The walls of this room are adorned with tile mosaics of a jungle city intermingled with frescoes of flowering plants, birds, insects, and humans wearing gold skirts and carrying spears and ornate jugs. The ceiling is painted to look like a clear blue sky. A small bejeweled cockroach rests atop a sarcophagus of black basalt in the middle of the room. A two-foot-diameter orb hanging from a chain above the sarcophagus is made of hammered gold to resemble a smiling sun. b'Urp looks at the cockroach with a suspicious eye, suspecting a trap. He then mostly closes the secret door and from behind the door summons a gust of wind that knocks the cockroach over the back of the tomb. BOOOOOM! The secret door is blown to pieces and all of you who are huddled in the hallway outsied the room are blasted with shards of wood and pieces of stone and thrown into the room behind you. No-one is killed but you are all very hurt. Besh calls upon the power of his god and heals you. Looking back into the room, the sarcophagus has been thrown across the room and the lid is on the floor nearby, whereas the sun has been completely melted and molten gold is splattered all over the walls, ceiling and floor. Little did you know, but the cockroach had been a small jewel box and one of the pieces in it had been a necklace of fireballs. When the box hit the floor all 8 beads had exploded, with devastating force. You gather up the other jewels that now lie around the floor and Javelin looks into the sarcophagus. You see the magically preserved remains of a woman who looks very similar to princess Mwaxanare. In her left hand, Napaka holds an iron scepter with an adamantine head which appears to be the twin of the one on the bone throne behind you. b'Urp fetches the other one. Trayzeal picks it up and it is much lighter than it appears, certainly much lighter than the other one. He also removes a hornet mask. After a moment the corpses mouth opens in a wide yawn and exhales a baleful black gas. Trayzeal gasps as the life is almost drained completely from him. He retreats back into the other room where he is healed by Besh, but Besh has been healing people all morning and is now exhausted. Thazma casts a spell to identify whether the scepter is magical and discovers that it's singular purpose is to destroy a construct named after Napaka. Besh recognises the name Napaka as the old queen of Omu before it fell, and the direct ancestor of princess Mwaxanare. You now have some lengthy discussion regarding where to go next. Trayzeal decides to scout down the circular staircase and see where it goes. At the bottom of the staircase, a dark corridor leads south, while a stone door with iron hinges and a brass knob stands to the east. Puddles of viscid gray slime cover parts of the floor in some of the southern corridor. Trayzeal goes back up and reports. You all decide to approach the large stone door instead. You had noted secret doors on either side but cannot find a mechanism to open them. The area smells like rotting flesh. You try knocking on the door following the same pattern you heard from the skeleton with the hexagon head. It works. The door starts to grind open. You peer under the door and see the skeleton peering under the door back at you. It starts to run, but Trayzeal tumbles under the door and smashes it to pieces. He passes the skull to Besh as Besh passes through after the door opens fully. As you all pass through the door closes again with a loud thump. You are now trapped on the other side. You looks back at the door. It bears no handles or hinges. Jutting from the wall on either side of the door are two matching bronze sculptures—each the head and neck of a serpent with fangs bared. On the lintel above the door is inscribed the following message in Common: "Warm like flame, cold for the cruel, still for the dead, gruel for the ghoul." You decide to explore a passage heading to the north. Trayzeal scouts ahead. After ten feet, this dusty corridor becomes a staircase that descends fifteen feet to a lower tunnel. Resting on the floor at the bottom of the staircase is an old treasure chest with a rusty built-in lock. Just beyond the chest, the tunnel opens up to a huge, dark chamber. Trayzeal heads down the door and easily picks the lock on the chest. As he opens the lid a hatch opens in the ceiling at the top of the stairs and a five foot diameter granite sphere tumbles down the stairs towards him. From his crouching position, Trayzeal launches himself up and backwards, tumbling over the ball as it approaches. It rushes past underneath him, shatters the chest and plummets through a false floor in front of him into a pit of acid. You all go down and look at the room. Four marble columns support the ceiling of this grand tomb. Twin staircases ascend to an upper gallery, where a carving in the form of a giant maze adorns the wall. On the floor of the tomb stands an opaque crystal sarcophagus that is constantly changing