Aegis' Dungeoncrawler In-Character II

[dantiesilva]

"As you wish." Abigail says as she waits for the others to close the sarcophagus before they proceed.

[Aegis013]

Chamber 5
After the deliberation, the party decides to go through the door, leaving the tunnel for potential later exploration.

The door opens to a short hallway that opens up into a large room. Long ago, this room would've been a place of extraordinary beauty. Golden columns stand in its corners, each carved with elaborate bas-reliefs that spiral up into the shadow recesses of the ceiling 30ft above. Every inch of the walls have been covered in the elegant brush strokes of elvish script.

Though, this beauty has been despoiled and faded by time. Ancient long dry blood is crusted on the columns, walls, and floor partially obscuring the script on the walls. A thick coat of dust blankets the chamber and cobwebs occupy some of the corners.

Two skeletal remnants of humanoids lay in the center of the room and a third against one of the columns, its skull crushed upon the ancient sculptures.

There is a portcullis on the far wall and an open doorway set in the rightward wall.

Spoiler: hidden rolls

Show

(1d20+10)[23]

(1d20+8)[20]
(1d20+10)[16]
(1d20+4)[10]

Spoiler: Inspecting the room a bit more closely

Show

The murals depict the history of Zeiram the Lich. A powerful sorcerer king in a strange land not surrounded by the endless fall. He lead an army to war against a great tyrannical evil and overcame it, though in order to do so had to turn to dark magic. His appetite for the power the dark magic offered was such that he eventually became a lich.

The elvish script writes of names of soldiers in his army and their deeds.

[Yas392]

Levi sends his swarms to check ahead while remaining in the previous room after requesting the others to do the same.

[Aegis013]

The swarms sweep over the chamber, but not much happens.

Methodically exploring you can see through the open doorway in the rightward wall where the elvish script and bas-reliefed columns persist in a smaller room, again partially obscured by ancient gore. There is a magic item in that room and some other stuff still left on the scattered and broken bones of two more humanoids.

Spoiler: Inspecting more carefully

Show

The reliefs in this smaller attached chamber seem to cover Zeiram's coronation as Sorcerer King and exploits of the royal family.

• +3 Ghost Ward Heavy Steel Shield
• 5000gp in coins and gems

Beyond the portcullis you can see three richly decorated sarcophagi in a what appears to be a burial chamber. The heavy steel portcullis blocks easy access but not vision. There appears to be no obvious exits from the room behind the portcullis. There is a lever in the room that may operate the portcullis, but not on this side.



Exits or Unexplored areas:
Stairs down
Sarcophagi behind the portcullis
Tunnel under the Sarcophagi

[dantiesilva]

As the swarms determine the room to be safe Abigail enters and begins inspecting the scripts along the walls. "Can anyone read this?" she asks, unable to do so herself as she continues to explore the room, keeping close to Chester as he has the two flames that would in theory reveal anything hidden.

[Thundercracker]

As the swarms determine the room to be safe Abigail enters and begins inspecting the scripts along the walls. "Can anyone read this?" she asks, unable to do so herself as she continues to explore the room, keeping close to Chester as he has the two flames that would in theory reveal anything hidden.

Alistair takes a look to see if he can recognize the script at all.

“Well…. Hope somebody can read it, because if not, there’s always Staffy,” Alistair said.

[Yas392]

Levi creates covers that face the sarcophagus.

Telepathy (All): I will read that later. Can you people go back to the previous room? I need to check something.

After they heed the advice, he backtracks to previous room before he flicks his hand to destroy the skeletons. After it is safe, he looks around the room blue glowing eyes and then reads the script from a distance which he will convey to the party via telepathy.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Baleful utterance on the skellies. After they are destroyed, Levi casts detect magic to see if there are any auras in the room and reads the script with his active comprehend language buff.

[QuadraticGish]

After heeding Levi's advice, Orchids moves back. "I wonder if this Lich's story has anything to do with Solum? I haven't seen any mention of it as of yet, but maybe this could be another case of us being able to receive some significant information." she muses aloud.

[dantiesilva]

"It is highly possible given what we know of the Dungeon. The great evil could be the voice of the Dungeon, and the dark powers he turned to could have been the Dungeon fruit. A land without the fall suggests that at one point either Sol had more land however around it or there is in fact some where else in the multiverse that has had to contented with the Dungeon before. What I find most odd is that this sorcerer king and his army one against this great evil yet the voice still remains and we have not encountered any undead as of yet." Abigail says rather curious in response to Orchid after being read the story. "Perhaps when we return to Sol we can take a look into this Zeiram though I doubt we will find much. I suspect we may have better results looking up royal family members that led armies into the dungeon who happened to have magical powers."

