This session will feature the entire party.
The party has been reunited in the temple. There is a bell ringing alerting the town – they know the jewel is missing. The party decides they have enough time to take a long rest (we needed to heal!). Once rested, the party returns to the hallway filled with sand where they fought off the zombies (see Session 5).
DM: You notice as you proceed through the hallway that your feet stick in the sand a bit. You make your way to another door, etched in a similar way with angry sphinxes, death, people being buried. (Draggy opens the door.) A chamber lights magically and you see that there’s gold piles in this room on the sides.
K’un-Lun: It’s a trap!
Professor: *eyes turn to kawaii big eyes* *runs to the gold pile right in front of him*
Octavia: Don’t forget I get half!
DM: The illusion of the gold fades as you run in and Professor falls into a pit 10ft deep. Everyone roll initiative (Lysithea 7, Surina 5, Octavia 11, Draggy 15, Professor 7, K’un-Lun 16). Professor, roll for your jump and your fall (rolls acrobatics 14, then athletics 17). You did a rather acrobatic Scrooge McDuck dive towards the gold, but as it disappeared you tucked and rolled. You land on the far side of the pit. Next to where you would have landed is a swarm of scarab beetles. Behind you is a ladder.
Professor: Argh! Bugs! Big, creepy, crawly things! Ah!
DM: Professor, what’s your passive perception? (It’s 12). There’s bones underneath and around you, as if people have fallen down here before.
Begin Beetle Battle
A swarm moves on top of Professor and attacks him, doing 5 damage.
Draggy: Duck everybody! (We were so happy Victor was engaged and wanted to act a little.)
A swarm moves on top of Surina, but misses on attacking her.
K’un-Lun: Surina, I hate bugs. I’ve always hated bugs. I’m going to kill those bugs.
Because the bugs are on top of Surina any attacks made against them will be rolled with disadvantage. K’un-Lun attacks the bugs swarming on Surina, hits with a 16 and does 7 damage bludgeoning. He attacks again with his bonus action, but misses with an 8. Draggy swings with his ax, hits with a 16 and does 10 damage. Octavia shoots at the swarm on Surina, hits with a 17 and does 9 damage. There’s a lot less bugs surrounding Surina now. Professor, as a bonus action, casts arcane weapon on his arm hammer, then uses fire to attack the swarm on him. He hits with an 11, doing 2 fire damage and 3 bludgeoning damage. He notices that the bludgeoning didn’t do as much as the fire. Professor uses the ladder to begin climbing out of the pit. About halfway up the ladder (rolls a d6 – 2) the ladder disappears. He falls backwards prone and takes 1 damage. He unfortunately lands on all the bones and scarabs begin swarming on him.
Professor: Get me out of this hole!
Lysithea moves in and shoots Fire Bolt at the swarm on Professor, hits with an 11 and does 1 fire damage. The ladder reappears. Surina hits the swarm on her with a 16 and does 6 damage. The scarabs attack back at Surina, but miss with a 9. The scarabs attack Professor, and also miss with a 7. K’un-Lun punches the swarm on Surina again, hits with a 15 and does 6 damage. He uses his bonus action to punch with his other hand, hits with a 13 and does 7 more damage. All of the bugs around Surina are gone. Draggy wanted to help Professor, but he could not reach him on this turn. Instead, he shoots his crossbow (yes, he has one) at the scarabs on Professor, but misses with an 8. Octavia moves in to the chamber and shoots at the scarabs on Professor. She hits with a 12 and does 4 damage. Professor is knocked prone, so he stands up. When he stands the scarabs take attack of opportunity, but miss. Professor attacks with his fire hammer, and rolls Nat 20.
Professor: Get ready bugs, you’re going to die!
He does 8 points of fire damage and 6 points of bludgeoning. There’s way fewer bugs on him than before. Lysithea tries Fire Bolt, but misses with an 8. Surina, now free of bugs, moves in the chamber and throws one of her javelins at the bugs on Professor. She hits with a 13 and does 4 damage. The scarabs attack Professor, hit with a 19 but only do 1 damage. K’un-Lun jumps in to the pit! With a roll of a Nat 20, K’un-Lun handsprings into a backflip down into the pit, and begins a hard-core lemon twist. He’s twisting so fast that the wind he is projecting from the twist slows his decent. He gracefully descends and lands in a gymnast pose, and then karate chops the scarabs. He rolls 22 with advantage to hit, does 4 damage, and the scarabs no more!
