Gonchar climbed out of the pit trap.

Double stone doors stood in the wall to the south past the pit. The stench emanating from the pit was stomache churning. Roasted ghast. There was a 1’ wide shelf on either side and the party was able to get around the pit without incident.

Upon closer inspection the double doors seemed to be badly hung. Crappy construction, according to Gonchar. The doors were uneven, with stale, dank air spilling forth from between the gaps. Flint found no traps on or around the doors but was unabled to push them inward. Cathal put his hands on the doors and pushed and an image of a lovely, well-dressed woman of royal bearing and sad demeanor appeared behind Menka. Not an actual creature, but a flickering, ghostly image which appeared to be directly speaking to the party. The image said:

\uppercase{ Be warned

Flee the tomb

Fear the wrath of Heimfell

Please free me - find and destroy the black rock

}

The message only occurred once, and the ghostly image faded. Gonchar, Cathal and Lycovyne formed an unholy threesome in front of the doors. 30 seconds later the 3 pushed on the doors in concert and managed to open them up about 5’. It took all 3 of them to move the door. 2 people could not move it.

The Tomb of the Dozen#

A wide, crumbling, crappy staircase, which appeared to be hastily and poorly constructed, lead downward, ending in a short, uneven 20’ passage which led to 2 more poorly constructed doors. The steps were so poorly wrought we had to make dex checks on our way down. This section of the Heimfell’s tomb was not nearly as glorious as the rest. Perhaps it was added in haste by the fish people?

We turned around, re-ascended the stairs and made our way north, back to the checkerboard. We walked north up the long, wide hallway, the carpet-riders in the vanguard, those on foot being careful not to step on a black square. We approached double doors on the left/west wall and a sort of alcove just past, farther up in the east wall. We walked past the doors and towards the alcove.

Against the back wall we found a large, hideous statue in the shape of a half man, half fish creature, carved out of green stone. The statue had huge red jewels for eyes. These red jewels began to glow as we approached the alcove. Kyril jumped off the Carpet and ducked around the corner to the west. Red beams shot out of the statue’s eyes and zapped the Carpet, causing it to disintegrate. Flint and Lycovyne fell the 6 feet to the floor, Flint very slowly and feather-like. The eyes had gone dark momentarily after the beams shot out and now they began to glow, anew. The party high-tailed across the checkerboard back to the pit with its tail between its legs, but with dignity. No, not really.

As we got back to the pit 2 screeching wights appeared from the western room.

• initiative win
• Menka failed to turn the wights, though Cathal succeeded, praise Diancecht!
• the wights buggered off

This time Cathal leapt across the pit and, aided by Gonchar, held a rope across hoping to avoid the dex checks to cross. We made it across though we still had to make dex checks. Having crossed in one piece, we made our way carefully back down the crumbly, not OSHA-compliant stairs. Water dripped from the ceiling and debris was strewn about on the floor. The whole place reeked of charnal unholiness. Ghastly, in fact.

Lycovyne failed his dex check on the stairs, slipping and tumbling down to the bottom and taking 2 points of damage. Cathal failed his proficiency check and was unable to provide healing, though Tim was able to get the elf back one point.

Gnawed bones and a chewed up skull lay on the floor at the foot of the stairs. As Flint set about looking for traps on the door, he brushed caked-on dirt and debris away. He found no traps but revealed the image of a leering 2-headed king , with runes above it.

HERE ARE THOSE WHO SERVED AND THOSE WHO BETRAYED

Gonchar, Cathal and Lycovyne broke out the jar of CRISCO again and, together, opened the double doors. Huge stone handles were attached to the doors, and they swung inward when pushed. They opened into a large room filled with coffins. 12 coffins. Seeing no obvious alarm bells, we decided to examine each one in detail. Of course.

The damp walls seeped water into the room, forming a pool in the southwestern corner. The room was large (50’ x 60’) with a 15’ high ceiling. It contained row upon row of crumbling sarcophagi. All of them were human-sized. None of the lids were decorated or ornate.

Coffin 2: lid was slightly ajar but far too heavy for us to move, otherwise - within were only crumbling, gnawed bones and rags.

Coffin 1: Seamus checked the shell for traps, finding only crumbling stone. Cathal and Menka pushed the lid off and to the side. Inside they found a skeleton clad in tattered, once-luxurious rags. Around its neck hung an unsettling jade necklace, in the shape of a tentacled head not unlike the statue down the hall. Jade, but not magical. Menka pocketed the jade necklace.

