Inheritance

One of the players in this campaign has been trying to get a powerful sword and had asked an NPC wizard if he knew where one could be found. I had Elken tell him about Malkin's tomb. Malkin was the father of one of the other players as noted in his backstory. A hero who died shortly after saving the City of Veil. Since they were in Veil I reasoned he would have a tomb here. I wondered if the players would rob the tomb of a family member. Of course, they did.

Session 142: Despoiling Malkin’s Tomb

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Gabriel Anteriana (human cleric), Domago (human cleric, NPC), Brovin (human thief, NPC), August (human apprentice magic-user, NPC).

Members of the Company of the Black Dragon are in the City of Veil in the Great Desert having recently saved the city from an angry Efreeti.

There is a knock on the door of the guest house the party is staying at. Brovin opens the door ready to rebuff one of the citizens of the city who have been thanking the party for saving them. Instead, he finds Gabriel Anteriana a Cleric of Starlight at the door. Gabriel speaks with the group of adventurers explaining that he is a stranger in Veil looking for travel companions. Gabriel manages to convince the group to allow him to join them.

Aldus explains that they are off to loot the tomb of Malkin the Mighty, a legendary hero of the City of Veil. Aldus has learned that several magical swords are reputed to have been buried with Malkin. Gabriel is a little taken aback by this statement but accepts. Domago on the other hand is unhappy with the plan. But Lakima assures Domago that Malkin, who was his father, would not care. He has no use for the swords any longer.

It is a short walk from the City Gates to the tomb of Malkin which resides in a barren desert near the city. Lakima notices the arcane runes carved around the roof of the tomb and he casts Read Magic to investigate. He discovers that the magic runes protect the tomb from harm and prevent transportation magic.

Brovin examines one of two stone entrance doors and explains that they are stone blocks slid down into place. There is nothing he can do to open them. Lakima then casts Strength on Aldus so that the fighter can lift the stone door. Aldus manages to slide the stone block up in its tracks but there is nothing to hold the door open. So, he tells Eathwund to unsheathe Aldus’ great sword and jam it under the stone. Aldus lets down the stone door and the sword manages to bend but not break holding the weight. Inside the door is a small burial chamber. A dead thief is lying on the floor near a broken display stand holding gold, gems, and jewelry, and a large stone coffin that has been broken open. Brovin immediately reaches for some of the gold.

“Don’t touch anything!” Lakima shouts, “It has all been poisoned.”

Domago moves into the tomb and checks the corpse. He agrees that the person appears to have died from poisoning. Aldus takes the sword from the corpse and uses it to replace his great sword. The group examines the chamber. There is a shriveled human corpse in the coffin, a gold goblet, and gold coins on the floor, treasures in the broken display case, and two large tapestries on two walls. One depicts Malkin’s fight against the legendary sand walker of the City of Glass, and the other depicts Malkin’s final battle against the army of mountain tribesmen encircling the City of Veil. They do not find any secret entrances.

“Do you have the spell speak with dead?” Lakima asks Gabriel.

Gabriel nods and agrees to cast the spell on the dead thief. The thief tells them his name was Fareen. He was poisoned when he drank water from the goblet he found. He did not find any other level to the tomb.

They spot Brovin pocketing a necklace from the display case. Lakima admonishes the thief but he appears to be unbothered.

Lakima has Aldus open the other door but it just leads outside. Then they close all of the doors and Lakima uses the Wand of Secret Door detection. No doors are found, but when the tapestry depicting Malkin’s final battle is pulled aside, they find that there is a large mirror attached to the wall.

“There is the entrance,” Lakima exclaims.

He tells Aldus that since they are here for him, he should lead the way. Aldus looks dubiously at the mirror and then steps into it vanishing from sight. Shortly after, Lakima, Eathwund, Gabriel, Ian, Domago, and Brovin follow. They find themselves in a small stone chamber lit only by the light of Lakima’s staff.

Aldus asks Lakima to cast a continual light spell on his shield. It was dark in the chamber while he waited for the rest to arrive.

On the floor of the chamber, they see a message caved into the stone. The message is in common so all can read it:

Welcome, foolish adventurer, heed this rhyme,

You've entered Malkin's tomb, in dangerous

time.

