Archive for June, 2016

The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 3

Saturday, June 25th, 2016

This is a continuation of The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 1, and The Tomb of Koban Hairfoot – Part 2.

Day #2-29 (Fireday, 9th Dewsnap, 4333 BCCC): As we left our intrepid adventurers last time, they had descended to the 2nd level of the Tomb of Koban Hairfoot, and after briefly investigating a rectangular chamber with three skeletons laying about in disarray, they had then proceeded onward. They had come to another door to their left, and Vandin Lakesplitter had forced the door open with a few pushes from his shoulder….

Immediately after forcing the door open, Vandin (carrying a torch along with his shield and hammer), and Tureg, another dwarven fighter (armed with a sword and also carrying a shield) discovered there were some more skeletons in this room, but the skeletons were animated and were coming to attack! Vandin swung his hammer and shattered one skeleton into fragments, but another skeleton felled Tureg with a mighty claw. The halfling cleric Lightstep then entered the room and tried to fend off other skeletons with his small shield and with his hammer, while the halfling thief Falafela snuck into the room in Lightstep’s wake and attempted to drag Tureg out of the room. It was fortunate for the adventurers that the room just inside the door was not very wide, as it kept the skeletons superior numbers from being able to flank the party.

Vandin then swung his hammer and took off a skeleton’s arm at its shoulder, but with its other arm it struck Vandin, doing 4 hit points of damage (out of Vandin’s 6 total hit points). After Falafela dragged Tureg out of the room, Vandin and Lightstep were able to back out of the room and pull the door closed behind them, thus gaining a respite from the attacking skeletons. The party did not hear any sound coming from inside the room, so Lightstep cast a Cure Light Wounds spell on Vandin, but it only cured 1 HP of damage. Then Lightstep cast his only remaining Cure Light Wounds spell, and it fully healed Vandin.

After briefly discussing tactics, the party decided they would only open the door a little so only one skeleton at a time could approach them through the narrowed opening. While Lightstep took Vandin’s torch, Vandin opened the door just enough for a skeleton to start to come through. Whack! A mighty blow from Vandin’s hammer felled that skeleton, and also the next skeleton to come through right on the heels of the first skeleton. But while Vandin was watching that 2nd skeleton fall to the ground to make sure it wouldn’t try to strike him on the way down, another skeleton came through the door and struck Vandin for 5 HP of damage! Opalent then cast her Magic Missile spell at that skeleton. While the spell did 3 points of damage, it did not “kill” the already-undead skeleton. Douag then pushed Vandin out of the way, but before Douag could bring his battleaxe to bear, the skeleton ripped at Douag, striking twice and inflicting 5 hit points of damage. Douag was still in fair shape, though, as he had 11 hit points before being wounded. After a bit more battling, Douag finally chopped the skeleton in half with his axe, and then made sure it was not moving any more after striking it a few more times as it lay at his feet.

The party then waited for several seconds to see if any more skeletons were coming out of the room to do battle, and when none appeared, they made more plans. Lightstep stayed in the hallway with one torch to watch over the wounded Tureg, and the human ranger Clayton also stayed on guard in the hallway outside the room. The other party members cautiously looked into the room, led by human fighter Vox the Just, who kicked the skeleton bones out of the doorway. The room looked like a carbon copy of Koban Hairfoot’s crypt from the level above, as this room was also octagonal in shape, about 30 feet across from one wall to its opposite wall. But this room did not have painted murals on the walls; instead, it had what looked like burn marks and bloodstains on the walls and the floor. And instead of a glass-encased skeleton of Koban Hairfoot resting on a marble table, there was a black obsidian coffin lying on a dark obsidian table. Embossed into the top of the coffin was a symbol of an unknown deity, as well as the word “Reedus.” The party also noticed there were the bones from five skeletons on the floor, although they could only account for killing four of the foul creatures. They knew that Vandin had killed three of the skeletons, and Douag had put down another. Then Lightstep said, “I think I took out one of those infernal creatures while I was shielding Tureg.”

Falafela wanted to inspect the coffin before anyone tried to open its lid, but as she was only 2’8” tall, she had Opalent lift her up for a closer look-see. Falafela and Opalent inspected the coffin carefully, but could detect no sort of trick or trap. While Vandin then also inspected the coffin for any sort of stonework traps, the party had to light two new torches (Vox and Opalent dug into their torch supplies). That also marked they had been in the dungeon for about four hours. Finally, while holding their breath to see what might leap out of the coffin at them, the party opened the lid. They were relieved to not find a body, or a skeleton, or anything else that might have assaulted them. And while the party did not find the Pendant of Winstone, they did find an old, dusty black cloak that was trimmed in gold. It appeared to have been someone’s burial cloak. It did seem weird that it was dusty, although the rest of the room wasn’t very dusty. Opalent picked up the cloak with her 10’ pole. Opalent then searched two of the walls for any secret passages, but found none.

At this time, Clayton poked his head in the room and announced that he thought Tureg was dead, as Clayton could not detect a pulse. While the party was ready to push on and keep searching for the Pendant of Winstone, they didn’t want to just leave Tureg’s body lying about. Vandin, in particular, didn’t want any rats to eat Tureg! Other party members reminded Vandin that they had not seen any vermin (except the skeletons) in the dungeon, but Vandin was adamant. Clayton said, “We could leave Tureg’s body in this coffin until we come back to retrieve him.” A couple of folks thought that was sort of gruesome, as the coffin looked sort of evil, but Clayton then said, “Well, he’s already dead. It couldn’t hurt him any more.” So, the party lifted Tureg, along with all of his possessions (except his torches which Opalent added to her backpack), and placed him in the coffin, and then closed the lid.

