The B-Team was exhausted. They rested in the comfortable chamber of their recently defeated foe - Patriarch Ul-Lon of the draconic cult dwelling in a secret complex buried beneath a large hill surrounded by the Drowned Forest.
Ul-Lon lay unconscious only a few feet away. Baylore had cleaned his clock just an hour ago. Ul-Lon was unbound. Baylore had placed upon the patriarch's finger a magical ring that would ensure Ul-Lon's cooperation and assistance.
Ul-Lon roused. He was a small man in his forties with prominent bulging eyes. He wore greenish-black plate armor decorated with dragon wings. He wore a dragon's tooth around his neck like a cherished holy relic. He was completely clean shaven - even his eyebrows were missing. In battle his countenance would have been severe and off-putting. Now he was weak and exhausted.
Baylore touched Ul'Lon's forehead. Ul-Lon felt better - refreshed. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was surrounded by enemies.
"What is this? Who are you? Why did you invade my sanctum and attack me?" he demanded.
Baylore waved his hand, "We are your friends. You have nothing to fear. We didn't attack you, it was some trolls. We chased them off."
Ul-Lon looked confused and rubbed his aching head, "Oh. Of course. Trolls. Many thanks, sir."
The magical influence of the ring Ul-Lon wore caused him to unconditionally believe anything Baylore told him. Indeed, Baylore could alter Ul-Lon's entire philosophy or belief system with a few simple sentences. If Baylore said "up is down" then, as far as Ul-Lon was concerned, up would be undeniably and incontrovertibly down.
Baylore said, "We are seeking Sakatha. You were going to bring us to him."
"Oh no," said Ul-Lon apologetically, "I am but the humble patriarch. I oversee the acolytes. I ensure they are properly trained. I am not allowed to lay eyes upon Sakatha. Only they who are my masters may do that."
"Where are they?"
"They dwell in the forbidden lower levels." Ul-Lon cheerfully exclaimed, They emerge from behind the altar to escort newly acquired prisoners to the secret chamber to become thralls."
"Behind the altar?" inquired Baylore.
"Oh yes, there are secret passages behind the tapestry. They are forbidden."
"Will you show us?"
"Of course!" said Ul-Lon, helpfully. He grinned, revealing teeth chiseled to serrated points.
CHAPTER 38
"AN UNEXPECTED ALLY"
The B-Team:- Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Bosun of the Sea Ghost.
- Captain Baylore - Neutral Human Pirate and Pugilist (Monk), Captain of the Sea Ghost.
- Brenna "The Sea Witch" Myrasdottir - Chaotic Good Human Sailor and Divine Soul Sorceress, long-lost daughter of Whaler, First Mate of the Sea Ghost.
- Bordar Graniteshaper - Lawful Good Dwarven Bearer of Grudges (Barbarian), exiled from his clan, Ballast of the Sea Ghost.
- Bruma - Neutral Good Human Swamp Guide (Ranger) for the smuggling cartel known as "the Organization", given a mission to find and kill Sakatha the Lizard King.
Brain Jellies
- Avastana "Aella" Kádár - Neutral, Half-Elf Outlander and Storm Sorceress from Ket, daughter of the king of the sea elves, Deck Sorceress of the Sea Ghost.
The Poisoned Chest
Bruma ran his hands along the wall opposite the altar. The wall was not square with the rest of the room. He soon discovered that a section of the wall was removable. He pulled it open revealing a hidden storage space behind. Within the storage space were two small ornately carved ivory scroll cases and a large chest.
Bruma turned around, "What's in the chest?"
Ul-Lon narrowed his eyes in anger and frustration. "That is no concern of yours!"
Baylore used his magic ring, "No, he's a friend of mine. You WANT to tell us what's in the chest."
"Ah, I- uh- I see. The chest is the treasury of the acolytes. It is used to purchase books for the library and fund our studies."
Bruma examined the chest. "It's covered in some kind of thick grease. I'm afraid to touch it."
