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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xaltar" data-source="post: 18807" data-attributes="member: 480">-------------------------------------------Session 8, Part 5: The Commander’s Tomb...-------------------------------------------The next tomb that the party explored appeared to have once had a great statue standing over the entrance.  However, now there were just large stones that resembled pieces of a horse and rider that littered the entrance and blocked the door to the crypt.  Without too much effort, the naturally stronger members of the party, (as well as those under the effects of a bull strength spell), were able to push a few of the larger stones aside in a inconspicuous manner.Since the two empty cultist wagons had been left nearby, they knew that they had little time to explore this crypt.  Upon entering the crypt, they found a statue of a snarling lion’s head that had apparently been carved by an exquisite craftsman.It was late and the group decided to spend the night in this antechamber.  They had little time, but the cultist’s grave digging slaves didn’t work through the night, so they should be safe.In the morning after an uneventful night, the party was a well-rested bunch, ready for anything.  While the others packed up camp, Holden took his time searching the statue.  He noted that this statue had been poked and prodded in every crevice.  “Someone has been here before us, but it does not look recent.”Although interesting information, it did the party little good at this point and they continued on to explore the remainder of the tomb.  Off of the antechamber were two rooms that were in great disarray.  The first was a storage room and the second was a library.  Although they both had been horribly ransacked, Drexel managed to locate a few books in better condition titled, “Defending Myth Drannor: Battles and Tactics.”Moving down the corridor to the left of the antechamber, the party moved into a room containing six alcoves, and within each was resting a shattered skeleton.  As they looked around, Spiderfang shook his head, “This is too easy, something isn’t right.”The floor of the connecting room was covered with the shattered remains of 2-foot-tall terracotta statues that appeared to have once resembled small elves carrying tiny spears.  In the center of the room was a pedestal that appeared to have once held some sort of bladed weapon.  “Nothing in here either, we are just wasting time,” exclaimed Runtel impatiently.As they moved through the room, there was a hallway that led back across to the other side of the crypt.  At the midpoint, there were stairs that descended down.  Opposite the stairs going down was a painted image of a snarling lion, similar to the statue near the entrance.  Holden motioned for the party to hold up, and he began searching the wall.As he reached his hand out to touch the relief of the painting, he found that his hand passed right through the wall.  With a single step he disappeared into the wall, and his friends quickly followed him, not wanting to separate the group.  Beyond the illusionary wall was a short corridor that was mostly blocked by the body of a long-dead gnome, impaled on a spear trap jutting up from the floor.  Holden ran, jumped, and tumbled by the exposed spear blade.  When he reached the other side, he was able to pull the pouches of loot from the dead thief’s body and a magnificent runed white gold ring on his right hand.  Holden then sundered the spear so that the rest of the party could pass without harm.In the center of the room, past the trap and behind the illusionary wall, stood a glass pedestal emitting a jet of blue flame toward the ceiling.  Suspended in the center of the flame was a shining longsword, doubly bright as a result of the surrounding flame.  A quiet hum filled the air as the heroes entered the room, and they all felt as if some holy force was penetrating their souls.Drexel walked forward and reached into the fire.  The fire burned him slightly, but his natural fire resistance as a tiefling prevented him from developing more then a few blisters.  As he drew the weapon from the fire, he knew that he was not meant to have it.  Even if he was skilled in the use of the longsword, traces of Bane’s bloodline flowed in his veins.  Drexel quickly handed the sword to Holden, whom was the only one that would currently be able to make use of the weapon.As they moved on, they decided to follow the hallway around before exploring the lower level.  They thought that the crypt was laid out with great symmetry, and when they opened the next door, they weren’t surprised when they noticed hundreds of small terracotta statues begin to animate.  Drexel shouted, “We have no time for this nonsense!”He called out a few magical incantations, and the room filled with a huge ball of lightning.  The statues were utterly annihilated before they had the chance to move.  While clapping his hands together as if he was ridding them of dust, he moved toward the only remaining intact structure in the room, another pedestal, only this one still held a weapon.  This sword was very unusual, and it didn’t look like it could be used to fight with at all.  The sword possessed several unusual groves up and down the side of the blade.  It appeared that the sword would break far too easily in combat.  Not wasting time to guess the logic behind the swords craftsmanship, the party moved to the next room.As expected, the next room had six alcoves, each one containing an undead warrior.  