DM Note: Just Allan and Gordon this session, but Derek left instructions for Eloy to be played 'full on' ... this was hazardous as will be seen!| DM Note: Just Allan and Gordon this session, but Derek left instructions for Eloy to be played 'full on' ... this was hazardous as will be seen! |
 DM historical comment: It was Sack and Hildraft who killed Gozân, and it took them a 20/20 to achieve it; they only just escaped his bodyguards with heavy wounds by Wind Walking away, and so never looted the body. |
The three adventurers touched down just outside the doors to the tomb. The building itself comprised two rounded, domed structures, apparently made of bronze and without windows; the one nearest the entrance was topped by an an onion dome.The steps leading up into the doorway had a light scatter of debris and leaves on them, but generally the outside of the tomb appeared well-cared for.
The heavy double doors were inscribed with words in four languages, Krultac, the common tongue, Norton and High Erlyid. This of course made no difference to the three ta'nara companions, and they had no difficulty reading what it said; This is the tomb of Gozan Vraspan. Visitor, respect this place.
Lynien spent a few minutes examining the doors and their surrounds, and rather to her surprise discovered that they were not only untrapped but unlocked. Carefully, the three pushed the door open and stepped inside.
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Their first impression was that of having stepped into a battle. All around them, warriors and horses swirled and strove, flames and smoke arose, walls tumbled in a blizzard of three-dimensional images of warfare in a dozen locations. Gorfang gritted his teeth; "This is not real!" he roared. Almost as if startled by his assertion of will-power, the illusiory images flickered and wavered, settling down several times less bright and partially transparent. They seemed to have been enchanted into the side walls to display scenes from Gozân's greatest triumphs, mainly against the elves in the Elf Wars.
Dominating the round room was a massive bronze statue of Gozân himself, in his black armour and hefting the doublesword he, like most of Varkar's elite, had carried. The three regarded this with some caution, fully expecting it to animate to defend his last resting place, but careful examination revealed it as a masterpiece of bronze sculpture, nothing more, nothing less. Eloy hefted Bereloth and checked the walls, but there were no secret doors or hidden panels to be discovered. Two arches at the far end of the hall led through to the other half of the building, and a faint flicker of firelight was visible dancing on the stone. It drew them forward and under the arches into the tomb-hall proper.
The second chamber was larger, and the arches led onto a rounded stone ledge with a railed edge. It looked out over a great chasm, a hundred feet across and filled with dancing flames. Curving stairways led down around its' edges to a similar railed landing opposite but 30' or so lower, behind which was a single, large archway through into a space lit with a pale blue radiance, in which a large, rectangular shape could dimly be seen.
It occurred to Gorfang that, were he this close to a fire of this magnitude, he would be able to hear crackling and feel the heat - and here there were neither. Another illusion, he thought, and a pretty impressive one. With a shrug, he led the way down one of the stairways to the second ledge. Once there, they could see the inner tomb with much greater clarity.
The rectangular shape they had seen was a huge sepulchure, made of black cast-iron, and with a bas-relief of conquered foes trodden underfoot fashioned into its' sides. The top surface was flat, and a doublesword rested there. To either side were two stone statues, nine feet high, depicting soldiers from the Dragonarmy that Gozân had led for his father Varkar Barduric, carved to represent them in the armour of the day. The quality and realism of the work was outstanding; the statues even had different faces and slight differences in build and proportion. All three regarded these with grave misgivings.
"All right," said Gorfang. "What's going to happen when I take it?"
He laid his hand on the black central hilt, feeling the thrill of magic under his fingers, and a faint grinding noise came from each of the statues. He drew his arm back, and looked at Eloy. "Can you Identify this, check it's worth it?" he asked. Eloy looked nervously from statue to statue, considering the risks. "Get on with it," growled Gorfang impatiently, drawing his swords. It's all right for you, thought Eloy. He reached out and took hold of the hilt with his left hand and drew Bereloth with his right. Lynien moved quietly up behind him.
