Game summary for April 1, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Kylar Van Bane (Human Sorcerer played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
J1: Entombed with the Pharaohs adventure, part 1.
The team was sent to Osirion on behalf of Jalden Krenshar of the Pathfinder Society to meet with the Mithral Scarab. This contact allegedly could provide information about the lost pyramid of the Four Pharaohs of the Ascension. They arranged a signal they would use to identify themselves to the Mithral Scarab at the Sothis city auction. The group bid on numerous items related to the pharaohs and interacted with several other patrons of the auction. They met the nefarious Paracount Julistar and got in some bidding wars with him. They also met a halfling and half-orc they did not realize was in league with the Paracount. In need of a translator, they hired on Neferet Anu, a local woman able to read Ancient Osirion. At last, they met up with the Mithral Scarab.
The Scarab led them to a crazy man wearing a blindfold who told them all about his failed foray into the pyramid of the Four Pharaohs approximately 50 years before. He warned them of the curse of the encircled runes which turned his former ally into a mummy! To avoid ever seeing the last rune, he has lived with a blindfold ever since. He gave them enough information to get started on their quest by seeking the funeral mask of the pharaohs which could call back the pyramid from another plane of existence. During the conversation, they found the halfling spying on them on behalf of the Paracount! They let him go and followed him back and learned a bit more about his operation and his plan to steal the mask!
The team discovered the mask was in the museum, but in speaking with the curator they learned it was a fake! The team made friends with him and learned the location of the real mask with the rich businessman, the Crook Bearer. The team went to meet with him and bargained with him to use the mask in exchange for a cut of the treasure. He sent them with five armed thugs… er… guards, to protect his interests. They then went back to the curator and arranged with him to let the Paracount steal the fake mask so they could follow him.
The team waited until nightfall and watched the heist from afar. They trailed the group outside the city where they had a group of camels ready to go. The Paracount better examined the mask and learned it was a fake! Enraged, he threw it into the sand and led his group back into Sothis. The characters trailed him and enacted a brave heist to break into his home and steal his star charts showing the location of the pyramids right out of his lap while he dozed! The group then ran out and stole all the camels as well.
Along the way through the desert, the group got into a fight with a hieracosphinx. The beast temporarily deafened Kylar, but otherwise the team beat the creature soundly. After a few days travel, they found the pyramid location and used the mask to call back the pyramid of the Four Pharaohs! Kylar used his slippers of spider climb to scale the pyramid and drop a rope down for the others. The group scrambled up and entered the tomb. Down the hallway they found runes saying “point of no return.”
Further in, the group fought a mummy that tried to kill them! The team used fiery magic and brute force to cut it down. Deeper in, the party found a room filled with hieroglyphs, and they learned numerous stories about the pharaohs, many of which were quite disturbing. They also found a strange “elevator” operated by some kind of stone automaton that could scale the walls of the pyramid.
In a large chamber, the team found 56 wax-sealed jars. From within one, they could detect magic. Elsbeth and Kylar melted the seal and unleashed swarms of embalmed organs! The horrible bits of flesh and sinew tried to choke, claw, and gag the party to death. Elsbeth used cure moderate wounds like a weapon and dealt great damage. In a moment of desperation, Kylar unleashed a fireball that hit the entire party but also burned to death all the organs. As the smoke cleared, the team realized they had been freed of the monsters. They heard a ring hit the ground, and to their horror, some of the party saw one of the encircled runes!
Still, the rest of the pyramid beckoned begging to be explored.
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