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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3414992" data-attributes="member: 30035">more from Caelen....I recall that in Mother's last letter she mentioned Belgaer complaining that I never call my adventuring companions by name. I'll have to remedy that.We were all shocked by Dalia's sudden horrible death, but I think Artemis, the human artificer, was the most disturbed. He wanted to return immediately to Sharn. To his credit, he didn't want to give up on exploring the vault. He suggested using the key to the Lost Room to get us back. We could leave our horses in the city and return to the Vault of the Crimson Stars at will now that we'd seen it. Before we left Artemis reset as many of the traps in the vault as he could. The changeling, Xil, made a surprisingly good suggestion: that I should try the key to see if someone with no magical talent can make use of it. That pleased me because I wanted to be first into the Lost Room, to check for enemies. We found the room the way we'd last seen it, although our new companion, Gwaenna Goldenbrow, noticed that while we'd entered the vault at night it appeared to be midday in the Lost Room. That's a puzzle for another time. After we'd assured ourselves the room was safe we brought the horses through and I tried the key again. My first effort was disappointing. I've spent more time in Caerlyn's barracks than in Artemis's tower. The door opened there, much to the surprise of some of the Blades. I shut it quickly and tried again.Once we were safely in Artemis's rooms, Gwaenna and Xil went out to seek supplies and a healer to accompany us. We worried that Caiber might have spies watching the tower, so we chose the two who wouldn't be recognized as part of our company. I rested while they were gone. I didn't realize until then that while I'd had some unpleasant visions during my meditations on the lightning rail, I hadn't experienced them after Kylara left. Gwaenna returned with a Jorasco halfling named Robin. He doesn't seem too trustworthy, but I suppose we don't have much choice on short notice.We returned to the vault about mid-morning. Caiber must have had another team right behind us on the lightning rail, because the traps had been set off and we found several corpses. He's sending some pretty poor examples of adventurers. Something in the vault raised them as ghosts, just like their predecessors, but they were no trouble for Gwaenna and the warforged Sten to destroy.Armed with alchemical substances to combat the beetles, we set off for the room where Dalia died. As we came to the statue room I heard the clang of a metal grate falling, followed by screams and shouts. I decided that caution was the better part of valor and climbed a statue. But the rest of my companions decided to run down the hall to see what was going on. I couldn't see anything so I climbed back down. In the hall I could see some bright flashes from around the corner. The beetles came swarming into the area and Gwaenna turned them all to dust with a spell. In the hall we found the goblin woman talking to another halfling, this one riding a dinosaur upside-down on the ceiling. He calls himself Conshru. He was following the Deathsgate people. They were supposed to get his tribe's permission to be in the vault, but they'd snuck off during the night and he'd been sent to spy on them.We went on down the passage to an arch with a carving of a beetle above it. Beyond lay a tall room lined with pillars carved like the hawk-head statues in the other room. At the far end stood a sarcophagus and a basin. Between us and the basin lay a dark pit the full width of the room. Overhead the ceiling twinkled with red gems.Artemis discovered a pit trap in front of the opening in the floor. He disabled the mechanism. When Conshru rode his dinosaur up the ceiling over the opening in the floor, his magic failed and they fell. Then Gwaenna decided to jump the opening. When she did the sarcophagus lid rose and a tall mummified creature emerged.It wielded a black rod that fired blasts of black lightning at Gwaenna and the carved pillars. I jumped across to help the goblin. The mummy hit me with some of its black lightning. Gwaenna fired off a spell through her sword and the mummy collapsed. To make up for my disappointment I tore its wrappings off in search of treasure. I found nothing. Gwaenna took charge of the magic rod. Artemis climbed up the walls and started searching the ceiling. While he did this Gwaenna and Conshru went to search the other bodies outside the room. I couldn't help thinking that Kylara wouldn't have liked us disturbing the dead.Finding nothing on the ceiling, Artemis decided to examine the pit trap. It turned out to be an angled shaft leading toward the other pit. He threw a sunrod down it and cast a spell to see what was there. He could see that it didn't lead into the other pit. There was a room full of bones and water lying at the end of the shaft. Then we let Sten down on a rope.The warforged came back up covered in beetles. But we decided to make the descent. The room was knee-deep in water and heaped with bones. As we entered a mummy emerged from an alcove and attacked. Bones rose up out of the water, forming themselves into a large creature like the ones Kylara could summon. A shadowy form floated up and I found myself unable to tear my gaze from it.A second bone creature rose from the water and a second mummy emerged, but I still couldn't look away from the black thing. Then Gwaenna blasted it and I came to my senses. I moved to fight the mummy that Xil faced. Two zombies appeared and when the mummy fell I slashed a zombie in two. Once all the undead things were destroyed Artemis had to use a scroll to prevent Xil from getting a disease from the mummy. After that we found another body, one of the Deathsgate adventurers. Conshru said there were seven and we'd accounted for them all.There was nothing else of value in the chamber so we climbed back up. We all jumped across the black pit, except Sten, who's too heavy. Artemis tried using the black rod to see if it would trigger a secret doorway or something. We spent a while poking around the sarcophagus and two big braziers suspended above the dark pit, without finding anything. Finally we decided to try putting water in the shallow basin. Once it filled with water it looked bottomless. Gwaenna stuck her arm in and it went in much too far. Then she jumped in the basin and disappeared!Artemis had been casting a spell to learn more about the basin, but I decided that would take too long and jumped in after the goblin. We found ourselves in a dark passageway. Gwaenna summoned a light, revealing a descending stair. At the bottom of the stair was a pillared room. As we climbed down Conshru appeared behind us. We all three began searching the room, examining a magic boat and a series of jars with carved lids. Then we descended another stair to a second chamber. This one held another sarcophagus - and just like the previous one, it opened to release a tall mummy. Then two more mummies emerged from behind the pillars. We were trapped. ____________________________Quips & Quotes:DH: "There's a fireplace burning in the hearth." Jubilee: "There's a fireplace in the hearth?!" Hedrin: "Yes, there's a fireplace in the hearth. They burn fireplaces for fuel in Argonnessen."Zora: "Is there an advance on this job?" Patv: "You have a full purse!" Zora: "Yeah, but that's mine!"Zora: "See that mole? That's my dragonmark." Jubilee: "That's not a mole - that's cancer!" Zora: "I'm an heir of House Melanoma."Zora: "Alcoholism is a disease!" Patv: "So you've been to rehab?" Zora: "House Rehab. It's an offshoot of House Jorasco."Zora (throws a candy bar at the GM): "Sorry your monster died. Have some candy."</blockquote>

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