The Second Tomb of Oroch-Vaan [Part IV]

** Howl of Oblivion Campaign Page **

Shortly after inspecting the statues, Anverth moves to inspect the vortex in the northern chamber.  Iris sees the smaller, undamaged marble statues begin to move, and shouts a warning as she draws her sword.  They call out, and Borz hears them from the antechamber he was searching.

The rest of the party rushes back to aid as combat with the mystical guardians ensues.  The supernatural statuary is quite resilient, harder than any stone, and turns aside many powerful blows with only a few nicks and scrapes.  The party deliberates retreat for some time, until a lucky strike finally instills some hope.  

As the melee carried on, options for retreat were discussed when a member of the party was momentarily put out of action and brought back by healing magic.  The statuary was slow and extremely difficult to hurt.  This was compounded by the disorganized and demoralized show of defense by the party, but in the end they were able to disrupt the magic impelling the statues.  The guardians crumbled to a chalky powder.

The party retreated to the section of the maze behind the secret panels again to recuperate for several hours.  They pressed on to leave the dungeon as soon as they could by doing what they came to do.  As one, they marched to the vortex chamber.

As Borz knelt at the edge of the circle and chanted a prayer to Wee Jas, he could see something seemingly emerging from the vortex.  Soon he is joined in prayer by Walkul.  Just then,  a strange bloblike creature with many eyes and mouths floated into the chamber from the center of the swirling gate.  Iris madly ran forward into the vortex to attack it, and as she did the vortex closed.

The creature roared with many maws a scream of hate and rage.  It gibbered incomprehensibly in languages the party could not comprehend, and the room suddenly vanished from view - replaced with the raw chaos and empty space of Limbo!  The party floated helplessly in the air, unable to comprehend or believe what was happening to them!

The creature began to shift it's amorphous form, turning eyes and maws to attack Iris who was floating nearby.  She lashed out with her scimitar and cleaved a portion of the creature's amoeboid body completely away!  A few blows later and the rest of it was also in pieces...and momentarily the chaos of limbo faded away and the room returned to normal.

With the creature gone and nothing else to stop them, the party conducted a thorough search of the chambers connecting to the maze over the next day.  Luckily, they found some Jasidans hiding in one of the chambers who were unable to escape before the Maze Crawler went into 'kill' mode.  Melmer was delivering mail when the pulse hit, and they took refuge - locking themselves into the nearest chamber.  He and his guards are very happy to see the players, and he is able to tell the party exactly what they were stealing from the tomb - leading to the discovery of some powerful magic among the hoard the party was able to extract from the resting place of this... Oroch-Vaan...whoever they were.

The party and Jasidans leave the Tomb and are met by the High Priestess.  She takes note of exactly what the party is carrying, but doesn't object or renege.  The party leaves the Shrouded Masjid a great deal richer than when they came...but what will they do next?

The party is starting to be noticed in Yecha.  They have made friends, perhaps allies.  At the least they now have acquaintances in the city.  Surely, their opportunites will expand from here - but what will our party choose to do?  

Howl of Oblivion, Chapter I

The Second Tomb of Oroch-Vaan [Part III]

** Howl of Oblivion Campaign Page **

The party moves through another secret passage that wasn't so carefully hidden and continued north - except Walkul.  Borz and Khaine again attempt to rob the ancient tombs, searching for traps and only finding the rusted and ineffective remains of them.  Borz then attempts to carefully extract another red gem from the bull-like sarcophagi, but is able to dodge the resulting fine mist this time.  Khaine attempts the same and isn't so lucky.

Apparently compelled to seek out the thrum of the mystical vibrations in the maze-chambers, he went into the twisting corridors alone to seek the source.  It isn't long before he enters a mystic circle in the apparent center of the maze.  He blesses himself as a horrific serpentine guardian made of bones and a human skull appears and advances in a swaying, hypnotic way.  

Unaffected by the minor magic of the guardian, Walkul readies himself to smash the offensive monster.  The snake-like construct is lightning fast, and gets not only the drop on Walkul but hits a vital spot as well...

Fortunately, at this point Walkul doesn't really have to worry about the paralytic poison of the bite.