The spell settled onto the weapon, and Eloy's expression told Gorfang all he needed to know. At that moment, both statues began to move with a louder grinding noise. Lynien had been planning to shove Eloy onto the sword so that he knocked it loose, but the Man in the Shadows reacted with lightning speed to the threat, letting go of the sword and recoiling backwards. The statues subsided. Lynien smiled sweetly at Eloy - then suddenly grabbed the weapon and darted away, a shout of "Run!" followed by giggling trailing behind her. "Why don't you give me that?" called Gorfang, but more laughter was the only response as Lynien disappeared onto the stairway.
Turning back, Gorfang was in time to see the two stone statues step off their plinths, exchange glances, and split up, one moving towards him, the other towards the stairway Lynien had vanished up. It struck him that mindless constructs tended not to interact like that, but before he could wonder any more, the stone figure was upon him. Never unready for combat, the orc backed onto the stairway to restrict his frontage and attacked, his blades flickering. A flurry of well-aimed blows struck the stone statue, all of them on target, but only a couple had any effect at all, knocking free a few chips. Whatever this thing was made of, it was going to need a better weapon than his own to stop it. Probably the one rapidly disappearing up the stairs towards the exit... Gorfang disengaged and ran back up the stairs.
On the other side of the ledge, Eloy had backed onto the corresponding stairway, covering Lynien's retreat in one of the occasional chivalrous acts he tended to perform in the faint hope of one day impressing the tiefling girl. This time it was even less likely to succeed, as Lynien was already out of sight and wouldn't even know he'd 'guarded her back'. Nonethless, he gripped Bereloth in both hands and laid into the golem with vigour. After belabouring it with all his strength for a few moments, he paused in sudden doubt; despite striking it noisily every time, he appeared to have done it no harm at all. As he paused, the statue struck back. Lashing out with one stone fist it punched Eloy squarely in the face.
The blow was massive, and Eloy staggered backwards, barely conscious, blood spattering around him. His skull felt fractured, one of his eyes wasn't working and his jaw was dislocated and hanging loose. He could barely see his opponent, but his dim vision was enough to discern that it was about to strike again. Desperately he called on his God's powers. It is Sabath's nature to be at his most powerful when either striking from unawares or when cornered without apparent hope. The Man in the Shadows called on the Pass the Buck power granted by Sabath's belt, and the golem's blow, instead of crushing out his life, suddenly soared out over his right shoulder into empty air. Utterly unprepared for this, the golem was thrown completely off balance by the miss, stumbled, and went off the edge of the stairs into the firey chasm. Gorfang saw it fall, and noticed the flames were blown aside by the sudden wind of the massive construct's fall - they were actually there, not illusions. A couple of seconds later, a massive, distant impact heralded the landing of the golem at the bottom of the chasm.
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At the top landing, Lynien looked back. She saw Eloy doubled over and covered in blood, desperately trying to return his nose to where nature had installed it, and Gorfang retreating (Gorfang retreating!) up the other flight of stairs away from one of the statues. She looked down at the sword in her hands, then back up at Gorfang. She sighed wearily. "Men...." she muttered, and began her run down the stairs. As she passed Gorfang, she slapped the doublesword of Alair's greatest general into his hands, ran a few steps on past him, leaped high into the air, soared clear over the oncoming nine-foot animated statue, somersaulted and dropped lightly to the stairs behind it, and ran on to the bottom of the stairs before disappearing back into the tomb.
Gorfang stood his ground and let the golem come to him, hefting and swinging the legendary doublesword to get accustomed to it. Although he had never used one before in his life, he was the Master of Weapons, and no weapon was beyond his skills. He could feel the strong spiritual connections in the blade. The doublesword had been the trademark weapon of Varkar's elite kin - a fashion resurgent among his son Skufruss' elite late in the latter's rule of Tarlanor - and it struck Gorfang that quite possibly this very weapon might have been the exemplar that had created that custom.
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The golem had nearly reached him, and the orc whirled the weapon to the ready. "Stop!" he called. "I am taking this; it's a crime for it to lie wasted and unused atop a grave." The golem did not pause, but it did unexpectedly speak. "I am here to prevent the desecration of my General's grave," it rumbled, and extended its' hands before it as it climbed, creating a shimmering aura around itself. Gorfang stood his ground and waited for it.
As it came up to him, the shimmer around it enveloped him, and he could feel a magical effect in it. Without taking time to contemplate this, he launched a furious two-handed assault with the doublesword, grinning with mirthless delight as he saw his blows smash deep into the stone of the walking statue's form.
