Chapter 2: Pyramid of the Dead

[OGRE MAGE]

Gronda frantically searches for the way to open the secret door once the advancing cube is mentioned.

Let us see what is behind this door. If there is a way out beyond, mayhap there is a chance to trick this deadly creature into eating the rest of those damn bugs in there.

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

Mako runs over to the south door and opens it.

[Starbeard]

Attila

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?"

Attila poises himself at the corner, ready to strike at the gelatinous being if it advances, and waits expectantly for others to figure out how to open the door.

'Can we? I say anything can be killed if you know where its heart is, but the man who floats inside of it says it is not worth it to try! I say the best question is this: How quickly can we get this hidden door open?'

[Mant72]

Garrin Locke:

"I know not the nature of this...thing, but fire might prove a deterrent while we work at opening the door," Garrin asserts, all the while never taking his eyes from the slithering cube.

[ChubbyPixie]

Mako:

Mako runs over to the south door and opens it.

Kiri doesn't like the chances against an unknown number of ape men backed only by one warrior and two fellow sorcerers. Especially not in this sweltering land where he must discard half his protection. He hustles over to the pit opening, then looks back up at the white beast men to see what they will do. If he's alarmed, he doesn't show it. "What do you think, friends? You want to try the bug way?..." He glances South to see what Mako discovers when opening the door.

[Grognardsw]

Biblo Phyle, libriomancer

I glance up at the proto-men above us, and the pit below. This is not good at all. Stay calm. Breath. Those beastmen - how many are there? They look more dangerous than bugs.

"Down with the others! Throw down the torch!"

I clamber down the rope, candle in my mouth. As the pit shaft curves out of sight to the top, I pause, spit out the candle. "Hold up!" I say to whoever is above me. I reach into my pocket and drink a dose of my potion of invisibility. Then continue down the pit, stopping before the ceiling entrance to look around.

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune waves the torch in front of him, while taking another from his pack and lighting it off the first (after stowing his axe on his hip belt). He waves and stabs the torches at the cube, trying to keep the gelatinous creature back. "Open the fracking door!"

[Zhym]

Arthfael shrugs and follows the others down.

[ChubbyPixie]

"Mako! Come! The others have decided for us!" says Kiri in a loud whisper. He then follows Biblio and Arthfael down the chute, working his way down on the rope.

[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 zenith chamber of the Great Pyramid, a terrible, heavy-browed, albino face glares down from the hole to the sky.



Spying the candlelit explorers, it suddenly roars in anger!

Biblo asks that a torch be thrown down the pit shaft before realizing his candle is the only light. The absentminded Zamoran scholar clambers down the rope, candle in his mouth. Arthfael and Kiri descend behind him, the latter calling, "Mako! Come! The others have decided for us!" and then they are gone.

Mako flees to the south bronze door and throws it open. Four darts fly from an insidious mechanism housed in a stone wall behind the door, whose bricks are of a different color and size than those of the great hall. The darts' needle spikes are discolored with a deadly poison that long ago lost its potency. Impossibly, all the darts miss the lucky Easterner!

Six moon-white apemen quickly descend the rope into the spectacular chamber! Powerful, hideously elongated arms swing their thick, heavy frames with surprising agility.



Torchlight remains outside; there is at least one more of the subhuman things on the pyramid roof!

Hateful roars display long, canine fangs.

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Their loinclothes, spears, torches, axes and clubs betray near-human intelligence. These bestial things are not entirely beasts. Perhaps they are the brutish monstrosities from which mankind labored; distant progenitors, aeons old, that birthed the human race. If so, what are they doing here, in this pinnacle of the achievement of Man's civilization?

Fierce, malevolent eyes scan the room brazenly. Growling, torches aloft, stone weapons poised to kill, they focus on the leviathan arachnid cadaver, the towering ceilings, and then Mako, with murderous intent.


Actions?





Far below, Arthfael, Biblo and Kiri climb down the rope in the shaft until Biblo spits out his candle to say, "Hold up!" The light disappears below, plunging all three into absolute blackness. Biblo feels in his pack for a metal flask. He drinks a dose of its eldritch elixir and they continue down the rope again; lowering blindly into the deafening buzz of insects that overwhelms all senses.

Light blossoms feebly below. Invisible, Biblo peers from the pit shaft into the chamber of the scarabs. The stench assaults him and his tearing eyes see a swarm of gem-like beetles encrusting the ancient floor among his lone, flickering candle.



There is no sign of the others save dismembered scarabs and pools of fresh vomit near a shut, unbarred door in the southwest corner.


Actions?





Beyond that door....

"Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" the vast translucent shape somehow cries again while bearing down upon the lost explorers!



Urgent voices shout as Gronda frantically searches for a way to open the seeming-door into the stone wall.

Roan gets another torch alight and readies them in defense.

Spectral light glows across the quivering surface of the gigantic, tunnel-filling thing as it slithers around the corner into view of everyone!