[Aegis013]

With the ancient bones shattered, there are no magical auras are detected beyond the previously discovered shield.

The elvish script on the walls of the big chamber are a long list of names of soldiers that served in Zeiram's army. The elvish script in the smaller attached room with the stairwell down describe some of Zeiram's close family and various exploits performed to overcome the great evil. Whatever this great evil was, it's not clear from the text available.

Levi is able to discover that one of the abilities Zeiram might possess is the power to banish outsiders to their home plane from the text in the smaller room. If that ability works against Delvers, there's a high probability that the victim may be warped to Solum, but not on land. A terrifying prospect worth defending against, if possible.

The gore and time has faded the text so there's unfortunately nothing else of actual interest.

[QuadraticGish]

"Have you figured anything out Levi?" Orchid asks from the other room.

[Yas392]

Telepathy (Orchid): Nothing beyond danger which is not present itself for now.

Telepathy (All): What do you think of the information and covers?

[dantiesilva]

As Levi tells them what the script says Abigail looks a bit concerned. The prospect of falling forever didn't exactly appeal to her, nor was the idea of falling for an unknown amount of time until she did hit something solid. "Do we have any way to counter Zeiram's ability to banish things?" she asks everyone in the group as her powers were not prepared for such an endeavor. Oddly enough fighting undead was the same as healing the living so her spells didn't need to change for such an encounter.

[QuadraticGish]

"I could setup dimensional anchors for everybody, but it will half any combat teleportation needs that would come up. Otherwise, it would make us fairly safe from planar shifting." Orchid answers. "There is also the debate on if we would count as outsiders or not. He could have been managing it with a banishment spell, but I do not know off hand if Banishment would affect us while we're in the dungeon."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Orchid is prepared to move forward.

[Yas392]

Levi points to the covers.

Telepathy (All): Or we can block his vision by covers. I would reconsider using a spell that blocks planar travel instead. Some of us use teleportation as part of our arsenal and get out of jail free card. Blocking that diminishes our survivability. So are those covers sufficient before we open the lids or blocking the vision lich who could spring out of the shadows at any moment?

[QuadraticGish]

"Go for it." Orchid responds.

[Yas392]

Telepathy (Orchid): So fortify the walls? Okay.

Levi strengthens the walls facing the sarcophagi and blows up the portcullis with baleful utterance to create an opening.

Telepathy (All): So how are the walls? Is someone going to interact with the sarcophagi?

[Aegis013]

The portcullis shatters, heavy chunks of iron rain onto the floor creating an ear-splitting cacophony. If things in this place didn't know you were here, they likely do now.

Solstafir's zombie enters the chambers and begins opening sarcophagi, however, no sign of imminent danger appears.

Upon inspection of the chamber, the writing seems to indicate that Zeiram and his wife and son were entombed here, though only two of the three sarcophagi are completely empty. Carefully searching the third sarcophagi, a hidden compartment is found containing a magical short sword with slots for three sockets, one of which houses a gleaming gemstone.

Upon inspection, the short sword is identified as a Luck Blade, and it seems to contain sufficient magic to grant one final Wish. A powerful treasure, indeed.

With no other obvious paths available, the group descends the stairs. The stairs end into a long hallway perpendicular to the stairs.

To the left the hallway opens up into what looks like an enormous chamber.
To the right the hallway stretches quite a ways before appearing to end.

Apparent exits/unexplored areas:

• The tunnel under the hidden sarcophagus.
• Left down the hallway to the enormous chamber.
• Right down the hallway.

[Yas392]

Telepathy (All): Seems we hit the jackpot with a wishing blade though we should use it as a last resort.

Levi uses his swarms to check left and right hallways for threats as he re-stealths himself.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Hide: (1d20+62)[82]

Move Silently: (1d20+28)[35]

Reapply invisibility if visible.

[dantiesilva]

As the heavy iron portculis is destroyed and creates an extremely loud clanging each time a piece hits the floor Sister Abigail has a bad feeling that whatever chance they may have gone unnoticed so far in this Dungeon had vanished completely. As the group gets to the other side and they begin looting the sarcophagi Sister Abigail asks what the writing says. And as it is explained that each of these coffins belongs to the lich, his wife, and their son she begins to wonder who the lich was. After all he had made sure to keep this tomb relatively clean and even some of the history still remained upon the walls of what he did, as if he wanted someone to know his tale. Could that mean that before the Dungeon transformed him he had the forethought to write down what he did before it could corrupt him fully, or was his ability to become a lich a way to cheat the Dungeon out of a servant?

