The TOMB Of HORRORS Updated 08/17/05

[DM-Rocco]

Session 24 Module the Tomb of Horrors

They have a need of you.A voice told him in his head. He knew the voice, he knew it well, it had been there all his life and had guided him throughout it and called him home when it was over. He had listened to it for as long as he knew, he obeyed it without question and spread its word far and wide. It was his guiding light when times where dark and his inspiration to help the faithless.

Now, he wished he could just rest, and hear the voice no more.

“I know,” he said, “but there is nothing I can do about it. I have earned my final reward, I have suffered for a life time, the matters of the mortal realm are none of my concern.” He knew he was being selfish, but here on this plane, his feelings of guilt subsided as quickly as they came. His woes quickly left his mind.

They will die without you. The voice did not change its tone and did not waver in intent. It was not ordering or comparing, just stating the facts.

“I could not enter now, the Tomb is sealed.” In this plane, in the after-life, he had access to knowledge that others in the Prime Material did not. He knew the layout of the Tomb, he knew the traps and he knew that once a group had entered the Tomb, none could break the seal, not even the gods.

I have a need of you, will you serve?

“I,” he wanted to say yes, but he had earned his place in the after-life, he had fought the cause and had proved a valuable agent to his God, but now he wanted what was promised to him, he wanted his final rest. Here he would sit at the table of his God, here he was respected, here he had knowledge and comfort and no worries. This was his home now.

If he were to leave, he would lose all knowledge he had gained, he would lose his place at the table of his God, he would lose so much.

You have all you could ever want, I can offer you nothing more.

“No,” he said, and he reflected on his friends for a moment. He thought back to all the good times they had and all the good they had spread in a would dominated by evil. They had done so much, they too deserved their final rest, but in the end, if Acererack were to take their souls, they would never see that rest, they would forever live in torment. “I do not have everything.”

Then you accept.

“How can I gain entry?”

I will bend the past and the present together, for a moment time will converge at a central point and your spirit can enter. There is a chance that you may never come back, a chance that your souls too will not find a body but instead be torn between the span of time, never to return to any plane. In that event, I can not help you.

“When do I leave?”

* * *​

The small hallway lead to a door which held a desk in font of the door and behind the weathered oaken desk sat a cloaked man all in black. Deep robes of an inky black that seemed to absorb light. Stonecracker was about to charge the man behind the desk and slay him before he had a chance to cast a spell or summon guards, but then something hit him. This Tomb had been abandoned for eons, one way in and no way out, how did this man get here.

As a paladin of Helm, he could sense evil in all beings, but he sensed no evil in this man. In good faith he could not attack this man until he had wronged him. He noticed something else too, the air in the Tomb seemed a bit more clear, not so stale, as if someone had opened the main gates of the tomb forever more and fresh air could plow into this place and cleansed it. It was at this time the figure looked up from his ledger and addressed the adventurers.

“Greetings friends,” he said, “have you come to worship at the temple?”

Feeling were mixed, but almost unanimously, Oaklin, stonecracker boulderwacker, shump and Delvin had said “yes.”

“You must be of a new sect,” the figure said as he observed the nude party at the door, “what name may I register you under?”

They gave their names and the man entered them in the ledger. “You may enter.”

They cautiously entered the temple. It was a seventy-by-seventy foot room with rich tapestries and imported silks lavishly decorating the temple walls. The walls themselves were painted with scenes of the normal life of the time. However, the people had rotten flesh, skeletal hands, worms eating them and flesh hanging from their bones. Yet there were also depicted various religious symbols of good aligned individuals and Delvin detected that in deed good was radiating from the walls about them. It flashed in his mind for a moment, could Acererack actually be good?

A wooden railing divided the room. North of it was two rows of eight heavy oaken wooden benches divided down the center to create an aisle, each bench had a number of other black robed figured kneeling in various stats of prayer. South of it was an Opalescent Blue Alter, and on either side was a large brass candelabra, each was holding five white candles and in each corner a large white pottery urn stoppered with a brass and wood plug. To the right of the alter was yet one more misty arch.

