Session 11: Enter the Tomb of Horror

Rushing forward with a raging yell, Zhang leapt from the stairs at the tunnel entrance directly onto the drow ship thirty feet below. He then rushed forward to join combat with the drow captain who had just felled Terlis.

As the remaining party members on the ledge rushed through the tunnel to join the battle in the cavern ahead, Mid was left in the rear. Suddenly behind her there was a loud explosion and she turned to see part of the ledge give away. As she moved into the safety of the tunnel, she noticed glyphs in the ground just below the surface of the ice leading from the center of the explosion into the tunnel and beyond. Thinking quickly, she surmised that the glyphs were the source of the explosion and yelled to the others ahead to hurry.

Meanwhile, a new combatant had entered the fight. Rising up from the hull of the drow ship, a male drow in robes and holding a staff flew level with the tunnel as it exited into the cavern. With several party members still in the tunnel, he thrust his staff forward and a lightning bolt arced from his staff through the tunnel, hitting several party members in its path. As they screamed in agony, everything suddenly went dark as one of the drow warriors cast darkness around the tunnel entrance.

Feeling around in the dark, Clancy was able to find Terlis and rouse him from his stupor, although Terlis could still feel his insides being torn apart from the poison. He was also disoriented by being woken into darkness. Slowly, he and Clancy began to feel their way out of the tunnel on their hands and knees.

Meanwhile, Riya was faced with two quaggoths at the foot of the stairs. She downed one quaggoth with a flurry of fists and then inexplicably ran the other direction along the ice wall away from the other quaggoth and toward the drow ship.

Despite the darkness, PPP kept a clear head. Remembering the position of the drow mage before magical darkness descended, he played his instrument and sent forth a magical wave the shattered with a loud crash centered on the mage. The mage screamed and lost concentration on the arcane forces that were holding him aloft. He began to plummet downward but was able to slow his fall with an arcane word, continuing to drift down as light as a feather.

The drow captain, seeing Zhang bear down on her, retreated to the ship’s gangplank and then turned and fired her crossbow. It struck Zhang a glancing blow. He grunted with the impact, but resisted the poison with his barbaric fortitude. With a yell, he charged at the drow captain and crushed her with one mighty swing, her body falling into the icy crevasse below.

The remainder of the party slowly and carefully made their way out of the inky darkness and onto the icy stairs. As they proceeded they could hear loud explosions and collapse as the glyphs behind them triggered. Clancy, PPP, and Terlis released arcane energy at the drow mage as they emerged from teh bubble of darkness. He responded by instantly teleporting to the entrance of the excavation and disappearing into the darkness. He didn’t make it far however. Terlis released a flaming sphere of fire that burst at the tunnel entrance. They heard a scream and the drow mage dragged himself to the entrance, clothes still smoldering before collapsing. Terlis and Clancy were then charged by the remaining quaggoth, but PPP was able to drive it back by sounding strange dissonant whispers in its head. The rest of the party then made short work of it.

Zhang charged one of the remaining drow soldiers and struck him down with his maul. Only one drow warrior remained. Suddenly, there was a loud THUNK sound and the warrior was impaled by a giant ballista bolt onto the icy wall. The rest of the party looked in the direction of the sound and saw Riya happily waving at them from behind a ballista on the deck of the ship.

Thus, the fierce battle came to an end and the party began to take stock of their situation. They appeared to be trapped in this cavern, with the entrance tunnel now completely collapsed by the exploding glyphs. They saw three entrances to the archeological excavation beyond. Searching the ship, they found what appeared to be the diary of the commander. Reading through the diary, they learned that the commander was a male drow named Niloverin of House Dalmass. Interestingly, Niloverin referred to his two lieutenants as brother and sister and the party recalled how the drow captain had called out to the drow mage as brother upon his appearance. This suggested that the party had not yet found this drow commander. In his notes, Niloverin frequently complained about his treatment by the matriarchs of drow society. He raged against the matriarchy, all the more because he claimed to have been given special gifts by Lolth that were not truly appreciated.

