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The TOMB Of HORRORS Updated 08/17/05
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<blockquote data-quote="DM-Rocco" data-source="post: 2375802" data-attributes="member: 14451"><p><strong>Session 26 Module the Tomb of Horrors</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Possibly,” was her short reply?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Well you join us,” asked Khael, “will you come to us?”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">It was then that the hall filled with gas. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“If you find the false you find the true,” mocked Khael, tired of this dreary tomb.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“…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.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Ya think,” came the sarcastic reply from Shump.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">They then made their way to the Ebony Dais.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“…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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“I am master of all that I see,” declared Delvina as she sat upon the throne.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Get off the throne fool,” shouted Shump who was in no mood for tomfoolery. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">She was completely blind again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“If you say it I will kill you myself,” threatened Khael.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The skull fell to the floor at Shumps feet.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Where is Acererak,” asked Khael without thinking?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“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.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Way to be efficient Khael,” chastised Shump, “perhaps next time you would wish for us to start at the beginning.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Take us to Acererak,” said Khael as he shot Shump a dirty look.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Then help us defeat him,” added Delvina.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 10px">* * *</p></span></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 10px"></p><p>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.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DM-Rocco, post: 2375802, member: 14451"] [b]Session 26 Module the Tomb of Horrors[/b] [size=2]“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. [center]* * * [/center] 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. [/size] [/QUOTE]
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The TOMB Of HORRORS Updated 08/17/05
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