The Wayfarer's Inn

After everyone is rested, Ahi casts the customary Heroes' Feast. Then, he and Kherim cast Negative Plane Protection on all members of the group. Kherim then casts Flame Walk on the whole party. After this, Kherim prepares to go down, followed by Ahi.

One after the other you climb down the rope into the odd-shaped little chamber, 30 feet below. The air down there is stale and dust covers everything. From its "V"-shaped point to the 10-foot length of the opposite wall, there are only two things to note. These are a crypt and what lies atop it. Hewn from the living rock wall, this vault is 5 feet wide and high, and runs the entire length of the 10-foot wall. Shutting it is a slab of stone, a lid more than 6 inches thick, sealed in place by a silvery solder. Atop this sheet of stone is a lightless, totally black shape in the conventional form of a star. This thing is no bigger than a child's hand.

All five walls of the place are adorned by inscriptions and figures, and so too is the crypt. The pictures are bas-reliefs of demons, devils, and fiends on the two long walls, and three serpents up on the wall above the crypt.

The inscriptions in old khemitian hieroglyphs are individual phrases, not a single complete warning:

Woe to any who dare break my slumber!
Tread lightly, lest my rest be broken
Death's bony wings whisper near
Go up the top to find your treasures elsewhere
Evil must remain to protect this place
Praised be the Evil of Rahotep nine times ninety into eternity!

A great evil is easily discernible for Kherim, emanating not only from the crypt, but the entire wall of this room.

"Yes, I believe this will be it, my friends", Kherim says grimly.
"As Gaderon said, this must be the end, the creature we have been looking for."

Gaderon shakes his weary head:

"We are in for some fireworks."

Sol will prepare himself for what ever is about to happen.

"Eilkhan, can you look for traps again?"

"Wait", Ahi says, "I have a divine gift prepared for that today. That will avoid any danger for Eilkhan.

Ahi casts Find Traps. He also activates his True Sight power.

There are, strangely, no traps down here. Still Ahi's true seeing reveals two things heretofore unnoticed. The most obvious - to him - is the outlining of a secret door in the wall above the crypt, where the three serpents are located. The other discovery is a web of hairline cracks on the upper half of the stone slab that seals the crypt or vault before you. To Ahi it's obvious that if one wanted to use the slab as a step up to reach the secret door, the weight might well shatter the slab.

OOC: Here's a quick handmade sketch to provide you with a side view. I hope this helps you to understand the architecture of the place. Ask away if not.


Side view 002.jpg [ 84.56 KiB | Viewed 1839 times ]

Hi Sir C, thank you for the map. But where is that crypt when seen from the top? Is that under the funny wall?

And to be certain, where is the stone respective to the line where the S for secret? To the left of the line or to the right of the line?

Thanks.

That different-looking part of the wall seen from the top is actually the wall of the crypt. I'm often very poor at describing things, I'm sorry for that.

I also forgot to add that the black star-shaped object lies on top of the crypt - easily reachable when you stand before it.

Which stone do you mean though?

Well, I supposed that some of the space between the lines represents open space, and the other represents stone wall. I'm guessing the shaded area is the crypt, so the space above the line over this would limit stone wall. In that case, I don't understand if there is actually a stone construction that acts like a cover for the crypt but on which people could theoretically walk on.