Session 56

=September 11th, 2020 - The Mummy Returns=

The Mummy Returns
The session began right where it last left off, with our adventurers faced with a stoic giant male with a flowing white beard and purple toga. This silent giant sat upon a large throne in the chamber made of sandstone, and in front of him was a small pile of treasure - mostly worthless. Seeing as the being wasn’t moving, they decided to first rest and lick their wounds from the previous encounter with mummies. During this time they found all of their remaining rations had wasted, and their water had evaporated. When ready to press on, Rachen was the first to approach the giant, when it spoke.

“Ye who seek Diderius’s insight must first furnish tribute, that Diderius might work his mighty magic. Lay such tribute at my feet or depart.”

The party each deposited ten golden griffons, adding the only gold to a pile of copper, silver, and broken pottery. After a strange pause, the giant said they were free to pass, and went back to being stoic. The group first explored a room south of the throne chamber, which was a now empty library. Bookshelves, tables and display stands all stood empty, as a ghost manifested there. She appeared to be a fallen librarian, filled with strife that she had let the library be ransacked.

The group pressed on through the other chamber out of the throne room, down another sandstone staircase into a chamber filled with the remnants of the Cult of the Dragon expedition. Guard drakes, and cultists attacked them, but the party stood from the top of the staircase and fought, and rained down magic (and some fireballs) into the room. To Rachen’s discontent, this left none alive to question. Out of this chamber were two closed door exits, one east with no markings, and another west down a small flight of stairs marked in chalk, “Danger”.

The group pushed through the barred door marked danger. Naturally.

Inside, a number of specters and a couple wraiths manifested and began attacking Cadmus and Rachen. Even though the spirits inflicted harm upon the group, once again the fireballs of Alburt did away with the threat - while also devastating the room. This room appeared to be until now intact bedchamber of the tomb’s wizard lord. The group did recover some very old writings and notes on divination magic, the group quickly decided they would look for a buyer for them. Rachen did find a surviving tome that he returned to the previous librarian spirit, who warned him about looking into the divination pool ahead.

After having dealt with the threat of the bedchamber, the party moved on to the east doorway, which turned to join with the large pool chamber they saw previously. From this direction, the party entered from a doorway that was not in any danger of collapse, and they could see that the pool was empty. The room was littered with arrows, blood, and a single human male corpse wearing a cult uniform. Upon inspection, the body died not from arrows, but from having his throat slit.

Deciding not to try and figure out how to fill the divination pool, the group kept on mission and went through the other stable set of doors out of this room. Here they entered the magnificent crypt of the wizard Diderius himself. The walls were covered with colorful frescoes of different epic scenes, similar to the carvings adorning the entrance to the tomb. Upon a raised dais that had a staircase to reach the top, was the intricate sarcophagus of Diderius. When Rachen and Rufus entered the chamber, the dead wizard’s voice was heard.

“You approach Diderius in repose. I know what you seek.”

Rachen stepped forward and said the wizard should tell them. Clearly not impressed with that response, the voice replied.

“Leave me to my rest or face your doom.”

When they did not leave immediately, the frescoes from the north and south walls exploded into the room as mummies burst outward. The party began to fight, and that is when the main sarcophagus opened and the mummy lord Diderius himself rose. The party once again used fireball to great success, and with Rachen sustaining heavy wounds they were able to finally lay the mummies to rest.

It was here, with seemingly no other path forward in the tomb and still not having found the dwarven wyrmspeaker, that the parties investigation of the tomb led them to a semi-secret “door” in the eastern wall - the only one no mummies were behind. With much effort, the group worked together to lift the heavy stone slab whose edges they detected, revealing a natural cave tunnel with a smaller chamber at the end. With a pack of lizardfolk inside, surprised to see the slab rise and the party on the other side.

After mercilessly dispatching the lizardfolk who rushed to attack, the group pursued one of the lizardfolk who ran down a tunnel out of sight. The air here was thick and humid, and the ground was covered in slimy moss. Thia ran quickly in the lead, down a southern tunnel that sloped down into the earth, until it opened into an open pit chamber. Across this very deep pit was a downward sloping rope and wooden bridge to another tunnel.

Thia watched as two long columns of lizardfolk with yuan-ti behind, charged out from this opposite tunnel across the bridge towards her.

And that is where the session ended, it was now the afternoon of the two hundred and fifty first day since the raid on Greenest.

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