����������� Book Seven, Chapter Eight �How to steal 50 skulls and loot 2 barrows in only one night�
����������� 07/09/2007 � It�s double Harn, hurrah.
We have a plan; we are all here on the Friday ready to go. But the Universe has bashed its elbow and is feeling a bit sick.
The plan - have a party a little way away from where we camp, start the party ridiculously early, say 6 o�clock start for a 4 hour party. We send some booze to the tower, laced with sleepy stuff, but we�re aren�t relying on that.� We are relying on silence and shadows to sneak past.
Party will quieten down and then there will be a sneaky trip for a skull exchange. Three people job. Then we do the Nebren tomb (the loot of Kustan and legendary artifacts), then the Kemlar tomb, then back to wagon and leg it.
We have a reasonable idea of the typical layout of a local barrow from Sedisi the magic-user. There is a circular corridor with a central chamber. You have to go at least half way round to get in. The sneaky party is Aruth and Zytsi, there is no third man.
The Kaborans don�t mind if we play around in the allegedly ruined fortress (so long as we ask). Apparently the pay of the garrison that was massacred there is still there. The ruined temple was an Agrikan one.
So a barrel of beer is dosed with eight doses of lalalicktit (sleep drug) is delivered by Aruth to the eight men at the tower. Gratefully received by the men, except for a 14 year old snotty kid, but Aruth doesn�t tell anyone that. The party starts up, and Daniel starts to sing the Kaboran drinking songs that he learned on the way up. Ah right so here is where it goes wrong as Daniel rolls 457 for singing Kaboran drinking songs. A legendary performance, kids are dragged out of bed to hear it, everyone is there, and it will be talked of for years. The name of Will Smith will live forever here. And I got 500 eps.
The sneaky party goes off to do the skull swap while everyone is completely distracted. One pile of skulls is swapped for the other apparently without anyone being noticed. They return and stash the skulls 30 feet off from our camp.
�
The party is in full swing and Daniel leads the locals off to the village. After an hour he is able to make his excuses and leave, slowly as everyone wants to pat him on the back and say how good he was. When he gets back the party has gone, so he headed towards the Nebren tomb. When he got near it he heard Bowlhead yell as the boulder rolled over his foot. Sedisi whinges that we are doing the wrong tomb, that one is later he is told.
Marching Order � in single file the left person goes in front
Zytsi and Sir Martyn
Sedisi and Bowlhead
Aruth and Daniel
Ah the old pit trap in the entrance trick, found just after we have blocked ourselves in with a Woodwall. Poke hole in it, and it�s 30 to 35 foot deep. Ah time for the Bridge spell that Aruth has never used before. It is his staff transformed into a bridge; he�s not a Wizard honestly.
So after Bowlhead has reached the other side the roof falls in. Sir Martyn and Zytsi took some inconsequential damage, Sesisi took 45 points of damage, and Bowlhead got hit by most of it for 132 hit points of damaged, knocked down, stunned, and a broken hip which gives him -75%. Well at least he can fix himself after taking a pasting like that.
So we spend 15 minutes digging out two sarcophaguses, by which time Bowlhead has nearly fixed himself and Aruth has cured Zytsi and Sedisi. Left sarcophagus skeleton with helm, shield and hand axe. No secret compartment, no traps on the next one. There were some more minor bits of loot here.
There is a trap, a pressure point on the floor. Zytsi thinks he has wedged it. The next niches have four jars in, no traps on them. They are full of Liquid, its 250 year old beer.
There is another pressure pad in the floor, Zytsi isn�t sure that he�s disarmed it. Tie a rope round Zytsi and he goes forward. The old four swinging battle axes trap, one of which hits Zytsi. Rather sharp and very heavy, double damage heavy. Well that wasn�t disarmed then. So a 5 foot wide, 20 foot long and 5 foot deep Barrier Pit avoids that one.
<<Dinner Break>>
There four large chests in the next set of opposing niches. The first chest is trapped and Zytsi rolls -02 to disarm this trap. Nothing immediately happens. So we ignored it and go to the next one. The next one was trapped and was disarmed and was full of money, silver pennies. It�s a huge chest, really large, like sofa sized and full. Zytsi has a batch.
Our trap expert Sir Martyn finds the trap on the third chest and Zytsi may or may not have disarmed it, so they ignored it. There was a trap on chest four, which was disarmed. Full of yet more silver pennies.