The room seemed normal at that point, but Delvin stopped in his tracks for a moment. Something was different, something out of place. Aside from the figures in black robes, something struck him as odd. He pushed it to the back of his mind. They took seats at the front of the temple, the only seats left to them. They were offered black robes and gladly put them on and then kneeled and gave thanks to their own Gods.

Devlin opened her eyes for just a moment, and in a flash, she saw something out of place again. She swore she saw a glimpse of a man, an artist by the look of him, painting the walls of the temple, then in the blink of an eye he was gone. Perhaps it was a trick of her eye sight returning. She concentrated a moment and allowed her other senses to make sense of her surroundings.

Since her eye sight had left her, her other senses had awakened. They were slightly more acute that they had been. She concentrated on the smell of the place, for the most part it was fresh air, but every now and then it was just the same stale centuries old air they had been breathing since entering the tomb. She could hear the shuffling of the other robed men in the pews behind her and in an instant she heard nothing and then she threw her head about in a frantic pace. Her eye sight was still weak, she could not make out shapes very well, but for an instant, she thought that the black robed men were gone.

She looked around, the Opalescent Blue Alter was not Obsidian Black and a chard mark filled a ten foot diameter around the alter. She was more and more confused.

Then the canting stopped and a ghostly priest materialized from behind the alter. He had on the same inky black robes. His cowl was held low and his hands wrapped in bandages. Stonecracker and Delvin sense it immediately, they felt the presence of evil, but too late, they were wrapped in the dark chants from the vile mouthed Priest. As the Balor had cast his blasphemous words, so had this priest.

They were stunned in disbelief, literally. However, lucky for them, these priest were more concerned in their ritual then noticing them. The canting went on for hours and pushed them all to the point of breaking. During that time it happened more frequently, Delvin could see glimpses out of the corner of her eye of slaves working on the temple and more men in black robes, enev what looked like other adventurers going through the room and then an empty temple, but under the influence of the vile words, she could do nothing about it.

Then, after what seemed an endless amount of time, the priest spoke and a black misty form appeared through a vent in the ceiling. The black mist split into two ghostly figures, Delvin recognized them as the Dread Wraiths they had encountered in the swamp. Between the two of them, they held a small bundle and placed it on the remains of the Alter.

It was a bundle that was small for them, but to Delvin, it was a human sized bundle, like a man wrapped in a death shroud, but the man would have to have been thin or decomposed. As the bundle was human only in length. They fastened the bundle to the alter and began a ritual that Delvin recognized. A ritual of resurrection. The rite was not terribly long and as the ritual came to a close, the bundle grew in width and bulk and started to move.

A holy light was shining from within the bundle and the Dread Wraiths backed away from the bundle.

“Acererak, as I give my life to your service, so take this soul to the same,” and he then raised a sacrificial dagger high in the air.

It was at that moment, when the priest had offered the soul of this man to Acererack, that the vile tongue of the priest had ceased, and gave the heroes a small moment to act. They did not know who was in that bundle, but they had heard enough to know that this man did not deserve to die. Delvin called down the power of Pelor and his eyes and the Ring of Pelor glowed as the floor cracked below the Dark Priest and the fissure swallowed the vile man whole.

The rest of the party struck out at the remaining black robed men a slew them quickly while the light from the bundled man grew brighter and engulfed the alter and the Dread Wraith in flames. From inside the ash, a man rose from the alter and stood in defiance atop it. He canted a word of faith to his God.

“May the light of Pelor take this alter and sanctify this temple, cleanse it from evil,” cried the man at that moment the temple was shed in light and a loud crack erupted from the alter as it split the Opalescent Blue Alter in two. A moment later the light died down, the black robed men were gone and all that remained was the stale air of the long vacant tomb, the empty temple and a blackened circle of burnt ash surrounding the split in two Opalescent Blue Alter.

Delvin looked at the man standing on the alter. Her vision was getting better all the time. The stronger his faith became, the clearer he could see. He recognized the men, he knew the power, Khael had returned.

