Session Summary

The Party continued their journey through the Pyramid, with Kal Korrigan investigating a strange itch stemming from a zombie squirrel bite. Despite the discomfort, they pressed on, with Korrigan accidentally alerting nearby mummies. A battle ensued, with Korrigan missing his target due to the itch and hitting Mordecai, but they still managed to defeat the mummies. Upon further exploration, they discovered an ancient map, although much of it was unreadable due to age. They also tested the golden walls of the Pyramid, only to discover they were made of fool's gold, dashing their hopes of using it to bolster the Organisation of Free Cities' finances.

As they navigated deeper into the Pyramid, the Party encountered various puzzles and traps, including a room where Mordecai’s wild magic turned him into a Yorkshire Terrier. Despite the transformation, the group solved the puzzle involving shadow puppets and defeated more mummies. Their path eventually led to a corridor of swinging blades, which Korrigan and Chenris managed to slow down. However, Aidan and Obeus suffered injuries while trying to pass through. They continued onward, looting coffins filled with gold, only to trigger another trap, which left Aidan in a weakened state. The Party used a poem, "The King's Greed," to navigate a puzzle involving floor symbols and encountered a large statue holding seven smaller figures that matched the poem "A Court of Betrayal."

In the final chamber, they found the Mummy Lord and a massive treasure hoard. The Party engaged in a fierce battle, with Aidan and Mordecai using fire-based attacks to weaken the Mummy Lord. Chenris faced the brunt of the Mummy Lord’s attacks but managed to stand his ground. After a gruelling fight, Korrigan delivered the final blow with a burst of lightning, and the Party destroyed the Mummy Lord’s heart to prevent his return. As the Pyramid began collapsing, they escaped through a portal opened by Obeus and were healed by a halfling woman summoned by Xekai. Before leaving, Xekai cryptically mentioned the Party's delayed progress and refused to answer their questions, revealing his disassociation from The Auditors before sending them to Yakawa, where Drache awaited their arrival.

Full Session Notes

As they explored the ancient, almost hallowed halls of The Pyramid, Kal The Korrigan † spent some time investigating the incessant itching he had been experiencing recently. To his horror, he realised that it originated from the bite mark he received from the zombie squirrel a few sessions ago. With no way to deal with the wound in the sprawling dungeon, he puts that information aside to focus on the door now in front of them. They inspect the door from traps, clearing the door of suspicion, he tries to open the door as quietly as possible. To his, and the rest of The Party's horror, the door swung open with a bone-rattling screech alerting the Mummies within. Chenris Tallfellow ‡ is unaware of this happening as he is still in the previous room looking for clues. However, the combined force of Korrigan, Mordecai Reverence, Aiden Knight and Obeus Yelris was more than enough to best a singular mummy, making short work of it. Unfortunately during the fight, the itch on Korrigan's arm made him miss the mummy and hit Mordecai in the chest.

Entering the room, freshly liberated of its bandaged threat, they called over Chenris to help investigate a rather large and ancient map laid out on the table before them. After having a good laugh at the arrow in Mordecai's chest, he takes a look at the map while Korrigan heals the Tiefling. The map's age made it a challenge to read much of the information it once held, however, there are 4 things they're able to make out: an image of a volcano in a desert and 3 names of towns or cities; Peyabo, Sumene and Falkwayn. Chenris assumes the volcano is probably Ember Peak, but has no idea about the 3 towns mentioned. They decide to stash the map in their packs.

Before they carry on with their expedition, Korrigan shows Chenris the book of poems and points to the poem called Golden Walls and asks if this means the walls around them are not made of real gold. After testing a sample for Pyrite, Chenris sadly concludes the walls are made of fool's gold, putting a hull on their plan to harvest the gold to use to bump the OFC's finances. The next room of note is a short corridor with a large mirror at the end of it, Mordecai realises that the poem called The Reflection holds the secrets to progressing. The mirror's reflection seems to have some mysterious properties in how it reflects its subjects. There doesn't seem to be any distortion to the image, nor the rest of The Party, only reflecting the viewer. Reading the poem, Chenris suggest saying words of affirmation to the mirror but this has no effect. Korrigan attempts to simply walk through, but when he is unable to pass he doesn't feel the cool and smooth surface he expected. Instead, it was as if he bumped into himself as he felt skin, bone a cloth. Obeus takes some time to study the poem and suggests they should try treating the reflection with some respect. Mordecai greets the reflection and politely says "After you". The reflection smiles and says "No I insist, after you" before moving out of the way. The rest do the same and walk straight through.

