Sunday, September 8, 2013

Tomb of Bonebreaker

Pursued by Ragna, a gargantuan Roc the size of a house, the party entered the "forbidden place," sandstone canyons leading to the Tomb of Bonebreaker. The Roc had crushed two cyclops the party had brought along, but it could not fit in the narrow canyons. Along they way, they discovered standing stones and a portal leading to the Negative Energy Plane. Negative energy permeated the area, as the portal was in a "bad state," nether open nor closed. A skeletal figure lay next to the stones, a hapless wizard who attempted, unsuccessfully, to utilize the powerful magical artifact.

Upon correcting the artifact, the portal was opened. A few minutes later, a badly injured lich emerged. The party parlayed for a few moments, but on his heals were five, gargoyle like creatures, their bodies made of a purple crystal. The evil sceaduinars killed the lich and began attacking the party. Calderon, the wizard, closed the portal, sending back two of the five creatures, as they hovered above the platform. A third cast a powerful spell at Calderon and killed him in a blast of negative energy, enough to destroy the wizard three times over.

The sceaduinars were eventually slain without further mishap and the portal was successfully claimed by the party. The wizard, now reincarnated as a vanara, was able to get the once dominated assassin back under his control and used the portal to alter his memories as a means to make him serve the party without magical compulsion. 

Proceeding on, the party found headless skeletons as they approached the tomb. These were once animated, before the portal was de-activated, but they now were piles of bones, the negative energy that dominated their feeble forms no longer flowing through them. The door of the temple held a nasty decapitation trap, which the party was able to disable.  

Within the temple, they found a large sarcophagi with the remains of bonebreaker, along with a 40 foot tall flagstone golem that attempted to pound the party into mush. Eventually the golem was destroyed and the party moved on, exploring the queen's chamber and discovering a secret staircase down to the treasure chamber.



Herein lies Bonebreaker the Bear, King of Aparnisi, jewel of the forest, and defender of the empire. May the full protection of all abjurations protect our great king.

Within the treasure chamber are various chests, additional sarcophagi of human servants, a reflection pool and a large platform where a servant of the empire should have been located. The plaque read:


The great Galanos, friend to the empire and keeper of men. For 500 years, great structures were built, order maintained and life preserved through the diligent effort of the great guardian from the East.

That's when the great Galanos, now an animated dragon skeleton, emerged from the pool to attack.