Chapter 23: The Grave of Empire

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

Assuming the casket is dragged out of the deadly spores room, Dahinna goes to work on it, checking hinges, the lid, anywhere they may be a trap or secret compartment.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri will wait patiently to see what the coffer has to reveal, while keeping his distance. Grandfather will advance near the coffer to provide ample lighting.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc sniffs, and once more ties the cloth over his face.

Turning his muscular frame toward the diminutive yet ominously bedizened sarcophagus, he places his hands on either side of the lid and, with a bestial grunt, hoists it upward.

"GRAAAAAAAH!"

(The following is contingent on there not being any traps...)

The brawny Northman turns, the sinews of his sun-bronzed arms bulging like freshly-dug furrows in a spring cornfield, heaves, and sends the stony bulk clattering into a space devoid of spores on the chamber floor.

"You milksops won't mind if I have first rummage around, eh?"

[Inferno]

The Caverns of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Twelve. Morning? 22nd day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Within a thick clutch of poisonous growth, Cruloc and Zahra find the stone coffer prophesized by the unearthly Oracle of Thanatos!

Grigor the gypsy had asked her, "What Godly relic can we find to redeem ourselves?"

The Oracle had replied, "Faithful servant of Death, such a holy relic was within thy reach whilst thou slept."

The stone box is not the sublime, peerless sculpture of the Atlantean civilization. No, this crude work was hewn after The Fall.

None dare draw nearer, nor brave its toxic bed. None but one.

With a reward in the offing, the Cimmerian hefts the stone lid free with a grunt and casts it tumbling onto the pavers with a thunderous crash!

Cruloc's eager eyes peer into the coffer and behold, atop a mound of gold and silver coins, a skull-headed obsidian wand!




Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. T = torch. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.



PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 17/17, Spells: 7/8 1st lvl, 5/5 2nd lvl, Lantern
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 32/45
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 18/25
Grigor: Zamoran Nomad Cleric/Fighter 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 21/29, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl, Glowing Scimitar
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 20/21, Spells: 2/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 28/28, Unsettled
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 1, HP: 24/29, Unsettled, Candle
Gnasher: Grigor's Hound: Move: 12", AC: 5, HD: 2+2, HP: 11/11, AT: 1, D: 1-4

PC Magic:

Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 69 rounds. Holds Torch
Protection From Evil (Grigor): Target: self. Duration: 9 rounds

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Bluetongue]

Grigor

Looks fancy and important. But do we trust the Oracle that the relic is not cursed? Can its properties and traits be identified before we take it with us?

He thinks aloud, eyes wide in awe.

[jemmus]

Torix eyes the grim object. I'm no mage, but I don't think that thing was made for doing good things.

[hedgeknight]

Torix eyes the grim object. I'm no mage, but I don't think that thing was made for doing good things.

"We serve the Goddess of Death now," Dahinna says is a tone void of emotion. "We are no longer on the side of good."
The rogue eyes the wand, but dares not touch it. Then her eyes flit to its bed of gold and silver...more than she's ever dreamed of at one time.

[Urson]

Zahra
Speak for yourself, sword- sister.
The Oracle may think I serve her Deathgod, but I have not changed my devotion.
That... wand is the relic we were looking for, I think.

[hedgeknight]

But some could move to within 10-15 feet of the coffer (standing SSW or NWW of Cruloc) without disturbing the poisonous fungi. This could afford them a view of the coffer's contents.

Dahinna

"I'd pledge to serve Set and the dark old gods of Stygia if I thought it would get me out of this hellhole alive!" the rogue spits, entering the room and approaching the coffer and her companions. She doesn't go into the spore zone though. "What the hell were you thinking? You could die...like I almost did!"

[jemmus]

Torix remains in the hallway, bow in hand. He's taken the role of being the group's guard when the members are engaged in some activity.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Cruloc concentrates on the casket-bound relic, eyes fixed and a trembling hand extended.

The Cimmerian fears Crom, but the menace presented by his grim, brooding god is immutable, distant, and it alternately murmurs and crashes in the back reaches of his and the consciousness of his countrymen. Magic, however, inspires specific, immediate terror which both grips and repels him.

With an audible hiss, he pulls his hand away from the artifact as if it had been burnt. He lurches rearward, torn between the desires to fill his pockets with gold and hurl the execrated wand into yonder abyss!

"Sewer of Set! It reeks of bewitchment! I'll take my share and more of the coin, but that wand you can stuff in your sack or up your arse, whichever be roomier!"

