NECROPOLIS
Game summary of 29 December 2006 – 1 January 2007
Written by Ivan Mason
Document version 3, dated 15 February 2007
Baron Ballard |
Baron Crayon |
Baron Cadra |
Air Marshall Palmerin |
Q Featherhammer |
Departing Rahotep’s Tomb—Honor amongst thieves
7 Richfest, CY 577 - out of the pit in Rahotep’s Tomb
1. Your party discusses the progress that has been made so far and considers what may lie at the end of so well a concealed tunnel. Crayon decides that he has urgent business on Pogrom Island (maybe the Arrows of Righteousness in the church in Scant may help the party). Q asks if he can come along also because while he is tempted to use the Daggers of Eternal Night, Q thinks he should try to acquire alternative magical daggers.
2. After a while the rest of the party decide to wait in Rahotep’s Tomb and do some study in the secret room near where the lightening quick mummy was. Crayon and Q goes back to Pogrom Island , promising to return within 48 hours. Crayon reminds everyone that he can not Dimension fold to Pogrom Island from within Rahotep’s tomb, and must go to the ledge outside the tomb to invoke his Dimension Folding spell.
3. Before you head out Q makes a copy of the map so far, just in case…
4. You all climb the rope back up to the exit from the plaster room that you tested to destruction, pulling the rope up behind you. But when it comes to climbing out of the pit that Khonsu was killed in, some troubles ensue.
5. Q grumbles about not leaving a rope hanging into the 40 foot pit to help getting out and starts to climb the wall…only to fall before he has gone 10 feet. He grumbles about his backpack being heavy and dumping it on the floor of the pit, begins the climb again. But he’s no sooner off the ground when he falls again. Trying not to think of how much he hates climbing walls, Q climbs again, making it 20 feet up when he looses his grip and falls to the floor with a solid thunk.
6. Q curses the pit loudly and the bastards who made it and dusts himself off. There is some sniggering from the party, but a glare from the dwarf silences it. Q moves to the wall again, and perceives that the rest of the party are quietly moving out of his drop zone…bastards!
7. Q is determined to get the hell out of here, so he gets his hand holds and starts to climb…but at the same 20 foot mark he looses his grip, only to fall to the floor again. Letting out a string of curses to curl an elves ears, the dwarf climbs to his feet, only to hear Medinet titter and begin discussing the agility of modern-day thieves. Ancient Kehmitian asshole!
8. Feeling a bit worse for wear (he hasn’t been this injured by any monster thus far), Q gazes malevolently at the pit wall, in his own world of hurt. He finds his finger holds, gets his toe holds and is up again, 10 feet OK, 20 feet watch for that slippery bit…shhhhiiiit – thump and he’s fallen on his ass again! It can’t be, bugger huge slabs of stone falling on you, this bloody pit is going to kill him one bone at a time! Q looks around and notes the instantly solemn faces of the party, sure that they have all been snickering behind their hands. (later in the adventure , Rahotep uses Q’s memories of the party’s sniggers to break Q’s will and turn him against the party)
9. Q glares at the rest of you while Medinet smirks out a suggestion of “I could levitate you if its too hard to climb?” Bastard, but are the rest holding back smile too? Q tells the ancient Keri-heb to shove his Levitate where the sun don’t shine and takes a running leap at the wall, sticking like a spider. 10 feet, 20 feet and he’s past the “slippery” bit. Another 10 feet and he’s near the top, and then do your eyes deceive you or did he just make it all the way out?
10. You see a stubby arm come out with an Immovable Rod and then an end of rope comes sailing down. Q proceeds to help the rest of the party to the top in stony silence, taking the Immovable Rod when you are all there.
11. Looking a bit edgy, you approach the next pit that you must jump across. Q ropes you all together and rigs up a safety with the Immovable Rod. It’s a good crossing until Hellyeah slips as he jumps and starts to fall into the pit. Lucky for him the safety rig and roping people together works and he only falls 5 feet into the pit. Sadly it’s enough to remind Hellyeah that this is the anti-magic pit and he has now lost his Stoneskin and other active spells - bugger.
12. Without further ado you mount the stairs and find the Lightening Quick Mummy room as it was when you left it last. Ballard scouts around and is convinced all is OK, so you all move off to the entrance to Rahotep’s Tomb, where the other three Immovable Rods are holding open the door and your escape route.
13. You all go out onto the ledge and briefly look over to see the Iron Mummies still trying to climb the wall. You estimate its about 5:50pm . Q gives Hellyeah his Immovable Rod while Cadra and Crayon argue over how long Crayon can take. Crayon finally gets him to allow a two day jaunt (return at 9am 3 Reaping) and agrees to meet the party back in the room where they will be resting.
14. Crayon summons the power of Essencia and opens a Dimension Fold portal to Pogrom Island . Crayon and Q step through into the Dimension Folding room in Sky Cathedral, aging them both by a year as they go (Ivan rolled 1%).
