Over the course of the next 2 days [title redacted] explored the rest of the 3rd level of the tomb – also known as the Vault of Reflection.

• Weird alien growths with eyes and purple appendages are scattered all throughout the 3rd level. As Elgard found out in a previous session, they will shoot out eye rays if attacked
• With Lukanu’s aid they were able to free the spirit of Kubazan who inhabited Elgard, making him the strongest Wizard on the planet
• While solving a water puzzle, the party discovered some crystal eyes that looked like keys. The Starfallen let them know that these colored jewels were keys to a vault of some kind
• The body of Sephirius – a dragonborn paladin from the Company of the Yellow Banner – was found in a rotating hallway trap. He had some of the crystal eyes on him
• Sophitia and Kanye were able to figure out the tile floor sequence in Ijin’s Tomb, allowing Kulu to swap out Papazotl for Ijin. Papazotl’s spirit flew around the room looking for a new host, but settled back into the amulet where it had lived previously
• More of the crystal eyes were found on the body of Bravus Boulderborn who had succumbed to the floor tile trap in Ijin’s tomb
• The Room of Shadows, the Winds of Pandemonium, and the Clay Golem room were each interesting puzzles that yielded crystal eye keys

With 10 of these Crystal Eye keys in hand the party comes across a reflective vault door with 10 divots in it. The eyes lit up when placed in the door and the door slid open revealing the contents of the room.

A slick marble floor made this domed room appear like a sphere. Floating 20 feet up in the air was a spherical object covered in a black silk drape. 9 alcoves along the walls of the circular room each had treasure, and were each guarded by wooden statues.

The floor was magically slick, so as our heroes made their way around the room they had to be careful not to fall. Kubazan and Obo’laka each thought that the object under the drape was a Beholder and needed to be attacked immediately. Obo’laka admitted that she had no basis for this belief.

Surrounding the draped sphere [title redacted] readies their actions in an effort to get the jump on this beholder. Using his Ioun Stone, Nor releases a FIREBALL spell along with Elgard. Other attacks are lobbed up against this object, and as the drape is burned away, it is revealed that the sphere is in fact, an object. Sophitia, Nor, and Lukanu are magnetically drawn up to this iron sphere as a voice from high above the sphere yells, “Fools! Your imperfect forms are no match for Belchorz the Unseen!” The invisible Beholder unleashes an assault of eye rays on the party as the 9 wooden statues spring to life.

 

Zyldi casts FOG CLOUD to help shield the party from the effects of the Eye Rays. Belchorz’s attacks are hindered by this as Elgard is able to lob spells up at the beholder. Tlad Xolbrys, the Drow mage, looks at Elgard as he sends a LIGHTNING BOLT up toward the Beholder. “That’s a REAL wizard spell” he scoffs. Kanye begins to destroy the wooden constructs near him.

Nor tries to wiggle out of his armor as Sophitia sends a spell into the iron sphere. Lukanu uses the natural magnetic pull to sink her greatsword into the sphere, and this damage is enough to destroy the sphere’s magic. The sphere falls down to the ground, smashing the slick marble floor and dropping Nor and Lukanu down. Sophitia uses her Radiant Soul to sprout wings and fly up toward the invisible beholder.

The party continues to be harassed by Belchorz’s eye rays despite the helpful fog cloud. Sophitia hits Belchorz with a powerful GUIDING BOLT spell that illuminates him. With this outline the party can now clearly target him, and he begins to take some serious punishment. Zyldi summons a flying Fey creature that attacks Belchorz as Kulu sends up a well placed sneak attack crossbow bolt. Nor, Kanye, and Lukanu destroy more contructs.

Elgard sends up a BANISHMENT spell to the beholder who fails to resist the pull to a random demiplane. The party takes time to focus on destroying more constructs and regrouping.

Belchorz returns to the battle with a vengeance, sending a DISINTEGRATION ray toward Tlad, vaporizing him into a pile of dust. Without wasting any tears for their newly disintegrated companion, Sophitia casts INFLICT WOUNDS as Zyldi’s fey creature delivers the killing blow, plummeting the beholder back down to the earth.

After the battle our heroes take a moment to patch up their wounds and sort through the giant pile of treasure. Will these new riches and magic items be of any use or will they just plunge our heroes closer to their inevitable doom? Find out next time!

 

 

Upon surviving the Maze of Death and escaping with the Black Opal Crown, our heroes find themselves in a hallway. At the end of the hallway is a mirror that lets off a faint blue glow. Kulu finds the mirror trap-free and Sophitia looks at herself. Magical forces attempt to pull Sophitia into the mirror but she is able to resist. Zyldi in her croc form attempts to pull the mirror off the wall and it will not budge. The party calls on Thas to help.

He says that it is definitely magical, and a clue from Acererak’s 4th warning says “The Mirror Holds Twelve”. Figuring that there is some command word that activates the mirror our party looks over some of the things they looted from Withers’ office.

On the back of Withers’ spell book are the words “Khomara” and “Blackfire”. Thas says “Khomara” and the light around the mirror goes off. Trying the word “Blackfire” the light pops back on and pulses. After a moment a voice from the mirror says “Please say a number”. Saying the number 14, the mirror responds “Bad Command or File Name. Please Try Again”. Thas says 12 and a Half-Orc falls out of the mirror.

The Half-Orc is Grokk. He’s dressed as a man of the woods and has a very easy going vibe. 53 years ago he was checking out the dungeon to see what it was all about and got trapped in the mirror. Luckily he didn’t age or need to eat in his extra-dimensional prison. He agrees to help the party with their quest and is eager to do something other than be trapped in a mirror prison forever.

Our heroes decide to release other mirror prisoners with Thas calling out each number systematically. A single stirge is released which Kanye quickly smashes. Next a tall muscular woman in black armor appears from the mirror. She is Lukanu, personal bodyguard to Queen Napaka of Omu. Her last memories are of Acererak coming to Omu and beginning to enslave the people. She wants to find out what happened to Queen Napaka.

