Chapter 2: Pyramid of the Dead

[OGRE MAGE]

The sickened Gronda has no qualms about entering the chamber of stairs. She hurries through the door and begins climbing, quickly looking around for signs of recent movement in here or possible trap triggers.

Are we all still together or are the others still at the top of the shaft?

[Starbeard]

Attila the Nomad

"The rope is too far! Run!" Attila abandons his dropped javelin to the bugs and beats a hasty retreat out the exit.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri prepares to descend into the maelstrom of buzzing when he realizes there is someone still clinging to the rope and indeed ascending. Listening to the yelling from the others for a moment, he turns to Biblio and Mako. "Sounds like they found an exit. Let's see what this one coming up has to say before behaving rashly."

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

Mako waits patiently for the mysterious climber.

[Grognardsw]

Biblo Phile, sagesword

I wait, arrow nocked, hoping no bugs come up.

[Inferno]

Day One
The Great Pyramid of the Lost City, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
13th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Evening. Scorching, arid, cloudless







In the Great Pyramid of the Lost City, swordsmen and sorcerers divide. The conjurers at the uppermost vault of the monolith feel weight on the rope that disappears down into the darkness of the trapdoor's shaft.

The urgent cries below suddenly halt, devoured by the unceasing buzz of insects.

In time, one man pulls himself up out of the dark pit: Arthfael the Cimmerian. Behind him, the rope is slack, trailing down into ageless shadow and the maddening drone of scarabs.


Actions?


Map:

Pyramid Tier 1.5.jpg (703.45 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

One square = 10 feet. PCs are marked by the first letter(s) of their first names.





Moments earlier and far below, beneath tons of ancient stone, the rest of the explorers bolt from the scarab nest!

The iridescent diadem storm still swirls around them, biting mercilessly at their flesh, nearly killing Gronda! (-6 hp)



The wounded savage is certain that were she to stumble now, her bones would be picked clean before she hit the ground.

The explorers rush headlong through a doorway that had been barred on one side and barricaded on the other. They climb rough hewn stairs to cleaner air as Garrin and Loche slam the door shut behind them. "Bloody hell!" curses the ornery Pict as he tries to rebuild the barricade.

The scarabs don't give chase on the adventurers' retreat. Gronda the ranger wonders if the dung beetles were merely protecting their nest, their young, their food.

Roan the barbarian climbs the steps to territories unknown, lighting the way with his torch.



Gronda joins him, with Attila behind.

The stairs open onto a hallway rougher than the magnificent chamber they had descended from, at the top of the pyramid. But these walls are likewise encrusted with hieroglyphs.



Gronda sees dust on the steps and the broken barricade, but not in this hall. She discerns no trap triggers in the next 10 feet of the corridor. Ahead, the tunnel turns left into darkness.


Actions?


Map:

Pyramid Tier 2.5.jpg (436.53 KiB) Viewed 1285 times

One square = 10 feet. PCs are marked by the first letter(s) of their first names. Scarab locations are no longer accurate. Grey letters indicate the dead.


Rolls and Rulings:

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 1, Monster: [1d6] = 2 Monsters win.
Scarabs attack Garrin: [1d20] = 12, [1d20] = 4, [1d20] = 3 All miss.
Scarabs attack Attila: [1d20] = 12, [1d20] = 10, [1d20] = 17 All miss.
Scarabs attack Gronda: [1d20] = 15, [1d20] = 16 Two hit for...
Damage to Gronda: [1d4] = 4, [1d4] = 2 6 points of damage.
Scarabs attack Loche: [1d20] = 7, [1d20] = 14, [1d20] = 4 All miss.

Status:

• Arthfael Griogarach: Cimmerian Northman Druid 2: AC 6, HP 12/12, Spells: 4/4 1st lvl and 2/3 2nd lvl
  Attila: Hyrkanean Nomad Barbarian 1: AC 1, HP 7/12
  Biblo Phyle: Zamoran Southman Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User 1/1/1: AC 3, HP 7/7, Spells: 3/4 1st lvl, Candle
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 1: AC 5, HP 7/11, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Gronda: Zembabweian Savage Ranger/Thief 1/2: AC 7, HP 2/17
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 1/1: AC 4, HP 7/7, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 3: AC 5, HP 14/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 2: AC: 7, HP: 6/6, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl
  Roan, Son of Rune: Vanir Northman Barbarian 1: AC 4, HP 3/12, Torch

Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.

