======== False entrance ========
A short tunnel ends at a slab of worked stone, whose edges are marked by relief carvings of grinning skulls. Four lines engraved at the center of the slab cross one another to form a star, with both ends of each line marking the location of a cube-shaped cavity cut into the door—eight cavities in all. The door is riddles with holes and the ceiling 15 feet from the door looks designed to shut access to the hall when the door is interacted with.
Several times they need to consult the rubbings looking for clues on how to arrange the cubes.
Someone suggests using the locations of shrines in the city. Freya goes up to start putting cubes in order but after she confuses west and east a couple times the others shoo her away. Celadon oversees while Eddie combs through his notes and Lindal gets ready to put cubes in. Kylorin with Seraph nearby reads the engravings on the walls hidden by illusion magic.
Abandon hope all who enter here. Fools come here to die.
"Well that is a bit morbid", Kylorin remarks. Eddie shrugs and says "it matches all we know of the tomb. It was built as a death trap to house the soulmonger or whatever it is that Acererak uses to power the death curse. It has eaten adventurers at least as powerful as us."
Lindal unwilling to continue without Eddie's attention waits patiently for him to finish consulting his notes to tell folks which gods were found where.
Freya left with nothing to do wanders back outside noticing the other tunnel and the fact that it is filled with statues of the god's animal spirits. "Hey guys? I think you should come look at this!"
======== Hall of the nine gods ========
Eddie walks over and looks in the hallway but when he pokes his head in to try and see the deeply shadowed statues a basin bursts into flames illuminating the Jaculi. Hmm maybe they light up in order to tell us how to place them Lindal. Lindal shrugs and comes to investigate but when Eddie backs out and Lindal enters a different statue which Celadon identifies as Moa lights up.
"That is Odd, Hey Kylorin come here."
When Kylorin comes over the group hears three whooshes of braziers in front of statues bursting into light but only 2 statues are visibly lit and Lindal thinks he sees something odd down the hall. At this point Eddie goes, "Wait a second... which cubes are everyone carrying?" Also the group recalls that the temples had a theme like the Froghemoth was choking an Eblis while Papzotl's shrine has a theme of storks eating frogs. Furthermore these gods are arrayed facing each other except for one which Lindal finds hidden behind a secret door.
Eddie says, "Hey in darkness it hides!" Lindal notices the hidden god has a golden amulet that looks like an eye and when Eddie examines it he realizes it was a pendant of finding triggered when it got within 10 feet of the black obelisk. Eddie then proceeds to ruefully look at the pile of black sand he has made of the trigger. In a feat of inspiration he conjures an illusion of the black Obelisk and tries to believe in it very hard while putting on the medallion. Upon wearing it he feels pulled west and walking along the cliff he notices a section is cloaked in masterful illusions.
======== Hidden entry ========
"Hey guys I think I found it" It looks like we were about to walk into a death trap. This door has no warning and nine cubes. The party works out the order consulting the hallway nearby for ideas in applying enemies oppose and soon there the cubes light up arrayed in formation before vanishing and with a deep growling like an angry beast the door slides slowly upward exposing another 20 foot hallway. Lindal scouts forward with Eddie and Kyorin right behind him providing advice and magical protection.
Twenty feet further another stone slab blocks the hallway. This time and iron level is set into the door with a carved skull leering down at it from above. As Lindal approaches the skulls jaws creak apart and a skeletal hand holding a crystal hourglass comes out and with a flourish the hourglass is flipped over and begins the count down the seconds. With only a few seconds to react Lindal lunges for the iron level and pulls it before the timer can run out.
The floor opens up plunging Eddie and Kylorin down into a pit filled with poisoned spikes. Eddie is impaled a half dozen times and wide eyed he mutters there was nothing I could do. no probabilities to manipulate just pain and suffering and if i didn't know better i would swear the spikes that impales me were feeding on me. *shudders* I begin to see how so many have met their end here.
The poison is brutally debilitating but Kylorin is able to cure it and the group help Eddie and Kylorin climb out of the pit. When Lindal pulls up the level the floor closes though the door stays open. In fact some experimentation reveals that the level ONLY controls teh pit while the door was on a timer. The group carefully makes their way across the pit.
