S1 E4: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan , part 3

General Summary

• After a bit of scouting, the party leaves the sulking naiad, Dala Tut, behind and continues around the bend and up the stairs to enter a long, rubble-strewn E-W chamber about 20 feet wide and at least a hundred feet long. The walls depict religious and historical scenes of the Kaalengi people of precolonial days, before Minon colonized the region. Wars, religious rites, and large, sharp-cornered pyramid temples are painted and carved in bas-relief. Fooling around with one of them opens a secret passage which Ris runs down, the others soon following after.
• They come to a gallery of stone-carved animal heads set up like trophies in a wide hall, one of which, the hippo, has a shiny bracelet in its open mouth. After a moment of panic as it closes around Kristre's arm, Nyx frees him using her block and tackle to break off the top of the hippo's snout. After checking out the other two passages that branch off from this main one, the group heads forward towards a foreboding row of desiccated people that appear to be floating a few feet above the floor. It turns out these are unanimated undead, and once the group passes the center of the row, about fifteen become animated undead - zombies - that spring to attack.
• Individually, no one zombie is much of a threat but all fifteen of them begin wearing down the party, and the party begins to burn through their spell slots and other resources - precious in a place where a short or long rest is not a simple affair.
• After thirty seconds or so, however, the formerly dead, then alive, then dead again zombies begin to become alive AGAIN - that undead fortitude. Perhaps the spirits of the Kaalengi dead prefer not to be disturbed, but they seem to go to a lot of trouble to make the point, for corpses that should have been at rest for centuries. In the end, Nesskan gets them into the room at the end of zombie hallway, occupied somewhat unexpectedly by small, squeaky creatures that seem more like dolls than living beings - Chwinga of the Kaalengi. There are 4 of them in the room, 2 in pairs at stone tables playing a version of 3-stone Mancala called Lela, with an empty table and game set.
• Once the party is inside and the door is once again locked, the Chwinga invite the party to play Lela at the empty table. While the rest of the shrine has led them to suspect some horrible fate may await the loser, the Chwinga give off a strong aura of goodness, and rather than play anything, the party takes the opportunity to get a long rest, safe for the moment from the vile amber mist that seems to fill the lower 2 or 3 feet of every other room in the shrine thus far. When they awake, safe, sound, and well-rested, the chirpy and cheerful little jungle spirits are still playing Mancala.

Rewards Granted

Unidentified gold bracelet

Report Date

23 Mar 2023

Primary Location

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

Secondary Location

The Caetica Region