12A few things that you can guys should know about this chapter an in the future
1). Natural 20 attacks get their damage doubled: instead of rolling an additional die, I instead just add a x2 at the end of the Damge result, it's easier for me to calculate as I'm naturally lazy
2). flanking rule is a thing: so if I describe two character at the opposite ends of a enemy that isn't two sizes away from them, they get advantage
3). This will rarely be a thing so it won't nearly be as broken, but a Inspiration is a automatic Natural 20 in reserves in my story
4). NPCs can roll Con+modifiers once per short rest to regain HP
5). While the duration to attune to Magic items are the same, Sentient Weapons can instantly attune to you if you allow it, (unless it can forcefully attune to you)
Chapter 8 - The Tomb
Deep in the Land of the Underdark, deep in the Lost Tomb of Khaem we have our recently freed adventurers, all ready to fight against monstrous creatures.
These transparent, purple beings that let out a terrible screech out of its being, all was still for a moment, as if both sides were waiting for a sign to strike.
Turvy bursting into action ran from the small hallway in the entrance and into the room, turning right he saw one of the ghosts and pounced at it with his shortsword.
When turvy swung his blade at the chest of the spirit, it seemed to phase through, although small wisps of energy were ripped away from it, although it was plainly obvious, our weapons were a lot weaker against them.
Sadly, Turvy missed the second time where he aimed for the neck, only for the monster to bend a bend a little.
I wasn't far behind the deep gnome, as I turned to face the left back corner of the room with Eldeth.
I raised up my shortsword with one hand and I willed my Fighting Spirit to come forth, immediately I noticed something.
I was slower, so was my target, and everything else around us.I could see where the monster was going to go, and I could see where I needed to strike to do the most damage.
My eyes widening, I take my blade, and thrust it forward with as much more as I can.
Instantly I realized I had the same issue as Turvy. My attacks weren't fully sinking in it, to the point it would take at least twice as much blows then I would need normally to finish it off.
The good news however was the fact I could tell that by taking a large portion of it cleanly ripped off by my blade that it was noticeably less visible.
Which meant it was very much killable by our hands
Sarith stepped forth with his crossbow and shot the spectral being with one of his bolts, and successfully landed a hit.
Although it was obvious that the poison did nothing as the ghost handy even reacted to it as I have seen creatures before have at least needed to resist the effect.
The Specter retaliated by striking the male deep gnome with an open hand, attempting to swipe at him with great speed.
Swiping right through him, although it seemingly did no visible damage. Turvy suddenly froze and painfully coughed up a black substance from his mouth as black veins started appearing on his body.
The first Specter that appeared near Prince Derendil flew over to him and did the same attack on him on the head.
And while Derendil did cough up the same substance, I didn't spot any of the worrying black veins on him.
Jimjar, not wasting any time, jumps to the remaining specter that has yet to attack or be attacked.
Sadly, while the first attack was a little too high as the ghost hovered down, the second strike vertically struck down the head, dealing a slight amount of damage to it.
The Specter that I had attacked suddenly reached forth to me and thankfully seeing the move being done twice before, I turned my body to the left dodging the grabbing hand.
The spectre that had been attacked by Jimjar flew forward as it attempted what I was gonna assume is it's one and only trick.
Jimjar had so far received the worst of it, and the black veins on him were horrifically well spread all over him as his eyes began to bleed a black substance that didn't seem to affect his sight.
Eldeth seeing what was happening to our companions chose to try and quickly end this as fast as she could as she pulled her war hammer back.
Missing the first shot from the spirit's dodging, the dwarf warrior kept the momentum and twirled the weapon until she brought it up over her head and went through the head of the monster.
Topsy and Derendil finally getting their shit together they jumped into action, as the gnome joined Jimjar in his fight and quickly delivered two blows.
Derendil on the other hand, apparently not liking what he just felt, raised his claws and gave the ghost two new temporary scratch marks.
Turvy getting his focus back on the target raised his shortsword and gave a thrust to the head, spilling more of the ghost's essence out of it.
I should probably mention that thanks to my Passive Perception, I was at least somewhat aware of what everyone around me was doing as well as being able to pick details here and there.
Speaking of picking up details
Now that the Spirit's attention has been split between the dwarf and I, landing powerful strikes became easier, with no need of Fighting Spirit asI dealt a heavy blow.
