FRIDAY, FEBUARY 27TH - KINGDOM OF KESHANAR : SESSION 4 RECAP; PART 2
The Siblings decided to head out to the Vaults of Duat, to search for the lost dagger. The Vaults were not far from their neighborhood so the three took their time going over their plan. Kharu is a planner and it makes him comfortable to discuss details so that everyone is familiar with how things are supposed to proceed. Satisfied that his sisters had the gist of what he had planned the three made their way into the entrance of the Vaults and secured tickets for the tour, blending in with the pilgrims and citizens there.
They listened as the cheerful young guide explained how the early citizens of the city buried their dead in these vaults. At first it was the wealthy with elaborate underground mausoleums for their honored dead, but soon the less well to do needed space for their dead as well and thus the Vaults expanded, growing ever outward and downward, spider webbing out under the city in all directions. The poor were put into the southern warren, simple tunnels and niches cut out of the bedrock upon which the city stood, with none of the ceremony or elaborate offerings of the city’s more prominent citizens.
As the tour took them past the arch that led to the southern vaults, the siblings fell behind and let the rest of the tour group to move on without them. They slipped under the simple arch and made their way down the tunnels, passing small roughly carved stone plaques, niches with wrapped remains, and broken pottery. The smell of moldering cloth, dust, and decay was heavy in the air. They had been waling for some time when they came to a widening of the tunnel and they paused to investigate what appeared to be a few dust covered coins in a niche near to a skull and a small pile of bones.
Khephri reached out to collect the coins when the skull shifted and she heard some sort of noise, something scurrying in the back of the niche.
“What in the Underworld?” she said softly moving her torch closer to get a better look.
“What is it sister,” Kharu asked, turning back to look at her. Zafira took an involuntary step back and as she did dust and flurry of small shapes burst from the niche and leapt onto the paladin.
Bloated, pale larvae like creatures with purple heads and a red, whip like spine for a tail. They swarmed up Khephri’s legs and moved up her torso, bite and stinging with their red spiny tail stingers. She batted at them with her khopesh, killing several and knocking several onto the stone floor, only to watch in horror as they righted themselves and immediately scurried back across the stones toward her.
Kharu unleashed an Eldritch Blast, but missed, pulling his aim at the last moment, fearful he might harm his sister by mistake. Zafira unleashed tapped into the divine essence of her god, Khonshu, and brought forth Sacred Flame, incinerating many of the small creatures. Following her sister’s example, Khephri reached out to touch the well of holy energy granted to her by Bastet and brought forth another gout of Sacred Flame destroying the last of the disgusting horrors.
Kharu bent down, taking the torch from Khephri to get a closer look as the strange larvae. “I have never seen anything like these. Nor read about them.”
Zafira stepped around the small burnt monstrosities to look into the niche with her sister. The found some coins and a small gem which they swept up, thinking their efforts should be worth something, and the dead certainly did not need them.
They pushed on, deeper into the catacombs, the tunnels going downward at a slight angle, deeper underground. They passed many more niches and burial areas, hundreds, full of remains of the citizens of Keshanar City that had passed before them. The sheer scope of how many were interred here had never occurred to them in all of the times that they had walked past the opening to the Vaults.
Deeper they went, when they came to a branching tunnel, they chose the right tunnel. They walked for hours before coming to a rusty iron gate that barred their way. Khephri started to pull out her lockpicking tools, when she reached up and tried the handle. The gate was not locked and it pushed open with a squeal of metal on metal as the rusty hinges protested.
The three looked at one another as they proceeded through the open gate.
“Why is there a gate here?” Zafira questioned out loud to no one in particular.
“Perhaps to prevent grave robbing,” Kharu responded, glancing at Khephri. The paladin shot him a look in return as if to ask what he meant.
They grew silent as they pushed on, the sound of their footsteps loud as they echoed off the stone. The corridor widened, emptying into a circular, domed chamber with three braziers situated equidistantly around the perimeter. An open archway stood dark and looming directly across from the way that they entered the room. A quick investigation turned up little of interest save a couple of unlit torches which the party thought might come in handy so they stowed them in their packs.
As Khephri moved to the other corridor she extended her torch down the dark passage and blinked when she saw the light reflected off of something metallic. She heard movement and instinctively started to move back into the room closer to her siblings. Kharu and Zafira looked at her questioningly, then to the tunnel beyond her to see what elicited the reaction.
A figure moved into the light, a large emaciated looking figure. It looked like a Dusker, but not one of the kind they had seen before. This one was taller, and strapped to it, no, inside of it, was the withered remains of a man. They thought the man dead at first until they saw him spasm as if in pain, the construct had to duck to fit through the archway, but as it passed through it straightened to its full height. It towered over them at nearly twelve feet, and as it moved it stretched out its arms to grasp Khephri.
Kharu fired an Eldritch Blast at the undead, hitting it in the right leg, but it did not seem to have as much effect as he would have hoped. Zafira extended a hand and what appeared to be a beam of moonlight reached out and struck the creature, bathing it in radiant light and left it glowing. This attack staggered the creature, but it lashed out with its massive clawed hands at Khephri who was the closest to it. The first attack missed, but the second landed. Pain danced down her left side as the claws found their way past the armor and drew blood.