15. The rest of you go back to the secret room outside the Lightening Quick Mummy room to rest and learn spells, and arrange a guard.
16. Crayon and Q arrive in the Cathedral in Sky Castle at 6pm , and are greeted warmly by guards of Essencia who wish them “happy Richfest”. One guard fetches the priest on duty. With an exchange of pleasantries (yatta yatta) Crayon does what he does best (gets other people to do his work for him).
17. Two of Crayon’s followers cast cure light wounds on Q (the experience from this allows them to go up a level) [but Ivan needs to set aside time to train them?].
18. Crayon is informed that Mr Spock has returned from his mission to find artisans to create a giant sculpture of Essencia. Spock was unable to find gnome artisans but found dwarves willing to do the job. They come from the same area as Q but Q did not know any of them. Until Crayon returns from adventuring, the project cannot start.
19. Crayon provides a letter of credit against his Baronial funds for 50,000gp to Mr Spock for the dwarves to be housed and paid. They are to be set minor artistic projects until Crayon returns.
20. Crayon summons his personal guard and night watch, 7 of them are assigned to guard him while on the Island . He also dispatches messengers to Adestra, Mayor Acklen and Bookbind. While he is waiting for replies, he and Q have a bath (separately), change clothes and eat a meal with Crayon’s followers. He gets a quick report of what has been happening. All seems to be well.
21. Q cuts off the lobe of his left ear and Crayon asks his acolyte to keep it in a safe place against the need to resurrect him at a later date. Q marks his lobe with an X so it does not get confused with Crayon's...
22. Crayon instructs Mr Christian and DomCom (his priests) that if they do not hear from him before 1 Goodmonth (ie. 30 days time), they are to do a Combine and then Augury and then arrange to resurrect him. He leaves a promissory note of 20,000gp against this contingency with his Baronial seal on it.
1 Reaping, CY 577, Pogrom Island
23. At 8:20am the next morning Crayon and Q are escorted by Crayon’s guards to Sky Keep. They go and see Bookbind first. Crayon gets a quick run down on major events. Everything seems to be going well on Pogrom, he mentions that someone was found in the sewers without a head and hands, but it appears to be a gang thing that the guards now have under control. He reports an influx of immigrants in the last few weeks, an additional 300 people or so have made their home on the Island . Q asks Bookbind if the quartermaster could have some stores prepared for him by the following morning. 
24. Crayon and Q go and see Adestra in her tower. She looks haggard, and admits she has been doing some serious research over the last few weeks. Crayon offers to help revive her, but she refuses. Crayon asks could he have a magic item identified in the morning and she agrees.
25. Q asks Adestra if she can do a GlassSteel and after humming and harring, she says that in a few weeks she will be able to, after her research is finished and she is more experienced. He also asks about a Permanency and she starts bargaining. A deal is struck that she will cats these spells for him for 20,000gp each and Q will be her test subject for a beneficial spell she has been developing.
26. You leave the tower and Bookbind keeps Crayon busy for some hours before Crayon has a sleep for 4 hours.
27. Late that evening Q goes to the Picked Pocket tavern and tries to attract the attention of any local thieves guild members. After 30 minutes a kid comes and says that someone is out the back to see him.
28. Q heads out the back into a dark alley bit and sees a disreputable looking fellow leaning on the wall. He also sees 3 of his mates hidden in the shadows waiting to jump him, and invites the into the open.
29. After some haggling Q strikes a deal with the fellow: 25,000gp for 2 strongly magical daggers (+2 each). The fellow says he knows were to hoist them from and asks for 9,000gp up-front payment now plus a magical dagger as collateral. Q agrees and advises that he will leave the 9,000gp and collateral dagger (one of the Blood Letters from the temple of Osiris) under the last barrel in the wagon later tonight. The fellow agrees and say that he will leave the new daggers and the collateral in the 4 th barrel behind the smith’s forge at 10:00am tomorrow, and expect the remaining 16,000gp to be left there as final payment in return. They spit and shake on it and Q looks forward to being able to use magical daggers again.
30. From here Q goes to Crayon who writes a letter of credit for him of 20,000gp from the treasury. Q gets the 9,000gp and hides it in the wagon as agreed.
2 Reaping, CY 577, Pogrom Island
31. Q goes to Sky Keep and meets Bookbind at 7:30am to get his funds from the treasury as per Crayons letter of credit. Bookbind looks pained, but hands over the cash: half in gems and half in gold.
32. At 10:05am Q goes to the 4 th barrel behind the blacksmith’s forge and finds it contains water and a dead cat and that’s all. With a sinking feeling he checks the other 3 barrels and finds nothing but water.
33. Q hides in the shadows a small distance away and waits, hoping that the fellow is just running late, but at 10:55 he looks again and there is nothing. He again waits in the shadows a small distance away but by 1:55pm he realises he’s been duped and heads back to Sky Cathedral in a very foul mood.
