The Chronicles of a DM: Part IV

It's amazing how long a paranoid party can take to simply go through a party, but eventually there was a fight to go first. Finally, they get on which it, and hit the next section of the Tomb (where they encounter shoddy editing). They find a corridor that runs east to west that has the floor dropped out. The difficulty of climbing around this corridor is given for the western and eastern walls... which are the doors... huh? I think someone forgot the map was re-orientated 90 degrees!

Anyways, they climb the (southern) wall, and until Moyshanna, completely fail to find the hidden passage way. [She has the best passive perception, and yet there are calls for her to die (or at least sod off) and stop being an XP leech. Sigh.] Investigation brings them to an altar in front of a supernatural burning fire. After "search for traps/walls/loot!" they spot the skull at the base, and Kayla nicks it before lobbing it to Alrick. [Hey, an artefact! Which is very badly specified! Yay, just what I wanted to GM... and it's a magical orb, so only one character can use it, and there's no respect for it at all.]

Backing out, they enter a large empty room ("Search! Find loot!"), then head up stairs to find a room with strange writing on the floor (again to the “north and south” when it should be to the “east and west”), which fortunately they are able to read. There is an obelisk, on which is written the word ‘Shadow’. And a bunch of letters on the floor, including uniquely (after another edit) 's', 'h', 'a', 'd', 'o', 'w'. Wow, I have no idea what the solution to that is! (And for those that can’t speak draconic, these are the only letters that light up when depressed.)

There are some statues which can be manhandled onto the tiles, but when Kayla pokes one, it activates the trap! [Nothing funnier than having fire creatures attack a party that does fire damage. However, them damn rogues take out one of the nastier creatures quickly, and Alrick uses the Skull to trap the big bad for many rounds. Still, the Blazesteels don't die quickly, so the fight isn't quick, and there’s lots of room to move about and everyone is spread out. A decent fight, and we get to hear Valdour's catchphrase "I reload my crossbow" often.] Once dealt with, they move the statues, and the obelisk descends to reveal a portal to the Shadowfell.

Jumping through, they find themselves on a plain in an area Moyshanna doesn't recognise. There is a huge citadel (I won't repeat the party's descriptions), and draconic wraiths around that steal soul-sparks, and attack the party. [Auras are fun, and these ones really caused problems. Heh. At least until Reed set up zone that dealt radiant damage, bah. The dragons were insubstantial, but they also didn’t have huge hit points, so it evened out. Again the rogues were a huge help. Moyshanna suffered a lot, but Alrick advised against healing her ('cos he's evil). Admittedly the Skull was on his side, but survive she did.] They popped back through the portal to rest up, and Moyshanna kindly offered to stay back and guard the portal so they would have a way back. And so they rested.

[END]