The colony of Fallowfields has suffered a sudden blight. Crops wither and animals die. Some of the dead livestock rise from the grave as fungal monstrosities.
A group of shepherds, braver than most, have tracked the sickness to a fouled river. Its source is a mountain-side cave three days walk from the settlement. They say they found something inside the grotto - a pair of ancient bronze doors, embossed with decorations of strange men with the bodies of serpents.
The colony's financial backers have posted a reward of 2,000 gold pieces for whoever stops the blight. The merchants won't pay anymore, make the reward bigger and it'd be cheaper to just abandon the affected farmland. Thankfully, there's always the "graverobber's fee" - first spoils on any treasure found within.
Five adventurers had taken the colonists up on their offer. After a hike along the polluted river, they stood inside the cave - eager to claim the riches inside.
- Haisam, a priest of Anubis.
- Gavel, a travelling sellsword.
- Godwin the Green, a noble bastard.
- Heiwae Mann, a thieving bastard.
- Lalo, a cleric of Fat Sun.
Those shepherds hadn't lied. A corroded pair of bronze doors stood at the end of a stone staircase. 12-feet across, they depicted a pair of snarling serpentmen locking shields together.
But it wasn't the only entrance into the dungeon. The infected river originated from a jagged hole in the cave wall (and worked stone could be seen in the room beyond). Most of the adventurers opted for the bronze doors, not wanting to negotiate a set of underground rapids. Heiwae Mann had no such reservations, and began climbing the uneven slope.
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| By Burnley Bouldering, on WordPress |
Ignoring the thief's solo escapades, the party approached the towering doors. They were ajar, and the skeleton of a serpentman could be seen inside. Not wanting to squeeze in single file, Godwin flexed his muscles and forced the doors open. The room inside was effectively an airlock, with a similar set of double doors ahead and a pair of stone statues on either side.
Upon entering however, the skeleton suddenly animated - picking up a bronze mace as its bones assembled themselves. Fortunately, it didn't appear aggressive. After a pantomimed conversation, and some logical deductions from the theologically-inclined Lalo, the party discovered:
- The dungeon was a temple to Yig, the vengeful god of the serpentmen.
- The temple had been destroyed by a dragon attack, who blasted the hole that the river now flowed from.
- The reptile's fiery breath had sucked out all the oxygen inside the dungeon and suffocated the snakes hiding inside.
By the time he arrived, the adventurers were challenging the skeleton to a game of chance. It had a sack of ancient coins inside its rib cage, and was willing to gamble with them. The party pooled their wealth to make a pot and Lalo (a worshipper of the god of luck) tossed the dice.
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| Snake Eyes |
But as the skeleton gleefully collected its winnings, Heiwae Mann sneakily swapped its coins for a fistful of rocks. None the wiser to being robbed blind, the undead opened the bronze doors to the temple - believing the party to be pilgrims.
The next chamber was some sort of a waiting room, filled with rows of stone benches and mosaics of imperial propaganda. Scanning the room, the adventurers saw a simple bronze door to the west, a long hallway to the north and a fortified stone door with a sliding eye-slit to the east.
Haisam, Heiwae Mann and Gavel listened at the western door, hearing running water. Probably the darkened room the thief had climbed into earlier. Lalo listened at the locked eastern door and heard clicking sounds from deeper within, like another door mechanism being engaged. Meanwhile, Godwin kept watch and examined the room's mosaics.
Most depicted human pilgrims travelling to the temple and bowing before their ophidian overlords. Others showed a war against a fire-breathing dragon, along with its legions of kobold and human cultists. Lalo mused that the temple might've served as a recruitment office, to conscript new soldiers for the war effort.
The party settled on heading west. Opening the bronze door, they found themselves in a vaulted chamber with three large pits in the floor. The underground river had eroded through the north-western wall, where it now filled the room's pits and flowed down the rapids to the world outside. Searching the room revealed a statue sticking out of the north wall - a gigantic serpent's head carved from black soapstone with jaws that articulated via interlocking bronze gears.
Haisam pointed out the apparatus was activated by gearbox on the floor, but it was missing a key component - probably some sort of a long, metal lever. Further examination revealed the mouth wasn't properly secured, allowing a trickle of golden fluid to dribble onto the floor.
Godwin volunteered to try some, licking a droplet off his finger. It burned his tongue like a hot coal, but invigorated his body. Gavel experimented further by introducing the fluid into the infected water. With a fizzle, the ambrosia destroyed several spores before being diluted away.
Inspecting some surviving mosaics, Lalo hypothesized the room was a form of baptismal font. When opened, the bizarre fountain would fill the three pits and human worshippers of Yig would submerge themselves in the golden fluid. This baptism appeared to rejuvenate participants, but it wasn't clear if it had any side effects.
Examining the river revealed it had naturally eroded its way into the dungeon. It's origin was a narrow cave that stretched off into the darkness, from which faint sound of a waterfall could be heard. The spores kept getting thicker the further upstream they went, so the adventurers decided to investigate a nearby collapsed wall instead.
Inside was the temple's banquet hall. The snakes had been hosting a feast when they died - the room was filled with skeletons and long-rotted food. After ensuring the corpses weren't reanimating, the party busied themselves bundling silvery cutlery into a tablecloth for later collection. Godwin was especially pleased to find a mithril platter of dwarven origin, which he shoved in his pack for safekeeping.
Loot secured, the party decided to properly sweep the previous area. Back in the waiting room, Heiwae Mann and Haisam tried to bypass the locked door whilst the others searched the hallway to the north. The yawning passage was lined with statues of martyred war heroes, all wielding maces and shields. It was surprisingly long, terminating well beyond the party's torchlight.
Unable to breach the eastern door, the party assembled into marching order and started walking down the hallway. After a few minutes of careful progress, Haisam called a halt - the floor tiles ahead looked suspiciously intricate, like arcane glyphs. As the necromancer analysed the carvings and the rest of the party searched the surrounding statues for clues. Godwin discovered a seam in a snakemen's shield arm that allowed it to rotate sideways.
The adventurers tied a rope around the arm and retreated, unsure if the floor trap and articulating arm were related. Gavel gave a hearty tug, causing the shield to rotate 90° and lock into position. Then, with a low grating sound, the statue lifted up to reveal a secret door. Emboldened, the party had Heiwae Mann throw a piece of masonry at the suspicious tiles, promptly triggering a hidden Alarm spell.
A loud snake rattle echoed throughout the dungeon, in sync with the scraping noise of more statues rising into the air. One was at the beginning of the corridor, the other from deeper within. It was fortunate the party had indirectly triggered the alarm - else they would've been completely surrounded by the skeleton horde now pouring out of the hidden tunnels.
As the party turned to flee, they saw torchlight behind them - a posse of shepherds had bumbled into the dungeon to seek their fortune. Lalo shouted out a warning to the confused herdsmen before the party retreated into the flooded room and spiked the door behind them. Screams and the sounds of combat echoed from the dark as the party hastily collected their silver, anchored a rope to the top of the rapids and rappelled out of the dungeon.
Reaching the cave floor, the adventurers saw the terrified peasants dragging the mutilated corpse of their ringleader to safety. Thankfully the skeletons hadn't pursued them beyond the temple doors. Upon reaching daylight, they chastised the shepherds for their recklessness - best to leave dungeoneering to the professionals.
Before the despondent colonists returned to Fallowfields, the party paid them handsomely for their spare supplies (and to spread word that the dungeon was off limits to level 0 normies). The party finished a successful day of tombrobbing by establishing a fortified camp on a nearby hilltop and burying all their treasure in a concealed pit.
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