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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 3991048" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #17 – “Into the Moor-Tomb”[sup]1,[/sup] [sup]2[/sup]The <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Charter+of+Schiereiland" target="_blank">Signers of the Charter of Schiereiland</a> stood before a shallow pond of brackish water that was lined with tall flat ridges of stone entwined with sickly gray vines with yellowing fronds.  At the center of the water stood a black obelisk of six sides that came to a point.  Each face of it was etched in deep runes that were similar to the style they had seen on the mask signposts that led them here.[sup]3[/sup]  It was over twenty feet tall.“Is this like some kind of holy place for the locals?” Timotheus asked.“There are no locals,” Bleys replied in his baritone.  He was looking intently at the obelisk.“The mummy cult?” Timotheus asked, but no one answered.“Well, let’s take a closer look,” Victoria began to march out across the shallow water, and Bleys and Laarus followed.  Timotheus had Falco and Dunlevey come with him to scout out the rows of stone around the pond.“In context like this, it is easier to read the runes,” Laarus said, and he began to translate them aloud.  They were carved inches deep into the stone, and Victoria examined them closely, puzzled by their design.The priest of Ra, read the southern face:Those crossing deeps to gain the ground. May fall as biting fear is found.The southwestern face read: One’s days can ne’er be forged anew, But magic may give great their due.They heard Timotheus call out a warning.  Dunlevey had spotted something white move between some stones.  Falco and Timotheus moved to join him, Tim noticing some kind of form wrapped in strips of dirty white.  He moved in that direction, as Falco swung out to get a possible shot with his bow.  Distracted, they did not notice another of the creatures crouched behind a stone near Dunlevey.   The sell-sword cried out as he felt something grab him from behind.  It was a man.  Or was it?  Squat and muscular it was covered in strips of loose hanging white bandages made gray by dirt and bits of leaves and sticks stuck on it.  It moaned in an inhuman voice, rheumy deep-set eyes looking out from the folds.  It had powerful arms that it locked around Dunlevey, and the hireling could feel the bandages adhere to him tightly; he was stuck like a fly in molasses.[sup]4[/sup]The first creature they had spotted popped out from behind a stone near Falco, having crept back around.  The scout let an arrow loose, but blundered in his alarm, and the missile went wide.  He reeled as the strange mummy slammed him in the face with heavy black fist.  The thing’s hands were not covered in the dirty bandages.“Get up here! It’s mummies!  They’ve got Dunlevey!” Timotheus cried, dropping his saber to draw a dagger.“Sagitta aquom” Markos cast his magic missile spell sending two bolts of watery blue light slamming into the creature.[sup]5[/sup]As Victoria of Anhur took up her spear and charged around the ring of rocks to get in sight of scrum, Telémahkos crept around, staying out of view and loading his crossbow, and Tymon stayed close mimicking his master.  Bleys the Aubergine withdrew to Markos’ position, Crusta cringing behind the tanned mage in her gray smock. The watch-mage took a shot at the creature harassing Falco.  He missed.  Timotheus Smith wrapped a beefy arm about the grappling mummy’s neck, and tried to pull out one of the creature’s legs with his own, to send it to the ground.  He stabbed hard with the dagger, but felt the awkward jerk as the point scraped through the loose bandages drawing yellow pus from beneath.  The dagger was now stuck to the creature, and Tim could not pull it free.  It was then that he realized two things.  The first was that the ‘mummy’ was not wrapped in bandages at all, the loose dirty flaps were some kind of disgusting hide that covered the thing, and second being that he too was now stuck to it, adhered in place by the hide’s properties.“May Ra’s holy light clear the darkness from this place!” Laarus of Ra chanted, drawing his flail as he did so.  A golden beam of light flashed out of the sun and the mummy-creature attacking Falco moaned, as its shoulder began to smoke and the flappy hide began to roll back and blacken, revealing pink raw flesh beneath. “Give us the shinies!” the creature hissed as it throttled Dunlevey, the bushy-haired hireling’s face darkening with each futile attempt to free himself.”Get the Hells off of him!” Timotheus yelled, but he was stuck as well and his attempts to give Dunlevey a chance to lever himself free failed.“Falco! Get out of there!” Bleys called to the scout, seeing the raven-haired man’s bloody face.  He had been struck again, and again, each of his arrows doing no harm as they missed completely, or merely hung ineffectively, adhering to the false mummy.Brimming with <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Changes+to+Core+Spells#bullsstrength" target="_blank">bull’s strength</a> granted by Anhur, Victoria dropped her spear and grabbed one of the grappling creature’s arms to help free Tim and Dunlevey.  