* * *​

It was an unforeseen event, something had happened that he did not expect, something that he was not prepared for. Acererack knew every inch in his tomb and he had no knowledge of any worshippers, no priests. Something was amiss, namely how this man had returned from the dead. He pondered canceling the test, killing them now, just to end it. Others would come, others would do. He thought about it but decided against it. If this Khael could defy death, then he was all the stronger and would be all the sweeter when he drank his soul.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Session 25 Module the Tomb of Horrors

“Well, the skeleton points to the arch,” said Shump, “I think we are to go in.”

“But the arches have been nothing but trouble so far,” said Delvin, “we lost Rupert to the first one and three others cause of the second one.”

“If shades of red stand for blood the wise will not need to sacrifice aught but a loop of magical metal - you’re well along your march.,” quoted Khael getting caught up to date.

“Stonecracker, stop looking around the room will ya, we are trying to solve this riddle,” said Oaklin, “I think this must be correct, orange is a shade of red, the color of blood.”

“Perhaps blood is an ill omen,” grumbled the dwarf, mostly to himself, “not to be bothered with,” Stonecracker was searching the walls and pews and broken alter, looking for anything they may have forgotten.

“Well, how about this,” cried Shump as he picked up the skeleton on the floor and threw it into the misty arch. They waited a moment and heard it hit the wall on the far side of the arch.

“Looks like it doesn’t get teleported anywhere,” replied Khael.

“Well, must be the way to go then,” said Shump and he walked into the arch before anyone could stop him. Time passed and nothing. Then, a blood curdling scream came from the arch and a skeleton came flying out of the misty arch. A smoldering pile of bones broke on the ground before them and the skull landed at Delvins feat.

Another had died.

Then came the laughter.

Not a chilling laughter from a long dead lich, not a nervous laughter to break the tension but a ‘I got you,’ laughter from Shump.

“You should have seen the look on your eyes,” he screamed and then grabbed his mouth. It was higher pitch then before. He thought his voice had just cracked and tried to talk again. “What the…,”

“If shades of red stand for blood ,” said Khael as he looked upon the nude, female body of Shump as she walked out of the mist. She instantly returned, to the mist, more in embarrassment than for any other reason. When they could finally get her out she was the same in attitude as before, but not in looks.

“This wizard has no bounds in decency,” she instantly flew into a rage and ran about the small room screaming at the top of her lungs. She finally settled down when Stonecracker spoke.

“Stop your whining, told ya not to do it,” cried the dwarf, “in all my five years in the dwarven navy I have never heard someone wail as much as ye. Now come here, I think I found something.”

All of them gathered around the faint ‘O’ above a small slot. Khael dug in his bag for a moment and pulled forth a ring of magic. He inserted it into the slot and waited.

“If shades of red stand for blood the wise will not need to sacrifice aught but a loop of magical metal - you’re well along your march,” quoted Khael and as he finished a small two foot wide by four foot high and ten inch thick wedged shaped block of stone moved from its hidden place and crushed the magic ring.

They piled through the small hole and found it lead to a hallway. They moved slowly from the room along the hall until they found a door. It studied the door for a long time before opening it. Khael even cast spells to see through illusions and to detect traps. They found none.

They opened the door and that is when they found the first trap. Oaklin cast a spell and flew them, one at a time, over the pit. When the come upon the second door, they followed the same procedure.

“Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall,” quoted Khael.

“So, we should look for a fortuitous fall here,” queried Shump as she began to look about.

“No, I think it means that on the other side of that door will be another pit and something in the bottom of the pit will be fortuitous,” said Delvin. Sure enough there was a pit on the other side of the door and a pit. Oaklin flew them to the bottom of the pit once he had discovered that a hidden door was in the bottom of the pit. It opened to yet another passageway with stairs leading down. Khael, under the influence of his True Sight spell, noticed the secret passage to the left, but they decided to check out where the stairs lead to first.