On the other side is a room filled with 6 Mummies and a large brazier. Through some clever shellwork and positioning, the mummies are defeated with no major injury. Unfortunately, Mordecai suffered a wild magic surge and was transformed into a Yorkshire Terrier - Chenris and Korrigan took great delight in calling him a Mord-shire Terrier. As he is now a dog, Mordecai is no longer able to easily communicate with the rest of the group without using Message.  Investigating the room, Chenris discovers 4 small animal drawings on the wall the brazier faces and makes the connection to the poem called Animals of Home, which describes the same animals. Mordecai, already a dog, makes the shadow of a coyote, Korrigan creates the shadow of a lizard and Chenris provides the shadow of a Tortoise. With each successful shadow puppet made, a ring of fire surrounded the figures on the wall. Aidan attempts to make the Scorpion but fails. Chenris gives him some advice and he is able to make the puppet, light the final animal and open the door to the next room.

They are now confronted with a long corridor that holds several swinging blades, arcing at waist height. Korrigan is a feat of athleticism crawly under each of them incredibly quickly, emerging the other side unharmed. Chenris also manages to crawl through and discovers some leavers which slow the swing blades significantly. Mordecai is small enough in his dog form to walk under unharmed. Aiden, the more dexterous of the group manages to easily leap over the blades. However, he doesn't properly check if he has cleared the blade before standing up and gets sliced across his back, and due to the mummy rot curse, he is unable to heal the wound. Finally, Obeus is able to clear the first blade before being cut down by the second. In a stroke of ingenuity, Korrigan uses Thorn Whip to lasso her foot and pull her body over to them so they can heal her with a potion.

The next room is filled with coffins filled with small quantities of Gold, upon looting one they discover a mummy hiding and waiting to strike. During the short fight, Mordecai has a stroke of genius and uses his Metamagic ability to bypass the semantic and verbal components needed to cast his sorcery. However, this triggers another Wild Magic Surge, returning him to his usual form, this time without the ability to speak. Aiden decides to loot the final coffin but in his excitement, he forgets to check for traps and gets his hand impaled with a spike, leaving him incredibly weak and no way to recover.

Their path before them is obstructed by a large grid on the floor. Each column is adorned with different symbols, including A coin, A water droplet, A log of wood, A love heart, A bail of wheat and A skull. Now adept at decoding the secrets of the dungeon, they refer to the poem called The King's Greed to divine their path safely across the grid. The Party find themselves in a room with two doors, one on their left and the other on their right. The one on their left is locked tight, but the right put up no such resistance. Behind the threshold, they are confronted with 4 rooms, all connected by a corridor: A kitchen, An alter room with pews, A bedroom and barracks. In the corridor was a large golden statue of an ancient king, Chenris didn't recognise him as the Mummy Lord from his vision in The All-Father Temple. The large statue is holding 7 smaller statuettes: a large round king, a young woman in a dress, a priest, a knight, an old woman with a walking stick, a servant and a veil of poison. Korrigan recognises the statues from the poem called A Court of Betrayal, which describes a scene where various figures go about their day in a large manor with an underlying plot to kill the king. The group move the statues to the rooms where they appear in the poem but nothing happens. Aidan decides to investigate further and discovers a small button hidden by the statues. Once pressed, it swings open to reveal the final room.

On one side of the room is an impossibly large amount of Gold. On the other side is the Mummy Lord, seemingly asleep, in front of the Lord is an onyx black sword. They all hesitate before entering, Poems from the Sand Dunes still had some unused poems, however, none of them could figure out how they might be used in this situation. Korrigan summons the Man-Eating Horse to interact with the room and once it touched the gold coins, the Mummy Lord awoke. The Pyramid starts to shake violently upon its revival and sand begins to fall from the ceiling. The Party are then presented with a dilemma: the door to the room is slowly closing, should they enter or leave? All but Obeus were able to dive into the room before the door shut. Now they were left face-to-face with the master of the temple. The Mummy Lord speaks angrily in Infernal to the group, Mordecai, being the only one to speak the language responds with Message. The Lord is confused, not knowing where he is. Mordecai tries to explain he is in a temple on the boundary of the OFC and The Dawn Empire, The Mummy Lord's anger and confusion increase as he is unaware of those names. He exclaims, that he is the ruler of a grand and ancient kingdom in the desert where many adored him. They then make the link between the poem and the Mummy Lord's life and explain he was betrayed. This only seems to fully unleash the lord's wrath, as he summons his sword from the ground and stands from his golden throne.

Their long-awaited fight begins with Aidan hiding away and attempting to make fire arrows for his short bow, banking on the Mummy Lord sharing the same weakness of fire as his pawns. Chenris prepares for a long fight by casting False Life to extend his viability on the battlefield and take Drache's front-line possession and protect the rest of them. The Mummy Lord let out a roar that shook them all to their core, although this did not last long before his howl was muffled by large amounts of black miasma spewed from his gullet leaving the party unable for the time being. With his horrifying ability used, he levelled his head to his first victim: Korrigan. With a glare that seemed to regard the ranger more as meat and bone than an opponent, Korrigan was left paralysed to the spot. Unable to defend himself, The Mummy Lord swung his pitch-black blade 3 times and took his first victim.