The party then piled the skeleton bones around the walls of the room, and then Lightstep took off his backpack and carefully unwrapped the vial of the clear liquid he had found some time ago. He sprinkled about half of the vial on the bones, while saying a few religious words. He probably had about two fluid ounces of the clear fluid remaining in the vial after that. The party then went to the other door of the room that was down a 35’ hallway from the foot of the coffin. As the hinges were on the inside, Vox tried to pull that door open, but failed. He then whacked at the door once with his sword, but as the door was of solid wood with iron reinforcing bands (as was the other door to the room), he quickly decided that it would indeed be futile to keep striking at the door with his sword. Vox figured he would only lose the edge of his blade if he kept slashing at the door. Vandin then came forward, and even in his weakened condition, he only had to strike the door twice with his hammer before busting it open. The party wasn’t worried about making noise at this point, seeing as they had made a lot of noise while fighting the skeletons.

The party now proceeded in the order: Lightstep in front (with a torch), then Vox and Gwenette (another human fighter) in the 2nd rank, then Falafala and Vandin, then Douag and Opalent, and Clayton brought up the rear with another torch. After passing through the shattered door, they saw they had to go to either the right or the left. They went to the right. After about 30 feet, they saw another iron grating in the floor, much like the floor grating from the level above. Just beyond the grate, the hallway turned right, and they could see it led back to the other door of the room they had just exited. Down that hall towards the other door, the hall also turned off to the left, but they decided not to go that way for now. Instead, they went to the left.

After proceeding just more than 10 feet, the hall turned 90 degrees to the right. (By the way, the party were all still creeped out by the skulls that were embedded into the stonework in the floor, and by the streaks of rust and/or blood all over the walls.) About 10 feet past that right turn was an end wall with a wooden door in it. Lightstep just wanted to quickly open the door to see what was on the other side, but Gwenette held him back. Vox then opened the door, which opened easily. Vox stepped through the door, closely followed by Lightstep and Gwenette. There were only three items to be seen in this 20’ x 30’ room: a 4’ x 6’ wooden table with one chair in the center of the room, an old wooden wardrobe, with its two doors open, in the far right corner of the room, and an old dust-covered bed in the far left corner of the room.

After having only a few seconds to look around the room, suddenly a ghastly figure arose from the dusty bedcovers and attacked! It was clearly undead, and while it was partially a skeleton, it still had some fleshy parts on its body. Unfortunately for Vox, he was the closest to the thing, and Vox was quickly struck twice for a total of 7 hit points of damage. Having only 3 HP left, he fell back somewhat. Gwenette and Lightstep then tried to hit the thing, Gwenette with her short sword, and Lightstep with his hammer, but they could not connect as they were more interested in keeping the thing from hitting them. Gwenette, in particular, had to parry the foul creature’s attacks with her sword as she did not carry a shield.

Suddenly, at the back of the party out in the hall was a commotion. Clayton had forgotten to keep looking back from the way that they had come, as he, like the rest of the party, were trying to see what was transpiring inside the room. Before the rear party members could do anything about it, a skeleton clad in a gold and gem-studded robe and wearing a similar crown, pushed its way past the party members. It was the skeleton of Koban Hairfoot, come back to life! Koban rushed to confront the evil being that was battling with Gwenette and Lightstep, pushing them out of the way. Then Koban and his opponent stood toe-to-toe, raining blows upon each other! Koban was wielding his broken mace, and was inflicting terrible damage to his foe, but could not avoid receiving serious blows in return. Finally, the evil being was vanquished, breaking into several pieces as it hit the floor with a thud. Unfortunately for Koban, though, he too was finished. Koban pivoted, looking at the party with the empty eye sockets of his skull, then fell prostrate upon the stone floor. As he fell, he dropped his broken mace and reached out with his right hand and pointed to the wardrobe in the corner.

After the party paused for a moment to take in what had just transpired, Gwenette and Falafela inspected the wardrobe. They looked inside, but all that there was to see were a few tattered old garments that appeared to have no value. Falafela was wondering if the wardrobe was a teleportation device, and started to climb inside, but just to be on the safe side, she kept one foot outside the wardrobe and had Opalent hold on to her. While this was transpiring, Lightstep sprinkled the last of what he was now convinced was Holy Water on the bones of Koban and Koban’s foe, and when the little bit of water touched the bones of Koban’s opponent, some small wisps of smoke arose from those bones. Clayton was now also watching back down the hallway for anyone/anything else that might approach, and Vox was lying on the floor, feeling as if all of his energy had left him. It was also time to light two new torches, marking five hours of dungeon time for the intrepid party.

Opalent then looked around the wardrobe, and finally when she moved it a few inches away from the wall she found a hidden door behind it! The door was only about 4’ high, but Lightstep cautiously opened the door (after the wardrobe had been moved farther away from the wall) and went through, along with a torch. Douag and Gwenette then followed him in. They saw a sort of U-shaped room, about 20 feet across and 30 feet long. At the “U” end of the room, which was to their left, was a small white marble altar. Atop the altar were two gold candlesticks with unburned white candles in them, along with a gleaming gold chalice, and next to the chalice was a bit of jewelry that looked exactly as the Pendant of Winstone had been described to them when they were all back at Karnack’s castle! It was round, about 4 inches in diameter, with a sort of “tab” protruding off one side, and with a 2” diameter black gem in its center. Around its rim, were gold “bubbles.”

Lightstep approached the altar, lit both candles with his torch, and soon was immersed in prayers. After about 10 minutes of prayer, he then reached up and retrieved the Pendant of Winstone and the gold chalice, and wrapped them in cloth and placed them in his backpack. Gwenette said, “Aren’t you going to take the candlesticks?” Lightstep answered, “No. We will leave them to burn down.”

(to be continued)