On the second landing the stairs descended into yet more mist. They had had enough of mists now and cast spells to blow the mists from the hallway. They caught the glimpse of a door before the mist started to roll back. They threw balls of fire at the mists, trying to burn it away, to no avail. They cast several more spells to continue blowing the mist back and they ran for the door. Once they touched the door, the mist subsided and a booming voice from the whole of the chamber made a demand.

“WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE REST OF ACERERAK?” he boomed, “IT IS YOUR DEATH WHICH YOU HAVE FOUND.”

From the far side of the room, a figure dressed in rotting robes stood from his gold couch and began to move to attack the party.

The party threw all manner of spells at the Lich, but it was Shump that hit it with three quick and furious hits from a silver in-laid mace he found at the base of the stairs. At this point, the mace shattered, the lich whither to nothing and the room began to shake. The whole of the ceiling started to crash down upon them.

“That cannot be Acererack,” said shump as he fled the room, “he died to quickly for someone who designed a Tomb of this power.”

“I think there is more to it than this,” said Delvin, “there is more to the riddle from the entrance, this cannot be it.”

“There is more to the Tomb,” said Khael, “a secret passage down the side of the top of the stairs.

* * *
​

Kuth’lik waited until the party left. He knew they would not be back to sift through the rubble, none ever returned. He began to clean the room and set things straight. He removed the illusions cast about the place and recreated the mummy and the spells that would protect it from the next batch of adventurers who might come this way. He programmed the voice and carefully laid down another silver in-laid mace at the base of the stairs. After everything was in place and reconstructed, he cast two last spells and bound them to a permanent effect. One was a set of thin webs that he cast at the base of the stairs and the other replaced the fear gas that filled the hall.

They might just make it, he thought for a moment. They have pulled themselves together, it only took the loss of five lives to make them think about things before leaping. They might just make it to the end. Then he reflected to the rest of the tomb and how much further they had to go.

Perhaps they may not.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Hey DM-Rocco,

I remember reading your Lizard Bait SH (you mentioned that coming back - when you planning for? You already got me as a reader), so gave this one a whirl.

I haven't finished reading through yet. About half way. A succubus just got beheaded.

Anyway, good stuff so far - liking the characters thus far and plus I seem to remember having Acererack as a Spellfire card years and years ago. Sigh.

Spider J

 

[DM-Rocco]

Thanks for your support, nice to hear from you.

I do plan on finishing Lizard Bait, I have been away for a while, damn it, everyone was correct about not having time once you are raising a child.

Anyway, I want to get this thread up to date to where the characters are in my game. This one is a bit different than Lizard Bait in that this one is based on my characters adventurers and Lizard Bait originated from a contest I entered to write a fantasy short story.

My players are really hounding me since I haven't kept it up.

Once that happens, I will finish Lizard bait. I have the ending done, just need to bridge the gap

Thanks again for reading, glad you like. Wish a few more people would throw out a nice word from time to time, just so I know that people are reading, gives one a boost to know that people like your work.

 

[the Jester]

Wish a few more people would throw out a nice word from time to time, just so I know that people are reading, gives one a boost to know that people like your work.

What I found really increases the rate of other people posting is to get the players to do so.... several of my most vocal fans now are players in my campaign. The really cool thing is that they always add lil bits I'm missing, or correct me when I misremember! Good stuff...

 

[Dawn]

Hey DM-Rocco, found this SH two days ago and just finished reading it. Good story so far. I never ran Tomb of Horrors or went through it so this is all new to me.

Keep it coming.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Hey DM-Rocco, found this SH two days ago and just finished reading it. Good story so far. I never ran Tomb of Horrors or went through it so this is all new to me.

Keep it coming.

Thanks for the kind words. The Tomb of Horrors really pisses off the players, but ya know, they can't always be happy. They are actually out of it now, that is how far behind I am, trying my best to hurry though.

What I found really increases the rate of other people posting is to get the players to do so.... several of my most vocal fans now are players in my campaign. The really cool thing is that they always add lil bits I'm missing, or correct me when I misremember! Good stuff...