34. At 2:30pm he goes back to the Picked Pocket tavern and meets another boy who advises him to contact his masters Q should drop 4 coppers into the fountain near Market Hall and wait.
35. Q goes to the fountain and drops in the coins, and several minutes later a teenager comes and leads him away. He leads him through a maze of houses in the poor quarter, and then asks him to don a hood to blindfold him for the last section, which Q does. After a circulus route, he is sat down on a chair in a building somewhere and the hood removed.
36. Q faces a row of flaming torches in a wood paneled room, and a voice from the other side asks him to be brief and to the point, but he can not see its source. Q outlines the duplicity of the thief who took his dagger and 9,000gp and the guy offers to sell him two +2 daggers for 20,000gp. After some confusing discussion Q starts getting hot and bothered, this guy does not take responsibility for his guild! While his heat is up Q demands the fellow who duped him be bough to justice, and the guy on the other side of the torches advises it will cost 2,000gp “for his head”. Thinking that he’ll get his money and dagger back, Q pays and is advised to be in the Picked Pocket at 5pm for restitution. He grumbles when a hood is placed over his head and he is lead off again.
37. 5pm comes and Q has been in the Picked Pocket for a few minutes when a box is placed on his table. Q quickly puts the box out of sight next to him on the bench and looks inside. It’s a grizzly scene – the severed head of the fellow he was swindled by looks up at him from the box. Q swears vehemently and storms off with the box which contains neither money nor Blood Letter dagger. He didn't think that the stupid thief leader meant "for his head" literally!
38. Q heads back to the Cathedral to confess to Crayon his mistake. He swears this is one of the reasons he is a locksmith and not a thief. Crayon rolls his eyes at Q and shows him how its done. With a snarl Q goes back to the fountain and throws in 4cp. When a teenager comes up, Q says he wants a message delivered to the boy's master; however, the boy must come with Q to the temple to verify the sender. The teenager is reluctant ( he has had bad experiences going off with the dwarves to temples - bloody priests of Fortubo). Q pays him 5gp to make the walk easier. The teenager is taken to see Crayon at the Cathedral. Looking intimidate, the boy listens while Crayon says that this message is from him. He asks the boy if he knows who he stands before, and the boy acknowledges Crayon with a shaky bow and a "yes my lord Baron Crayon". The message reads as follows:-
To the Finder of Lost items,
A servant of mine has used for colatoral, an item that does not belong to him. This item belongs to me. I want it back! Have it brought to the Picked Pocket within eight hours. A finders fee of 2,000gp is offered for your efforts in saving me from having to PERSONALLY get involved. If you are unsuccessful I will have no other choice but to use the FULL resources at my disposal to retrive it. Such a choice, I am in no doubt, would be distasteful and unprofitable for both of us.
The exchnage will be made with my servant. Details of the item lost are below.
B C
The note includes a picture of evil Blood Letter dagger, which was created using the other dagger as reference.
38A. Duringthe eight hour wait Crayon casts Combine , then Imporved barkskin, Iron Vigil and Unfailing Endurance on Crayon and Q.
38B. At the end of 8 hours, Q goes back to the Picked Pocket. He is met by a middle aged woman. She says that her friends were going to a party and couldn’t findthe present the person wanted. They have another present that they can sell but not the one the person wanted. Q tells them that his master wanted that specific presant and that he will not be pleased. She asks for more time. Q says okay and agrees to buy the other presents ( a +1 dagger and a +2 dagger) for 4,000gp. Apparently she had been advised to sell them to him at her best price as a way of compensation.
38C. Upon arriving back at the Cathedral, Crayon instructs Q that he wants those daggers. He underlines several times the words “full resources” and “personal attention” on the note and sends it back. The woman appears again and says that they still can’t find it leaving Q angry and reminding the woman that the “present” is still wanted and that his master will expect a reply in a few days. Both Q andCrayon question the stability of the Theives guild. Is it safe for Pogrom Island to have unrestricted criminal activity. Crayon decides when he gets back he is going to do something about it. Q vows to break of ties with the thieves guild. He is going to take to the high seas. If he wants to get into theiving he will go into politics...
39. Crayon dimension folds both of them to his temple in Scant where they talk to Larze and Alison Aklen about the Arrow of Righteousness. After some discussion about the Arrows being a visible symbol for the church in Scant, Crayon takes the arrows to Pogrom Island for Adestra to Identify. Before he goes, Larze advises Crayon that the Szeck’s wife is pregnant. Crayon advises Larze to try and convert the mother and to prophesise a son.
3 Reaping, CY 577, Pogrom Island
40. Crayon uses the Hand of Essencia to gain the following information:
a. The wife of the Szeck is currently carrying the unborn baby son of the Szeck that was foretold in Crayon's prophecy.
b. The act of saying the name of Rahotep as part of a command phrase will not by itself cause the wielder to be possessed.
