Aporeu chronicles Issue 34: The Necropolis of Amulius
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Room after room, after room.The Necropolis of Amulius by Ulfgar
Recently a team of scouts had returned from exploring a new world through the Gate. Most of them returned, however 1 did not make it back. Lornan tasked us, Surron, Kaaravic, Otanyn, Q and me with investigating through the gate. If we managed to return the scout we would get an extra reward for that. When we went through the gate we came into a room with 2 doors, one left and one right, and an alcove opposite us with an inscription: “Here lies the Great Wizard Amulius. You now enter his Necropolis”. We decided to take the door to left and entered a nice sitting room, with a burning fire, chair and a table with stuff on or around it. I looked around at the nice Dwarven stonework of the place, satisfied that at least the ceiling would not be collapsing on us. There was another door leading out of the room and while the rest of the group messed with the items they had found I stood guard there, ready to venture on. It was not yet to be however, as something one of the others did awaken some foul fire demon, and a flame tongue shot out at Surron, grabbing onto him and pulling him closer. Of course I immediately joined in the fray and we made short work of this foul creature. While I was pounding it Q suddenly shot right through it, pinning some form of lava core from it to the wall after which the creature fell apart. After the group was ready looting we finally went on to the next room. A white marble, light room where we found a weapon rack containing a very wide variety of weapons. Opposite the rack was a statue of a humanoid man with two halves. One half had a muscular, bare chest and a boar helmet, the other half looks rather shifty. Suddenly Kaaravic walked over, grabbing a dagger and a battleaxe from the rack, putting the great axe into the hand on the bare-chested side and a dagger in the other hand. This caused the statue to split to reveal a small room with a lot of coins as well as a black chunk of metal. He explained that this was a very easy, clear riddle, and that the halves clearly depicted a barbarian and a rogue, and he just put their most logical weapons into the hands. Surron also explained that he had read a piece of paper which depicted how to make some magical staff, and that several things were needed for that, including this chunk of metal. The next room we moved into was some sort of indoor garden, with several beds with plants where the others started picking plants to take with them. I again moved to guard the next door while Otanyn had her slithery snake explore through the pool to discover there was a tunnel leading to a large cave with a tree. I immediately took a run, jumping into the pool, Q just barely grabbing on to my shirt to hitch a ride through the water. We indeed made our way into a cave with a large tree with pink fruits, fruit flies, and a large number of small tunnels leading off from there. I did not have long to worry ‘bout that before a beautiful lady, Luciliae, a dryad. She offered each of us a sweet fruit from the tree which I eagerly ate. It sure improved how I felt, and she was so very beautiful! She explained that she was a dryad and that mean man Amulius had planted her tree there, trapping her in that cave! She was taking care of a clan of kobolds living in the cave but desperately wanted to leave. She decided to give us a few branches from the tree, and asked Q to take a seed with us, to plant somewhere else so she could go to a new location. Taking our leave, we again went through the underwater tunnel, and on to the next room where we found a statue of a wizard type man, with two hands outstretched holding nothing. Suddenly, the statue opened its mouth and a booming voice spoke: "Return what was sundered, and the way ahead will be opened" We think it was speaking about the staff, but we did not have all the parts yet and would need to take time to remake it. Something to get back to, I guess. So we went on to the next room, very gloomy with underworld like reliefs. There was some platform there with a handle, and a handle next to it. I decided to just step on the platform and pull the lever and suddenly the whole contraption lowered down into another room with 5 pillars that each had some glass skull with blood in it, and a pit full of bones in front of each skull. When I stepped off the platform part of the liquid drained out of each of the skulls causing skeletons to come to life and attack. A crazy fight ensued, made crazier when people kept pulling levers making the platform rise and lower, but eventually we won, with skeletons killed and several of the skulls destroyed before they could bring more skeletons to life. One of them had a metal key embedded in its head which I used to unlock a large metal door, revealing a coffin with a glass top. Inside was a woman with a V-shaped amulet, a fancy fan and a very nice dress. I decided to just slam down to crack the lid, and took the amulet. Q took the fan but when he tried to remove the lady’s dress Kaaravic, who had turned into a bear in the fight, kept pushing him back. When Otanyn realized what Q was trying to do she locked us up down there until we apologized and asked her to let us out. We went back upstairs and made into the next room, with a pillar in the center and metal claws holding small blue gems in each corner. However, Otanyn heard voices from the next room, where a troll…. Two trolls? Some creature made up of two half trolls was debating with itself about eating a woman, who turned out to be