color. Minotaur murals adorn the walls on the lower level of the tomb. You move around the pit of acid and into the room properly. bUrp and Grizz head up to the upper gallery and examine the maze. The intricate carving shifts before your eyes, its configuration ever-changing. The maze has no exits, and its corridors are lit by tiny torches and clouded by fog. b'Urp touches it and immediately disappears. As he disappears, secret panels slide open around the room revealing 10 minotaur skeletons that move in to attack. Grizz follows b'Urp and finds himself within a fifteen-foot-high passageway walled by smooth, featureless stone, which is lit by torches and shrouded by fog. There's no ceiling, and when he looks up,he sees a distorted view of the room he left behind. He quickly climbs to the top of the wall, and suddenly finds himself violently expelled from the maze and into the midst of a battle. b'Urp has done the same and you both assist your friends who have found themselves surrounded and gored. The skeletons are difficult foes indeed, but with great damage to yourselves you manage to defeat them. You examine the crystal sarcophagus and note that changes color every 6 seconds, shifting through the following repeating cycle: blue, gold, purple, green, red, black. In the lid is a tiny keyhole. You try the crocodile key you found in the last sarcopagus, but it is too large to fit in the hole. b'Urp returns to the maze. Again he touches it and finds himself wandering it's empty passageways. He sees his friends above but cannot hear them and their attempts to give directions to not seem to aid him. Suddenly he finds himself facing a minotaur, which attacks. But he is able to defeat it relatively easily. He continues wandering the maze, encountering nothing but more minotaurs. Javelin is getting bored by this point so he also touches the maze and finds himself in it's endless passages. He turns a corner and finds a gold crystal key on the ground which he picks up. He suddenly finds himself in front of the sarcophagus. He waits until it turns gold, and then uses the key. The top of the sarcophagus disappears and it is filled with salt,. He digs through it and finds ten opalescent bracelets and a robe. He pulls out the robe and examines it. It's colour changes constantly. Suddenly, slime pours from the folds of the scintillating robe to take the form of multiple flail-like pseudopods. A female voice echoes through the chamber: "I can help you. At least, I think that's what I'm supposed to do." "All right", says Javelin, and allows the slime to absorb into his skin. Javelin suddenly is aware that his consciousness is now shared with a god, Unkh. This sharing of his mind makes him more powerful than before, but he now feels less confident in making correct choices. He starts a long conversation with the god, of which the rest of you only hear his part. He appears to have gone insane. Suddenly b'Urp appears beside you, having found the blue crystal key. It is too late for him to be able to use it though. Thazma points out a passageway that has been revealed through one of the secret compartments. As you approach you hear a rhythmic ticking sound coming from within. You follow the passage to a small room. This room contains a wooden cabinet with a numbered dial at its top set with two ornate metal spokes indicating that the time is 12:50. Beneath the dial, a pendulum swings inside an open compartment. An egg-shaped stone adorns the pendulum's tip. You attempt to grab the gem, but a solid, invisible barrier prevents that. Trayzeal is able to find an invisible keyhole and picks the lock. He removes the gem and the clock immediately stops at 12:59. Besh recognises the gem from history books. Navel of the Moon Said to be carved from a chunk of the moon, this polished egg-shaped stone was given as a gift by the ruling syl-pasha of Calimport to his sailor daughter. It is said that anyone who holds the stone can always find the way home to his or her loved ones. This is a hugely valuable item and Besh reckons it to be worth at least 2,500gp. You decide that although it is early, you are spent and need to take a long rest. As you do so you take the opportunity to identify the items you have found and quantify the treasure. So far, you have found: A golden pendant shaped like an eye (25gp) Two skulls, one triangular and one hexagonal. A ghost lantern A ring of protection (which possibly holds the soul of the god, Obo'laka) Withers journal A manual of golems (clay) A grey stone (actually a control gem for a Grey Slaad) Yaka, a floating gold skull who will not shut the hell up. A scepter made of solid iron with an adamantine head An identical scepter that has the sole purpose of destroying a construct named after Napaka Gems worth 1,500gp (some of which have been fed to Yaka) A golden hornet mask (worth 250gp) 10 opalescent bracelets (worth 75gp each) A robe of scintillating colors. Navel of the Moon (worth 2,500gp)