It was becoming obvious just how close to the end of its undead life it was on, as I could vaguely make out its arm and skull.
Sarith reloading, aimed his weapon once more at his Specter, dealing another blow to the undead.
The Specter that attacked Turvy attempted to attack him once more, but the small deep gnome desperately dodged out of the way.
However, Derendil was not as lucky as he was once more hit with the same ghost move, thankfully no sign of the black veins on him once again.
Jimjar, who had been gasping for air that he had much difficulty acquiring, quickly brought his focus back and attacked the specter once more and quickly landed two more small blows.
My own specter that was quickly becoming less corporal, managed to thrust its arm through my chest.
…
…
...Constitution Save Rolled: 13 (10)
I did not like it
It reminded me of my time spent in the void, just how indescribably cold it was, while at the same time it wasn't.
It was weaker, sooo much weaker than the void, but I certainly don't not appreciate the reminder.
As it tried to rip to what I assume was my life force, I promptly stumped out it's attempts to rip it open
Jumjar being hit once more, was brought down to a state that I don't believe he could take any other blow.
This needed to end fast
"Jimjar!, quickly get to cover!," I Telepathically yelled out in concern over to the gnome, the gambler who was taking deep breaths looked at me for a second or two and gave me a small nod.
Eldeth managed to glaze a small spot of the Specter we have been fighting together, but unfortunately, she missed a heavy strike, leaving imprints on the floor we fought on.
Topsy, not liking the way this was going, in frustration gave two small fast thrusts, leaking more and more of the spectral's essence.
Derendil who was having a one on one duel with the ghost traded blows with the thing, giving two more successful hits, bringing it down just as close as Eldeth's and my opponent.
The Specter overstaying its welcome, I simply gripped my sword and cut it in half for the last time. As it faded out of existence as I quickly ran to take Jimjar's spot for his Specter asI pushed the deep gnome to the hallway just as the draw shot his specter.
...since when did I know these things are species?
I pondered as Turvy backed off from another attack on his Life Force, now fully understanding the desperation to get away from such an attack.
Derendil however didn't seem to have any luck, even the luck that allowed to avoid receiving the black veins that are now visible all over his chest as he wailed in pain.
Jimar, carefully getting out of the way of the battle to attempt to start on his own recovery.
The specter, not particularly liking that it's target had escaped, chose to vent it's wrath on me, however it had failed to strike me.
Eldeth, twirling her Warhammer, ran at the Spector across the room that I was fighting in, and landed a fierce blow.
Topsy, with her shortsword, took a moment to watch where the apparition was going to dodge one of the dwarf's blows, and just as it dodged, she strikes a critical blow to the head of the creature, fully dissipating it.
Not stopping for even a moment to appreciate her win, she dashed right over to the Quaggoth and landed another blow to the specter at the back.
Who right then finished it off, with a claw on the skull, crushing it into it's base essence.
It was thankfully over as both me and turvy brought this batter to a close.
It was quiet for a bit, but other than a lot of loud breathing, I looked around at my fellow escapees, seeing how hurt we were, the following to whatI said was met with agreement.
"...I think we need a short break," as I laid against the wall and closed my eyes
When I opened them back up, I was in the black to my mental scape, as I willed the transparent screen to appear
And as expected it did indeed appear in front of me, and what I saw has left me pleasantly surprised.
[
EXP Amount: 2300
Bloodhunter - level 1 - 300 exp
Rogue - level 2 - 300 exp
Fighter - level 4 - 2700 exp
Fighter - level 3 (subclass switch) - 900 exp
]
I was so close to level 4 Fighter that I was slightly tempted to leave it be, but then I thought otherwise, we just came out of the battle that was taxing to our health.
I may have dodged most of it from my own specter, but that one strike felt horrible, and I knew I needed more health to fight more of those.
So stealing myself, I selected Level 2 Rogue, in hopes that it would give me something powerful to my arsenal
[
Cunning Action
Starting at 2nd Level, your quick thinking and agility allow you to move and act quickly. You can take a bonus action on each of your turns in combat. This action can be used only to take the Dash, Disengage, and Hide action.
]
…it was by no means bad, in fact this was a good one, but I wasn't expecting this, ah well.
Shrugging it off, he did however frown when his health only increased by eight from his bad roll of a 3 on HP.
