Thursday, May 7, 2015

Wilds - Jackpot

With the shades defeated, the party turns its attention to the usual subject, grave-robbing.


Since Durego is intent on doing a sweep of the place with Find Traps, he manages to cover the entire place (at least the parts you've already explored) before the spell expires. Aside from the pit around the statue that you've already discovered, there are no additional traps anywhere. It sounds like you are going to examine sarcophagi before opening, so Ohwatoo can detect magic on each one in turn too. The following have magic of some sort:


  • C - near the center of the sarcophagus. 
  • D - general aura of magic from within the sarcophagus. 
  • H - near one end of the sarcophagus.


There is no magic around the altar or any of the statues (aside from a faint, lingering trace from the dust in the altar room).

The elves find secret doors on the balcony. Each leads to a short stair down and another secret door. See map.

Busting open stone boxes is hot and dusty work, but someone has to do it. With the danger of traps negligible thanks to Durego's spell, the more avaricious party members set to work on the sarcophagi. Durego and Dagmarten abstain from the general looting and stand watch in the hall while the others, led by Ingvild, Strom and Raúguey, search each sarcophagus in turn. Here's what they find:

C - This sarcophagus contains the skeletal remains of a medium-sized human dressed in rotted clothing. The rather masculine gold and sapphire ring on the skeleton's hand suggests it is male. Ohwatoo confirms the rope-like blue belt wrapped around the figure's waist is magical, as are the thin leather gloves tucked beneath it.

E - The bones in the two smashed sarcophagi here are scattered and little remains of whatever they wore. Ingvild finds a pearl and silver necklace tucked beneath a fragment of stone, and Strom recovers a plain gold armband, slightly damaged.

G - Mother lode. Each of these sarcophagi contains a human skeleton dressed in rotted silks and furs. The clothing is ruined, but the many gems woven into the fabric are in perfectly fine condition: tourmaline, jet, rose quartz, amethyst, amber, garnet and jasper. It takes quite a while to extract all the stones from the ruined cloth, but when all is said and done, there are 30 small gems spread on a piece of cloth.

I - The broken sarcophagus has already been searched. The other two contain human-sized figures, one male, one female, both dressed in mail, both holding weapons. The woman's mail is a rusted ruin, but the man's is plated in gold. It's clearly ceremonial, but valuable. The female skeleton wears a circular pendant on a thick gold chain. The gold pendant has the now-familiar nine-pointed star figure inscribed and set with platinum and onyx.

H - The large skeleton in this sarcophagus was likely a man. It's wearing robes that are in slightly better shape, but still ruined (perhaps this was one of the last people interred here). There is an orb of perfectly clear rock crystal in the skeleton's right hand, and a large golden topaz earring hangs from the last shred of the skeleton's ear. Ohwatoo indicates the earring is magical.

Ingvild gasps when he pulls the crystal out to take a closer look. There's a spherical faceted ruby in the center of the sphere. "That's... old work. Very old," says Strom. "The Dwarfs lost the art of casting rock crystal like that long ago."

A - The figure in this sarcophagus has nothing of value. It wears rusted mail and shield and has a warped sword in its hand. A corroded bronze pendant is inscribed with the nine-pointed star.

B - The three sarcophagi here are similar to the one in A. The figures have similar armor and weapons. Strom and Ingvild manage to pry a few gems from one skeleton's sword hilt, another wears a silver bracer, and the third has a gold chalice in one hand.

As the others study the collected loot, Ingvild, Strom and Raúguey hold a whispered conference. "Let's do it," says Raúguey, grinning. [The primary treasure hounds have an average wisdom of 5, what could possibly go wrong?] The others are alerted to something amiss by the loud CRASH from the Protector's tomb.

"Crud! They opened it!" cries Dagmarten. He and the others head for the noise. The trio is gathered around the open sarcophagus. The smallish skeleton within wears armor that resembles that of the statue in the hall, heavy plate. It holds a wicked-looking battle axe in one hand and a straight-bladed long sword in the other. A gold and platinum mask covers the figure's face, and when Strom carefully lifts it away you can see, perhaps, why. The skull is fractured in several places.

"Whoever this was, she died a violent death. Those are sword wounds," says Durego.

"It's magical," whispers Ohwatoo.

"The mask?"

"No. All of it." The mage gestures at the weapons, armor and mask. "It's all magical."

OOC:

Estimated values for treasure:

Gold and sapphire ring (500 GP)
Pearl and silver necklace (1000 GP) - delicate
Plain gold armband (250 GP)
Small gems (30, about 100 GP each)
Gold-plated mail (800 GP) - fairly heavy
Star pendant (1500 GP)
Crystal orb with ruby (5000 GP) - breakable
Bronze pendant (valueless)
Gems from sword hilt (2x 100 GP, 1x 500 GP)
Silver bracer (50 GP) - somewhat fragile
Gold chalice (250 GP) - somewhat fragile

Blue, rope-like belt (magical)
Thin leather gloves (magical)
Golden topaz earring (magical)
Heavy plate armor (magical)
Battle axe (magical)
Straight-bladed sword (magical)
Gold and platinum mask (magical)

Ingvild examines the pit trap to see if he can determine the operating mechanism. The floor sections that dropped away are covering whatever supports were holding them up prior to the trap being sprung, but he suspect there was some sort of pressure catch that held them in place. A thorough investigation of the surrounding walls and floors reveals a small lever disguised as stonework. It raises the floor sections and resets the mechanism.

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