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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BladeSmith" data-source="post: 3344183" data-attributes="member: 45844">Empty Tombs Do Not Remain So For Long.Empty Tombs Do Not Remain So For Long.A few hours of brisk walking brought the well rested companions to the entrance of the tomb known as the Whispering Cairn.  Now that they stood on its threshold, they understood the name.  A sibilant whispering hissed out through the entrance.  The tomb entrance was little more than an archway into a dirt mound, but once inside, it appeared to be much more.  The hallway was enormous, leading into the darkness, with deep alcoves spreading out to the sides.Sethrie was unnerved by the whispering wind, swearing she could hear words like “hopeless”, “sacrilege”, and “enemies” in the echoes.  The others heard no words, but were unsettled just the same.  The first alcove explored yielded a bundle of cloth about the size of a Halfling.  The younger members of the party remembered a girl who went missing a few years ago while spending the night in this tomb.  The savaged bedroll spoke of a brief struggle, and the blood spoke of its ending.  Janie noticed that there were a great many wolf tracks in the dust, and guessed that the girl had become dinner for a nearby wolf pack.Another alcove contained a strange object shaped like an overly large nobles mirror, only the mirror was missing and the frame was broken.  Sethrie noticed writing at the bottom of the mirror and after a quick study determined that it said “Icosiol” in an ancient dialect of the air language, Auran.  She surmised that the mirror was once a teleportation ring leading to another cairn, presumably Icosiol’s.  The ring was long since broken and meant nothing to them now, so the pressed onward.  They approached a room that branched out in two other hallways to the left and right of their own.  Tira was in the lead, and was therefore the first to notice the growling coming from the rightmost passageway.  She barely had time to yelp an alarm before they were upon her.  Three wolves ran out of the hallway, intent upon eating the interlopers who entered their domain.  Two of the mangy creatures looked like they hadn’t eaten in days.  The third wolf was larger than the others, and didn’t look hungry at all.  It had a scar bisecting its face into two very angry parts.The wolves were upon their pray before anybody had a chance to act.  Biting and tearing they brought Tira to the ground and attacked her ferociously.  Amethyst, Gorin, and Crunch rushed up to help the prone rogue, while the magic users brought unseen powers to bear on the wolves.  The fighting drove Crunch into a rage, giving him the strength to split one of the wolves nearly in two.  The other wolves finally fell to a flurry of blows from Amethyst, and the fell energies of a blast from Damon.  It was a quick battle, but one that left Tira wondering if she might want to invest her money into some new armor.  Searching down the tunnel the wolves came from yielded their nest, which was rank with the smell decaying flesh and wet fur.  Tira made quick work of the search, holding her breath for as much of it as possible.  Under a pile of bones that was unmistakably human, she found a backpack containing a few trinkets, and two items of curiosity.  The first was the index finger of a marble statue, and the second was a beautifully carved indigo lantern.  Damon tested the items for magic, and found that the lantern was magical.  A brief discussion ensued as to what to do with the lantern.  It was decided to light it, despite Sethrie’s warnings against operating an unknown magical item.  In the end, they produced nothing more than a beautifully flickering blue light.  This stark contrast to the green light in the chamber caused them to wonder the source of the green glow.  Looking for the source, they noticed that the north wall of the chamber wasn’t a wall at all, but an archway completely covered with thick spider webs, and that the flickering green glow was coming from beyond them.As this search was ensuing, Gorin explored the other alcove.  From the center of the dais at the end of the other alcove, he could see a beautiful fresco in an almost 360 degree panorama.  The walls were painted as to provide the illuson of standing in a great chamber with 7 hallways branching out from it.  At the end of these hallways was a thick chain hanging form unknown heights, and a lantern.  There was a different colored lantern in each hallway, producing a rainbow of light; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Gorin had no idea what it could mean, but it was beautifully done.  