Coffin 3: Flint checked for traps, finding none. Cathal and Menka again slid the cover off. A mummified woman lie within, clad in in the wispy remains of a silk gown which now seems stuck to the corpse and the sarcophagus interior. Lycovyne separated the woman’s head from her neck.

Coffin 4: Somebody checked for traps and found none. The priest and the knight once again slid the lid off. The desiccated corpse contained within was disturbing and unnatural, clad in the once-colorful garb of a jester, complete with a hat festooned with bells. The corpse’s desiccated face was frozen in a gruesome, rictus grin and the corpse clutched a strange looking wand, bent at strange angles and with a twisted end. It was familiar. Flint took possession. Lycovyne gave the court jester the chop as well.

Coffin 8: Flint found no traps on this coffin and Menka and Cathal opened it. Within lay a mummified corpse in bright yellow clothing. Flint disturbed the clothing and immediately the “clothing” disappeared and yellow mold erupted in an asphyxiating cloud. We all made our save vs. poison though our skin and lungs burned like hell. Flint decided not to poke around in that coffin again. Lycovyne refrained as well from hacking the corpse’s head free of its shoulders.

Coffin 7: Seamus found no traps on this coffin. The lid slid off easily. 2 skeletons embraced in the coffin. Nothing else of interest was found within.

Coffin 6: Flint found no traps on this coffin so we slid the lid off. It contained the corpse of a trampy broad in ostentatious clothing. Long, red, garishly red hair and lavish jewelry. Eyeballing the jewels, the thief reached into the coffin and the painted harlot sat upright, shrieking at the top of her long dead lungs.

• Surprise
• Neither Cathal nor Menka were able to turn her.
• Lycovyne missed her
• Menka smote her with his flail and she stopped screaming and fell backwards into the coffin.

Gonchar, keeping watch on the other side of the doors, ran into the room yelling “we got company!!!”. Already we could smell that ghastlier than ghasts smell. The beasts were tall, perhaps the size of small horses, hopping on kangaroo-like legs, ambulating in a mixed bipedal/quadrupedal trot, their long arms ending in sharp claws, their noseless faces taken up by too-large mouths lined with sharp, ghastly teeth framed by red, flopping lips, their eyes blazing yellowish-red, seemingly devoid of foreheads - and a stench like a grave swathed in garbage, excrement and fishy rot. Menka tried to turn these horrific ghasts and rolled well, but the curse on the place kept it from succeeding. Cathal failed to turn them as well, and the ghast-like kangaroos from hell were upon us, as the party retched and tried to fight and retain their last meal concurrently.

• initiative tie
• Gonchar and Cathal got attacked first - they both had to save vs. poison due to the stench. Gonchar made his save but Cathal failed, suffering a -2 penalty to attack
• Cathal got bitten for 3 points of damage
  • he failed his save vs. paralyzation and, vomiting, fell backwards, immobile
• Gonchar hit one for 13 points
• initiative loss
• They missed Gonchar
• Lycovyne laid down a cone of cold for 26 points of damage
• Menka cast remove paralysis on Cathal
• Kyril hit one for 8 points with the Staff of the Defender, reserving the 3 points for his defense
• Gonchar hit one for 18 points
• Flint nailed one for 12 points (the one on Cathal)
• initiative loss
• Cathal got bitten and found himself paralyzed, again.
• Lycovyne zapped them with another cone of cold, killing the 2 in the back
• Gonchar hit twice for 24 points, destroying his horrifying opponent
• Kyril hit one for 9 points, while Flint hit the same one for 7, killing it
• 4 kangaroo ghasts: 35, 32, 32, 28 hp

Gonchar dragged the bodies back out to the stairs, choking on the stench. We returned our attention to the coffins in the room. Cathal lay on the floor, paralyzed, twitching and stained with his own sick.

Coffin 5: One of the thieves checked the coffin for traps, not finding any. Menka and Kyril slid the lid off, revealing the still-rotting, oddly preserved corpse of a portly man wearing now-rancid robes, releasing a horrifying stench of putrid tomb air that Gonchar barely noticed. Kyril made his save but Menka did not and began spewing his ring on the spot. Lycovyne approached to cut its head off but decided to fail his save and start barfing as well.

Coffin 9: Seamus found no traps and he and Kyril slid the lid off. A shrieking apparition launched from the coffin and circled the room, making a seemingly endless screech of deafening, echoing noise before disappearing in a burst of light.