In search of riches, you boldly tread,

But death may await you, in shadows spread.

This is your final chance, a choice to make,

To turn back now, for your own sake.

For if you persist, glory or death,

Awaits in Oqirax's maze, with every breath.

Aldus asks who Oqirax is. Lakima recognizes the name and tells him he was a powerful wizard who left the City of Veil not too many years after his father died.

In the chamber are two free-standing mirrors. There is also a mirror on the wall that they arrived through.

“It is a mirror maze created by a wizard,” Lakima explains. Since any direction could be right Lakima tells Aldus to choose.

“We should head right?” Aldus says. Then steps through the mirror to his left. The rest follow and they appear in a small chamber made up of two halls intersecting in a cross. Four mirrors lead from the hallways. Aldus picks another mirror and the group steps through. This continues through several nearly identical chambers as Aldus randomly picks mirrors to pass through. Sometimes they find handprints of dried blood on the walls or floor in a hallway.

Sometimes bare footprints of dried blood. In one hall they are attacked by the spectral figure of a fighter. In another, they encounter a spectral thief apparently lost in the maze. Eventually, they realize they have returned to a hallway they already passed through.

“This is hopeless, we are circling back on our own trail,” Brovin says.

Gabriel halts the group and communes with his deity. In his mind, he asks for the right path. A voice tells him that there are many paths to their goal, some lead to danger. Gabriel asks if the dangerous path is the quickest and he is told it could be. Finally, he asks if they should follow the bloody prints and he is told that they lead to a trap.

The commune spell does not produce a definitive answer so the group continues stepping through mirrors and passing through similar rooms until they step out of a mirror and enter a very large chamber. They are on a stone platform raised five feet above the main floor. A similar platform is 30 feet away also with a mirror upon it. Two burned corpses of human thieves lie on the floor below.

“This is a trap when we step down to the floor,” Lakima says.

The group agrees but does not see a way forward though they could step back through the mirror and try another path. Aldus volunteers to step down.

Aldus jumps off the platform and lands on the stone floor below. Immediately, a fire elemental appears and moves to attack him. Aldus swings at it with his sword. Eathwund jumps down to join Aldus and an air elemental appears and moves to attack Eathwund.

“I need to help them,” Ian the squire says and he moves to step down.

Lakima holds Ian back, “Wait, you will just summon more elementals.”

Lakima and Gabriel confer and Lakima asks if Gabriel has protection from evil prepared. He does not but Domago does. Domago casts protection from evil 10-foot radius and the entire group steps down and joins Eathwund and Aldus. Immediately, more elementals appear matching the number of the party. But all of the elementals are forced back by the power of Domago’s faith. The entire group makes their way to the other platform. Aldus pulls himself up and then pulls up the other members of the group and everyone passes through the mirror.

The group again finds themselves in the maze. Eventually, they come through into a unique hallway. It is longer than the other halls they have entered and two pit traps are blocking one end from the other. Gabriel casts Find Traps and warns everyone that the hallway floors and ceiling are trapped. Aldus moves up to the first pit and looks down. He finds that it is cloaked in magical darkness. Taking out a silver coin, Aldus drops it into the pit and hears the clink when it lands. He deduces that the pit is only 10 or 15 feet deep. Lakima asks Brovin to climb along the wall over the two pits. Brovin leaps onto a wall and easily moves hand over hand along the wall until he begins passing over the first pit. Suddenly, a hurricane-force wind erupts from the pit and Brovin loses his grip on the wall and is slammed into the ceiling.

“Are you okay?” Lakima asks. Brovin groans in pain pinned to the ceiling by the winds. Then just as suddenly as they occurred the winds cease, and Brovin plummets screaming toward the pit. Luckily, Aldus reacts quickly and catches Brovin.

“Do you have that bridge spell thing?” Aldus asks Lakima. Lakima shakes his head.

The group ponders the problem for a few minutes until Laima snaps his fingers.

“I have an idea!”

Lakima casts dispel magic successfully on the magical trap over the first pit. Aldus tentatively jumps across the pit and lands safely. Soon Lakima joins him, and then he uses the pearl of power to recover the spell and casts dispel magic on the second pit. The entire group jumps across the two pits until they all reach the far end of the hall. They find a skeleton lying on the floor here its back against the wall. The skeletons head turns toward them and in a raspy voice it says:

You did not heed my warning clear,

Now trapped forever, in my maze, you're here.