My players, rather than complain here, just yell at me in person when things are not correct. Which is fine, but it wouldn't hurt one or two of them to say, hey, stop smoking crack, what really happened was this.

Some events are a bit different, edited for content to make the story a bit more exciting, but for the most part it is as it happened.

At least then they would get into the swing of things a bit more As of now, they just complain about how unfair I am cause I gave them a chance in the Tomb of Horrors to realize the doors where most-likely all trapped and false. Rather than making an INT or WIS check, I made them roll a sense motive check on the door, trying to give them better odds, instead I get ridicule.

Go figure, can't win either way. Either I am evil cause I run them through a death trap or don't give them XP until the current mission is over, or I am evil cause I make them roll a sense motive on an inanitmate object to singnify their vast experience in dealing with such things, DMs way of trying to aid them a bit.

Whatever happened to the DM is always right?

 

[DM-Rocco]

Session 26 Module the Tomb of Horrors

Khael, Delvina, Shump, Oaklyn and Stone Cracker made their way into a large sixty-foot by forty-foot room that appeared to be a laboratory. It appeared to be a large preparation chamber of some type. Every wall was lined with numerous shelves; each was filled with odds and ends, small clay jars, vials, coffers, etc. The dust that covered all of the shelves was thick and fell away in chunks when they took a closer examination of the contents of the shelves. The room also held a large desk and stool, two workbenches and two mummy preparation tables. Clay pots and urns littered the floor and bits of dried herbs, bone, skulls and the like were haphazardly strewn about the room.

They spent hours searching through the shear volume of crap in the room, but only one item proved useful to them. In the bottom of one of the large vats was a half of a golden key. Khael had tried to get the key by poking the end of his staff in the pool, but he pulled it out when the end of the staff started to dissolve from a slow acting acid. He cast a prayer to his God Pelor and his God granted him protection from the acid and the half of the key was gained.

The other half of the golden key was in yet another vat, hidden under a gray ochre jelly. Delvina, who had experience with such creatures in the past, used a combination of divine energy and flame to kill the creature. Once done, they joined the two halves into one golden key.

Wanting to end this madness as quickly as possible, they left the room by its only exit and followed a corridor, down a set of stairs and around a corner. A twenty-foot pit was before them, ten feet deep. It appeared to easy and they took no chances with trying to crawl down into the pit, instead, Oaklyn made a wall of Force that covered the pit and they crossed in relative safety. It was also Oaklyn, with his keen elven eyes, that noticed the secret passage in the hallway just on the other side of the pit.

“So many secret passages in this tomb,” commented Oaklyn, “I wonder if we have found them all?”

They all filed into the next room, which was filled wall to wall with two giant tapestries. Four rotting sofas, several throne-like chairs, vases, urns and all manner of braziers all jumbled together. The room was in disrepair from centuries of neglect, the only things that seemed to be spared the ravages of time was the two tapestries.

“No one move,” cautioned Oaklyn, “I’ll check things out.” Oaklyn moved into the thirty foot square room and immediately the floor shifted below his feet. No wonder the room was a mess; the floor seemed to be built on giant rollers and bearings. Every move he made shifted the floor. He stepped forward, dodging the mess on the floor and made his way to the tapestry on the western wall. He waited a moment to balance himself and then with his bow he pulled back the tapestry ever so slowly.

He didn’t need his elven sight to see the passageway beyond. He began to motion for the others to come when he lost his balance and the room shifted again and in order to hold his balance he instinctively reached for the nearest thing he could grab onto, the tapestry.

His life flashed before his eyes as the tapestry covered him. He could recall every moment of his long life in that split second of time that it took for the tapestry to fall on him. When the tapestry came down upon him and touched his skin his world ended. His skin turned green and burned and then pooled into a greenish acidy blob. He was now mindless ooze beyond the help of his comrades.

* * *
​

On a plane, far from the Prime, Acererak let loose a slight smile as yet one more fell to the Horrors of the Tomb.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

When the tapestry came down upon him and touched his skin his world ended. His skin turned green and burned and then pooled into a greenish acidy blob. He was now mindless ooze beyond the help of his comrades.