End Beetle Battle
The entire party was in awe of Shannon’s epic jump, and how he explained it. Dad took a moment to explain to Cordelia how Uncle Shan was using his imagination to describe things. We all tried to encourage her to do the same.
DM: There’s still some gold off to the side. In the pit there is a ladder.
Professor: Toss me up!
K’un-Lun attempts to toss Professor up (athletics check, 10). He is able to lift him up so that he can climb out, but does not toss him.
K’un-Lun: Get on my shoulders old man.
Professor: You don’t have to ask me twice.
K’un-Lun tries to jump out of pit. He is able to climb out. There is gold off to the sides. K’un-Lun throws an iron pot that he has at the gold to see if it disappears. K’un-Lun feels stupid that he through his pot at the gold, but the feeling is fleeting. He then picks up some of the gold.
DM: Make a constitution save for picking up the gold (Nat 20!). You are fine… for now…
Professor tries to take K’un-Lun’s pot, but K’un-Lun slaps his hand away.
K’un-Lun: Something is weird with this gold. I don’t know why. It wanted to hurt me, I think.
DM: You feel a bit of exhaustion, like it’s trying to drain your life away, but you fought against it.
K’un-Lun: I think this gold is evil.
Octavia: You look a little sick.
Lysithea: You should probably drop that.
K’un-Lun: Nah. *puts gold in his pocket*
DM: There’s about 2,000 pieces of gold in this room.
K’un-Lun: *takes 500 pieces of gold*
Professor: Let’s split it evenly.
Lysithea: I don’t think we are supposed to be taking this. The fact that the town was cursed for taking a jewel, I don’t think we should be taking any of this.
Professor: *takes 500 gold*
DM: Roll a constitution save (also rolls a Nat 20!). You are also fine for now, but you feel like something is trying to drain you away for just having this.
Lysithea: You guys are morons.
DM: There’s a door on the other side of the room. There’s also a pit with bones.
Professor: My boy, Muck.
K’un-Lun: Yes, old man?
Professor: Give me your pot.
K’un-Lun: *hands Professor his pot*
Professor: Thank you. *puts pot away*
K’un-Lun: You kidding me? Give me back my pot!
Professor: No.
K’un-Lun: I thought you were going to do something with it!
Professor: I am. I’ll give it back tomorrow.
K’un-Lun: You better keep it clean… *opens the door*
DM: There is a hallway that bends to the left. There is light, and sand on the ground.
(Lysithea uses Thaumaturgy to vibrate the ground again.) Roll Perception (adjusted 20). Lysithea feels a great sense of heat and sees a light around the corner that bursts, then is gone.
Lysithea: There’s heat coming from this hallway and there’s light, but it’s gone now. Who is going to put their foot in the hallway?
Octavia: I guess, as your guide, I’ll put my foot in the hallway.
DM: You feel the sand like before. Nothing happens, it’s just slowing you down.
Lysithea: I guess we should proceed?
The party is still following initiative. Surina moves in the hallway, then uses another move action to move further in the hallway. The sand is causing half movement, so she only moves 3 more spaces. At the opposite end of the hallway on the wall is a large sphinx head. Behind Surina (rolls perception, 16) there’s a scorch march on the wall.
Mom and Dad had to explain the scorch marks, and asked her what this could mean. Cordelia thinks someone must be there holding a torch. We ask if she is going to tell the party what she sees.
Professor: What do your Dragon eyes see?
Surina: I see a scorch mark on the wall.
Lysithea: Where?
Surina: Behind me.
Lysithea: Anything else?
Surina: And a sphinx head on the other end of the hallway.
Lysithea: Oh no! You should duck!
K’un-Lun moves into the hallway. He uses his action to move again in front of Surina.
K’un-Lun: Wow, look at this cool sphinx head! (Rolls perception, 15)
DM: The ground right in front of you seems a bit smoother than the rest.
K’un-Lun: Hey, the path kind of smooths out over here. Also, look at this cool sphinx head. I wonder what this does.
Octavia moves in the hallway but stays behind Surina. Professor moves in behind Octavia. Lysithea moves in behind K’un-Lun. Surina moves to the front of the party. As she passes a certain point the eyes of the sphinx open and a thin sheet of flames shoots forth from the sphinxes face. K’un-Lun, Surina, and Lysithea make a dexterity saving throw (K’un-Lun 18, Surina 18, Lysithea 21). All are safe, but everyone takes 3 damage.
Lysithea: I said duck.
Surina can move again. She moves right next to the sphinx. K’un-Lun moves forward. As he moves, the same characters make another saving throw (K’un-Lun 16, Lysithea 4, Surina 12). Lysithea takes 6 fire, K’un-Lun and Surina both take 3.