A Giant Four-Armed Gargoyle is released next and begins to attack Thas! [title redacted] bring the Gargoyle down, but not before it pulls Thas apart! Shedding a single tear for their slain ally, they continue releasing prisoners: Biff Longsteel, the bleach-blond-spray- tanned adventurer from the Company of the Yellow Banner. He smiles too much and is a little full of himself. Next is Tlad Xolbrys, a Drow in robes. He claims to have visited the tomb while it was under construction and got trapped. Next a Troll is released and starts attacking people! After the Troll is slain, our party decides it best to move along.

Grokk, Lukanu, Tlad, and Biff all join the party in exploring the tomb. Grokk wants to help the party. Lukanu is only interested in Queen Napaka. Tlad wants to find a way out. Biff is cagey about his goals, but claims to want the Eye of Zaltec to revive the Starfallen.

Heading back up to Level Three they walk into the tapestry room. The first tapestry hangs from the ceiling and shows nobles having a merry feast. Behind this tapestry is another: the same scene but descended into depravity. Zyldi, still in crocodile form, tears this tapestry down revealing a third. The depraved scene has fallen further into madness and horror, causing Kanye and Elgard to “Nope” out of the room. Zyldi tears this third tapestry down. Mounted on the wall is a rotting boar’s head with blood dripping out of its mouth. Kulu and Grokk get the sudden urge to calmly walk toward it and stick their heads in the mouth. Zyldi grabs Grokk and trips Kulu while Sophitia and Elgard destroy the head with spells.

Treasure falls out of the mouth: Gold spectacles (Zyldi wants those), a leather eyepatch set with a bloodstone (Kanye!), and a platinum hair pin (looks good on Sophitia). The party sets the tapestries on fire and leaves the room in slow motion.

They enter Kubazan’s tomb. Will they be able to free this spirit, or will they fall prey to the nasty traps within?

After the battle with the Giant Four Armed Gargoyles that almost claimed Kulu’s life, our heroes rest in the hallway where the battle took place. During the night Sophitia hears a group approaching from the upper floors of the Grand Balcony. Kanye gently picks up Elgard as he sleeps peacefully and carries him up a staircase in a nearby hallway. Elgard mutters in his sleep a lot and for the first time his friends notice that he’s talking in his “swamp people” accent in his sleep. Could Elgard have been faking his noble accent this whole time?

The gang spies a group of six tomb dwarves. They are holding clipboards and brooms and begin cleaning up the site of the previous battle. Four of the dwarves clean and call out damaged parts of the tomb while the other two write down information on the clipboards. “Three of the four gargoyles destroyed, silver one remains intact.” “Adventurers remain at large” “Unkh’s tomb has been explored as well, acid pit is exposed”

Two of the Tomb Dwarves begin sweeping up broken gargoyle bits out of the hallway near [title redacted]. Sophitia notices that one of the dwarves glances at a specific spot on the wall that is covered in murals. Suddenly, Kulu’s crossbow bolt sticks his head to the wall while Nor stealthily grabs the other. The captured dwarf tries to alert his allies but is quickly terminated.

Kanye calls out with his best Tomb Dwarf impersonation “Hey! You guys gotta come look at this!” Kanye actually does a really good impression of the dwarves and one by one our party is able to pick off the remaining dwarves.

With the threat out of the way they are able to look at these clipboards. They detail the rooms on the 4th floor of the dungeon with handwritten notes as to what is damaged, and what work orders need to be placed. One note mentions the “Navel of the Moon” has been taken from Unkh’s tomb. The party deduces that the large egg shaped jewel from the clock must be this fabled treasure.

The next day they explore the spot on the wall the dwarf glanced at before meeting his end. A secret door is discovered that leads to a small cell. A skeleton is embedded in the wall, holding a candle that is burning. There are tiny holes drilled into the ceiling, and the room is incredibly hot.

Kanye throws a dead Tomb Dwarf into the candle. The flame snuffs out and the dwarven body disappears. A few seconds pass and the candle relights itself. Kanye throws two more dwarves into the room without snuffing out the candle and nothing happens. Kanye steps into the room, and as he does his magic soulbound hammer disappears. When he steps back out of the room his hammer reappears in his hand. Spooked by this, he recommends exploring the room at the top of the stairwell.

The stairwell ends at a stone slab. There is a gaunt hooded figure painted on the slab. Its face is a mask of stars and it raises its left hand. Elgard raises his left hand to touch it and as he does this the slab lowers into the floor revealing the room beyond.

Inside this dark chamber there are three things: A door leading down a hall away from the room, a crown sitting on a pedestal in the center, and a green devil face on the far wall, all of these things divided by walls.

Inspecting the green devil face shows the magical darkness in its mouth. Sophitia can hear whispers in Abyssal as she gets close to it: “Your doom is at hand. Darkness awaits”. Kanye grabs a tomb dwarf corpse from the hallway and tosses it into the mouth. This dwarf becomes annihilated from existence: not only does it no longer exist, but it has never existed. The characters have no memory of the tomb dwarf or of tossing it into the mouth so Kanye goes to grab another dwarf corpse to toss into the mouth. After repeating this a few more times the wiser members of the party suggest stepping away from the devil mouth.

They turn their attention to the crown. It is made of gold and has the largest black opal set into it that anyone in the party has ever seen. Kulu and Papazotl instantly want it, and Zyldi casts DETECT MAGIC on the crown. Transmutation, Divination, Evocation, Necromancy, and Conjuration show up in this crown, and after talking with the spirits and the Starfallen, they determine that this is the Black Opal Crown, another one of the fabled treasures. This crown is the priceless Yuan-Ti relic Ras Nsi wanted for summoning Dendar the Night Serpent . After checking the pedestal for traps, Kulu carefully takes the crown.

The stone slabs slide up and block off the exits. An overwhelming sense of dread and hopelessness fills the room. Kanye, Nor, and Zyldi begin taking Necrotic damage from an unseen source, and Zyldi turns into a giant crocodile, fearing the chamber will start to flood. Elgard runs to the far wall and suffers a little less from the ambient necrosis, and Sophitia activates her SPIRIT GUARDIANS and runs back toward the entryway. The SPIRIT GUARDIANS locate and attack a nearby source of the dread and when Sophitia looks into the corner of the room she sees a gaunt figure looking straight at her. She feels invited to the darkness and despair in its eyes but is able to resist the pull of the dreadful effects. Waves of necrotic energy rush over her as she resists this creature’s pull and she calls out its location to the rest of her team.

