SR46: Last Tombs on the Terrace

This session happened Friday, May 6, 2011, and was the only session I ran that weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elf alchemist)
Agnes Sunbeard (dwarf rogue)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
 – Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)
Xin (human wizard) [via Skype]


Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.

In-game Starting Date: November 6, 23rd Year of King Nikola V
With a full group of adventurers, it was decided to return to the Terrace of Fallen Horses to finish exploring the tombs there.  Riding on magical steeds, the adventurers took Gravemarker Road to Terrace Road, making good time.  The Sea of Grass was deep with mud due recent heavy rains and instead of making it to the Terrace to camp, they instead camped at the branching of the road leading to Westcastle Crossing.

The next day they achieved the Terrace of Fallen Horses, only to discover signs of an abandoned campfire.  Mog scoured the area for tracks and clues, but the best he could determine was that sometime in the last two weeks, probably before the last big rains, some group other than them had camped here and explored one of the tombs on the lower terrace.  It did not appear that the "interlopers" had taken anything of value as the explored tomb was one previously explored.

Making their way up to the upper terrace, the adventurers opened the next tomb.  This tomb had a short passage leading to a plaster door.  The murals on the left showed giants attacking human villages, taking prisoners, and eating the prisoners in various ways.  The mural on the right shows the king leading a cavalry charge against the king of the giants, cutting down many a giant.

After Mog pounded down the wall of river stones behind the plaster door, he saw a giant skull and attacked it immediately!  He shattered the skull with the sledgehammer and prepared to keep fighting until Agnes verbally reined him in.

The chamber was ringed with nine three-foot tall giant skulls (one now smashed) surrounding a cenotaph, covered in glyphs.  Resting on the skull in the center back was a giant-sized crown, matching the crown shown in the murals on the king of the giants.  Hanging from the ceiling length-wise was a huge greatsword.  Mog immediately started eyeing it with lust in his heart.

Tycho mixed up an extract of comprehend languages and read the cenotaph to the others.  It commemorated the king who led the charge against the giants.  The human king slayed the giant king, but then fell to the giant king's bodyguards, who took away the body of human king , including the crown of the Horse Lords.  Realizing that taking the gold crown of the giant king and the huge sword would strain their abilities, the adventurers held off disturbing either one [beyond determining the sword was magical] and proceeded to the next tomb.

The next tomb was the most elaborate of the tombs on the upper terrace, containing four chambers.  The wall murals in the central passage were elaborate and showed signs of modification, mostly the addition of scenes – apparently a second and then a third wife, many children, and many great deeds.  The first chamber they explored seemed to confirm much of this as it contained many gold-inlaid urns topped with porcelain faces.  The urns contained the cremated remains of 17 people.

The next chamber contained eight, life-sized terra cotta statues, each wearing a golden torc.  Agnes examined the room and the statues for traps, thoroughly.  She found the room trap free and noticed that each statue was unique and the torcs each held a different gem and were quite valuable.  She carefully removed the torcs and stashed them away.

The next chamber was empty, but the walls were covered in writing.  The entire text detected as magic, so Tycho fixed up another dose of comprehend language and started reading.  The text covered the history of the king, but after reading a few lines, Tycho triggered a sepia snake sigil.  He was able to avoid the effects of the spell.  After the spell dissipated, Agnes came in and started checking for magical traps.  She was able to disarm several explosive runes and another sepia snake sigil.

The final chamber explored was the king's crypt.  The doorway was trapped with an empowered disintegrate, which nearly got Mog.  Inside the chamber was the king's sarcophagus, which was comprised of a stone exterior shell and a golden coffin inside.

After clearing the king's crypt, the adventurers camped for the night.  During the night, the camp was attacked by five burning skeletons that wandered in from the surrounding hills.  The fight was short and the skeletons really stood no chance.

In the morning, the adventurers climbed back up to the upper terrace and opened the last tomb on the upper terrace.  This tomb appeared to be hurriedly finished.  The wall murals show the king riding triumphantly on a griffin, but his remains told a different story.  When the adventurers opened the sarcophagus, every bone in the king's body was broken, including his skull – clearly he had died after a great fall, probably from his griffin.

After inventorying their loot, Xin reduced the gold crown, the gold sarcophagus, and the huge greatsword so they would fit within bags of holding.  The gold covered sarcophagus lid from the fallen king would have to be carried by Kainen with the assistance of a ant haul spell.  It did slow down the group's return as no horse could carry Kainen and the sarcophagus lid.  In addition to packing their loot, they also consolidated the terra cotta statues into a single tomb, which Agnes then trapped to keep out whoever else knew of this place.

On the way back, the group had to camp on the road across the Sea of Grass.  An auroch herd moved by during the evening, indicating that the herds were arriving from the southern pastures.  The next day they made the Woodcutter's camp by dusk and camped there.  Kainen made some money by offering tries to any woodcutter who wanted to lift the sarcophagus lid, offering to let them keep it if they could walk ten steps while carrying it.  No one could even lift it off the ground.

At Noon on the third day of their trip back, they arrived at Drop-off Tower.  Several people wanted to use their share of the loot to have Xin upgrade some of their items.  As money was tight (they wanted some significant upgrades), Xin and Mog went to Westcastle Crossing to look for supplies.  They found what Xin was looking for and were able to purchase it – without the 40% markup the Baron enforces at the Iron Keep.  When Xin reported this back at the Tower, the adventurers were very pleased to hear this as they were very tired of the 40% mark-up on all goods.

Xin spent the 16 days upgrading Mog's axe (to keen), Alys's lance (now fire and frost damage), and Mog's chainmail (from +1 to +2).

*End of session*

[Sorry if this write up seems a bit skimpy on details.  It's been a month since the session actually happened and my notes are a bit sketchy in nature.  This covers the basics of what happened, but I no longer remember exactly which sarcophagi were gold and which were merely inlaid with gold and that info is not in my notes.  Bad DM, bad!]