Fireday, 1 Arodus

As I predicted, after a brief respite, we decided to look for goodies. The mummies themselves had some magical (+1) chainmail [1185], which is useless to me. They also apparently had on their person (!) 8 gem-encrusted torques [1186] worth about 600 gp each, but otherwise unmagical.

The walls here are covered with skulls, which themselves still have bits of flesh hanging from them. Upon inspection, Rigel announced there was a secret level associated with each and every one of them.

Everyone stepped to the back of the room (well, in a circular room I suppose “towards the door” is more accurate) as Rigel opened one. There were no explosions, no sharp spikes, no lightning bolts .. no visible effect at all. There was an area behind the skull that held funeral linens, and a sickly sweet smell, but nothing else of value. As we pondered this, Rigel happily announced “Another!” She and Takkad opened all that we could find, certain that the mummies had been guarding something of value, but apparently they’d only been guarding “the room”.

The only exit from this room (other than the door through which we’d entered) was a staircase off to the northeast. It eventually wound up at an iron door, which was unlocked. We entered.

This circular room had six statues in front of six alcoves (a seventh alcove held the door through which we’d entered).

One statue held some grapes.

One held some bread.

One held some cheese.

One held some meat.

One held some candies.

And one simply stood there with his arms crossed. But he looked to have really sharp teeth.

Sedgwick said these represented the key families in the realm of Gluttony. I asked about the last one, and he just grimly said, “Cannibalism.”

Well gosh, cannibalism seems like a problem and a solution all in itself. Eventually, you run out of food, right? Gives finger food a whole new meaning. Still, I’d rather not meet the rep from the cannibal family.

We went to the first, with the grapes: Inibs. We opened the door and entered the corridor, which shortly led to another room. Rigel’s eyes got very big, as here there was a golden sarcophagus. But first, there was a loud noise from the west, and a reddish looking womanish looking armored looking figure approached menacingly. She appeared to have a clay body with iron plating and some runes all over.

Well crap. Fire won’t help here. So I hasted everyone. Sedgwick inspired us and Takkad prayed for us. Sabin and Nolin got some blows in, but swords probably weren’t our best choice against a foe made of clay. Next I tried magic missile, but they just bounced off. Magic resistance. Great.

But then Avia cranked up the religion and suddenly she was laying some heavy smiting on Ms Golem. In an incredible burst of speed, the golem smacked Nolin, Avia, and Rigel (who’d crept in for a possible sneak attack) but Nolin responded by taking three swings and connecting three times — the last one making it drop. Takkad healed the wounded and all was right with the world. Rigel rushed to the golden sarcophagus.

The lid came off with Avia, Nolin, and Sabin carefully lifting it. Avia had detected no evil inside, and in fact, there was nothing at all inside. Rigel disappointedly remarked that the gold was gold plating. However, there were 2 star sapphire eyes and 12 amethyst grapes adorning the lid, which offered some consolation, at least.

There was plenty of storage for wine (finally!) in this room, but it was ancient, and thus not wine anymore.

Nearby another small room held valueless and disappointing empty bottles.

Another room held bodies and putricity.

Another room was simply empty.

Yet another room was – you know, I suppose I should be in awe of these relics of an ancient civilization but even though I’ve made a point of picking up the language, and even though we are seeing things that have gone unseen for hundreds and thousands of years, I’m bored. I’d rather be using my magic. I have learned SO much and gotten SO much better at this!

I wonder if I’ve yet surpassed my father. How does one measure such things? Is it by money earned? Creatures killed? Spells known? Friends made? Influence gained?

Certainly nobody my age is this adept, right? I mean, I don’t remember seeing anybody down at the market flicking lightning bolts off their fingers.

With a start, I realized I’d stopped to think in the great hall, but the rest of the group had moved on. I got a hurried look at some murals – I suppose that’s what turns a hall from ordinary into great — before rushing to catch up.

At the other end of the hall, we found a necromantic lab. Nothing showed with detect magic, but clearly there were components here for necromantic spells. Maybe those corpses in the other room were also “components.” There was a book about creating undead [1190] there.

While in the lab, Avia sensed some evil, and before we could do much else, two shadows became apparent and immediately attacked Takkad, who looked shakened and weaker. Then I think I heard him mutter under his breath “so that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” and conjured up a flame strike which illuminated both of the shadows as if the sun had reached out and caressed them. Kane channeled a whole lot of positive energy at the shadows and Avia stopped in midstep. The shadows were gone. Between them, Kane and Takkad took out the two shadows before anybody else could do anything – a somber reminder that religion kills! 🙂

Another lab next door seemed far less sinister and more alchemical in nature ([1189] alchemical supplies).

