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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 7357605" data-attributes="member: 9546">21 Sarenith, 4718 - 22 Sarenith, 4718 - Tomb RaidersOnce an elegant domed shrine, the place of reverence had been foully and thoroughly defiled: statues lay broken on the floor, and the mosaic symbol of Aroden under the great dome was smeared with all manner of filth. The walls which bore once-beautiful frescoes of deeds of the god, were soiled with ordure. Pools of red-tinged water stood to the north and south, while a scorched curtain that once sheltered the altar to the west hung in tatters.“This was well done,” Kelvin looked about the shrine, which lay opposite the crematorium, in admiration. “Our Lord would be proud.”Abruptly, he leaned forward, peering into one of the spoiled fountains. “What’s this now?”He reached one hand into the red water, and then hissed in pleasure, closing his eyes. When he pulled his hand out again, he held a gleaming, mithral dagger with bits of gore still clinging to the blade.“A dagger befouled,” he said, holding it aloft triumphantly. “It seems we have found another key to activate the teleporter. The waters of the pool are enchanted. Touching them would have killed me...where I still mortal.”He grinned at Katarina.“As it turns out, they have instead revitalized and rejuvenated me. I think I like this place.”The companions left the crematorium and set about exploring some of the smaller sepulchers of the necropolis. The six structures were small mausoleums, each identical save for their orientation; the doorway to each faced the center of the necropolis. Rough, black iron gates barred the arched entryways, but the locks proved no challenge for Kat. Inside the structures, each internal wall had nine stacked interment vaults, a total of twenty-seven in all. The dates of death on those vaults fell between 3754 and 4050. None bore full names, only first initials such as P. Adella, A.G. Adella. The limestone sarcophagus at the center of each crypt bore an epitaph in its surface, but the effects of time had rendered those illegible. Within each was a mummified body wrapped in ancient linens, the stench of putrefaction strangely powerful. It was only after they had explored several of these that Grumblejack noted Kat was acting strangely. “Katarina-friend,” he asked. “Are you well?”Kat looked at him quizzically, cocking her head to one side.“Do I know you?” she asked.“It me, Grumble,” the ogre said. “You know me long time.”“Where...where are we?” Kat asked, looking around in perplexity.Kelvin stepped up to his sister and looked into her eyes.“Amnesia,” he said. “The tombs must have some sort of warding that affects the...weaker willed.”He laid a hand upon Kat’s brow and spoke a few mystical words. A moment later Kat’s eyes cleared.“What...what happened?”“You’re staying outside for now,” Kelvin said. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about joining your siblings in eternal life.”Kat had not._____________________________________________________________________As the companions came to the last of the sepulchers, they realized that, unlike the others, it’s door faced away from the center of the necropolis. Within, the epitaph upon the central sarcophagus was quite legible. “Marcus Iulius Adella, 3711–3758, Great Patriarch of Our Clan, Died Valiantly at the Battle of Istavala Vale Saving Prince Abelard from the Undead Hordes of the Whispering Tyrant, Earning the King's Gratitude. Herein Lies Our Claim to Nobility. May Great  Woe Befall Any Who Would Violate His Most Sacred Rest.”“Hmm,” Kelvin mused. “That’s not correct.”“What’s not?” Tardaesha asked.“That part about Marcus Iulius Adella being the ‘Great Patriarch’ of the Adella clan. That honor was bestowed upon Marcus Junius Adella, if I recall my Andoran history correctly.”“Open it,” Tardaesha instructed Roger.The half-orc slid the heavy lid aside, revealing not a mummified corpse, but a flight of stairs leading down into the earth.“It appears as if we’ve found our way in,” Kelvin smiled.The stairs led down to a long, winding tunnel that eventually gave onto a large chamber. The walls of the room were brick. The ceiling was twenty-five feet above, and from its center hung a ghastly chandelier, made entirely of skulls and bones. A pair of tapestries flanked a corridor that exited to the east, so ancient that the fabric retained only hints of the original color and the scenes they depicted were  insubstantial.  