A second creature is found in the other corner of the room as its DEATH GAZE tries to take Elgard down, but he is able to resist it. Even in resisting it he gets a spike of mental pain. Kanye and Nor heroically run forward and vanquish the first monster, resisting the deadly effects of its mere presence as they bring it down. Sophitia closes with the final foe as it is brought down by [title redacted]’s might.

Shaken by the deadly encounter, they look for a way out. The inside of the slabs shows the same gaunt figure, its face a mask of stars, but with its right arm raised. This arm has been severed at the elbow.

Elgard uses ALTER SELF to make himself look like his arm has been severed at the elbow, and raises his nub up to the slab which causes them both to open. Our heroes step into the hallway eager to see what fresh horrors await.

After the large battle with the Minotaur Skeletons [title redacted] search Unkh’s Tomb.

Elgard decides he needs some acid from the acid pit at the entrance of the room. He dumps his mundane ink out of his glass bottle and ties a rope around it several times. Hoping that he can act faster than the acid can eat through the rope he lowers the bottle and fills it with acid. As he is raising it out of the pit the rope disintegrates and the bottle splashes onto the surface of the acid, slowly beginning to sink.

“What could go wrong!”

Kanye offers to hold Elgard by the ankles, and lifts him up to prove it. Afraid Kanye will drop him head first in acid, Elgard suggests they come up with a different plan.

Kanye comes up with a solution! He grabs the Immovable Rod and Zyldi’s favorite cooking pan. Zyldi, still in Elk form, doesn’t realize this is happening. Kanye lowers himself down in the pit with the Rod and uses the cast iron pan to scoop the glass vial out of the acid. “Wait! Is that Zyldi’s favorite cooking pan?” Sophitia yells. “The cast iron one she’s been seasoning for 100 years!?”Elgard chimes in “Oh yeah, she cooked Nor’s favorite bacon in it! You’re not even supposed to put tomato sauce in those!” Sophitia adds “And wasn’t she going to give that to her granddaughter as a wedding present?”

Kanye quickly dumps the acid, along with the vial he just scooped out, back into the pit and climbs out. He holds up the pan as the handle breaks off, and it crashes to the ground and breaks into several pieces. The vial sinks to the bottom of the pit, and Elgard abandons his plan, hoping Zyldi doesn’t notice the fate of her favorite pan.

After 10 minutes of searching the room a secret door is found in the back of one of the skeleton holding cells. Elgard fearlessly opens this door and comes into a room with a dusty old grandfather clock. The clock is active and is 28 minutes from the next hour. There is a fist-sized egg shaped jewel that Kulu wants.

“I Want That”

When feeling around on this clock Elgard finds an invisible door blocking their way, complete with an invisible key hole. Kulu runs over to the smashed chest at the entrance to this room and feels around the rubble. Finding an invisible key, she darts back to the clock and tries the key. Success! Elgard reaches in and grabs the jewel.

Elgard casts DETECT MAGIC on the clock and finds Transmutation on the clock, Illusion on the invisible door, and powerful Divination Magic on the Jewel from the clock. The Jewel is a dark blue, fading from a deep red into a purple. Papazotl says to Kulu “Excellent, you deserve this” as she pockets the Jewel.

Sophitia hears something approaching their room. A large creature wearing plate armor begins descending the staircase. The Fire Golem Kanye pushed over the ledge at level 2 approaches the party! Kanye leaps over the acid pit and puts himself in position to hit it. Sophitia hits it with radiant damage, and Elgard uses BANISHMENT to send the golem to another plane!

“Me Again!”

Knowing that the Golem will reappear in a minute in the NEAREST UNOCCUPIED space, the party jumps onto the staircase and positions themselves to take up all the spaces on the staircase. When the Golem reappears, he is right over the acid pit! He doesn’t have hands to grab onto the edge and immediately falls into the pit!

The Golem stands up, looks at the party, and goes to try to climb out of the pit. It reaches up as the top half of his body breaks off, and the fire Golem meets its grisly fate.

The grandfather clock in the back of the chamber is about 10 minutes from the hour. Not wanting to stick around and find out what happens our heroes make their way to the 4th Floor Grand Balcony.

The staircase ends on this floor. A dark shaft in the center of the floor leads down into further darkness, from which a mechanical rumbling can be heard. 4 stone pedestals surround this shaft, each with a Giant 4-Armed Gargoyle perched atop it. Each pedestal has a coin slot, and the top of each pedestal has tiles on it: one Copper, one Silver, one Gold, and one Platinum.

Sophitia and Elgard go to the bottom of the staircase and cast LIGHT on a stone, dropping it into the dark shaft. It falls about 15 feet and lands with a metallic thud. They can see mossy vegetation down below.

Kanye puts a platinum piece into the platinum gargoyle pedestal. Nothing happens. Kanye is upset that this is not a gargoyle vending machine. Sophitia also puts a platinum piece in, and goes around to each pedestal putting the corresponding amount of money in the slot. Kanye does likewise.

As our heroes go to leave the room the heads on the gargoyles turn and look at Kulu, Elgard, and Zyldi. Not taking any chances, Elgard and Zyldi each put money into the pedestals, but Kulu only puts a silver piece into the silver gargoyle. As they go to leave a 2nd time the remaining 3 heads are turned at Kulu. Papazotl whispers in her ear “This is all some trick to part you with your hard earned money! These stupid statues don’t deserve any more of your treasure!” Heartily agreeing, Kulu walks out of the room and the 3 Giant 4-Armed Gargoyles spring to life with their sights set on Kulu!

“I Want My Money!”

Elgard unleashes a FIREBALL on them as they begin to leap from their pedestals and Sophitia and Giant Elk Zyldi attack. The Gold Gargoyle ignores the others and goes straight for Kulu, slashing with all 4 of its huge arms and rending her with a terrible bite! Kanye rages and blocks the hallway, smashing this foe with his hammer. Kulu stabs the gargoyle, and runs further back into this mysterious hallway and focuses on dodging the next wave of attacks.

