Baylore looked away into a random direction with a glazed look upon his face. He had the brain jellies. As a result of the magic ring that bonded him to Baylore's mental control, Patriarch Ul-Lon was likewise afflicted. Brenna rolled her eyes. She deftly removed the magic ring from Baylore's finger and slipped it onto her own. Ul-Lon staggered for a moment as his mind re-adjusted. As he regained his composure Brenna said, "Hey, follow us, okay?"
Ul-Lon replied, "Of course!"
The party crossed the dry riverbed, careful to retrace their previous steps in order to avoid the illusions concealing acid pit traps. Eventually they stood before the entrance to the marble mausoleum. The mausoleum was a truncated pyramid, twenty feet tall with a thin memorial obelisk on its roof. The entrance consisted of two heavy brass doors, each twelve feet tall and five feet wide. The doors were adorned with bas relief panels containing images of Sakatha the lizard king and Aulicus, an horde of heavy armored lizardfolk, and their battles against the humans who opposed them. Some panels displayed images of dozens of humans impaled on pikes or struck down by lightning. The final images told how the victorious Sakatha mysteriously died. His slaves were so distraught that they constructed the mausoleum that stood before them. The final image showed his subjects and slaves kowtowing before the mausoleum in reverent awe and revealed that Sakatha would one day return.
There was no handle on the door. Bruma pushed on it. It did not open. Alot took out his crowbar and tried to pry it open but with no success. Bordar even struck it with his axe but the door was unscathed.
Brenna shrugged, "Anybody know how to open this thing?"
CHAPTER 39
"THE MAUSOLEUM"
The B-Team:- 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.
- Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Bosun 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
- Captain Baylore - Neutral Human Pirate and Pugilist (Monk), Captain of the Sea Ghost.
The Entrance
"Ul-Lon, any ideas?" asked Brenna.
"No, I'm sorry," he replied.
"Don't you remember his story while we were resting? He was forbidden from coming down here," explained Alot.
DM Note-
Alot's player was one of the few who read the story I sent out before the game.
"I bet we have to kneel or say something," offered Bruma.
Bruma and Brenna examined the bas relief images on the door more carefully. Taking a cue from the final image they knelt down in front of the door and touched the ground with their foreheads. The others followed suit. Brenna said, "All praise Sakatha."
The doors opened.
DM Note-
The actual phrase in the book is "Open in the name of Sakatha, the Great King!" but there was no way they'd ever get that. So- close enough.
The Hall of Traps
Through the entrance they found three passages - one to the left, one straight ahead, and one to the right. Each passage terminated in a door. The doors on the left and right were set at an angle that was parallel with the outer-walls of the triangle-shaped mausoleum.
Bordar, Aella, and Alot carelessly strode to the door on the left with little regard for circumspection. Bruma called out, "No! Wait! It might be-"
The floor opened beneath their feet. Alot and Bordar quickly retreated to safety but Aella screamed as she fell into a twenty foot deep pit filled with spikes. As she turned around to look up she saw that the ceiling was descending!
Alot quickly dropped his rope into the pit so that Aella could climb out. Aella pulled herself out of the pit just as the ceiling - a huge block of solid marble - descended into the pit. The top of the block stopped flush with the rest of the floor.
Everyone looked at each other in an attempt to figure out who was going to cross the block and open the door. Bordar looked at Brenna.
Brenna replied, "Oh no! The second I walk onto the block, it will rise back up and squash me into the ceiling. Let's try the other door."
Bruma grabbed Alot's rope and tied one end around his waist. He told Alot to keep it taught. Bruma used his sword scabbard to tap the floor in front of the other door. It seemed solid enough. He walked up to the door and examined it.
Suddenly the floor gave way. Bruma began to fall but was pulled aside by Alot. The ceiling descended into the pit just as had happened on the previous door.
Bruma asked, "Anyone else want to try the third door?"
The question was met with awkward silence.
Brenna finally said, "Fine, let's go into the first door."
Bruma crossed the top of the ceiling block and tried the door. It opened.