Looking at his clean 2000 EXP he decided to leave it be for next time, with that he closed his eyes once more and felt himself get pulled back.
30 minutes later
A weird thing I found in this world that I am absolutely sure of that never existed in my world was the limited healing the people of this world had access to.
While it did not allow you to heal anyone but yourself. it did heal quite a little but, although there was an odd prerequisite that you had to be decently strong and you had to wait at least 30 minutes to an hour for it to come into effect.
Jimjar managed to heal a little, but the area around the black veins refused to give way. Although thankfully Jimjar's body was slowly destroying the black veins, it would take a few hours if not a day to fully clear it up.
So at the moment Jimjar was not to participate in any sort of battle for a bit, at least for today.
It was also bad when Turvy couldn't recover at all, while he managed to avoid most of the latter blows, the one blow he did take, took a good bit off of his health.
Thankfully Derendil was better off, as he didn't take that badly of damage the black veins caused.
The only ones who were left unhurt were Sarith, Topsy, and Eldeth, who looked a bit conflicted at our hurt companions.
Speaking of Sarith
I turned to look at the drow as he attempted to push open the Southwest Sarcophagus lid, although based on the fact his arms were shaking, he wasn't physically the strongest there was.
"What are you doing?," I deadpanned at the shameless dark elf.
"Getting...ha...compensation," he grunted, as he once more attempted to push the lid off, "they attacked...us...huff...they better have...something good in here...for doing that,".
I was gonna tell him to stop disrespecting the dead...but then I paused as I realized who exactly indeed just attacked us.
'You know what? He's completely right," I thought to myself, and quickly chose a Casket for myself. After looking at the other three choices, I chose the opposite of the drow's.
As I walked over to the Coffin, I could spot the disapproving look that Eldeth gave to the both of us, although she did not even attempt to stop us.
Cracking my fingers, I found a grip on the edge of the Lid of the ancient coffin, and pushed as hard as I could.
…
…
...Athletic Skill Rolled: 17 (17)
I barely managed it, where it fell to the ground with a loud thump on the floor. When I opened it, the first thing I did was grimaced as I saw the Skeleton remains of the Specter I initially fought.
The second thing I noticed was a well-crafted ring with a linux embedded into it, as well as a necklace set with two royal blue stones on it, and finally a particularly large Brownish-reddish gemstone.
Looking happy at what I got, I turned back to the drow, who was still struggling to open his own casket.
Topsy was more worried for her probably than to even consider finding and opening her own coffin, Derendil himself simply looked uninterested. I suppose being a prince would mean he is pretty much unimpressed with the possible treasury he could find.
Eldeth simply didn't look interested in opening graves, and Jimjar was currently two busy trying to get some rest. While the final two members of the party that stood away from the battle had no interest in this.
So, it was literally just up for grabs for me and Sarith to loot from our deadly, now fully dead, undead enemies.
"You need help with that?" I offered to my headache-suffering drow, when I noticed that he had barely moved an inch of his lid.
"No!...No, I've...ha...got it," he called out, as he once more took to position against the Sarcophagus lid.
But failed
Shrugging, I went to the south wall sarcophagus that was available and opened it up as well.
…
…
...Athletic Skill Rolled: 19 (17)
In it I found...well I don't know what I found, but it kinda looked like a lamp, but it didn't have a long, side outlet, had a few holes on the top, and was attached to short length chains.
It was also made what I think is platinum, making this a truly good find as that would hopefully cash in for a lot when he sold it.
Sarith the drow barely made any amount of progress.
feeling pity, I walked over to the adult dark elf and helped him push, and with my help it fell open.
"Ha...has...it's still mine!" he demanded as he pointed his finger down at me with narrowed eyes.
I once more shrugged with my hands raised up to my neck as I backed away.
Though catching a quick glimpse, I saw what looked like a fancy Pitcher that usually holds beverages and a walking stick that had what looked like a Scorpion-shaped handle.
Now there was only one casket left to open and loot out of petty revenge.
…
…
...Athletic Skill Rolled: 6 (17)
I slipped and almost rammed my face into the lid, this time being more careful I took a different angle from the feet side of the coffin, and tried to push it off to the side.
…
…
...Athletic Skill Rolled: 22 (17)
And it worked!
And in it were two gold bracelets and a long fancy stick.
