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Rumors:

Orcs are massing in the plains of Thar seeking the Tomb of Kursk

 

Orcs are seeking a mighty weapon of Vorbyx to unite the Orc clans

 

The weapon is rumored to be a powerful Bastard Sword

 

Townsfolk and travelers have been disappearing across the region

 

With Kursk being the first King of Orcs, Vorbyx was the mighties
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Orcs are seeking knowledge to the whereabouts of Kursk’s Tomb

 

The Tome of Kursk contains great treasure and a key that will be needed to gain access to the true Tomb of Vorbyx

 

Visions of a dark dragon of despair covered in magic runes have been reported by seers across the Moonsea

 

There is an ancient stronghold deep in Thar occupied by reasonable Ogres

 

Talk that the Orcs are being gathered and controlled by an evil Giant far away in a dark domain

 

Folk are being sacrificed by evil so the powers of darkness can enter this plane

 

Orcs are gaining power and will cover the land in a dark cloud

Gaming notes from the 4-11-12 session and the 4-18-12 session. I can't find my notes from the first session, so there isn't much here about that one. Sorry.

With a full group, we proceed down the carved walls of the "yellow" dungeon. Two strange creatures of shadow jump us - steaming out of nowhere and wailing on us with fear and sleep attacks. Mongo got spooked, little Duffy got constricted, we all floundered with a way to attack them, until Stryfe got the great idea to use a sunrod. This really turned the table and we killed our enemies.

In the next room there was another food generator, this one tainted by a brown mold. Stuck in the crusty, stinky brownness (stop giggling; we're not children here), we find the last colored lamp that we need. But in an adjoining room is a big egg-shaped earth elemental. He challenges our party to a battle, and Mongo obliges with a toe-to-toe fight of large-sized monsters. Soon the expected happens, and Mongo is lying on the floor in negative territory. So the rest of the pary jumps into the battle and start wailing on this monster. We succeed.

With all of the lamps in our possession, we go back to the tomb room. After quite a lot of head scratching we realize that the space above the blue lamp is actually quite a bit taller. We go up there, find a tunnel and start adventuring. By "adventuring," of course, I mean, fall victim to a deadly wind trap. We figure out that turning off the trap requires having all of the lamps lit. Duh.

In the next area after that, we cross a narrow plank to a one-way door. There is a glick here that attacks us, and little cannonballs that shoot out at anyone who uses the platform. Well, once anyway, they kind of turn off after the first shot. We bravely rush in. 

With the glick slain, a small boy named Allister Land offers to help us. He's a ghost and he'll get us through the door if we offer to bury his remains back at his parent's home. We agree to do so.

Back in Cut Rock, people act strangely toward us. We later discover that Averron and Sharky are wanted by the authorities. Bummer. We bury the remains of this boy Anders at his family home; unfortunately the family has been dead for ages, so we feel weird doing that. Oh, and the family's graves are empty. A couple of owl bears have taken up residence in the Land family's home. We kill them. Apparently, the monsters already killed an NPC we hadn't met named Skull. Oh, and there was a baby owlbear there, but you can ask Gio what happened to that little guy.

Our deed to help Allister complete, we go back into the wind duke's tomb. The next area is a magical room of bas reliefs that tell the epic story of the mighty battle between seven wind dukes and the forces of chaos. At the center is a pillar of air. Tripping a trap (as we often do) summons two wind warriors, elementals who go at us with long swords. Amazingly, Mongo is not knocked into negatives. Finally, in the last room is Zosiel's tomb, and we find an ioun stone (Mongo has this) and a magic diadem. The helm of law? Well, no. 

Outside, we find tracks outside the tomb. We use a roundabout way to get back to Cut Rock, using darkness and Averron's skills to return without notice. Some other party has been watching the tomb entrance.

Back in town, Alurion breaks us the bad news. There was no crown of law. He was mistaken. This is really NOT the kind of thing we wanted to hear after spending about five sessions trying to find the damn thing. But apparently there are problems in Cut Rock that we can now help him with.

The new adventure: the dead dude named Skull had some note referring to cult-like activities in town. Green worms, unkillable zombies. Alureon can't understand why there are wanted posters of Sharky and Averron up all over town. We're framed for murder of a miner, and theft. There is a necromancer named Filch at work, he was a student of Mr. Beard. There is a party of bad guys arrayed against us and (forgive my spelling, I took illegible notes) they're called Rustafan, Todrick, Mavin Badge and Kallen. They know we're about and they know that we were in the tomb wasting our time on that crown quest. We have some clues pointing us to a lighthouse, but first we want to rest and spend some time with the beard. 

