Episode 48
Episode 48
The beast attacked Quint from its sarcophagus and Quint felt an unnatural chill run through his body. An icy touch that seemed to pull the strength from his body.
Bridget tried to turn the vile creature, but failed.
Johann struck home and the dark monster hesitated. It tried to claw at the fighter, but amazingly did not touch him. Quint’s weapon went through the monster without effect.
“’Tis like fighting smoke,” Quint complained.
Johann’s weapon again struck home and the insubstantial, undead entity fell away.
“Everything seems to drain my strength away these days,” Quint commented. “First spiders, now this thing.”
“Can you go on?” Bridget asked Quint.
“Of course,” Quint answered. “Is there anything in the sarcophagi?”
“No, but there is a door beyond,” Johann answered.
The group went through the door and found something that put them all on high alert.
Three chests.
“I saw a game like this in DuJang years ago,” Quint stated. “It’s a charlatan’s ruse. There is no correct choice.”
“It does smell like a trap,” Johann agreed.
“Throw the trap finder in there,” Bridget suggested.
Johann heaved the heavy sack into the room and was rewarded with a substantial portion of the floor giving way. “Aha,” he exclaimed. He reeled in the sack and threw it to the other locations in the room, but found no more traps. “Which chest first?” he asked.
Bridget shrugged in indifference, but Quint pointed to the chest on the far left. Johann proceeded to bash the three chests open and found a fair amount of gold, silver, gems, and jewelry that the party snatched up.
The group wandered back from the room into the main corridor and the chamber with the stairs down the middle. They descended to the slab blocking the way. This door was a different type and retained its original seal. The group began picking away at the mortar seal.
A couple of hours into the work a pair of Giant Ants wandered into the room and attacked the adventurers. The fight was quick, but not without injury – Bridget had been in the huge insects mandibles and subject to its sting twice.
Ant attack.
“I’m so sick of giant bugs!” Bridget exclaimed. “Spiders, ants, what’s next?”
“Just cure yourself sister,” Quint suggested. “I’m almost through here.”
A few hours later the portal came open and revealed a long illustrated hall beyond. The end of the hallway had another sealed portal. A few hours of picking the adventurers were through this portal as well. Another hall stretched out beyond the door slab.
Johann threw his sack onto the front of the hallway nonchalantly, almost stepping forward like an automaton. Shortly after the sack hit the ground an audible
kerchunk could be heard echoing through the hall. Then a spear shot across the hallway.
“Whoa,” Johann commented lowly.
He threw the sack down the hallway a bit further without result. The adventurers tried to jump across the section of hallway where they suspected a pressure plate was situated. To their collective surprise a flame of jet shot through the air across the hall. They tried to jump out of the way, but were limited in their evasion by the spear trap behind them. None of them were hit full force by the flames, only singed.
“I know I hit this section of the hall with the sack,” Johann stated in an exasperated voice.
“It must not be a pressure plate or weight related,” Quint offered.
“Yep, a magical trap,” Bridget agreed.
Johann shrugged as if in agreement and tossed the sack a bit further down the hall. A number of blades crossed the path. The large sharp blades severed the rope holding the sack and cut the bag to pieces.
“Quite a fun house they have here,” Quint quipped.
“Maybe we could brace something against the blades,” Bridget suggested.
“They look too heavy and sharp,” Johann replied. “If you time it correctly, you should be able to make it through there.”
The adventurers dashed across the hallway section and only took a couple of hits from the blades.
“I half expected to run into another trap down here at the end,” Quint confessed.
“There still is a door here,” Johann stated. “What’s more it is trapped in some way, look at this seam on the back side.”
“How did you see that?” Bridget asked incredulously.
“Just lucky,” Johann answered. “I happened to see it before I began chipping the seal.”
“Can you open it with a cantrip?” Bridget asked Quint.
“I can try.” Quint called the cantrip up from memory and something went wrong. The slab did not move. Quint wavered.
“Quint, what’s wrong?” Bridget asked worriedly.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “It fizzled and I feel weaker yet. I can barely hold myself up as it is.”*
Bridget called a prayer that restored some of Quint’s strength.
“I will try again,” Quint offered. Quint called the spell again, and again he wavered.
“Not again,” Johann complained.
“Aye,” Quint admitted. “I cannot explain it mates. But now I’m out of that cantrip and I need to rest to try again.”
“That’s alright Quint,” Bridget consoled. “I could use the rest myself.”
“Let’s rest here,” Johann proposed.
“Here?” Bridget asked.
“Unless you want to run back through those blades,” Johann answered. “Besides what better protection than traps behind us and a sealed door ahead of us.”
“He’s right,” Quint agreed. “Let’s stay here.”
…..
The following morning Quint felt refreshed and Bridget performed her morning meditations and prayers. She prayed over Quint and his strength was restored in full. The group broke fast with some dark bread and hard cheese.
“How say you Quint?” Johann inquired.
“I’ll try again.” Quint closed his eyes and called forth the cantrip. He shook a moment and opened his eyes.
“By Olfader! You failed again!”
“Blaspheming will not help the situation Johann!” Bridget admonished the fighter. “Quint, are you alright?”
Quint was already in the process of casting the cantrip again. He wavered again and fell back. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I am so weak. My strength leaves me everytime.”
Bridget prayed over him once again and restored Quint’s strength.
“I’m just going to open the door,” Johann announced.
“It is trapped. Remember?” Quint mentioned.
Johann pulled the door with all of his strength and the whole wall collapsed towards them. Scrambling from the falling debris all three remained unscathed.
“That could have killed us all,” Bridget said harshly.
“Or we could have died of starvation waiting for Graywyr over there to cast a spell successfully,” Johann retorted. “Besides all’s well that ends well.”
The group went beyond the pile of rubble into the next room. Three standing sarcophagi were in the middle of the room. The lid to each was fashioned with a carving of a fighting man. A door to south went deeper into the tomb.
“The temple guard?” Bridget asked.
“Yes, I think so,” Quint answered.
“Let’s skip them and go south. We can always come back,” Johann offered.
“Or whatever undead monsters reside in them can follow us and strike at the time of their choosing rather than ours,” Quint countered. “When thar’s fish, keep the net wet. Mend her in the morn’.”
“I’ll open the first sarcophagi to the east. You be ready Bridget to cast back whatever comes out of this thing,” Quint instructed.
No sooner had Quint touched the sarcophagi than all three opened almost simultaneously. Three figures swathed in burial linens came forth and cast such despair into the adventurers’ hearts that they wavered.
Mummies attack.
“Mummies!” Quint exclaimed. “Don’t let them touch you!”
to be continued…
*Quint’s spell was failing and draining his strength - A featured rules module from the forth coming Grim Tales by Badaxe games. Quint was truly breaking the odds with his consistent failures.
Although with Badaxe Games I doubt he touches a brush these days! 