No escape, no light, just endless days,

In this labyrinth, your soul forever stays.

The group ignores the skeleton and picks another mirror to step through. After passing through a few similar halls, they arrive in a large cross-shaped chamber. A mirror in each arm of the cross. Before them lies a large stone coffin. Circles are carved into the stone floor around the coffin and four stone spheres rest on the floor. In each arm of the cross is a stone plinth with a weapon resting on it. Three swords and a long bow. Aldus examines the sword in the area they are in and he finds it is a well-used and worn scimitar. It does not look special in any way.

With his Find Traps spell still active, Gabriel can see that the chamber is full of traps. A trigger rises from the floor to the ceiling at the outermost carved circle around the coffin. Each of the weapons is trapped and that trap is connected to the mirrors in some way. He warns his companions.

The group examines the chamber for a while before an impatient Aldus says he will enter the central area triggering the trap.

“I am strong, I can take any damage this trap deals out!”

Aldus steps forward, and instantly the four enormous, stone spheres fly into the air and begin whipping around the coffin in circular paths. Aldus tries desperately to avoid them but he is struck three times and his body is flung like a rag doll into another arm of the chamber collapsing on the floor.

His companions wait in anticipation until they see Aldus struggle to his feet.

“I’m not dead,” Aldus gasps, “But I don’t want to try that again!”

“Can you dispel it?” Eathwund asks Lakima. Lakima shakes his head. While they ponder the latest trap, Aldus goes over to the sword near him. It is another scimitar but this one has magical runes engraved in the blade. He decides to lift up the sword. Instantly, the mirror near the sword shatters.

“What did you do!” Lakima yells.

“I just picked up this sword,” Aldus explains and waves the sword above his head.

“No one touches this sword,” Lakima says pointing at the worn sword near the group, “It is our only way out of here!”

Eventually, Lakima tells everyone that he has an idea. The stone balls have continued whizzing about in apparently circular random patterns. He casts a magic missile at one of the balls but it does little damage. Then he casts Wall of Iron across the chamber to one side of the stone coffin. The balls all slam into the wall of iron and crumble into dust. The noise caused by the whizzing balls ceases.

Aldus cautiously moves over to the stone coffin. He warns everyone that he is going to open the coffin. Aldus slides the stone lid to one side and looks into the coffin. Inside rests the well-preserved corpse of a tall, bearded man dressed in fine clothes.

The rest of the group approaches the open coffin, just as a spectral figure of a warrior rises out of the coffin and attacks Aldus.

Eathwund, Aldus, Gabriel, and Lakima fight the spectral figure. After less than a minute, it is reduced to a pale ghost and then vanishes. Aldus asks Lakima for permission to despoil his father’s tomb. Lakima tells him his father has no need for these mortal possessions.

The corpse is roughly tossed to one side to check beneath it. They find nothing. Lakima uses magic to detect that the boots and belt on the corpse are magical and they take them. Finally, they close the stone lid. Aldus takes one more sword and the longbow from the stone plinths. Two more mirrors shatter leaving only one mirror in the chamber. Lakima leads the way through the last mirror.

“Follow me, I know the way out,” Lakima says.

He confidently leads them through halls but soon it is apparent they took a wrong turn as they come to a hall with a skeleton wearing armor lying on the floor. Brovin grabs a bag full of potions and gold that lies on the floor near the skeleton. The group keeps on stepping through mirrors until they arrive back in the arena. This time Lakima casts Protection from Evil 10-foot radius so the group can cross the area floor. Finally, after several more trips through halls and some backtracking the group arrives back in the entrance hall with the message on the floor. They did notice that some of the mirrors in the halls they passed through were broken.

The exhausted adventurers head back to the city. Gabriel and Domago heal the wounds that Aldus and Brovin suffered. At the gates of the city, they carefully hide their booty in the bag of holding and the guards do not assess a tax on them. They collect August and Alayna at the guest house and then make their way to another city gate that leads to the road to the bridge that is connected to the magical Bridgeway. The guards at this gate warn them that travelers on this road have been going missing for a few days. Lakima assures them that their group is in no danger.

