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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhael" data-source="post: 400391" data-attributes="member: 5269">Player's Perspective (012)And again…Once we were all assembled (and alive) around midday of the next day, Terj and Taklinn having returned about an hour ago and Warra and Reikon given sufficient time to recover fully from their experience, we decided to set off to the crypt again.  We decided that we would stick together, regardless of what interesting things there were around.We decided to check out the door where Ulric had fallen into the pit-trap first.  We found that it would be very difficult for us to get across to the door.  The pit was around four feet wide, with no ledge to speak of on the other side, and with nothing obvious to bridge the gap the decision was made to return if we did not find the Sphere of Haedros anywhere else in the tomb.We returned to the room where we fought the grey undead creature.  This was the first chance we had had to look around the room, so we moved around the walls first to determine dimensions before searching the middle of the room.The room was large, but not as large as the room where Terjon died.  Near the eastern wall was an altar with a large, golden hourglass.  The southern wall (the furthest from the door we had entered from) had a small passage leading to what appeared to be a dead end.  The wall at the end of the corridor had a mosaic depicting Hieroneous in a pose of victory with cowering, shadowy figures who gave the distinct feeling of evil at the edges.  I knelt in front of the mosaic and said a short prayer to my lord and god.  I secretly hoped that that was all that was required for the Sphere of Haedros to be presented from on high by Hieroneous himself – alas it was not to be.After saying my prayer, I stood and walked back to the centre of the room.Chade and Mareth had found a door at the western end of the room, which we decided to investigate next.The door was of heavy stone, and similar to all other doors in this crypt.  On the other side was a passageway, approximately thirty feet in length, that finished at another stone door.  Reikon was called forth to check the door for deadly (or otherwise) traps and after a short while declared the door to be safe.The door swung easily on it’s ancient hinges, revealing a pitch-black room beyond.  Tentatively poking one of the torches into the room revealed nothing in the way of grey undead that kill with a glance so we entered the room and began moving around the walls.  The room did not appear to be of the scale of the others, and there were stone coffins placed at regular intervals around the room, no further than five feet from the walls.“Zombies!”  Chade yelled, very very suddenly.  We all looked first at him, then in the direction he was pointing as he removed his holy symbol from within his armour. A half-dozen shambling figures emerged from the darkness, moving slowly towards us as if drawn by the torchlight.  There was one at the rear of the group that was slightly larger and quicker than the others, it bore a menacing look upon it’s decaying features.  “In the name of St Cuthbert, I command thee to flee or be destroyed!”  He shouted at the undead holding out St Cuthbert’s symbol for all to see.  Before we could react any further than drawing our weapons the undead were upon us.The zombies had us pinned in the corner of the room when they attacked, two had been disintegrated by Chade’s  effort but three more had joined the initial group since.It was a hard-fought battle, but the real surprise came when the larger one attacked Mareth.  After it had closed within striking distance, it opened it’s mouth and a long, purple worm-like tongue with sharp teeth on the end shot out and latched onto the elf’s breastplate.  Mareth shuddered slightly before ceasing to move.  He didn’t fall to the floor, he just stood there, paralyzed.  The rest of the zombies fell to our blades and we were able to concentrate our attacks on this larger, more powerful zombie with the purple tongue, restricted by the geography of the room in that the placement of the coffins prevented more than three of us from attacking it at once.  It was certainly much stronger than the other zombies.  It took some time and quite a few hits before it finally fell to the ground, releasing Mareth from the grip of it’s tongue.  It was another half minute later when the paralysis wore off and Mareth stumbled groggily against one of the stone coffins.“What, was that?!”  He gasped.“I’m not sure,” Chade responded, examining the body of the creature more closely.  “but it’s un-undead now.”  He continued with a chuckle.  Only Terjon laughed.After healing a few wounds, we headed back to the previous room and began examining the golden hourglass on the altar.“What should we do?”  Mareth asked no-one inparticular.“I say we turn the hourglass.”  We were all surprised that Warramayl had spoken up, but the fact that he stated the obvious, but potentially most dangerous course of action mitigated that somewhat.“You want to see if it’s trapped, Reik?”  Chade asked the rogue.“Fine.”  Reikon sighed.  He stepped forward, wary of traps in the floor surrounding the altar as well.  After some minutes examining the construction of the altar and the hourglass he turned and shrugged.  “I can’t see anything, but it’s difficult to determine what will happen if we turn the hourglass.”“Does the document from Enlor’s tomb hold any clues?”  I mused out loud, not even realising I had said anything until Mareth started rummaging around in my pack, looking for the scroll-case.  He pulled out the translation and held it up, beckoning Chade to come and hold the torch.After reading through the entire translation he shook his head.“There’s nothing obvious here that refers to anything around here.”“I’m turning the hourglass.”  Warra said as he stepped towards the altar.  Before any of us could do anything, the monk had picked up the hourglass and turned it over, placing it back on the altar.We stood, waiting for the seemingly inevitable rain of death and destruction to fall upon us.  Meanwhile, the hourglass had sprung into life.  The sand did not fall to the base like a normal hourglass, but swirled as if a raging gale had erupted in the glass confines.  “Guys.”  Terjon said, warily.  “Check this out.”  