Baylore asked Ul-Lon, "What's the grease?"
Ul-Lon explained, "Oh, it's a contact poison of my own design. I'm rather an expert on poisons, you see. Anyone who touches it dies an agonizing death."
"Can you remove it?"
"Oh, of course. It wouldn't be very useful as a treasury if I couldn't access the funds, now could it. Yes. I have an counter-acting agent hidden away beneath the altar."
Baylore directed Ul-Lon to apply the counter-acting agent to the chest and open it. Ul-Lon happily complied.
The chest contained several thousand coins of gold and platinum. The two scroll cases contained identical scrolls containing incantations useful for warding off demons. Baylore dumped the coins into his magical bag of holding.
DM Note-
We had to stop and check to determine the volume of 7000 coins . A quick Google revealed that 36-40,000 coins could occupy one cubic foot, so there was plenty of room in the bag.
The Secret Corridor
Ul-Lon led the B-Team out of his chambers. The bodies of his acolytes lay dead on the floor in the corridor beyond. Baylore explained that the trolls had killed them which displeased Ul-Lon. Baylore reminded Ul-Lon that they were hunting these trolls to avenge the acolytes. He told Ul-Lon that the trolls had escaped down to a lower level using a secret passage. Ul-Lon took them to the altar chamber with a large tapestry hanging on the back wall.
The tapestry showed a lizard king bearing a trident and a golden scepter. The Lizard King wore a golden crown of human manufacture on his head. The figure stood atop a pile of fallen victims. Behind the lizard king rose an ominous black figure of a dragon - its wings outstretched to envelop the battlefield. Above the dragon was a strange symbol composed of five dragon heads in a spiral pattern.
"The tapestry tells the story of how Sakatha the Lizard King smote his enemies and ruled over an entire kingdom with the aid of the black dragon Aulicus."
"Yeah, but didn't Sakatha die like a hundred years ago?" inquired Alot.
"Possibly," replied Ul-Lon, "But he is reborn! He has returned to reclaim his throne as king."
"What happened to Aulicus?" asked Bruma, "I hear he was killed recently." Baylore glanced at Aella. She had brain jellies and offered no response to his comment.
"Aulicus was old. He was recently defeated. But he will be reborn." Ul-Lon's eyes glazed over in reverent emotion, "He will come again!"
Baylore cleared his throat to interrupt, "Ahem, the secret passages?"
"Yes, of course. Those whom I serve always emerge from behind the tapestry. I am forbidden to go there."
Baylore pulled aside the tapestry on the right to reveal a hidden corridor. Bordar looked behind the tapestry to the left and found another corridor.
Bordar said, "Hey, there are two corridors!"
Baylore and the others were already disappearing into the one on the right, "Come on. We're going this way. Catch up!"
The False Door
The corridor turned right, then left, then left again and ended in a door. Bruma examined the door for traps but found none. The door was unlocked. It opened revealing a small room with two identical doors, one on the left and one on the right.
Bruma approached the door on the left and reached out to examine it.
To his shock, Bruma's hand adhered to the door. A fanged mouth formed in the center of the door!
Bruma shouted, "Mimic! Mimic-door!"
DM Note-
My players always get super excited when they fight a mimic. It is perhaps their favorite of the iconic monsters. They usually assume everything is a mimic but were genuinely surprised this time.
Bruma drew a handaxe and chopped at the the door. The hand axe bit deep but held fast.
Alot ran in and joined Bruma in fighting the door. He stabbed it with his shortsword which likewise stayed affixed to the door.
Brenna cast a spell and acid flew across the room onto the door. The acid simply poured off the door onto the floor with no effect. Baylore pointed a finger at the door and bolts of fire streaked into the mimic.
Alot grabbed a dagger off of Bruma's belt and plunged it into the door. The door shuddered and thrashed violently. Alot let go of the dagger and backed away. The door melted like thick mud onto the floor. The mimic was dead. The creature had lost its adhesive properties as it died and the weapons were easily retrieved.
