Four Matts

 
There was magic in this world once, but they stole it all away.
 
Tage sipped at some precious healing brew, and considered returning through the tunnel of the now dead gnome. The brothers explored further down a different tunnel, and found themselves in another octagonal room. Nothing but dirt from the destroyed wall made it remarkable, and so the next contained various implement of torture. The only one interested in them was Tage, but the other brothers peeled him away.
Passing through an arch of worked stone, they found themselves in a hallway with a set of doors and a pool. Another water elevator of sorts. The brothers opened the doors and went through, finding another round room with slopes and stairs leading down, probably towards where they entered the floor.
 
Inside was an enormous fist of stone, and a fellow who looked perplexed, saying: “You went the wrong way?” He looked like a very outdated sort of Dervish. The sorts they had encountered earlier. When asked about the fist, he merely commented: “Those who need a good pounding, get one.” He indicated the enormous fist was his ‘Pet”. The brothers were deemed in need of a good pounding, and so they came fist to fist.
 
The wizard blasted the brothers with a cone of cold, and Sst answered with a fireball of her own. John doused the brothers in healing salve and Thylek hurled a dart right into the biceps of the ‘wizard’. Tage leapt into the fray, attempting to slash the wizards thoat, disrupting spellcasting for a short time. He did not appear to be damaged by the attack, which was interesting since it was both magical and fairly effective.
 
Koric rushed the wizard instead of the fist, against the desires of Rive. He struck the arms of the ‘wizard’ brutally, though he appeared physically uninjured. Yuttosk ran him through with a Mountain hammer, though he seemed uninjured. The lack of damage was odd, and the brothers knew something was wrong: The mountain hammer had never failed before. Kiss-Kiss leapt into the fray, launching unerring magical missiles: They went right through him!
 
Several rounds of combat later, the brothers were struggling to figure out what was happening here. They started focussing on the stony fist instead, much to Rives audible delight. The tough hide of the stony creature was difficult to penetrate, and the wizard seemed quite impervious to their attacks. Soon the fist crumbled, and the brothers moved to the wizard: knocking him down and tying him up as well as gagging him. John tossed him in a sack, and the group moved down the slope.
 
They found themselves at a landing, where a mirror greeted them, as well as another John Jean-Jon?! The strength of generations had met its match. . . Appearing exactly the same, and quite combative! Tage strolled down the stairs, and a duplicate of him appeared. He hurled a shuriken at the mirror, it did not break.
 
Sst hurled a fireball at the mirror, burning the faux brothers and a mirror match ensued! The imitation brothers seemed exactly as tough as their true selves. John hurled the imitation Tage at the mirror, but neither was destroyed unfortunately. The battle of the brothers below, assisted by missile fire and the occasional spell hurled from above was dangerous. One final strike shattered the mirror, and the pair of duplicates was cut down in short order. Still a mirror remained intact across the hall, interesting, dangerous stuff.
 
The gentleman strolled downstairs, and a copy of him appeared from the other mirror. Clearly the brothers would have to destroy them both. Sst managed to shatter the second mirror and they merely had to mop up the duplicate brothers. Korric charged down, pushing the false John down another level into a wall of fire. His death screams were manly, but sad nonetheless.
 
They gathered the shards of mirror and went back up the stairs: moving down the side of level they had not yet inspected. The octagonal room had an old book on a slab in the center of the room. It did not appear magical, or trapped. John moved to inspect the book: determining it was an artifact of evil sorts. While discussing who would take it, Tage launched a ‘surprise attack’ on Sst.
 
Shocked at the sudden betrayal, she wreathed herself in fire and dimension doored herself into the next room. The chairs and tables within were set ablaze. John tossed a very special bomb he’d been saving and stuck her in place, and inflicted her with a nasty sort of poison at the same time. The other brothers rushed in, surrounding her.
 
A fatal stake to the appendix was the last nail in her coffin. The brothers looted her corpse, and John harvested her delicious extra-planar organs. Tage was holding the libram of ineffable damnation, and held it up to his face: Whispering at Rive: “Can you hear me now?!”.
 
They rested in a room containing a bed floating in a pool of water: Thylek slept in the bed while the others used bedrolls. Their gith companions were now slain, and they were better prepared for the final push into the pyramids depths.
 
Tage asked the Forever stone about the nature of the protection on the fellow they were carrying in the sack. It responded that his heart was not in his body.
 
They asked a question aloud in the water elevator room, and discovered it spoke. It asked a series of questions, and they answered correctly:
 
What is your name? John Jean-Jon
What is your quest? To discover the source of power in this pyramid
On whose hallowed ground do you now tread? Amon-Re.
 
The elevators flow reversed, and they quickly went up.
 
The corridor they found themselves in was reminiscent of previous floors, complete with a set of bronze double doors. They found a room with four pillars, a stand with a plaque reading: “Let him who knows our god speak his name!” As well as a reed boat and a series of ornate jars as well as a setting for a huge gem. There was also a painting of the boat on the wall, with a gem in its bow.
 
Each of the ornate jars contained a large number of platinum pieces. The painting radiated magic: transmutation and conjuration.
 
Tage reached into the painting, and found that it was more like a window. The key was probably to go into the painting and retrieve the boat. . Tage poked his head through, and saw that the window appeared to be in the air.
 
John tied a rope onto Tage, and hurled him onto the boat. He grabbed a hold of the side, and extracted the enormous Opal. Several minutes later when Tage had settled his nerves, John extracted him. Their desire to explore the other realm was put to rest for now, as they identified the Gem of Seeing which they would 100% be crafting into a monocle as soon as they got back to a jeweler.
 
The next room held a very fancy sarcophagus with a staff and a picture of a gem.
 
 
A passage was always provided between the king and the tomb of his likeness, whereby his spirit may pass into his ordained statue and live within the stone we worship in the outer world.
 
Tage inspected the sarcophagus for traps. He did not find any, but he did find a secret door on the wall.
 
Koric immediately pulled the staff out of the sarcophagus, and pushed it open: Impaling the mummy within with it and somehow ending its existence. The secret room contained a way to quickly escape the tomb, if you made the correct stance. . which they discovered, and used to escape the tomb.