out there?”

There’s a dwarf in there; he appears to be a merchant. Baldy shoves him out and goes inside to take care of his business. “I trade in the currency of Durest Inglorian: black onyx." Black onyx is well known for being a component for Raise Dead and similar spells. He was a member of the congregation of the priest who built this place ages ago, and he has wares. For two black onyx we can get a pet zombie; four gets us a clue to the treasure; eight was a magic stick; twelve gives us a scroll with a clue to the treasure. 

The dwarf has a stick strapped to his back; it’s weirdly shaped, almost like a crossbow without the bow. Whisper considers this. The dwarf adds: “If you defeat the beast at the end of the maze and all its trickery, you will free me from the maze!”

Baldy: “Whew! Much better!” He emerges from the dwarf’s room. 

Whisper: “How long have you been back here?” 

Dwarf: “Forty or fifty years.”

 

Amergin: “How many people have been here before us?” 

“Seven. Six. I don’t really remember.”

If we were to pull him out of the maze prematurely, he’d be in terrible pain; it's part of his offering to the god. Okay, so what’s at the center of maze? He thinks it’s maybe a zombie… a big zombie? He has no idea what kind. 

Archibald has made a bit of a mess on the pet zombie; Lithos cleans it up with Prestidigitation. Archibald: "Wait, all these years and you could just... clean that up? With magic?"

 

James slips into the room and quickly searches it. The rest of the stuff seems to be on the dwarf’s person, because aside from a couple of dormant zombies there's nothing in here.

Whisper tries to distract him, but he moves away from where James was going to try to pickpocket him. We go ahead and purchase the clue and watch which pouch he pulls it out of; Amergin continues distracting him by badmouthing Indra. (Which, to be fair, Indra kind of deserves; he isn't just a trickster, he's a traitor.)

James attempts to reclaim our onyx through sleight of hand and succeeds; Whisper also goes through the dwarf's room but finds nothing else. Also, the dwarf is disappointed that we opened the second coffin; now we have the second clue that he was going to sell us. Lithos asks him if was planning to just open the coffin and release the mad spirit for twelve black onyx, but the dwarf demonstrates a hidden drawer that would have allowed him to draw the clue out safely.

 

Archibald starts going off on his horrible standard of zombie care. He goes back into his room to cry. 

We argue a bit about whether we should sleep here or head back to the boat; Lithos is concerned that if we go outside, the old dwarf will reset everything; Whisper is concerned that if we sleep here we’ll get turned into undead. We jam his door closed and go back to the boat for a full night’s sleep. 

He’s banging on the door to be let out when we come back. “I just want to be able to wander around the dungeon a little bit.” We let him out: “Remember! When you find more black onyx, come back!” The magic stick shoots magic missiles; it is actually a Formorian arquebus. (These are magical artifacts that showed up in the previous campaign; it fires off one Magic Missile per round, which isn't a lot of damage but it's self-targeting, good for twenty shots a day, and may still be functional in situations where most magic isn't.)

There second door is set up like the outer door was: a latch handle in the center, and then a lever that opens the door but also brings down a wrist-severing blade. This one has a hand still stuck on it; we go to pull it off, and parts of it are still stuck. We stick the remains of the severed hand on the handle, and it sticks again. We look at this again, because nobody wants to be stuck to that thing and lose an arm, and weirdly nobody keeps a rag or a pair of gloves or even a spare cloth pouch on their person. 

So we go back and purchase the pet zombie for two black onyx and then we have it open the door for us. The zombie is Roberta – Rob for short. She grabs the handle and pulls back, and Whisper attempts to disable the device; he jams a bugbear bone in there to hold in in place, and then we yank most of Rob’s hand back off the handle. We open the door. 

We see four ghouls coming towards us. They can paralyze you; Lithos fires off a Magic Missile, then the first one lumbers forward and bites Whisper. He is not paralyzed, fortunately, nor is he infected by disease. We send Rob forward; she slips past the ghoul and blocks the other three in the hallway beyond. 

Amergin drops Entangle, to hold the ghouls where they are; the ghoul at the back is the only one who isn’t affected. James moves up and kills the nearest ghoul. Whisper slides over to the side-passage, takes shelter behind a treasure chest, and gets ready to shoot. Archibald uses Flare, and Lithos blows a second magic missile; Rob punches a ghoul and ends it. 

Amergin slings a stone, and Whisper pauses to inspect the chest that he’s using for cover. He doesn’t find any traps, but it’s locked. He attempts to pop the lock, and sets off a Color Spray trap; he’s out of it. Baldy uses Flare, and Lithos goes back to throwing acid; the two remaining ghouls try to escape and get themselves tangled even further. Rob, meanwhile, rips loose and moves forward. Amergin slings another stone; James throws a spear; Whisper is out cold; and Baldy casts Flares again, dazzling a ghoul; Lithos throws more acid. 

