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.