D&D with Ed, Scott, Steve, Sebastian ======================================== Fri 15 Oct 2021 05:11:52 PM EDT Having recovered Kristabell's scabbard last time, we deliberate what to do next. Ed about necromantic spells: > If it's flesh — zombies best. > If it's bone, you're in the skeleton zone. Zoozeki asks Gunga Sherpa about where to find a sage. Mr. Wilbarger at the Great Norther Library. Gunga gives Zoozeki a map to the library. Sebastian's necromancer animates a corpse (_Animate Dead_) from a sky burial — a local's grandfather (1/3 eaten). We walk about three hours to the Great Norther Library. It looks like a frontier town with a guarded gate. We talk to Wilbarger. Zoozeki asks him where to find a magic staff of enormous potency. Staff of the Magi. In a tomb. (Zoozeki has an idea that he tells Xenon: use a magic mouth to issue orders to a zombie when a condition is met.) Wilbarger takes us into the library itself. Cone-shaped, floor-to-ceiling books. (Why cone shaped? Building built by cone-shaped aliens that came out of a crack in the moon.) Wilbarger researches staves, while Zoozeki and Xenon browse shelves. Zoozeki find an arcane German book; it needs about five days of study. There is a price to study the book — a favor to be named later. We get rooms at the boarding house. Zoozeki and Xenon both study the book. (While Zoozeki and Xenon study the book, Kristabell publicly preforms the loot and Smudge does magic for Xenon's zombie.) Wilbarger tells Zoozeki about a staff he found information for (Ed will supply details later) — what is does and where to find it. Zoozeki loosed 3 CON from reading the arcane book. (In 5th edition, loss of CON reduces _already earned_ hit points. Zoozeki's fell from 43 to 35. Bullshit.) After several days of study, Zoozekei and Xenon learn three spells: _Summon Yog-Sothoth_ (lvl 7), _Walk Among Angles_ (ritual, lvl 4), _Voorish Sign_ (lvl 5). Meh. Zoozeki casts _Walk Among Angles_ on the conical library building. In the corner of the conical room, Zoozeki find a door to a desert where Wilbarger told us the tomb is located. (This seems like a big shortcut, as the tomb is far south and west of the Yellow City.) We call go through the portal to the desert. Tomb porch. Four columns. Two statues: one of winged youth with scroll/message in hand, the other of a cone-shaped creature with centipede feet. Zoozeki _Mage Hands_ the scroll (a stone cylinder). The scroll tells the story of how the conical aliens came to earth, elevated a human to emperor, and how his misused magic objects to turn the land from a lush green to arid desert; it's his tomb; the cone aliens killed him. Smudge finds a secret door on the left of the porch. Stair descend down. Xenon send familiar down. Desiccated human figure sitting at desk. Smudge goes down there. The figure animates, and asks Smudge "who goes there?", and advances toward him. Smudge retreats, and the figure does not leave the room. Zoozeki casts _Bookspeak_ on the cylinder. 1. What was the name of the emperor? Neferkari. 2. What's the name of the alien temple leader? Konocybe-Tenera. 3. How many undead beings are in the temple? At least one. 4. How many levels is the tomb? Split level; I guess two. 5. Where is Neferkari? In the lower level, at the deepest central point. 6. Does he have the staff? He has a staff. 7. What does the "who goes there?" figure want? Aspergillus. We go back in and tell the figure "aspergillus". It returns to its seat. We find an armory with deteriorated weapons — corroded khopeshes, rotting bows, etc. To the left: another desk with some paper, rock the size of a basketball. Smudge checks the papers, which have a detailed drawing of a sarcophagus. Zoozeki rolls a 26, and understands many of the locks, traps and glyphs — that there's a correct order to do them. Other pages have designs for the statues on the porch, **hollow** cone statue, ceiling or floor trap that dumps material on people messing with sarcophagus. We go back to the cone statue on the porch. Kristabell climbs the statue, and drills a hole near the top. There are particles floating in it. Xenon send his snake familiar in there. The familiar becomes painfully bloated, and Xenon dismisses it. We go back down, inside. To the right: a passage to the west, more rocks, rotted tapestries. West/down: Xenon sends his zombie down. Zoozeki sends his familiar down. A gladiator pit? A 20×70' pit with terraced seats on the east and west walls. On west wall: a doorway with a portcullis. Sand on the floor of the pit. Smudge walks on the floor of the pit, and it starts rumbling; he jumps off. Zoozeki tries a funny walk, without rhythm, and the floor doesn't rumble.