Written on the stone above the archway seemed to be some sort of phrase, although the letters seemed to be all strung together. It read, “SOONENOUGHYETOOSHALLSLEEP.”The room's lone sarcophagus was made of plain limestone and the fitted lid was without mortar and somewhat askew, as though replaced in haste. Carved in its surface was: “Marcus Junius Adella, 3711–3758, Hero of Taldor, Patriarch.” Along the lid's edge were the words, “While my bones rest peacefully here, the guardians need not protect me.” Within was an empty burial shroud—the body was missing.“The true patriarch,” Kelvin observed. “Now where could he be?”The catacombs beyond the tomb were composed primarily of narrow, low-ceilinged corridors riddled with burial niches. Some hosted one or two full skeletons in tattered rags, while others were packed with bones stacked in an artful, if grisly, manner—one niche held nothing but thigh bones, another jawbones, another an array of vertebrae. Some of the walls featured decorative brickwork, others were adorned with frescoes, and still others had bones and skulls mortared into place as though they were the most convenient and mundane building materials. The air was stale, and all areas were lit as though by flickering torchlight, though no such illumination could be found. Katarina lagged behind her companions as they made their way through the labyrinth, carefully searching every nook and cranny.“Wait!” she called out to the others, as she paused at an unremarkable section of wall.When the group turned back, she had already depressed a hidden button and the wall slid aside, revealing a short flight of stairs the led to another chamber below. That room appeared to be a beautifully decorated bathhouse, complete with a large pool of crystal-clear water that dominated its center. A pair of stone statues depicting reclining medusas decorated niches to the east and the west, while a large caption along the southern wall read, in the common tongue, “Have you ever beheld a smiling face and not named it beautiful?” As the companions paused to take in the strange surroundings, the twang of a bowstring came from further back in the shadows of the chamber. Tardaesha grunted when three arrows struck her in the chest. One of the shafts then flared with sickening green light, and a sizable chunk of her flesh simply disintegrated away. She stared down in shocked disbelief. From out of the darkness, two creatures emerged. One was a truly monstrous cobra, venom dripping from its enormous fangs. Behind it was a living, breathing medusa, a beautifully carved onyx bow in her hands. The snake coiled and struck at Roger, seizing him and then wrapping its body around him with blinding speed. Kelvin pushed his way forward into the room and hurled a spell at the serpent, banishing it to an extra-dimensional maze where he hoped its animal brain would keep it imprisoned for several minutes. He then tossed a fireball at the medusa. She slithered quickly to one side, avoiding the brunt of the blast. Grumblejack charged forward, hoping to reach her while she was still off-balance. She spun towards him, and he struck her a glancing blow, but then she fired her bow in a blur of motion, filling the ogre full of arrows. He staggered backwards, his legs rubbery. Kat abruptly leaped from the shadows and slid her dagger between the medusa’s ribs. The creature spun on Katarina faster than she could have imagined and fired an arrow into the rogue point-blank. Kat reeled, and then the arrow dissolved into a choking mist that flowed into her mouth. Her breath left her and she grabbed for her throat, suffocating. Tardaesha was the next to close in, but before she’d even made half the distance, the medusa impaled her with another arrow, which then exploded into a blast of pure Hellfire. “That’s just about enough of that,” Hillary said, pushing past Kelvin.The witch forked her fingers towards the medusa, whose eyelids immediately drooped as she fell into a deep slumber. “She’s all yours, big fella,” Hillary gestured to Grumblejack.With a snarl of rage, Grumblejack brought his sword down with both hands and severed the medusa’s head.___________________________________________________________________The Knot searched the chamber, certain that such a powerful warden certainly guarded the chalice. The artifact was nowhere to be found. Kat, after she’d recovered from her wounds, did manage to discover another hidden door. Behind it was a small bedchamber that contained a large, circular bed and several fine silk dresses. There was a shrine to Asmodeus in one corner with a single piece of parchment laid upon it. Kelvin picked it up and studied it for several long moments.