[Bluetongue]

Grigor

"Let us sack it up. Perhaps later we can Detect Evil upon it and determine if the relic can aid our exploration."

[ravenn4544]

Amethu considers the new found artifact. "Like the spells we recovered in the book, it is likely related to some type of death magic. What that could be we can only wonder - and experiment..."

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri holds out his hand as the torch hovers back to it from the wreckage of the stone coffer. Moments later, the skull wand rises from its bed of gold and drifts to the center of the un-molded space in the room, where it gently comes to rest on the floor. The coins follow soon after, bit by bit, stacking themselves neatly near the wand.

The Magic Mountain allows this to go on for a moment before revealing that it is Grandfather doing all the work...

[Inferno]

The Caverns of Thracia, Pictland, the World of Hyboria
Day Twelve. Morning? 22nd day of the month of Qrot, 1280th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Dahinna joins Cruloc and Zahra, staring with dread at the pale skull atop the ghoulish wand.

The eerie Oracle's prophecy was true! Were all her words?

"We serve the God of Death now," Dahinna says, echoing the Oracle of Thanatos. "We are no longer on the side of good."

Yet none dare touch the macabre artifact, even as they encourage others to.

Suddenly, horrifically, it rises from the stone coffer of its own terrible volition, floating in mid air!


Actions?!




PC Status:

Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 4/3: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 17/17, Spells: 7/8 1st lvl, 5/5 2nd lvl, Lantern
Cruloc: Cimmerian Northman Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 32/45
Dahinna: Zamoran Southwoman Thief 5: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 18/25
Grigor: Zamoran Nomad Cleric/Fighter 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 21/29, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl, 2/2 2nd lvl, Glowing Scimitar
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 3/3: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 20/21, Spells: 2/3 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, Torch
Torix: Pict Savage Barbarian 3: Move: 12", AC: 2, HP: 28/28, Unsettled
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 4: Move: 12", AC: 1, HP: 24/29, Unsettled, Candle
Gnasher: Grigor's Hound: Move: 12", AC: 5, HD: 2+2, HP: 11/11, AT: 1, D: 1-4

PC Magic:

Unseen Servant (Kiri): Duration: 68 rounds.
Protection From Evil (Grigor): Target: self. Duration: 8 rounds

Player Resources:

The Struggle To Survive (the story so far)
Mysteries Strange and Deadly (player clues and notes)
An Age Undreamed Of (maps and realms of the World of Hyboria)

[Bluetongue]

Grigor

"Okay, Kiri you can tell 'grandad' to
put it in the sack now." he says, hopefully understanding by now the gestures Kiri makes when his ancestral spirit, unseen servant is summoned.

[Yrkoon]

Cruloc

Reeling still from the harrowing shock of perceiving the wand's mystic power, Cruloc is doubly shaken by its weird gravity-defying rise into the air!

"By all the gods at once, what voodoo is this?! It floats like a torch borne by Gra..."

Recognition that Kiri's ancestor has taken possession of the relic pierces the Northman's brain. Insight births suspicion, suspicion begets wrath, and his sword is instantly in hand, ready to cut down the menacing invisible figure which wields the skull-adorned sceptre!

"I might have known! Your scheming forefather, who ought to be stinking up some faraway jungle grave, covets the thing for his own unutterable ends! Speak truth, Kambujan!"

[hedgeknight]

Dahinna

The rogue gasps and makes a weird "eep" sound when the skull wand rises from the coffin...but then Grigor breaks her fear and she sighs in relief. "I'm guessing...this type of magic can only be safely wielded by those who dabble in such arcane matters in the first place."

[jemmus]

Torix remains in the corridor, eyes wide, watching the weird sorcery unfold. It's not that he's afraid. It's just that he doesn't want anyone to see the hair standing on his forearms and the back of his neck.

[ChubbyPixie]

Upon Cruloc's accusation and challenge, Kiri shares a startled look with an apparently vacant bit of air next to him, then barks out a friendly laugh and smiles at Cruloc as he holds out the torch and lets it go. The torch hovers as the wand so recently had done. He puts his hands up in a "peace" gesture.

"Haha... Grandfather? No. Since passing on to the next world, he's really doesn't have many ends," he says, "not in this world, at least. Certainly not unspeakable ones. He was only moving the wand and treasure out of the mold so we can collect and examine them more closely I assure you. He is flattered that you think him so capable, though.

"Let us take a look at the strange wand before putting it in the bag," he says to Grigor and approaches to examine the thing, but not to touch.