I wasn't particularly sure if this was a wand, as it didn't seem magical, nor did it do anything when I waved it around. Eldeth gave me an amused snort seeing me try that.
Annoyed but pleased with what I got, I packed up all of my loot, as I and the rest of the party were prepared to leave the room.
Just as I took a step out, and based on what the interesting expression the group was making. We all heard a familiar feminine voice I heard earlier today.
"Please! Don't Leave! I'm Here, below!"
Turning back alongside the spooked party, as before, I obviously didn't see anywhere the voice could've indicated of us going down.
I tried investigating the walls, as well as any stone in hopes that one of them was perhaps a key to head down, but sadly my attempts proved fruitless.
"Hey! I think I found something," Eldeth called out to us. I turned to her and noticed she was kneeling near the South-East Coffin.
"I noticed while looking around that below this Casket, that it is currently on some kind of stone rollers, really well hidden, I would've missed it if I wasn't checking around here and I almost missed it," she said a bit annoyed, but looked very impressed,
As both Derendil and her both grabbed onto the casket, they both attempted to push the coffin out of the corner of the wall.
While surprisingly the strong looking Quaggoth fell behind, the dwarf did manage to roll the coffin out of the way.
And beneath it was around a 10 foot drop, a 4-foot square hole.
"…I'm not the only one who smells trouble up ahead, no?" Said Sarith who now had that earlier mentioned staff on his back.
No one disagreed with him.
Topsy, on the other hand looked concerned, "I don't know guys, these four things were already bad enough, and because of them 3 of our members are hurt, especially Jimjar and Turvy…is it really worth it to-,"
Turvy, grabbed his sister's shoulder with his hand, and looked at her with determinant and confident eyes, "aid qodi ha& eidI&&82 38;8 Saudiwjcis. Ajdix sjwi xn dhd zjajd aixifnr skaodid z ska ska,".
I and the party just stood there as Topsy's eyes widened and teared up, and I can tell that she was feeling touched by what he said, but there was a little problem here.
"Sif isw idi dodp djdoq j nsi sjiq djfic disic djfos djfic,"
I couldn't understand shit, as I awkwardly scratched my neck.
"Wif dis dicksdif dnaic djdoadofk didid djd sosocp poina doepq dncnr djfoap cjska djaodpspdicj isn dja dnsk djalc dnaowpq ffthsi dnsnri qaadc fhfbr diciro djfiso djfis djdid disaqZXqXc Sofiaxc cnkqm-"
This continued for a full minute before he he stopped, turned to us and smiled, and Topsy looking a lot more confident, as we just awkwardly stood there wondering what the fuck did he say for the entire time.
Sarith, being the first one to break the silence coughed while wincing at his headache that probably just now popped up, "right…whatever he said, we have come too far to turn back now, we already dealt with the ones in this room, we might as well finish this off, if there is more than we can handle…then we retreat,".
We all looked at each other, Derendil did look slightly nervous, but he was determined to finish this section of the chamber off.
One by one, we safely jumped down the hole, and went through the hallway that eventually, not for a long, led us to a 15 foot high chamber.
It had many murals on the wall, decorated with rich pigments and inlays of semi-precious stones.
And at the back center of the room, was a gilded Sarcophagus, on top of a stone bier against the wall.
Suddenly, the temperature of the room rapidly dropped, as mist flowed all around us, and just barely out of the corner of my visage I saw a monster come out.
In many ways, it did indeed look very similar to the specters, but with many differences. For one thing it was colored back, leaking out an oily black most, it had glowing yellow orbs for eyes, and was wearing a helmet.
Another difference was that it could speak, or more accurately, at the moment it was laughing.
"ha..haha, HAhaHAhAhahaha," as it continued to stare at us one by one, it gave a quiet high pitch mad laugh.
"yes...Yes, you all will do nicely, all of you shall serve a higher purpose...the high purpose to sacrifice your very being to give the Brysis of Khaem enough strength to leave here and give yourselves to my services," it started to give out a delirious giggle, it's yellow orbs glowing more and more brightly.
We did not speak, all we did was raise our weapons and prepare for battle.
Instantly with no hesitation, I dashed forward with movement, and thrusted my sword on it, attempting to make a severe fist blow.
I did do a decent attack, but it didn't seem to phase the undead abomination, as I prepared to dodge her attacks.
