Session 0032 - Exploring the Tomb

Roster

List of characters who's player was in attendance

Player characters who's player is attending the game start with 1 Hero Point, and can get more during the session.

Absent

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Player characters for missing players do not start the session with a hero point, and can not get any more during the session.

Session Log

After the fight with the flying skulls, Alicia treats wounds on Sarroxtíoð and Eriana and fails to successfully treat wounds on Harbek. After this, both she and Harbek use their curative powers to cure the injuries of everyone in the room. They spend a little over the next hour doing this, alternating between curing and refocusing to regain their abilities.
Both of them notice that the Mabarran manifestation zone does not appear to be hampering their curative magic here, though they can feel a subtle change in the air of the tomb.
While they help patch the party up, the others begin to pry open the sarcophagi to see what is inside. All of them contain an ancient skeletal corpse decorated in rusted armor, buried with rusted weapons. One of the bodies holds a Greataxe which does not show any signs of rust or wear. It appears to have runes upon it. Assuming it is magical, the party take it. Sarroxtíoð is the only one likely to use it, so he holds onto it. However, he is a bit too encumbered with the large axe so he stows his greatsword and club in the Spacious Pouch to lighten the load.
There is talk of resting up overnight in the tomb, but Leodegar and Alicia are concerned that the flying skulls are undead they are not familiar with. It may be possible they regenerate, so they advise against sleeping here.
Before they leave, Eriana wants to take the Everlight wall brazier. It is firmly bolted to the wall in a hefty brass frame, but she is determined to get it. The party waits while she uses her crowbar to pry it free. The brazier is bulky, but there is plenty of room in the Spacious Pouch so she stashes it there. Meanwhile, Ferdinand has his hooded lantern to see by.
Everyone leaves the tomb here and go outside and a little farther south along the path they took up here. About 50 feet further along the wall there is another pair of impressive stone doors. This one has some markings on it that look like some sort of impressive seal. On either side of the door are two armored skeletal warriors encased in ice against the rock.
Squinting to get a good look at the door, several party members think that the seal has been broken or disturbed and the door looks like it may have been opened recently. There is no obvious handles and it looks like they push inwards. However, the party fully expect the skeletons to reanimate and attack so they choose to leave the door for now and continue south along the outdoor path.
Another 50 feet or so south is another set of double doors similar to the previous pair. They do not have an impressive seal on them but it is possible they too have been opened relatively recently. Like the others, they have no obvious handles and appear to push inwards. These doors are not flanked by skeletal warriors.
Ferdinand and Sarroxtíoð each push one of the doors and they swing inwards with little effort. There are four sarcophagi in this chamber, and there are skelves lines with numerous skulls like the other tomb where they fought the flaming skulls. A small wooden glowing chest is tucked under one of the stone shelves.
Ferdinand moves to examine the chest while being careful not to touch it.
Cautious of undead flying skulls, Sarroxtíoð and Eriana search them all to see if any have the runes carved into them like the others that animated. They do not find any, but decide to rid the room of the skulls. There are hundreds of them, but the two of them begin the work of grabbing them and hurling them over the cliff walkway outside.
While they do this, Ferdinand examines the chest and notices the glowing is coming from a fine set of runes inscribed on the chest. He also notices that the room does look recently disturbed. He is certain others have been here and kicked up some dust and likely have examined and moved the chest. It is not clear if the chest has been opened or not, and he does not see any lock on it.
When all the skulls are removed and everyone is ready, he pulls out his lockpicking tools and tries to see if he can bypass the runes on the chest. He is new to this, but thinks it may be possible to carefully scratch out certain parts of the rune to deactivate whatever it is.
Helped by his Charlatan's Gloves, he carefully sets to work and succeeds! It becomes obvious that something happened when the lights of the runes go out and nothing terrible happens. He then opens the chest and the only thing he finds inside is a single helmet.
The helmet appears quite functional and of similar style to the armor worn by the buried skeletal warriors here. It has a distinctive shade of brown paint on it, and fine art and craftsmanship but sports no obvious runes of any kind. Ferdinand dons the helmet and feels no change. It could use a bit of padding, a decent chin strap and some adjusting to fit better but is otherwise fairly comfortable.
Leodegar watches with some curiosity and asks if he can examine it. If it is magical he has some knowledge and skill and might be able to figure it out. He then spends the next 10 minutes or so examining the helmet.
He comes to the conclusion that it is magical, and that it must be worn to work. He believes that if you hunker down while wearing it (spending one action to do so) it will offer some benefit from ranged attacks. Leodegar also believes that it has an ability that can only be used periodically, perhaps once per day. If the wearer is subject to being stupefied they should be able to react to mitigate the effect.
They realize this would be of greatest benefit to a spellcaster, so the party suggest that Harbek wear it. He agrees and spends a bit of time adjusting it until the helmet feels comfortable.
With that out of the way, the party then decide to rest up before searching the sarcophagi. At the urging of 002-Eriana Valsarith they close the doors and move one sarcophagi to block the door.
A relatively quiet night is then spent in the crypt. In the morning they pry open each sarcophagus and find a skeletal warrior in each with rusty armor and weapons and no wealth of any kind.
The sarcophagus is moved away from the door as they get ready to leave. Eriana spends time to pry off the Everlight brazier from the wall and she stashes it in the Spacious Pouch along with the other one.
From here the party head back outside and back to the other double doors flanked by the skeleton warriors encased in ice. Before trying the doors, Sarroxtíoð casts a Vitality Lash cantrip at the skeleton just to the north of the double doors. The spell hits the skeleton and it immediately reacts by straining to burst free of the ice. The other skeletons also animate in response.
It takes a bit of effort for each one to break out of the ice before they can attack with their rusty longswords.
This gives the party plenty of time to attack before they can get very far. Ferdinand is slashed by a skeleton but Alicia is nearby and helps shield him. Moments later he tumbles past the undead and skewers it with his magical rapier, destroying it.
Alicia uses her arbalest to great effect. She enchanted it with her divine vitality ability, which causes a light blue glow on the undead and clearly damages them after the initial hit with the bolt.
Sarroxtíoð smashes through another skeleton while enraged, causing it to fall apart.
Meanwhile, Eriana manages to tumble past another skeleton and soon brings it down with a bit of help from Alicia.
Harbek ends up in melee with the one skeleton that broke free of the ice and had room to move away from the wall. It manages to slash both Sarroxtíoð and the dwarf before finally being felled by a bolt from Alicia.
Unfortunately, the hand crossbow from Leodegar was not very effective in this fight.
After the combat Sarroxtíoð dumps the bodies over the cliff ledge by the path. He and Ferdinand then push open the double doors and peer inside. The wide corridor is lit by everburning torches, flickering slightly with the wind. At its end stands a small altar with a stone bowl. Three pathways invite exploration: two to the left and one to the right, all leading deeper into the tomb.
They cautiously walk forward, carefully scouting ahead. When they get to the T-intersection with openings to their left and right they pause briefly. Each reveal a small burial chamber. Five ornate sarcophagi fill each small chamber, dimly lit by everburning light. Rows of skulls line the stone shelves. Two armored figures stand in darkness in the back of each chamber.
As they begin to proceed down the hallway the skeleton figures begin to move...