Chapter 10: The Crypt of Everlasting Life

[ravenn4544]

Amethu follows...

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorzen will take a look at the door as well. If he doesn't see anything dangerous, he will quietly step aside again.

[Monsieur Rose]

Soruk

"These carvings and those giant statues we hath passed may bode well. Maybe we art getting closeth."

Soruk steps back from the door to give people space, ready to engage whatever is behind.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri himself kneels in an effort to get a better look at the wall carvings. Do they contain a clue as to the use of this corridor, he wonders...

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

"Perhaps we should see if there is anything of importance in the hallway that parallels this passageway before we discover yet another means of killing us. It's an odd bit of architecture don't you think?"

[ChubbyPixie]

Mako:

"Perhaps we should see if there is anything of importance in the hallway that parallels this passageway before we discover yet another means of killing us. It's an odd bit of architecture don't you think?"

”I agree, Mako,” says Kiri, ”Something’s not right here. I mean, something else is not right here. Besides the armies of undead and the boulders.”

[Inferno]

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. Mid-Morning, 16th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia





The explorers of the pyramid tombs walk on tiles untrodden for millennia. Their torchlight melts away the ageless shadows so that Loche and Xorzen may examine the peerless stonework of the ancients for hidden, deadly devices.

Kiri Khutan kneels in imitation of the carved slaves that adorn the walls, seeking secret knowledge.



The mountainous easterner finds a hidden hieroglyph not visible at eye level. His Verulian companions can translate it as the symbol for "balance" or "equilibrium."

Loche and Xorzen discover no mechanical dangers lurking here and, as Mako counsels caution, Garrin the Atlantean opens the lone door in the southern corridor, sword and shield ready for whatever may await.

Beyond the door lies death.



Human bones without number in a mass grave. (room 36)

The bones are so thick that the floor cannot be seen but the walls hold murals that tell of the innumerable slaves of Xuthalhotep...




...and that, upon the death of their master, the household slaves were herded together and killed.

Their bodies were thrown in here, slowly turning to dust and bone with the ceaseless crawling of the centuries.


Actions?


Map Detail:

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: 6/6 1st lvl
  Arthfael Griogarach: Cimmerian Northman Druid 3: Move: 12", AC: 6, HP: 17/17, Spells: 5/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl and 2/2 3rd lvl, Lantern
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 2: Move: 12", AC: 4(2), HP: 18/18, Laying Hands: 1/1
  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: 18/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
  Soruk: Verulian Osoran Cleric/Fighter 1/1: Move: 12", AC: 6(5), HP: 9/9, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 2: Move: 16", AC: 8, HP: 12/12
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 2: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/16, 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."

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)

[Zhym]

Arthfael raises an eyebrow at the translation of the symbol for balance. It is a concept he is well familiar with, of course. He is intrigued.

"Why would such a symbol be hidden?" he wonders aloud.

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

"Balance? Equilibrium? Similar corridors; strange architecture. If these corridors are balanced then there should be another room like this along the northern corridor."

[Urson]

Zahra

Zahra whispers a quick prayer to aid the slaves on thier road to the Afterlife.

Balance could also mean a trap, with a balanced panel intended to drop us into a pit- or worse.

[wordoftheoracle]

Loche listens carefully for voices coming from the bones.

[ChubbyPixie]

"Let us see what is in the parallel hallway," says Kiri after a moment of contemplation. "If there is another that mirrors this one, I suspect the two rooms act as the two sides of a balance, with this wall as their fulcrum. If not... then I have no idea what's going on here. Or what purpose such a thing could serve. Perhaps a trap, as Zahra says. Or perhaps a way to descend to a lower level. The question is, how did the servants in this room die?" From outside the doorway, he examines the bones to see if they look crushed or dismembered. He looks up at the ceiling of the room for any concealed sand-releasing trap doors...

[ravenn4544]

Amethu ponders the idea of balance and what it could imply here. To serve in life and death? That is a balance of sorts. The idea of the room architecture is also intriguing. As he searches the 'island' wall for concealed doors, he'll suggest"If you are not exploring that room - i would close and secure it. These lifeless rooms don't seem to remain that way once we enter them...."

[OGRE MAGE]

Xorzen

The contemplative monk ponders the clues over in his mind. Unfortunately, with his own balance a bit off at the moment, he can think of nothing to offer that hasn't already been discussed.

"Perhaps we have missed a secret piece of this puzzle."

He returns to the opposite corridor with a light source and scans the walls again for a missed secret door or compartment.

[ChubbyPixie]

Kiri follows the monk to check out the other passage.

[SocraticLawyer]

After saying a quick prayer for the dead, Garrin leaves the room. Something about the hidden glyph in the room of death doesn't seem right.

[Monsieur Rose]

Soruk

Hiding his disappointment that there wasn't anything trying to kill him in the room, Soruk takes a moment to listen to the ideas of the group. What he hears surprises him. These outsiders aren't a totally bloodthirsty bunch.

A hidden smile crosses the face of the large man. Soruk will stay in front of the door, alert and waiting for things to turn sour.

[Inferno]

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. Mid-Morning, 16th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia





The explorers delve deeper into the eerie silence of the pyramid crypts, and into the distant past as well.

Loche the Pict hears no whispering from the ancient bones deeply stacked within the mass grave.



Zahra the amazon prays for the dead slaves of Xuthalhotep.

As the explorers question the meaning of the hidden hieroglyph, Kiri of the East examines the chamber of death without entering. He detects no doors secreted in its ceilings. Nor can he discern the cause of death of these countless poor souls.

Garrin leaves the room of fleshless human remains. With a wry smile, Soruk of Osorus stands by its doorway in hopeful anticipation of the dead rising again.

Amethu the masked wizard scrutinizes the corridor's northern wall, meticulously engraved with row upon row of slaves.



He finds no doorway hidden among the endless subjugation of their ranks.

Xorzen lights a candle and searches the walls of the strange, northern branch. Kiri follows. The masked monk soon finds thin cracks in the shape of a door woven into the designs on the northern wall. Neither hinge nor handle is visible.


Actions?


Map Detail:

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: 6/6 1st lvl
  Arthfael Griogarach: Cimmerian Northman Druid 3: Move: 12", AC: 6, HP: 17/17, Spells: 5/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl and 2/2 3rd lvl, Lantern
  Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 2: Move: 12", AC: 4(2), HP: 18/18, Laying Hands: 1/1
  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: 18/18
  Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 10/10, Spells: 2/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl
  Soruk: Verulian Osoran Cleric/Fighter 1/1: Move: 12", AC: 6(5), HP: 9/9, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl
  Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 2: Move: 16", AC: 8, HP: 12/12, Candle
  Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 2: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 16/16, 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."

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)

[DadsAngry]

Mako:

Mako moves to the northern passageway to see if he theory is correct, that another room lie on the other side.

[ravenn4544]

Amethu follows the group to investigate any new findings. Spending time to review the walls and carvings as he goes.