The party follows Floradine's lead and easily makes it past while the trap is resetting.

You step through the double doors, and your lanterns light upon something that shocks you.  An eight foot wide hallway extends a short ways before turning right.  Lining the walls are the remains of human skeletons:  skulls, arm bones, ribcages.  They are stacked together, mixed in no particular fashion, but your eyes are caught by the many skulls staring back at you with empty sockets.

Another tremor shakes the ancient volcano, and you see one of the skeletons move.  Instantly alert, your weapons rise, but then you realize that the bones are just clattering to the floor from the earthquake-like seizures of the mountain--with nothing supernatural about them at all--and are being jarred loose from their eons of rest in this...catacomb.


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:29, Fri 29 Sept 2006.

Garanon walks forward and around the corner to see what's there.

Not letting the thief get ahead of her, the druidess follows closely.  As she passes the skull lined corriders her lips curl into a look of distaste.  "As most unfavourable way to start the journey on the Great Blue Path." she comments referring to the soul moving on to the spirit plane.

Floradine also looks around with jaw hanging open.  "Unless, of course, they were put here as sentinels.  Guarding something important could be a great honor, even if, I dare say, it is part of some curse."  He follows closely to Shae and Garanon to make sure they do not get out of arm's reach.

Shanjalae walks beside her father a few paces behind the others.  As she enters the catacomb, her head turns from side to side and her face turns pale.  While she looks from one stack of skulls to the next, she stops in her tracks and says, "The voices of the dead speak loudly here.  The voices are too many.  I cannot distinguish them.  I cannot understand their articulations or pleadings."  She rushes to catch up to the others.

Shanjalae's words echo up the hall causing Shae to stop, one hand reaching to grab Garanon by the shoulder causing him also to stop.

"Wait a moment, the placating figure is not going anywhere." she says as the only explanation to Garanon before turning back to her sister.

"Are you alright my sister?"

Garanon turns and waits, effecting a slight bow with his head.

Shanjalae motions them forward with one hand.  "I must get through here quickly," she says, walking forward again.  "The voices are too painful."  She holds her hand to her head as though to a headache and moves swiftly to pass up Shae and Garanon and forge ahead.

With a concerned frown, Shae hurries to catch up with her sister, her good hand quickly grasping that of the younger elf squeezing it in reassurance.

"We will get through this as quickly as we can." she affirms, casting a quick glance back at Garanon, "Won't we?"

Rathyl keeps as close to Garanon as he can, occasionally casting wary glances at the others.

You walk around the corner, duck under an archway and enter a wide chamber beyond.  Across the way, you see a large altar-like structure with strange carvings, and directly behind it is a statue holding a red glowing object.  Ancient faded mosaics cover the walls.

To your left you see two upright objects that at first you take to be statues.  But at second glance you see that they are sarcophogi roughly shaped in human form.  To your right you see two more.

Between the two sarcophogi on each side are shelves lined with old canopic jars.  Most of the jars have broken or cracked with age, but a few look completely intact.

Your eyes move back to the statue in the center and you realize that it is actually no statue at all, but the well-preserved body of some ancient man holding the long, luminescent object.  It is with that revelation that you realize you have entered a crypt, one that has not been disturbed in at least a thousand years.




This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 22:44, Mon 25 Aug 2003.

Garanon runs up to the altar and looks closely at it while stepping around it toward the mummified remains and the object in its hands.

Floradine also walks up to the altar and inspects it, but he does not walk around behind it.

Shanjalae suddenly falls to her knees, grasps her head between her hands and says, "The voices have joined in unison.  They are chanting together.  They are saying...they are saying..."  She winces in pain.  "They are saying, 'He comes, he comes.'"

She stumbles forward toward the altar, and the pain in her head seems to abate as she moves further from the hall filled with the dead.  "The jars.  They do not contain human remains.  They contain...magic.  Potions maybe.  One of them will heal you."  She rubs her temple as the pain resumes.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Tue 26 Aug 2003.

Engravings on top of the altar are in Allevian.  Kallad steps forward and translates:

Thou jealous, ruthless tyrant! Heaven repay
On thee and on thy children’s latest line
The wild caprice of thy despotic sway,
The gory bridal bed, the plundered shrine anon,
The murderous blood, the tears of Pianonne.

Underneath that, in a different and larger script, is written:

Herein lies the noble knight,
Preserver of our ways,
Strength to his life,
His heirs and his hereafter.

You realize that you probably will never know what truly happened or what story is to be told about the corpse holding the glowing red sceptre, which is carved into the likeness of a woman.  But you do realize that this is no altar.  It is a stone coffin.

