This session was attended by Ave, Will, and Jamie. Trajan attended via Skype.

Defeating the Doors

Without an answer to the riddle, the party decided to explore more the area around the tomb. Maybe they would find the answer hidden nearby. Returning to the fork in the path, they ventured up the right side instead of the tight left side. After a day and a half of walking they were now on a ridge above valley. The path split into a fork yet again.

At the second fork the party decided they should use divination to figure out the riddle instead of wandering aimlessly. A quick prayer to the gods revealed that the answer was to say Kruk-Ma-Kali’s name as well as his titles. Fortunately, Amalius had picked up Kruk-Ma-Kali’s full titles while studying in the Great Library. They teleported back to the tomb entrance (Whenever I say teleported back to the tomb what I actually mean is they teleported to first fork in the pass. It’s very close to the tomb and outside of the anti-teleportation aura. Likewise, when they teleport away from the tomb they are actually walking to the first fork and then teleporting).

Amalius went up to the red dragon door and touched it. It asked its riddle once again. Amalius responded by saying, “Kruk-Ma-Kali, King of All, Lord of Might, Prince of this World, Protector of the East, Builder of Empire, Guardian of Cimmeria, Master of Blades, Defender of Faith, Conqueror of Men, Slayer of Dwarves, Grinder of Elves, Ravager of Cimmeria, Son of Night, Warden of the Black Pit, and Brother of War.” The red dragon door retracted into the ceiling allowing the party to pass through.

Beyond the red dragon door was a short stairway down and then another door made of cedar. The cedar door had no handles or locks on it. Torin tried pushing but the door did not budge. Amalius examined the door with detect magic and found no spells on it. After trying to puzzle out the door they figured the trigger for the door were the torch sconces in the wall. Unfortunately, with so many magical sources of light, no one in the party had torches on hand. They teleported back to Mars’ Oasis and bought a large load of torches. The load was shoved into Terroc’s bag of holding and the next day they headed back to the tomb.

Unfortunately, the torches did not unlock the cedar door no matter the configuration in the sconces. Frustrated, Logan decided to just blast around it with his eldritch blast. He bored a hole in the wall to the right of the door and in about an hour he had created a small passage to the other side of the door (I later told the players that the door is only bypassable by forcing it down with a STR check. Torin just wasn’t strong enough to do it on his own).

Beyond the cedar door was a locked door made of pure gold with jewels encrusted on it. The party is always wary, so they detected magic. They found illusion and enchantment auras on the luxurious door. Terroc summoned an ape and told it to go touch the door. Upon touching the door, the ape went berserk and moved to attack Logan. Terroc immediately dismissed the ape. The party decided that touching these doors would be bad news.

Amalius then had a sudden discovery. The body of the hobgoblin shaman, Duvagh, had key on a necklace around it. The key was made of gold and encrusted with jewels just like the magic door in front of them. Amalius took the key from Terroc’s bag and inserted it into the gold door’s lock. Being very careful not to touch the door in the process, Amalius turned the key and the lock clicked open. A sword was used to push open both double doors and the party finally reached the inner part of the tomb!

First Steps in the Tomb

Beyond the door was a large hall with crimson marble walls. The light of the adventurers’ weapons bounced off the walls coloring the whole room blood red. Spaced around the hall were six statues of hobgoblins. They had titles like, Eater of Elves and Diner on Dwarves. Other such gruesome things. The hall had a passage to the left, a passage to the right, and large bronze doors on the opposite wall with nine locks between them.

The characters spread out to explore the room. Unfortunately, while exploring, Amalius fell into a pit trap. At the bottom of the pit was a sticky goo that paralyzed him. Amalius found himself sinking into the goo with the threat of suffocation imminent. Shez quickly cast fly on Torin. Torin flew down and pulled Amalius out of the goo with his stout dwarven body. The goo was washed off with a create water spell. The party decided to be more cautious with further exploration of the room.

Terroc summoned some monkeys and sent them around the room. They found six pit traps. Torin checked the location of the pits by stomping on them. The traps opened beneath Torin’s feet, but he remained floating in the air due to his fly spell. Aldarian then marked the pits with chalk.

Exploring the right passage first led to a room with a statue behind an altar and carvings on the walls. The statue was of Nyx, the primordial goddess of night. The ceiling of the room was utterly black and staring at it for the briefest moments gave the gazer a headache. The altar in front of the statue was made of black stone. A black silver sword with a ghost face on the blade by the hilt was on the altar. The carvings on the walls were of hobgoblins battling Underdark monsters.

The left room had a statue of Athena. She was holding a banner in her left hand and a sword in her right hand. The greatsword had a serrated edge and red runes on the blade. The pommel stone was a skull. The altar in front of the statue was made of bundles of arrows. A huge book was open on the altar. The carvings on the walls were of hobgoblins battling elves, dwarves, and humans.

The party decided at Amalius’s urging to explore the right room of Nyx first. They found no secret passages in the walls. The only treasure in the room appeared to be the sword on the altar. Amalius very carefully removed the sword. He was shocked to find no traps preventing him from do so. He was further surprised by what he had thought was a sword was in fact a dagger that had been disguised by illusion magic while on the altar.

In the left room of Athena, Amalius once again took the book from the altar without repercussions. Amalius decided he’d tested fate enough, so he ordered Aldarian to retrieve the sword from Athena. Aldarian set off a trap and darts fired from the wall. Aldarian investigated carefully and determined that the trap was activated by a pressure plate. Logan flew up to take the sword from Athena without touching the pressure plates, not knowing that doing so would set off an even more deadly trap.

Upon the disturbance of the statue, the carvings on the walls of hobgoblins all animated and attacked as one. The party struggled to fight them off as they crawled all over the big humanoids, attacking with their tiny swords, lances, arrows, and catapults. Aldarian and Erick were knocked unconscious, but Logan and Preta were able to clear the room with their magic.

The pilfered magic sword was given to Aldarian. Amalius kept the magic book, with the title on the cover reading The Manual of Military Prowess, as well as the black silver (and nonmagical) dagger. The party went outside of the tomb and rested for the night. Amalius began reading the book and was quite engaged. He stayed up all night reading the book.