======== A place to rest ========
The hallway before the group is still. A sooty residue covers everything and soot floats in the air - stirred up by the door's opening and fresh air. Freya feels the faintest grinding sensation in her bones as if something massive was shifting in the earth far below. It is like this whole place is moving or like the grinding of gears on a massive clock. Closer yet all the group can hear the sound of running water echoing down the corridor. But closer still are skittering sounds coming from directly ahead and off to the sides as a creeping claw scuttles out of a crevice in the wall as if spooked by something - perhaps even your light.
The moss covered corridor beyond the second door runs thirty feet to a T intersection and a grinning bearded devil's face whose mouth is a well of utter darkness.
Celadon cocks his head and says, "That is an odd sight, isn't it?"
Kylorin responds, "yeah I don't like darkness it gives me the heebie-jeebies"
Celadon says "not that I mean the little guy on the ceiling."
When the others look at him in askance he says, "Its not everyday you see a two foot tall skeleton walk across the ceiling with a pointed head.
The rest of the group just looks at Celadon strangely. Eddie asks, "Maybe it was wearing a party hat?"
"I thought it was just a conical skull myself but Lindal usually sees things more clearly." As the others continue to stare at him he eventually realizes that only he saw anything other than crawling claws scurrying like rats.
The group proceed carefully. Lindal takes his time and picks out at least 3 more traps walking the next 30 feet down the hall to the grinning bearded devil's face whose mouth is a well of utter darkness.
Eddie says, "Okay, I think we should rest for a bit. That poison took a lot out of me and Celadon is seeing things."
Kylorin says he is unwilling to rest right next to the devils face especially as it is filled with magical darkness. "And everyone knows that darkness is where evil lurks" Eddie interjects but "In darkness it hides" causing Kylorin to yell that he has used that phrase a couple times already but Eddie just shrugs and says that is how divination works. You only know in retrospect. It could be anything. But I think we should search the darkness just in case.
Freya bored walks up and says "Ok I got this" and sticks her arm into the black sphere and is immediately attacked. Kylorin jams her daylight into the darkness and reveals a shadow demon lurking. It dishes damage but with its darkness dispelled it attempts to flee only to have Freya pin it to a wall and Kylorin uses a searing smite to convert the creature to yet more clinging soot.
With the darkness dispelled Kylorin climbs into the skull and says the group can now rest while she sits in her cozy well lit nook. Lindal scouts around a bit and finds a window into a room with a sarcophagus and several moving eyes and a bunch of dead figures in masks. He also finds a metal grate that leads to a muddy river. The other way he comes to a huge stairwell with multiple passages running off from it as well as stairs descending several floors.
======== The grand stairs ========
The grand chamber is open at least 50 feet across and plunges down into darkness below even beyond Lindal's darkvision. A stone balcony winds around the central shaft and four archways lead off of the level you are on. Other balcony levels are visible below with corridors leading off them as well.
As he walked up to the grand stairs he sees a macabre white dwarf perched a level below like a gargoyle and wearing a grinning devil cap. The dwarf waited to be seen and then winks and leaps off the ledge disappearing in to a nearby passageway. Eddie sends his owl to scout the stairs and sees no further sign of the dwarven watcher but does finds that there are at least three floors beneath the current one. The lowest level is dominated by large four armed gargoyle statues standing on pillars of precious metal. The floor above that has rippling odd purple mold growing everywhere on that level. The floor directly beneath the current one echoes with moans and has a large double door right off the stairway. And the current floor has four archways out from the stairway the passage directly across from the group being notable for having another large skull acting as a door with flames burning in its eye-sockets illuminating the hall.
Peering through the gaping mouth the group sees a chamber filled with niches filled with skulls. A stone sarcophagus stands at the center of the chamber, its lid adorned with a coiled serpent carved in relief. Behind the sarcophagus, resting atop a marble pedestal, is an ornate crystal box with a small humanoid skull inside.
Inspiration
Eddie - for "hacking" the amulet to work despite the triggering condition being destroyed.
Experience (using milestones in tomb)
Allies
Seraph - more connected with Kylorin. When Eddie looked at Seraph under the influence of the amulet of finding he perceived Seraph as a white dragon.
Treasure
Necklace of Finding
Triggers only under specific conditions (within 10 feet of a black obelisk or while walking a golden path)
Allows bearer to automatically see through illusion for a minute