Shae moves to retrieve the canopic jars putting them in the portable hole for safekeeping. As the others examine the coffin she moves to be with Shanjalae, holding the younger elf close as if by her touch she can stop the pain.

"It will soon be over," she says to her sister as her golden gaze shifts to watch Garanon, "Very soon."

Rathyl enters the room but keeps his distance from the various coffins, alters, and doors.  Staring at Shanjalae while she speaks, he draws both blades.  Darting glares around the chamber, Rathyl holds his swords out and waits.

The druids eyes are diverted from Garanon when Rathyl enters the room, drawing his swords and taking on a combat stance.

For long minutes she openly appraises him, her golden gaze disconcerting with its intensity.  The silence is finally broken when she asks, “Who are you Rathyl, of what family lineage do you descend?”

Floradine, who currently holds the portable hole, is reluctant to put the jars inside.  "I think we might need to be healed.  Let's get a status check from everyone to make sure, especially if a fight is to ensue here."

With a quick glare at the elf woman, Rathyl says, "That's not really important at the moment.  Maybe you should worry about who He is and why He's coming."  Snorting, Rathyl goes back to trying to watching everything at once.

Joseph is not sure what to make of this room.  Used to a life in the forest, the ranger feels out of place in this dungeon-like atmosphere.

At Floradine's question regarding injuries Joseph responds, "I am pretty badly hurt right now.  I have several wounds that continue to bleed through the bandages and I do not think that I would be able to last half as long in a fight as I normally would."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:31, Thu 28 Aug 2003.

Health status check:

Joseph:  Just less than half strength
Kallad:  Just less than half strength
Rathyl:  Full strength
Shae:  Just over half strength
Shanjalae:  Full strength
Floradine:  Just over half strength
Garanon:  At about 1/4 strength
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:34, Thu 28 Aug 2003.

Shanjalae moves away from the hall of the dead to the far side of the coffin and stands near Garanon, just under the sceptre-wielding corpse.

As Floradine looks at the jars, he notices ancient writing inscribed on them, now covered in the dust of a millenium. [Clarification:  there are a total of four canopic jars intact.]

Garanon and Shanjalae discover a plaque at the base of the corpse's feet.  Garanon wipes away the dust and finds an inscription on it.

All inscriptions are written in Allevian.

Another earthquake-like tremor rocks the mountain.  This one is heavier than the the previous one.  One of the previous broken jars falls from its perch to the ground and shatters.  You see now how the other jars must have broken, not necessarily from age, but instead from the recent tremors of the reawakening volcano.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:17, Fri 29 Aug 2003.

"He Comes!" Shae glowers back at the arrogant Rathyl, pointing at Garanon with her stump, "The man that will fulfill this part of the prophecy and cause this volcano to erupt."

As an after thought she mutters, "If I survive this, I'm going back to the Leslorlen." The look in her eyes shows there is no jest behind the statement.

Dismissing Rathyl she turns to Kallad, "Father can you please translate the Allevian on the plaque and the canopic jars. Its best to be sure they will heal us." She moves to hold one of the jars, so it won't be lost to the tremors.

"And I will go with you," Floradine says to Shae.  "Together we must find the queen, your mother, and save her from whatever prison holds her."

Looking at the four jars, you see that each has indentations in the outline of a hand, similar to the statue in the treasure room where you put your hands in the grooves and answered the riddle.

The first jar is squat and round.  It has the following inscription:

Strong as seven men.
Tall as seven men.
Yet seven men can not stand it on end.

The second jar is smaller and ovoid shaped.  Its inscription states:

No flesh, no feathers,
No scales, no bone.
Yet fingers and thumbs,
They have of their own.

The third is a larger jar, square shaped and knee high, with curved outer edges.  On it is inscribed:

Two brothers with great burden
And by thus bitterly pressed.
In truth can they say
They are full all the day
But empty go to their rest.

The fourth is a small jar the size of a vase.  Its inscription was vary shallowly carved and is now unreadable.  However, there is a long crack coming down from the stopper, and you can see a blue luminescent fluid within.

Shanjalae from her vantage point on the far side of the coffin, stares down toward the party and the door from which you entered.  Garanon still stands next to her.  She begins to shake slightly, a hand held to her head.  "He comes," she repeats, obviously not staring at Garanon or concerned about his presence next to her.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Fri 29 Aug 2003.

Rathyl casts a worried glance at Shae.  "What prophecy?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:39, Fri 29 Aug 2003.