The next 2 gargoyles (Copper and Platinum) fly straight to Kulu. Ignoring the hits they take as they fly, they deliver terrible wounds to our tabaxi friend even as she skillfully dodges the blows. Despite the groups best efforts, the Gold Gargoyle runs at Kulu and slams his claws right into her face, throwing her to the ground. Her wounds looks serious, and Kanye and Zyldi make themselves as threatening as they can. Sophitia sends out a powerful GUIDING BOLT at the Gold Gargoyle, destroying it before it can finish Kulu off.

Kanye and Zyldi take the powerful blows from the Copper and Platinum Gargoyles. Kanye, still under the effects of the mysterious blessing from Unkh’s tomb, is completely immune to the damage. Sophitia sends a HEALING WORD to Kulu, who promptly jumps to her feet and runs up a staircase at the end of the hall. She lies flat to hide at the top of the staircase.

Kanye realizing his invincibility takes his Soulbound Hammer and crushes the Copper Gargoyle to death, permanently fusing stone bits of dead Gargoyle to the head of the hammer. The remaining Gargoyle runs to find the not-actually-dead-yet Kulu, but is cut down during his pursuit with Kanye delivering yet another killing blow.

Papazotl tells Kulu “Your servants are wise to protect you. Make sure they pay you homage before we proceed!”

Mostly out of spells, low on hit points, [title redacted] attempt to get some kind of rest in this creepy hallway.

 

Written by the Almighty DM

Hearing loud crashing sounds and cursing coming from the hallway above, Nor and Kanye peek their heads up out of the river grate. Keshma the Dao is punching the wall in frustration and yelling. The party emerges from the river and confront her about her frustration – her PLANE SHIFT spell failed and she wound up still trapped in the tomb! She blames the party for trickery, but Thas quickly points out that the whole dungeon is warded against any kind of teleportation. “You mortals are not powerful enough to pull that off, so I believe you. You will find me a way out of here!”

After further discussion with Thas, the party knows the following:

• Ijin, the most dexterous of the gods, is on level 3
• Kubazan, the strongest, is also on level 3
• Shagambi, the best attacker, is hidden on level 4
• Unkh, the toughest, is also on level 4

Kanye goes to the secret staircase and heads to level 4 to search for Unkh. 

The level 4 secret staircase leads them to a large chamber. A ten foot deep sunken floor is surrounded by ledges without railings. Alcoves hold painted wooden statues of hornet-headed warrior statues. A throne lashed together with bone and skin rests atop a pile of skulls. A huge horned skull rests on the back of the throne and in the seat rests a metal scepter. 

In the sunken portion of the room are three gaunt undead in dusty robes covered in cobwebs. Their eyes and mouths are stitched shut and they are armed with brushes and paint pots. They are painting scenes on the wall, poorly done but obvious caricatures of Nor and Kanye falling into the spike pit at the entrance of the tomb, Kanye nearly dying in the onyx chest, and the beginning of a painting of Elgard dancing and dying. There are older paintings of unknown adventurers dying from various traps and foes painted along these walls and columns as well.

“I just, like, live for art, man, you know?”

[title redacted] decide to sneak out of this room and continue the search for Unkh. The stone door that leads out needs to be lifted up, and as Kanye lifts the door 6 Ghasts run out from hidden rooms next to the door! 

Sophitia runs forward and TURNS UNDEAD, frightening most of these foes and making the fight easier on her allies. Zyldi turns into a giant majestic elk and prances about the battlefield, while Elgard sends a fireball into the mix. Once the Ghasts are destroyed the party emerges victorious into a hallway. They see a staircase descending into a large chamber, and a treasure chest at the bottom of the stairs. Kulu goes to investigate the chest while Sophitia ventures out onto the 4th floor Grand Balcony to get the clue there:

“Death to Fire, Dine or Drown, Precious Air, and Falling Sand. The Army Sleeps in Silence. The Mirror Holds Twelve. Find the Iron Scepter’s Twin. The Maze Holds the Key”

Kulu goes forward by herself and opens the chest. The chest appears empty and a giant boulder rolls down the staircase at her! She is able to jump off the wall and vault over the stone as it smashes the chest and rolls into the open room beyond, falling into the floor and revealing a hidden acid pit. Having skillfully avoided death, Kulu beckons the party into the room.

The sarcophagus within this large room has the symbol of a flail snail on it. They have found Unkh’s tomb! The lid of this sarcophagus changes color every few seconds, and there is a small keyhole on the top. There are murals of Minotaurs all over the walls, and two staircases  lead up to a small gallery where a shifting maze is carved on the wall. 

Kanye goes up onto the small balcony and looks at the maze. The walls continually shift before his eyes, and it appears to be covered in a light fog. Determined to redeem himself after his poor maze performance on a bridge in the jungle long ago, Kanye touches the maze and is magically sucked into it! As Kanye disappears, 10 secret doors open up along the murals below revealing 10 Minotaur skeletons ready for battle!

“sup”

Elgard weaves a wall of fire damaging half of them, and Sophitia is able to TURN UNDEAD on most of them. Zyldi’s majestic elk antlers prove especially effective against these skeletal foes as she destroys one of them in one crushing attack! Nor engages two that resisted the holy turn.

Within the magical maze Kanye can see the party battling in the sky above him. As he walks through the foggy corridors he sees the bones of a small child. Pressing onward a large figure appears before him: The living Minotaur in the maze! It rushes forward to attack Kanye but the Goliath summons his soulbound hammer and delivers two crushing blows. 

The skeletal minotaurs behind the wall of fire run through the fire and gore Elgard. The wizard is knocked on his back as another ax falls upon him. The wall of fire goes out as Elgard begins to die from his wounds. Not wanting to lose another friend in battle Nor runs forward, throws a healing potion down Elgard’s throat, and action surges past him and attacks the minotaurs that were killing him!  Elgard casts SHATTER from the ground, damaging a group of skeletons.

Sophitia unleashes the fury of her SPIRIT GUARDIANS who fly around the room dealing holy radiant damage to all the minotaurs, killing a few of them. Zyldi crushes another beneath her horns.

Meanwhile, Kanye slays his Minotaur within the maze and is able to find a blue key. When he touches this key he is transported out of the maze back into Unkh’s tomb as the final Minotaur Skeleton falls in battle against [title redacted].