Coffin 10: Again, Kyril and Seamus worked together to check the coffin and slide off the lid. Inside they found a not particularly rotten corpse, crawling with fat, green worms. It immediately lurched upwards and attacked with flailing fists. Kyril and Seamus made their save vs. fear, while the already puking Lycovyne failed his and scrambled toward the door, trying to run away.

• initiative tie
• Kyril got hit by a leaping worm, but actually did not
• A worm from the Son of Kyuss landed on Seamus’ arm and burrowed in
• Kyril hit the Son for 6 points
• Seamus took 6 points of damage digging the worm out
• Flint missed
• initiative win
• Flint then hit it for 5 points
• Kyril hit it for 5 more
• A worm leapt off the Son of Kyuss but missed Kyril, and the druid ground the worm under foot
• initiative win
• Kyril hit it for 6 more points
• Seamus hit it for 5 more
• Flint nailed it and destroyed it - he doused it in oil and lit set it alight with his Flame Tongue sword
• Son of Kyuss, 32 hp

After a search, Seamus found a bone scroll case, and gave it to Lycovyne. The elf scanned the scroll kept within and found that it contained 3 spells:

• dispel magic
• remove curse
• Mordekainen’s Sword (PHB pg. 88)

Coffin 11: Flint found no traps and Kyril and Seamus opened the lid. Within, they found a blackened skeleton, packed in ash. The skeleton wore a red pendant amulet of flame-like tentacles and lurched up out of its grave.

• initiative loss
• the skeleton sat up and lurched at Kyril
• Kyril struck back and it exploded, doing 9 points of damage to Lycovyne, Seamus and Kyril
• exploding black skeleton 7 hp

The ruby necklace containing the image of the Old God remained after the explosion. Menka grabbed it and put it with the jade necklace. Looking through the ashes, we did find a metal scroll case in the blackened skeleton’s coffin, containing 4 clerical spells:

• resist fire
• flame walk
• speak with the dead
• cure serious wounds

Coffin 12: There were no apparent traps on this coffin so we opened it. We found a skull sitting an a pile of platinum pieces. It started to laugh and proclaim “ha ha ha, your doom is at hand, YOUR DOOM IS AT HAND" louder and louder and louder and continued to do so until Kyril shattered it with his staff. It burst in a stinging storm of bone shards, Kyril and Seamus took 5 points of damage from the bony shrapnel. The dwarves quickly assessed the pile of platinum at 800 pieces, give or take a handful.

We found nothing of interest in the puddle in the southwestern corner, other than to determine that the water was seeping through the walls at that point, and seemed to be draining (slowly) through the rock floor.

Kyril cast detect magic and wandered around. The jade necklace in Menka’s pocket emitted a faint, unknown dweomer. The corpse with the yellow mold dress also emanated magic but none of us was interested in disturbing the yellow powder.

We checked the room for secret doors, finding 2 holes 10’ above the floor. Flint climbed the walls and found no traps or levers, but did sense cold air coming in through one or both of the holes.

Kyril shaped changed into a bat and flew through one of the holes. He found a thin, emaciated, hungry looking halfling with red eyes and sharp teeth on the other side, as well as two closed coffins, and almost got grabbed by the hungry halfling’s grasping, clawed, boney hands. He changed back into an elvish druid and stone shaped the holes closed.

Time For A Better Motel#

Cathal, Gonchar and Lycovyne closed the doors to the best of their ability. We did our best to rest, hearing scraping or some sort of working noise on the other side of the holes. Menka also found that, due to some dampening effect in this place, he was unable to communicate with the servants of Thoth and therefore was limited to second level spells.

After our vaguely successful rest, Menka used the Wand of Earth and Stone to cast passwall and get the party through the doors. Up the stairs and across the pit, we all made our dex saves except for Flint, who plunged headlong into the ghastly pit.

Cathal jumped in after him and Menka lowered the Rope of Climbing into the hole. We all followed the thief into the pit in a more graceful fashion. A halfling vampire entered the room in gaseous form, assumed its corporeal form and attacked us, though it missed Flint twice and dissolved into mist again and spirited away. Searching around we found a secret passage back to the crumbling, misbegotten stairs.

At a loss, we walked across the checkerboard to the other end of the hall. Lycovyne cast wall of ice in front of the statue and we ran like hell in front of it, around the corner, hoping the wall would protect us from the disintegration ray. We made it before the red jewel eyes zapped the wall of ice out of existence.

Down the hallway 60’ to the west we found bars in the north wall. 40 feet further on the hallway appears to open up into a room.

end