Lysithea: Can you all please stop moving!
Octavia moves in behind Lysithea and uses Cure Wounds to heal her for 9 damage.
Lysithea: Thank you.
Octavia: You’re welcome.
Professor delays. Lysithea moves forward 1 space, then makes an arcana check (Nat 20). There is a trap setting off the fire and she knows how to disarm it. She rolls arcana (19) and easily disables the trap.
Lysithea: Jeez guys, you nearly singed me. You could have just waited. It’s been disarmed now. I hate all of you.
K’un-Lun moves to the sphinx to punch it (rolls strength, 16). When he punches the sphinx its mouth opens, revealing a hole that K’un-Lun can reach in to. He reaches in and pulls out a longsword from a hidden alcove.
K’un-Lun: Woah, check out this sword!
He does an arcana check (7) to see if it is magic, but he cannot tell.
Professor: My boy, let me see that (Rolls arcana, 13 and can tell its magical). Let’s see what it does. *swings sword at K’un-Lun*
Professor rolls to attack (2) and misses hitting K’un-Lun. Nothing magic happens when he swings it.
Professor: It doesn’t seem to do anything. *drops the sword*
Dad asks Cordelia if she wants it, she says yes.
Surina grabs the new longsword. We will find out what it does later. There’s a door to the right. Surina moves to open the door to another room. Standing against the wall are 3 sarcophagi with more piles of gold around them.
Lysithea: Can we not touch this gold this time?
K’un-Lun moves in the room. Professor uses his snake bracelet and casts a snake on the pile of gold.
Professor: Jeffrey, go!
When the gold is disturbed the sarcophagi open and skeletons step out.
Professor: Get them Jeffrey!
Lysithea: We could have just not touch the gold…
Octavia: We’re going to die before I get paid…
Begin Skeleton and Snake Fight
Since Professor summoned the snake it will activate after him. There’s 5 targets for the snake (3 skeletons, Professor, and K’un-Lun), so the DM rolls a 10 sided die to choose its target. The snake attacks Professor.
Professor: I brought you to life!
Luckily the snake misses its attack. Lysithea moves in to the room and uses Magic Missile on the skeletons, doing 3, 3, and 5 damage respectively. Surina attacks the 2nd skeleton with the new longsword. She hits with a 23 and does 11 damage, defeating the skeleton. The longsword magic adds +1 to damage. The third skeleton attacks Surina, doing 4 damage. The first skeleton hits K’un-Lun but misses. K’un-Lun returns the favor and attacks back, punching the skeleton with a 14 and does 5 damage. He spends a key point to do Flurry of Blows. He hits with a 23 doing 4 damage, and hits again with 21, doing 7 more damage. The first skeleton is defeated. Octavia moves in to the room and shoots the remaining skeleton but misses. Professor attempts to attack the skeleton, but misses with a 12. The snake attacks Professor again, but rolled a Nat. 1. The snake bites itself and poofs out of existence. Lysithea misses her Fire Bolt attack with a 10. Surina attacks with the longsword, hits with a 15, and does 7 damage. The skeleton is gone.
Well that was fast.
The gold remains. It looks like a lot of things are missing from this room, as if it has been raided. K’un-Lun picks up a single gold piece to see if it tries to hurt him. He makes a constitution saving roll (12) and suddenly feels very tired. K’un-Lun now has exhaustion level 1, takes 1 point of exhaustion damage, and has disadvantage to ability checks. K’un-Lun throws the coin back, but not the other gold he took from the previous room. There is a door on the other side of the room. Surina opens it (Cordelia was very eager to be the one to open the door) to reveal a very ornate room filled with almost nothing. It feels like pieces of the wall have been chipped away, there are drag marks on the ground, and in the corner there is half of a sphinx head with an eye missing. The other half of the head appears to be on the other side of the wall.
Octavia: Should we try using the gem we found?
On the other side is a very large altar with a sarcophagus. On the altar and all around it is gold, as well as what looks like a necklace and a staff.
Lysithea rolls investigation (13). It looks like the jewel she found in the field (see Session 6) will fit the eye. She places the jewel in the eye and it fits perfectly. The temple (DM said “tomb”) shakes a little bit. Lysithea rolls arcana (17) and feels a magical energy, but only part of it is coming from this room.
Lysithea: I think we need to find the other half of this head.
Octavia: I think the only way to do this is go back to the other side and get that other door to open.