Mordecai saw his chance and conjured a devastating attack of two flame-infused Chromatic Orb and dealt a devastating blow to their great foe. Witnessing the efficacy of Mordecai's flames, Aidan got into position and fired a devastating flame arrow at the beast before going back into hiding. The Mummy Lord swivelled his head to face his new foe, Chenris and glared at the elf with the same vile understanding that he was just meat in a slaughterhouse. However, Chenris met this gaze and stood strong and defiant of the ruthless being in front of him, the cleric had seen and learnt too much to falter now. The Mummy Lord found his way to Chenris' feet with startling speed and unleashed an onslaught of attacks. Beaten and bloodied, Chenris managed to stay on his feet with nothing but spite and pride. Seeing his opening, the elf threw a clawed hand into his foe's chest, hoping to destroy his lungs. At the moment of contact, the attack exploded in a burst of dark necrotic energy. The Mummy wound leaked a putrid-smelling black liquid that joined the elf's blood on the floor creating a macabre canvas. The Mummy Lord gave a sinister smile before sticking Chenris one final time, finishing their depraved painting on the floor.

While the seemingly unstoppable force of the Lord was distracted by Chenris, Mordecai took this chance to heal korrigan. Sensing incantations being weaved the Lord's head spun to glare at the Tiefling. Mordecai stood firm and met the stare with confidence as he threw another mote of fire. Aidan joined their symphony of flame with another round of flaming arrows. Korrigan slowly rose to his feet and readied his bow, and in a burst of brilliant lighting disintegrated parts of their foe. The Mummy Lord kept up with its frightening march to Mordecai, slashing with its one remaining arm at the sorcerer leaving a deep scar across his chest. With nothing but adrenaline feeling his actions and numbing his pain, Mordecai used the last of his strength to cast Hellish Rebuke to reduce their terrified foe to cinders, leaving nothing but a black beating heart.

Almost in celebration of their accomplishment, the pyramid began to violently shake and sand started to leak into the chamber. Chenris was brought back with a quick healing spell from korrigan and they both destroyed the heart, making sure the Mummy Lord was unable to return. With their foe completely vanquished, Chenris turned his attention to their escape and noticed that the door could be pushed open. In a moment of desperation, his body sprung into action and began to push. As he pushed with all his might, his armour sprung to life, flowing with magical power, greatly aiding in opening the heavy door. Korrigan and Mordecai joined in on the effort and together they managed to open the door enough for the Tiefling to fit through and push the button to open it. Meanwhile, Aiden grabbed as much gold as he could carry before joining them in the corridor outside the chamber. Chenris did the same before joining them. In the corridor, Obeus was nowhere to be found, fearing the worst they desperately called her name. In response a bright purple light appeared in the next room, it was a portal with Obeus' hand reaching through beckoning them to safety. With little options left and the sand up to their chests, they went through the portal.

They cross the portal to find themselves on a road they recognise to be near Foxtail Orchards with Obeus and Xekai waiting for them. Shocked to see the ever-mysterious cloaked figure, Mordecai asked what happened and why he was there. Obeus explained that when the door closed on her she went looking for help and found Xekai who offered to help them. Xekai spoke up, looking disgusted at how damaged and bloody they all were after the fight and opened a portal. A halfling woman soon walked through and asked if he wanted the usual, Xekai nodded and she fully healed The Party. They were now filled with questions that seemed to flow from their mouths like a vast waterfall, however, Xekai refused to answer any of them. Instead opting to say "At least you cleared that pyramid, a little behind schedule perhaps, but a good job nonetheless". Korrigan's questions about this schedule were only met with Xekai's refusal to answer. Korrigan then realises that Xekai was the one who killed Caden SteelBreaker †, otherwise known as Obeus' father. He tries to quietly point this out to Mordecai but Obeus overhears him and bursts into tears.

Chenris had exited the portal last and had spent the time observing the mysterious mage. His simple black clock gave little away but his portals were very strange. They weren't natural, so to speak. Chenris' understanding was that they weren't the result of a spell but something else entirely, possibly unique to the man. Chenris stepped forward and asked, "Are you unable to answer because The Auditors won't let you?"

Annoyed that his authority was being challenged he replied, "No, I'm no longer with them anymore, I'm refusing with my own free will." This revelation shocked them into silence before Korrigan asked if he could at least tell them about Ebis Daro or Akin Netch ‡. However, his question is cut short by Xekai his face becomes twisted with rage at the mention of his previous faction's founder. When Korrigan tried to understand the source of the man's anger he simply opened a portal to a place Mordecai and Chenris recognised as the Uvam Dynasty. Simply stating "To save you the travel, now go" Chenris ventured to the portal, thanking him one last time for the help before crossing over. He was soon joined by the rest of The Party as they stood just outside Yakawa, Drache waiting for them in the distance.