After several uneventful hours following an old path through the jungle the party came to the entrance of the Tomb of Voltannox. Outside of the tomb were the desiccated corpses of several Argossean pirates. Mon Tau lit a torch they had prepared and peered into the open tomb entrance. "There is a small anti chamber here with several more bodies" he said. "Let us press on then. Whatever killed them is no longer here" Heimdall urged. "Wait!" said the Hyrkanian "Look the floor of the room is littered with darts. The room must be trapped".
The tried unsuccessfully to move through the room using the discarded Argossean shields. Several of the party members suffered minor wounds in the attempt so they were forced to retreat. After tending their wounds Rozlynn spotted some stonework sticking out of the hill several feet above where the ceiling of the room would end. "Look up there. I see some stonework sticking out of the hill." the Aesir woman pointed at the stonework. Racket climbed up the hill and cleared away some of the jungle foliage covering up the stonework. With a hammer and spike they found among the corpses he managed to remove one of the stones. Several bronze darts fell out of the hole he had created. "I think I have found something" the Argossean said. Racket pulled several more stones away and even more darts fell out. "Yes there is some kind of magazine up here that must be feeding the darts into the room.
After spending over and hour removing thousands of bronze darts from the magazine that fed the room they party managed to enter the tomb without further problems.
Beyond the anti-chamber there was a room with ten marble slabs on the floor. As they entered the room a spectral form rose out of each slab. "Ghost!" Heimdall exclaimed. Aleena held her holy symbol above her head "In the name of Mitra I banish you!". White light flashed the room and several of the ghost screeched and vanished but the rest attacked the party. "Our weapons have no effect on them!" Rozlynn cried. "We must destroy their corpses! I believe that will stop them." Aleena explained. The ghost lashed out at them each blow causing great fatigue as their spectral claws seemed to rend their very spirit.
"Hyrkanian help me!" Heimdall called. Mon Tau and Heimdall began pushing the marble slabs aside revealing the mummified remains of the ghost enclosed in sarcophagi beneath the stone. Heimdall smashed the skull on one and a ghost shrieked and vanished. Light again flashed from the holy symbol of the priestess and more ghost vanished. Eventually they banished all the ghost but were so fatigued by their ordeal that they were forced to rest in the chamber for several hours.
The next chamber they entered was large with a higher ceiling than the other chamber. Lying in the middle of the chamber was a giant skeleton. As they pressed forward the skeleton rose to it's feet and laughed a deep disembodied laugh. As the party formed a defensive line the giant surged forward.
The giant brought it's massive blade down on Heimdall. The blow knocked the northman to the ground and left him wounded and stunned. With a war cry Rozlynn attacked the massive skeleton with such fury that it too was knocked to the ground and damaged. "Racket, Raka, try and get the next door open!" Aleena cried. The Argossean and Vendhyan rushed to the opposite door which was covered in locks and began to try and pick them.
Again the giant stood and engaged the party. Heimdall, Aleena, Rozlynn, and Aziz fought in hand to hand with the giant as Mon Tau fired arrow after arrow at the beast.
Rozlynn suffered a deep wound from the massive blade the giant wielded and Aleena was also injured but eventually Heimdall smashed the creatures skull in with his two handed ax.
The next chamber was small and unoccupied so they decided again to tend to their wounds and rest for quite some time. Almost two days had passed since they reached the tomb. They were starting to run low on provision so they decided to press on. Rozlynn was still suffering from her wounds so she decided to switch to her bow.
The next chamber was as large as the Giant's chamber but instead of a single foe they saw no fewer than twenty skeletal warriors ranked up on the other side of the room. As they stepped into the room the creatures eyes began to glow. "Sheildwall!" Heimdall cried. The party formed a tight line. Rozlynn and Mon Tau drew their bows.
Again Aleena held her holy symbol aloft and shouted "Begone!". Several of the undead warriors burst into pieces and several more were knocked to the floor. Mon Tau and Rozlynn targeted the skeletal archers and dropped two more of the undead creatures.
Undaunted the skeletons rushed forward. One of the creatures lashed out at Racket wounding him and knocking him down.
Even as they destroyed the first wave of skeletons more recovered from Aleena's wrath and charged into the party. Heimdall was knocked to the floor but uninjured.
The battle was intense but did not last long. the final skeleton went down in a flurry of blows. Only Racket had been wounded and his wounds were not serious.