Kanye runs down and puts the key into the sarcophagus, sees a robe and a flail snail shell, touches the Robe and is possessed by Unkh! Unkh is incapable of making decisions, is totally neutral, and bestows Kanye with an even tougher Constitution than he had before! The Robe is a Robe of Scintillating colors. 

After using this blue key Kanye notices a strange blue rune that has been etched into the skin of his hand. He has gained immunity from piercing and slashing damage, and vulnerability to bludgeoning damage from some unknown source.

After this harrowing battle, the party plans their next move. 

Written by the Almighty DM

Kanye rushes forward and holds the chain linking the two golems together to keep them in place as Elgard sends an explosive WALL OF FIRE down through the hallway. Yaka is in Elgard’s face saying “WHY WOULD YOU CAST THAT? THAT’S A TERRIBLE SPELL! WHAT KIND OF 3RD RATE WIZARD ARE YOU?” Sophitia calls down holy fire on the golems.

Zyldi turns into a giant bear and runs back into Yaka’s chamber to deal with the tomb dwarves there. Nor vaults over Zyldi and brings his sword down into one of the dwarves.

Out on the balcony two more dwarves run to the hallway to further ambush the party. As the lead dwarf is trying to line up a crossbow shot, he takes an axe to the back and is pushed into the wall of fire by his companion. This rogue dwarf throws his dead ally off his axe, nods to the party, sits down and lights up his pipe. 

The golems begin pummeling Kanye and trying to move out of the fiery hallway, but Kanye holds them in place with his great Goliath strength. “THIS BARBARIAN IS ON FIRE! HE’S ALL THE RAGE!!!!” shouts Yaka. The fire is causing the golems to go berserk, giving Sophitia and Elgard easy openings for their spells.

Zyldi swipes and bites at the dwarves, but sustains too many hits and drops out of bear form. Nor is there to keep her from getting overwhelmed during the assault. Zyldi grips her staff and sends out a booming THUNDERWAVE, killing one of the dwarves and knocking the other down. Nor quickly finishes off the remaining undead guardians. 

Kanye is able to keep the golems from moving out of the fire, and they are overcome by the magical damage they’ve taken. Yaka tells the party “THERES NO WAY YOU’RE GOING TO SURVIVE IN HERE! YOU’RE TERRIBLE! HOW DID YOU GET THIS FAR!” 

Sophitia approaches the remaining Undead Tomb Dwarf Guardian who remains seated on the balcony smoking his pipe. “Aye, that was a good bit o’ fightin ya did there!” Sophitia replies “Are you….friendly?” The grizzled old dwarf rises to his feet and says “Ye killed my boss and I’m tired of livin’ in this dusty tomb, ready for some adventure. They’ve got me cooped up makin’ that big stained glass window over an’ over. Every group of adventurers that comes in here, first thing they do is smash mah window! I’m ready for a change. The name’s Thas. Thas Wight” [title redacted] gains another improbable ally!

“The Health coverage was really overrated”

Kanye, tired of not being able to damage these golems directly, turns to the Dao in the bottle. “Can I have your magic hammer for your freedom?”

“You wish to change the deal?” She replies. “This hammer is far too great for any mortal like you to wield. It would destroy you!” Nor chimes in “I think we need to use her to get rid of Yaka instead!” 

After some negotiating with Keshma, it is decided that instead of helping the party 3 times in combat for her freedom, she will give Kanye her hammer and rid the party of Yaka’s curse. 

Kanye uncorks the bottle and the air swirls and the Dao forms before the party. She towers over Kanye as she reaches her hand out and places it on his chest. The giant hammer on her back dissolves and energy flows into Kanye, causing dark purple tattoos to form on his chest, going down his arms and ending in his hands. She removes her hand and Kanye falls to his knees. He doesn’t know what happened, but something is different.

“That was my favorite hammer!”

She turns to Yaka and places her hand on the skull. After a moment, she turns her head up and screams “WHAT! NO! AAAGGHGHHHHH! I hate you all.” She looks at the party with deep resentment, then holds up her hand as precious gemstones begin to pour out. Yaka begins to greedily devour the stones as Keshma looks on with disgust. “This is great wealth out of my own personal stores! You mortals don’t know what you have cost me!” 

After about 10,000 gold worth of gems have been devoured by the skull, Yaka lazily floats up and says “OH WOW, I THINK I NEED TO TAKE A NAP! SMELL YA LATER!”. Yaka returns to his pedestal and the curse of the Golden Skull is lifted from Elgard. 

Having fulfilled her obligations, Keshma the Dao PLANE SHIFTS away from the party. 

With Thas as their guide [title redacted] rest in the room with the lever in it. They pull the lever to watch the horrible trap go off in the room below: the room rotates like a clothes dryer, and the walls shoot out poison gas, spikes, and fire. Looks like a complete death trap, and the party is grateful to have disarmed it. 

During their rest [title redacted] learn that the 6th floor of the dungeon is where the Hags live. There are 5 skeleton keys needed to access this room, one key from each floor. The party has the 2nd floor key (square), and decide that they should search the underground river on the first floor for the level one key.

Awakening from his long rest, Kanye discovers he can now summon a Soulbound Earth Hammer that deals full damage to objects and constructs!

Returning to the underground river access grate, Thas pauses a moment to look at the current state of the smashed stained glass window. He looks down and shakes his head, and the party enters the river and heads north.

After winding through this cramped waterway they do come upon a lone skeleton wandering around. They destroy him and get his skull – it is the Triangle Key! They now have 2 of the 5 keys needed. 

Going forward they find the secret entrance to Moa’s tomb. Continuing on the river ends in a waterfall that goes down deep into the darkness below. On the other side of this chasm is a small ledge with a treasure chest perched upon it. They tie a rope around Thas’ waist, anchor that to the Immovable Rod, and throw him across. 

Thas touches the chest and it bites him and causes acid damage: the chest is a Mimic! The Mimic lives a very short life after this attack, and once it is destroyed the party pulls Thas back over. There was no treasure on the ledge, only disappointment. 

They return to the river entrance and plan their next move.

Written by the Amighty DM

After resting up in Nangnang’s tomb it is time to explore level 2 further. Off the Grand Balcony is another hallway that leads to a 4 way intersection. The halls to the left and right curve upward and out of sight, and there is a corpse of a half-human half-goat hybrid halfway up the ring to the left. 