40A. At 9am Adestra comes to the Keep library to advise Crayon that for a total cost of 6000gp she has identified the new daggers Q has, and the arrows which are:
a. Arrow of Slaying Fighters
b. Arrow of Slaying Dragons [used to be Illusionists]
c. 2 x Arrow of Slaying Thieves
d. Arrow of Slaying Undead
41. Crayon reminds Adestra that he has made sisable donations in the past of 50,000gp and a small land grant, so he should not need to be handing over any extra money. Adestra looks haggardly into Crayons eyes and thanks him for the 50,000gp which she slowly advises him that she has used up in her latest venture including attracting students to the Island. The spittle starts to fly from her mouth as she vehemently reminds him that advanced magics use up expensive materials ... and then catches herself - bastard clerics only need a holy symbol to cast whatever they want, and when they gain more experience they get access to all new spells instantaneously, rather than having to scrape in the mud and muck for some mangy scroll that some evil prick has been hoarding and you nearly die just to get it before you have to transcribe it into your fucking spell book, which costs the earth every time you need to add more puking pages, and that's if you can afford the pissing squid ink that you need to write it with, and that's if the bastard thing doesn't evaporate on the way into you puking spell book. Fucking cleric assholes, don't you have anything better to do than lord it over poor mages who have to scrape in the mud and muck for some mangy scroll that some evil prick has been hoarding and you nearly die just to get before you have to transcribe it into your fucking spell book .... hey, where's my money to replace my material components? How the hell do you expect me to buy more for my students who no doubt your royal buttheadiness will want doing you sexual favours later on you get-it-your-own-way clerical gender bender - arrrgh !
41A. Crayon opens a Dimension Fold back to Scant and travels with Q to return 4 of the 5 arrows back to larze and the temple, much to larze relief. He tells Larze about the new son-of-Szeck prophecy but at the moment can not gicve any further information. Crayon suggests that Lars and Alison try and get closer to the Czeck’s wife, maybe even having a priest of Esscencia act as a nanny/guardian. Larze and Alison say that they'll work on it.
42. Crayon then opens a Dimension Fold back to Rahotep’s tomb ledge, and he and Q step through. Q quickly tosses the dead thief head over the edge for the iron mummies to play soccer with and then they then pass under the entrance slab of stone held up by the Immovable Rods and knock on the secret door where the party are resting. You are once again all together and discuss where to go.
43. You head back into the tomb and when you get to the anti-magic pit Cadra decides to Stone Shape a ledge 1 foot x 1 foot x 10 feet along the left hand (south) side of the pit. Hellyeah hammers a piton in each side of the pit near the ledge and Ballard ties a rope to it to make a handrail. Using the ledge and the rope, you all cross without incident.
44. Back at the Khonsu death pit, Cadra casts a Find Traps and finds mechanical traps set off by a magical trigger at both the north and south ends. He directs the flying Hellyeah to fly up and put ink marks on the floor 2 inches either side of where the trap triggers start and end.
45. Party decides to explore the north side and avoid the trap trigger Hallyeah marked in ink. The north side has a square room with statues and little icons of various Khemitian gods. You get a general feeling of rightness about this room as if you are very happy with its contents and that all is well. However Cadra was carrying a little statue of Ra and to him the statue of Ra was wrong. While holding the Cadra’s Ra statue the big statue of Ra looked like some demonic beast. The party searched the room but didn’t find anything of note.
46. Crayon cast an Augury and asked: 
Q: What will happen if we topple the statues?
A: neither good nor bad things
Q: Should we take a figurine?
A: NO / WOE!
47. Consequently the party pushed over and destroyed the statues and did a destructive search of the room. We didn’t feel right doing this, even though we thought it was the right thing to do.
48. Found a secret passage behind the plaster in the north-east corner. Beyond was a passage with an ornate cedar door bound with iron and sheathed in bronze with a stone lintel above it which reads “cursed be all those who enter here”. At the end of the passage was a small 3 foot square tunnel heading west. There was a magical trap detected near the door. Q advised not going up there, so Cadra went up there (cantankerous dwarf). Cadra sets off the trap which animates the door to ask him three questions: 
Who is the chief of darkness? (to which Cadra answers “Set”)
Who is chief of Set’s workers? (to which Cadra answers “Rahotep”)
Who is worthy of death? to which Cadra answers “Rahotep”)
49. Cadra gets the first two right but tries the phone a friend option on 3. He guesses wrong which causes 3 demonic figures to appear and attack the party. [picture here]
50. The two outer ones mainly blocked our attacks. The middle casts a spell to summon strange dog like creatures. Lesser adventures would have turned in fear, but not us (smarter adventurers would have stayed at home).
51. Q gets bitten by one of the dogs he gets woozy and passes out. Crayon or Palmerin casts a Neutralise Poison from a scroll. A couple of people drag him out of the way. At the end of the battle Q collects a demon tooth vial full of the dog’s saliva.