the scout we were looking for! We eagerly engaged in the fight and while I made sure to keep close to the troll (And NO, he did not have me captured!) others used fire to fight it. In the end we prevailed and freed the scout. She turned out to be Celia, a woman who on my second mission decided to help a halfling attack us, but who was spared. I had told her to get a proper job at the guild and I guess she did! She did not want to stay with the group and went to wait by the gate out. Otanyn had her eye on the giant cast iron kettle the trolls had used, and gave me some coin to try and take it with us. While others took a rest, I widened a door so the kettle could fit through. Still curious how they got the kettle in there in the first place.. After the rest we went back to the room with the pillars, but when someone touched a gem in the corner four water creatures came to life, attacking us while lightning shot out of the center pillar. Eventually we killed them, Q again stealing several of my kills which he had been doing all day, the sneaky bugger! Since I had finally drank an elixir from doctor Vasilievski that worked I had all the energy to chase him around the room for a while. Finally we opened the door opposite the bellowing statue. It seems we did not need the staff for that, which is still a mystery. Inside there was a huge pit with some pathways around it, and in the middle a path to a platform. On the platform a ballista rose and shot at me! So I ran forward to attack it. It was a tough fight, with 4 ghosts who kept throwing rocks or shooting the ballista. Luckily I managed to hold my ground and not being pushed into the pit! After we slew all four of them it turned out Kaaravic had interest in the ballista, so I decided to unbolt it. Then, we took it with us and went back to Celia, and all returned home, safe and sound. I still have a nagging feeling there is more to this place, but that will have to wait for another mission.The Necropolis of Amulius by Lady Otanyn
Cleaning up the Necropolis of Amulius, in the name of House Vuuvaxath, Lady Otanyn reports about the last mission. There was a mission that required the hand of myself, and my baby Jetsam and loyal servant Kronk. Despite me explaining to Lornan that I wouldn’t need any help, he offered that I could take four others with me to take some burden of me. Such a gentleman. So accompanied by the little muddy brown monster Q, the dwarf without decent manners Ulfgar, a half-orc that goes by the name Kaaravic something something.. and Surron, who I have ventured with before. Excellent man that is, knowing that knowledge is power. A new world behind the gate had been found, leading into a tomb of a powerful wizard. Well that’s no problem for me, and with a little help from the rest, it was certainly no issue at all. The job also entailed returning the scout that had gone missing, Lady Celia. After inquiring her physique features so we could recognize her, we went through the gate. We immediately entered in a small dark room, with some pretentious stone that stated something about a great wizard Amulius. Everyone nowadays thinks they are great wizards, but of course everyone else is wrong. So I do my usual tricks in situations like this. I summon Kronk and let him deal with the rusty and potentially trapped doors, letting the rest know they shouldn’t bother with it because I have it properly covered. The first room reveals a hearth with a chair and a set of boots, a cabinet with books and a table with a glass of wine. Kaaravic and Surron search the books, while I let Kronk lift the boots. Those were the most horrific disgusting and dirty boots I have ever seen. Apparently they were appealing to Q, so he tried to put them on. They magically fitted to his tiny… whatever they are, and it left mud everywhere. Really disgusting. I find the wine very intriguing but Surron lets me know it has magical properties, so instead of drinking it, I take it with me. Ulfgar is covering the other closed door, while the other two men find books and two scrolls. Kronk takes the scrolls so he can safely open them, when a fire elemental explodes from the hearth. Chaos erupts and this horrible heat monster is drying my skin with its hell fires! Q is being fast and small and keeps escaping and missing his first couple of shots. I escape first, using frostbite to slow it down. Surron gets a couple of good hits in, as well as Ulfgar and Kaaravic. Ulfgar seems to stay close to this steaming hot monster, and gets burned. Surron and me both get entangled in some burning tentacles that erupt from this ball of fire. It slowly pulls us close, so I send Jetsam away into safety. Not wanting to deal with this heat, I use the power of thunder to push him away from me, but obviously Ulfgar didn’t expect that so misses. More running and fighting happens, and while I heal myself Q finally manages to pin the core of this monster against the wall. After this mess of a fight we establish we got some magical boots, weird wine, a core from the fire elemental, some books I don’t care about, a spell scroll and some documents on how to assemble a magical staff. Ulfgar is eager to push on, so I let Kronk open the door for him. We find a second room filled with a weapon rack, and a statue that is weirdly split in two halves. Before I even get to let Kronk check for anything, Kaaravic is impatient and pulls two weapons from the rack and pushes them into the hands of the statue. Some click noise is heard and it opens up a small room with a lot of money and a weird metal piece. Of course I let do Kronk his job, and let him collect this without any of us getting hurt.
