King Tolome's many surprises

It seems as though all of our recent adventuring has finally shown some benefit for Elvis, Christopher, Grimdor, and me. Putting what we’ve learned into practical use, we’ve been able to gain new techniques and subtleties of our respective professions. This will help the party greatly when we continue exploring the goat-beast filled tunnels.

Once we arrived at camp, we found that some of Claus’ workers were packing up and preparing to head back to Pentastadion. We decided to wander through town to try and locate some of the folks that we rescued from the caves. I asked them some questions about who kidnapped them and if they knew why they were taken, but I didn’t really get any useful information other than they weren’t imprisoned as slaves, but more as “meals” for the goat-men. Someone mentioned that the librarian at the monastery wanted to see us, so we headed there to speak with him. One of these days we must certainly ask him his name!

Once we got to the monastery, the librarian told us that he did some research based on the information from the papers we previously found in the caves. He discovered that the crypt of the evil King Tolome was built in the caverns away from his own area – off of a temple of Thanatos. He also mentioned that King Agamemnon left his children (two sons and one daughter) behind during the uprising of the evil beast-men and their lives came to some type of bad ending. One last note - one of his sons was a traitor. Could this traitor be Morgellon (the evil prince that was trying to gain access to the Chamber of Pleasures)? Only time and further uncovering of this mystery will tell….

After resupplying in town, we headed back to the caves. Unfortunately, we forgot to notify Claus that we were heading there, so he and his men were not with us. As of now, we’re not sure of his whereabouts. Nick also decided to stay behind to reunite with his brother. On our way, we detoured to pick up Ralph and Willis who were once again hiding in the tunnels waiting for our return. We decided to head back to a set of stairs on the first level that we overlooked earlier. At the bottom, was a long corridor that led to some thick, stone doors. On them, carved in the stone were some words written in a strange language. Grimdor was able to translate some of it and told us that this was the tomb of King Tolome! My pulse quickened a bit as I could sense we were about to discover something good inside… or pay with our lives! The carvings also noted that to unlock the door, a “well-spoken blessing” would need to be invoked. There was also a warning to beware the gaze of vanity and something about a “monster within” being revealed. Hopefully, we can just avoid that whole issue.

Inscription on stone doors leading to King Tolome's tomb

We cautiously opened the doors to find a short tunnel adorned with mosaics on either side. They were of some humanoid type figure, however where their faces would normally be, there were highly polished, reflective surfaces. Always prepared, Never Nervous Elvis rushed inside and immediately covered the reflective surfaces with some black tar that he had, all while being able to avoid seeing his own reflection. Once that was done, we inspected the mosaics to find that six of them were designed to be some sort of angel with wings on them, but the one at the far end of the hallway (on a large door) looked to be some sort of warrior king. My palms began to sweat as I noticed an image of a shepherd’s staff in the mosaic. Could this be where it has been hiding? I was nervous with anticipation!

Elvis stepped forth and spoke a blessing into the ether. Suddenly, a low wicked laugh resonated all around us as the door we entered from closed and trapped us inside. At the same time, the door bearing the warrior mosaic began to open. Inside we found a number of interesting items. A large, stone sarcophagus was the biggest and most obvious item, however there were also two, small chests on the ground, and a scroll (that was tucked inside a small, wooden case) on top of the sarcophagus. While my comrades were investigating those items, my eyes were locked on a wonderful sight of the Shepherd’s Staff! As I was about to pick it up, I felt a strange presence around me. I’m not certain what it was though. The staff was bigger than expected, but I could still wield it well enough to use. It was quite a good feeling to have finally found it. I’m certain it will prove useful. The chests contained some nice treasure also. In one, there was an opal ring and a necklace with a medallion that had a woman’s face imprinted on it. The other contained over 5,000 gold and silver coins of some old Thracian mint. Looks like we hit the mother lode!

Our smiles quickly turned to consternation as we turned our attention to the sarcophagus. Grimdor approached it to inspect the item for possible traps. After carefully scanning it, he assured us there were none and proceeded to pry the lid off by wedging his sword in a small slot. Unexpectedly, the lid flew off and a hand wrapped in cloth lurched out at Grimdor’s head. Luck was not on his side as the attack caught him off guard and immediately struck him down. To our horror, out sprang a hideous mummy that began to attack the remainder of us. The battle was a tough one; the mere presence of the wretched mummy king caused a number of us to flee in terror. In the chaos, someone noticed a set of ceramic jars near the back of the room and began to smash them. This caused the mummy to lose parts (of what was left) of his body. In a rage, the mummy sprang over to the jars in an attempt to halt their destruction, but it was too late. There were still enough of us attacking him that we finally wore him down to his ultimate defeat. Victory over the evil mummy of the former evil Thracian king was quite rewarding.

After the battle, we searched the entire area. As it turns out, the ceramic jars held various body parts – presumably those from King Tolome. I kept two of the jars: one that held a heart and one with various intestines and other internal organs. Inside the sarcophagus we found a scroll upon which was written the edict of King Agamemnon. It spoke of how his fathers’ reign came to an end and how the necromancers were banished when this good king came to power.

Christopher and me fighting the mummy king, while Ralph breaks the ceramic jars

Speaking of scrolls, in all the excitement, we had forgotten about the first scroll that was on top of the sarcophagus. Upon examining it, I found there were four separate charms written upon it. The first was an incantation to protect oneself (and nearby comrades) from evil. Next was some sort of blessing spell to help the caster during combat. The third was an enchantment that helps the caster to locate a desired object, and the last one conjured up a huge ball of fire from the depths below to shoot at ones enemies! These will certainly be useful incase we find ourselves in another predicament.

Once we gathered ourselves from this battle, we headed over to the fountain of pink liquid to quickly heal up a bit. We’ll need it as we plan to continue looking for the Death’s Head!