52. Not finding a way to open the door, the party head up the end of the passage to the small tunnel. Several King Cobras come out and advance towards the party. Ballard dusts off his ranger skills and calms them down and into a sack they go. Ballard thinks that the best chance they have of survival is to let them go outside (in game mechanic terms, they’ll be dead the next time Ballard has to make a saving throw).
53. Passing up the tunnel for now, the party go back to the big door. The questions get asked again and this time Cadra answers them all correctly (last answer: “we are”. The doors open and we see a huge room with lots of pillars.
54. Crayon casts a Genius spell and asks:
Q: Is this THE room with nine pillars to destroy the 9 evil objects in?
A: No
55. Inside the room there is an altar and a huge 18 foot white statue of Rahotep made of alabaster. From where we can see there are pillars around the room. There are statues around the rooms with gold masks. A Find Traps spell tells us that the altar is trapped the items on the altar are trapped and the gold masks are trapped. A detect evil spell tells us that the statue is evil and that there is something evil possibly behind the altar. The party concocts a plan:-
a. Expecting the statues to animate into something like what was guarding the door, Cadra casts a wall of stone, to block the north access point to the party’s position.
b. Hellyeah casts Detect Secret Door and Portals
c. Ballard removes all his stuff except for the stuff of happy and ring of protection (if he has one) and then Palmerin casts a Dimensional Anchor on Ballard.
d. Q was supposed to use his psionics to telekinesis a small mirror to the other side of the altar to see if there was any openings, but lost a litre in sweat as he stared at the mirror trying to get it to rise off his hand. He stops after 10 minutes only when the snickers from the party get too much for him (I’m ready to turn on these bastards, Rahotep).
e. Hellyeah complains that his detection spell has expired while Q supposedly was trying to move the mirror with his mind
f. Medinet cast Dispel Magic on the alter
g. Q detects magic on the alter and doesn’t find any now
h. Hellyeah casts another Detect Secret Door and Portals while giving Q the evil eye…
i. Ballard searches the alter with his 50 % magic resistance, but does not find anything. Upon touching the alter he hears the following telepathic message inside his head which he instantly speaks aloud as he hears it:
“Rahotep commends you for your homage to him in death. Your desecration of his Eternal House will be forgiven if you will but accept him now as your master, by saying his name aloud. In return, Rahotep will allow you to depart taking with you a golden mast of whichever fashion you choose. Know now that each mask confers magical power on the wearer, enabling him to walk with the gods, to use the Words and Gestures of Power, and to dwell in Re-stau with all manner of riches. Now speak the name of Rahotep and receive your reward.”
56. You can see Ballard undergo an internal struggle for a few moments, but then he vehemently smashes the altar and finds that one of the evil objects, the Blackened Sun was inside.
57. Cadra does a Locate Object for the Blackened Sun and indeed this is it!
58. Ballard grabs the Blackened Sun and visibly shudders. The party want him to give it over, but Ballard refuses saying that the evil from this object is too great and no one else could carry it.
59. The party insist that he hand it over to Palmerin who was probably the best person to carry it having the highest wisdom. Ballard agrees to the party’s relief. Palmerin feels that a heavy weight has been placed on him. He hands the other evil objects he is carrying to the party. This makes the burden more bearable.
60. What to do with the rest of the stuff, its obviously evil but highly valuable. A voice asks us to join Rahotep by wearing the masks. The masks will give us great powers. However, from the find a trap spell we know that the trap on the masks is set off by wearing them.
61. A “discussion” breaks out. Cadra says destroy it but Q says no. Q wants to be paid. Cadra says that Q is too mercenary. Q says it all right for him, he’s loaded. Q thinks Cadra has lost touch with his working dwarf roots. Q says that if they want to destroy it, then it comes out of their treasure. Byron the Redeemer steps in and says that he will give Q his share of the non-magical treasure, if Q agrees that all evil objects found in the dungeon (not including Q’s daggers which are a family heirloom and Q hopes to have them restored) are destroyed. Q agrees and takes an instant shine to the nice Paladin willing to give his treasure to Q (as compared to Cadra “sold-out” Sledgehammer).
62. The room is thereafter summarily trashed, including golden masks, statues and everything else. The same feeling that smashing stuff is not right prevails. Medinet Crayon and Palmerin cast a Sanctify which cause the giant statue of Rahotep to shatter into a million pieces and a dimly heard scream from somewhere else a long way away that makes you feel as if someone has just walked over your grave. But the feeling of wrongness goes after the statue disintegrates. Q wants to take the evil ex-magical stuff, but Byron reminds him of the bargain he struck and does not allow it.
63. You go to leave the room but the door has no handle, and can not be opened. Hellyeah chuckles, casts a Knock, and the door opens.