There are 100 silver pennies to the pound. You can carry 10% of your weight at no penalty, and they take 10% penalty per 10%, plus strength bonus.
We decide to carry as much as we can. So�
Sir Martyn is carrying 9,590d
Zytsi is carrying 3,525d
Aruth is carrying 4,280d
Bowlhead is carrying 3,000d
Daniel is carrying 4,375d
Check the next bit of corridor, and it�s trapped of course. And Zytsi rolled down again and didn�t disarm it. Now you may be wondering why the Khuzdul fighter and mason is doing traps, the answer is that he isn�t a fighter he is a thief. Now he sort of gave it up and became a fighter.
Tie a rope round the Khuzdul and he bravely goes forward, there are small holes on both walls here. Poison saves all round, so that will be a gas then. Zytsi has saved, Sir Martyn has failed by 4 (8 hits and 1 stun), Sedisi has saved, Bowlhead has failed (4 hits and is sterile but doesn�t know it), Aruth has failed (6 hits and at -20%) and so and Daniel (35 hits and at -15%).
The next set of niches has 4 statues in, and Zytsi goes forward and stops in that room. Sir Martyn goes forward and stops, as does Sedisi and Bowlhead and there is no more room. Aruth goes on and the corridor files with fire so Daniel comes to a stop. Well the fire will sort out the poison gas (I hope). Aruth gets burnt but keeps going and gets two more fire attacks.
The next round two Inspirations spells go off and we all save versus poison, except Aruth who is the next area. We have to run through the fire, Daniel goes first gets pasted and falls over in the third square. Sir Martyn strolls through the fire taking little or no damage and picks Daniel up and we get through to the next bit. Bowlhead is next and got through with just some damage. Sedisi was next and gets through the first bit OK but then falls over at the end. Zytsi is last and �accidentally� knocked over one of the statues, but nothing much happened to it. He takes no damage and drags the magic user out, but just at the last moment his armour is on fire. He staggers out the other end on fire on a fatal countdown. Daniel�s armour needs fixing before it works again.
Bowlhead starts sorting the wounds out, but Aruth cures himself. He recons he wants half an hour to regenerate himself.
<<Sleep and breakfast break and suddenly its Saturday>>
We have not (yet) gone into the central chamber, or passed the two metal �statues�, but we can see a bier in the middle. Aruth puts a 20 radius light spell centre of the room. We can see 4 more biers/sarcophaguses, and suspect there are 4 more we can�t see. There are four chests at the corners of the central bier. The walls are hung with weapons and shields.
We go forward a bit and the statues haven�t animated yet. Sir Martyn hits one and Zytsi hits the other, didn�t seem to achieve much. They seem to be suits of armour. So Sir Martyn disarms his and it�s a big heavy sword � its weighs 25lb. Bowlhead puts down his silver pennies and picks up the sword. Zytsi chucks his armour�s sword into the fire.
Advance into the room checking for traps as we go, there are none. Sir Martyn and Zytsi go into the room and nothing happens. We slowly proceed into the room and then Sir Martyn and Zytsi climb on the dais. Nothing happens and there are no traps, but much paranoia. There is something mechanical to do with the bier lid. Zytsi uses Engineering and works out that all the sarcophaguses/bier lids all open together, and there is some special method of opening them which he hasn�t worked out yet. The chests appear to be perfectly normal chests, and there is some kind of mechanical device on the ramp which isn�t linked to the other. There does seem to some kind of trap of the ramp, you walk up the ramp and something happens.
Sir Martyn opens one of the chests, which isn�t trapped and is empty. Now we know that we have to fill the chests with silver to get the lids to lift. We have found four chests the right size of silver.
Sedisi says the fire will go down in about an hour. We decide to try disarming the traps in the other part of the circle. Round to a room with clay statues � full of grain, smashed one open just to see. Traps disarmed back to the entrance chamber. The rooms seem to match up on either side.
Just as we bring the last bucket of silver pennies in to the main room the fire goes down. There seems to be some kind of sliding thing in the entrance. So we are all inside, except Sedisi who is at the main entrance. Rumbling sound and the sarcophaguses start to open. Skeletons arise from the eight on the outside and a more regal figure in the central one with cloak and spear.
