After a night spent at home at the Jonamor Estate, the party went back out to find the Irinduis tomb that the elven cleric Rellora told them was a mere two miles away. A few hours of hiking in verdant hills brought them to a dead, leafless oak beside a sheer cliff face. An 8×8 iron plate, two inches thick stuck fast to the cliff face by 12 bolts. A meager dribble of water seeped beneath the plate, forming a stream that soaked into the roots of the deceased tree.
Irinduis Tomb
Abnormally dark and lacking much rust, the iron door seemed impervious to simple destruction. Azrak produced a stone-cutter’s kit and began removing surrounding rock, freeing the first bolt after an hour. While he continued this quest to free the entire plate, Ferris tossed his continually-glowing rock into the cave and Tienarth scried the scene around it with his crystal ball. A carpet of moist moss covered the floor of an expansive cavern. Two sizable exits presented themselves as well as a third clogged with vegetative debris. Opposite the entrance, an oaken chest stood with top open. Water dribbled over the lip, down the face and over rock to soak into the loam.
After laboring most of the day, Azrak finally freed the plate which crashed to the turf with a dull thud. He claimed the honor of being first to enter, tested the squishy floor. His feet sank a few inches, wetting his boots. Not trusting the safety of the chest, he tossed a grappling hook which splashed into the chest full of water. He heaved at the rope with no effect until Ghevont pitched in. They tugged, causing the front of the chest to give way, spilling perhaps 50 gallons of water in to the moss floor, into which it quick dispersed.
Gellybones and Ghost Shrooms
To their right, they noted a hydra statue guarding the passage beyond, a well-known threat faced in other tombs. To the left, loose rock descended into darkness. Skirting the edge of the room, Ghevont approached the sloping path. Below him were skeletons with transparent bones marching around a pentagram chiseled into the cave floor. He made to descend, slipped amid the shifting stones, and stopped splayed out on the floor.
The skeletons advanced as Ferris carefully joined Ghevont. A few blows proved the flexibility of these skeletons who battered them with slaps of their rubbery limbs. Ghevont displayed his holy symbol. The gellybones retreated from His holy light and Ghevont pursued.
The cleric paused at the threshold of a gallery filled with waist-high, black mushrooms. Crowed nearly to capacity, the room offered only a narrow path between the fungus, over which the skeletons passed to another chamber beyond. Striding into the mushrooms, Ghevont was surprised by fungal stalks slapping, attaching and pulling at him. Moment by moment he pulled himself free and was caught again.
The others rushed to his aid, harvesting mushroom flesh by sword and axe. Next came fire which set the entire room ablaze, neutralizing the threat. They picked their way around smoldering fungus to reach another room where a knight in black armor greeted them in a low, hoarse growl.
Black Knight
Welcome intruders. The family Irinduis invites you to your doom. The penalty for robbing our graves is death, but honor demands I offer a choice. Your champion in single combat and you may flee with nothing more than that with which you entered.
The knight wore blackened plate armor. He gripped a wicked two-handed sword of black metal. His bare head was merely a skull. Smoke curled from empty eye sockets. Behind him stood two elven mummies, longbows nocked with arrows. Behind them cowered the gellybones.
Azrak stepped forward to accept the challenge. Ghevont blessed him. The knight nodded to begin the battle. Azrak landed a solid blow of his hammer to the knight’s midsection who cackled and returned a devastating chop of his two-handed sword. With another round of blows exchanged, Ghevont began to worry for Azrak’s life.
As Ghevont whispered a spell to enhance the dwarf’s striking, the mummy’s let go arrows that whizzed harmlessly past. Tienarth called forth a bolt of lightning that tore through the air, striking one of the archers. The knight raged, chastising them for lack of honor.
Next, Tienarth delivered magic missiles to the knight. The arcane darts cut glowing trails over the short space. The knight turned from Azrak an jabbed his sword into Tienarth’s belly. The mummy’s dropped their bows and stepped up to engage in melee as did the gellybones.
Weighting the odds, Tienarth turned to flee. Spinning his sword in an arc, the knight cut a gash in the wizard’s back and ended facing the dwarf. Azrak and Ghevont landed blows from opposite side that staggered the knight who collapsed. Aderian poured oil over a mummy and then set it afire. The mummy lunged to grapple the pirate, but a moment later Azrak and Ghevont bashed the mummy into charred pieces. Likewise, the gellybones, now mindlessly attacking again were mashed into inanimate goo.
Looting the Amras Grave
With the battle over, they took to dissembling the nearby elf grave. As with other graves, a spirit made an escape after delivering a statement.
I am Lady Amras, who walked the spirit world, gripped by the hunger of ever more knowledge. The devil’s beyond quartered me.
Inside the grave were three scrolls, scooped up by the elf wizard, and a fist-size rock wrapped in silk taken by Aderian. Noting their many wounds, they retreated from the tomb and returned home where they found Bottoms and Longstream.
The next day, they called on Sheriff Bremlai and his sage, Mamo. He offered 500 pieces of gold for the arms taken from the mummies, explaining increased demand in the face of preparations for the war to the south, but the party declined the offer. Ferris paid Mamo a sum to examine the knight’s sword, which was determined to be magically advantageous in battle. Whatever other special properties it kept secret, the sage could not tell.
The knight’s armor, though unusual, was not magical. One of the scrolls protected from lycanthropes, apparently a common threat to the ancient elves. Another scroll offered new spells for Tienarth to learn. The last was a puzzle they could not solve. It remained incomprehensible, even when Ferris wore the Crown of Ghot. He could read each individual word but not determine how they made sense together. Each of them that read it (Tienarth, Ghevont, Azrak and Ferris) experienced a feeling of dread deja vu.
Endnotes
- Treasure:
- An incomprehensible scroll
- A scroll of Protection from Lycanthropes
- A mage scroll enscribed with Hold Monster, Hold Person, Light, Projected Image, Slow, & Web
- A giant sapphire worth 5,750 gp
- Two knives, a bow and leather armor taken from the mummies
- The black knight’s plate armor
- The black knight’s +3 two-handed sword
- Characters present: Tienarth/Tre, Ghevont/Jeff, Aderian/Jason, Ferris/Henry, Azrak/Nick, Bottoms/Michael.
- Virtues: diligence
- Vices: dishonor