Play Report: Tomb of the Chimera Kings - Session 1

I return once again to the depths of Skerples’ introductory dungeon, with a fresh group of players and a DM who now was flying by only one half of the seat of his pants.

The session was set in our group's setting of Fwéa, and our band included:

P, a lv1 Hirwego Fighter

S, a lv1 Chromatic Fighter

N, a lv1 S’sem monk

B, a lv1 Mountain Elf

D1, a lv1 Mushroom Wizard

D2, a lv1 Beetleperson

The session began right outside the dungeon, with the following simple setup: The s & P Bank has begun selling salvage rights to the eastern E-DIN Plateau. The party is working as a PDC (Plausible Deniability Company) for one of the merchant houses in trade town. Mission: break into this untouched tomb of the ancient chimera kings (late 29^th dynasty) and bring anything valuable back. A couple wagons, some underlings to maintain the camp, and we’re  good to go.

It all went swimmingly. The players picked up things fast: Use your tools, check for traps, treasure = good. After the first room of the false tomb they had the smash and grab formula down: s would push open the door with his 10 foot pole, P would toss a rock in, B would go in with a cloth over her face and break open the sarcophagus.

D2 managed to get around the hammer trap by investigating the bar solo and hitting one of the trigger buttons. Lucky son of a gun dodged the hammer, too. (Granted, with 11 HP he could have tanked the 1d10 damage)

Of course, they decided to disturb the tombs in room 6, which caused the THREE PRINCES to explode from their tombs, posing flamboyantly.  Yes, I used the song. I am an awful hack job of a human being who should never be allowed to DM. This is what happens.

The skeletons themselves were defeated with little injury to the party, though of note was that D1 managed to kill one of the brothers with a vial of holy water after N had shattered its leg with a well-placed punch.

The statue in room 7 was pulled down after B clambered up top and affixed a rope to it (another great use of mundane items), and the party went into the floor below.

S decided to investigate the pool of water in the center of room 11 (he actually wanted to drink it, the madman), and was, of course, immediately attacked by one of the mummy hands and choked to his last hitpoint before B was able to pry the hand off and someone managed to stomp on it.

B grabbed the bow and three arrows from the terra cotta soldier room, D2 and P took a lightning bolt to the face in room 12 (and lived, surprisingly). N escorted S back up to the surface camp. D2 and P found a way to game the tombs of Xizor’s wives, by opening the lid just enough for B to do a visual sweep for treasure and not enough for the skeleton-wife to actually get out.

This was where we ended for the night, with the rest of the group all returning to the surface. Some miscellaneous notes include:

• P guessed that there were other mummy parts in the pool in room 11 from only the hand. He has not yet found out if this is true.
• A few party members believe that the three amulets in the false tomb will be of future importance.
• S is going to have a real fun time when he learns the result of that save from the mummy hand scuffle.
• The Three Princes were all seen to have ghosts departing from their bones upon defeat. I wonder what that means? 

This campaign, unlike the last run through, will be continued. Perhaps not soon, but they will return to the Chimera Kings.