Resources:

• An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)
  Men of the Hyborian Age (races of men)
  The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune, gasps for breath, attempting to shudder away the memory of the scarab-infested shit hole, which he is sure will stay with him for the rest of his life. Looking at Gronda beside him, her skin flayed with bite marks, he can't help but chuckle. "We be a fine pair, eh? We're in front and both barely hanging to life! The gods have a fracking sense of humor!"

Still chuckling, axe in one hand, torch in the other, Roan eases around the corner and looks left down the hall...

[OGRE MAGE]

Gronda nods.

That took a whole one room before becoming completely separated from the others.

She is nearly spent from her many wounds but knows that this entire place might be filled with more of those deadly traps. She moves ahead with the others, searching the floor and walls as she does so.

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune...realizing Gronda is barely standing, asks her to hold the torch while he begins to tend to her wounds, washing out the bite marks and applying a smelly salve from a small clay jar in his pack.
He beckons the others forward and says, "What wounds have you? I can help > my grandfather was a great shaman and when he saw the spark in me, he trained me a bit for wound binding. I can help a little...might be that means the difference between life and death in this place."
Roan will bind any wounds his companions suffered, if allowed, while also dressing his own.

As I read it, this will benefit each character he treats with 1 hp immediately and accelerated healing thereafter. Am I reading that right, Inferno?

[Grognardsw]

Biblo Phyle, libriomancer

"By Ibis, are you the only survivor?" asks Biblo of Arthfael.

"What happened down there?"

[Zhym]

"I called for them to climb up," says Arthfael. "They did not climb up."

"There is a swarm of beetles at the bottom of that pit. They are upset. Dangerous to try to go past them."

[OGRE MAGE]

Gronda enjoys the feel of the strong mans hands on her body. It is a nice change from what she was used to. She actually feels a little better from the barbarians treatments.

Thank you son of Rune. You have a very light touch for such a large man.

[Mant72]

Garrin Locke:

Garrin tries to remove as much of the gore from his armor and weapons. The gallant warrior knows that neglected equipment could equate to death, particularly in an unmerciful place such as this. "Praise be to Mitra; we are safe. Those hellish beetles would have surely stripped us of our flesh had we remained."

He thanks Roan for his ministrations, and adds, "I like not being separated from the others. Perhaps this passage ascends back to the top?"

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

"So what do we do now? The scorpion will not last forever. This places is more dangerous than the desert sun that brought us in here."

[Starbeard]

Attila the Nomad

Attila rips off a strip of his grimy loincloth and binds the wounds on his body. He divides the work of checking and binding the everyone's injuries with Roan, then falls into step with his remaining javelin.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri nods at Arthfael as he exits the hole. "I'm Kiri. From the caravan. I'm sorry your friends were eaten by beetles. ...While we decide what to do next, I will help myself to a bit more of the delicious scorpion if you don't mind. I'm very hungry." With that, he strides back up to the scorpion and begins digging out chunks and stuffing them in his mouth.

[Grognardsw]

Biblo Phyle, libriomancer

"Are the others headed back up here?" I ask Arthfael. "Were they still fighting the bugs, or escaped somehow?"

I wouldn't mind settling down for a while in this room and reading, but I doubt the others would want to wait.

I look around at the doors in the room. "Were these all trapped?"

[Inferno]

Day One
The Great Pyramid of the Lost City, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
13th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Evening. Hot, arid, cloudless





In the apex tier of the Great Pyramid, Arthfael, Biblo, Kiri and Mako wait. Their fellow explorers do not reemerge from the dark, buzzing abyss.

Kiri sates his hunger with scorpion meat as Biblo scans this magnificent hall. There are four bronze doors, one for each cardinal direction.



The eastern door is ajar, having fired the javelin that nearly impaled Mako. The other three portals remain shut, including the western door in front of which yawns the pit that consumed their lost companions.

25 feet above them, the trapdoor in the roof opens onto the cold, distant stars. From it, a rope still dangles down.

