29 March 2020
Day 22
Participants
Derick
Kalis
Yaztromo
Expedition (Mihau's account)
The members of this expedition were Yaztromo the Channeler, Kalis the Duellist and Grand Novice Derrick the Wizard, joined by a number of hirelings as well as Naztromo the Bard and cleric Beydra. Before heading out members of the party decided against using horses this time. Yaztromo purchased a donkey and Kalis bought a cart and a draft horse. Yaztromo lent his donkey to help pull the cart and in those considerable numbers they headed out on what they were sure was going to be another simple mound-robbing expedition. It very much wasn't.
After dawdling for a bit for the purposes of exploration and avoiding a roaming band of zombies with feathers attached to their faces the party reached what looked like just another sealed mound, ready to be relieved of the riches within. They opened it using a tested procedure worked out the expedition before - with a chisel and a shovel. The shovel broke, not meant to be used the way Derrick used it, but that was considered but a minor setback and Derick kept the broken shovel for the purposes of poking suspicious looking things.
The party decided Beydra and a heavily-armed elf should stay on the surface and guard the cart. Beydra accepted, though she warned the party something felt "amiss" and "wrong". The party thought about it for a moment but eventually decided to proceed anyway. They would have been better off had they heeded her warnings.
The party descended into a strange chamber filled with 9 statues of withered and twisted humanoid creatures. The walls were almost entirely covered with reliefs showing scenes of battle. Although the room was unsettling, a cautious search revealed neither traps nor secret compartments. Seeing nothing of value and eager to move on the party proceeded into an adjacent corridor. This time, Yaztromo's slightly paranoid tapping with his staff revealed a secret door. When opened the party could see a narrow corridor ending with a pair of brass doors. After some deliberation the party decided to first explore the unconcealed chamber.
The walls in that one were similarly covered with scenes of battle, albeit in a slightly different style. The figure of a mighty warrior in full armor leading his forces repeated prominently amongst them, leading the party to the conclusion that that was the person buried here. Yet they still proceeded. This chamber contained a sarcophagus the party was eager to open, but Derrick convinced them that since a secret room existed this must have been a decoy. They accepted his suggestion and moved back to explore the secret corridor. Naztromo has been ordered to stay behind and copy the reliefs on the burial chamber's walls, a task he accepted with enthusiasm due to his artistic inclinations.
Kalis opened the brass doors, accompanied by Og and Morman, while Derick and Yaztromo observed from some distance. In the room beyond the doors were three sarcophagi and, standing some way behind them, their denizens, clad in full armor and armed. Initially they were immobile, but after Derick's shouts they started moving in the direction of Kalis. Before they could move away a safe distance the undead, one of which greatly resembled the warrior-king from the reliefs, attacked them. Og and Morman died almost instantly. Kalis was wounded. He ran back to the doors, closed them behind him and joined his compatriots.
They abandoned the idea of defeating the undead almost immediately. Instead, they strove to keep them contained to their chamber, so they could escape safely. Yaztromo conjured some sticky acid by channeling the streams of Slow and Acid available to him that day. The spell worked but Yaztromo suddenly grew to 8ft tall. Despite his distress this change allowed him at least to poke approaching enemies over Kalis' shoulder. Kalis flung some marbles on the floor. Derick stood aside ready to shut the secret door and cast Hold Portal on it at any moment. Naztromo has been ordered to run quickly and retrieve whatever treasure might have been contained within the sarcophagus.
The acid had a slowing effect on the undead but did almost no damage to them. The party once again decided not to risk a fight against them and allowed Derick to simply close the down shut and cast Hold Portal. Meanwhile Naztromo's shriek could be heard in the distance. He ran back to the party and reported that something within the sarcophagus tried to grab him but he managed to free himself from its grasp before it did any damage. Yaztromo thanked him for his work and he ran back to the cart.
Determined not to leave without at least some treasure Yaztromo and Kalis ran to the sarcophagus, ready to quickly slay the creature within, take the treasure and get out, despite Derick's warnings. Although unarmed the creature was armored. Their weapons failed to deal any serious damaged to them and it managed to grasp Kalis' arm. His life-force has been drained from him, reducing him to the level of a beginner. Finally seeing the foolishness of their ways the party started to run away after Naztromo, but Yaztromo was too slow. He has been gripped by the wight and seconds later collapsed lifelessly onto the cold floor.
Kalis and Derick managed to escape. They hastily clambered onto the cart and rode back to Helix, missing two hirelings, one companion, one experience level, and a number of supplies. Albeit the expedition couldn't be named anything but a complete failure, the two retained at least their lives.