64. Back in the hallway Crayon convinces everyone that the best way to explore the tunnel is via the border ethereal. He gets everyone to link hands and casts Etherealness and you all fade into the border ethereal. But to your surprise, you are not the only ones here! In misty forms in the immediate vicinity you can see a Blue Dragon, at least 7 Khemitian Ghosts, and some other things you have never seen before all converging on you. Crayon quickly dumps you all back on the prime material plane. Shaken, you postulate that the seals on the Ethereal plane that keep Rahotep imprisoned are still intact.
65. Crayon turns into cobra form, after casting a Find Traps. Q is Reduced by Hellyeah and accompanies Crayon into the tunnel. The passage is small and gets down to 1 foot square. It opens up at one point to a crossroad with two rooms that are trapped. The other corridor is a dead end. The two continue down the small passage which slowly gets smaller and smaller eventually becoming a mere 6 inches high before it opens into a small room. There is a crack in the wall opposite that is 6 inches wide and 10 inches high that they follow into a very small natural rock fissure that meanders through the rock for a long way. The two relentlessly follow the fissure back and forth for about 15 minutes and eventually find a crack of daylight. The passage ends in a fissure in the wall of the canyon, about 300 metres from the entrance. Crayon thinks to himself, if all else fails he can escape (after all Crayon safety is the most important thing). They head back and report to the party, wondering how Rahotep has missed this exit….
66. Still investigating the tunnel, Cadra casts a “Stone shape” to make the passage larger. The party gets in and checks out the rooms. Q tests the rooms for traps and finds one across the entranceway of both rooms. Going to the south room which smells faintly of incense, Q throws 2 pitons in to see what happens. Each one disappears as it crosses the threshold. Anything that goes in does not come back. Q tries to telekinesis some finger bones out of the room and after 4 tries he lifts them towards the entrance with the power of his mind, but they too disappear.
67. Q then goes to the western room and tries another piton, which disappears, and also telekinesis a small open box, but it also disappears as it crosses the threshold. Medinet tries to Dispel Magic on the traps but nothing happens.
68. After some time spent pondering these rooms, the party decides to go back to Khonsu’s pit and try the south side. Q successfully disables the trigger to the trap in the south hall from the pit OK and you end up in a very large room with an extremely high ceiling. On the floor is a big zodiac dial, and in the south east corner is a huge statue of Rahotep. The whole place reeks of magic, so you decide not to touch anything just yet. You have a quick look and note there may be some rooms up a hall in the west wall.
69. OK, so you just have a quick look at these rooms too. Your Detect Traps spell indicates that each room to the south and west is trapped on the threshold. Q telekinesis a small statue of a grass hopper from inside the west room, but it disappears as it crosses the threshold.
70. Collecting some unique objects from the party, Q chucks them into the rooms to see where they link to. The south room seems to teleport stuff to the south room where the snakes were. The west room receives stuff from the west room near the snakes, but where did the grass hopper statue go?
71. The party decides to rest up and learn spells before exploring the zodiac room further. You head back across the pits to the secret room next to where the lightning quick mummy was and set a guard roster. 
72. While on guard Byron smells something awful and very nearly throws up, but decides not to investigate the horrid smell on the other side of the secret door. He listens through the door and hears the sound of large bones clicking on the stone floor and some sort of guttural language that he can not understand as if something is talking to itself.
73. On his guard duty about 4 hours later Ballard also detects an awful smell and feels ill. Listening he hears something very similar to the sounds Byron had heard (Q had passed this information on when he woke Ballard for the last watch of the night).
74. Once everyone is awake, you discuss the events of the evening and decide that Ballard should do some tracking to see what happened. He starts to warn about the chances of tracking something on stone floors, but the party just look at him. Hellyeah is casting his customary Fly spell before you leave the room when there is a wild surge in his magic, and letting out a yell of warning, as a ball of fire erupts from Hellyeah and engulfs the whole room. You all cry out in dismay, especially Palmerin and Byron who fail their saving throws! Talk about a wild mage, the guy’s crazy!
75. It must have been a bad dream though because Hellyeah casts an Alternate Reality and there was no Fireball and Palmerin and Byron are not singed almost to death. You shiver with the strange memory even as it fades never to be recalled again…
76. Ballard the super-ranger has a look at the floor outside the door and does indeed find tracks on the stone floor. Crayon Q and Hellyeah lead you out to the entrance to the tomb looking for the grasshopper statue and once there Q starts to tremble. To your shock and horror you realise the change, the main entrance stone slab that was held up by the three Immovable Rods is now closed and the three rods destroyed! Q feels like a long lost friend has been killed and swears revenge. Sobbing, he gathers up the pieces hoping they may help in making a new Immovable Rod as the DM shakes his head. Ballard goes crook at them for disturbing the trail he was following, but they tell Ballard to get fucked you tree hugging hippie and that they are tired of controlling him (where are you Scott???).
77. Q wanted to see if the grasshopper statue came out one of the other doors in the main chamber, but after checking the hall, abandons the idea.
