D&D post game 12-23-17 Part 2

The hallway walls were moving closer together trying to crush everyone on the stairway. The bard and monk threw their weight against the left wall and could not stop the movement.

The barbarian cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. He set his feet and threw a shoulder against the right wall. I began to slow its crushing movement. Having slowed the wall, the barbarian began to yell and push back on the wall. The wall stopped moving and actually started to move back to it's original position. The barbarian was single handedly disabiling the trap using his brute strength ( rolls on athletic check of 18 17 and natural 20 without modifiers = insanity! ). This gave Lukas the time he needed to discover the proper combination and open the door. Once the door rolled open, the stairway walls stopped moving together and rest back to their original position.

The room beyond was similar to the burial urn alcove room from the second tomb ( full of owlbears ). The difference being the tile mosaic picture of a large, bright possible elvish city and a small hourglass in an alcove that was slowly counting down. The party began to search the room. Once again they found various gold and silver tokens in the burial urns. Lukas noticed several tiles from the picture on the floor. He began to pick them up and place them back in the picture. The hourglass was inspected. It was a plain and nondescript looking hourglass. The sand was slowly pouring from top to bottom. It was also very much stuck in the alcove. As they were exploring the room they didn't immediately notice the semi-transparent wispy floating elvish woman phase into the room.

The monk and barbarian turned to see the floating spirit and their hands went toward their weapons. Lukas covered his ears. The bard turned and the emotion drained from his face. That is when the beautiful ghost's mouth dropped open and out came a high pitched keening wail. The bard turned white and collapsed. The remaining three bent over trying to block the sound from their ears.

After what seemed like an eternity, the wailing stopped. The monk charged at the apparition and unleashed a flurry of Ki infused punches. The bard lay dead. The barbarian stood in place, actually terrified of this ghost. Lukas rushed over to the bard.

As the monk battles the banshee, Lukas was able to spare the life of the bard, with a little magic he had picked up along his travels. The barbarian struggled to free himself of his fear of this ghost. The monk continue to throw punches trying to force the spirit back to the grave. The bard slowly sat up and was able to channel some magic to heal himself. Eventually the barbarian shook off his fear and charged in to help the monk destroy the elvish banshee.



As soon as the ghost disapparated Lukas ran back to continue working on the mosaic tiles. Eventually, he placed the right squares and the mosaic wall slid open to a hallway beyond. A few words of magic and Lukas summoned a small ball of light to follow him down the hallway which led to another small room.

Here they found a another hourglass in an alcove by the entryway. It was still slowly counting down to or for something. In the room's center was a small stone table with a thin small skeleton draped in an ancient silk throw. A faintly glowing crystal hung on a chain around it's neck. There was also a table covered with all manner of embalming tools, small urns, vials a mortar and pestle and various candles. A couple of braziers sat beside the table alongside a small statue of an elvish maiden weeping actual tears. There was also a door on the south wall.

The part spread out to investigate the room. They eventually discovered that the soul of the elf maid was housed in the crystal necklace. They removed the necklace and placed it on the statue. This caused an explosion of cold air and a lesser keening wail to travel through the room. The crystal necklace had also stopped glowing. The party opened the South door and moved down another hallway. along the way Lukas told the party that this was looking to not be the tomb of the Crimson King. The previous room, the magical binding of a soul and the fancy mosaic all seem very not fabled bloodthirsty barbarian leader. He began to page through notes as the walked and thought this might be the tomb of the Crimson King's seer Zerbaxa.

This hallway lead to a small landing above a large deep dark chasm with a decrepit wood and rope bridge spanning it. Another hourglass met then as the walked out on the landing. It was still counting down to something. The hourglass and chasm were an issue, but not so much as the giant sundial in the center of the landing. No matter where a light source hit the dial it showed only 3:00. What did that mean? The party had no idea. Wrapped around the base of the sundial was the skeleton of a giant serpent. They all decided the serpent skeleton was an issue and they all grabbed the bones and tossed them down into the chasm. Then they crossed the rickety bridge.

