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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 9726225" data-attributes="member: 4036"><h3>9/18/21</h3>Veldra feels tougher and full of energy after her struggle.  Rho explores around and finds some writing in elvish.  Unsatisfied, he tosses the armory about and finds a clue leading him and Grath to a bookcase in an adjacent room.  Grath is dissatisfied with how apparent the clue is.  Gribitz asks Veldra if the sarcophagus is hissing, she tosses him the staff (which burns him and he drops it), and opens the sarcophagus revealing a golden bedecked corpse.  Gribitz hesitates a moment, then shakes it off remembering how broke he is.  He strips the body of its adornments roughly and heads back with Veldra to the others.The others have found a cache of jewels and riches Grath believes are offerings.  Gribitz starts snapping them up after checking to see if they are cursed but he and Grath disagree about what should be done about them.  Grath finds that the unopened sarcophagi still have riches within whereas the pile Rho found probably came from the emptied out creches.  In the end Gribitz bags enough gems and jewelry to be worth five hundred gold pieces.Veldra shows Grath the staff but he has no idea of its significance or enchantment.  As Rho continues bumbling about in the dark Grath realizes he can share his god’s gift with him and the darkness flees from the dragonborn’s sight.At the bottom of the stairs are three cultists investigating a runed door, with them is a fully snake-like yuan-ti.  Gribitz taunts them and sends the crumbling Ratty against them which distracts them long enough for Rho to come charging into their midst.  Grath summons up multiple spectral martyrs of Ilmater to pummel the cultists of Zehir into submission.After they fall, the runes on the door flare up in reaction to the proximity to Veldra’s staff.  A feeling of dread washes over her but swiftly dissipates.  Grath pushes forward to open the door and has to push through a wave of nausea to get the gate open, but he perseveres.  Beyond is an ornate burial chamber filled with still lit candles despite hundreds of years since it looks like anyone has been in the chamber.  Grath enhances his vision and sees a powerful source of magic coming from the elevated sarcophagus bound by heavy chains.  The school of magic it is radiating is Conjuration.Veldra approaches the chained sarcophagus to make out the script engraved on it.  The closer she comes, the more the staff strapped to her pack shakes and glows.  The engravings read, “Thy who cometh here, remain no longer.  Run far away for evil resides within.”  Whispers begin calling to Veldra, commanding her to open the sarcophagus.  She resists and the party discusses and tries to flee but the doors slam shut and the whispers continue until Veldra’s will crumbles and she starts walking slowly towards the dais, raising the staff.  Dark twilight pours from Grath and clears the whispers from Veldra’s mind.  Having had enough of this, Rho shatters the sarcophagus and the party moves to destroy whatever evil is trying to escape.The room fills with black smoke that forms into a shadowy robed figure.  The shadow horror begins to thank Rho for freeing it when it is distracted by Gribitz pelting it with little balls of fire.  It bites into Rho and sends tendrils of terror at Gribitz’s nature spirits.  Rho roars back and explodes into fire, tearing into the shadowy monster even as Veldra leaps up the stairs and jumps past, slashing and splitting into two to harry the dark spirit from all sides.As it is rapidly failing it calls for aid and dark shadows pour forth from the other crypts in the chamber and the horror itself snaps up Veldra and begins sapping the strength from her body, causing black smoke to pour from her into him.  Veldra struggles free as luminous wings burst forth from her and she and her echo fight back with brilliant slashes of their mirrored blades.Rho falls back to protect Gribitz from the swarming shadows but as he breaks ranks the shadow horror tears open the scales on his back and saps the strength from him as well.  Gribitz and his nature guardians are drained of strength by the shadows but the ones that move for Grath and Rho burn up under the assault of Grath’s spirit guardians.  Gribitz and his nature spirits stay focused on the unleashed horror, scrambling around the room to harry it, but even as it falls apart, one of the other shadows swells in size and continues to taunt the party.  Veldra and Rho burst into action, charging around the room and slashing apart the swarming shadows.Once the last of the shadows is dispatched, Grath unleashes a massive beam of radiant light that blows apart the shadow horror, the glowing staff on Veldra’s back, and the door all at once.  Oddly, as everyone’s vision clears, Grath’s hand is marked with a runic symbol of some kind.</blockquote>

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