“Well now,” he grinned slowly. “This isn’t what we came for, but it is priceless nonetheless.”“What is it?” Tardaesha asked.“On nothing much,” Kelvin grinned more widely. “Only proof that the monarchy of Taldor is all based upon a lie! It appears that King Stavion I was actually the bastard child of Lord Micheaux and Lucretia Adella! Hah! This is glorious!”Dakota just shrugged. “How does that help us?”“That remains to be seen, dear sister,” Kelvin said. “This is powerful information. When our work here in Talingarde is done, perhaps we should turn our attention to the mainland.”____________________________________________________________________The Knot returned to the catacombs to continue their search. They found a looted treasure chamber in which still a few minor trinkets remained, and then stumbled upon another burial chamber. Arranged in various raised niches in the ornately-bricked walls were several dozen mummified corpses, attired in clothing of bygone eras, standing in lifelike poses as though engaged in conversation. Four oval niches in the north wall were obvious places of honor, as each held but a single mummy bearing valuable-looking treasures. The room itself was lit brilliantly by several spheres of bright light that floated near the center of the thirty-foot-high ceiling above.As the companions stepped into the room, the orbs began to pulse and shimmer, flaring with brilliant light. Then, each of them burst apart to reveal strange creatures... humanoid entities with emaciated bodies, four-taloned hands, and almost rudimentary faces consisting of two eyes and a single gaping mouth, all three of which seemed to spew light from within. The shining children swiftly moved to attack, shedding blinding light. Tardaesha, who was in the fore of the group, took the brunt of the assault. Searing beams of fire flared out, striking her in a dozen places. In an instant, her body was burned to ash, leaving only a smoky outline drifting in the air. Drax rushed forward, a large bag held open in his hands. The mist flowed into the bag and Drax drew it shut, then turned and ran from the room. The rest of the companions, though stunned by what had just occurred, began filing into the room to confront the shining children. Before even half of them were inside, however, one of the children created a wall of kinetic force across the doorway, sealing Hillary and Kelvin outside. Grumblejack became the next target of the children’s fiery assault, only avoiding Tardaesha’s fate by virtue of the innate fire resistance of his infernal nature. Then he and Katarina were among the children, slashing and hacking indiscriminately. A moment later, the force wall blew apart as Hillary disintegrated it. Kelvin stepped through behind her and hurled two crackling balls of lightning among the shining children. They exploded spectacularly, leaving half of the children smoking cinders on the floor. Roger, Grumblejack and Kat quickly dealt with the rest._________________________________________________________________The remaining companions continued on. They knew that Drax had returned to the surface, where Jeratheon carried one of Tardaesha’s spare coffins. It would take some time for her body to reform, so they carried on with their exploration. Katarina came across another hidden door, which led to a bare room, empty save for a mummified corpse lying in the center of it. Kelvin bent low to study it, then turned to Roger. “Help me with this, would you? I think I might know who this is.”Roger lifted the corpse easily and, following Kelvin’s instructions, carried it back to the tomb and empty sarcophagus of Marcus Junius. As Roger placed the body back inside the sarcophagus, a ghostly form of the man appeared beside it.“Thank you,” he smiled. “I have been away for far too long. You do not seem like tomb raiders. How might I repay you?”“We are looking for keys,” Kelvin said. “Keys that will lead us to an item that does not rightfully belong in this place. We need the voice of Thrasillus, and a ‘sister’s keepsake.’”The ghost of Marcus Junius contemplated for a moment, then nodded.“You will find what remains of Thrasillus in the charnel house. You will know it when you find it. The keepsake you speak of belongs to Lucretia Adella. She still walks this place, though not happily. Be careful when you deal with her. She is lost...”</blockquote>

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