“I must break you,” came a hollow and heavily accented voice deep within its helm. The living iron statue stood ten feet tall and was humanoid in heavy armor, which was smooth, like marble, with a slightly red tinge. On its right hand was a blade, somewhat sickle-shaped, with the left a massive hammer.
Charging into the room leading with Wave, Kai thrusted. The trident’s points slammed into the creature's armor. While it dented, it didn’t penetrate through, and it was difficult to tell if it did a lot of damage.
Joining the paladin, Guo Gan swiped with Qiekamis. The monk added another dent to the living iron statue, but a follow-up attack with the other end of the quarterstaff bounced off the metal.
The golem-like creature bashed with his left hand’s hammer, missing. Its right hand’s blade ‘whooshed’, striking Guo Gan. As the monk reeled back, the living iron statue sucked in deeply and made a sudden involuntary expulsion of air from its nose and mouth. Four large masses resembling giant amoebas the color of dark yellow ‘splatted’ to the floor.
Kildo was disgusted at the sneeze, but matters worsened as each goo-pile began to creep along the ground. They were ochre jellies.
A bright streak arched into the room, carved around Kai and Guo Gan, as Scomatch’s fireball ignited the area in fire. Affecting the iron living statue, as part of it warped, the flames ate away at the ochre jellies. The creatures shuttered, and then each exploded. However, they weren’t dead. They divided. There were now eight of them.
“Scomatch! You’re making things worse!” Kai shouted as the jellies surrounded him and Guo Gan.
“I be having something fer yer head cold. Take one of these, and don’t be calling me in the morning,” Kildo said as a vertical column of divine fire ignited from the heavens. The flames engulfed the living statue. Its form melted its frame into its joints, locking it into place. It was no longer a threat. However, he was unsure if it was destroyed or just couldn’t move. Four of the smaller ochre jellies shriveled into a black mass. A horrid stench, like tar, filled the room. The cleric then moved into the room and braced his shield, ready to help the fighters absorb any counter-attack from the cheese-whiz monsters.
“I be here ta help ye!”
“What?” Kai turned toward the dwarf cleric as he was lunging with Wave at a jelly. His aim went wide missing. Snorting, he attacked again as the trident skewered one of the creatures and then another. They both shuttered and began falling apart, like honey to the ground, dead.
Guo Gan maneuvered around them and thrust Qiekamis into the last two ochre jellies. The sentient quarterstaff pulsed a sickening, bright green color and, like a straw, drank up the creatures' essence until nothing remained, but their withered masses.
Examining the circular room, there was nothing else of interest.
“There has to be a secret door that we missed. The design of this tomb looks incomplete,” Kai said, examining the walls for anything out of place.
“No lad, it be as it be. True, it not be symmetrical, but it be complete. I be watching the stone, and it be telling me we not be missing anything,” Kildo added. “Dwarf guarantee.”
“Right, there are a few options,” Guo Gan said, strapping Qiekamis to his back. “One, continue to the bottom of the original shaft, bringing us here. Second, the bridge to inexplicable death-”
“Nope, not be going back there,” Kildo interrupted.
“Or, we examine one of the endless falling pits,” Guo Gan concluded.
Kildo didn’t know where to go next, except not the bridge of death. They hadn’t missed anything, but either there was something down further where they came in, or there might be another level somewhere in the never-ending falling pit. Perhaps another level unseen from looking up or down and obscured by the darkness.
“I like exploring the bottom of the original pit. There has to be something down there,” Kai said.
“I be good with that,” Kildo said.
The party headed east into a medium-sized octagonal room with one of the statues of an old man. Engravings were at the bottom, but were more shapes than words.
As they turned northwards, Guo Gan approached the figure and asked, “Where is the map in Badr Al-Mosak's tomb that will lead us to the Rock of Martek to find the impossible shovel?”
“Your perseverance will be rewarded!” came a man’s shaky voice.
Shrugging, Guo Gan said, “Worth double-checking.”
