Deeper Into Tzolo’s Tomb

The Saturday game, recapping 1/16/21 – We find a very much alive Paladin floating in a square pool in the middle of a column-filled room. Investigating, we find part of the west wall is an illusion. Through it is a chamber with a secret door leading to a hallway heading south. Iron doors are on each side of the hall as if in a prison. Directly west of the secret door is a chamber where two suits of armor guard a sarcophagus. An inscription on the north wall states in Abyssal, “Let the chips fall where they may!” On the lid of the sarcophagus is written, “Disturb not the slumbers of Tzolo.” Suddenly, a hag enters from the column-filled room.  After an annoying fight in which she teleports around the party, we loot a Ring of Protection and a spell book from her dead body.

One door leads not to a prison cell, but to a hallway west. A magical force field prevents passage except for a gap at the top. The Archer uses his eagle eyes to see the hall ends in a stone face appearing to hold its breath with hair carved as if wet.

Continuing past all the prison cell doors, the hallway turns north ending in another stone face with eyes squinted shut above a hinged jaw. Sliding back the eyelids reveals a peephole through which is seen another corridor. On the opposite wall is the faint indentation of a door. We open the jaws, prop something in it and a pull a lever disguised as an eyelash to open.

Back at the force field, our two gnomes can fit through the gap at the top. The Rogue is tossed over while the Wizard flies his broom. The Rogue investigates the face at the end of the hall. Inside is a stopper. Pulling it reveals a long pipe with an iron grate at the bottom.

A large glass window overlooks a connecting hallway between the two faces. When the Wizard casts thunder wave on the glass, murky water floods the hallways until it eventually drains out the pipe. Once in the room behind the glass, a pull of a lever ends the force field.

The corridor behind the squinty eye face leads to a chamber where a moat surrounds a mummified corpse. The corpse wears a belt, and its hands hold a scroll tube. As soon as we enter, six water elementals attack. Although we kill them repeatedly, they reconstitute from the moat’s water. We make the decision to cut and run. The Cleric grabs the belt and tube, and, as we escape to a room east, the elementals disappear. Once out of danger, our Sorcerer casts locate object on the Helm of Torm’s Sight and senses it is located to the south west of us. Opening an iron door reveals a wall with the first symbol of the Mud Sorcerers on it.  Touching it teleports us back to the column-filled room.

Time to investigate the contents of the sarcophagus! Opening the lid reveals a corpse wearing a talisman with two Mud Sorcerers symbols on them. Two coins cover his eyes until he sits up and laughs. An iron gate descends locking us in as a wall of spikes advances toward the party. However, we all have magic means to escape unharmed.

In a session that saw a lot of doubling back, we head west from the water elemental room to enter a mausoleum filled with burial niches. Just as the corpses begin to stir, we go through a secret door to a room containing a pool with a silver ladle on the bottom. Using the ladle to pour water on mud piles creates three animal headed golems. Remembering a previous clue, the Druid yells at the hippo golem to open the door out. As the party escapes, the creatures turn back into mud.

We enter a hall with five pillars leading to a curious chamber. The pillars are inscribed with the phrase, “Tzolo shall vanquish her foes.” Placed against the walls are twenty-foot statues of humans with red tiger heads.

A forty-five-foot statue of an elephant headed humanoid sits across from a pool dividing the room. A red gem is placed in its forehead, two more appear as eyes. Its maw is filled with blue fangs.