Two gangs of desperate adventurers congregated in the bar on the top of the Potion Addict outlet at the mastaba looking out over Hogman's Plain.
- A pack of thieves, mixed humans and demihumans
- A group of deserters and junk dealers
They had spent all their money getting to the trading post, leaving nothing for further exploration of the realms beyond. Then a blast of red energy exploded out of the ridge above the river. A blast that indicated a magical accident and the availability of treasure. They got climbing before anyone could upstream them.
The opening left by the blast was a five foot circular hole, which led deep into the mountain. The tube led back fifty feet into the rockface and bored through multiple chambers inside. As the adventurers crawled in there was an explosion somewhere in the complex, which caused the mountain to shake over their heads.
The two adventurer gangs elected to stick together at first, entering a small bedroom that the tunnel had clipped the edge of. They found robes, an empty journal and not much else, but spotted a glittering orb in the next room. It proved to be a crystal ball for scrying, prompting excited conversation at finding such a cool treasure so early in the delve. Then a high powered laser bored through the wall, killing the Gnome holding the orb and reflecting off it to pierce another hole in the rock. Through the bored tunnel the survivors spotted an angry wizard, shouting curses while he fumbled blindly at the rockface.
The
laser knocked out the columns in the scrying room, causing the ceiling
to sag ominously. One group fled further into the western section of the
tomb while the other doubled back, and were separated when the chamber
collapsed. The deserters found themselves in a foyer, where the crystal
ball had rolled to join expensive cushions and a strange severed head on
the table. Thinking the crystal ball was used by the wizard for
scrying, they tossed one of the robes over the orb. Then the head on the
table woke up and started talking, reading out news broadcasts
psychically pirated from the Rat King network. The wizard fired an
energy blast through the stone door sealing the chamber, killing another
adventurer but freeing the other two to explore the dungeon.
The gang of thieves on the other side of the collapsed chamber followed the initial tunnel to the main burial chamber of the tomb, which the wizard used as a dining room. The blind wizard entered the chamber at the same time a trio of Hogmen - pig faced Orcs - left it as quietly as possible through a tunnel on the opposite side. One of the thieves threw a damaged book at the pig-people, making noise and prompting a blast from the mage. They waited for the blind mage to stagger into the room and entered to loot it, sending the sneakiest of their number to follow the old guy around and shove him if he tried to laser them again.
Another gang of adventurers arrived at the hole in the rock. A Gnome wizard and his three assistants. They entered the crypt and went to explore the east half of the tomb. They avoided making noise by stepping around the potshards littering the floor, but triggered a screaming mummy when they tried to pry the gems off its body. Fortunately for them, several other noises competed with them for the blaster caster's attention. The Hogmen threw a chair at the thieves in the dining room, while the adventurers on the west side of the crypt triggered a sand-sucking sculpture in the mud room. The mad mage targeted the dining room but had his aim spoiled by a shove from the sneaky thief behind him.
The group in the mud room found a wand of endure elements in one of the robes, but lost a third adventurer to a Burning Hands trap while retrieving a gem from the chandelier. The thieves in the dining room found a Bag of Devouring and some tableware, but triggered a self-playing instrument at the dinner table and lost a man to the blaster caster's death ray. The Gnome and assistants went east through a decontamination room, which sprayed them with wands of Cure Disease, Neutralize Poison and Prestidigitation, then chopped the first guy in line to bits with blades from the wall. The surviving trio ran through before the knives could reset.
The two surviving Hogmen scampered out through the dining room and escaped the dungeon. The three surviving thieves pilfered a handful of mundane items from the wizards' shelves and met up with the one survivor from the initial group. With their pockets full of treasure and magic items it was time to leave. The passage out of the dungeon was filled with rocks, which they shoveled into the Bag of Devouring to clear a path without making noise. The larger stones proved troublesome. They wouldn't fit in the bag and moving them would create a godawful crash. They sat down and waited for the mad mage to fire his laser, so they could do the remaining work during the cooldown.
In the dissectory, the Gnome and apprentices looted scrolls and money, avoiding a curse from a mummified finger in a trapped strongbox. A pair of Gnome illusionists and an Elf mage entered the specimen room to their west, killed the mummy with a barrage of arrows before it could scream, and began looting the remaining jars. They carried a plethora of stolen items, including a broom which the more heavily armored gnome slung on her back like a rifle. Content to ignore them, the Gnome hedge mage led his surviving acolytes to the disposal room at the back of the surgery, where treasure glittered amid heaped corpses and magical waste. Using their spears and wooden boards they extracted the loot without touching any of the cursed goop. They laid the plank covered with treasure down in the quarantine room and the wands in the walls cleaned it of dangerous gunk.
The blaster caster wandered into the specimen room with the Gnomes and Elf. One of the Gnomes summoned an illusory sound to bait his blast attack, and the trio ran for the exit before he could recharge for another shot. The mage grumbled and stumbled through the decontamination room, tanking the swinging blades with his Amulet of Protection From Weapons. The Gnome read from a scroll found in the dissectory and cast Knock, opening one of the stone cells he had yet to explore. His surviving assistants made noise to draw the mage's fire so he wouldn't immediately laser the sound of reading.
The Gnome opened the stone door and Vendren missed his shot, lasering the other cell open. A winged ape flew out of the first room. He tossed aside an amulet and grunted at the wizard, whose demeanor immediately changed. The mage blubbered apologies to the orangutan, for locking him up and for pursuing such a dangerous course of experiment. The Gnome and surviving assistant fled through the other door, finding a stone cell that the wizard used to store victims of his alchemical experiments. There was a borehole in the back from a wizard blast, but the room it led to was collapsed. The only way out was through the wizard. What was worse, when the group went back into the dissectory the ape was holding the mage's wrist, acting as his eyes and directing his fire. The wizard shot a laser and killed another assistant. The Gnome cast Charm Person on the winged orangutan, hoping it was close enough to human for the spell to work.
It did. The ape yanked the blaster caster's hand down before he could fire another death laser. The wizard let the orangutan lead him away by the hand, back through the decontamination room - where he lifted the ape up in his arms to protect it from the swinging blades. The trapped adventurers followed him out before the blades could reset, picking up their decontaminated treasure on the way. They ran for the exit and crawled out of the initial blast hole. Outside they met up with the thieves and surviving deserter, who used the laser blasts to mask the sound of their clearing rubble from the entry tunnel.
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