Returning to the entrance level of the tomb, where they encountered the assassin vines, Kildo peered down. The hole went further than he could see into unyielding darkness. Taking a rock, Kildo cast the cantrip, Light. It shed a bright glow out twenty feet. He then tossed the glowing stone. It fell. Striking the bottom, the ground was rough with multiple stalagmites points reaching upwards. There were pools of water, but from his vantage point, they were darkened.
“I’ll be back,” Guo Gan said and, taking a deep breath, began running along the hole’s wall. The monk’s feet using any impression, regardless of how small, to keep his footing.
Several minutes later, the monk returned and landed softly on his feet. “Nothing down there or indicating a way out.”
“To the never-ending fall,” Kai said, clapping his hands.
Returning to the southernmost circular pit.
Kildo looked up and down. Nothing to indicate another level. Some debris still fell and, a few moments later, fell again.
Guo Gan took out and tossed a few coppers. The same coins fell past again. “All right, wish me luck.” The monk began running down along the wall. He was quickly lost in the darkness. A moment later, the party saw him again running. His head turned in surprise seeing the group stare back at him. This occurred a few more times. Guo Gan began shouting, but his words were cut off as he traveled past.
“There’s a telep-”
“The ground comes close then-”
“I reappear at the top-”
“Stop me-”
“Anytime!”
Putting his hand to his chin, Kai asked, “Is he ready to come out?”
“Nah, I think the monk said, ‘Don’t stop me, anytime’” Scomatch replied, snickering under his breath.
Eyes narrowing at the halfling mage, Kai said, “Mage hand the rope out to him.”
“Anytime!” came the frantic call from Guo Gan.
“Ya see! He’s having fun,” Scomatch replied. The paladin’s eyes glared. “Whatever.” Casting, Mage Hand. A spectral floating hand of the halfling appeared and pulled the rope out thirty feet. Kai and Kildo held onto the end.
Seeing the cord, after a couple of tries, Guo Gan grabbed it, and there was a ‘thump’ as his body impacted hard on the wall’s side. The line went taut as the monk pulled himself up.
“There’s a pathway above us. I’ll run back and use the rope to pull the rest up,” Guo Gan explained as he tied the rope around his waist. Taking in a deep breath, he began running down the ever-falling pit.
The rope pulled down hard, and Kildo and Kai held on. After a moment, the rope shot straight up and then went taut. Still holding onto the ends, Guo Gan rappelled down back to their level. “I’ve secured it, so we can now climb up.”
Last and pulling on the rope, Kildo used his feet against the wall to climb. Kai and Guo Gan helped him to the level. He was in a small corridor with a short flight of steps up to another area. It was an octagon, medium-sized room. Three feet off the ground were a set of stationary, four solid beams of red light. Two ran parallel to each other, east and west. The other two ran diagonally and formed an ‘X’ pattern.
“I not be seeing anything either, but them blasted bright lasers,” Kildo said.
“They are called magical energy beams, but I don’t see an off switch either,” Scomatch corrected.
“There is something odd about one of the plates on the floor,” Kai said and, upon seeing beams of delight on the others' faces, continued, “On the other side of the room.”
Guo Gan pulled out his grey bag of tricks, retrieved a handful of lint, and carefully placed it on the ground. It instantly transformed into a giant badger. Twice the normal size, it had a distinctive white stripe from the tip of its long nose to the back of its head with white cheeks.
“Who’s a good boy,” Guo Gan said, scratching the badger on the head. “I need you to run through the room, don’t touch any of the magical energy beams, and press that stone on the floor. You got that?”
The badger squeaked in acknowledgment and began running across. The stationary beam began to hum and rotate. They sped up quickly. There was a squeal as one of the energy lines struck the badger. It froze into a block of ice and skidded the rest of the way across the floor. It crumbled into reddish cubes.
“Aww!” Guo Gan lamented.