In a moment, she was stuck and struggling as well, the four of them fell over into a squirming pile of desperate bodies, twisting and choking, their armor clanging against each other.Another call to Ra to send the holy light of his glory down to strike the other ‘mummy’ failed, as the creature managed to sidestep when it noticed Laarus pointing at it.  The ground sizzled for a moment and then the beam dissipated.“Markos, you fool!  Enlarge Dunlevey already!” Bleys called to Markos.  The diminutive mage was making his way around to the melee from the other side of the pond, Crusta creeping along behind him.  The watch-mage sent another arrow at the one following Falco, but it had little effect, hanging inertly amid its flaps of skin with the other arrows.Falco withdrew as Telémahkos hurried back to his pack to get <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Magical+Item+-+The+Steel+Whip" target="_blank">the Steel Whip</a>, dropping Dunlevey’s longsword as he did so.[sup]6[/sup]  Instead of continuing to follow, the ‘mummy’ ducked around the tall stones and slammed a fist down into Dunlevey’s face.  The hireling was at the top of the sticky grappling pile still trying desperately to break free. “Someone help us!” he cried.  Deep in the pile, the other creature managed to twist it body around making use of its loose skin, and pressed a forearm down on Timotheus’ neck.  Tim coughed out a stream of raspy profanity, as he clawed ineffectively to get the arm off of him.Laarus of Ra moved in, flail swinging over his head to drive the free mummy-thing away from the scrum, flicking away the punches of the creature with the weapon’s head.“What are you doing? Get in there!” Bleys admonished Telémahkos finding the blond Briareus crouched behind a rock again, rapier tucked into his belt.   The watch-mage hurried by and took up Victoria’s longspear.  Markos finally came around the stones and could not suppress a laugh when he saw the scrambling scrum, but seeing that Laarus was now grappled and stuck to the other creature, he cried out.  “Don’t be stubborn, cousin!  Say the word!””Do it now!” Laarus replied, and a few moments later the priest of Ra began to grow so rapidly there was a sickening rip as the false mummy fell loose, leaving narrow strips of its sticky bandage-like hide on Laarus’ armor.“One… Two…Three!” Victoria, Dunlevey and Timotheus were trying to concert their efforts to free themselves.  Timotheus had managed to reach up and squeeze the thing’s neck until it stopped moving, but they were still stuck.  Now having scuttled over closer to a rock, they were trying to gain leverage with their feet.  They were covered in muck, blood and broken reeds, flailing in about eight inches of scummy water.“Can’t you use magic to free us?” Timotheus asked Bleys, but Bleys did not answer.  Instead he called for Tymon to join the fight with the other creature as he ran forward and thrust at it with Victoria’s spear.  Telémahkos had finally gathered the courage to tumble out from behind the stone and try to flank the creature with Laarus.  Falco had leapt up onto a stone and was loosing an arrow whenever he had a clear shot, which was not often.“Does someone have a torch or something?  Maybe we can burn this thing off,” Timotheus called out, obviously frustrated with their inability to free themselves from the false mummy glue.The remaining ‘mummy’ ran towards the pond, and Laarus took the opportunity to slam his enlarged flail into it back as it fled.  The head of the great weapon stuck to the creature even as it crunched flesh and bone beneath.  With a violent jerk, the monster hurried away, and the flail tore free.“Keep shooting it!” Bleys commanded Falco and Tymon, though their bolts and arrows seemed to be doing little.  He planted Victoria’s spear head first into the muck and drew his bow off his back, and let loose another arrow that went wide as the thing weaved to avoid Laarus.  The priest’s great height and girth had given it momentary cover.  Telémahkos ran in from the other side, flicking a dagger at it that splashed into the water and disappeared.Victoria of Anhur roared with the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Militant+of+Anhur+Characters#righteousfury" target="_blank">righteous fury</a> of her god and after a few hard frustrating jerks managed to free herself of the jumble of bodies and hurried out to the pond to join the melee, taking up her spear as she passed it.  Timotheus and Dunlevey continued to rock back and forth in place trying to get free.  Tim was so desperate he called over Crusta to aid them, as Markos had joined the others to take care of the final grappling adherer.“You’re not my boyfriend anymore!” Crusta complained, putting her face real close to Tim’s to leer at him.“Please help?” Timotheus tried more kindly.The half-orc witch pushed them closer to a rock and Dunlevey grabbed it while she grabbed Tim’s arm, bracing a foot against the stone and pulled.As Victoria skirted the pond to find the clear opening through the others surrounding the ‘mummy,’ moving as it moved, peppering it with arrows.  