Searching the body reveals it to be Devlin Bashir, the last surviving member of the Company of the Yellow Banner. A letter on his body describes that the rest of his party was killed by various traps and monsters in the tomb. He warns anyone who finds him not to trust Acererak, because while his hints may help you in the short term, just being in the Tomb is your doom. He has a cursed Staff of Striking that turns you into a goat if you touch it, and a magic ink pot that never runs dry. 

The hallway continues into another tomb room. The Kanye points out a giant stone that could fall and block the exit to this room. Inside this large chamber magical sunlight falls from the arched ceiling onto a gilded sarcophagus in the center of the room, while 4 huge gargoyle faces look on from the walls. Moa informs Zyldi that the markings in this tomb do not match any of the Nine Gods. Remembering part of Acererak’s warning “The Dead Abhor Sunlight”, Zyldi casts Dispel Magic on the sunlight, casting the chamber into darkness. 

Kanye and Zyldi open the lid, and inside is a wooden plaque that reads “Drown Your Sorrows”. Nothing happens. Inspecting the open mouths of the gargoyle faces shows a big valve. Prying one of them open causes an enormous amount of wine to flow out of the mouth, and they are unable to stop it. The wine keeps flowing and flowing, but since a trap has not been triggered, it just flows harmlessly out of the room. Sensing that dispelling the magic saved them from a deadly trap, [title redacted] move back to the hallway to explore the slanted hallway. 

Nor and Kanye do not fall from walking up this curved hall, and are able to walk all the way over the hall like a ring. However, when they come out the other side none of the rest of the party are there, though the rest of the tomb looks the same. They go back the way they came and get the rest of the group.

After going through the ring and going back into the “False Tomb”, Zyldi sees a hunched figure watching them from the Grand Balcony. It is the hag from the forest! Her eyes glimmer from the gold coins covering them, and she cackles and jumps away down into the lower levels as Zyldi runs forward to attack. Spooked by this encounter, she encourages the party to return through the ring back to reality. 

“I’m SO glad you’re here!”

The final unexplored room is a small chamber with a green devil face carved into he floor. Its mouth is open and there is magical darkness within, from which agonized screams can be heard. The party nopes out of this room and takes the service staircase down to the 3rd level. 

The stairs spit out into a small room where a Golem stands still with its hand on a lever, looking down into a lower room. The party kills the golem and goes through a narrow access corridor around to another small room. This room has a pedestal holding a golden skull across from a staircase leading up to a secret door. 

“C’mon, who WOULDN’T touch this skull?

Elgard inspects the golden skull and taps it cautiously with his staff. The eyes light up and a loud voice echoes in the chamber “HEELLLLOOOOO! I’M YAKA!! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?!?” The skull floats up around Elgard’s head. “Uhhhh…..I’m….uhh…Robert” ‘ROBERT? THAT’S A STUPID NAME!””Uh, well, what are you?””I WAS THE GREATEST ENTERTAINER IN THE WORLD! I ENTERTAINED THE ROYAL FAMILY OF OMU AND I’M HERE TO ENTERTAIN YOU WITH MY EXCELLENT JOKES! I ALSO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS DUNGEON!”

The party quickly finds that Yaka is immune to damage and spells, and will not leave Elgard’s side. They emerge into a hallway: ahead is a large open chamber, to the left is a closed room, and down the hall to the right are two Plated Golems joined together with a chain. The party decides to avoid the Golems, but Yaka loudly tells them “THIS IS A CLASSIC TRICK! THESE BIG BOYS ARE JUST EMPTY SUITS OF ARMOR FILLED WITH TREASURE! IT’S HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT! JUST PULL THE CHAIN!” His voice echoes off the walls of the whole dungeon, but [title redacted] decide that this is a good way to test if Yaka is truthful. Kanye touches the chain and the two Golems spring to life and attack while Yaka cackles loudly! Crossbow bolts fly out of the darkness behind and in front of them as a Tomb Dwarf ambush sets off! The battle begins as Yaka laughs at the party and tries to mess up Elgard’s spells.

Written by the Almighty DM

After a long rest in Withers’ office the party follows another secret door to the Grand Balcony on the 2nd level. There written on the wall is Acererak’s 2nd Warning:
 

“The ring is a path to another tomb. The dead abhor sunlight. Only a jewel can tame the frog. Bow as the dead god intoned. Into darkness descend”

Below the warning is a skeleton walking on the balcony. Its skull is shaped like a square in the back, and when it notices the party it tries to run away. [title redacted] dart around the balcony and skillfully smash the skeleton into parts. Sensing that this unique skull might be valuable later, they hold onto it. 

There is a large door with three zombies pushing their heads out of three holes. They are harnessed, have bits in their mouths, and are snarling and trying to attack the party. Kanye clobbers one of the zombies to dust, then realizes that there might have been some kind of puzzle to solve regarding the zombies and the door. Nor, Kanye, and Zyldi simply brute force the door open and dispatch the other two zombies. Puzzle solved!

They enter a large room with a golden chariot heaped with treasure in the center. On the chariot is a gilded sarcophagus with imagery of Papazotl the Eblis. Along the walls are 6 large pots filled with human bones, and at the far end of the room are 4 statues and a giant shield. The shield depicts a Chultan archer, and the statues are of Chultan warriors each holding different weapons. The statue on the far left is missing its face. Written on the wall is the command “Bow Before No One”.

Kulu approaches the chariot and grabs some of the treasure which causes the room trap to spring into action! Twelve skeletons climb out of the giant pots and begin to attack the party. Sophitia holds up her holy symbol and calls upon the gods who blast most of the skeletons into dust. 

“Well that escalated quickly!”

The Chultan Archer drawn onto the shield springs to life and blasts a force arrow into Nor. Elgard holds out his hand and arcs a powerful lightning bolt into the shield. The loud sound echoes loudly in the room but the shield is undamaged. More skeletons begin to pour out of the pots on the side of the room when Zyldi has the idea to bow before the faceless statue. The shield archer ignores Zyldi and fires another arrow at Kanye, smashing into him with great force. 