At some point, the diary began to discuss a magical artifact. This artifact had been discovered accidentally by an ancestor of his household when she was stranded on an asteroid in the rings of Bazelpup during the Feydark war. She claimed that she found the entrance to an ancient ruin on this asteroid and that when she slept, she dreamed of a great artifact at the center of this ruin. However, she was rescued by other drow and later died in the fighting. This story lived on, however, and many of her descendants had sought in vain for the asteroid. Niloverin congratulated himself that he alone had found it. By deducing that it wasn’t found because someone else had taken the ice asteroid, he was finally able to track it down in the belt. He paid off the mercenary sentries of the ice asteroid and began excavation with a team of drow and quaggoths. His work went slower than expected, however, and the excavation was not complete before a guard change was due. He then came up with the plan to magically seal his ship and the excavation in a separate cavern. They would later be able to open an entrance for the ship with the use of explosive magical glyphs that only he knew the command to release, thus ensuring the loyalty of his crew. He also left one small entrance to the main cavern for sentry duty, but protected by a similar set of magical glyphs - presumably the ones that had just trapped the party.

After completing the excavation, he sent in multiple parties to the ruins, which appeared to be a tomb of some sort. None returned. Eventually, he decided to enter himself, convinced that he would return with an artifact that would make him godlike in power. This was the last entry.

From this diary, the party surmised that their best chance to defeat this drow commander would be to enter the tomb and try to beat him to the artifact. Preparing their tools, they braced themselves to enter the tomb.

As the party scanned the exterior of the ruins, the strange script written above the entrance suddenly seemed to come into a focus for Terlis and Mid, revealing a strange riddle:

Riddle of the Tomb

Acererak congratulates you on your powers of observation, so make of this whatever you wish, for you will be mine in the end no matter what!
Go back to the tormentor or through the arch, and the second great hall you’ll discover.
Shun green if you can, but night’s good color is for those of great valor.
If shades of red stand for blood, the wise will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of magical metal — you’re well along your march.
Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.
These keys and those are most important of all, and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.
If you find the false you find the true, and into the columned hall you’ll come,and there the throne that’s key and keyed.
The iron men of visage grim do more than meets the viewer’s eye.
You’ve left and left and found my tomb, and now your souls will die.

Puzzling over the meaning of this riddle, the party chose to go through the central entrance. They found a wide corridor painted with various frescoes. Along the floor was a path of red tiles. Remembering the line in the riddle about the tormentor, the party noticed that there appeared to be a fresco of the door to a torture chamber. Zhang strode confidently over to investigate and promptly fell into a pit trap. After extracting himself from the poisonous barbs at the bottom of the pit, he climbed up and proceeded to use his maul on the fresco. The paint disintegrated, revealing an actual door behind the painted one.

The party went through the door and entered a chamber with a large four headed statue of a gargoyle. Suddenly, the gargoyle came to life and attacked the party. With their combined might, the adventurers were able to make short work of the gargoyle, with Clancy’s eldritch blast finishing it off.

The party then opened the only other door in the chamber to find a ten foot square room with no apparent exit. Suspecting a secret door, Terlis entered the room to investigate. As soon as he entered, a hidden mechanism shot a dart at him. He was able to quickly find a secret door, which revealed a similar 10 foot square room. When he entered, more darts attacked him. Kiki followed to help him search and to try to protect him with her shield. They then proceeded to work their way through a series of identical rooms under the fire of darts from some hidden mechanism, until they finally reached another hallway. The remaining members of the party then quickly ran through the rooms, trying to dodge the darts. The party came out on the other end, bloody and bruised, but determined.

They found themselves in another great hall. This one was lined with figures holding various orbs of different colors. Remembering the line from the riddle about the color black, Clancy used his spectral mage hand to investigate the first black orb. It was an illusion hiding the entrance to a narrow passageway. After sending PPP ahead to scout, the party followed.

At the end of this passageway, the party found themselves in what appeared to be a chapel with an altar at the front and three rows of pews. They stopped momentarily to consider what other dangers and traps might lurk here…