Cathal, Kyril and Menka walked away from Otessa, back down the hallway. We decided to search the hallway. 20 skulls on one side, 20 skulls on the other. The hallway was lined with them. Ulland nocked and arrow, watching carefully for any surprises while we left no crevice untouched.

Lycovyne fondled lots of skulls. Flint searched by the opening. Lycovyne touched the first skull on the southern end, west wall, and a low guttural laughter issued forth from a mouthful of teeth. Flint experienced the same south east. Kyril, northeast, touched the northernmost skull, guttural laughter. Menka, center east, same. We examined all of the skulls. Cathal, north and west, the skull pressed inward, and the mouth snapped at him (with teeth). Second to last skull. Cathal checked the last one. Same thing. Both skulls missed in their attacks.

Flint checked that very area for traps and secret doors. He found two traps that tried to bite him. They missed. We pressed both skulls at the same time and a door opened between them. A secret door. Dank, wet, musty smells issued through the doorway. The room on the other side of the door was 10' wide with a rough stone floor.

We threw in a stone with continual light and Ulland entered. We formed an odd, unusual marching order and headed in. There was a steady drip of water from the far end. We had a variety of continual light infected light sources in flight. We came upon a set of steps going down.

Crumbled, wet stairs. Water ran down them from the water dripping at the end of the tunnel. The stairwell down was choked with webs, completely impassable. We see the stairs go a few feet further beyond but not much past that. We are about 15 hours into the 2-day countdown.

Lycovyne moved to the front to try and hack his way through with the Sword of Sharpness. Not much luck. Gonchar, wielding the Ring of Free Action, simply pushed Lycovyne aside and walked in. The webs flowed around him as he walked. Something bulky fell on him from the webs above. No heat signature. It was large, it had 8 arms. Gonchar attacked it and it exploded into dust. A long-dead spider.

Gonchar continued onward. The stairs went down about 20 more feet, opening into a room. No heat signatures. He walked back up and grabbed the Sword of Sharpness. Gonchar with the ring and the sword was able to clear out all the webs and make the hallway passable. Their hacked remnants made for slow going, but go we did.

A steep set of stairs, into a room that is higher than it is wide. 30’ or more to the ceiling. Seemed cramped because the walls are lined with skeletons. The skeletons have glowing, orangish eyes. Armored figures, dead, line the walls. 20 skeletons. Lovely. Unusually high ceiling.

The west wall of the room contains a locked, large 10’ door. Cathal entered the room. 3 of the skeletons animated and attacked.

• initiative win
• The three skeletons missed. However, we are attacked by 20.
• Cathal attacked, shattering one. Easy to hit and not much damage.
• Lycovyne destroyed one
• Menka hit one for 5 points
• Flint experienced an adjusted miss with an adjusted 9, and then again with an adjusted 10
• Ulland switched to his long sword
• Gonchar attacked and didn’t need to roll damage, his minimum damage was enough to shatter it
• Kyril attacked and hit one for 10 points, shattering it
• Flint got hit by a skeleton for 3 points of damage (52)
• initiative loss
• A skeleton crits Lycovyne for 4 points
• Flint got hit for 2 more points
• Flint shattered one with 8 points of damage, as did Ulland and Cathal
• Lycovyne missed, of course (12 left)
• Gonchar shattered one
• Kyril hit one for 7 points, shattering it
• Menka nailed one for 5 points, shattering it
• initiative loss
• The skeletons missed
• Menka hits one for 6 points but didn’t kill it
• Kyril hit one for 9 points, shattering it
• Gonchar hit one, shattering it
• Lycovyne hit a skeleton for 6 points
• Flint missed, badly, twice, with 6-sided dice, so tried again with d20s and hit once for 7 points, killing it
• Ulland missed, badly
• Cathal hit one for 8 points of damage, shattering it
• Tim entered the fray and destroyed one
• initiative win
• Cathal shattered one
• Gonchar hit one, as did Menka, shattering both
• 20 skeletons, 7 hp each

Shattered skeleton bones everywhere, all destroyed. The door in the western wall was still closed. The skeletons seemed to be human enough. Ulland and Flint checked out the door in the west wall. Ulland had to save vs. magic and failed. A mouth appeared on the door where he touched it and bit him for 4 points (to 71). Cathal laid on hands, in general, and even did some healing.