The rest of the party bows before the faceless statue, causing the shield archer to deactivate and the giant pots to stop creating skeletons. Now that the fight is over Kulu approaches Papazotl’s casket and takes the items upon it: lots of fine decorative jewelry and a big amulet next to some bird bones. 

When Kulu touches the amulet the voice of Papazotl calls out in her head “You will do as I command!” Papazotl is selfish and bossy, and convinces Kulu to keep all of the treasure for herself. 

After searching the tomb for a few moments, the party finds a secret door right as they hear a large creature moving about on the Grand Balcony. A quick peek outside the door shows a huge golem with fire coming out of his head, smoke issuing from the seams between his armor plates, and instead of hands there are small jets of flame pouring out of his arms. 

“Artist Rendering”

 

As this Fire Golem walks past the room the party pulls the heavy stone door up, and Kanye and Nor rush out and tackle this large golem off the edge of the balcony! They watch it fall down several stories and crash into the 4th floor. It stands up and walks away down on level 4. 

The secret door leads to a small chamber with a dusty bottle on a table. Inside this bottle is Keshma Al-Wazir, a trapped Dao (earth elemental genie). She wields a huge hammer and is imposing even when trapped in this bottle, wearing a hateful expression, jewels braided into her dark hair, and fine clothes ending in a magical swirl. Acererak imprisoned her in the bottle centuries ago, and she begins to negotiate her release with the party. Despite her insults and demands the party is able to negotiate that they will free her on the condition that she help them 3 times in battle – 3 times of the party’s choosing. She is not super happy with this arrangement but accepts it, and the party takes her bottle with them. 

The next room has a giant salt pentagram on the floor surrounding a sarcophagus decorated with the froggy image of Nangnang. Kanye approaches and is attacked by an invisible Grey Slaad! 

Walls of fire and general party aggression cause the Slaad to retreat back into a small hallway that ends in…wine? It dies from its many wounds and Kanye dives into the wine.

“Cowabunga!”

Elgard reaches into the sarcophagus at Nor’s urging. As he reaches toward the Pearl within he hears loud, discordant percussive music in his head, and cannot resist dancing to the awful sounds. The sounds are so loud and abrasive that they begin to suck Elgard’s life away! 

No one else in the party can hear this music, but can see Elgard’s sick dance moves. He collapses in a heap on the floor but his body is still twitching, and Sophitia kneels down beside him and casts some powerful healing magic on him to keep him alive.

Kanye swims forward in the wine pool and finds  the inside of a valve. Not knowing what to do with this, he goes back up for air and swims down again, this time finding a giant reservoir tank filled with wine. Not seeing anywhere else to explore, he returns to the hallway.

Elgard awakens but continues to dance. He tries to get the music out of his head but fails – the magical music is just too powerful. He collapses again but this time his body stops twitching. Sophitia checks his body and finds he is still alive. They heal him again and take a rest. Kanye reports back what he found in the wine, and [title redacted] decide to leave Nangnang’s sarcophagus alone.

Written by the Almighty DM

After a short rest our heroes explore the final Level 1 area. At the end of a long hallway stands a statue of a knight holding a big shield forward with exploded piles of rust all around the shield. Sophitia tosses a small metal bolt into the room, and it whizzes by Kanye’s head like a bullet and explodes into a pile of rust as it strikes the shield! Kanye is impressed by Sophitia’s throwing ability and tries to throw like she did, but his stone hammers don’t fly through the air with magical magnetism. 

Sophitia removes her metal armor and weapons and enters the room. A small room beyond has a fountain with magical water in it. They decide very quickly not to drink any strange magic water in the Tomb of Annihilation. A second smaller hallway appears to be a dead end.

Upon inspecting the dead end they find two secret doors: the first is a side entrance to Obo’laka’s tomb, the second is a secret stairway going down to the second level. After retrieving Sophitia’s gear and going round through Obo’laka’s tomb, they descend to the lower level.

They enter an active workshop: Albino Undead Tomb Dwarves are working at a large Iron Maiden contraption with pistons and tubes running into it. There are wooden workbenches and schematics all around the workshop. Our heroes decide aggression is the way forward, and Elgard looses a powerful Fireball in the room!

The workbenches go up in flames and the dwarves at the Iron Maiden quickly pull a lever to release another Plate Golem Guardian! Kanye runs past them and tackles the golem back into the maiden. Zyldi transforms into a bear and begins to harass some of the other dwarves. Sophitia begins throwing holy spells and Elgard lets loose with another huge fireball, burning up the rest of the dwarves, blowing up the final remnants of the workshop, and damaging the golem. The golem tries to pull itself free of Kanye’s grapple, but is unable to hurt anybody as the party finishes him off. 

As they explore the wreckage of the workshop, they find an undamaged lantern. Looking inside the lantern reveals a ghostly spirit named the Starfallen. She is a Moon Elf Warlock who died over 1,000 years ago, and the Company of the Yellow Banner was seeking the Eye of Zaltec to bring her back to life. They tracked the Eye to the Tomb of the Nine Gods, where they all perished. The body of Seward, one of the Company members, was taken apart and used for the latest golem that the party just fought in the workshop.

The Starfallen is friendly but has only hazy memories of her life, and can only offer general help in the Tomb. The gang takes the Starfallen with them. 

Outside the workshop there is a spiral staircase going deeper into the dungeon, a secret door, and a very nice wooden door. They go through the secret door and find a stone font filled with water inside a small room. 

Kanye looks into the water and the water ripples as he sees through the eyes of a tomb guardian wandering through a lower level. After watching this scene for a few moments the guardian stops walking, looks up, and reaches a strong arm up through the water, grabbing Kanye! A giant golem covered in chains pulls itself out of the font and attacks the party!

Kanye tries to pull it back through the water but quickly finds it was a one way street: the chain golem slams Kanye’s head into the font and begins trying to drown him. Kanye rolls his head to the side, shifts his weight, and is able to burst out of the water and wrap the chains around the golem, grappling him in place.

The golem is able to use his chains to break the grapple and knock Zyldi down before he is destroyed by our heroes. After the battle, Kanye uses what he has decided is a “Magic Toilet”. 