Scomatch began casting, Mage Hand. A spectral image of the halfling’s hand raced across the room and pressed the floor. It didn’t budge. “Well, that didn’t work. I can use my mage hand to bring ten pounds of trash over at a time to help deactivate it.”
“Like we carry ten pounds of trash around with us,” Kai scoffed.
“Anything will do,” Scomatch replied. “Here, I’ll use my waterskin.” The mage hand lifted the item and floated it across the room. A beam struck it. The waterskin bulged as the liquid inside turned into ice. Continuing to travel, another ray made contact. It instantly disintegrated.
“Bugger! Fine, I’ll just misty step across,” Scomatch said and began casting. Power accumulated in the air. It turned a sickening green, and necrotic energy zapped the halfling, interrupting his spell. “What the nine hells?” He began casting again with the same effect.
“I can cross it. I got this,” Guo Gan said, rubbing his hands together. The monk began stretching and popping his joints.
“Be waiting a moment,” Kildo said and began casting, Bless. He too, felt the necrotic energy accumulate. Speeding up his chant, the spell went off before he could be struck. Kai, Scomatch, and Guo Gan glowed briefly, affected by the spell.
The monk went down and had to arch his derriere under the first beam and pulled himself along the ground. Standing up, he dipped his left shoulder and curved past the second. Going down like a crab on all fours and moving sideways, he picked up one leg and hand and then the others to circumvent the third beam. Picking up his left leg horizontally to the ground, he brought it over the fourth and last magical energy pulse. Walking over to the tile, he placed his foot on it and pressed down hard. Stone grinded as it sank into the ground. A wobbling sound echoed and lessened in the room, and the energy flickered and turned off.
“It should be safe now,” Guo Gan beckoned.
Crossing the room unharmed, Kildo and the rest climbed another set of short stairs to a larger octagon-shaped room. The ground was covered in earth. As Guo Gan’s foot made an imprint, four figures began to pull themselves free.
Wrapped in the burial shrouds of death, four humanoid mummies stood. The area was permeated with the smell of broken earth, decay, and rot. The mummy in the back, hand rose as it horribly screeched, “Arrgh!”
Guo Gan sprinted across the ground and swiped with Qiekamis, striking it in the stomach. Doubled over, the monk side-kicked it. It flew backward into a wall, knocking it to the ground.
A fireball from Scomatch arched into the room and ignited. The third mummy on the ground burned to a crisp as if made from ancient toilet paper. The rest blackened.
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life,” Kildo chanted, holding up his holy symbol of Rigga, the Earthmother. Its radiant light spread out, striking all three remaining mummies. The two in the front bellowed in fear and fled north up a set of stairs, with one tripping and falling before continuing. The last one in the back held his ground and bemoaned in hatred.
Turning its attention to the dwarven cleric. The leader shambled quickly toward Kildo and punched him square in the nose with its bandage-wrapped fist. Fortunately, his Helm of Underwater breathing bridge guard prevented the undead’s rot from touching his skin. However, the creature’s eyes blazed. Its energy poured into Kildo, causing an unnatural, magical fear to overtake his body. He forgot everything he was doing. His concentration on the bless spell faded. He had to flee and get away.
A moment later, the three prongs from Wave exploded from the back and through the mummy's chest. Radiant energy glowed from the three prongs as it ignited the creature. Kai shook it off his trident and used his foot to remove the remains, which fell apart.
“Be hurrying before Rigga’s influence be wearing off,” Kildo said as he put his ankh holy symbol away. Following the fleeing mummys’ path led to a large, square-shaped room. In the corners, skulls rested on pedestals. An unholy greenish fire ignited from their eye sockets and mouths. Each began to rise and levitate above.
The necrotic light pushed back the darkness, revealing three additional mummies in burial garb in the back. Two were female by the curvature of the ancient bandages. The other was taller and male. It opened its mouth and bellowed, “You fools have traveled where you shouldn’t and now will never leave!”
Stepping up next to Kildo, Kai said, “My kingdom for a good pair of scissors.”
Comments