Mongo boldly steps into the tomb entrance to confront the strange fog. He hears some odd whispering noises, and actually gets spooked and runs away--clean out of the tomb. Then he sinks a little lower by explaining that he had to go "potty..." Oh, Mongo... Everyone thinks to themselves, "um, this is D&D: bodily functions are a myth!" But poor Mongo is the party tank tonight--and he's also like nine feet tall--so nobody confronts him about it. Ultimately, we surmise that the spooky noises are created by the breeze blowing through ingenious geometric grooves in the walls. We proceed into the next section of the tomb.

Side passage #1 is a dead-end containing an old bedroll and some wood shavings. Facing that is side passage #2, which I believe was an empty dead end. A little deeper in the tomb we find side passage #3, blocked off from a cave-in. Facing that is side-passage #4, which contains a mysterious broken mirror device. It bears a geometric emblem that we think may have belonged to the tomb's architect; Avveron sketches it and looks for patterns.

Suddenly things start to get "dire." A pack of giant wolves tears down the passageway and brutally attacks! Mongo bravely tries to cover the entire 20' wide corridor, but two squeeze past and start to snap at his flank! Sharky and Raven press forward to repel the tide! People are tripped, bitten, and shaken around in dire jaws like squeaky chew toys! Mongo is almost overcome, but he gets a fantastic cleave, the front line holds, and Duffy starts to have a conversation with the Mysterious Floating Head of Alureon:

"Hey, I hit that one with a scorching ray! Are you still disappointed in me, Mysterious Floating Head of Alureon!?! Hmmm?, did you say something about these wolves getting used to the spooky noises at the entrance, and now all of the other wandering monsters stay out, so the wolves have this place protected and all to themselves? Cool, that makes sense. Uh, was that Sharky saying something about a breath weapon? That would make sense too, since this tomb is wind-duke crafted! Hmmm, do you think that maybe the wind-dukes might craft a wind-related clue, OH! such as those ingenious grooves by the entrance? We might try to create some artificial wind through them and listen closely for words or a message! We can experiment soon; it looks like the battle is winding down... Wow, all of those flashes of light must be coming from the wands of cure light wounds; let's see if we can get some!"

The party proceeds into the next section of the tomb. Side passage #5 is a dead-end containing dire wolf beds and some scraps of treasures. We find a magic rope, an assortment of "movement elixers", an ornate "indigo-colored" lantern, and a stone sculpture of a finger. Since the lamp is "indigo-colored", and not just "blue", our characters decide that it must be very important.

Which brings us to side passage #6. Up a slight staircase, we behold a fresco painted to look like a representation of a room. Standing at a particular point, it appears as if we're standing in a chamber with seven radiating side-passageways. Each passageway contains a glowing colored lamp at the end: left-to-right we see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (See DM's e-mail).

To get to the next section of tomb we need to cross a thick wall of hazy webs. We see swarms of tiny spiders skittering around near the topside, so we decide to burn the buggers, and that's that.

Finally, down a slight staircase we arrive in the actual "chamber of seven lamps" as depicted in the fresco. Five colored lanterns are actually in place already, and one (green) is even pre-lit with an everburning torch! Fantastic! So counting the one we hold, there is but ONE that is missing (red, right?) We also notice a couple piles of bones which turn out to be..., an unsuccessful grave robber and his pet?

In the center of the chamber is a large stone sarcophagus, complete with a sculpture of a man lying on his back. Details include: a geometric pattern sculpted onto an orb over his heart (Avveron sketches), a missing finger, a magic trap, and a headstone reminiscent of an arrow, such that the whole platform "points" at the orange passageway. Unfortunately we seem to have come to a dead end. Where in the WORLD could the red lamp be? Do YOU know, Mysterious Floating Head of Alureon?

At this time Sharky shows some true grit by volunteering to challenge the magic trap. Everyone stands back. Duffy stands FAR back, about even with the harpies... Sharky manipulates... and trips, causing everyone to squish their eyes shut and duck! Fwoosh! Well, it was only an acid arrow, but it really smarts! "Yarrgh!" Heals, and then Sharky, unperturbed, takes a deep breath and tries again. ...Snip..., and success! The result is a new toy to play with and a lead to the red lamp! Congratz and thank you!