Immediately after I send Kronk to open the next door, which reveals the most wonderful indoor garden. Of course the rest gets distracted with the weird earthly-plant area, completely missing a wonderful pool in the back of the room. Sending Jetsam down and hydrating my skin, I find a lovely collection of water plants and Jetsam finds a secret tunnel to a weird tree room. It is… unsightly. A cave filled with flowers, grass and a purple tree, while having annoying fireflies flying around. There are also eyes lurking from small tunnels in the side of this cave.
I tell my findings to the rest, and Surron tells us we need the purple wood from the tree to make this staff. So after waiting an eternity, we finally swim through the tunnels. These poor unfortunate souls do not even know how to breathe underwater.
The next part is too stupid to waste too many words on. A woman appears with barely any clothes on, clearly not a lady. Her name is something like Luciliae, and Surron tells us it’s a dryad. I am still not impressed. She offers us fruit from the tree, that Kaaravic and I refuse to eat. The other three are idiots and eat it, getting completely charmed by this woman. She took precious time away from us, demanding we did some ridiculous quest for her. I tried desperately to get the men away, but it was futile. My magic might have been stronger than hers, but men are easily distracted by bare skin of women. Somehow the men did manage to collect two tree branches for the staff, and after acquiring those, I immediately left and swam back. Q did ask to get a ride from Jetsam, which I of course granted him. Then we waited an eternity before Surron and Ulfgar returned, Persana knows what happened over there.
My loyal Kronk opened the next door, finding a room with a wizard statue with his hands extended forwards. Having Jetsam back on my shoulders again, we look around when a deep voice echoes. “Return what was sundered, and the way ahead will be opened”. So now we believe the statue needs the staff we are assembling, but there is nothing in this room so we continue to the next.
There is a weird platform in this room, which had one lever on it and one other lever in the room. After trying to debate which lever Kronk should pull, Ulfgar just stepped on the platform and pulled it. The floor sunk away, bringing him one floor down, while the second platform sealed off the gap it left. I have no idea why you would have such a mechanism. Where I’m from you just swim up or down, no need for such weird contraptions. Kaaravic didn’t seem amused and pulled the second lever in the room which brought Ulfgar back up, then after stepping on the platform too they then both went down again. Something happens downstairs, and Q, Surron and me are lost what to do. So I let Kronk pull the lever again, now an empty platform appears. Q quickly gets on it, and I send Jetsam with him, immediately followed by the clever imitation move from Surron with Kalista (a lovely Raven who he has a very strong bond with, just like I have with Jetsam) who also flew onto the platform. Kronk sends them down, and by using the strong bond between Jetsam and myself I can see what is happening. Skeletons have appeared and are fighting the three men. Although one man now seems to have changed into a bear. I have Jetsam help Kaaravic in his bear form, and when I see an opening I send Q back up with the platform, because there is also a skeleton on top of it. Blowing it up with frostbite, Surron jumps on the platform too, Q kicks the lever again and goes down again. I am confident that Jetsam is helping wherever he can, and I get on top of the platform, letting Kronk pull the lever, bringing me up to a secret room above the main floor.
After opening a lock, I find an egg shaped silver ornament embedded with tiny gems. Not trusting any hidden traps, I call Jetsam to me to let him collect it for me from this small room. After someone else fiddles with the lever, I need to get myself back up again and collect the egg.
The fight ends and I go down on the platform, they seem to have opened a room at the back finding a woman in a coffin. Not too bothered, I wait till they are done. When they shatter the glass top, I cannot look any longer on how disrespectful they treat the dead. So I walk over, seeing that they are robbing her from any valuables. Which is fine in my opinion, she isn’t needing any powerful items anymore. But my eyes saw something even more horrible, Q was trying to UNDRESS the woman! How … I can’t even … Ridiculous! I begged him to stop, but he refused. Luckily the only other sane person seemed to agree with me, Kaaravic. He had refused the fruit earlier, and now was constantly shuffling Q away with his bear claws to make him stop getting the dress. Q didn’t stop, so I ran back and took the platform up with me, locking them down there. Until they promised me they would leave the poor lady alone, I waited and send Kronk ahead to scout. The arguing continued for a long while under me, and Kronk found a new room with four gems in the corners and a weird pillar in the middle.
When Q finally gave up and the group came back up again, I had heard some voices in the room next to the gem room. Something about boiling or simmering a “her”, so I expected that to be the poor lady Celia. With no time to waste, I ran into the next room, finding a merged troll-like creature. Almost as if you would have cut open two trolls, and then slammed two bigger halves together. In the corner there is a woman tied up so with quick thinking I send Jetsam over to Celia to try to free her. A big fight happens where Ulfgar transforms his tattoos into some spiritual ghosts, Surron uses oil on the troll, and together with Kaaravic and Q they put the troll on fire. Now Ulfgar is grabbed and is being flung around, while he keeps smacking him. I cast several spells, making it move closer into a corner and further away from me and Celia. Celia gets freed by Jetsam and shoots several arrows, and later we figure out that Ulfgar apparently knows her. What does this man have with women? He was captivated by the dryad before, and was fine with Q pulling of the dress from the other one. He really lacks manners. In any case, we kill this poor double headed-troll, and it inspires me for a song later. We send Celia back to the gate entrance while we go back to clear out the rest of this tomb.