On the DM’s request, Octavia walks up to the sarcophagus on the other side of the room and checks for writing. Lysithea also goes to look. The script looks familiar to Octaiva, but she doesn’t understand the words. The script is Elvish, but the party cannot understand it. Lysithea rolls history (15) and knows the scripts are Elvish, Sylvan, and Undercommon. Octavia rolls investigation to see if there’s anything she would recognize (18). The script talks about illusion magic being used, and being cursed with illusion.
Octavia: The illusion that we can’t see the townsfolk might be what’s talking about on sarcophagus. They took the jewel form the sphinx, which probably activated the curse. What happens if I touch the sarcophagus?
Lysithea: Don’t do it.
Octavia: Okay. You do it
Lysithea: No!
Octavia: I dare you!
Lysithea: No!
K’un-Lun: I say we go back to the beginning and try to go down the other hallway.
Dad tried prompting Cordelia to see if she wanted to touch anything, but she was adamant that the party touch nothing.
To the DM’s dismay, the party makes their way back without touching the sarcophagus. They encounter no issues, and the sand is easier to walk in. They return to the room with the 2 doors and go to the door with the teaching sphinx picture. K’un-Lun punches the door (rolls strength, 13). Draggy hits the door (rolls strength, 21) and knocks it down. There’s a normal passage with sandstone flooring. Draggy goes in first.
Draggy: Everyone follow me! (Victor is actually participating!)
Draggy and Surina are leading. There’s a turn in the hallway that leads to a dead end. The other end of the hallway closes behind the party, trapping them.
Lysithea: Hey Professor, any tunnels in here?
Professor rolls stonecutting (14). He feels all around him. The wall that just appeared is real. All the walls are real. As he feels the wall at the dead end he feels words etched in to it. He wipes away sand and reads the script. “Keep your eyes on the “I” and you may pass”. Professor stares intently at the letter “I”. Nothing happens. Professor looks at his own eyes in one of his hand mirrors. DM says no. The area is magically lit, and there is nothing else in the area besides the etching. Professor pulls K’un-Lun down to his level and stares directly in to his eyes.
K’un-Lun: Uhhhh, you made things really uncomfortable in here.
Octaiva tries pushing on the wall. Nothing. Everyone rolls investigation.
Cordelia got the highest roll, a 19. Dad takes Cordelia to the other room to tell her something.
Surina begins searching and finds something on another wall. “If you want to move forward go backward.” Professor turns around and walks backward while looking at the letter “I”, and passes through the wall.
K’un-Lun: How’d he do that? What did he do?
Surina then walks backwards while look at the “I” and passes. The rest of the party follows suit and they all pass in to the next room. This room is rather small and contains 10 levers. Each lever can be moved up, down, left, or right, and each lever has a word written above. The collective party is able to read some of the words, but not all.
- The script from the sarcophagus that the party cannot read.
- Common “up”
- The party cannot read
- Draconic “down”
- A Dwarvish script that the Professor recognizes but cannot understand
- Elvish “left”
- Dwarvish “right”
- The unknown Dwarvish script again
- Celestial “right”
- Infernal “middle”
“The speech will direct your way.” The party goes to push the levers they do understand in the direction they say.
Uncle Shannon asks if this is the Konami Code and the DM laughs.
There are 2 more levers than directions. Octavia puts 1 in up position. Lysithea moves 3 down. They leave 5 in the middle and move 8 left. When they do this 8 little lights light up above the door turn on. 7 of the 10 levers are correct. Lysithea moves 1 back to middle and moves 3 up. Two more lights turn on. Lysithea moves 5 down and all of the lights are now lit.
Middle, up, up, down, down, middle, left, right, left, right, middle. Yep, it’s the Konami Code.
The door opens to another room. Professor realizes that there are indentations of 7 blocks that can be pushed. On the other side of the room is a door with 5 locks, and script next to the door that reads:
Introducing our song our expression is here.
Play the chorus for those that cannot play.
The verse is asleep in heavenly bliss.
Chorus again but change ownership it has.
The last sounds will be given to nourish all.
Professor pushes on the 1st block and a single tone echoes. Lysithea pushes the second block. Lysithea rolls performance (10) and the second tone is higher than the first. As they push the blocks the tones get higher (a diatonic scale – I should note that all players are musicians). Each clue requires more than one tone and an answer that needs to be played. If they play the correct tones a lock on the next door will release. They will need to play all of them correctly to unlock the door completely. They push the blocks to play FACE and the first lock releases. Professor solves the next one, and plays DEAD to unlock another.
Cordelia is asked to solve the next one. If you’re asleep what do you sleep on?