We returned to the great hall to inspect more room connected there. One reeked of decaying flesh and prepared to fight zombies or ghasts … but no, it really was just dead bodies. Maybe a few weeks old, which was a little alarming because it meant there were still people alive here AND there was still something killing them.

Another room proved largely empty and thoroughly disinteresting.

A door to the north was locked, but Kane broke the lock .. and inside we found another sarcophagus.

Oh, and another eight mummies. Now we know from recent experience that this simply screams for a fireball, so with nothing more than a gesture and a nod from the group, I obliged. Six of the eight took serious damage; one was killed outright and one was outside the blast range. Takkad channeled energy, and Kane channeled energy, and more dropped, leaving only the one who’d been largely unaffected by most of the spells. Avia willingly stepped forward and finished that one off. I got to use my cantrip “disrupt dead” to some small effect.

This left us free to inspect the sarcophagus they’d been guarding. This, now, must be something valuable to have these creatures guarding it.

Nope. Oh I’m sure it has value as an artifact, but it’s not solid gold or anything. Sigh.

We went to another room near the pile-of-bodies room and discovered a long narrow room with what appeared to be a spectre hovering in it. Well that’s a no brainer! Fireball!

And apparently it took affront at that, because it immediately teleported next to me and …struck me or something. The pain was brief but intense, and I felt weaker. Nolin stepped up and finished it off on my behalf. Thanks, big N. Takkad did some special healing – he called it a restoration – and I immediately felt better. I don’t think I’ve ever been on the receiving end of that kind of magic before.

There was a room to the south, and from the debris and damage it appeared to be the scene of a battle. But there were no creatures there, and nothing of value left.

Wandering through these connected rooms, I began to wonder at the design. It was almost as if they were built at random, simply because there was room yet. Some were connected to others in weird ways. They clearly interconnected the doors that represented each family; no family area was separate from another. Perhaps this is the result you get from a gluttonous architect.

We returned to the statue room, and checked out the “meat” door. It led to some places we’d already been, and proved uninteresting. We returned, and this time chose the “candy” door. Before we could go through, though, we heard the sound of a door closing behind us (the “grapes” door) and a creature stood before us. “Master, I found them!” he claimed, to nobody we could detect. But it made us very nervous.

Takkad tried talking to him in a brusque manner, but he seemed more interested in eating us. He was a zombie, it seems, and he kept up his running commentary to “Master”. Avia grew tired of his talk and was the first to smack him. I hit him with not one, not two, but three scorching rays, which judging from his sounds he did not like. Nolin and Takkad each got some blows in before he succumbed, and he only succeeded in injuring Avia.

He’d been carrying a +2 humanbane dagger [1191], 8 masterwork daggers [1192], and a +3 chain shirt [1193]. The distraction having been dealt with, we returned to the candy door, but perhaps a bit more alert and aware, looking for “Master”. We found a few more rooms, but none of them held anything interesting.

We returned to the statue room and considered. We knew from our travels that this area had a lot of secret doors; we’d found some of them from the non-secret side so we knew we’d missed some. We felt we should go back and search the rooms more carefully, because we believed there was still more here.

We did indeed find a few more secret doors, but none of them led anywhere interesting … until we finally found one off of one of the sarcophagus rooms. This led to another necromantic lab, complete with disembodied organs and a human body, partly dissected.

Avia announced there were three evil presences in the next room, one more powerful than the other two. We looked at each other and buffed up. I added Mage Armor and also gave it to Nolin, Avia, and Sabin (it adds protection against incorporeal creatures.) I gave myself Spell Resistance and mirror image. I cast Greater Invisibility upon Rigel, and hasted everyone. I believe other magic was employed by our other magic users, but I didn’t take note of it. Then before the magic such as haste could wear off …

We went in.

I led with a fireball, and Sabin then dimension doored the usual suspects next to what appeared to be the most dangerous being in the room — and that’s saying something when one considers the other two beings were demons. It too was prepared, it would seem, as Avia quickly took out three of it’s mirror images. One demon moved to attack Takkad, but found himself pushed back. Another came after me … but nothing happened that I could tell. A finger of death was pointed at Sabin, but it damaged him without killing him. Sedgwick started singing. Takkad tried to dismiss one of the demons, but was not successful. Nolin took out two more images – the haste was proving useful – before actually connecting and doing some damage. Kane tried a dismissal, with equal results. I gave my chain lightning a try, but discovered that, no surprise, these creatures had spell resistance and I’d failed to crack it. Sabin finally connected and dealt some heavy blows, while Avia took out the last of its images. One demon struck Sedgwick, and he cried out in pain. The other shot a ray of enfeeblement at Takkad, but Takkad dodged.

Then K dimension doored out, leaving us the demons to deal with.