We had our third session playing the module Entombed with the Pharaohs (from Paizo) this past weekend. Below is a session write up from Rachel and, obviously, it contains lots of spoilers for the module. Sadly, this session was not quite as enjoyable as the prior two but this was not entirely the fault of the module but, rather I think, the game system. I’ll briefly elaborate below. As always, my GM comments in [brackets and bold italics].
Oh, and I learned a valuable GMing lesson in this session. Never make brownies and serve them nice and warm at the START of a gaming session. Some of the players were a little too giddy with a sugar high as we started playing. đ
[When we last left the party, they had come out of the Underdunes just in time to see a group of people standing near one of four greenstone pyramids and then a massive greenstone pyramid appeared between the four blocking the view of the other group.]
When the 5th pyramid appeared, we were about a mile and a half away, so we kept walking towards it on our camels. The pyramid is in between us and the figures that Kyra saw, so we couldnât confirm that it was the Paracount, Xaven, and their group, but we were pretty certain. About a half-mile from the pyramid, I spied what looked like a ball of smoke coming around the side of the pyramid. We kept walking on our camels and as the smoke approached we saw it was an imp/devilish demon/demonish devil creature (whom we dubbed DD for short). It was about 2 feet tall and wreathed in flames and was flying about 100 feet up as it approached us. Ezren cast fly on Nasir, who flew up to meet DD. DD tells him (though the rest of us can hear as well) that Paracount Julistar has claimed the pyramid and forbade us to enter. [“DD” had also stated that the Paracount claimed the pyramid in the name of the Empire of Cheliax…just in case that matters at any point.]
Nasir swung his sword at DD but hit air as DD suddenly went poof and disappeared. We looked around but saw no sign of the imp, so the rest of us continued heading to the pyramid on the camels. Nasir flew to the pyramid and over to get a better look. He saw an opening on one side of the pyramid, about 300 feet up, but the wall of the pyramid appears much too smooth to climb. Nasir flew a bit closer to the opening and saw a spike just inside the opening, so Nasir attached his rope to it. Once the rest of us are at the base of the pyramid, Nasir flew down to gather up the rest of our ropes and tied them to the top rope so that we had enough length to climb up to the opening. Fortunately we were all able to climb up without incident.
Once we entered, we found ourselves in a corridor sloping downward, with small glyphs everywhere. If the symbols that Raegos warned us about are embedded in these glyphs, we are going to have a hard time not looking at them. We go about 300 feet down the corridor, where it ends at a corridor going left and right. This corridor has a row of pillars down the middle of it, with even more glyphs covering the pillars. (Nasir takes a closer look at these pillars later and tells us that the glyphs are Ancient Osirian and are extolling the glory of the four Pharaohs. One pillar has a small section of glyphs that were intentionally eroded with acid, so who knows exactly what that part said. At least it looks like that happened a long time ago, so the Paracount and his party didnât get to read it either.)
[This is another feature that I love about this module. The players all know that seeing the four runes will turn them into a guardian of the tomb but there is writing EVERYWHERE. Despite the sugar giddiness, there was still an element of tension added by this. No one wanted to look to clearly at any of the writing and were moving about with their eyes half-closed. It just adds a little twist to what could otherwise be just another tomb raid.]
Nasir and I entered the hallway a bit ahead of the others and headed to the right first, where we were met by a mummy with a bow and arrows (maybe the bowman from Raegosâ party? He must be really old by now!). He hits Nasir and injures a couple of us, but we are able to take him out relatively quickly. We see stairs heading up to a door beyond where the mummy was, but decide to check out the other end of the hallway before going up to the door.
The other end of the hallway ends at another hallway going to the left and right. To the left we find a wide doorway to a room with a 10-foot square entry and steps going down from it on the 3 sides. There are glyphs on the floor of the square entry and on all four walls of the room. Nasir reads the inscriptions and summarized them for us. [He reluctantly read them. Todd was ready for me to say that Nasir saw the runes.] The writings in the square entry warned of the danger in seeing all four of the encircled runes. One of the walls was about Hetshepsuâit began by praising his militaristic abilities/ successes and ended with his betrayal of the other three pharaohs. One wall was about numbers and architectureâthere appeared to be some formulas but Nasir was unable to make sense of all of it. One wall was about Ankhana (the Radiant Pharaoh) and Anakfero (the Cerulean Pharaoh). It said Anakfero turned into 1000 blue snakes and ate people, and that Ankhana somehow implanted insect larvae in her people but removed them from those who curried her favor. Those who didnât ended up being devoured from the inside by the insects. The fourth wall was about the Dominion of the Blackâit said that they gave something called âmindquakeâ to the four pharaohs, though it did not say exactly what this was, and it said the Dominion would return.
[Nasir actually did see all of the runes while reading all the above information but none of them were ENCIRCLED. The party now understands that the runes have to be encircled to have their effect…or do they?]
We headed back out into the hallway and found that there was an opening in the floor and ceiling at the other end, and that the opening was somewhat sloped. It appears to be a shaft to other levels of the pyramid. Scott cast light on an empty flask and dropped it down the shaftâit looked like it hit bottom about 100 feet down.
Around a corner are stairs up to a door, so Nasir and I went up and I listened for a moment but didnât hear anything beyond the door. We entered the room, which is lined with shelves holding approximately 4 dozen clay vases (each about 2 feet tall) with the tops sealed in wax. There are no markings or inscriptions on the vases. Nasir cannot contain his curiosity and cuts open the wax on one of the vases, which triggers the shattering of all of the vases. Embalming fluid, bodily matter, and muck spray all over the room from the broken vases. The bodily matter formed into 3 masses that kept attaching themselves to us and clinging to us even when we were able to shake off most of the blobs.
In addition to being pretty gross (although I have seen worse), they did quite a bit of damage to us. We all tried to attack them in various ways but were not as successful as we would have liked. Who knew a bunch of really old guts could be so tough?!? Kyraâs Channeling of Energy from Sarenrae appeared to have the most impact, itâs probably what weakened a couple of the masses enough that we were finally able to destroy them. We were able to leave the 3rd one in the room. We were afraid one of them had killed Scott (a badly thrown alchemistâs fire flask may have contributed to this impression, I really need to work on my throwing), but it turns out he was just playing possum so that the blob would leave him alone. Ezren was knocked out temporarily as well, but luckily we took out the blobs in time for Kyra to heal everyone.
So unless Iâve missed some really well-hidden doors or trapdoors, it looks like the only way to get elsewhere in the pyramid is by the shaft. Now to figure out how to get all five of us up or down it safely…
[We ended after the fight with the undead intestinal swarm things. That fight, by itself, took an hour and a half to finish. It wasn’t like anyone was taking forever to take their turn either. Part of the problem was that no one really had any significant area of effect spells. Burning Hands and Channel Energy were pretty much it. Throw in half damage from piercing and slashing weapons (only one character had a blunt weapon), Resist cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5, damage reduction 5/slashing and swarm traits (e.g., immune to spells that target one or more creatures), and they had a really hard time of damaging the swarms. It was tedious, demoralizing, and reminded me why we stopped playing 3.5 in the first place…overly long combats, rules with lots of fiddly bits, and stat blocks that are just too damn long. Still love the module though.]
