Weapons of Old

So Skrel disappeared into some portal saying he'd be back. The rest of the group started to explore the graves after redistributing the wares of the ghouls. I looked a bit closer at the self-sacrificed watchers and found come curious alchemy necklaces. Life magic, the kind that lets them coagulate into monstrosities on death. Highly illegal, very expensive. I figured that I can salvage the magic outta them into some other projects. They also had a Masterwork Dagger apiece, pretty meh quality in my opinion. Lily and Eval went off by themselves and I stayed with Kniana and Tamebrass. Figured that the more melee centric group would work better if we ran into more ghouls. Which...kinda happened.
My group heard Eval shout to see the last ghoul sprint across the pit we just left. It climbed up the far wall as Eval sunk an arrow into it. It rand down the hall that our half were going down toward. Kniana and by extension Tamebrass followed it. She happened upon a wall fixing itself back together. I was able to figure it was a magi-mechanical mechanism and we found about three buttons on the walls on the way. Tamebrass ended up opening one of the doors in the hall anyway. Kniana and I peeked in outta curiosity and there the first weapon was.
Lying on the top of one of a stone slab was a beautiful large sized greatsword. I was so taken aghast of it I couldn't figure anything out of it at first. Tamebrass ended up lifting the lid for a second to show that the slab was actually an unmarked coffin. Well I snapped outta my admiration daze long enough to give the sword a proper once over. I still couldn't figure out the material, but I did find that it had two different magical schools on it. I found an aura of transmutation and evocation as well as some kind of curse magic that activates on holding the weapon. I'm glad that I warned Tamebrass against touching it before. The enchants alone made me think this thing was worth upwards of 96k gp. After looking at it I was able to find the makers mark to be that of the Scar line. Hell, I modified Durian Scar's blade for the bride's father from the wedding deal even. I fussed around a bit longer before I came to the realization of what the blade actually was. While looking it over I couldn't fine where the crystal was socketed for the blade to have all its magics channeled from. It was only after the thorough shakedown for me to discover that the blade itself of the greatsword WAS MADE OF FESTINE CRYSTAL. I just had to touch it after that.
In a total lapse of judgement I was completely overcame by the desire to hold such a monumental blade. The downside was the curse... I could feel a presence from the blade try to take control and I saw flashes. Some fancy party, a large mirror featuring a lizardfolk in royal clothing and armor to match. I snapped outta it now holding two swords in place of the greatsword. Kniana apparently had seen someone too during all of it, Telostu't Skar was his name. I finally looked around the room to see something very different, a perspective I wasn't used to. I had grown to seven feet in height with more protruding spikes and whatnot. Simmilar to the lizardfolk I had seen in the vision. Well it took some time to absorb all of the happenings and after about ten minutes I returned to MY size. The sword was gone too, but now I had a set of twin tattoos on my forearms of swords with one having a line in it. I had a pretty decent idea as to what would happen if I brought them together. Kniana said that she wanted to talk to the spirit of the blade sometime later and I agreed. I wouldn't want to be processed by someone else. I also gave her my Remove Curse ring just in case something were to happen. For some reason she took suspicion to the ring as IF I had any time to try to tamper some sort of trap into it... Well now I had the sword with me for further study as to the construction. We went to go find the others after a rather large boom.
 
Eval and Lily were is some sort of wine cellar of sorts. Apparently it was some sort of so delicious that you want to drown yourself in it type thing. Likely compulsion magics. Well, we arrived and lily had a planar tuning fork of sorts. She had me look over it as I heard a voice say, "ugh mundane materials." Quite confused, I looked around only to realize the voice was internal likely from the intelligent sword I had tattooed on my arms. The fork itself was faintly magical tuned to a plane I was unfamiliar with. Tamebrass was getting antsy and claustrophobic as Lily and Eval led us to where they saw someone disappear and the fork laying there. It was the room I was teleported to during the ghoul fight and there were now scorch marks on the wall that weren't there before. There was also a missing half eaten corpse that was there before... The group moved on to an other room that they managed to open. Almost open as it was. Lily pulled out a set of lockpicks as to be expected of someone like her and opened the door to a sealed room.
On the other side a bit into the room was a set of pressure plates and a drain in the center. This immediately set off my sense of trapping. I told the group to watch it and told Mr. Floaty Eval to jump it. Afterward for US people I cast Floating Disk to let us step over. After observing the room I noticed a greataxe sitting on another casket. This weapon also had a crystal blade so naturally I HAD to get a good look at it. Eval yelled "Tink no!" but I told him I wouldn't touch this one. Kniana said that a plaque read as Burdolir Glyphkin. The namesake of the city of Bauldir and the son of the founder of the Glyphkin Lords. She also went on to touch this weapon after which it stared to glow, Lily, me, and herself all zapped by lightning after. That shot me across the room and I decided it was time to look at the shield on the coffin at the other side of the room. I pulled out my mending/minor healing marker to get some healing.
Well the shield on the otherwise was curious. Much like the other weapons it had Frestine Crystals shaped and worked into both the main center and lining the edge. On this one I could make out two moderate auras of conjuration and an aura of moderate transmutation. After a bit longer looking into it, I could find Spirit Bonded, Radiant Flight, and Channeling. I could also sense another curse even if the weapon was good aligned. Kniana made mention that the axe spirit or something said that she didn't have enough rage in her heart. At that everyone eyed Tambrass who went just short of feral on the ghouls that threatened Kniana. Well, he said something in gnoll touched the axe and disappeared. Kniana turned to me and asked about talking to the shield spirit. I thought it was a good idea to get it to come with us willingly as I am NOT letting something this finely made just sit in a grave to rot when there is so much my guild could learn of the crafting of such a fine item. I even got some supplies out of Maki's tent to move the thing. Well either way, Kniana said that a visage of Farazma was sitting on the shield looking at her. She started to do some sort of spirit meditation thing to talk with the shield. About this time Lily showed back up after disappearing.
 