After a few close calls ( and broken boards ) they made it across the chasm onto another landing with a very animated and large skeletal serpent awaiting them. As they drew weapons the party was hit by mental commands to stop moving. However, these mental commands did not work. If anything, it only angered  the monk. He unleashed a torrent of damage upon the giant skeletal snake ( one round took almost 60% of this Bone Naga's hit points- an amazing round of burst damage ). The undead sentient snake monster was able to bite a few people and unleash a little necrotic venom; but it wasn't enough to slow the barbarian and monk. The bard was able to toss out a few heals ( he went from inspiration dice to healing word with a good buff- off heal bard is that a thing? ) to mitigate some damage. It was not long before the snake skeleton was mostly shattered and fell apart.

The party past the pile of bones, passed through another door and walked down a few hundred feet of spiral stairs. The stairway was full of multiple hourglasses all counting at the same speed. What do they mean!?

The stairs finally led to anther small landing and another bridge over the same chasm. This bridge was stone with pairs of busts every ten feet or so along the railing. The busts were carved in the likeness of a helmed bearded who was yelling. Strange, but so was the sundial and all the hourglass stuff. The party began to cross the bridge. That is when the yelling busts began to spray a freezing cold mist from their mouths. It chilled the party as they crossed back across the chasm toward another door. Lukas began to work on this door lock and after an hour ( short rest time! ) he was able to discover the proper combination. The door rolled open and led into a giant room.

The room behind contained a large stone coffin with the lid open. There were six standing sarcophagi at various points in the circular room. A bookshelf and a large table were at the back of the room. There was also a small set of stairs leading to a balcony filled with bookshelves. A voice was heard from the balcony blathering all manner of nonsense. This was definitely not the tomb of the Crimson King.

The party slowly moved into the room to investigate. They checked out the coffin in the room's center and found a headless skeleton in all manner of finery. The constant blathering nonsense was heard from the balcony. The party split to investigate and that is when the talking stopped and a voice screamed "INTRUDERS! MINIONS ATTACK THEM!"

The scream came from a floating and flaming human skull at the edge of the balcony.

The sarcophagi all opened and the skeletal warriors within took one step forward and promptly fell apart. This enraged the flaming skull who then unleashed a fireball upon the center of the room. The party scrambled for cover, and escaped the brunt of the damage. The skull then began to yell about the group stealing his knowledge and plans. It threw up a wall of fire along the balcony, setting the majority of the bookshelves on fire. Lukas lost his mind and made a mad dash for the balcony to try and save what books he could. The barbarian and monk tried to shoot the flying skull down with little effect. The skull began to unleash twin beams of fire from it's eyes. Lukas made it upstairs and began shoving flaming texts into a bag. The bard, monk and barbarian all tried to get to grips with the mad skull, but with little effect.

The bard still sang about healing instead of glorious battle inspiration to help the party. Eventually, the skull flew low enough for the monk and barbarian to get a few swings at it. That was all they needed. The skull was disoriented and out of ultra damaging spells. It's eyebeams were not enough to stop the fury of the barbarian and the flurry of the monk. After a fiery start, the flaming skull had burnt itself out.

The balcony fire stopped soon after the skull was destroyed. The party policed the room and found an intact and functional crystal ball along with a small cache of treasure and blood stones. Lukas returned from the balcony fire with a stack of tomes and scrolls. Lukas had proof that they found the tomb of Zerbaxa the Seer. The man to have seen the fall of Myth Drannor. The man to have found the location of Thunderdelve Mountain. The keeper of knowledge from near 200 years for the hill barbarian tribes. The keeper of the way. A guy who knew a lot and managed to somewhat cheat death. These tomes and scrolls could hold so many lost secrets, spells, locations and treasures! This knowledge was worth more than any paltry coins or gems. This would be his cut of the treasure!

The party filled their bas with loot and made for the entrance. As they left the barbarian asked how Lukas was going to keep this tomb secret. The guild would be back after the spring thaw. Lukas reached within his backpack and removed two fist sized black spheres with small wicks.

"The hills are a treacherous place. Rock slides are known to happen in this area. A shame another one happened and collapsed this tomb." Lukas told them.

He lit the wicks and tossed them both down into the tomb they had just left. Several seconds later two explosions rocked the ground beneath their feet and the tomb entryway collapsed.

"A damn shame." Lukas said as he slung his knowledge filled backpack over his shoulders.