Kyril and Lycovyne found no secret doors at floor level. Cathal levitated to look higher on the 30' walls. Flint checked to see if the door was locked and had to save vs. magic. A mouth appeared on the door where he touched it and tried to bite him, but he pulled his arm away quickly and it missed.

The eastern and southern walls did not contain any secret doors that we could find. Cathal then used the ring of jumping to jump up and disappeared through the western wall. The top 15’ of wall along the ceiling was fake. A door above the door with the mouth trap, recessed behind a 5' platform, and flanked by stone gargoyles.

Flint, Cathal, Lycovyne and Kyril are now on the platform, thanks to the carpet of flying. Flint failed to find any traps on the higher door. Flint then checked the gargoyles. Nothing special. Unthreatening, but in particularly good shape. All the walls are crumbling, but the gargoyles are not. Flint was able to pick the lock and it clicked open.

The Evil Throne Room#

Cathal opened the door and entered with his shield in front of him. At the far end of the room were curtains, with a barred wall behind, and a throne behind the bars. There was a second drapery behind the throne. There was a 10’ door in the barred wall and an oaken door in the northern wall as well. This door was barred from our side by a large piece of ancient oak, with a padlock sealed with a wax seal.

Cathal says that the room exudes evil. This a bad, bad place. Rotted furniture lines the room. The throne seems to be reflecting light. The curtains seem to be made of some type of opaque, metallic cloth.

Flint checked the door to the north. The bar was actually 2 bars locking the door from the side we were on. The lock bears the wax seal of some noble house which none of us recognized. Flint tried to read the seal but could not do so (35% read languages). He approached the drapes. Kyril pushed the southern draperies aside with his staff.

Kyril and Flint examined the throne. It was covered in monstrous faces and runes we didn’t recognize. Evil emanated from the throne, which seemed to be plated in gold. Kyril walked up to the bars and failed to bend them. Flint tried and failed. He then checked for traps on the gate. He did not find any. He did manage to pick the lock and the gate swung open. Menka pondered a Prayer while Flint stepped through the gate. Truly disturbing carvings all over the throne, which seemed to be completely carved from gold. Flint tried to read the languages and partially succeeded - the effort and experience nearly drove him mad. “Deep below the sea it sleeps, it waits, it will soon return” . He refused to get any closer from that point, on.

Menka walked around the throne without being injured. He examined the rear curtain while Kyril examined the side to the south. There seemed to be room behind it. Kyril lifted the curtain and Cathal looked under with his light source. There was a wall about 10’ further back. Cathal lifted the curtain to allow Kyril to sneak under. Kyril did so and found a pair of stone doors in the western wall. 10’ wide. A very calm looking, human stone face was carved in the middle of the doors. Flint said “well met” to the face. It said nothing back. He found no traps and did not detect any lock. He opened to doors and they opened inward, toward the party.

Looking through, he found a short corridor. In the corridor he heard a distant rumbling or hum. It echoed around him in the corridor. The corridor terminated in 2 more stone doors, though these were unadorned. Flint decided to open the door. Menka cast resist fire on Flint and stepped backward.

Flint opened the door, the main doors to the hall closed, locking out everyone but Kyril. Immediately the little room started to fill with water. We had no luck opening the internal doors. They were locked, as if by a wizard. Lycovyne cast knock on the doors. The main doors opened, while the inner door closed, shutting off the water.

We decided to try the door in the northern wall. Menka lit a torch to melt the wax seal on the door. Ulland decided to work on the door. With some help from Cathal he removed the double bars. Ulland then successfully picked the lock. Cathal entered.

Extending 10’ from the far wall is a 5’ x 3’ crypt. Stone lid - 5’ long, 10’ wide stone slab. It didn’t feel quite as evil in here. Not quite as bad as the throne, but not good. We touched the lid and the lid exploded. Cathal and Gonchar took 1 point of damage (54, 87), while Kyril and Menka took 3 each (51, 44). A tall, gaunt figure, wrapped in swaths of funerary wrappings, rose from the crypt. Cathal and Kyril are within Cathal’s Protection from Fear, while Gonchar and Menka (w/ +4 MAA) saved vs. magic. The creature was standing.

