Tomb of Tzentak

The pharaoh Tzentak ordered his funerary vault to be carved into the rock of a small mountain over twelve hundred years ago. Protected by mummified guardians, skeletal warriors, and a huge range of deadly traps, the pharaoh intended it to be a place of safety for his physical remains while his ka, or soul, entered the afterlife. Built across two levels, the upper level was intended to slay intruders who dared trespass within his tomb, while the lower level was his royal vault.
When a landslide revealed the entrance to the tomb, villagers from the nearby village of Waset ventured into the false tomb nearby. Discovering huge piles of gold, they carried it, and the pharaoh's curse, back to the village. As the curse took effect, first the gold was turned to sand then its victims shortly thereafter, when they were no longer able to fight off the debilitating exhaustion that accompanied it.
The tomb contained several rooms holding sarcophagi with mummified warriors, and could only be entered by magic: a teleportation spell concealed with braziers of continual flame shifted those seeking entry into a pit containing swarms of poisonous snakes, while the door itself was both held shut by an immovable rod and reinforced with a wall of force. Long galleries were lined with mechanisms firing poison darts, while false doors concealed leering demonic heads firing prepared spells at unwary tomb-robbers.
Part of the complex was set aside for the chamber containing Tzentak's chamberlain, a lesser mummy lord, who guarded the canopic chest containing Tzentak's heart. The complex itself was patrolled by constructs: both Shabti (automatons resembling servants armed with a staff) and Royal Cobras (man-sized giant cobras made of lapis lazuli and gold).
On the lower level, large sandstone golems and the skeletons of Tzentak's personal guard stood watch over the entrance to his vault. Within, the sarcophagi of four of his most trusted servants accompanied his own, along with the body of the loyal servant who was buried alive with the god-king. This servant sealed the tomb from within and retreated to the royal vault, arming the traps as he did, until he reached the vault where he died of the slow-acting poison he had taken.
When Tzentak thought he would be defeated, he triggered the final trap within his tomb: a massive wall-mounted hourglass the size of a man's torso, held aloft by scarabs. The golden sand within the top bulb was held in stasis until Tzentak released it, at which point a wave of destruction emanated from it. The gold within the tomb started to turn to sand, and earthquakes shook the tomb to pieces, in an attempt to ensure the would-be tomb robbers were buried with him in a final act of revenge.

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Tzentak's Revenge
Only Tzentak and his most loyal funerary priests knew that the intended destruction of the tomb was a deception: hidden within his sarcophagus was a ushabti idol which was enspelled with a contingency to regenerate his heart a day later if his canopic chest was discovered and his heart destroyed. In the event of adventurers or tomb-robbers defeating him, the magic hourglass within his tomb vault would make his tomb appear to collapse in an attempt to bury the conquerors alive. In reality, it was a combination of rigged stonework and illusions, while the hourglass would return the tomb to normal a short time after the slayers had fled. The tomb's magic would also lay a curse upon any robbers who fled, allowing the mummified pharaoh to relentlessly track them down no matter how far they ran.

Type

Tomb

Characters in Location

• Tzentak