The ghouls try to break free and fail; Rob the zombie attacks and kills another ghoul. Amergin slings another stone and does a teeny bit of damage to the last one. Baldy Flares again, and Lithos finishes the last ghoul off with Acid Splash. We find Whisper next to a large chest that has been opened; there’s a slightly smaller chest inside. "Well," says Lithos, "I guess we wait until it wears off."

Once recovered, Whisper checks the smaller, inner chest. It has two traps on it: grease followed by burning hands. He looks for some way to open the lid without being in front of it. We could have Rob do it, but we’ve decided we like our zombie. The rest of us hide, and Whisper attempts to discharge the traps without being caught in them. The hallway fills with fire for a few seconds, and then it burns itself out. We go look at the next chest, and there’s a small chest inside that. It has a small trap. It’s a Sleep trap. 

We all move back well out range; Whisper opens it and sets it off, and Amergin collapses. Centipedes come out of the chest, and Whisper hauls Amergin away. The centipedes go for the ghouls, and Lithos picks them off with acid while they’re eating. 

There’s a teeny wee chest inside. Lithos then pulls out the tiny box using mage hand. He opens it. There’s a ring of protection inside; James claims it. 

There’s also a treasure pile. We poke it with the 10 foot pole. A Ghast crawls out. Lithos: “Ghasts are like ghouls, but meaner and stinkier.” We get ready for combat. 

It steps in, and claws Whisper. He is paralyzed. Baldy uses Flare again, but it shrugs it off; Lithos hits it with acid. James moves up, and is sickened by its scent. He swings and misses the thing. Amergin grabs Whisper and hauls him away. Rob comes shambling up and attacks, but misses and falls down. 

The ghast attacks Rob, hitting twice and doing some damage. Baldy takes a shot with his crossbow. He misses. Lithos throws more acid, hitting. James, dry-heaving because of its stench, swings and misses again. Amergin heals Whisper. Rob stands up (the ghast misses) and attacks and misses. It claws Rob twice again, tearing her up further. 

Baldy uses Flare again, and Lithos uses acid. James manages to stab the thing. Amergin manages to move up and stab it with a spear, doing more damage. He is not sickened by the stench. Rob hits for a bit of damage. 

It tears Rob apart and moves up. Archibald casts Dancing Lights and attempts to distract the thing. It’s mildly distracted. Lithos tags it with another acid splash. James swings and misses; Amergin stabs with a spear and misses. 

Rob is destroyed and the ghast is distracted, so neither of them do anything. 

Archibald moves up. James swings and misses. Whisper snaps back to movement. He attempts to tumble past the ghast, which doesn’t manage to attack him. He attacks, but misses. 

The ghast attacks Amergin and misses completely. Baldy moves up. He stabs but misses. James swings, misses, and hurls his flail down the hall. Whisper attempts to stab, misses; Amergin attempts to attack and misses. The ghast attacks Amergin and hits him twice. Amergin is now paralyzed. Baldy drags Amergin away and cures him. Lithos zaps the ghast with more acid and it goes down. 

We grab the pile of silver and gold totalling 250 gp, a scroll of scorching ray which Lithos immediately claims, 4 more black onyx -- two from the ghast, two from Rob the zombie -- and a masterwork light crossbow. We hand the scroll to Lithos and the crossbow to Archibald, then go back to buy the magic stick. We hand that off to Whisper for the moment, since Lithos can do almost that much damage and almost as reliably with his acid cantrip.

The dwarf is offering to sell us a second zombie, but it’s the last one. We buy it, and fail to steal the onyx back from him this time.

We have also noticed that there are more inscriptions on the wall. We tap our way down the ghoul corridor, using our standard marching order for trap-finding: Whisper, James, Amergin, Lithos, Archibald, and Sherry Moon Zombie. We tap the last square, and a hidden door opens up and a big old boulder comes rolling towards us. 

Lithos shrieks, turns, and runs. 

Amergin casts Entangle, and the others make an orderly retreat while the boulder is restrained. We wait, and eventually the boulder rolls past us and shatters. We have gained another clue. So, at the end of the side-passage there’s a broken door that James could probably wriggle through; there are eight skeletons that start tromping down the corridor towards him. He retreats back through the door. Four of the skeletons had bows and four four spears. The passage was narrow, and the archers at the back were firing through the spear-skeletons at the front. 

 

Going back the other way, at the end of the ghoul tunnel there’s a door with a viewer; Whisper takes a look. Inside are two ghasts and a bunch of skeletons with bows. There’s a rug on the floor, urns, a sack, treasure pile, a couple of more inscription clues, a torture chair, and a shrine to Durest complete with depiction of his shadow staff. There are also piles of skulls, and probably a few other things. 

 

We back off to make plans.