(YBA) Lovecraft in the Cathayan Tombs

[Yellow Sign]

"Well thats that!" says Lovecraft. He gets dressed and grabs his things. Going down to the common room. Lovecraft pokes the fire in the fireplace and pulls up a chair. Naping with one eye open until first light. Then he leaves for the Tombs outside of town.

 

[Ciaran]

The common room is desolate and empty. Occasionally an upright silhouette trundles by the outside windows. Shadows crawl about the room in the firelight, but they seem mundane enough, and you are not disturbed for the next few hours.

Shortly before first light, the innkeeper comes in a side door, accompanied by an ugly young woman that might be his daughter, with a pair of dripping baskets. Scowling at you, they empty an assortment of aquatic materials into the cooking-pot that make you reconsider your previous opinion of the inn’s cookery. The woman departs, but the innkeeper continues to stare at you until you leave.

Tired but ready to face the new day, you climb the cliff path in the early light, and reach the vicinity of the tombs shortly after dawn. Morning light slants down on the ancient structures; you count ten major tombs, plus dozens of smaller structures.

What do you do?

 

[Yellow Sign]

Lovecraft pulls out a quill and a notebook and starts to map out the locations of the buildings as he walks around. He examines the outsides of the tombs for now making note of any entrances, carvings, and writings on the buildings.

 

[Ciaran]

As you begin your study, it quickly becomes clear to you that the architecture of this place is dizzyingly, appallingly wrong. The angles of the structures pull and tug at the eye, suggesting strange, non-Euclidean geometries. There are places where you could swear that, if you came too close, you would get sucked into the stone, never to be seen again.

The writings appear to be some archaic dialect of modern Cathayan, and will take some time to decipher.

As you progress around the site, you enjoy the shade of the few gnarled trees that grow there. When passing beneath one, you brush a vine, or what you think to be a vine, aside -- and it twists around and lunges at you, fangs bared!

Venomous Snake
CR 1
Hits: 1
Yen Factor: 0
Student of the Twisting Snake
Student of the Fang

The raven rides in the midst of the orchard; protects against the efforts of the feline!

 

[Yellow Sign]

Seeing the snake, Lovecraft kicks at it





The kama kicks underneath the ocean; parts the assailment of the isle!

 

[Ciaran]

You knock the snake to the ground as it tries to drape itself around your shoulders, and then crush it beneath your heel. It flounders for a moment, its back broken, then lies still.

You gain 1 hit defeated.

Completing your examination of the area, you find that the large tombs form a rough spiral shape, with the smaller structures and obelisks forming an elaborate constellation around them. The pattern they form reminds you of certain cryptic signs described in arcane texts; symbols of chthonic deities, powers of earth and darkness that are not to be named.

What do you do?

 

[Yellow Sign]

Lovecraft now looks for a entrance to the larger tombs. He prepares a torch out of a stick and some rags. If he finds one he will investigate.

 

[Ciaran]

Portals of stone and corroded bronze mark the entrances to all ten major tombs. In the three outermost tombs in the spiral, these portals stand ajar; the other seven remain sealed. The minor structures have no obvious entrances.

 

[Yellow Sign]

Lovecraft will light a torch and enter the outermost tomb.

 

[Ciaran]

Passing through the narrow opening, you enter the outermost tomb. Your makeshift torch crackles with a low reddish flame. Shadows ripple across the large octagonal chamber thus revealed. Strange, unpleasant carvings adorn the walls, while an irregular layer of moss, lichen and guano covers the floor. In the center of the chamber, a guano-spattered sarcophagus rests upon a raised plinth, encircled by heavy stone pillars.

As you enter, a pair of darker shadows flaps heavily from the darkness above. Red eyes gleam as they fall upon you!

Bat #1 (3/3): The mantis shatters the wastelands; conceals the motion of the shell!

Bat #2 (3/3): The mace drops higher than the brush; leaps over the gaze of the flame!

Vampire Bat (x2)
CR 1
Hits 1
Yen Factor: 0
Student of the Flying Rat
Student of the Fang