Looking around at their surroundings, the party noticed that there were a number of caves in the cliff, which they thought might make good resting places, or places to hide the horses while they were in the tomb. They approached the facade carved into the cliff, which served as the entrance to Diderius' tomb. There once was a large, paved plaza with a grand fountain before the entrance. Little remained of the fountain except a stone circle around a hole in the ground which led to a deep well. Just behind the fountain stood a couple of 20 ft. high humanoid statues. They were eroded and many pieces had broken off, so it was difficult to determine whether they had originally been elves or human. The tomb facade itself was 40 ft. high and decorated with relief columns, which had been carved with strange, otherworldly scenes. The entry door was 30 ft. off the ground, and a set of stairs led up to a platform in front of it.
Closer inspection of the plaza revealed the remains of a camp. They supposed that Varram's team had left a rear guard outside the tomb. A campfire still burned and there were 3 bedrolls laid out on the ground, but there was no sign of the guards themselves. It looked like there had been a struggle and the party guessed that they must have been killed and the bodies removed.
"I don't like this one little bit," said Mara. "Varram's guards may have been attacked and killed by something. I'll turn into a dire wolf and sniff around some to see if I can figure out what creatures were here."
Mara assumed the dire wolf wildshape and investigated the camp area. She caught the scent of 3 different humanoids, 2 humans and a half-orc. She also smelled trolls and the scent of blood. Following the troll tracks led to a narrow entrance heading underground. The smell of blood was heavy at the entrance, so the trolls probably dragged the bodies underground after killing them. Given the small size of the hole, it seemed likely that the trolls also injured themselves going down it, probably counting on their health regeneration to heal up the wounds.
Mara resumed half-elf form and explained to the others what she had found.
"Trolls must have attacked the rear guards and taken them underground to eat them. I don't think any of us can squeeze through the hole to see where it leads, but those of us with darkvision might be able to look down there to get an idea what is there."
They peered down the hole and saw what looked like a large drainage pipe, perhaps related to the fountain or to a sewage system. There didn't seem to be a dwelling directly below the entrance hole, so they figured the trolls must have followed the pipe to a dwelling somewhere else underground.
Kellen sighed. "So, we still have to worry about trolls. I suggest that we don't camp out in the plaza or leave our horses out here unattended. Who knows when those trolls will pop out again!"
"Maybe we can hide the horses in one of the caves in the cliff side," said Borovik. "I don't think we can take them into the tomb with us."
The rest of the group agreed, and they searched until they found a suitable size cave that had once been modified to serve as living quarters. They tied up the horses in the back of the cave and left them with sufficient feed for the day.
They returned to the plaza and approached the tomb entrance. As they neared the statues, they heard stone grinding and saw the heads of the 2 statues turn to look down at them.
"Halt!" the statues ordered in unison. "You come before Diderius, ether walker and conduit of clairvoyance. Behold ye now his mighty triumph. Diderius extends wisdom and Diderius offers knowledge. Which do you seek?"
After a brief consultation among themselves, Borovik spoke for the group and said, "We seek knowledge."
At this the statues responded, "Diderius shall grant you what you seek, but only if you heed him and continue to show proper respect." They then returned to their original positions and did not move again.
"So, I guess we passed the test," said Bree. "Now let's get ourselves into the tomb and search for our knowledge."
They began to climb the stairs to the platform before the entryway but found that the last 10 ft. of the stairs had collapsed. The cultists before them had leaned a ladder against the platform to provide a way to reach it, so they were able to get up onto the platform and enter the tomb.
The first room they entered was a small antechamber. Aside from a little sunlight that streamed in through the doorway, the room was unlit. Borovik cast the light spell on his staff and on Bree's coin purse. The rest of the party depended on their darkvision to see.
At first it looked like there were gilded carvings on the walls and silver censors hanging at intervals. But when the party looked more closely, they saw that it was an illusion. Looters had long ago defaced the gilded walls and stolen the censors. At the far end of the chamber was a door hanging ajar. It looked like it had been recently forced open.
They cautiously entered a rectangular chamber that was around 20 ft. wide and about 50 ft. long. There were 6 statues of wizards wearing cowls, whose faces were obscured by deep hoods in the cowls. The hollows within the hoods were unnaturally dark. Bones of about a dozen humanoids were scattered over the floor.
As they entered, each of the party members was struck by the thought, "Some secrets are not meant for mortal minds to know. Look away from the darkness in which such knowledge hides."
"Huh," said Neega. "I wonder what that means."
"Well," Borovik answered, "The darkest place in this room is the space in the hoods of the statues. Maybe it means don't try to look the statues in the face."
That seemed as good a guess as any, so the party decided to go with that. When they reached the halfway point, they heard stone grinding noises and realized that the statues had turned their heads and were following the group with their gazes.
