Tomb of The Serpent Kings - Part 2b

Retreating down the mountainside to an abandoned woodsman’s cabin which the party had first discovered while hunting down goblins in the local area, a basecamp was established and the unconscious Cletus the cleric was made as comfortable as possible. The desiccated and rotten head of a giant elk peered down from the wall above the mantle at the party. In the dancing shadows of the small fire Maul had lit in the hearth the semi-mummified remains seemed to leer at the group, unnerving the dwarf. He eventually took the subpar example of taxidermy and stuffed it through one of the cabin’s small windows in the hopes that it would scare off any unfriendly humanoids in the area.

Cletus had a scroll of healing in her pack, but no one was able to read it. Supplies were low and it would be several days before the cleric was well enough to travel even a short distance. Desperation forced the group to do the unthinkable -they split the party (after much nail-biting and worry). Leaving most of the food and water with Maul, Eefje and Alonzo made the two day trek back to Bebbanburg Keep, while the dwarf watched over the stricken cleric.

It was five days before the fighters returned, laden with as many consumables as they could carry and an item that cost nearly all of their treasure -a single healing potion. It was decided not to use the potion at that time, but instead wait another three days until Cletus was fully recovered.

Once again the iron spikes had been removed (or fallen out?) of the hammer trap. This time nothing attacked as they were hammered back in.

Making their way quickly to the False Temple, the party dropped down into the secret passage and moved into the unknown. Though reeking strongly of mildew, it’s walls streaked with slime, and tiny rivulets of water running west to east along the floor, the superior stonework of the passage compared to the level above was instantly noticed by the dwarf. The cramped secret passage quickly expanded into a 20’ wide, 15’ tall corridor that stretched beyond the party’s meager torchlight. They had reached Room 9 -The Statue Hall.

At this point the party began to get the feeling that they had passed into a kind of mythic underworld. Sounds echoed and reverberated in odd ways. The torchlight felt small and weaker than it had only a few moments ago.

Reverting to a pattern established during the first two delves, the dwarf moved forward beyond the torchlight to where his darkvision could function and acted as a loud and bulky scout.

DM Note: Darkvision does not work when exposed to any light greater than moonlight in my game. So the dwarf is actually visually impaired when moving within a 30’ radius of the human’s torches.

Six 15’ tall statues of heavily armed and armored serpent-person warriors lined the long corridor, beyond which Maul reported a large octagonal chamber, also lined with glaring serpent-person statues.

Back in the Statue Hall the party noticed that the north-west most statue was somewhat askew from the wall. Not wanting to know what horror lurked behind it, Maul quickly pushed the statue flush against the wall and asked for a spike to make sure it stayed like that.

The curiosity of the others (and a not so subtle bit of prodding from the DM) instead had the dwarf pulling the statue back from the wall to reveal Room 10 -Secret Guardroom. Though all of the furniture had long ago disintegrated Maul was delighted to find a silver serpent idol and two miraculously preserved pikes, which the two fighters were happy to add to their inventory. The rest of the statues in the hall were tested in hopes of finding more secret rooms but none revealed themselves.

Down the hall in the octagonal Tomb Atrium the party discovered several stone doors and a large elaborately carved archway directly across the room from them. In the center was what they believed to be a brackish infinity pool that reeked of licorice where the small rivulets of water from the level above were flowing.  

In actuality it was a deep pit that held defenders of the crypt which had filled over time concealing what lay beneath it’s slimy surface.

Alonzo, being of a curious and Chaotic nature, could not resist poking at the water with his newfound pike (though he carried a perfectly serviceable 10’ pole). While Eefje held the torch the cleric and dwarf hung back at the edge of the light. Alonzo met aggressive resistance and three skum coated skeletons lunged out of the water at him swinging rusty blades and jabbing with corroded spears. One skeleton landed a telling blow but Alonzo gave as good as he got, felling one of the creatures as his companions rushed to aid him.

As the party engaged the remaining two skeletons seven more erupted from the water surrounding the adventuring party. One particularly hefty and well armored skeleton got behind Alonzo and nearly cleaved the human warrior in twain, spraying his companions with a geizer of hot blood.

DM Note: A natural 20 on my part dropped the fighter to exactly -5 HP and sticking to my earlier ruling this meant he was killed instantly. Alonzo’s player rolled extremely well during character creation (4d6, drop the lowest) and it stunned everyone at the table when he was punked by a 1 Hit Die skeleton. But his player was fine with it and it was kind of a fun and exciting moment at the table.

Panic gripped the survivors and plans were made to extract themselves from the ambush or die trying. The nearest corridor lead back the way they had come but it was 20’ wide. Impossible for the three remaining adventurers to effectively defend. They decided instead on a fighting withdrawal to the secret room they had discovered where they could create a bottleneck and limit the number of skeletons that could attack them at once. But their chances of making it that far were slim. 

In an act of selfless heroism (or fanatical desire to martyr herself for her god) the cleric decided to stand her ground and cast Turn Undead.

DM Note: In LoTFP, Turn Undead essentially functions as in other versions of B/X but it costs a spell slot to cast, and a 1st Level Cleric has but a single spell slot.

Searing light erupted from the holy symbol embossed on Cletus’ large shield, illuminating the octagonal chamber like the light of the sun. Six of the skeletons recoiled from the divine light and moved towards the archway leading to Area 18 -Stairs. Maul and Eefje leaped upon the remaining three skeletons. They took down one of the creatures while the others were turned by Cletus who was maintaining her light for as long as she could. 

The retreating skeletons activated the trapped stairs in Area 18 (determined by several random rolls) and all eight of them went crashing and sliding deeper into the dungeon.

The surviving adventurers again probed the black waters to see if anything else was waiting there for them. Several small objects were detected but nothing grabbed their probing pole or attacked them. Fashioning a dredge from Alonzo’s helmet and some rope the party recovered a heavy gold chain, a wand of unknown capability, and the upper torso and head of a mummy. The mummy was quite agitated but not exactly hostile. It gabbered insistently in it’s long-dead snake-person language. The party had no idea what it wanted.

Gathering what they could of Alonzo’s gear, they stashed what they could not carry in the secret room and closed the statue/door hoping to recover it in the future. Then, leaving a 80’ long smear of blood and entrails, they dragged mighty Alonzo’s corpse back up to the False Tomb and placed his remains in the coffin of the previously dealt with skeleton king. (I’m sure nothing bad will come of that.)

Eefje slung the still babbling serpent-person mummy across her back and the party returned to Bebbanburg Keep to research a dead language and recruit more adventurers.

RIP Alonzo Machete

9-22-19 | 9-29-19
“He had a sweet mustache.”