The following day, the lizardfolk chief sent two of his scouts with the party on their trek to find the place where the Sunbloom grew.
Later in the first day of travel into the swamp, the group came upon a small group of bandits who had taken captives from a farm outside the village of Padure. The adventurers set up an ambush and attacked the would-be slavers, eliminating them as a threat and freeing the family before they met a terrible fate!
The family of seven were escorted to the edge of the swamp and provisioned for their return trip home. The party then ventured back into the swamp and on toward their sought for prize.
After a couple days of travel, they encountered a dread carrion crawler , which tried sneaking up on them as they were camped for the night. The wretched monster paralyzed several of the party members with its flailing tentacles, but the valorous heroes were able to bring it down in the end.
They continued on and the next day arrived at their destination—an artificial mound dappled with Sunbloom flowers. They briefly explored the area, and found a large bronze-covered stone door set into a recessed opening halfway up the domed hill. The door was wedged slightly open!
The adventurers concerted their efforts and moved the stuck door open wide enough for them to enter. They saw a 35-foot, expanding hall ending in a set of closed, bronzed double doors with no handles. The walls of he hallway were carved with various reliefs and hieroglyphs and the flakes of paint strewn about the floor suggested that the walls had once been brightly painted, until the creeping environment of the bogs outside had infiltrated the area. Someone or some thing must have opened the great door a long, long time ago!
They moved in and combined all their strength to just barely open one of the closed doors, which swung inward with a loud, grinding noise. They entered into the tomb and after a bit of exploration, Davon the rogue pried a gemlike stone out of the eye sockets of a jackal-headed statue and a pressurized spay trap burst out from the socket and hit Gyles the cleric, who was inadvertently standing right in front of the statue! Gyles’ armor and mace dissolved in mere moments, as the rust monster essence contained in the solution did its work!
At the same time, Caelthorn and Thoradin set off a pressurized plate trap I the floor, which animated an eight-foot tall, spear wielding jackal-headed stone statue stationed at the front entrance. Battle was joined, and while Caelthorn, Thoradin and a momentarily less puissant Gyles engaged it in combat, Davon and Molanar tried some fancy lassoing techniques on the statue, which managed to keep it distracted and slow it down. The party was able to defeat the construct and were rewarded with a magical spar for all their troubles!
The tomb was well-lit with magical continual light sconces in the hallways. The walls were carved with hieroglyphs and various scenes of everyday life from a race of jackal-headed humanoids who appeared to live in some kind of mountainous valley. The carvings were brightly painted and the overall craftsmanship was quite stunning to all the adventurers. Not everything was so attractive however, for along the interior walls there were placed a dozen shallow alcoves where skeletal figures wearing scraps of tattered robes were propped up. An ominous sight!
The party continued on and came across a sarcophagus and altar at the very rear of the tomb. They opened the (false) sarcophagus and animated the dozen skeletons in the shallow alcoves. Battle was again joined and the party was victorious, with Gyles turning several of the undead during the fight. The sarcophagus was empty, but as the group carefully searched the area, Molanar’s sharp elven eyes picked out a very slight crease in the wall behind the altar which the passage of ages of time had revealed—a secret door!
The party entered the final resting place of the tomb’s owner. Her sarcophagus was set with a bronze overlayed stone lid carved in effigy of how she would have appeared in life—a six and one half foot tall jackal-headed female humanoid clad in flowing robes. Her crypt was not lit, but was still carved and painted similarly to the rest of the tomb. On the back wall of the chamber hung a large, vividly colored tapestry of exotic design, and perfectly preserved.
The adventurers used all their strength to remove the massive lid and within found the crumbling remains of the priestess. They also found a magical, carved ebony staff, several ancient jewels of great value and a bronzed set of magical chainmail. Quite a haul!
They also noted in the paintings on the wall that it appeared in the distant past, this tomb was located in or near a small settlement of the humanoids before the Blight Swamp had expanded outward along the Achelos River. The tomb must have been built a thousand years ago or more!
In need of time to rest up and heal after their many combats, the party decided to camp inside the now cleared tomb. They initially decided to close the double doors fast, but Caelthorn had a moment of inspiration (or perhaps, self-preservation) and noted that if they closed the double doors from the inside, they could potentially be trapped forever! He was correct, as the massive doors had no handles and only opened inward! They might have been trapped for eternity! They would later lean that the living statue standing guard would dispose of those few who violated the tomb and would close the doors again from the inside, not being concerned about being able to get outside!
The group rested up and collected as many Sunbloom petals from the hill as they could, with each party member also carefully packing two Sunbloom plants to bring back to the village. With this, they headed due east and back to Wes Wind Village.
As they neared the village, they saw a plume of soke rising from the direction of the village. They double tied it back and discovered that the Church of Karameikos had been burned to the ground!
They went to talk to Will Dappleglade at the Dew Drop Inn, who informed them that two days ago a band of orcs had assaulted the church, setting it ablaze sand captured Ionnes the pries, dragging him off into the woods. With the adventurers out exploring, and with Bogdan Moraru attending a meeting in Luln, there were not enough to fend of the humanoid invaders!
The villagers were awaiting the return of the Patrikios before setting off to try to rescue the priest. Before deciding anything further on the matter, the adventurers went to go see Barglos the wizard and collect their rewards!
Barglos paid them for the plants and petals, and after listening to their tales, paid them full price for all the nonmagical artifacts taken from the tomb, as well as for the small amounts f nightshade they had found AND the eight carrion crawler tentacles that they had carefully extracted and secured!
With that, Barglos rubbed his bearded chin thoughtfully. “I think I should like to personally examine this tomb when circumstances allow . . . but for now, we must consider wat to do about our captured priest!”
____________________
EXPERIENCE POINTS:
Caelthorn : 962 + 250 for the insight about the tomb doors
Davon Dembleton : 962 + 100 for having the rope and working with Molanar
Gyles : 962 + 50 for contributing to combat even after losing his
gear
Molanar : 962 + 100 for working with Davon and finding
the secret door
Thoradin : 962 + 50 for getting into the front of every
single fight
TOTAL TREASURE:
8gp and 127sp
8 clear-cut glass stones (80gp}
Golden altar bowl (50gp)
Ancient tapestry (100gp)
Jeweled diadem (900gp)
Jeweled pectoral (1600gp)
Jeweled signet ring (600gp)
10 batches of sunbloom petals (200gp) split 20gp to each member
9 live sunbloom plants (900gp) split 100gp to Thoradin and 200gp to
each other member
Spear +1
Chainmail +1
Staff of Healing
