Session 44 - October 3, 2019 Report

General Summary

World Date Fall, Second Moon, Ruanae (10th Day)

• The group rests for the night in the room where they fought the scorpions. The watches are, Roth, Scarlett, Baeshra and Ari. Scarlett and Roth are awake during the second watch when the lights dim, likly corresponding with dusk or some other time cycle.
• The party awakens the next morning and goes up the 1st flight of stairs, which seems to mirror the stairs beneath the other pyramid that lead down. On the first flight, Roth and Baeshra missed the enchanted step, but Ari stepped on it, failed and save and was turned into a statue.
• John rolled a 20, and mentioned this magic was a hidden trap and may be cured by Basilisk blood,but the party did not have any on them.
• Baeshra then kept up detect magic, and lead the way, with the golem, Tim carrying the state us Ari up the stairs. There was no magic stair on the second flight, but there was on the third. The party all stepped over it.
• The forth flight, the party stopped to let Baeshra ritually cast detect magic, and noticed there were no magical stairs, and the party got to the landing of the 5th flight, where they found many pieces of a "statue" broken on the landing, which Roth then put in is bag of holding.
• At the top of the 5th flight of stairs is a set of two door, locked, with two large beetles on the center of each, at one time, painted brightly.
• Roth is able to unlock the door, and make sure the door is not trapped. The room beyond is 30 by 30, with 4 lights and a very tall ceiling tapered at the top. The room is painted in a jungle theme, reaching to the ceiling with wildlife hiding in the vegetation. There is a tall golem-like creature standing on the other side of the room in front of another set of doors. In the corner is a skeleton/body, which Roth digs through to find a wand (transmutation according to Scarlet's detect magic spell and 10 gold). Everything else has decomposed, with the body at least 100 years old.
• Baeshra gets close to the creature, seeing an amulet of some kind on its chest, as it is made of armor and wood, without a face that can be seen, just a helmet. Baeshra asks it in Druid and common about the surrounding dessert and trying to confirm if the painting used to match the surrounding area.
• Merry goes to the creature and casts "Suggestion", triggering the fight. John casts one Magic Spell and Tim protected the statue of Ari. Once the creature took a lot of damage, it cast a spell and teleported away.
• The door the creature was guarding said, "An offering of strength", so Scarlett in her rage hit the door, causing it to open.
• A long dark hallway of rough sandstone lay ahead, at a slight incline, in complete darkness. The party noticed two raised ridges in the floor, that run parallel the entire length of the tunnel. The tunnel dead ends with a door on the left and a niche holding 2 jars and a water spout and drain. The doors have water motives carved on them and a small trough in front of the door. The challenge is to pour 4 measures of water into the trough. Baeshra solved it right away. The doors said "An Offering of Water"
• The party then continues up a similar dark tunnel, still 2 rails of stone, for another 45 mins, and comes to a dead end. Roth tries to poke this stone with his mage hand (like the last one). The stone is a solid wall, This door is called "an Offering of Coin". The door has coins carved in, with one empty spot. There is another niche, and a scale and 15 coins in a bowl. The party can only use the scale 3 times, and they manage to insert the correct coin in the door and it opens.
• The room they see is 60 by 60 square and opens to the light from the outside. They see a raised platform where a winged lion awaits them (sphix). The room has two mirrors on opposite walls.
• The party speaks with the sphinx and confirms what they seek is there, with no one being happy at John for the trouble, and Baeshra does not want to go through the puzzle of mirrors and light to get the item they came for.
• Roth and John speak with the sphinx in celestial to get the wand identified and Ari turned back to a living creature (not a statue). After the return to living, chaos ensued and there was much chaos and confusion.
• Merry and Scarlett convince Baeshra to go through the maze, with John promising to buy Baeshra three goats when they get back to town.
• The party asked the sphinx how long the puzzle was (5-7 degrees of sun travel), what happens if they fail (they go to another dimension), and if they get one prize or multiple prizes. 20-40 mins, and one prize are the answer. Merry tries to make John run the maze along, or give up what they seek, which he finally admits is a red leather book. After that, the party agrees to do the challenge together. Tim the golem must stay outside, he cannot go through the puzzle.
• The mirror to the left of the sphinx transforms into a port, and the party goes through into a circular room, 30 ft diameter, with sandstone walls, white triangular tiles in the floor pointing to the center, and a white glowing ceiling. The room has 3 other portals available, one to the front, one the left, and one to the right
• The party went through and back all three portals, ending up in identical rooms, with the tile color being the one thing that changed from room to room. Pink, Orange, Yellow, light green, etc.
• After 10 mins, the party notices the light has slightly dimmed, an easy way to keep track of the time left in the puzzle.
• Ari and Scarlett try to leave marks on the wall as they pass between room, but when they return find that the marks are gone.
• The group gets to the silver room, finds the correct door and makes it to the treasure room, where the sphinx is waiting for the party, pleased that they made it.
• John is then given a red leather book with a tattered cover and he puts it into his bag. Baeshra looks very carefully at where it is being stored.
• The sphinx then casts Heros Feast and offers to let the party partake of lunch with him. Roth share bourbon with the sphinx and they have a chat.
• Baeshra asks about the environment around the pyramids, and asks what happened to the land, learning that the forests and lakes that used to be around them. The sphinx mentions nature is always changing, and the dessert does not bother him, as change is always happening. When Baeshra asks about the treasure again, the sphinx says it is one time only, and once all the treasures have been claimed, he will be free to go.
• Roth then asks the sphinx if he could help them out of the pyramid. The sphinx is then happy to let them leave, casting fly and letting them fly out the top where they sphinx seemed to enter and edit.

Rewards Granted

Found wand of Greater Restoration, gave to sphinx, ate a Hero's feast, got a red leather covered book (what John was looking for)

Campaign

Thursday Night Story

Protagonists

Report Date

04 Oct 2019