"Eyes straight ahead!" called Borovik." Don't look into the faces of the statues!"
Bree, ever the curious rogue, simply could not resist looking. She briefly peeked into the darkness within the hood of a statue. The party saw her stiffen and stare into the statue's hood. For several seconds, she stood there, motionless. Finally, she relaxed and shook her head with a confused look in her eyes.
"What happened?" Kellen cried.
"I don't know," said Bree. "I think the statue must have cast some sort of charm on me. Then it told me a whole bunch of weird, impossible stuff while it held me in its gaze. Whatever it said, I didn't understand a bit of it."
"Hmm," mused Borovik. "Maybe I could have understood it. I wonder if I should look into one of the hoods and see if the statue will tell me these marvelous things."
"Don't you dare!" said Neega. "Let's get away from these statues!"
There was a door on the north end of the room, so Neega and Mara opened it and went through. A short passageway opened to a chamber with a high, vaulted ceiling. About 15 ft. above the floor was an inset ledge about 10 ft. wide that encircled the entire room. The floor was set with a beautiful mosaic of a knight in plate armor wielding a glowing sword against a chimera. A mosaic sun shone on the scene.
"Wow!" exclaimed Neega. "Everyone come in and take a look at this floor mosaic! It's gorgeous!"
As they stepped into the room, Borovik, Mara and Preston noticed the mosaic chimera begin to shift a little.
"Hey," yelled Mara. "That tile chimera is moving! It must be magic!"
The chimera clawed and climbed its way free of the floor, then jumped up on the ledge right behind it. From there it cast a malevolent glare down at the party.
"My, what a beautiful creature you are!" exclaimed Kellen, putting on his most charming manner. "May we pass, as we are seeking the divination pool?"
The chimera looked suspicious but made no move to attack.
"Flattery is easy," it sneered. "Do you have some other methods of persuading me?"
"What would it take to persuade one so magnificent as you?" asked Kellen.
"Food, and a lot of it," responded the chimera. "Or treasure, and a lot of it."
"We have a few days' worth of rations, and altogether we carry perhaps 50 gp," said Kellen.
"Oh, you are pathetic!" growled the chimera. "I'm just going to have to kill you all and eat you!"
"Back up and spread out in case it uses its fire breath," called Borovik.
Bree immediately loosed an arrow at the chimera and then stepped back against the wall furthest from the chimera. Unfortunately, the chimera dodged out of the way and Bree missed. Neega could not reach the chimera up on the ledge, so just stood her ground. Borovik decided to use his fiery ray spell, this time choosing to cast 4, rather than 3 of them. He gathered them in his hands and hurled them at the chimera, blasting the chimera with all four rays of fire. The chimera screamed and tiles flew off its hide in every direction. He then stepped back against the wall. Kellen played a tune on his harp and the chimera shook its head and roared, finding it had been blinded. Kellen retreated to a corner far enough from the chimera to avoid the fire breath. Mara pitched a javelin at the chimera but missed. She then stepped forward a little to provide cover for the casters in the back. Preston shot at the chimera with his crossbow. The blinded chimera was not able to dodge, and Preston hit it. However, the tiles of which the creature was made were not easy to damage with piercing weapons, and only a couple of tiles flew off.
Bree once again shot at the chimera with her shortbow. She hit and a few more tiles flew off. Neega went into a barbarian rage and then threw one of her handaxes at the chimera to see if slashing damage hurt it more than piercing. Stepping forward a little to get within range she let fly. It was a hit and the chimera bellowed as it lost many more of its tiles.
The blinded chimera fired off its breath weapon, but no one was within range, so no one took damage. It shook its head, trying to shake off the blindness, but to no effect.
Borovik decided to go with fire damage again and called 3 fiery rays into his hand. He hit 3 times and blasted off several more tiles. Kellen pulled out his crossbow and fired a bolt at the chimera. knocking off a few more tiles. Mara went with the Ice Storm spell. A 40 ft. diameter, 40 ft. high cylinder of hail rained down on the chimera, as well as on the door in the north wall next to it. Dozens of tiles flew off the chimera and it screamed in rage and pain. It now had many holes where large numbers of tiles had been knocked off.
The door next to the chimera was also destroyed by the ice storm. As it fell off its hinges, a large pile of rubble behind the door fell out and spread to about 10 ft. in front of the door. Fortunately, none of the party was near enough to it to get hit by the falling stones.
Preston didn't have any spells he thought would work well, so he shot with his crossbow again, but missed. Bree knocked off a few more tiles with her shortbow. By now the chimera was wobbling on its feet. Neega threw her other handaxe at the chimera and knocked a new hole in its hide.