Fantastic! Pull no punches, like I've always said. Good stuff again Rocco, looking forward to the next...

Spider J

 

[DM-Rocco]

Session 26 Module the Tomb of Horrors

“I cannot say,” said the voice from the mist. It was a sweet voice, a voice that calmed the heart and set one at easy with the first syllable escaping her lips. Gentle, with a touch of a silky seduction and melted in ones ears and lingered there, desperately awaiting her next words.

“Do you know the way to Acererak,” queried Khael, desperate to end this quest. He had not come through death only to find no way out of this God forsaken tomb. As a devoted cleric of Pelor he had seen many strange sites in his days and defeated many foes, but the fight was always straight up and forward, none of this sneaking around in a damp and dreary underground tomb of some ancient and long forgotten wizard.

“That is unknown to me,” came the sweet reply. In spite of his growing anger and frustration the voice calmed him, even though he could not see her through the mist in the natural cavern.

“Can you leave this place,” asked Delvina. Her new insight into womanhood had already had many changes in her way of thinking. She was beginning to understand other females more in the last six months than in the whole of her life as a man. She too wanted to get out of this place, wanted to desperately leave but the voice had affected her too and she also was being calmed.

“Possibly,” was her short reply?

“Well you join us,” asked Khael, “will you come to us?”

A long silence filled the misty room. Then slowly the silvery fog began to dissipate. The makings of a large grotto began to appear and from the center of the room, a U shaped cave became visible. In front of the cave was a lithe woman. Her beauty was unparalleled. Even Delvina, who many women in the past had remarked was this side shy of a God in looks, found this woman completely fascinating.

“I will join you,” she said in her silky voice, “Acererak captured me long ago. How long I cannot remember. He imprisoned me with his magic. I was forced to stay in this cave, in this mist, for all time or until someone asked me to come forward out of the mist. Many I have seen come, none have ever asked me ever if I would come forth from the mists. Thank you for freeing me, I am in your debt and will travel with you until I may repay your act of kindness.”

Quickly the matter of her imprisonment and her willingness to join the party became settled as she was well received. She wanted one thing more than to repay her debt to the party for their aid, she wanted Acererak to pay and she meant to see it through to the end.

She had no knowledge of the Tomb itself, she was bound and gagged and placed in her prison without the benefit of even knowing where the tomb was located let alone where in the tomb she was placed. She kept to herself but freely answered questions that the party had, although she felt inadequate as a guide since she could answer few of the questions they had asked. In deed she, after a moment of frustration, could not even remember her own name.

They all walked with care as they made their way back the way they had come and took a northern route, over a previously exposed pit to check out a door they had left for later examination. They slowly opened the door to yet another false door. A wall of brick was before them. They began to turn back when Delvina stopped them.

“If you find the false you find the true,” she said repeating the riddle from the red tiles at the start of the tomb and she took a more careful look at the wall. She found a secret passage in the wall, which lead into a long hallway, which led to a grouping of stair that went straight up into the ceiling. They then followed a side passage through a set of double doors and into yet one more hallway.

It was then that the hall filled with gas.

One by one they fell to the ground, completely asleep from a gas that filled the hallway. Khael, who had waited in the previous hallway, came into the gas filled hallway when he heard the large doors opening from the far end of the corridor. He immediately cast a prayer to his God and his body turned into a cloudy shape. He then moved towards the others. He touched Delvina and her body too became cloud like and transparent. From the far end of the hallway, a loud grinding noise came from a huge juggernaut. It was shaped like an elephant with huge giant rollers placed under the front and hind legs. The bulk of the juggernaut filled the whole of the passage.

Khael, not needing any prompting, knew that this was not a good sign and touched Stone cracker on the forehead. The dwarf too turned into a cloud like transparency, a ghostly version of himself. As he then touched the head of Shump with his ghostly hands and Shump too turned, he watched in horror as the bulk of the juggernaut impossibly turned towards the fallen party. It began to roll forward, crushing everything in its path. It was at the last second that he laid his hand on the forehead of the woman they had found in the cave. A close call to be sure as the rolling juggernaut passed harmlessly through the party.