Suddenly, in that small portal to the night sky, a face appears. It is nearly human. And being so close to human ancestry, it is rendered all the more horrible.

the face.jpg (327.25 KiB) Viewed 1243 times

The primitive beast is bullnecked, thickly knotted with muscle, low of forehead, and bone white of skin and hair; a monstrous kin of the faceless corpse that was found wedged in this trapdoor a mere hour ago. Its blazing eyes are more human than bestial and possessed somehow of a vague and terrible pathos.

A shape stirs behind him. He is not alone.

Then, when the candlelit explorers meet his feral gaze, he suddenly roars with the savage ferocity of a wild animal!


Actions?


Map:

Pyramid Tier 1.6.jpg (709.55 KiB) Viewed 1242 times

One square = 10 feet. The roof trapdoor is in the center of this chamber.







Entombed beneath tons of stone and the psychic weight of unfathomable aeons, Attila, Garrin, Gronda, Loche and Roan push on, deeper into the uncharted mysteries of the Great Pyramid.



Newly emptied stomachs grumble as Roan and Attila bind wounds. (+1hp to these 5 PCs)

Loche the thief listens at the re-barricaded door. "Whit th' hell happened tae thaim? Whaur ur thay?!?" he growls impatiently.

They advance, surrounded on all sides by legends of the ancients.

walls.jpg (399.88 KiB) Viewed 1243 times

Gronda the scout searches for more diabolical traps from the cunning, long-dead architects of this unimaginable monolith. The walls and floor remain dustless as she advances, until she finds a thin, 6 foot long vertical line of dust on the wall, trapped in a razor-thin seam in the stone. There is a secret door here!

Axe and javelin at the ready, Roan and Attila peer around the corner. The rough hewn corridor continues 20 feet and turns left again. But in the shadows of the next angle, the barbarians' disbelieving eyes see something impossible.

skeleton.jpg (154.79 KiB) Viewed 1241 times

Ghosts?!?

Like a haunted spectre, a skeleton hovers above the stone floor surrounded by his possessions: a sword, a shield and other objects, all in stark defiance of gravity... and sanity.

The weightless spirit floats nearer....

...silent and slow....

...surrounded by an etheric haze.

Then, with cold realization, it dawns on the two barbarians what it is they are witnessing.



It is a terrible, indescribable thing and vast! Formless, protoplasmic, translucent and suddenly self-luminous as eerie green light ignites from within it, as if mimicking Roan's torch!

The walls and ceiling constrain its amoebic shape into a gelatinous cube that looms ten feet on a side! The eldritch Elder Thing glistens forward and horribly, mouthlessly, it cries, "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"


Actions?


Map:

Pyramid Tier 2.6.jpg (441.88 KiB) Viewed 1243 times

One square = 10 feet.


Rolls and Rulings:

PCs surprised? [1d6] = 3
The PCs in the upper tier aren't surprised by the bestial face in the trapdoor.
Roan and Attila would be surprised by the Lesser Shoggoth, but they are Barbarians....
Attila and Roan surprised? (10%): [1d100] = 44, [1d100] = 45 ...and aren't caught unaware.

Status:

• Arthfael Griogarach: Cimmerian Northman Druid 2: AC 6, HP 12/12, Spells: 4/4 1st lvl and 2/3 2nd lvl
  Attila: Hyrkanean Nomad Barbarian 1: AC 1, HP 8/12
  Biblo Phyle: Zamoran Southman Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User 1/1/1: AC 3, HP 7/7, Spells: 3/4 1st lvl, Candle
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 1: AC 5, HP 8/11, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Gronda: Zembabweian Savage Ranger/Thief 1/2: AC 7, HP 3/17
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 1/1: AC 4, HP 7/7, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 3: AC 5, HP 15/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 2: AC: 7, HP: 6/6, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl
  Roan, Son of Rune: Vanir Northman Barbarian 1: AC 4, HP 4/12, Torch

Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.

Resources:

• An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)
  Men of the Hyborian Age (races of men)
  The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
  Hieroglyphs (the story so far, in images)

[Mant72]

Garrin Locke:

Garrin squints at the semi-transparent, gelatinous entity, while keeping a safe distance and pointing with his long sword, "Gods! What black abomination slinks before us?" He assumes a martial stance and prepares to engage the amoebic giant.

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune gapes at the gelatinous creature oozing its way toward them.
"Gods of heaven and earth!" he hisses, taking a step back. He glances at Attila. "Have ya any learning about such a thing? Can we kill it?"