Telémahkos cursed as he dove in to stab it with his rapier, but had to draw back with the steel whip still stuck to the creature.  Taking its only opening the creature tried to run again, but Victoria had moved into place to block its exit.  Markos cursed at Laarus for getting in the way of his clear shots.  “You’re all hopeless!” Markos complained as the ‘mummy’ could not seem to be defeated.Out of arrows, Falco drew his scimitar and joined the circle.“Don’t let it get away with our weapons!” Telémahkos warned.Another devastating blow from Laarus and once again his flail was stuck to the thing.  As it stumbled back from the blow, the priest lost his grip and the weapon shrunk back to normal size, still hanging from the thing.  Bleys cursed a moment later when his saber was also hanging from it, having abandoned his bow again.  Finally freed, Dunlevey came rushing over, great sword in his hands, the false mummy made one last attempt to flee, and ducking Laarus’ desperate swing, it popped up only to have Victoria’s spear slip under its chin and shove it back. There was a cascade of blood as the militant of Anhur torn her weapon free. As it collapsed dead, the red wash of its blood loosened the weapons stuck to it, and they could be retrieved.  Still filled with rage, Victoria continued to smash and pierce the corpse with her spear, until she finally sank to her knees and let out a long low breath of relief.“You’re pathetic,” Markos murmured to Timotheus when he walked over to see the tall warrior still trying to free himself with Crusta’s help.“Boyfriend! Don’t be jealous!” Crusta cried, dropping Tim’s arm, to wrap her own around Markos’ neck lovingly.“It’s okay, Crusta,” Markos replied, gently pulling her arms away.  “We’re all friends here.  We have to help each other.”Timotheus was quickly freed using the blood of the other corpse, and then Markos slit the thing’s throat to make sure it was dead.“And how many times did Markos hit that thing?” Timotheus asked Bleys, the mage’s comments had stung.“None,” Bleys replied in flat tone, and Tim threw Markos a glare.“Is this really what mummies are like?” Dunlevey asked, leaning on a stone.“I don’t think these were real mummies, or even undead,” Laarus of Ra said.  “Who know what kind of accursed men these once were, but from their guise I assume they are what were meant by the ‘cult of mummies’ Brother Cineas mentioned.”[sup]7[/sup]Victoria called on her god to close the wounds of Telémahkos and Dunlevey, while Laarus lent some of Ra’s graces to Falco.Finally able to get back to examining the obelisk, Laarus finished translating the runes.The southwestern face read: The immortal clock will never chime, for he who fears a simple climb.“What is this crap?” Timotheus swore.The north face read: The gold you give repays in kind.  Give well when asked and safety find.The northeast face read the same as the southwestern one.  The northwestern face read: Desire for gold may secrets show, But giving stills the fatal blow.“Hmmm, the climb one is mentioned twice?” Victoria mused after resting a few minutes to recover her strength.[sup]8[/sup]  She examined the deeply carved runes once again, and then without further words began to climb the obelisk, using the runes as foot and handholds.  At the top of the obelisk, the pointed top held two crystal lenses.  One faced southeast and was much smaller, and the other faced northwest and was much bigger.  They were both convex and clouded, and she could see nothing inside by putting her face to the bigger end.  She called down, describing what she saw, and Bleys suggested she put her eye to the small lens and look in that way.Scrambling over to the other side, she did as he suggested and the distant landscape was astonishingly magnified, revealing the moors as a gorgeous vista.…to be continued…----------------------------------------------------------------------Notes:(1) This session was played on September 30, 2007.(2) The Moor-Tomb Map is from Dungeon #13.(3) See Session #16. “Follow the Masks” was written on <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Map+-+Moor-Tomb+Map" target="_blank">the map</a> provided by <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Malcolm+the+Bronze" target="_blank">Malcolm the Bronze</a>.(4) Once again I am proud to use a monster from the 1E Fiend Folio, the best monster book ever!  These are adherers, and the fact that they were used in the original adventure did a lot to convince me to incorporate it.(5) Markos’ player (Martin Olarin on these boards) was unable to make it to this session, so all his actions and words are those of the DM as  he was able to resist coming down with <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Disease+-+The+Bog+Flu" target="_blank">bog flu</a>.(6) Worried about ghouls and needing a slashing weapon, Telémahkos borrow Dunlevey’s long sword in Session #16.(7) See Session #12(8) <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Militant+of+Anhur+Characters" target="_blank">Militants of Anhur</a> are fatigued after using their righteous fury ability until they have rested a number of minutes equal to the number of rounds they were raging.</blockquote>

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