Surina plays BED to unlock the third lock. The party plays DEED for the 4th clue, and FEED for the final. The locks are now all unlocked. The door unlocks to a room with another door and a statue next to it, with 4 other statues against the wall. The 4 statues look old and are made of sandstone, depicting a knights in armor. The statue at end is royal figure with an outstretched hand, with words written on his base.
- Death Bringer – a crown of thorns with a great ax
- Flame Tongue – a crown of gold with a longsword
- Stone Crusher – a crown of roses holding a maul
- Oath Keeper – a crown of olive branches holding a great sword
- King – The king desires this. The knights fight against it. This is the greatest weapon that ends all wars.
The party needs to put something in the king’s hand. Lysithea immediately takes the crown of olive branches and places it in the king’s hand. The door opens (the answer was peace). The door opens to a room that mirrors the sarcophagi room. The other half of the sphinx head is in the corner and the eye is missing. Lysithea takes the emerald from the snake temple (see Session 3) and paces it in the sphinx’s eye. It fits! It seems that the temples are all connected. The wall between the head disappears, revealing the complete sphinx. Its mouth opens and there is a wooden cube inside.
Professor: What’s in the box?
There is no opening. Professor cannot open it, so he tries to hit it. His weapon bounces off and leaves no marks. He does an arcana check (12) and he can tell it is magical. Professor picks it up and it feels heavy, like something should be in it. There’s no hinges, no lid, no key hole. It is just a perfectly smooth wooden cube.
Professor: I say, masked man, give this one of your classic chops please.
K’un-Lun chops it (rolls strength, 19). His hand hits it and bounces off. The cube remains unchanged. The party also feels all the magic disappear from the temple. The sarcophagus opens and a crumbled mummy deteriorates and rots in front of them. Some of the gold disappears, but not all of it. There’s only dust in K’un-Lun and Professors pockets, but there is still gold on the ground in the room. Octavia picks up 5 gold pieces, and nothing happens to her. There’s a total of 1200 gold, so each member gets 200 gold. There’s also a necklace, made up with 5 different magical beads, and a staff. Professor picks up necklace and puts it on. Nothing happens, and he doesn’t feel anything from it, but he knows it’s magical but when he puts it on. He keeps it on for now, knowing that he does not have the power yet to use its magic (arcana check, 17). Lysithea examines the staff (arcana check, 8) and can tell it’s magical, but she’s not sure how just yet. Professor also examines the staff (arcana check, 12) but cannot tell anything, either. Lysithea takes the staff with her.
Lysithea: I guess I’m collecting staves now.
The party takes the box and exits the temple/tomb. As they leave they see people standing around looking very confused. The curse has been lifted and the people have returned.
People: What are you all doing?
Lysithea: We just lifted your curse.
The party levels up to Level 3. End session…
Notes: Justice really wanted us to touch that sarcophagus. It contained a boss – the mummy the tomb was built for.
If anyone is confused on the solutions to the musical clues:
- Introducing our song our expression is here. Answer: FACE – you sing with your face
- Play the chorus for those that cannot play. Answer: DEAD – the dead cannot play because they are dead
- The verse is asleep in heavenly bliss. Answer: BED – you sleep in a bed
- Chorus again but change ownership it has. Answer: DEED – changing one letter from the chorus (DEAD), and a deed shows ownership
- The last sounds will be given to nourish all. Answer: FEED – feeding to provide nourishment
Analysis: We were very impressed with Victor this session. He participated in most of it, which is impressive for a 4 year old, especially considering there wasn’t a lot of combat. He actually spoke in character and tried to help solve the puzzles. Cordelia, however, was a little distracted. She’s really gotten in to writing her own stories recently, which is wonderful, but during the session she was writing instead of paying attention. During combat she was fully engaged, but once we got to exploration she needed to be refocused a few times. One of the ways we like to keep her engaged is by having her add up the dice rolls not just for herself, but the other players as well (see Session 4 Analysis). We will also pause and ask her what she thinks the party should do, or what she thinks certain things might mean. If she was completely lost in her own world we will review what she missed and make sure she understands what’s happening. Sometimes if she is confused she will stop paying attention instead of asking for clarity. We also ask her if she’s having fun. She always replies, “Yes,” and that helps her refocus. With all the redirection we want to make sure that she is enjoying herself and understands what’s going on. We, the parents and experienced players, share the responsibility with her to make sure she is having fun and is engaged. This is still a new experience for all of us (her as a first time player, and us as playing with a young child) and it’s a learning curve, but the experience has been positive the whole way. We will continue to learn and grow together.