Aporeu chronicles Issue 95: The Necropolis of Amulius 3
Stories from the adventurers
This week
We've all heard about the stoney adventurers, here's how it happened.
The Necropolis of Amulius 3 by Pinker Yimble
(Aaargggggg, that gnome was back! I just had him hand in the story and after he left over an HOUR later I had to spend the rest of the day cutting those 12 pages down to a sensible story. I am about ready to quit!) I did it, I went through the fabled gate! The mission was not a huge success, but still, I went through the gate and came back in one piece. In one piece and moving even! I met up with my fellow adventurers, Mud, Booyagh, Joop and Lindal, quite a varied bunch. We were to go through the gate and to some necropolis, where treasure was to be found. Well, so far it has only cost me money, and more costs on the way, I can tell you that much. It started with Lornan informing us that we needed a skull with a ruby in the forehead that he had, to get to the treasure, and that we could buy it for 50 gold pieces. There were a lot of doubtful looks around the room so I forked over the coin, as the kids these days say. It seemed that three of the others had already been to this place without success, however I of course was determined to make our trip a triumph! We went to the Gate and then made our way through, into the Tomb of Amulius, Wizard of Legend! If he was such a great wizard he sure made a strange door, with the wall broken all around it. The others led the way through some rooms until we were met with a statue of a wizard with a staff in his hand. We then met a ghostly figure of this wizard, who told us to gather three relics and return those parts to he who sleeps, and then something about treasures to keep. He talked a bit too fast, but it all was very exciting. We went down some stairs beneath the statue and into a garden with a large lake to our right, and a door to the left. Along the three walls surrounding the lake were large red flowers. I was just contemplating bringing one back home for my darling wife's grave when suddenly Mud decided to create a fire under one of them, and the others joined in with destroying these magnificent flowers! Of course when they in turn started burping out frogs which seemed to be attacking us I had to join in to destroy them, but I did ask the ghost of Amulius not to tell my darling wife about it.
Now the lake turned out to consist of acid, instead of water, and Booyagh who had been here before did seem quite afraid of it. Eventually however, we managed to cross it, to find 2 doors on the other end, hiding in the corners. Going through the one on the left we found a long room with a metal sarcophagus near the door. There were rows of holes in the floor, and a large statue set in the wall at the other end.
As my fellows did not trust the holes either they started jumping over to the other end, while Booyagh and I stayed where we were. I did not trust the sarcophagus and decided to put my block of wood in front of it before turning it into silver, to prevent the thing from opening. Unfortunately one of the others did something with the statue and suddenly floating skulls came from the wall and attacked it, causing me to lose my concentration on the changed block of silver. Next I knew the sarcophagus opened up and shadows came slithering out, pulling me inside it until I sank into darkness.
When the light returned I found Mud more muscular than before standing over me, stuffing berries into my mouth. They were tasty enough but I felt pretty full and he just kept on stuffing. Rather strange behavior to be honest. I did have a chat with the ghost of Amulius again, asking him not to tell my wife that I nearly joined her in the afterlife. I am sure she would love to see me again, but I must admit that, although I of course miss her very much, I am also enjoying this adventuring a lot.
After the statue was opened, revealing a ribcage, we took a short rest before going to the other side of the pool. The room we found ourselves in, containing four buttons, changed into a labyrinth when we all pressed the buttons, and ghostly Kobolds appeared to attack us. Chasing the first away with my dragon's breath I then chased it, finding another quarry. However after attacking them they surrounded me and I seemingly went unconscious again, rather an inconvenience.
When I came to consciousness again I saw, while still laying down, Booyagh opened the next door out of the room, and started to fight some strange 8-legged lizard with spikes along it's back. While fighting it we noticed some of our fellows stopped moving and turning grey, until eventually only Joop and I were left over, killing the creature. However, the others had been turned into stone by it! The ghost of Amulius seemed quite a nice fellow but he was positively nasty about this! However, he did help Joop in retrieving the stomach of the basilisk, which would help in curing the others, if we find someone who is willing and able to help.
We did find the place where the treasure would be found, and as a group we had retrieved all the keys! However, as two of them had turned into stone in the bag of Lindal we could not continue. I helped Joop in getting the statues back to the city by turning them into wood so he could carry them easier, and then we went back through the gate. A fun mission but a failed mission nonetheless.
Comments