The Triangle of Terror by John | World Anvil

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Thu 30th Jan 2020 04:54

The Triangle of Terror

by Major John Jean-Jon

There was magic in this world once, but they stole it all away.
 
From the darkness: An inconspicuous fellow rolled into the room, Tagë made his presence known.
 
Tagë: (Jeff) An inconspicuous fellow in a linen outfit, loosely thrown over quiet armour. A Bandolier filled with ridiculous looking shuriken as well as a pair of wakizashi were his weapons of choice. Troubled eyes look out from his wrapped face, his voice a hoarse whisper.
 
Deeper into the Pyramid, the next chamber held hieroglyphs of natural scenes of hunts of lions, hippopotami, crocodiles, and stranger creatures. A skeleton in armour and his skeletal leopard were guarding the room. With a frightening howl, the leopard scared the Lizard Man, Ninja and Barbarian right out of the room, and a bullet and wooden stake later was smashed to bits. The skeletal master proved a bit more hardy, but not terribly so and was in short order destroyed as well.
 
The next room held four obelisks (One in each corner) and a golden plate in the center. The barbarian immediately activated the Earth Obelisk, and an angry Earth elemental appeared. A secret panel was detected in the fire obelisk, and it contained a fancy ruby. Also it summoned a fire elemental, but it was quickly reduced to cinders.
 
The next hall contained a puzzle of sorts. A secret door was surrounded by five buttons, containing 5 different headed sphinxes. Falcon, Female Human, Jackal, Male Human, Ram. The combination they tried was not successful, and a bladed pendulum trap was quite a surprise. So they went to look for clues further in.
 
A fancy statue of Sekh pa Merfer sat in the center of the pharaoh, as well as slabs of stone and additional statues. The party split, and investigated some statues, finding a lean Man with the head of a Jackal (North), the others found a strong Man with the head of a Falcon (South). A secret panel containing a bronze scroll case was inside. It contained a divine scroll of SOMETHING. The big statue was pointing at the false door, and upon moving it they discovered what was clearly a fake burial chamber, complete with fake treasure, and a mummy.
 
In short order he was reduced to a pile of rags. On inspection it was determined that he was the architect. The room did contain however, various golden items. On the false door, they saw the combination to the secret door: Man, Woman, Ram, Jackal, Falcon.
 
In the next secret room, there was a pair of ancient boats. Complete with chained slave skeleton crew. Boats were flipped, skeletons sent tumbling. A frenzied fight later, the skeletons were dust and the boats in ruins.
 
Creeping into the last few rooms of the pyramid which remained untouched, they found an antechamber for the next room. A pack of angry skeletons dwelt within, four of them ablaze! A crack shot anti-climactically blew away the four-armed skeleton, and a bomb from the alchemist followed by a second shot from the gunslinger slew the skeletons. Four Short Swords, and a lot of hot bone dust were what remained.
 
The next room contained a pair of zombies who believed they were covered in a glamour, the lack of a common language was no barrier to romance however. The gentlemen strolled in, and the barbarian rudely relieved himself. The Bandolier Bros decided to introduce them, to the cultists outside. The gentleman had a busy night while the rest of the group enjoyed a rest.
 
Later on. . . the group crept into the burial chamber. The sarcophagus was already opened, and Sekh Pa Merfer as well as a zombie Hieracosphinx dwelt within. Through crude hand gestures and motions, the barbarian enraged them. Quickly, the Hieracosphinx was bombed and gunned into oblivion, but the Pharaoh was a much tougher nut to crack. Only Mummy Dust and his hand remained, as well as the sarcophagus (1,000 gp) and the various grave goods were worth a total of 1,000 GP. Rubbings of the Hieroglyphs on the walls were worth a total of 2,000 gp to interested parties.
 
Checking the secret room last, the ninja entered in the secret code to open the door. Carvings spoke of the pharaohs exploits, and a pair of animated Anubis Guardian statues sparked to life. Eventually the party bombed, smashed, and shot them to dust.
 
Making their way out of the tomb, through the extremely long tunnel, the Bandolier-Bros brought the pair of ancient ladies out to meet their admirers. They were met with a pair of suspicious cultists, now with yellowed skin (Githyanki). The gunslinger answered their questions with lead.
 
Amazingly, they seemed to possess arcane powers! Their corpses would be harvested for the potential magic within. The two zombie ladies disguised in cultist robes and they started the trek back to civilization.