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.