D&D with Ed, Scott, Steven ======================================== Fri 29 Oct 2021 05:39:49 PM EDT Sebastian couldn't make this session. Last time, we consulted the sage Wilbarger about where to find a powerful staff for Zoozeki. Zoozeki cast _Walk Among Angles_ to take us to a tomb in a desert on the other side of the continent. We ended last session in the middle of exploring the tomb. We found an arena with a trick sand floor. Zoozeki crosses the floor using a funny walk. Through the closed portcullis, Zoozeki sees a passage going thirty feet, with a branch to the north after ten feet, and it turns south (right) at the end. Faint sound of skittering. Zoozeki used _Mage Hand_ to pull the lever that opens the portcullis. The skittering and squeaking intensifies. Zoozeki closes the portcullis, but sounds continue to intensify. Smudge throws ballbearings noisily through the portcullis. A bunch of Labrador retriever-size rats ("rat-triever") wrapped in decrepit bandages come running into view. Steve kills a couple through the portcullis, their bandages bursting into flames because of Steve's flaming sword. The rest run away. We open the portcullis again, and walk in. Down the left passage, at the end, we see a well. About half way down, in front of a broken door, is the skeleton of a person pulling a sled with three chests. We go the other way, after the rats. 30x30 room. Six pedestals, one with a rat-like figure huddled on it. A hole in the floor with sand around it. The statue (?) speaks; it speaks German back to Zoozeki. Rat: "I am the rat who knocks." Zoozeki: "On what do you knock." Rat: "Pile of shit has a thousand eyes." OK. Smudge ties a rope around himself, and dances on the sand hole. The floor starts to shake. Everyone makes a fear check. Zoozeki fails and flees. Martin chases him for a turn, then gives up because his little dwarf legs make him even slower than Zoozeki. (Zoozeki contemplates life as a hermit in the desert, exploring the hallucinogenic properties of the local cacti.) A huge sand worm bursts through the floor, almost swallowing Kristabell, and actually swallowing Smudge. Smudge falls down its gullet, and used a dagger to arrest his fall. He clubs up the throat hand over hand. The worm surfaces again. Smudge uses some kind of _flavor_ spell to flavor rations to something nasty and emetic. The worm vomits out Smudge. He escapes. They've forgotten about Zoozeki, and go to explore the skeleton pulling the chests on a sled. Zoozeki regains his wits near the entrance, and goes back in. Zoozeki wonders: did the diagrams/blueprints we got from the desk say anything about the (now collapsed) pillar room? They show a tomb and a shaft, and waterfalls and things that don't belong in the desert. Back to the skeleton with the sled and three treasure chests, with Zoozeki now there. Zoozeki thinks the chests smell like filthy orc socks in the top chest (Investigate: 25). He thinks the middle chest contains gold (Investigate: 24). Smudge opens the middle chest, and finds 500 gp. Smudge opens the bottom chest, and finds a nother 500 gp. **1000 gp** Zoozeki suits up in his space helmet, and uses _Mage Hand_ to open the chest with orc socks, suspecting the most valuable thing might be hidden among the stinky socks. Three darts shoot out, narrowly missing Zoozeki. The chest contains only socks and the trap mechanism. We pass the skeleton. There is a broken door near the skeleton, and a well at the end of the hallway. Smudge looks into the room past the broken door. 30x40. A sarcophagus with a broken, cast aside lid. Inscription on north wall of tomb: > HERE LIES THE TOMB OF NECKROKARI. > YOU ARE TOO LATE. Skeletons of people who died in battle, once killed by a still-shining sword. Zoozeki cast _Detect Magic_ earlier; the sword is magic, of the enchantment school. Zoozeki casts _Identify_ on the sword. The sword attunes instantly on grasping the hilt, and takes affect the first time its weilded in battle; it has a mix of beneficial and deleterious effects. Near the hilt, it says "Endureall". Comparing with the drawings we found on the desk, this isn't the sarcophagus with the staff. This one only contains dust. Seems like a misdirection. We look down the well/shaft. It's 80 ft deep, and opens into a room with a stone floor. Zoozeki steps of the edge, and feather falls down the shaft. Martin dives down (flying dwarf). Smudge and Kristabell climb down. East and west: a series of rooms. North: a long, long slope down. Between the shaft we came down and the long slope down, 20 feet from the shaft we descended: a giant statue of an upright fist. Kristabell wants to surf down the long stairs, so Zoozeki casts _Tenser's floating Disk_, and he and Kristabell run toward the stair to bobsled down. As we pass the giant stone fist, it wacks at both Zoozeki and Kristabell. It hits Kristabell for 9 hp. It hits Zoozeki for 7 hp. We keep running to the tunnel. We crash into the wall at the bottom of the stairs, each taking 3 damage. 10x30 room, two doors to north (one on east side of north wall, one on west side). Looking up, we see two thin figures come out from the alcoves at the top of the stairs. On the second landing, a wall of fire shot out, which missed us. Nothing on the third landing. Smudge and Martin, still at the top of the stairs, dodge around the fist, and run to the fist landing, where two thin, drawn-looking humanoids hold swords. Kristabell shoots an arrow up the stairs. The arrow passes right through it with no apparent effect. Zoozeki hits one with his rapier, which seems to pierce it with no effect. The Nazi eagle hits with its claws, and tears off one figures arm; both dissolve into mud. A few seconds later, the figures reform, and there are four of them. Martin casts a spell that blows one apart. The fire trap on the second landing is an illusion. We suspect the mud guys can't leave the landing. Smudge just runs past them. Martin runs past them. The figures are still on the landing, the one Martin blown apart having reformed into a hundred new figures. We're all now (trapped?) at the bottom of the stairs. Smudge listens at both doors on north wall. One is silent, at the other he hears scraping. We take a short rest. Writing on doors. No one can read it. We open the door with the noise. It's a hallway that goes 20 ft north and turns east/right. Smudge uses a mirror to look around the corner. There was a cave-in, but still a passage to the north is passable.