15th of 11 – Year of Blue Echoes. Despair! I am broken. My most reliable ally, how can she be gone? Bill keeps looking at me like that and moping, as if he’s asking why I’m not doing something to bring her back. And poor Torbick Gemflayer, we had just met! I lured them out there with promises of treasure, and now they are both dead…
Ok, I’ll try to get through this log before my memory fades, as I hope it does quickly. The three of us, Torbick Gemflayer, Calvira, and I (Dunlan), gathered in the Jade room and headed out swiftly. We didn’t waste any time getting out to the Vipers Tomb and back through the secret passage behind the frog god statue. I briefly mentioned, as I do here, that the hammer trap in the main hall of the false tomb could be used as a defensive measure if anything terrible comes up from below.
We pointed out a few other lessons learned to Torbick on the way down, but soon enough, we stood in the octagonal room with the pool at its centre. I had resigned myself to checking the pool for any hidden treasure before the day’s expedition, and began with my pole while Calvira checked the translations above the doors again. Torbick Gemflayer admired the craftsmanship of the ornate door to the east. I saw in the pool a glimmer of something valuable and also something small and swift-moving. Before I could call out, a slimy green hand, detached from any arm, came upon and clutched at my chest with hideous claws. Calvira and Torbick Gemflayer both came to my aid, striking at the thing, but just as 💀Torbick Gemflayer landed a mighty blow, another hand sprang from the pool behind him and clawed him viciously.
What happened next was a flurry of motion. I struck at the hand with my claw finger, but it stung me, injecting me with poison and causing a temporary madness. When I came to, I had struck poor Torbick Gemflayer with such force that he was thrown into the pool. Calvira and I destroyed the hands, one of which wore a silver ring with an eye motif, and then another adventurer joined us through the magic of key stones; Rigdar. We fished Torbick Gemflayer out of the pool and found that a head had gotten wrapped up with his body. It spoke a strange ancient tongue that Ocean was somewhat able to translate.
Along with the head, we found a gold necklace with the monogram O.G. worth 30 gp. Calvira took the chain and the ring for safekeeping. We checked the partially opened door in the northwest corner of the room, being very careful for traps and lashing the mummy’s head to my pole as a canary of sorts. Inside the room were signs of a sprung trap, so we prodded the floor with a pole, found the pressure plate, and rolled stones onto it from the doorway until it triggered. A great lightning bolt flew from the door, across the room, and smashed the wooden door in the southeast into splinters.
We ran inside and removed the electrum plate (10 gp) above the coffin, disabling the trap. We then looted the coffin, finding 3 gp and a strange eye. It seemed to belong to Ophideus Green, the serpent mummy we had lashed to the pole. He was quite upset. We checked the corridor to the southwest, determining that it was full of clay statues and twice the size of the Ophideus tomb, but moved on to the smashed wooden door to reduce the risk of surprise attack from behind.
Within the room to the southeast, we found three beds, a pile of scrolls on some shelves, and a silver and emerald frog god statue worth 20 gp. We looted the room and moved on to the clay statue room. Eighteen well-crafted statues of snakeman warriors stood, holding rusted swords. We threw stones at one until it broke from out in the hall, just in case they were trapped, but it broke open, empty. Using the other clue we had about statues in the place, we rearranged some of the statues, looking for secrets or treasure. We quickly found a trap door beneath one of the statues in the back. Within, there was a ladder leading down to a hallway that continued south. We went back to finish exploring the octagon room.
We checked the door in the north, whose hallway had collapsed, and heard movement beyond the wreckage. I pushed the mummy’s head through the gap, and it was taken by whatever creature is beyond. We moved on to the room in the northeast and found it smelling of tar and death. The sarcophagus here was closed when we arrived, and after Calvira knocked with no response, we pushed the lid off. A vast black mass of tarry death climbed out of the coffin and immediately began attacking us. Poor Calvira was its target, and it took no time at all to dissolve her within its mass. There were two rings suspended within the creature, and likely now what treasure Calvira held.
Rigdar and I fled out of the room and began to leave the dungeon when the key stones began to emit their strange light and teleported us back to the Jade room, with Opal and River back in the basket. I have taken Bill in and will look after him as my own. I also have sought out any living relative of Calvira to give her share of the treasure to, I heard a cousin of hers is somewhere in Chang’e.
Total treasure returned
32 gp