The others had meanwhile gathered in front of the doorway full of spider webs.  Tira was looking at them with no small amount of fear.  Gorin came forward and gave Tira a gentle shove, saying “In you go lass.”  Tira shrieked spun out of his grasp with a nimble twist and glared at the dwarf, blade at the ready.  “Don’t even think about it Gorin.” She spat. “I hate spiders.”  “Wuss” snickered Crunch as he swept aside the webs, causing a dozen spiders to skitter away into the flickering darkness.The party, including a very nervous rogue, proceeded through the archway and down the stairs into a vast domed chamber.  Gorin stared at the chamber, and was immediately reminded of the fresco in the alcove he had just explored.  This chamber had seven hallways branching from it, each with chains hanging down.  There were lanterns hanging from most of the chains.  The green lantern was lit, which was the source of the flickering green glow.  The orange, yellow, blue, and violet lanterns where also hanging from their chains, but unlit.  The red and indigo lanterns were not present.In the center of the chamber was a sarcophagus bearing a marble statue of a humanoid figure with elongated features.  This statue was missing a finger.  Gorin also noticed that the sarcophagus was shaped like an arrow, pointing toward the hallway containing the orange lantern.  Janie noticed that the statue of the funny shaped man was missing a finger, and wanted to attach the one they found.  Tira held her up, to do a quick trap check.  She found one, and successfully disabled it, then motioned for Janie to continue.  When the finger was in place, they noticed that it pointed toward the hallway with the blue lantern.Gorin decided it would be a good idea to light all the lanterns, but was too short, so Damon did the deed, also placing the indigo lantern in the appropriate hallway.  With all the lanterns lit, the room glowed with a rainbow of light.  The ceiling of the dome became visible, and it was sprinkled with shiny reflective mirrors, providing the illusion of a star filled sky above them.Tira opened the sarcophagus after having disabled the trap, but found it empty, not just of items, but empty of a corpse as well.  Sethrie studied the writing on the sarcophagus and determined the name of the man depicted, Zosiel.  All of the hallways seemed to dead end at their lanterns.  The party was disappointed at this lack of progression until they happened upon an interesting discovery.  The arrow shaped dais rotated.  As the arrow pointed toward the yellow tunnel, a circular column arose from the ground at the end of the yellow tunnel, and opened to reveal a chamber large enough for a single medium sized humanoid.  Gorin ventured a guess that it was a transport device, and volunteered to enter.  Nobody else was keen on being the first one down the creepy shaft in a tomb, so no resistance was offered to this suggestion.Gorin tested the elevator with a coin first, and satisfied, entered the cylinder which immediately shut and lowered.  The companions waited for several tense moments, before the dwarf popped back up.  “There is a small chamber with a hallway headed away from the transport shaft.  I couldn’t see down it, there was a stone blocking most of the tunnel.”  The party debated exploring, but decided to first see what happened when they pointed the dais at other tunnels first.Pointing the arrow dais at the next hallway, the green caused a minor earthquake and a grinding noise.  “It’s stuck,” suggested Gorin, “turn it away and back again, and see if we can un-jam it.”  The second time they tried it, the floor cover popped up a little, but got stuck again.  After the third attempt to access the green transport cylinder, there was a horrible grinding crunching noise, and the entire contraption and a large section of floor caved in and fell into the depths below.Gorin peered over the edge to see what was below.  “See anything Gorin?” Crunch asked.  “Yes, I see a whole bunch of darkness,” came the reply. “Now hush, I think I hear something.”  Gorin returned to the party and warned then that he heard noise coming from the darkness, the sound of thousands of little crawly things chattering away.  There wasn’t much time to discuss the matter, as two swarms of beetles and a very large spider shaped creature with a single eye as a body came out of the newly created hole.  The beetles were making a lot of noise as they advanced, trailing yellow acid in their wake.  The companions looked at one another wondering what they could do.  “Got any spells that could help sis?” Tira asked quietly.  “None that I have memorized,” Sethrie replied.</blockquote>

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