The blade is indeed interesting, however I am more curious about the knowledge contained here. What is described here seems odd for a standard Dungeon monster to care so much about. What if this was a delver who found a way to cheat the Dungeon by becoming a monster, but on his own terms, thus creating a way for him to keep his free will, or at least enough of it to leave behind a history of what he had tried to do before being stopped? she points out, it was a long shot mind you. However this lich had kept around a carcophagi of his wife and child, as well as his own, and made a point to protect them at least from most adventures. He also left their weapon on their body instead of using it himself.

[Aegis013]

Unfortunately, the chambers provide no answers to Abigail's musings. Perhaps the Zeiram himself will be more willing to parlay, when you finally locate the lich.

The swarms travel down the hallway in both directions, however, nothing seems to occur.
Detecting magic, there is a faint evocation aura within the enormous chamber and it reeks of evil, however, the source of the aura isn't in sight from your position in the hallway.

[Yas392]

Telepathy (Abigail): Just like the recovered journal of the Mad Delver? I am skeptical about that assumption. One way to find out is to ask him or find more scripts.

Telepathy (All): Everyone! Enormous chamber is leaking vileness ahead. May be lich. Where to?

[QuadraticGish]

"Let's proceed towards the source of the evil with care. Dealing with whatever is creating it might be important to handle first." Orchid responds to Levi.

"Becoming a monster?" Orchid muses aloud. "I wonder if enough grafting would eventually push me to that point..." she says, trailing off.

[Aegis013]

Chamber 8
Carefully proceeding into the enormous chamber, it seems strangely devoid of objects for such a large chamber. The walls are barren and flat, and the ceiling is quite high, obfuscated by shadows. At one end of the chamber is a very plain large stone sarcophagi. The only decor within the room is a faded blue geometric pattern etched across the floor.

In sight of the object producing the evil aura, it seems the stone sarcophagi is serving as an evil altar, and this entire chamber is subject to a massive Desecrate Spell.

The evil energy in this chamber is palpable, but the place seems uncharacteristically undefended for a place in the Dungeon.

There are no apparent exits from this room.


Exits or unexplored locations:

• The tunnel under the hidden sarcophagi
• The long hallway

[Yas392]

Levi ducks into a cover or summons a wall cover in front of him (if there is no cover). Behind his protection, he examines the aura with his blue eyes which is one of his pre-emptive measures he activated out of his guts.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Spellcraft: (1d20+14)[18]

[dantiesilva]

Good news is the spell in this area is only desecrate and not unhallow. Bad news it will basically make turning any undead in its area almost impossible and any undead within the area, which seems to be the whole room, will be slightly stronger than normal. Abigail informs the others as Levi examines the room fully with his eyes looking for any other sources of magic no doubt, she doubted any would overpower the evil magical aura the desecrate was. After all this was a lich they were dealing with, he would know how to hide himself and whatever spells he may have prepared so that the desecrate would hide the rest. Be careful everyone. Whoever goes in first I will put a death ward on just in case. she adds making sure whoever entered the room first had the best chance to resist any surprise attacks from undead.

[Yas392]

Creating second 15 ft wide and tall wall in the chamber 10 ft left from the first due to the lack of cover in the enormous chamber, Levi turns to the group as he hovers.

Telepathy (All): Desecrate all right. I am excited to study the dark and unknown ahead. I made a wall you can hide behind. If any of us want more walls, send me your answer via mental link.

After the group is enhanced and requests for walls, Levi attempts to undo the unholy effect then send swarms ahead to the sarcophagi to gauge the threat of the room as he hides behind the wall cover he initially made and looks around the corner.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Dispel Magic: (1d20+15)[23]

[QuadraticGish]

Orchid nods and takes cover behind one of the walls, in her third hand her bow.

[dantiesilva]

Abigail also takes shelter behind a wall, trying to stay close to the center of the party so she can react in any direction needed.

[Aegis013]

It takes a couple of attempts at Dispel Magic (the first roll wasn't quite enough) but Levi turns off the Desecrate temporarily. The swarms meander about the chamber, but nothing seems to happen.

This delve has been eerily devoid of enemies thus far, and the trend seems to continue.