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Gronda desperately presses on the stone wall and it swings open on silent hinges that support its massive weight. The adventurers bolt through and close the door behind them before the green, iridescent creature is upon them!

Sudden silence.

Roan's twin torches reveal a shrine beyond the secret door.

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(the view facing north)

Multiple walls align in perfect symmetry, directing the eye to a baptismal font 20 feet away illuminated by means unseen.


Actions?


Maps:

Pyramid Tier 1.7.jpg (703.14 KiB) Viewed 799 times

Pyramid Tier 2.7.jpg (427.81 KiB) Viewed 799 times

One square = 10 feet. Biblo emerges from the ceiling.


Rolls and Rulings:

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 4, Monsters: [1d6] = 3 Party wins.
Candle goes out? (50%): [1d100] = 60 No. Candle stays lit.
Darts fire at Mako: [1d20] = 4, [1d20] = 4, [1d20] = 12, [1d20] = 6 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 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, Torches

Magic:

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

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)

[Grognardsw]

Is the torch that was dropped down also still lit?
From his vantage point in the ceiling, does Biblo see the door in the room?

[Mant72]

Garrin Locke:

"May the hand of Mitra shepherd the others to us."

He takes a deep breath to settle his nerves and peers around at the surrounding walls. The nobleman marvels at the symmetry and precision of the architecture, architecture that rivals the palaces of Argos. His voice low, he inqires, "What witchlights lie ahead?" He gestures to the font and mysterious lights in the distance.

[Inferno]

Is the torch that was dropped down also still lit?

There was no torch present in the upper chamber, as per my last post:

• • Biblo asks that a torch be thrown down the pit shaft before realizing his candle is the only light.

Lightsources are tracked in the Character Status list at the bottom of every major DM post.

From his vantage point in the ceiling, does Biblo see the door in the room?

Yes he does:

• • Invisible, Biblo peers from the pit shaft into the chamber of the scarabs.... There is no sign of the others save dismembered scarabs and pools of fresh vomit near a shut, unbarred door in the southwest corner.

[ChubbyPixie]

"It smells very, very bad," says Kiri, stating the obvious. "What do you see down there, wizard? ...I hope Mako is ok," he adds, looking back up the shaft for signs of his newfound companion.

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

Mako dodges the door's traps thanks to the increased illumination of the room. But he soon grasps that it's illumination is two-fold as he slowly turns around and is greeted by his new campaigns.

Mako thinks to himself, "I wonder if they wish to eat me?" Then thinks again "But how is that different from the others?"

Nervous, Mako only make small slow movements with his arms and steps as he slowly moves along the south wall like a crab heading for the southwest corner, then onto the west wall towards to a tough decision. With not much to loose, he speaks to the ape creatures in a trepidatious voice, for it's the only one he can currently find. As he communicates he forces a smile across his scared face in the hopes that the beast can a least understand his facial expressions if not his words.

"Ahh, Hello there… hot outside isn't it? Much cooler in here, yes? You're looking hung…ry." Mako smile faultier at that phrase. "Why the hell did I say that?" he thinks to himself as he tries to regain his smile and closer to the corner.

"Fffreshly killed scorp… scorpion behind you. All yours. All yours. And your friends. Friend?" Mako pauses in his speech to see if any of this is sinking in but quickly resumes just incase.

"It's good." Mako rubs his belly while making a "mmm, mmm" sound.

"It's good. All yours. Eat. Much better than Easterners. Easterners will only make you hungry again in only a few turns of the hourglass. Scorpion fill your bellies good. Long time."

Hopeful by now Mako is over at the pit at the far west wall. His back against the wall and the pit to his left. He struggles to take his eyes off the ape men for a second to have look down into the pit. When he does he squeaks out to his former companion below. "Help!"

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune

"Someone take a torch so I can free my axe."
Roan sets a torch against the wall and hefts his axe in his free hand. Glancing left and right, the barbarian moves ahead...very slowly...pausing to study the baptismal pedestal ahead.

Detect magic (25%): [1d100] = 91

[Mant72]

Garrin Locke:

Garrin accepts Roan's torch and joins the barbarian as he traverses the hall, torch in one hand, long sword in the other.

[hedgeknight]

Roan, Son of Rune

"Careful now, Pi....Locke. I got a bad feeling about this place."
The gruff barbarian glances at the rogue and then quickly refocuses his attention on the room ahead.

[Grognardsw]

Biblo Phyle, libriomancer

I hang from the rope at the ceiling.

"A hundred score of beetles around the candle," I whisper above. "We could drop oil - the candle could light it and ignite the bunch. There is a door down there - that must be where the others escaped. We could make a break while they are in flames."

[OGRE MAGE]

With the treat of certain death hopefully behind them, Gronda moves into the room carefully, checking the floors and walls for traps as she moves towards the font.

We should remain cautious in here. This whole place seems like one giant trap to me!