Lily had apparently found some strange leathery chests and wanted me to look at them. Eval stayed with the entranced Kniana as we crossed the main room again and she showed me to a side room with some sort of dining table and a pair of chests behind a statue. She said that they were vibrating now as we approached. She told me that one had some fancy clothing and one had scrolls, potions, sticks, and some bags. I was curious of it so I touched the chest to figure it's make. As soon as my hand made contact the dammed thing started screaming. As soon as I pulled my hand away in reaction it slammed back shut. The voice of the sword told me that they are cursed chests of memory. A chest designed by dwarves long ago to torture grave robbers and they have a great fear of their creators. Well Lily and I worked out that she could go ahead and pull some valuable looking things out and if it closed on her I could make it scream her out. I like the concept of the chests and the voice made mention that they "weren't that hard". Well, after Lily got back out of the chest she seemed....depressed and handed me a bundle of wands. Three were strapped together with each labeled. There was Invisibility with 8 charges, Zone of Truth with 3, and Silence with 12. With that success I made a plan with her immovable grapple to prop the chest open and use her like a crane grabber, that was the first mistake. With this setup she managed to snag a bag with 75 plat and one with quartz gems inside of it. Lily didn't share in the enthusiasm as depression seemed to over take her. I didn't know what to do so I touched the chest to wake her back up to reality, that was the second mistake.
The chest started screaming again at my touch, but because of the grapple propping it open it wouldn't stop. Well I wanted the materials and the screaming to stop so I rushed to try to relive it of more contents, that was the third mistake. The chest started to vomit it's contents at us. Now that sounds good, but considering it was tossing potions like candy I would beg to differ. The first potion hit the floor and turned the immediate area to quicksand. The second one caused Reverse Gravity on us and the sand. So there we were, suffocating in floating quicksand and the chest was still propped open. I moved my Floating Disk over the top of the chest so that we could avoid more effects while trying to get it closed. that turned out to help us as a fire potion of some sort lit up the underside and set the chest on fire. It reacted by screaming that much louder. I was able to deactivate the hook as a scroll floated past me so I snatched it and stuffed it into a pocket to deal with later and prevent an accidental magic release in the fire. The chest stopped screaming and slammed shut just as Eval got into the room. I managed to get free of the sand pillar and even was able to yoink Lily out too. I got the hook reactivated as lily gently floated down with a Ring of Featherfall leaving me up near the top of the 35 ft ceiling. Eval was able to prevent my fall onto stone. Lily this time opened the chest to try and use Mage Hand to grab something. The chest somehow knew and slammed shut once more. I ended up slapping the chest out of frustration and it starts...crying. It was cracked ever so slightly and leaking water. Lily tried to offer it a weapon as a tribute or something and it just started letting out more water. The voice of the sword said that "you cannot sooth the souls of the dammed to make this". With all and all we still were able to walk away with a profit so it was likely better to quit while ahead especially if those were supposed to be a trap for grave robbers and all. Still seems like a waste to leave all the useful material out of hands that could use it. We headed back for the others.
 
When we made it back to the group to find Kniana still meditating and Tamebrass still missing. Skrel was there though and some torches on the wall were lit that weren't before. Eval had apparently done some meditating at the axe and requested a pair of iron bars. I was able to find some in Maki's tent but apparently they were "too pure". At that point Kniana woke up and said that the "Shield of Serenray" had talked with her. Someone named servant 20 from the war of the mortals or something that no one in our group has ever heard of. She continued by saying that the shield could only be moved if it gave it's permission and that she'd need the spell "Spirit" for something or another with it. I had to go check Maki's library, but I was willing to make a scroll of it for her on the condition that I would have the opportunity to study the shield. Either way I'm not willing to leave it down here. I went to work as it would cost roughly 562gp in supplies and quite a few hours to make.
After an hour or so Tamebrass zapped back into the world and I was called for heals. Tamebrass looked like he'd been through hell and back even having the adamantine breastplate fused to his body in places. Kniana was dumping all her healing magic into him as I cast Cure light Wounds twice. He eventually awoke and recounted that he was competitor #50 and the last one needed to start some gladiatorial battle royal. The first few had apparently been waiting since the 1300's, over 1000 years! Even with a time distortion as it had been over 100 days for him. He now needed to atone for 37, I would guess kills but damn that's a lot. Well I went back to work as he told Kniana that he was a decendant of the cousin of the original kin that claimed a giant's brow of their tribe. He also told her his true name, Grockuac Sordaiv.