He pointed down the corridor towards where I had found the mosaic of Hieroneous.  The mosaic was no-longer there.  Instead, a doorway lead to a room that contained a highly embellished and intricately carved stone sarcophagus.“The tomb of Adrestus.”  I breathed as the paladin and I walked down the corridor, the others not far behind us.  Only Warramayl and Taklinn stayed behind with the hourglass.In a steel, three-legged brazier-like object standing atop the sarcophagus lid was a massive sapphire, cut into a ball-shape.“That must be the Sphere of Haedros.”  Terjon said as we stepped into the room.“Hieroneous, forgive us, but we must remove this object from your warrior’s tomb to prevent great evil from overrunning our world.”  I intoned as I lifted the sapphire from the stand.  “Quick, let’s get out of here.”  I said, once I had the gem.“There’s another door on the other side of the room!” Mareth pointed.“No time.”  I replied quickly as I hurried from the room.“Something’s happening out here!”  Taklinn shouted down the corridor.  We all hurried towards the altar and watched as the sand in the hourglass slowed and began to settle.“The door’s closing!”  Chade gestured towards the picture of Hieroneous being lowered into place once again. As near as we could tell, the door closed at the precise instant that the last grain of sand settled to into a neat pile at the base of the hourglass.“It won’t turn!”  Warramayl grunted slightly, once again trying to lift the hourglass from it’s place on the altar.  “I can’t even lift it.”“Great.  Now we can get out of here.”  Mareth spoke up.I was standing near the altar but apart from the others, silently regarding the gem that I could not close my hand around, such was it’s size.“It was too easy.”  I murmured.  Only Terjon was close enough to hear me and he was happily humming some tune he had heard a minstrel play in Taureth last week.  “It was too easy.”  I turned to my companions.  “There must be more to it than that.”“Well the hourglass doesn’t turn anymore, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?” Chade asked.“Let’s just wait for a little while.”  We all looked at Reikon.  “We can’t be the first ones to turn this hourglass, can we?  I’m sure it will be released at some point.”“That could be a decade away.”  Chade argued.“I think not.”  The elf replied, but did not elaborate.With nothing better to do, we decided to wait around for a while and test out Reik’s theory.Time Passes…Every so often, Warramayl would try turning the hourglass and after about fifteen minutes, he was able to lift it and turn it.  Once again the sands within the hourglass began to churn and swirl and the mosaic picture of Hieroneous began to rise, revealing again the tomb.“One… Two… Three… Four…” Terjon started counting, slowly and out loud.  I’d never heard him count over twenty before, I wondered briefly what would happen if he got to one-hundred.“Quickly, let’s get to that door.  Reikon, come with me!”  I jogged down the hallway with the elf, around the sarcophagus and to the second door.  I was vaguely aware of the floor being wet and not noticing that earlier.  The elf gave it a quick trap-check and pushed it open, it revealed a second corridor leading to another door.  We hurried down this corridor to the next door, Reikon repeated the check for traps.I could hear Mareth back in the other room.“It all makes sense now!  Warra, hold that torch up again!”We pushed this next door open to reveal a lit room, with a much simpler stone coffin in it’s centre.  Against the far wall was a chest, brimming over with gold and atop the coffin, in another three-legged metal stand was a completely spherical, blue stone of some description.  The light in the room was coming from the stone!  Also atop the coffin was a magnificent longsword. I whispered a quick prayer to Hieroneous, wary of the time constraints and lifted the stone from it’s stand.  Reikon had headed towards the chest of gold.“No, Reikon!”  I said, sternly.  “These things were buried with Adrestus for a reason, they shall not be disturbed.”The elf shot me a caustic look, but complied and we hurried out of the crypt.As we exited the tomb, Terjon had counted to two hundred.  I then remembered the sapphire I had taken earlier.  I rushed back down the corridor to the first room, made a quick apology to Hieroneous and replaced the gemstone on it’s stand and left the room.  The paladin got forty more counts in before the mosaic began to settle into place again.Once the paladin stopped counting Mareth beckoned me over to the altar.“I figured it out!  Look!”  He pointed to a passage in the translation.“That first room was completely saturated when we went back in.  That room must flood when the hourglass runs out!”“I did notice that it was damp in there.” I replied.  “I knew it was too easy the first time.”  I continued.  “That first room is a test, and we passed.”“Right.  Now can we get out of here?”  Mareth asked.“Yes.”  I replied.  Relieved at the thought of being able to return to the forest above.We headed out of the crypt as I stowed the Sphere of Haedros in my pack.  I could hear Reikon and Chade at the back of the group talking in low tones about gold and swords.  Chade appeared to be particularly keen on the gold. When we returned to the centaur village we headed for our camping ground.“Now we can head back to Taureth.”  I stated.  “You guys pack up your gear, I’m going to find Longstride and thank him for his hospitality.”“Not quite, Rhael.”  Reikon said suddenly.“What do you mean, Reikon?”“I’m going back in for the sword.”  He replied.“And the gold.” Chade added.“No you’re not.”“Yes we are.”“Reikon, I will say this here and now and I beg you to listen:  If you return to that tomb of one of Hieroneous’ favoured and take the sword and the gold that is buried with him, you will no longer be welcome in my sight.  That goes for you too, Chade.”To their credit, neither interrupted.  Mareth appeared shocked by this turn of events, Warramayl seemed bored and Taklinn was obviously feeling a little awkward at the situation.  Terjon stood at my side, facing the cleric and the rogue defiantly.It was obvious that none of us were going to budge on their stance and hence the party, this group of friends that had been together for some time now, would be dividing this day.  However, the line of the division was yet to be determined.</blockquote>

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