The party soon wonders where Walkul is, but none of them realize he is alone and dying.  Sensing danger, they race toward the center of the maze where Walkul lies bleeding.

Iris makes it to Walkul first on her nimble elven feet.  She forces a healing potion on him before the golem begins to stir again.  The rest of the party enter the room, and everyone but Anverth and Iris are taken by it's hypnotic swaying!

Iris is bitten severely by the snake-thing, and collapses paralyzed on the ground.  In the span of a few minutes, Anverth and the snake-thing square off. It is a tense contest where everything rests on Anverth, but is the gnome who gets the upper hand and smashes the skull from the serpentine body in a single blow!

As Borz and Khaine recover their senses, the party decides to retreat to the L-shaped hidden passage and rest.  Iris shakes off the paralysis as they are carried back to safety, but Walkul does not.  After a rest, another potion is applied to Walkul's inert form and he finally awakes.  Undisturbed in their hole in the wall, the party decides to continue resting until Walkul is fully cognizant.  Anverth takes time during this period to decipher the magical script in the Limbolibram, unlocking the power of some of it's arcane secrets.

As soon as they feel ready, the party returns to the center of the maze and immediately all go in different directions alone.

Even Walkul hurriedly walked off alone again.

Soon everyone realizes they have walked off alone into the dungeon.  For Iris and Anverth, it was hearing the sound of rushing wind to the north of the complex.  Khaine soon assumed everyone else was dead and he was the last survivor, as he could not hear Borz return to the center of the maze and cry out for everyone to return to investigate the north section.

"It sure is dark in here.  Good thing I have *slides on shades* INFRAVISION."

The maze section gives way to a more proper temple area.  Before the gigantic statues (which the party learns depicts the interdimensional sorcerer Oroch-Vaan) are the heart and liver of some massive beast (which the party learns is that of a huge dragon).  The party learns all this from a Jasidan Cookbook that Anverth had taken an interest in and picked up in an antechamber.

Following the sound of the rushing wind, the party sees a massive vortex in the next chamber.  They pick around the antechambers, attempting to ascertain any dangers before it's too late.  Odd carven statues at the feet of the giant bull sculptures seem a little strange...

The ominous vortex looms in the chamber beyond the two giant statues.  This MUST be the gate to Limbo.  Warily, the party scans the chamber for any sort of movement, though it is difficult to see with the kaleidoscopic gateway looming...

The Second Tomb of Oroch-Vaan [Part II]

** Howl of Oblivion Campaign Page **

The party continues into deeper into the complex of the Second Tomb, all the while wondering where those golems Fasha was talking about might be.  Twisting corridors lead in all directions, and Borz spends some time examining the stonework.  Khaine helps search nearly every inch of the corridors for traps and other interesting things, but all they find are clues to the complex's construction and evidence of recent passage.

Until...

The party finds a shrine amongst the maze-like corridors.  There are bowls made of gold, with gems such as for some sort of offering to whatever is depicted in the imagery of the idol.  The Jasidan scripts are all offerings of abeyance to their Lady and her servants.  Borz attempts to pry the gem from the head of the statue, but it disintegrates into fine mist which afflicts the dwarf with coughing and wheezing spasms for some time.

Walkul attempts to flush the dwarf's eyes and face with water, but the powdery irritant remains.

The party presses on, finding a cell-like room with chains upon the wall.  One side of the room is littered with bones - though they were far too large to be human.  Upon the desk and table, the party finds a strange book, titled 'The Limbolibram', written in ancient Baklunish and some other strange pictography.  Perhaps the language of magic?

Underneath the small desk, they find entrance to a carven tunnel nearly the size of the main corridors of the complex.  Crawling under the desk and walking out the other end of the tunnel, they discover a secret door to another section of corridors, this time leading in other directions.  Borz begins to suspect the corridor complex may have at one time been one large chamber, and as the party explores this seems to be the case.

At the end of one of these sections, the party senses a faint vibration along a small section of wall.  Walkul detects a moderate magic on the other side of the wall, due west.  Khaine and Borz quickly inspect the wall for a way through, but there seems no other option than to continue along the corridors.

Undaunted, the party prepares to move through the complex more quickly...