"Okay, other door," said Bordar. The dwarf pulled on the door but it would not budge. "Ah," he said and pushed it with similar lack of effect. Even with Baylore's help they could not get the door open. Alot and Bruma then gave it a try but with no luck. Bordar set about hacking the door with his axes. In ten minutes the door was in splinters and it was evident that the door was a decoy placed against a bare wall.
Baylore massaged his forehead with his left hand, "Someone please look for a secret door."
The Hidden Stair
Bruma soon found that a section of the back wall could be opened to reveal a thirty-foot corridor. The corridor ended in another bare wall.
Bruma got down on his hands and knees and closely examined the floor and walls as he crawled forward. In the middle of the corridor he found that the floor could be raised like a hatch revealing a ladder and a staircase.
The staircase was long and straight. It descended indefinitely into the gloom - far beyond his ability to see in the absolute darkness. He examined each step carefully. The fifth stair was at a slightly different angle than the others.
Bruma gathered all the rope in the party and spliced them together. He then tied the rope around his torso and handed the other end to Alot. He lit a torch and descended the stairs, careful to avoid the fifth step. He carefully descended over two hundred feet and still couldn't see the bottom. He tossed the torch down the stairs. It bounced and rolled and came to a stop. The stairs ended in another hundred feet or so.
Bruma returned to the top and informed the others. He told them not to touch the fifth step. He had a feeling it was trapped. Thus did everyone tie themselves together and follow Bruma down the stairs, carefully avoiding the fifth step.
DM Note-
I used the guidelines in Classic Modules Today - I2 Tomb of the Lizard King. It said:
Receding Stair Slide/Fire Pit(p. 25): Triggered by walking on the 5th stair. DC 15 passive Wisdom (Perception) check to spot, or DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check if actively searching. DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to determine how to disarm, followed by a DC 15 Dexterity check using a tool(sword, thieves tool or other to jam) to disable it. When triggered, a creature on the stair failing a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw slides steeply for 30’ then falling into a 60’ fire pit takes 6d10 bludgeoning damage from falling, and takes 4d10 fire damage per round. Creatures in the fire that succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check, with disadvantage, climb the 60’ up and out
Bruma's passive Perception is 15 and he was searching for traps, so he saw the trapped step fairly easily. At the time, I thought "Well, there's no need to disarm. Just skip the fifth stair! How hard cna that be?" I had everyone make DC 1 Dexterity saves to avoid the step.
In retrospect, I should have had the trap START with the fifth stair and continue for like ten or twenty feet - FORCING them to deactivate the trap or teleport or fly or spider climb.
The Underground Lake
The stairs ended on a platform suspended over a vat of alchemical liquid ready to burst into flame.
They emerged from the side of a cavern wall. The cavern before them was vast - far wider than they could discern using their dark vision. The ceiling was concealed by the gloom of total darkness a hundred feet overhead. Two sets of stairs led down to the left and right of the platform. They were on the shore of a vast underground lake. There were two large mounds of packed earth - one to the left and one to the right.
The party split up to investigate the mounds. Both contained hollowed out warrens filled with broken bones - crushed by powerful jaws. The warrens had been abandoned for a long time. Whatever had lived in them had not returned in a long time.
Brenna approached the lake. She knelt down and cupped her hand in the water. She raised the water to her lips and tasted it.
There was no water.
She poured the water out of her hand but nothing spilled. The water was illusory and insubstantial.
She looked at the lake. It vanished. The spell had been broken. She stood up and saw before her a dry riverbed that bisected the cavern from left to right. In the distance she could see a dozen campfires around which sat hundreds of lizard-men. The light of the campfires illuminated the far side of the cavern hundreds of feet away and revealed the silhouette of a large structure to the left - a truncated pyramid made of stone. The trapezoid-shaped structure was twenty feet tall. Atop the structure was an obelisk - apparently some kind of memorial.