The chimera's breath weapon recharged, so it decided to try it again. It moved along the ledge to the south in the direction from which it thought the attacks were coming. This time, Neega, Mara, Bree and Preston were all within range for the fire breath. Bree managed to evade and took no damage from the fire, but everyone else got the full effect. Neega screamed in fury as she saw Preston get severely burned. The chimera then shook its head and managed to free itself from the blindness spell.
Borovik had had enough of the chimera, so he cast another Scorching Ray spell. He hit 3 times and the fire damage was enough to knock it unconscious.
Neega immediately ran over to check on Preston. She was afraid to touch him for fear of causing further pain to his injuries. Mara cast Cure wounds on him, restoring most of the health he had lost. He fell into Neega's arms, trembling. She embraced him and did her best to comfort him.
"That was painful," he said. "I was really scared."
"I know, Honey," agreed Neega. "Parts of being an adventurer are really fun, and parts are really rotten. That's why we have healers like Mara and Kellen in the party."
"Oh, Neega! You got burned, too!" Preston cried.
"It's not too bad," said Neega. Although she tried to be tough, she winced as a bolt of pain shot through one of her burns.
Meanwhile, Kellen cast Healing Word on Mara, relieving a good portion of her injuries.
After the party had caught their breath, Kellen asked, "Do you suppose the tile chimera can reassemble itself?"
Borovik thought about it, but his prior training in arcane matters didn't include creatures made of animated tiles.
"I don't know. Maybe," he said. "There is probably some way to prevent it from reassembling, but I don't know what that is."
"Maybe we can take a short rest and think about it," suggested Mara.
"Good idea," said Bree. "Is there a good place to take a break?"
"This door to the west has the word 'Safe' written on it in chalk," remarked Neega. "Let's check it out."
They cautiously opened the door and looked in. The room was circular and there were signs that the cultists had already used the area as a resting spot. A 10 ft. diameter well occupied the center of the room with a bronze bucket on a rope sitting nearby. A basin sat on a platform about 8 ft. above the floor and placed against the north wall. Stone steps led up to it.
"I wonder what the basin is for. It's a little high off the ground for taking baths," pondered Bree.
"Let's worry about it after we take a short rest," groused Neega.
They rested about an hour and Kellen played a Song of Rest on his harp, offering a bonus to health regained by the rest. They all felt refreshed and healthy after the rest. Borovik was able to restore some of his magical energy.
At the end of the rest, Bree scratched her chin and said, "I have an idea. Why don't we throw the tiles from the chimera down the well? That way if it does reassemble, it will be way down under water, and maybe it will drown."
"But what if it magically reassembles itself back in the floor, no matter where its tiles are thrown?" asked Mara.
"I still want its throw its tiles down the well, just to make it mad," pouted Bree.
She started carrying handfuls of tiles and throwing them down the well. No one else was inclined to help her, so she got bored and quit after only half of the tiles had been disposed of.
Meanwhile, Borovik was inspecting the basin. "It looks like there is a drain going out the bottom of the basin into a pipe that goes through the wall."
"Huh," said Neega. "I wonder what's on the other side of that wall."
"What does this lever next to the basin do?" Borovik wondered aloud.
When he pulled it, there was a scraping noise from inside the basin. He looked down into the basin and realized that the lever opened and closed the drain at the bottom of the basin.
"I want to go into the room on the other side of this wall and find out where the water goes," he said.
"Let's take a look at the door that seems to lead into that room," suggested Mara.
They went back out into the Mosaic chamber, noticing with relief that the tiles had not yet reassembled themselves into a chimera. They did their best to look through the broken doorway, but the hallway beyond was completely filled with dirt and stones. It looked like the ceiling in the hall had collapsed.
"Well, we're not going that way," Kellen concluded. "It looks like our only option for further exploration is down the hall leading SE."
"Wait!" called Borovik. "I want to take a better look at this beautiful mosaic of the sun just before the entrance to the hall."
He walked over and examined its details, lovingly running his hand over the tiles.
"That's funny," he said. "The sun mosaic seems to be raised slightly above the floor."
After some more probing, he realized that the mosaic could slide, and he pushed it aside to see what was underneath.
"Take a look at this!" he cried as all the others gathered around. The mosaic sun covered a pit which contained a 7 ft. diameter sphere composed entirely of skeletal bodies. The party members looked at each other in shock.
"What's that for?" asked Kellen.
"Probably part of a trap," responded Bree. "My guess is that it's supposed to roll down the hall we want to take. There is probably a trigger somewhere."
"Do you suppose it's in the hallway?"
"That would be my guess, since having it trigger when you're in the hallway is the best way to ensure you get hit with the rolling ball of bones."
"It looks like we have to chance it if we want to go further," pointed out Mara. "We are just going to have to carefully look around for anything that might be a trigger."
They moved into the hallway leading east. As they left the room, Bree made a rude gesture at the mosaic of the knight in armor.