• initiative loss
• It missed Cathal
• Cathal missed
• Kyril hit with his +3 staff, doing 6 points of damage.
• Gonchar hit twice for 34 points
• Menka cast stumble
• initiative loss
• It missed Cathal
• Then Cathal hit twice for 17 points
• Kyril attacked, hitting it for 10 points
• It fell to the bottom of the crypt, motionless.
• Mummy, 32 hp, though we had to do 64 to kill it
• We shovel the gold into our bags
• The bone scroll case - Lycovyne picked it up ¬¬- Limited Wish!

The sword radiated evil strongly and moaned when held. It is quiet when nobody is holding it. The entire bottom of the crypt was carpeted in gold coins, and a bone scroll case lay in the northern corner of the sarcophagus. Cathal would see the sword destroyed. None of us wanted to carry it away. We left it there, for now. Menka is not sure that’s such a good idea.

We decided to check the throne room behind us for some secret doors. We found several. Two in the southern wall, as it happens. Ulland checked both doors and found no traps. Cathal opened the westernmost secret door. Within was an open crypt containing a skeleton.

Flint, Cathal and Kyril entered the crypt and the skeleton sat up and started speaking in a language none of us understood. It then walked toward the door and exited the room, ignoring us completely. It walked all the way back to the throne room out of everyone’s sight, opening a door to the south of the evil throne. Opening the door, it spoke some words in the same unknown language, and skeletons walked through the door. The walking skeleton then lay against a wall and appeared to be dead again.

The skeletons, followed by wights, crawled forth from the dank, long sealed, dust-spewing secret tomb and attacked us. More undead that ignored a proper turning by Menka and Cathal. The skeletons wore the rotted raiment of an honor guard of sorts, from a court long since turned to dust.

• initiative win
• Cathal hit one for 7 points of damage, shattering it
• Menka hit one for 5 points, shattering it
• Ulland drills one with a natural 20, obliterating it with lots of damage
• Flint attacked, missing
• The 3 skeletons in the doorway attacked, hitting Flint for 4 points
• initiative loss
• 3 skeletons and 2 wights, ugh
• Flint got hit for 2 points by a skeleton
• A wight attacked Flint, utterly missing
• A wight attacked Cathal and missed
• Tim hit the wight (on Flint) with 4 magic missiles
• Menka turned the wights, they ignored it, so enough of that
• Kyril passed
• Gonchar attacked the wight attacking Flint twice, hitting once for 14 points, dropping it
• Lycovyne attacked the other wight, hitting it for 5 points of damage
• Cathal whacked the same wight for 13 points, destroying it
• Flint attacked a skeleton twice, hitting twice, for 11 points, shattering it
• Ulland hit a skeleton for 18 points, then hit a second one, killing it
• 6 skeletons (1, 4, 4, 4, 7, 3), 2 wights (16, 17)

The old skeleton stood up again. Menka and Flint attacked it.

• Flint hit him for 12 points
• Menka hit him for 8 points of damage
• Ulland shot 3 arrows and they all hit home, hitting thrice for a total of 58 points
• It fell
• Special skeleton, 30 hp

We looked in the room south of the throne. Nothing of interest, it looked like the wights had been trapped in there for 100s of years. No secret doors were not found. We checked the other crypt room, finding nothing.

We then checked the secret door nearest the eastern wall, finding a chest with a transparent crystal top. Shelving, mostly rotted, with clothing piled in various spots (west side), east side of the room held a large vat. The vat was at one time filled with vinegar, but it was mostly gone. Cathal looked in the chest. It seemed to contain a sword and a bunch of gold. The sword radiated evil. Flint checked out the chest, looking for traps and trying to figure out how to open it. He found a way to open a separate compartment which contained 2 unlabeled potions and a scroll. Menka checked out the scroll - Protection from Evil 10’ and Sticks to Snakes. Flint can see no way to open the crystal lid on the chest. Cathal whacked the crystal lid with the Rod of Smiting. It draws off a charge of the Rod. No effect. Same lack of effect with Menka’s war hammer. We may have to come back with a knock after our next rest.

We do have the lower door (beneath the platform door) into the throne room.