The main man gets lightning bolted ineffectively. The skeletons banged spears on the ground and charge. The main man walks down the ramp, which kicks off the closing entrance in 3 rounds trap. Combat ensues. Sir Martyn gets hit by the main man and three skeletons � he is tough. Sir Martyn loses an ear and ignores the rest of the wound. Zytsi puts one skeleton down immediately and Sir Martyn hit one but its still there. Aruth and Bowlhead have one skeleton each and Daniel had two, they exchanged ineffective blows.
There was an exchange of blows the next round, they seem to be frenzied. This went on ineffectively for a bit longer until Sir Martyn takes another skeleton out and then Zytsi did. Now we are three down and six and the main man to still go.
Daniel goes down on damage and Sir Martyn knocks down the fourth skeleton. So Zytsi and next round Sir Martyn will be attacking the main man. The two that knocked Daniel charge Sir Martyn and Zytsi. The combat drags on and on, it was painfully slow. Oh yes and we think the place is falling down around our ears. On and on the combat runs and runs.
Sir Martyn reinforces the ceiling and then kills the main man, just in the nick of time. The skeletons die on the death of the main man. Then the party sticks itself back together.
Take the coins out of the chest and the door opens. Then Daniel identifies the spear, cloak, surcoat and armour is the only magical items we have found, drop the other rubbish then.
Armour is AT20 wears as AT20 and is +50DB.
Cloak +25 DB +10 OB and double damage (can�t be combined with adrenal strength) and can change into a Bear.
Surcoat +25 DB and RRs
Spear +50 and if it does a critical then it does all the ones below it (i.e. if it does E then it does D, C, B and A) and everyone on his side can goes frenzied if they agree (all together or none at all).
Sir Martyn will be taking the Spear, Zytsi gets the Cloak, and Daniel gets the Surcoat.
We have been in there about four hours and we grab silver and leave. How much silver do we carry? Lots and lots. Most people carry an extra 20% except Bowlhead drops all his money to take the armour, and Zytsi who takes as much as possible.
Cross the bridge again, and of we go. The cross a river that wasn�t a problem on the way, but with all the silver it is. Aruth goes first and checks out the camp, no one there. Dumps his silver in the wagon and comes back and says it�s OK. We cross the river and Zytsi falls and turns into a bear and drops some of his silver, he is upset.
We have about 3 to 4 hours until its light. We get going to the next tomb.
We move the stone from the entrance and there is a trapped entrance corridor and two stone statues of large dogs. Disarm traps and we proceed inwards. Same configuration of tomb but contents different. Disarm traps on first section. First set of niches containing 4 stone statues of men carrying halberds. Disarm traps on the second corridor and then there are 4 large jugs that contain something liquid. The third section of corridor has it trap not disarmed. Go back and do the other corridor and fail to find the first trap. So back to the one that we failed to disarm.
Sir Martyn goes forward with a rope tied around him. The walls move in an attack him, a bit like mangles, but they all miss him. The next niches have hanging baskets of dried food. Zytsi is next and gets hit by the second and third walls. Sedisi is not impressed. So Daniel suggested a Barrier Pit like we used on the swinging axes trap in the last tomb. Disarm the last corridor section.
Central chamber is more upmarket; ceiling is painted blue without the hanging weapons. Central bier and four chests with eight upright sarcophaguses. Two metal dog statues in the entrance area, trapped here unlike before. Looking in their mouths shows that they are hollow, or perhaps just a throat. Disarm the trap and forward.
Light spell into room to have a look in. The covers of the sarcophaguses are slightly transparent and there are humanoid figures in them. As soon as we go into the 4 by 4 entrance corridor it starts getting lighter and a chanting starts up. As soon as the front rank enters the room the rest of the party get covered in an oily liquid. A handsome no corporeal figure arises from the central bier. Around its neck is a scintillating gem that runs through all the colours of the rainbow. We all know what we want it to do. It�s getting brighter and warmer.
Sedisi Immolates so he�s not worried about the fire and he can sort us out, one every other round, Bowlhead is done first. The upright sarcophaguses contain look like humans in white robes who are chanting. Daniel is fire protected, meanwhile Zytsi Disarms the trap on a chest and opens it, it�s full of treasure. Aruth is fire protected, and Bowlhead standing on Sir Martyn�s shoulders. It�s getting brighter and warmer. Bowlhead reaches for the gem and the man Fire Bolts him, ground zero � painful but he survived. Then the dogs cough a couple of Fireballs in which catch everyone except Sedisi. The oil is now burnt off now but it didn�t affect anyone.