After the others came too and they found that the room the juggernaut lead to a dead end, they backtracked to the door they had come through. Khael again cast a prayer to his God and his vision allowed him to see things true. Careful inspection of the area around the door however was needed to see the slight markings of yet one more secret passage.

“If you find the false you find the true,” mocked Khael, tired of this dreary tomb.

They followed a long tunnel to another passage that lead to another dead end, or rather a door they could not pass. It was a large door made of solid Adamantine and must have been a foot thick. Delvina tried to magic the door open by blasting it with disintegration spells, but it was protected from such magic. They soon discovered three small slots in the door itself. After some testing, they took three long swords from the slain maralith and placed them into the slots and the door slowly opened as it crushed the swords into worthless shards of steel.

“…and into the columned hall you’ll come, and there the throne that’s key and keyed,” exclaimed Stone cracker and the strolled into the large columned hall, “we are on the right track.”

“Ya think,” came the sarcastic reply from Shump.

Scores of massive pillars littered the huge chamber. Each was a full three feet in diameter and raised the full length of the thirty-foot ceiling.

They made their way into the large room and examined everything. They found an area in the room where cinders, ashes charred bones and skull where crisped and blackened. Remains of clothing and gear, arms and armor where centrally located around a thoroughly awful and frightening sight; a glowing huge orange gem. Judging by the shear mass of destruction and mayhem that had happened in the past, none of them wanted to test the gem. Obviously it would prove fatal to those who touch it or go near it and they all had seen enough death to last them a lifetime.

They had also found the Ebony Dais and the Silver throne, but opted to check out the northern rooms first. In two of the rooms they found a low stone table upon which rested a large wooden sarcophagus. Various broken and looted chests, urns and coffins where scattered about the inside of the room. In each of the sarcophagus they had found two mummified humans that came to unlife when the large amethyst was removed from their eye sockets. Khael had anticipated such a thing to happen and with his divine might he sundered the mummies to their final rest before any of them could harm the party.

They then made their way to the Ebony Dais.

Contrasting with the pastel colors of the floor and pillars of the hall is the stark blackness of the huge dais atop which rests an obsidian throne inlaid with silver and ivory skulls. Upon the throne rested a crown and a scepter, both of which radiated an aura of magic.

“…And the throne that’s key and keyed,” said Delvina, “there must be something about the throne, something we are missing. Perhaps if I put the crown on my head,” and before anyone could stop her, she placed the crown of gold upon her head. Instantly two things happened to her. First, she could see clearly in the darkened pillared room as if it was clear as day. Second, she knew, somehow, that the only way to remove the crown was to touch the end of the scepter to the top of the crown. Unfortunately she still had no clue what the throne or the riddle meant.

“I am master of all that I see,” declared Delvina as she sat upon the throne.

“Get off the throne fool,” shouted Shump who was in no mood for tomfoolery.

Then Stone cracker noticed an inlay at the base of the throne and he placed the scepter in the inlay and watched as the Ebony Dais slowly sank into the ground, creating a reverse set of stairs leading down. Behind the throne they found yet one more secret passage that lead to a grouping of stairs. They all entered the room, but when Delvina entered, she stopped dead in her tracks.

She was completely blind again.

For a moment she thought she had angered her God again. She took a step back into the room whence she came and could immediately see again. In a frantic effort to remove the crown from her head she tried to rip it off of her head. After calming down, she remembered the scepter. The scepter was made of pure electrum with a gold ball at one end and a silver knob on the other.

“Gold to Gold,” Delvina said more to her self than to the others as she touched the gold end of the scepter to the golden crown. Instantly the crown fell from her head.