78. Venturing down again to Khonsu’s pit you smell the evil stench, and prepare yourself for combat. You see the monster in the hall and attack it relentlessly. During the combat it falls in the pit and dies, but not before raking Q with its claws and spitting on him with paralysing spittle, which halts him in his tracks for 5 minutes.
79. With Q moving again, you head back to the Zodiac room, where Cadra casts a True Seeing. This immediately shows a small door behind the statue of Rahotep with steps leading down inside. Q does his thief thing and finds 3 sets of stairs, each with an ingenious trap to bring down iron bars. At the bottom you find a long room full of clutter. There are tables and benches with alchemical stuff on it and statues of Khemitians on each side of 6 doors. When you enter the room Khemitians step forth from the statues and a melee ensues. You quickly mop up the statue men, but more come out and they seem intent on overbearing Palmerin, who spends most the time on the floor. You are on your third set of statue men when Hellyeah uses the wand of lightening to destroy all the statues on each side to stop more and more men coming out, but not before serveral fires have broken out in the room which you later put out. You search the room and find a magical dagger which you find out is +3 when Q stabs it into Cadra' back while he is watching vamp boobs later on.
80. You investigate the rooms behind the doors and find Q’s grasshopper statue in the north-eastern one! In this room you also find 2 figurines, a hawk-head one and a snake-headed one. Touching the hawk one, a Deva springs forth but then shakes its head saying “you don’t need me yet”. After some deliberation, you touch it again and it springs forth again and says in a menacing voice “I told you, you don’t need me yet”.
80A. You open the door to the south eastern room and find a pair of sphinx statues. The room exudes a feeling of good, justice and retribution, so you touch the sphinx statues to see what happens. As you suspected, a Deva springs forth but then shakes its head saying “you don’t need me yet” and then disappears.
81. The middle eastern door leads to a room painted with all sorts of magical items that make Q drool. He and Medinet go in and Medinet reads the hieroglyphs on the wall which say “Thief! Praise the Set Rahotep’s name loudly and often and you will be rewarded with knowledge and treasures befitting a prince amongst robbers”. Q masturbates over the possibilities of the items described (I’m coming Rhaotep, I hear you calling) . He leaves the room distraught, telling the others not to go in as its too much to bare.
82. The northern room on the west wall contains scores of little ceramic figurines of turtle-men and warthog-men. Hidden amongst them are 3 items which you discern to be magical: a tome, a warhammer, and an ebony fly. You want to get them without having to touch any figurines, but have not worked out how… 
83. The middle western door leads to a trapped room, which you believe teleports things somewhere, check it out later.
84. The southern western door reveals a room similar to the one with figurines of turtle-men and warthog-men, but it has figurines of monsters and demonic looking things. But like the other room, this has the following magical items in it: a tome, and a pearl. You also want to get these out without having to touch any figurines, but have not worked out how…It’s all very tempting.
85. You discuss the merits of getting the stuff to help you defeat Rahotep, and Medinet casts an Augury:
Q: If we touch one demon figurine will they all activate?
A: Yes, in a chain reaction.
86. Crayon then does an Augury:
Q: If we touch a demon figurine will it summon a creature?
A: Yes
87. After some deliberation and checking of alignments, the party decides to save the world and if there is time, to come back for the treasure later (oh, to be first edition characters players again). At the south end of the room there are stairs going down a long way. The party goes down and find a hall with one set of double doors inscribed with hieroglyphs that say:
“Curses upon those so foolish as to have delved so deep into my Eternal House. May you wander in confusion endlessly for daring now to seek the ultimate riches stored for my everlasting enjoyment in the Afterworld. Turn back!”
88. You enter and find a large room with 4 corridors running off it. Someone casts a true seeing spell and at the end of each corridor is a extra dimensional illusion thingy. Basically we see a rooms with lots of treasure but they are traps like the other extra dimensional rooms, obviously meant to keep us busy.
89. The party decides to go to the room with the 2 x 2 foot hole in the wall. On the way Medinet casts a Wizard lock on the secret door in the zodiac room to keep the bad guys away from their resources (or possibly to keep people away from your treasure).
90. You stand above Khonsu’s pit and look at Q. But Q has learnt his lessons from the past, and has brought 3 rope ladders along! One is anchored with pitons to go into Khonsu’s pit. The other is anchored in the small passage to climb down into the room you tested to destruction and found the hidden tunnel in, and the last is for the small 2 foot square hole near the roof of this room.
91. Q climbs across to the opening using the Immovable Rod as an anchor point. Just as well because as he crawls out of the tunnel he slips and dangles from the Rod. Peoples heads appear out of the tunnel exit while he dangles and someone snickers while Ballard’s hand strays to the Immovable Rod. Climbing back up, Q makes it the rest of the way and sets up the last ladder. It is decided that Cadra, Q and Crayon will go up the passage.