At Floradine's words the druidess' looks up from examining the cracked jar her face a mask of guilt. A wane smile crosses her lips as she stares at the Knight, conspicously quiet, before her gaze drops away and shifts to Rathyl.

"One of many prophecies that are part and parcel of the Xren Codex and the Allevian Annals." she says in a weary tone, "Or perhaps it was one of the hieroglyphic prophecies written on this temple's very walls.  I can't really recall. I've seen and learnt so much in this past year its hard to place it all sometimes."

Giving a small sigh she turns back to examining the canopic jar, shaking and tapping at it so that some of the blue liquid within spills out onto the stump of her arm.

"I think the answer to the last riddle is the Sun and Moon. They are brothers within the sky, forever full, despite how we might see them. However, I've never been good with riddles, so I may be wrong."

"Garanon." she continues suddenly changing subject, though she does not look up from the Jar, "I think you should hurry with obtaining the Artefact. It would seem that Shanjalae senses Bezbelath's approach.  I would much rather face an erupting volanco than him, from what I've heard."

Garanon waves his hands in front of his face.  "I'm not touching that thing.  You heard the prophecy.  Only the one with the second life can touch the artifact.  To all else it will be death.  I may have faked death, but I haven't ever died, and I surely don't have any second life."  He steps carefully away with a frightened look at the corpse holding the statue.  "He probably died trying to touch the thing."

Shae pours the liquid over her stump.  Although her hand does not grow back, the few teaspoons poured on her body rejuvenates her.  [+4 hp.  Note there are a total of four cups of the potion in the container.  Each cup poured over wounds heals 4d6 hp.  You can pour it in as little as 1/4 cup portions.]

A sudden crashing sound from behind jars you, and you jump at the sudden noise.  You instantly recognize the sound as the crashing of the iron cages as they slam into the ground in the previous room.  Shanjalae was right.  Something is approaching.

Realizing what she must do, Shanjalae steps forward, reaches for the scepter, and says, "Arigalm, Bartigalm, Marigalm," while taking the sceptre from the corpse's hands.

Eerily, the corpse's hands open voluntarily as though still alive, and the sceptre falls into Shanjalae's hands.  She jumps back as the corpse begins to move!

Behind you, the door on the far side of the hall of the dead is opening with a loud creak.  Something is definitely coming.  You hear footsteps approaching from around the corner.

The corpse moves toward Shanjalae, then crumbles and falls on top of the old stone coffin.  It was only your imagination that it was coming to life, yet with Shae's prediction of who approaches, you cannot forget who holds the Symbols of Shi'iki and Ikishi...as he approaches through a hall of bones.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:53, Fri 29 Aug 2003.

"Of course, how foolish of me!" Shae exclaims her eyes focussing on Shanjalae, "It was you that the prophecy spoke of, how could I have missed it!"

With sudden urgency she quaffs a mouthful of the healing liquid before quickly passing it to Floradine, "Quickly, heal yourself and pass the jar along. We will need all our strength and defences to win this fight."

So that she can see the approaching evil she turns to face the door, though she does not wait for Bezbalath's arrival quietly.  Instead she quickly retrieves a large piece of oak bark from the folds in her sash and quickly launches into a prayer to her totem.

As she chants she crushes the bark in her hands, sprinkling its fibres across the skin on her bare arms and legs. As her prayer continues her skin seems to take on the consistency of tree bark, her golden eyes shining as her god grants her spell.

Floradine quickly pours some of the fluid on his wounds and hands it to Kallad and Joseph since Garanon is too far away at the moment.\

He steps in front of the archway, motioning for eveyone else to step out of sight.  Then he raises his two handed sword, ready to fight, but when the figure steps into view, he will say, "Halt!  Who goes there?"

Garanon looks longingly for a moment at the healing liquid.  Then he looks over at Shanjalae and tries to push her down behind the stone coffin.  "Keep out of sight," he orders.  "And keep that artifact well hidden back here."

Then he runs forward to the others to pour the healing liquid on himself.

Kallad quickly pours the healing liquid on himself and then hands it to Garanon for the same treatment.

Joseph takes the healing liquid and uses it on his wounds.  Once that is done he passes it on and moves to a position behind the coffin and un-shoulders his bow and prepares for what may come.

Rathyl's mouth and nose begin to bulge and darken.  His armor and cloak begin turning brown and becoming furry.  Arms, legs, and torso begin to grow and thicken.  A minute later an adult brown bear stands on his hind legs where Rathyl once stood.