She told the others what she saw. She helped each of them to break the spell and see the reality before them.
Bruma kept a close eye on the lizard-men. They had apparently noticed the intruders but paid them no heed.
The team formed up in a tight group in order to cross the dry riverbed. They were headed towards the memorial structure.
The Barrows
Brenna led the procession. She walked ten feet and held her hand up. She could not feel the fine gravel river bed under where she was about to place her left foot. She stepped back and closed her eyes. When she re-opened her eyes she could see before her a pit filled with acid. She informed the others.
The party went to the right and carefully advanced. They encountered no further traps and crossed the riverbed safely.
They cautiously approached the truncated pyramid memorial structure. They could now make out the shapes of a dozen dome-shaped mounds of packed earth, each ten feet wide and ten feet tall, in front of the structure.
When they approached within ten feet of one of the mounds, the top of the mound burst open. A long dead lizard-man clad in ancient armor and bearing a sword and a bow emerged. The face of the lizard man was gaunt and pale with sunken cheeks and eye sockets. The eyes of the lizard man warrior glowed green. It hissed a dry rasping call. In answer, the tops of the other eleven mounds burst open and eleven other lizard-man wraiths emerged.
The Guardians of the Tomb
The undead lizard-man warriors positioned themselves to defend the tomb. Half of the warriors moved to intercept and surround Alot and Bordar. The other half loosed arrows from their bows. Unlike the lizard-men of the swamp these warriors were clad in sophisticated - if somewhat decayed - chain mail and armed with metal weapons of human design. One wight grabbed Bordar with a glowing green hand and squeezed. Bordar clenched his teeth as his life energy was drained from him!
Baylore and Bruma joined Alot and Bordar in the melee with the guardians while Brenna and Ul-Lon kept their distance and attacked with ranged spells. Once the melee had attracted half of the guardians around them Baylore called for Ul-Lon's assistance. Ul-Lon said a short prayer and became surrounded by a swirling vortex of glowing green miniature black dragons. He waded into the throng and the dragons ripped and shredded the reptilian wights.
One wight who had been peppering the group with arrows threw down its bow and ran around the group in an attempt to flank Brenna and Aella. In response, Brenna ran into the swirling vortex and stood next to Ul-Lon. The pursuing wight was caught up in the maelstrom and shredded by the dragons.
Baylore left the scrum and charged the wight archers standing atop their barrow mounds. He was soon followed by Bruma. As Baylore defeated one wight he would move to the next. Bruma, who had depleted his supply of arrows, began retrieving arrows from the quivers of fallen wights and using them against the undead enemies.
The last handful of wights put up a terrific fight but they too were eventually defeated.
DM Note-
After two turns of Ul-Lon's spirit guardians ripping undead shit up, I remembered that Ul-Lon's spirit guardians do necrotic damage - against which the wights take half damage. To make up for this, I doubled the hit points of the remaining wights.
The Entrance to the Mausoleum
While the party examined the crypt Bruma took a good look at the lizard-man camps. They had watched the battle against the wights but showed no interest in interfering or responding. With that assurance Brenna took a close look at the large brass double-doors at the base of the mausoleum.
Each door was twelve feet tall and five feet wide. Even in the dim visibility of darkvision she could see ornate bas relief panels in the door.
Most of the panels depicted small scenes of everyday life among the lizard men. The topmost panels on each side showed a great Lizard King wielding a fearsome trident in battle against humans, or receiving sacrifices of humans and other slaves. Other depictions of the Lizard King in some of the panels showed him with lightning bolts and fireballs leaping from his fingertips.
Brenna tried the doors. They were locked.
Alot offered to rip them open but Brenna asked him to wait. She was tired and was nearly depleted of magical energy. It had been a long day.
The party decided to retreat to one of the abandoned barrows by the entrance. It was apparent that the lizard men paid them no heed so there they hoped to find a few hours of rest.
They would crack open the mausoleum soon enough.
To be Continued...
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