As the company approaches the old stone bridge across a dry chasm, they see that the Bridgeway portal is open. They had instructed Ezmeraldan the custodian of the Bridgeway to scry the location for them and leave the portal closed until they arrived. It appears something is awry.

Walking across the bridge the group steps off the far side and is instantly transported to the bridge in the Kingswood in Dolmvay. Gabriel is surprised by the drastic change in climate but Lakima explains the magic to him. There is no one around at the bridge. No signs of danger or struggle and their flying ship the Cloudstealer is gone.

“I think we might have been betrayed by my former mentor,” Lakima surmises.

They see a few confused merchants and commoners from the City of Veil looking about in wonder. Lakima tells them to quickly cross the bridge as he plans to close the portal. Most of the men immediately do as he instructs and return but one man tells them that this new land suits him and he runs off into the forest.

Lakima leads the group into the bridge structure and they search the rooms. There is no sign of a struggle but the chambers are empty. The portal is functioning with the control rods opening a portal to the City of Veil. Lakima removes the rod closes the portal and pockets it so no one else can take the portal to Veil.

Outside from atop the bridge they see snow on the group and a trail through the woods that indicates something large was dragged into the bushes. Lakima takes out the arrow of direction and asks for the location of Ezmeraldan. The arrow spins about in confusion. Then he asks for the location of the Cloudstealer and he gets the same result.

“I think our ship is on another plane of existence,” Lakima says.

Lakima tells Ian the squire that he needs to protect Alayna his wife. He takes out the horse in a bottle and releases it telling Ian to take Alayna safely to their Manor in Edgerton.

The rest of the group follows the path into the woods. Along the way, they see drag marks in the soil and patches of snow and ice. The path leads a mile into the woods until they come to a stone circle.

“I thought as much,” Lakima says, “fey creatures of winter have taken the ship.”

Lakima and Gabriel examine the circle. Lakima tells Gabriel that it is a fairy circle that will take them to Winter. But as he steps into the circle nothing happens. Then Lakima notices that one stone has been knocked over. He calls Aldus over and points out the stone telling Aldus that it needs to be stood up again.

Meanwhile, nearby Eathwund is looking off into the forest and spots movement from the corner of his eye. Looking carefully, he hears mocking laughter.

“Do you guys hear that,” Eathwund says as everyone ignores him.

He hears laughter again and a mocking voice.

“Have you lost your friends?”

“Which friends?” Eathwund answers.

“Have you forgotten them already?”

Eathwund tells everyone what he has heard. No one else has heard anything but now he has their attention. Then everyone hears mocking, hypnotic laughter echoing from the woods and building in pitch as if to numb their minds. Almost everyone shakes it off. Unnoticed by anyone else, poor August stands dumbly a few paces from the group staring off into the woods stunned.

On their guard and ready, no one is surprised as four fey creatures emerge from the woods and attack. The creatures appear to be short, very hairy men, with the legs of goats. One man weaves his hair into a rope and hurls it at Lakima who manages to avoid it. Lakima casts a fireball and badly injures three of the fey. Eathwund swings at one fey creature and chops its head clear off. Aldus stabs and kills another. A third is killed by blows from Gabriel’s hammer and darts from Lakima and the last creature runs off into the woods still taunting them.

Lakima councils not following the creature into the woods. Instead, he points to the fallen stone again. Aldus rights the stone and instantly, Lakima, Brovin, and Domago who had been standing in the circle a moment ago, vanish.

Eathwund asks Aldus what they should do now and Aldus suggests waiting to see what happens. Instead, Gabriel steps into the circle and vanishes. Eathwund shrugs and follows him. Finally, Aldus follows them.

They all arrive in a rocky barren. The temperature is freezing there is snow on the ground and snow falling from a grey overcast sky. Nearby, an ominous patch of blood lies on the ground slowly being covered with snow.

“Look!” Lakima shouts and points at drag marks in the snow.

The group follows the drag marks but they are quickly obscured by falling snow. There are no clear landmarks about them. Lakima pulls out the Arrow of Direction and tells it to point to the Cloudstealer. The arrow strongly points to the horizon.