The sarcophagus, like the spinner on a game of Twister, can now be rotated to point in any of 8 directions (7 colored lamps and the way we came in). First we insert the missing finger and hang up our indigo lamp, just for fun. Then we twist the sarcophagus to point at yellow, and a tiny elevator appears directly beneath the yellow lamp. Cool! One more twist, and we're pointing at green. This elevator seems to get stuck, and collapses into itself. We investigate the smoking hole in the ground, and that's when the SERIOUS trouble starts...

It begins with an ominous buzzing sound... Duffy thinks "Web Web Web" but he's too slow on the draw! The hole erupts with clouds of horrifying little insects, dripping with acid. Mongo is engulfed and roars with pain. Everyone starts attacking wildly, but the swarms open and close around each whistling swing! Duffy finally fires off his chemical web, but unlucky Mongo is caught in the middle! To make matters worse, a giant spider unfolds from the hole and clacks its mandibles hungrily at Mongo. Torches start to fire up around the half-giant, but he's too weakened for us to risk setting on fire himself! Horror as the spider starts to suck off Mongo's face! Things start to look very bad, and Duffy has another conversation with the Mysterious Floating Head of Alureon:

"Uh, so this web is not helping us AT ALL! Is it dismissable? Can you look it up for me? No, YOU look it up, I'm busy trying to curse the spider! Curses: WE'VE had all of the bad luck since we left Hillsfar! Where's that Thomas when we need him the most!?! You know, I don't tell this to everybody, Mysterious Floating Head of Alureon, but... I'm an orphan too! Shouldn't I get some of that charity?? Okay, so: web IS dismissable, excellent so dismiss! oh F*** HERE THEY COME! EVERYONE RUN for your LIVES!! eeeeeWHAAAHI!"

Okay, so that was a little dramatic. In actuality, everyone takes one GIANT step backwards, and then Duffy re-casts web a half-a-moment before the monster's turn. They're all caught, we torch 'em, and then we take a little nap.

The next day, Avveron climbs down the shaft below the green lantern. He finds a chamber where bugs seem to get fed when they're not eating a Mongo. There's also a big group of sculptures with disapproving expressions. Weird. We break for the night.

After interrogation, much discussion about basilisks, risks vs. benefit, and strategies, the actual D...

Thanks for pointing that out, Raven!  Fortunately not much was lost.  So...

Something something we fought some monsters and rescued Veronwe and the Scions.  We returned to town and leveled up to 4.  Everyone knows, they were there!

Duffy DOES wish to thanks everyone--from the bottom of his big but tiny heart--for risking life and limb to help accomplish his reckless prison break.  Hopefully many good things will come of it!

Your Obedient Servant, Duffy

The old wooden house turns out to be a pretty sturdy, magically-enhanced keep for protecting magical artifacts from the big bad world. At least, that’s what Todd the Dwarf tells us.  However, our magic key proves to be the key to penetrate the magic. Inside we find the scepter and orb on pedestals, surrounded by a load of useful treasure. We talk ourselves into thinking that all of the glittery treasure is some sort of obedience test, and so we leave all of the other treasure! We touch only the lamp--I mean the orb and scepter--and put them into our storage container. This causes the relics to become phased out somehow. Todd mentions to us that we’re idiots for leaving the rest of the treasure, and starts to gather it up.

Next we follow the key across the demi-plane to a small clearing. The surviving salamanders are gathered, but we quickly change their status to "not surviving, scattered". Miraculously, the abandoned treasure trove appears over the ridge behind us, carried by a pair of stout Dwarven legs. We hesitantly pick over a few pieces of magic, and finally talk ourselves into thinking that the cache is probably not prohibited (note: no proper rogue would have EVER thought otherwise).

We hear some Zhentish horns behind us, so we jump through a grayish teleportation portal nearby. On the other side, we mop up a couple of salamanders, and find ourselves on the Ethereal Plane. The key leads us far across country, always to the Northwest. We encounter and massacre an Ethereal Filcher, while Duffy scares off the Dwarf with a harmless spell! I swear, Dwarves have no sense of humor, nor spirit of research! After a bit more traveling we come to a portal that brings us back to the Prime Material Plane. Continuing Northwest, the key ultimately leads us to a lighthouse on the Moonsea coast.

After A LOT of scouting to reveal that these are friends, we knock on the front door. It appears to be a safe house for Harpers, and our cheerful friend Glorifar is hiding in the basement. We give him the relics, and he says, "Well, where is the third relic???" Uh…, wasn’t it… in there already…? Sooooooo, that’s our cue to get back in the field and find a crown.