Hall of War
Within he found a gallery. The room was long like a corridor and ten feet wide. It was magically illuminated with diffuse indirect light. Along the outside wall was a mosaic mural depicting the lizard king leading a force of ten lizard-man warriors against four hill-giants. The mosaic figures were life-sized - the hill-giant mosaics stood fifteen to twenty feet tall and nearly reached the ceiling.
Bruma described what he saw and moved towards the center of the gallery. Brenna said, "Be careful. Those mosaics will probably come to life or something."
Nothing dangerous happened. Convinced of the room's safety the rest of the team entered behind Bruma.
Mosaic Hill Giants
Brenna and Bruma were convinced that there had to be a secret door so they spent several minutes checking every inch of the inner and outer walls.
After ten minutes had passed, the entrance to the gallery slammed shut. To the great surprise of exactly no one the mosaic tiles of the hill giants game to life. They emerged from the wall and formed life-sized mosaic simulacra of hill-giants armed with tree trunks for clubs.
DM Note-
The players oohed and ahed at my custom-made mosaic tokens.
Bruma sprang into instant action. He slashed his heavy two-handed sword into the nearest hill giant. The ranger was a whirlwind of action as he followed up with additional strikes. In no time at all the giant collapsed into a pile of inert colored tiles onto the floor.
Aella followed up with a continuous arc of lightning into the next hill giant. Bordar attacked in turn with his twin magical axes "Rage" and "Fury".
Alot was pinned in by the brutes. A tree trunk slammed into the automaton warrior, throwing him against the wall. Alot counterattacked with his magical shortsword.
Patriarch Ul-Lon prayed to the dragons and conjured a celestial spear that hovered in the air and stabbed at the nearest mosaic hill giant.
The battle was heated but brief. The hill giants were quickly overcome and reduced to piles of lifeless glass and ceramic tiles.
Mosaic Lizard-Men
Before the party could celebrate, however, the ten lizard-men pictured within the mosaic came to life and emerged from the wall to attack the party.
The lizard-men were spread out but soon grouped up into three scrums - one on Alot, one of Bruma adn Bordar, and one on Aella, Brenna, and Ul-Lon.
Ul-Lon slapped his hands together in prayer and was surrounded by a swirling tempest of glowing green miniature dragons. The dragons ripped into the animated mosaic lizard-men while the warrior-priest's celestial dragon-spear continued to fight alongside Bruma.
After a pitched battle the heroes of the B-Team ultimately defeated the last of the mosaic lizard-men.
The Mosaic King
As the last mosaic lizard-man collapsed into inanimate tiles Bruma called out to the others, "Form up on the lizard-king, he's coming out next!"
As if on cue, the mosaic lizard-king turned and loosed an arrow at Brenna. The mosaic arrow missed so the lizard-king picked up his trident and stepped out of the wall to do battle.
The team followed Bruma's plan and surrounded the lizard king. The animated mosaic was quickly defeated and fell into lifeless shards of glass and ceramic.
Still convinced there was some hidden secret to be found Bruma said, "I have an idea!"
He stepped into the wall. Bruma became a flat image on a bare mosaic landscape. He could feel his dimensionless body becoming hardened so he forced himself out of the wall. With a great effort he escaped the wall and was once again himself.
GM Note-
Bruma's player said "I have an idea" and stepped into the wall. I thought it was clever so I went with it. I let him be that way for a bit then pointed out that I only went with it because it was clever. There was nothing to the wall and it was an ill-conceived idea anyway because he wasn't a mosaic.
Soon after defeating the lizard-king and saving Bruma from existence as a magical painting, the mosaic tiles started to slowly slide towards the wall. Brenna said, "Alright, the room is resetting. Everybody out!"
Spear Trap
After a brief discussion regarding into which room to go next the party decided to take the center corridor believing that anything important would be in the center of the triangle and not the edges.
Bruma cautiously approached and examined the door. It was a bronze door like the others. The floor did not give way and he could find no indication of a trap. Bruma returned to report his findings.
Despite Bruma's assessment Bordar was wary. The dwarf strode forth and opened the door.
