The Tomb of Menetnashte
August 29th, 761, 6:42 PM; Day 165 of the Menetnashte Expedition
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You passed through the cold darkness...
================================================
"Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill..."
...And emerged in a new chamber. A tall corridor, flanked by ancient statues of Har'Akiri gods and goddesses, giant men of stone with the heads of falcons, and lions, and stranger creatures. Old statues, eroded away but not by time or the elements, but by vermin.
Here and there throughout the chamber, huge patches of webbing hung in thick ropes from ceiling to floor. Every strand was as thick as a cable, and unlike the pearly silk of common spiders, this web
glowed with red-hot flames. They were nearly to bright to look upon, a hundred ropes woven of molten lead.
Inside them, something moved. Something that glowed brilliantly, that gave off the only light inside the room. Something that was alive.
"Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill..."
As Tomas entered, he initially didn't see anything. But after a while, in the silent, fear-haunted tomb of Menetnashte, he could hear ... something. Whispering.
Out of the distant flames lumbered a creature that was simply too large to be believed. You had seen scorpions aplenty over the course of your trek during the desert. Small, annoying creatures that had a disconcerting habit of crawling into people's boots. You would not want to see the owner of a boot that this beast could crawl into.
It was easily the size of a church, with a dull-red carapace and claws that could snap a horse in half. The stinger-tipped tail swayed higher than a tree, its end fat with enough venom to drown in. There were no words for the sheer scale of the scorpion before you. Such things did not exist in nature.
You looked at the eight, pale eyes of the creature, and realized that no, they were not
exactly eyes. They were faces. Lia's face, stamped eight times into the monstrous scorpion's head, eight faces with mad eyes, eight whispering, lunatic voices.
"Killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill..."
Knowledge: Arcana Check to ID the things inside the webbing, DC 18+
Knowledge: Nature Check to ID the scorpion, or at least to know about a regular scorpion, DC 15+
Objective: Escape through the double doors at the top of the chamber.
The room is a total of 70 feet high. The top level (the grey stones) are 50 feet above ground level, and 20 feet below the ceiling. Falling off the upper level onto the lower level inflicts 5d6 damage, and can be reduced by Jump or Tumble checks. (Consult the SRD:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm)
The pits are a further 20 feet, and lined with spikes. Falling into a pit causes you to take 5d6 damage, which is cumulative with falling from the top level, so falling into a pit from the top level deals 10d6 damage.
The firewebs stretch from floor to ceiling, and function as regular Webs (
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/Web.htm), with
ONE major difference. They are molten-hot, and deal 6d6 fire damage to anyone who comes into contact with them (that is, moves through them or starts his round there). They are also destroyed by Cold Damage instead of Fire Damage. They are a DC 22 Reflex save to avoid entanglement.
Roiling Arcana: The entire room is under the effect of the Scorpion's Roiling Arcana aura. As a result, whenever you cast a spell or use an SLA (even one granted by an item), roll on the Wild Magic Table here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm. (You need to scroll down a bit).
================================================
PCs:
Kuzan: 89/89 HP, Darkvision, Greater Resistance
Lia: 46/46 HP, Superior Resistance, Greater Mage Armor
Tomas: 107/107 HP,
Charles: 63/63 HP,
Otto: 62/62 HP,
Andre: 43/39 HP, Amulet of Tears (+4 THP)
Sascha: 108/108 HP,
NPCs:
Harris: 115/115 HP,
Devereux: 33/33 HP,
Enemies:
The Grand Scorpion:
The White Spider: Cover (Fireweb)
The Red Spider: Cover (Fireweb)
The Yellow Spider: Cover (Fireweb)
The Orange Spider: Cover (Fireweb)
