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Amethu follows the group and continues his study of the walls while keeping an eye over their shoulder.

Xorxen silently wonders where the dark passage to the south leads as he ushers his friends through the secret door he is holding open for them.

"I heard a strange tapping noise, at about the middle of this next passage, once yon door was opened. I don't know if that means anything to thee or not, but I wanted you to be prepared as you crawl your way into the hidden chamber ahead."

The masked monk looks around for his fallen brother once the last member of the party has passed into the next hall.

"Was that Soruk I just heard singing? Where art thow, my brother? Did his jovial nature get him into trouble again?"

Mako:

Mako continues to follow the others through the passage.

Garrin leads the group to the northern room.

Kiri stops just inside the new hallway and turns to Xorxen. "Soruk fell into the tilting floor. There was a... thing... I only saw it for a moment, thankfully. It was not of this world. It pursued Soruk and tipped the scale. Arthfael and your brother fell in. The rest of us were lucky. We should be dead," he says, flatly and formally. He seems a bit shell shocked by the turn of events.

Tombs of the Ancients, Fourth Tier of the Great Pyramid
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Four. Late Morning, 16th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia







Amethu of Uthoth examines with interest the illuminated manuscript of the ageless walls of this new corridor, reading of the countless wonders of Xuthalhotep and his queen Ankhara. The ibis-masked Verulian mage believes the surviving explorers must be getting close to the royal burial place!

Lion-masked Zahra inspects the floor behind her, searching for the source of the telltale shift of stone triggered when Loche unsealed the secret door. Having lived her entire life within the Great Pyramid in the lost city of Khemsa, the albino amazon is intimately familiar with the stonework of ancient Verulian architecture. She believes she's found a hidden trapdoor in the floor (near f).

She warns Garrin and Mako not to cross it, although two of their number already have and safely.

With a growing dread, hawk-masked Xorzen tightens his grip on the door and asks again after his sect brother. Only Kiri Khutan will answer. The gentle giant sadly tells him of Soruk's fate.


Actions?


Map Detail:

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

Map:






PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 7/10, Spells: 4/6 1st lvl
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 2: Move: 12", AC: 4(2), HP: 18/18, Laying Hands: 1/1, Torch
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 1/1: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 12/12, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 12/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, Light spell
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 2: Move: 16", AC: 8, HP: 11/12, Candle
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 2: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 10/16, Torch

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (All except Amethu and Zahra): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Light (Mako): Duration: 87 rounds.

Player Resources:

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

Garrin turns to Mako. "Can you disarm this trap?"

Zahra

The Albino uses a dagger to scratch around the outside of the suspected trap door, trying to make it more visible to the others.

Mako:

Mako responds to Garrin "No, I have no talent for such a task. Loche is the one to ask."
Mako steps over the trap door as he moves forward.

Loche overhears his name and calls back:

Ah thought ah heard someone say thay need a trap disabled. Aboot time ye sluggards made yer wey tae us! whit kept ye?

Loche retraces his steps to the trap door and attempts to disable it.

Xorxen gulps hard when the reality of the large man’s words hit home. He keeps his feelings about his brother to himself for now, knowing that danger lurks around every corner here.

He contains his emotions and assists the thief with the trap if he can get to it from this side.

“This was likely meant to be sprung on anyone returning through here after they’ve entered the tomb. Be careful, Loche! It may be triggered from your side!”

The masked mourner attempts to disarm anything he deems as dangerous.

Kiri waits patiently while the others inspect the trapdoor. He turns and faces south, stepping beyond the others and watches down the hallway.

Tombs of the Ancients, Fourth Tier of the Great Pyramid
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Four. Late Morning, 16th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia







In the face of danger and death, the raiders of the Great Pyramid crypts continue their search for the sarcophagus of Xuthalhotep and the fabled treasures entombed therein; potent weapons, foretold in ancient myth, that they would wield in an audacious war against a demon god's tyrannical reign over the shattered remains of the once-great civilization he eradicated.

Loche and Zahra turn back to investigate the trapdoor behind them whose location was betrayed by air stirred with the opening of a chamber sealed tight for thousands of years: a hall lined with statues of the gods.

Kiri remembers a trapdoor marked upon the fragment of papyrus schematics of the Great Pyramid recovered from the Tomb of the Royal Architect and lost with the fall of Arthfael of Cimmeria.

Xorzen, his mask hiding his grief at the loss of his beloved sect brother, joins Loche the Pict in crouching down and examining the suspect floor. They uncover no pitfall ruse lying in wait to kill the rest of them. Instead, they discover a secret door set into the stonework of the tiles. After confirming there are no lurking dangers here, they find the concealed catch and open the trapdoor, revealing a rough hewn cavern hiding just below the floor, with a rope ladder descending down into the ageless darkness.




Verulian Amethu, Xorzen and Zahra believe this could be the winding subterranean tunnel down to the underground city where dwells the horrific Zargoth the Destroyer and all those poor souls doomed to suffer beneath his merciless yoke forever.




None of them, nor their kin, had ever dared venture there, for fear of madness and death.


Actions?



Map Detail:

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

Map:






PC Status:

• Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 7/10, Spells: 4/6 1st lvl
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 2: Move: 12", AC: 4(2), HP: 18/18, Laying Hands: 1/1, Torch
  Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 1/1: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 12/12, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl
  Loche: Pict Savage Thief 3: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 12/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, Light spell
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 2: Move: 16", AC: 8, HP: 11/12, Candle
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 2: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 10/16, Torch

PC Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
  Healing Mists of Osorus (All except Amethu and Zahra): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."
  Light (Mako): Duration: 86 rounds.

Player Resources:

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

Amethu stares down into that dark abyss. "This is..fascinating. What treasures and lost lore must lie entombed below? We must come back and delve into this history when we finish exploring this pyramid..."

Zahra

Zahra steps back, her red eyes wide. Certain death! is all she says.

Garrin shakes his head at his companions' fear. "No," he says. "There is no point in exploring. Our enemy and our destiny await below. We must go down now."

Mako:

"I agree with Garrin. We must find this evil and stop it. We have found nothing in the pyramid but death. Perhaps below we can recover the bodies of Soruk and Arthfael and give them a proper rest."

Xorxen stares into the void with the ladder that leads below.

"I believeth thow must have forgotten thine real reason we are in here."

"We cannot expect to be able to defeat the power Zargoth unless we first locate the treasures of Xuthalhotep."

The masked and mourning monk presses past the group, away from the newly found hole, ready to head back into the secret room that Loche discovered.

"I believeth that we are close now."

Loche smiles a wicked and mischievous smile.

Ain’t na point procrastinating. Let’s heid tae th' hert o' this doon this god-forsaken hawp!

He prepares to make the journey down.

Zahra

Zahra shakes her head. We aren't ready. We need something much more powerful before we go against The Destroyer. We mark this place, yes- but we return later.