After a potty break [title redacted] moves into the room with the nice wooden door. Inside is a nice office with candles burning, disembodied hands crawling all over the floor, a skeletal parrot in a cage, and sitting at a nice desk covered in books, blueprints, and journals, is a wight. This gaunt figure wears long black robes, a scowling gold mask on his face, and a black skull amulet around his neck with glowing red eyes. He turns to face the heroes and says “Ah, you found my office. I assume you were the ruckus I heard in the workshop then? What news of the outside world do you bring me?”

“………….”

“Oh please don’t be rude, it’s been too long since we’ve had visitors”

 

The party looks at each other, and Sophitia holds up her hand and calls upon holy forces to DESTROY UNDEAD. The crawling hands and parrot are instantly blasted into piles of dust, and the wight runs to the corner of his office. Kanye and Zyldi quickly bind his hands, feet, and mouth. 

Once the wight calms down he begins to try to negotiate his freedom by grunting through his mouth binding. [title redacted] decide they don’t want to take any chances with this spooky dude, and Kanye smashes him with his hammer. 

They discover this wight was Withers the Tomb Custodian. Acererak left him in charge to run the day to day operations of this dungeon, to reset the traps and recast any magic hexes that required maintenance. 
In the office they find:

• A Manual of Clay Golems
• Wither’s Spellbook with a name written on the back cover “Khomara Blackfire”
• A mysterious fist sized magic stone
• The Black Skull Amulet 
• His bronze Mask is worth 25gp
• They find an entry from Withers’ journal that describes the dead god remnant that Acererak found floating in the Astral Sea, and how he contracted the Sewn Sisters to help him build the Soulmonger to glut this being on souls *cue ominous music*

Knowing the true purpose of the Soulmonger, [title redacted] rests and heals up in Withers’ office before delving deeper into this dark dungeon.

Written by: the Almighty DM

After resting in Obo’laka’s Tomb our heroes set out to explore the first floor of the dungeon. Kanye and Zyldi lift the grate cover out of the floor in front of their resting room and find an underground river that flows from south to north. Deciding not to explore this river, they go out to the grand balcony and Kanye sees another shadowy figure. This figure looks right at Kanye and disappears into the darkness. 

The entrance to the next tomb is the open mouth of a giant devil face with its eyes ablaze. Unable to extinguish the flames, Zyldi crawls through the devil’s mouth and enters the tomb, with Nor following. As Zyldi and Nor crawl through, Sophitia and Kanye notice the flames go out one at a time as they go through the mouth. 

As Zyldi enters the tomb she hears a small child’s voice in her head “Hello! Where am I? Who are you? Did my father send you?” Kanye tries to enter the room through the devil mouth and the jaws slam shut on him! Nor and Sophitia are able to help Kanye pry himself loose from this crushing stone mouth. As soon as he’s free, the eyes begin to burn again and the jaw returns to its open resting position.

Meanwhile Zyldi tries to reason with the child’s voice. She is Nepartak, a princess of Omu, and her father is the king. The room has a sarcophagus with the symbol of Moa on it, a small child’s skull in a glass case on the far wall, and the earthen walls are covered in small holes, from which small skittering sounds can be heard.

“What a princess”

Nepartak gets grows more upset as the conversation goes on when Zyldi remembers part of the warning etched on the obelisk outside the tomb: “Speak No Truth to the Doomed Child”. She lies telling her that her father did send them and that they are to report back on her location. Nepartak believes this story and calms down. 

Zyldi uncovers the lid of Moa’s final resting place, and within sees a wooden staff next to the bones of a Jaculi. She grabs the staff and hears the voice of a peaceful serpent in her head say “Let me help you! I promise to be good” Moa is very truthful and kind. Zyldi gains the ability to turn invisible (which it turns out she already had!). The staff is a Staff of the Python, which turns into a giant snake at Zyldi’s command. 

Having finished all they came to do in Moa’s tomb, they prop the casket lid up in the devil mouth entrance and leave. 

The next hallway is blocked by a giant metal fan. Stepping into the hall causes the fan to spin very fast and create a wind tunnel, sucking things into its deadly spinning blades. Realizing that the whole floor of this hall is a giant pressure plate that sets off the fan, Kanye and Zyldi are able to shimmy on the walls across this hall. After navigating their way down the hall they enter a square room with a stone sarcophagus etched with the symbol of Wongo and 3 chests. One chest is made of black onyx, one of rusty iron, and one is silver covered in glittering frost. 

The chests are all empty except for a key on the inside lids. Remembering the clue “The Keys Turn on the Inside Only”, Kanye climbs inside the black onyx chest, closes the lid and turns the key. *CLICK!* He is locked inside! A black onyx button appears on Wongo’s casket. Zyldi decides she wants no part of this horrid room and leaves as Nor takes her place in the room. 

Kanye, realizing he is trapped in this cramped chest, begins to rage. He kicks, punches, and heaves at the walls and lid of this chest to no avail. Nor, seeing no other path forward, presses the black onyx button. FWOOOOM!!!! A great blast of force explodes from within the black onyx chest, and Kanye absorbs a blast that would have outright killed any other member of their party. Visibly shaken and nearly dead, Kanye emerges from the now open chest. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the party hears a sound approaching from the level below: clank….clank….clank….CLANK…. Coming up the stairs is a 7 foot tall figure covered head to toe in plate armor that appears to be bolted into its flesh. It notices the party and begins to run at the from around the balcony.

“I just want a hug!”

Kanye and Nor begin to shimmy their way to the battlefield as the others begin their ranged magic attacks on the creature. Sophitia calls a SACRED FLAME down on the creature, and Elgard sends a large LIGHTNING BOLT straight into its chest. The lightning heals it back to full strength! Zyldi then uses HEAT METAL and causes the creature to freak out – it does not like the heat! 

Kanye and Nor join the battle! Kanye runs up to the monster and hits it square with his warhammer to no avail. The creature can only be damaged by magic! Kanye stays in its face to keep it from approaching his friends. 

As the HEAT METAL spell continues its work destroying the creature, our heroes are able to take this monster apart piece by piece. After a final FIRE BOLT, the creature succumbs to its wounds. Upon inspection, they find it was a Flesh Golem with plate armor bolted to it. 

They retreat to the hallway in front Moa’s tomb to rest. Moa suggests they leave the rest of Wongo’s tomb alone, since it nearly killed Kanye and Moa hates Wongo.