"Now why couldn't you have come to life and helped us with the chimera?" she scoffed.
They headed down the hall, which sloped sharply downward. Bree took the lead, being more expert at finding traps than anyone else. Neega followed directly behind in case an enemy came at them from the front. Preston, Borovik and Kellen stuck to the middle and Mara brought up the rear, watching for attacks from behind.
Slowly they made their way down the hall and searching carefully for some sort of trigger. About 25 ft. down the hall Bree noticed something odd about the floor. She put up her hand to halt the party.
"There's a sort of plate in the floor. It might be a pressure plate that would trigger the trap," she said. "Borovik, can you come here, and we will examine together?"
Borovik joined Bree at the plate in the floor. They examined it for a few minutes and decided it wasn't a pressure plate. Instead, it seemed to be a sliding panel.
"What do you suppose will happen of we slide the panel?" asked Borovik.
"I don't think that will trigger the trap, but I don't know," Bree replied. "Maybe we can have everyone else go back into the Mosaic chamber and watch to see of the sun mosaic slides when we slide the panel. They can yell to us to run, and we can try to get to the other end of the hall before the ball of bones hits us."
The rest of the party left the hallway and waited anxiously while Bree and Borovik slowly began to slide the panel. No corresponding movement was seen by the sun mosaic.
Shortly, Borovik called back, "The panel opens into a shaft. Can someone with darkvision come down here and look down the shaft?"
Mara came down and peered into the shaft. It went down about 30 ft. and she could see a stairway at the bottom.
"It seems to be a shaft between this level of the tomb and one beneath it. I'm not sure what it could be for," she said.
The rest of the party came down to the opening and they consulted about what to do.
"We still haven't found the trigger for the trap, so we could still get caught in it," said Bree. "Do we want to try going down the shaft to avoid the trap?"
"I don't like that idea," said Neega. We have no idea what is at the bottom of the shaft."
"It looks like we have about 25 ft. left of the hallway," said Kellen.
"Then are we willing to keep going down the hallway, hoping we can spot the trigger before we set it off?" asked Bree.
"My vote is with continuing down the hallway," Mara said.
"Wait!" cried Borovik. "I have an idea! I'm going to try to destroy the ball of bones with a fireball."
He went back up to the mosaic room and the rest of the party followed. He cast fireball on the ball and the bones easily caught fire. After several minutes nothing remained of the ball of bones but a smoldering heap of ashes.
"Let's get down that hallway now," Borovik said.
"We should still look for the trigger," warned Bree. "There may be more than one part to the trap."
They returned to the panel in the floor and slowly began to proceed. Bree once again took the lead, looking for things like pressure plates and trip wires. They crept forward about 15 more ft. Suddenly, Bree felt a piece of the floor depress slightly when she stepped on it.
"Run!" she screamed.
The party ran as fast as they could to the end of the hallway, which lead into another room. They quickly ran away from the hall to the southern wall of the room. A huge cloud of ash followed them into the room and barreled into the east wall. It spread out into the room, and the party found themselves choking on the dust and ash. They ran back into the hallway to escape it.
"It should settle out shortly. In the meantime, I'm going to mark the pressure plate in the floor," said Bree. "It may be that the trap rearms after a period of time, and if we have to come this way again, I don't want to worry about triggering it."
Several minutes later the ash had settled out and they went back in the room to explore it. As they entered, they heard a voice whispering, "Humility proffered in the manner of Mystril shelters those opening the way to seeking knowledge."
They looked at each other in puzzlement. Borovik then raised his hand and said, "I get it! There is a holy gesture of adherents of the fallen goddess Mystril that involves bowing your head and raising your hands as if carrying a lamp. I think that is the gesture we need to make to proceed."
They looked around the room a little and found that there was a door on the east wall and a double door on the north wall. Mara also saw that there was a narrow chute in the southern wall that admitted sunlight. It appeared as if the sunlight was fading, indicating coming dusk.
"I think we need to get back to the cave with the horses," she said. "The sun is getting ready to set and we shouldn't leave the horses all by themselves overnight with those trolls hanging around."
The rest of the party agreed, and they left the tomb to take a long rest in their cave. Back at the cave they untied the horses and walked them a little around the cave to stretch their legs. They refreshed their feed and erected the large tent used to shelter the horses. Then Kellen cast Leomund's Tiny Hut to make a shelter for themselves. Before going to sleep, Preston used his Mending cantrip to repair the holes in his robe and in Mara's leather armor caused by the chimera's fire breath.
During their watches that night, both Bree and Neega heard noises down in the plaza before the tomb. In addition to the sound of footsteps, they heard voices talking in what seemed to be an irritated manner. They wondered if it was the trolls unsuccessfully hunting for more creatures to eat.