Sir Martyn pokes with his new spear while Bowlhead stays on his shoulders. He misses, as does Daniel, someone is doing Bladeturns. Funnily enough Bowlhead didn�t grasp the gem.
The main man casts a spell. The room heats up and we take fire damage � reduced for fire armour. And everyone is at -10% because of the brightness. There is now a Fire Elemental between Sir Martyn and Zytsi. Bowlhead gets off of Sir Martyn�s shoulders. Daniel runs to a Sarcophagus to hit it. Aruth moves to help Zytsi hit his sarcophagus and Bowlhead goes to help Daniel.
Sir Martyn hits the main man with the spear, and takes his ear off. The Fire Elemental goes to hit Aruth, but it didn�t hurt too much. Hit sarcophaguses for some damage.
Next round Sir Martyn gets Fire Bolted. Zytsi smashes his sarcophagus cover. There is an angelic looking man in white robes with white eyes. Zytsi kills him � its eyes glow golden and Zytsi loses 25% of his hits and everyone else loses 10% of their hits. Now we are taking a slowly increasing amount of damage and taking an increasing penalty, started at 10 points of damage and -10% penalties and goes up by 1 per round, and the main man is regenerating at the same number and DB is increased at the same amount.
The Fire Elemental died when Zytsi hit it. Daniel cracked his sarcophagus and then Cracked it, and Aruth Lighting Bolted the contents (he took the 25% and everyone else took the 10%). We have worked it out Zytsi smacks the case, Daniel Cracks it and Aruth Lighting Bolts them to death. When I�ve done the 3rd Cracks Sir Martyn goes into Pious Rapture (frenzy). Sir Martyn is taking a pasting from the main man as he is being Fire Bolted each round. We do a total of 5 this way, plus the one Zytsi did, leaves 2 to go.
Sir Martyn rolls 458 to hit the main man, and just tops, but he does. 5 times damage and 5 criticals but its still there. The last two are done on brute force in 2 rounds, but Aruth falls over on damage (which was lucky as he had to leave to go to Keswick). Then it goes very quiet and its defence vanishes completely, it goes from 320 DB to 0 DB. No damage and the minuses go, hurrah! It�s not regenerating either and Sir Martyn rolls up and it drops and dies.
Now it gets interesting Bowlhead sucks 120 damage out of Sir Martyn, and Daniel stuffs drugs into Bowlhead and Bowlhead first aids Sir Martyn. Zytsi throws his war hammer at Sir Martyn to keep him in frenzy. We keep this up to reduce Sir Martyn damage to manageable quantities. Bowlhead takes Sir Martyn damage and falls over, Sir Martyn comes out of frenzy in a couple rounds and falls over. So left standing was Zytsi, Daniel and a very damaged Sedisi. Bowlhead stands up in 3 rounds, just after Sir Martyn falls over.
Aruth is first aided 44 points from Bowlhead.
The gem has one power and its x2 mult and +3 adder which adds to existing adders and multiplier. +25 RE and ME bonus, 1d4 to stat of choice, gives a spell list of choice to level, +1 per level to stat bonus. Gives an additional save vs. control. +25 to PR and must be worn in a way that is displayed openly. Its intelligent. One person only may only own this item and they can only own it once. It incites envy in all who view it. It�s called Gloriana.
Traps checked for and removed on 2nd chest. This contains scrolls, Sedisi starts sticking them in a bag. Then 3rd chest is de-trapped and opened and is full of books. The 4th one the trap wasn�t removed and Inspirations shows the trap will destroy the contents of the chest so we leave it alone.
Worth of treasure is 1.5 times what is below
Sir Martyn is carrying 9,590d
Zytsi is carrying 3,525d
Aruth is carrying 4,280d
Bowlhead is carrying 3,000d
Daniel is carrying 4,375d
62,500 total loot from both tombs. 12,500d each
15,000eps each
The Order of the eight daemons is Sula�s order.
50 skulls belong to Order of Warriors of Mameka, who is at Bedanase.
Sula wants to piss off Herpa and Gashang (yes really)