June 19, 2019 Session
- Daniel Bove
Setup
The session begins with the party walking into their castle to find Namaria conversing with Pinna and Kelmen. Namaria has information indicating that the tomb of Imbriel the Stargazer is located beneath Castle Rend.
Towards the Tomb
The party opens a hidden door in the basement of the east gate tower and follows a spiral staircase below to a large circular room. One wall of the room contains three mirrors of the style that the party used to pass over to the Feywild. The other wall contains a mosaic - presumably of Imbriel - pointing his astrolabe at a starry sky. In the middle of the room is a small pedestal with a hand reaching from it. The hand appears to be designed to hold the “travel marble” that Corliss received from Atha as he departed Castle Rend.
Ser Shadow smashes the center mirror in an attempt to find a way out, but Hurodash eventually notices that the starry sky is missing one star - the Dog Star - and Namaria puts a diamond she had been given as part of her instructions for the job into a small depression at that location. A door opens.
The party makes their way down a long corridor. The floor is tiled in stone in a complicated but exactly pattern. The walls are covered with tiles. The level of craftsmanship is impressive. As they pass through the corridor they make their way under an arch. The are two messages carved into the arch, but each ultimately translate to the same thing. The first, in a fragile, flowing script the Yornan recognizes as his temple language, and the other, a blocky script that no one is surprised to learn that is either dwarvish or that Hurodash can read it says: “The living should fear to walk in the footsteps of the dead”.
It turns out that the corridor is trapped. Large hexagonal tiles trigger poison dart traps when stepped on. Hurodash takes the lead and begins testing each tile with his javelin, setting of each trap while Namaria casts Dimension Door to move to the furthest visible part of the corridor. Then, as Hurodash continues slowly testing the floor, Namaria rushes ahead, setting off multiple traps and getting hit by a poison dart.
Rushing ahead, Namaria finds a freshly dug tunnel reaching from the surface down to the tomb. Two lookouts are in the tunnel and the party dispatches both of them. Ser Shadow sneaks up behind one and knocks him out with a chloroform napkin. Rhagal uses Alter Self to take the face of the first lookup in order to convince the second to come down the tunnel. The party quickly subdues the second guard and Ser Shadow uses Mesmerizing Enthrall. The lookout quickly tells the party that five tomb raiders are deeper in the complex, searching for and treasure. Ser Shadow then kills him.
The party then rushes ahead, both Ser Shadow and then Rhagal using the tactic of running full speed across the tiles, setting off each trap but leaving the darts behind. This works and the party winds up in a circular prism shaped room with a 15 foot tall statue made of petrified wood of Imbriel with his astrolabe. Three of five doors leaving the room are broken open - no obvious locks or handles were apparent. Corliss looks through the astrolabe to see that it is points at one of the doors. The party passes through the door, only to find a 150 foot long corridor with what appears to be a pit of spikes in the middle.
The Tomb Itself
Rhagal - still disguised by Alter Self - tries to draw out the bad guys, but he stops before the illusory pit and states that he has no way to cross it. He then forgets the name of the lookout that he is impersonating. The causes the tomb raiders to disbelieve him and attack. The corridor turns out to be the perfect setting for a few lightning bolts, but the Arcane Trickster leading the bad guys is quickly banished by Yornan. The other graverobbers are mopped up in a few rounds and a stone golem that comes to life after the astrolabe is taken from its perch inside the tomb is no match for the party. Never ones to miss desecrating a gravesite, Hurodash pushes the lid off the coffin and all the bodies - no matter if they’ve been dead a minute or a millennia - are looted.
Aftermath
Namaria - who had been after the astrolabe all along - is forced to grab it from Corliss in plain site. However, with her Dimension Door already used, she is unable to make her escape. The party subdues her and takes the treasure back. Namaria explains that she had been hired and offered 20,000 gold pieces for the items in the tomb. The party makes a deal to take the astrolabe back to her employer, get the money, and then kill him. Everyone appears to agree.