The party had little difficulty in overcoming the threat using sheer force while Ziona held several at bay by the command of her goddess.  When they finished off the skeletal soldiers, the party located another runed white gold ring, and Drexel examined them.  Using his in-depth arcane knowledge, he determined that they were used to bypass some sort of guardian.  No one else seemed particularly concerned about the threat of more guardians, so Drexel decided to just wear both of them himself, for good measure.Through the next door was the entrance.  They had gone in a complete circle, so they doubled back and went to explore the lower level.  As they neared the bottom of the stairs, they noticed that the place was flooded.  The water was nearly 3-feet-deep, with half-decayed bodies floating in the water.  To both the right and left were normal sized doors, and straight ahead was a door that appear to have no handle or hinges, and was flanked by huge statues; one an elven warrior, and the other a human.Ziona found the sight of the bodies, the scent of decay, and the uncertainty of what was in the water to be more then she could bear.  She held her holy symbol up into the air, and upon harnessing the powers of Eilistraee, Ziona was able to lower the water until the ground was covered with little more then a puddle.After the water had lowered, another body appeared, a dwarf, which was too stocky and heavy to float.  Hunter moved up cautiously to drag the bodies back to the stairs; all the while his eyes never left the statues.  Drexel decided that he would move up to inspect the door, hoping that the rings he was wearing would protect him from whatever harm had come to this previous band of adventures.Seeing that Drexel had moved up without difficulty, Hunter, Runtel and Holden quickly joined him.  Meanwhile Spiderfang, Lia, and Dr. Midnight searched the room, and Ziona delivered a final blessing over the bodies while Rossal the pseudodragon aided by placing their valuables into a sack.Holden found a slot on each side of the door, and somehow these slots must be used to lift the door straight up.  Drexel took out the notched longsword and found that it fit in perfectly.  “Now we just need one more,” he informed the party.“Over here Drexel,” spoke Rossal directly into Drexel’s mind, (The whole party had become very used to their friend speaking to them telepathically).As Drexel moved away to fetch the other sword, the statues suddenly began to animate, assuming more monstrous faces.  Holden and Hunter reeled in shock, but Drexel was able to jump back between them and the statues before the party underwent any serious misfortune.  Together, the three of them moved back away from the statues, and decided to explore the other rooms before proceeding forward.Holden found that the door to the right was not trapped, so Hunter gave the door a good push and the door swung open and water rushed into the room, raising the overall water height back to about 1 foot deep.  Inside were 25-armed skeletal warriors that began to stir upon site of the living.  Before anyone else could draw their weapons, Drexel spout out the magical incantation that created yet another one of his devastating signature lightning balls.  Hunter grabbed the door and shut it as fragments of bone exploded against the wall.The party opened the door to the right, and more water poured into the rooms, raising the main room by roughly half a foot.  Spiderfang waded into the room and stubbed his foot on a body that had apparently been swept off of its stone slab by the rising water table.  Disugusted, he turned around and shut the door on his way out.  During that time, the others had opened the door to the room with the obliterated skeletal warriors and had begun trudging up hundreds of pieces of jewelry that had been tossed around the room as a result of the lightning ball.  Spiderfang however refused to help, “I’m not sure if I condone this action.”A short time later the party had scooped up several huge piles of muddy jewelry and were ready to move on.  They all moved up together to stay close to Drexel, and Runtel and Hunter used their great strength to push the swords up and into the slots, raising the door to the next room.Inside the walls of the chamber were carved with the shapes of weapons and armor of many kinds and styles.  The motif was repeated on the slab that closed the rectangular stone sarcophagus in the center of the room.  Hunter moved up to lift the lid of the coffin, but with his great strength he literally threw the lid off and the party cringed as it smashed loudly when it hit the ground.Inside was the body of one of the greatest protectors of the once great city Myth Drannor, Commander Lyssic.  Lyssic was a finely chiseled human man, dressed in gleaming masterwork chainmail.  Although he had been dead for several centuries, his body had no visible signs of decomposition.  Within the hands of the corpse was another rune, this one covered with several stars.  Holden grabbed a small pouch of silver, and made a swift switch with the rune of stars.  The heroes waited for a few moments with weapons readied while waiting for the body to rise, although it never did.  While they had been waiting, Rossal had found a secret door leading out of the burial room.<img src="http://www.livingfaerun.com/boards/lyssic1.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> -------------------------------------------Next Time:  The Lich Wars Begin…-------------------------------------------</blockquote>

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