There was a locked door beyond the skeletons and above it there was an incription indicating that any who entered would not survive. The door was locked. Racket picked the lock and opened the door but then noticed something strange. "Look there seems to be some kind of mechanism here in the door jam. I think there is a stone plate that will slide down and trap us in here when we enter the room. "Ah I see it too" Raka said. Heimdall reached out and pulled the wooden door from it's hinges. He then wedged the door into the opening to keep the stone slab from falling.
The door at the opposite end was also locked so Raka and Racket entered the room to have a look at it. As they passed through the room several iron bars shot out from the side walls and ceiling trapping them in that half of the room. Moments later green gas began filling the room from vents above the door. Racket and Raka worked quickly to open the locked door but they were overcome by the gas before they could do much.
Heimdall started to rush to his companions aid. "Wait!" Aleena shouted. "You will need to protect yourself from the gas". Aleena took some bandages from her pouch and wet them down with water. The two Aesir tied them over their mouth and noses before entering the room to free their companions. They hacked the iron bars away and managed to pull their friends out of the room to safety.
Aleena knelt down to check them. "They are still alive" explained the priestess "I will try to revive them but they will need rest". Aleena pulled some herbs from her pouch and began working to heal her friends.
After several hours Racket was well enough to continue and the gas in the chamber had dissipated. Raka however had no recovered and Aziz elected to stay behind to tend to her.
When they returned to the door they saw it was not only locked but inscribed. Raka translated the inscription:
Here Lies Voltannox the Priest King. Aleena blessed their weapons and Racket picked the doors lock and they entered the chamber.
Inside the chamber they saw a large stone throne. Sitting on the throne was and armored corpse with a purple cloak and a large elaborate staff reading and ancient scroll. The corpse stood up. "Fools! How dare you disturb Voltannox!" Voltannox pointed his staff at the party and spoke an foul sounding incantation. Immediately they were engulfed by a spider like web.
Aleena pulled free of the web and with a cry of "Mitra!" she charged the unholy priest. Light flashed from here holy symbol causing Voltannox to recoil in horror as the priestess knocked him against his throne with such force that the Priest King and his throne were knocked to the floor.
With a scream Voltannox stood pointing his sword at the priestess of Mitra. A green bolt shot from the blade striking Aleena in the chest. She stumbled as magical energy crackled across her body. Heimdall ripped himself from the web and charged forward. He brought his blade down on the Priest Kings shoulder wounding him and knocking him back before the priest could strike Aleena.
Mon Tau fired an arrow into the undead priest chest and as Racket and Rozlynn charged forward Aleena stabbed Voltannox through the heart. With a screech the Priest King cried out "You have not defeated me!". A spectral form rouse from the corps and flew up through a grate in the ceiling cackling with hideous laughter.
Underneath the throne was a hidden chamber filled with; coins, jewels, scrolls, armor, and weapons. The armor and weapons were damaged with age and in this state unusable until they could be repaired. The party gathered their treasure then returned to the large room guarded by the skeletal warriors.
There they found two more locked rooms leading off to the side. One room was filled with rotten provisions but the other held three large bowls filled with gold coins. "Ah more treasure!" Heimdall exclaimed as he strode forward and reached into one of the bowls. Mon Tau reached out and grabbed the Aesir by the wrist. "Not so fast my friend. Things as not as they appear. Look one of the coins is a false one covered only with a think layer of gold foil. I have seen these things in my travels. The powder concealed under the foil is a dry acid that will eat the flesh from your bone".
The party carefully sorted through the coins and were able to recover several hundred real ones. They packed up their treasure in baskets from the provision room then left the tomb. "Now we are rich castaway slaves and wanted pirates" Mon Tau said. "I suppose that is better than being poor slaves" Racket laughed.
Notes: Well again this report is based on a game we played at the end of last year so the details are not very accurate but this is basically how the session went down. Just before this session I had awarded experience and my wife Michelle took the "Holy Warrior" edge for Aleena her priestess of Mitra. This worked out very well for her especially in the room filled with the skeletal warriors as many of them rolled a one which destroyed them. A number of the others were also shaken making that encounter far less dangerous. It was a pretty long session and fairly difficult. I know the gas chamber was even more difficult than the way I wrote it up but I didn't remember the details well enough to portray it exactly as it happened. Hopefully I will have our last session for this campaign up in a day or two. We just played that one of a couple weeks ago and it was a short session so it should be at least a bit more accurate.