Topsy quickly moved to the closest corner in the room, pulled out her hand crossbow and took a shot.
Unfortunately, the being beyond an average spectral easily saw that coming and bent forward for a bit before bringing her head back to her original position.
Prince Derendil, not liking how off guard he was in the last room decided to make up for it, with no fear he roared and moved onto next to me and attempted to give her two new holes.
By moving to the right, the ghost of Khaem took a strong blow to the side, but it did cause the second strike to miss.
Turvy copying his sister, he managed to reach the opposite corner of the room from Topsy and pulled out his own Hand crossbow.
Although they really were twins, because just like Topsy, he had missed his shot, thankfully the room wasn't a symmetrical square or else he might have hit his sister with that attack.
Eldeth picked up her warhammer, and quickly moved behind the ethereal being, on the opposite side of me, and swung her heavy weapon.
However it did not seem to help as the ghost with ease outmaneuvered her attacks with visible difficulties.
Sarith, the last one to attack that wasn't the ghost, once more pulled out his trusty weapon. He moved right next to Topsy, and shot at the ghost, actually managing to land on the target.
It giggled madly, "do you flesh bags truly believe that these attacks will actually bring me down? You landed hits, but they barely have any effect on me," as she brought up her hand, black most rapidly started gathering in her hand and tried to hit Quaggoth.
Thankfully, Quaggoth saw the attack coming, and ducked down on the swiping ghostly appendage.
All of a sudden, we all heard a voice in our hands, the same voice that called out to us from up in the chamber and me outside of the tomb.
"In the Sarcophagus! I can help you!"
I looked past the monster and on the sarcophagus, my only thought thinking why was a girl in a coffin?
And how in the world can she help?
Deciding to listen to the voice, I made my way to the coffin, and with all of my might, I attempted to push open the lid.
I stumbled a bit, as I met no resistance as the coffin lid slid right open, what I didn't expect was what I saw.
One thing I did expect however was the withered remains of the corpse of the monster we were currently fighting.
What was on top of it was what I didn't expect.
A longsword, but not just any longsword, a beautiful long sword, with its "blade" looked like it had the sun shaped into an iron blade.
It had an expertly crafted guard, handle, and pommel, with said pommel having a runny embedded in the center of it.
"You found me!" I could hear the utter relief in her voice, if you can even call it a "her", since the voice was coming from the sword itself.
"Quickly!, raise me up!, and together we shall defeat the Wraith, user!" She said to me with determination…and excitement I think?
Hesitating for a second, I quickly grabbed the gorgeous blade, I could feel it with eagerness attach itself to my essence, and joyfully I raised it up high over my head.
All of a sudden, the room was lit up like the break of Dawn .Instead of just the 10 feet of light my mushroom provided, it was outshined by this blade.
As if the sun itself spawned in the room.
Screeches and hisses came from the Wraith and my companions who were sensitive to the sun were let out in quantities, respectively.
"The name that was given to me upon my creation was Dawnbringer, my purpose is to bring hope and vanquish the darkness, let us work together master!," she cheerfully told me.
Blinking at that, with the experience I had before with Stool mentally connecting to my group, it was easy to notice a new link to my mind, as I spoke back, "leave off the master, I don't particularly like the reminder of my recent enslavement,".
I could feel a ping of sadness coming from the blade to me, "of course, user, do not fear, for as long as I am here, going back into it will not be easy for your enemies,".
Nodding to myself, I allowed a small smile to cross my face, "then I look forward to our future partnership, Dawn,".
"Gasp!, I love that pet name!, ❤️"
Focusing back to the battle, I noticed that several had already done their attacks, some horrifically failed while others were successful.
The Brysis of Khaem, no longer gloating, attempted to strike me, who was wielding the light that was hurting her.
I with no difficulty, with grace took a step to the side, as she uselessly swiped at the spot I was just at. I did not stop for even a moment, as I delivered my two strikes, utilizing my Action Surge and Fighting Spirit.
(She literally rolled a natural 1 ?)
I Diagonally not cut, but burned her from shoulder to waist, the lower half instantly dissipating, with my second strike horizontally separating her head off of her remnants of her body.
(WITH MY SECOND ATTACK BEING A NATURAL 20! ?)
Instantly ending the battle
Oh, I love it when the dice are in favor of the story!