The Obsidian Gate and the Betrayer’s Tomb
Ancient Secrets, Undead Terrors, and the High Cost of Troll Diplomacy
Day: 39, Mo/Yr: 5/12, 2993[AEP] irl: July 5th, 2025 Session 18
Scribe: Saracor
GM: Evil Tables
| Players | Broken Head | Acquaintances, Friends |
| Agoston [Scholar 4] dcterra Belaros [Fighter 4] DeViate Alexos [Cleric 5] Saracor Meric [Thief 5] Shadowfax Grim [Dwarf 4] Big_Pun Bob [Fighter 1] Dim &Perilish* NPC:Brunwolf* [Torchbearer] Lukios [Henchmen] Susarra [Henchmen] Mule: Stormy *exited play | Mikeleos [Druid 2] Saracor Feathers [Thief 3] jdsull Salvatore [Cleric 2] jdsull Gemistos [Scholar 1] Luminance Ilphas [Thief 3] lach Herakleon [Scholar 1] Syagria [Fighter 2] ☠ Our Dead:Hektor [Fighter] SaracorHjalti [Henchmen]Nipper [Mule] | Lankios [Retired paladin] Khronos and Estelle [Keepers] Klisco [Illusionist] rescued brought to Gosterwick Dalton’s Darlings- Dalton & Jason [fighters], Isidor (halfling) [thief] – the stinky stealer, Heliagabulus (Magic User) ☠ Their Dead:Helga [Daltons thief]Yvette[Daltons cleric]Count Sceleros [Beastmen] Killed by Heliababulus |
After a suggestion from Gog the troll, the party decides to investigate the mysterious Obsidian Gate. Meric attempts to climb the 20-foot cliff but fails on his first try (having apparently skipped climbing school). After some help from the party, he successfully ascends using an anchored grappling hook.
We use continual light coins for illumination.
Susarra is left behind to ensure that Gog doesn’t eat one of our mules (spoiler alert, he does).
At the top of the cliff, we find eight glowing pillars radiating with a strange intensity. Twelve giant toads silently watch us from nearby. Small hallways lead off to the left and right.
To the northeast, we discover a room with four sarcophagi. Without warning, five ghouls ambush us. Bob takes the brunt of the first attack and is paralyzed. We manage to kill one ghoul and turn the rest, who flee. Attempts to wake Bob by slapping him are… not immediately effective.
The sarcophagi are of Archontean design—broken open, containing only a few scattered bones.
We locate a secret door in the northeast wall, hidden between the sarcophagi. Pressing it upward reveals another room of similar size, with a wooden coffin at its center. Though intact, the lid has been pried open, revealing a pile of bones. An inscription reads:
Gregor, Priest
“Gregor, optimistic priest of life, fell fighting trolls. Left here pending proper burial—touch at your own peril.”
Inside the coffin are two arcane-looking teeth (6×4 inches), each engraved with the letters “POL.” Alexos holds them and feels noticeably smarter as well as sensing an increased propensity to be sarcastic.
Grim uses his pick to search for more hidden doors. Meric finds a pressure stone in the floor, which opens the secret door Grim is struggling with.
The next chamber contains two stone sarcophagi. The walls and floor are dust-covered indicating we are the first to reach this hidden location in a long time. The walls feature faded murals of brightly painted soldiers. Each sarcophagus bears inscriptions:
- Kaitor – A man holding a trident overhead, labeled “Kaitor, betrayer of a friend” (Kaitor proditor amici)
- Guivrel – A woman in flowing robes, labeled “Guivrel, most beloved friend” (Guivrel dulcissima amica)
A lectern holds a stone tablet and five heavy silver tokens (ancient Arcontian coins) bearing two heads.
There is a door on the far wall.
Bob scouts northwest, returning to the hall with the toads. Meanwhile, we open the door to a smaller room leading to a hallway heading northeast. Inside, we find an empty suit of plate armor—ancient and extremely well-crafted. The steel is light, unlike any we’ve seen. Belaros claims it.
Both sarcophagi feel noticeably colder than the rest of the room. While the rest of the party is contemplating what nasty undead could be waiting to be animated under the sarcophagi lids, Meric takes the five heavy silver tokens.
Bob continues deeper into “Toad Town” and finds the hallway branching into two side halls. Suddenly, five more undead approach from a narrow southwestern passage. We retreat and slam the secret door shut behind us.
Continuing through a long, narrow corridor of worked stone, we enter a northeast room containing another sarcophagus and three suits of armor. Faint screaming can be heard to the south. The sarcophagus’s seal is cracked but remains unopened.
In a nearby small room, we find a statue of a soldier standing beside a dragon, as well as:
- A glowing shortsword
- A stone spear
- A silver box
- 150 ancient silver pennies
- Six clay tokens featuring a trident on one side and “Pentarch Kaitor” on the other
Returning to the north end of a long hallway, there’s a 10’ x 5’ x 5’ sarcophagus and a 10-foot diameter stone basin set 1 foot into the floor. A chunk of black stone inside the basin trickles water, accompanied by a gurgling sound. The ceiling above is painted blue.
Grim tosses a rock into the basin—it is ejected moments later, slamming into a wall. Murals on the walls depict Arcontian officials carrying a sarcophagus, while a widow weeps.
Agoston casts Detect Magic and locates a glowing red horn on a pedestal in the corner to the left of the sarcophagus. Meric becomes fixated on this and sets in motion his plan to snatch it…
Meric drinks a potion of Invisibility and moves toward the horn. As he nears it, two suits of armor fill with the black liquid from the basin to animate and attack. Meric is struck but manages to grab the horn and run around to the back side of the sarcophagus.
The strange black liquid begins flowing down the hall toward the other suits of armor.
We hear something crawling in the main hallway. Ghouls attack again. Meric, still invisible, makes noises behind a toad to lure the ghouls away from the party, then doubles back to regroup with the party.
We rejoin our companions—Stormy and Nipper. But Nipper is dead. Only his bones remain. It appears Gog the troll has eaten him.
We head back to the surface. As we do Meric examines the Horn closer to see it is a tusk inscribed with Glyphs of figures of tongues and bulging eyes.