First we backtrack into the one with the four gems, and as soon as Kronk touches one, shocking beams shoot through the room and four liquid ghost like creatures appear. Both Jetsam and Kronk were in unfortunate positions, and both have to leave for safety reasons. Casting my trusted frostbite on one, it makes it an easy kill for Kaaravic. Again the fight is messy and unorganised. The shocking beams hit Surron and Kaaravic, and seems to charge up one of the liquid creatures. Then Ulfgar and Q chase them, and smoke blocks the view for me. I don’t know who decided to use it, but I had to wait till the smoke cleared up before I could use my ice on these monsters again. After unorganised fighting, Ulfgar gets pissed at Q and chases him through the room for a while, but we manage to kill them all and collect the one core that was still in one piece. Of course this was the core that came from the one that I had frozen completely and that Kaaravic neatly took care of. All the others had been shattered by impatient fighting. Such incompetent people…
After this fight we take a short rest, and I convinced Ulfgar with a little money and body language that I want to have the cauldron from the trolls. So he breaks the door and wall open to bring it to the gate and Celia guards it while we head into the last room.
This last room is across the wizard statue from before, and there is an elevated path in the middle of the room which has a ballista on it. The rest of the room is filled with spikes and a ledge at the other side of the room, and some small steps on the edge of the walls. I bring Kronk out again, letting him pull a lever, and the ballista seems to come alive! Ulfgar rushes in, and after a bit with the help of Kaaravic we figure out we are fighting invisible ghosts. Kaaravic transforms into a spider, webbing the ballista and Ulfgar chases the ghosts around it. Q seems to be hitting something in the air, and when I see glimpses of weapons hit something I immediately follow up with my ice in the hope to make them visible. That doesn’t seem to work, but it does hurt them. In this horrible fight, the only one I really trust is Kaaravic who seems to be signalling us with this spider legs to where the enemies are. Somehow he can see them? That is truly a skill of someone strong, maybe I should ask him about fighting a Kraken. Maybe he can transform into one! Just like with the spider and bear!
In the end both Surron and me supported the rest with our magic, and we leave this room with a ballista tied to Kaaravic’s spider back. We add that to all the weapons, my cauldron and a bunch of trinkets and the rescue of lady Celia, so we were successful on all fronts because of my effortless fast thinking and expertise in fighting. Although a little credit can go to Kaaravic as well, he might become a strong man someday. And not to forget, Surron did manage to keep track of all the parts needed for the staff that was found on the scroll. So we are going to be spending some time on making this later.
Oh right, and as a gift for all my fans from home, I wrote a song.
I admit that in the past I've been a nasty
They weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch
But you'll find that nowadays
I've mended all my ways
Repented, signed a deal, and made a switch
To this
And I fortunately have amazing magic
It's a talent that I always have possessed
And dear friend, please don't laugh
I use it on behalf
Of the miserable, the weakened, and depressed
Poor unfortunate trolls
No brain, no team
This one longing to have her simmer
That one wants to boil the girl
And do I help them?
Yes, indeed
Those poor unfortunate trolls
So scared, so dumb
They come flocking to the cauldron
Crying, "Spells, Otanyn, please!"
And I help them
Yes I do
Now it's happened once or twice
Someone couldn't pay the price
And I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the ice
Yes I've had the odd complaint
But on the whole I've been a saint
To those poor unfortunate trolls
Ulfgar chased him down with his tattoo ghosts,
While Surron threw a big flask of oil,
Have Q spit flames,
and Vic light up the floor
After all dear, what is fire useful for?
Come on, they’re not all that impressed with sleeping spells
True monsters, avoid it when they can
But they run and scream and fear
the big burning flame
It’s them who hold fire, who get the win
Come on you poor unfortunate troll
Go ahead
Eat the girl
I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day
It won't cost much
Just your life!
You poor unfortunate troll
It's sad but true
If you want to have some humans, my sweet
You've got the pay the toll
Take a gulp and take a breath
And go ahead and sign the scroll
Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got them, boys
The boss is on a roll
This poor unfortunate troll
Their burning desires,
will have them pay the highest price.
Taking their life,
In the name of the guild
All done by me.
Now, burn!
Aa-aa-aah, a-aa-aah
Keep burning!
Aa-aa-aah, a-aa-aah
Comments