Enraged, the paladin swung her khopesh in a wide arc and hit the monster in the right leg, the lingering glow from her sister’s spell helping to guide the blade to its target. As her blade found its mark she summoned the fury of her goddess once more, letting it flow from her core down her right arm and through her sword into the dead thing attacking them. It quivered as the divine energy lanced through it, it shuddered one final time and then collapsed and lay still.
The three moved in closer, slowly, to examine the downed Dusker. They saw that the withered figure trapped inside, bound by leather and iron strap, had stopped moving and appeared as dead as the creature it was bound to. What was it guarding? Who had put it here? More questions, ones they may not get answers to when they reached the end of these tunnels.
They pushed onward, traveling for nearly an hour before they came to a fork in the tunnel, one running left, the other right. Again they chose the right had path and went into it. This one moved down at a steeper incline, and they saw fewer burial niches. They paused to take a break, Zafira using her healing to cure their wounds and they debated on whether or not they should turn back. They had been in these tunnels for several hours and they had promised their mother they would be home before dark. It was Zafira surprisingly who pushed for them to continue a little while longer since they had come this far.
Khephri led them down the tunnel and after a while they came to another closed iron gate. This one, when they tried to open it, was locked. Khephri brought out her lock picks and after some time, she was able to open the lock. They pushed open the rusty gate, its hinges shrieking in protest, and moved past it and into a chamber that appeared more cave than a chamber carved by the hand of man. A milky white pool lay at the center, a narrow bit of stone flooring led around the outer edge allowing movement around it. A large stalactite hung from the center of the ceiling over the pool, a thin rivulet of cloudy liquid running down it to drip slowly into the pool below it.
In front of the pool stood a small stalagmite had the top portion cut smooth making a flat surface upon which rested a small statue of a crocodile headed being, Sobek, the god of the rivers. Kharu moved into the chamber first walking around the right side of the pool, looking for anything of interest. Zafira noticed that there were no other exits to this cave.
Khephri moved in behind her brother, moving up to the small shrine to see if it held anything besides the statue of Sobek. Kharu found what appeared to be the haft a spear sticking out of the water lying along the edge of the pool. Pulling it out of the water he found it was approximately five foot in length. He used it to test the depths of the pool within his reach, but finally decided to wade out into the pool.
“What are you doing?” Khephri asked watching him move slowly into the water. Zafira looked over at her question and moved fully into the cave moving around to the left to keep an eye on Kharu. The Warlock continued to move out toward the center of the cloudy pool finding it came up to his chest. He used the length of wood to continue to probe the water to see if anything lay hidden beneath the surface. Once he made it to the middle he decided to turn back to the edge and make his way out of the pool.
Watching her brother move, Khephri noticed a ripple in the pool near the center appear behind her brother. The head of what appeared to be a large crocodile head broke the pool’s surface and moved toward her brother who was unaware of the presence of the creature.
“Beware brother!” she cried out drawing her crossbow and lining up a shot. She fired the bolt, but it went wide and vanished in the pool beyond the partially submerged creature.
Without turning Kharu moved as quickly as he could to get out of the water. Zafira moved around for a better angle for a spell. She released a Guiding Bolt, but the beam of divine light struck the back wall of the cave and dissipated. Kharu made it to the water’s edge, turned and fired an Eldritch Blast, which hit the head of the beast as it started to rise out of the water, the milky liquid cascading off of a huge, spined body of this abomination. The green, scaly monster came out of the water near the Tiefling, its snout opening, then the upper and lower halves of the snout split in half again, four tooth filled jaws snapping the air. Sharp, dark spikes the color of obsidian and the length of short swords, protruding from the back and tail of the creature.
The beast lunged forward, its multiple jaws snapping closed on Kharu, sharp teeth piercing his flesh. He cried out in pain as the monster caught him in its toothy grasp and started to pull him back into the water. Khephri, hearing her brother’s pained cry, tossed aside her crossbow and drew her khopesh. She closed and swung the blade down, striking the scaly side of the monster, she channeled a Smite through her blade, and saw the creature reeled from the divine energy.
Kharu’s vision swam from the pain, but he fired his Eldritch Blast again trying to cause the beast to free him, but his pain caused him to miss. Zafira used Healing Word to try to heal some of the wounds her brother received, working to keep him in the fight until they could either defeat this monster or free her brother and make their escape.
The creature swung its tail around slamming it into the paladin, throwing her back against the wall, the blowing knocking the wind from her and leaving her aching. Khephri swung her blade to retaliate, but missed. Kharu fired his Eldritch Blast again, at a disadvantage at this close range, but desperation lent him aid and the attack landed causing the creature to bellow, releasing him. Zafira launched another Guiding Bolt, this one landing, bathing her opponent in divine energy, damaging it and giving her sister an easier target to strike. The creature lashed out at Kharu again, his maw closing on the Tiefling again, the damage too much for him and darkness took him.
“No!” Khephri cried out and jumped into the water striking down with her khopesh, landing a critical blow, sinking the blade deep into the monster’s side. It thrashed, then went still and sank down, unmoving into the water.
This is where we left off that session, as it ran long. Thanks for reading, check back with us soon as our next session is Friday, March 13th, to see what the siblings find in the chamber. We appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you back here next time, in The Maze.