92. Before climbing up, Hellyeah shrinks Crayon to 1 ½ foot tall and the dwarves carry him up. Q goes in front, then Crayon and last Cadra (sort of an elf sandwich on dwarf bread). Cadra and Q have to crawl. Crayon has cast a Find Traps spell. The tunnel goes on for a little bit then ends at a brick wall. The party is stumped until they realise that it has been bricked off.
93. Cadra casts a stone shape spell to make some standing room. Q starts hammering away at the wall with a sledgehammer he’s been carrying. It takes some time but they eventually get through 3 layers of brick wall. They keep on crawling and turn a bend in the small passage. They had not gone far when Q is attacked by a horde of small flying scorpions. As he kills each one they seem to emit a word, he catches the last one alive in an attempt to stop the curse, but crushes it in his hand when he sees a new swarm conming. The message the scorpions gave when put together was this:
Now…you...have…brought…down…the…Fifth…curse…of..Rahotep.
94. Q suffers 88 points of damage from the little buggers, which he has been killing with one strike from his daggers. Cadra casts an anti-vermin barrier and Q retires behind this on 10 hit points. Cadra wants to keep going, but Q wants to go back and get healed. A heated arguments as Q starts yelling at Cadra to fuck off and move back (I hear you Rhaotep, you want me to stab him in the back later, not a problem). In the end t hey quickly go back to the party where Medinet cures Q’s wounds somewhat.
95. They then crawl to the end of the tunnel and discover a landing above some stairs leading down. Luckily they also have a Find Traps going because the area they were going to climb out into is trapped. Cadra casts a Stone-Shape to make a wall 2 foot high, 2 foot high and 3 feet long. They then climb out but the huge stone slab does not fall from the ceiling and the nice new stone wall Cadra made was apparently unnecassary.
96. Hammering in a piton at the top of the stairs, Q ropes himself up to it in case the stairs change to a slope and moves to the bottom. Nothing happens, and he sees a HUGE chamber full of columns, so big he can’t see the roof nor the other end.
97. The party all come through and gather in the colossal room to stare. The floor is a checkerboard pattern, and strange spheres float in the air emitting green and orange light. The walls have skeletal Kehmitian troops depicted on them and the colouring of the room and columns is garish.
98. All of a sudden the lights go out and a twittering giggle slices the air. You open your lanterns and activate the Arm of Edor and cast light spells, but they have no effect. Cadra and Q try to go back to back while Crayon calls out to everyone to fall back to the stairs, telling the party to follow his voice. The giggling voice was going to try and mimic Crayon but the party was speaking Fools Speach (nice one Hellyeah). The party starts to fall back except Cadra who stands his ground. The foot high Crayon starts calling out for someone to pick him up as he can’t climb the stairs, but no one is listening to him.
99. Then suddenly the light come on and you are confronted by the 12 skeletal warriors that were previously pictures on the walls. Behind them is a beautiful woman with wondrous breasts, but you know her to be a vampire. After a round of stunned silence, you throw yourselves into action.
100. Q and Cadra race for the vamp chick, while she calls to Cadra to stay where he is. When he starts getting close to her she puts more bosom into it and commands Cadra to “love me”. Something happens and Cadra seems taken by her!
100A. Hellyeah casts a Wall of fire in the path of the skeletal warriors that crackle with blue electrical energy and the vamp. Most of the skeletal warriors are magic resistant and walk through without effect. The same could not be said about the vamp though and she takes substantial damage.
101. In a wild moment, Q cackles Rahotep’s name insanely and begins stabbing Cadra with his daggers, inflicting grievous harm. Ballard sees this and instantly shoots Q with the Zhi Bow and stuns him for 14 rounds. Palmerin pulls a turning attempt from somewhere (rolls a 20) and its bye bye to the majority of the skelies. The players then taunt the DM mercilessly, saying that they know how Q could have gotten free of the Zhi Bow’s effect, bit it was meant to be and the DM was out of ideas (damn, he should have used a character point to re-roll his immunity to magic).
101A. A column of flame erupts over the party and causes some singing of hairs, Medinet also appears to have had some problems with Rahotep. Byron and Hellyeah jump on Medinet and successfully overbear him to the ground he's OK as long as Palmerin's hand is over his mouth.
102. Alone now, the Vamp chick moves in on Cadra telling him to love her as she draws him into a deathly embrace and sinks her fangs into his neck. As she starts to drain his life blood the light starts to fade from Cadra’s eyes, Hellyeah flings himself off Medinet and unleashes another lightning bolt from the wand. He believes that Cadra would rather a little zap than be defiled/deflowered by the evil vamp chick again! The bolt is high enough off the ground to pass over the unconscious body of Q, slams through Cadra and the vamp in her deadly embrace and rebounds off the wall just far enough to give the vamp chick another electrical enema for good measure. There is much cheering when the vamp slides to the floor dead and Cadra survives another close encounter of the undead with boobs kind!