The narrow passage behind the throne led to a landing and steps, which funneled out to the south as they ascended. The six steps where made of onyx, pink, marble, lapis, black marble, golden serpentine and malachite. The walls of the chamber where of an untarnished and gleaming copper panels set between rare woods inlaid with ivory. The ceiling was silver, formed so as to reflect and multiply light within the place. Upon the forth step lay a large cylindrical key of bronze for all of them to behold.

At the head of the steps was a pair of huge doors. The doors where fourteen feet wide and twenty-eight feet tall and made of pure mithril. Doors of this height had to be at least three feet thick and they seemed to be impregnated with great magics that made them absolutely spell proof. In a cup like depression, about waist height, was a hemispherical concavity with a central hole. They appeared to be a keyhole of some type and the key placed upon the floor upon the stairs appeared to fit a set of valves.

Khael tried the key on the ground in the door and a jolt of electricity shot through his arm. He cast another prayer to his God to protect him from harm and he tried the key again. His protections stopped him from coming to harm but it did not open the door. He then tried the first key he had found and another jolt ran through his body, but the God of the Sun protected his faithful from harm. Stone cracker then took the scepter from the Delvina and placed it into the door and turned it, as he did the doors slowly opened inward.

The imposing chamber beyond had a silver ceiling, just as the foyer had, so it was bright. The walls were of ivory with gold inlaid. The floor was polished but otherwise just a common agate. In each of the corners of the room hulked a massive nine-foot tall statue of black iron. The one to the northeast stood with a saw-toothed two-handed sword raised to strike; the one to the northwest held a huge spiked mace, to the southeast the sculpture readied a wickedly spiked morning star and the one to the southwest held a voulge.

“If you say it I will kill you myself,” threatened Khael.

“The iron men of visage grim do more than meets the viewers eye,” quoted Shump, who was unafraid of Khael’s threats, “you’ve left and left and found my tomb and now your soul will die.”

Four other objects caught the eyes of the party. A bronze urn, a granite sarcophagus and two iron chests. They started by going to the two iron chests. The iron chests proved to be very hard to open. They could easily see that the iron chests had been beaten in the past by the evidence of the pry marks and battered condition of the outside of the iron chests. Khael searched the chests locks and discovered a trap. He cast another prayer to his God and the traps in the chests split apart and dismantled. Inside where hundreds of coins and gems. A final offering for the wizard before he died perhaps. They eagerly put them into Khael’s bag of holding and then studied the Sarcophagus.

The huge outer shelf had the glyphs spelling ACERERACK on the lid in platinum. The far end of the sarcophagus had been shattered and fallen in upon itself. Inside the granite coffin laid bits of wooden inner shelves, a few bones, destroyed jewelry, torn bits of robes and windings, dust and what Delvina speculated was a broken staff of the magi. A shattered skull rolled out as Shump was poking around the contents of the sarcophagus.

The skull fell to the floor at Shumps feet.

They went to the bronze urn next. The gold-filigreed containers were very large, and a thin stream of smoke issued from a tiny vent in its brass stopper, which was sealed shut with gold fill. Shump, a man of great strength, effortlessly ripped the brass stopper from the gold fill seal. The mists swirled around as they grew in intensity. The mist formed the shape of a man, a human in torso up and a lower body of thick reddish smoke that nearly choked those who were to close to the man.

“I thank you for freeing me from the urn,” said the efreet, “ I must leave, be on my way, but before I depart, I offer you three services in thanks for releasing me.”

“Where is Acererak,” asked Khael without thinking?

“The iron men of visage grim do more than meets the viewers eye,” quoted the efreet, “ you’ve left and left and found my tomb and now your soul will die.”

“Way to be efficient Khael,” chastised Shump, “perhaps next time you would wish for us to start at the beginning.”

“Take us to Acererak,” said Khael as he shot Shump a dirty look.

“Then help us defeat him,” added Delvina.

* * *
​

A magical void of pure energy had just been ripped through the fabric of reality and Acererak had just been exploring a combination of Alteration and Necromancy to join together two forces of magic into one when he sensed the release of the efreet on the prime material plane. They were close, closer than others had been for a long time. He could almost taste their souls. Almost but not yet.