As the golem began to move in retaliation, Gorfang blinked at it in surprise. Up until now, it had moved at a uniformly majestic pace - but now, suddenly, it was moving faster and faster! Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Eloy, his head now largely back to its' original shape, running down the opposite flight of stairs after Lynien. He seemed to flash across the steps, and Gorfang realized that it was himself that was slow. Slowed, in fact. Stone fists flashed into contact with him, delivering two painful blows so fast he barely saw them. Just to make things worse, the damage he had done to the statue a moment before was slowly healing itself. Abandoning his assault for a moment, he triggered the powers of one of the items he'd looted from the Fire Heights of Vorsand; Boots of Speed. Instantly, everything reverted to normal.
Gorfang was now furious. Snarling, he redoubled his efforts, battering at the golem with Gozân's twin blades. The statue put up a brief defence, but the orc's incandescent fury was too much for it and a moment later the orc was engulfed in a brief cloud of gravel as the construct disintegrated under his devastating assault. As the bits fell, he flourished the doublesword and got his breath back. Then he heard the distant but steady crunch....crunch....crunch of the golem who'd gone into the pit smashing out handholds to climb back up towards them...
Back in the main tomb, Lynien and Eloy were reverting to type and checking out the loot while the fighter dealt with the monsters; they were considering the cold iron sepulchure of Gozân Vraspan. Lynien was convinced that the iron structure was some kind of cover, laid over a conventional coffin underneath. With the help of Eloy and a Bull's Strength, she tipped the black box onto its' side with a crash - to discover that it was a complete, welded cube of metal. She began to lose her temper at this point.
"Eloy!" she snarled. "Get me gonving acid from somewhere!"
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The First Priest of Sabath stared at her for a moment; where the stang was he supposed to get acid from down here? If anyone was supposed to be going equipped for breaking and entering, it was supposed to be the masterthief in the knickers. There was a tense moment, and then Lynien snapped her fingers. "Got it!" she crowed, and drew a Sarkrith Opener of the Way from her pack. Eloy's face lit with understanding, and he pulled a scroll of Anti Magic Field from his pack. Unrolling it, he read carefully and cast the spell with smooth confidence.
As the magic dwindled around them, Lynien began to cut her way into the coffin. She was still boiling with rage as she did so, and wasn't concentrating properly - as the knife cut, fire-coloured light began to show around the edges; wherever she was cutting into wasn't the inside of the coffin! Hastily, she adjusted her state of mind, and this time the aperture cut cleanly.
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Peering in, she discovered the contents. A desiccated body - once a kin of some sort - was wrapped in a decayed black robe of fine cloth. Although she'd confidently expected rich grave goods, treasures, amulets, gems - all there was in the case with the body was a heavy, spiked helmet of black metal matching the armour they'd seen hanging in Skufruss' audience hall. At this point her restraint shattered.
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"Is that all?" she screamed. "A gonving helmet? A great black spiky useless typical man fighter's helmet? Aaarrrgghhh!" She hauled Gozân's pitiful remains bodily out of the casket with one hand while waving the helmet wildly around with the other. Eloy reached adroitly in to try and rescue it, and she turned savagely on him. Looking her full in the face in a blazing fury, he got his first really good look at her 'angry eyes', as well as catching a glimpse of her vestigal horns under her flailing hair. Suddenly she didn't seem as human as she always had before. Grabbing the body, she tore the head free and flung it onto the ground, before stamping on it, shattering the skull.
Eloy backed hastily away, hands raised in conciliatory fashion. "I just want to find out what it does before you do something permanent with it," he said quickly. Lynien growled bestially. "I might as well go home now," she snarled. "What's the point in fighting anything else if there's nothing to gain from it!" The frenzy was passing, though, and after some more muttering, she dropped the helmet into Eloy's hands and turned away, arms folded. Eloy Identified it and chuckled. "So walking through walls isn't any use to you, is it?" he said quietly. "It's a Helm of Ethereality." Lynien turned to look at him ... as the second golem, now fully healed, completed its' climb and hauled itself onto the lower landing, crushing the railings as it did so.
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