Poison-tipped spears shot out of the walls to the left and right. Bordar's natural danger sense allowed him to avoid the spears and his dwarven resistance gave him immunity to their poisoned coating.
"Well, that wasn't so bad!"
DM Note-
I almost fucked this one up. The original module called for ten spears to shoot out. The conversion suggested the following:
Spear Trap (p. 26): Triggered by an unlocked door at the end of the central hallway. Will shoot a number of spears determined by the GM. ... When the spear trap is triggered by simply opening the unlocked door, spears will be fired through holes in the wall on either side of the corridor. ... A creature within range standing in front of the trap takes 2d10 piercing damage on a failed DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, or half as much on a successful one (limited by the number of spears). A creature struck takes 1d10 poison damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour.
So I originally rolled 1d10 to see how many spears attacked and had Bordar's player make saving throws against each one. I rolled NINE spears! Bordar's Danger Sense allowed him to save with Advantage but even so he failed five rolls! I rolled a lot of damage and Bordar's player had steeled himself for Bordar's death.
But I thought, "That can't be right."
I shouldn't have rolled the 1d10 spears. That was a mistake. The trap should just have been an "area" attack. 2d10 damage on a failed save, half on a successful save. I had Bordar's player re-roll his Dexterity saving throw with Advantage, which he made. He took half of 11 points from the 2d10 and then rolled his Constitution saving throw with Advantage, which he EASILY made. Though I just noticed he should have taken another 1d10 poison (halved) anyway.
The Eternal Feast
The party entered into a triangular room. At the center of the room was a long table with twelve chairs. The chair at the far end of the table was a large wooden chair like a throne with a massive turtle shell as its back. The walls were decorated with mosaics of fifty lizard-men slaves bearing platters of food and jugs of wine.
The party entered the room and looked around. Alot went to the far corner of the room and searched for hidden doors or passages. Bruma looked under the table and found a trap door in the floor.
Ten minutes after the party entered the room the mosaics came to life. Five of the lizard men peeled off from the wall and set the table with food, delicacies, and wines. One of the lizard-men spoke in common tongue, "Greetings, guests of the Great King. Welcome to the eternal feast. Please, let us serve you." Chairs were withdrawn for the party members to sit.
Brenna and Patriarch Ul-Lon sat at the table and tasted the food. It was real and delicious and filling. The two enjoyed the hospitality of the lizard-men hosts and the hosts were happy to serve.
Bordar and Aella held up their hands in abstinence. The hosts became insistent, pointing out that it was impolite to refuse the hospitality of the Great King.
Bruma went to the edge of the table and enlisted Bordar's aid, "Let's move this table out of the way."
As they started sliding the table the hosts became belligerent. They threw down their food and bared their sharpened mosaic teeth in menacing hisses. They threw themselves against the guests, biting and ripping and slashing with their reptilian teeth and claws made of ceramic and glass!
Brenna coughed her wind back into her cup, "What did I do?"
The mosaic simulacra of the five hosts were immediately destroyed. But no sooner had the original five hosts been defeated that another five emerged from the wall and attacked.
As the fight dragged on more mosaic lizard-men emerged from the wall one by one. The party had trouble keeping up and eventually the room was filled with lizard-men. The lizard-men formed scrums around each member of the B-Team which prevented them from coming to each other's aid.
Ultimately the mosaic lizard-men hosts proved no match for the B-Team. Once there were no more mosaics on the wall the lizard-men found themselves without reinforcements and were eventually destroyed.
The party stood atop piles of lifeless mosaic tiles and assessed their situation. The food on the table dissolved into nothingness.
Bruma wondered aloud, "Do the cultists have to fight off mosaic lizard-men every time they use the trap door???"
Brenna replied, "THEY probably stop and eat the food! None of this would have happened if we'd have just been polite. Sometimes we can be TOO paranoid I think. Maybe next time we should just try to be nice for once."
Bruma sneered at Brenna with disdain as he and Bordar moved the table. Bruma opened the trap door revealing a ladder and a set of stairs. He could smell incense and burning braziers.
To be Continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment