LXIX. Into the Pyramid

Lina thought for a moment. "I’ve got it!" she cried. "I can change into something that can burrow into the sand! See how far down this thing goes." With that, she shapechanged into a huge brass dragon and began digging down. She spiraled downward, crawling along the sides of the pyramid, looking for some kind of opening. About two hundred feet down, she found a notch on the western side of the pyramid. There did not appear to be any easy opening, however. She kept burrowing and burrowing.

At about four hundred fifty feet below desert level, the pressure was starting to get to Lina. She didn’t know how much further down the pyramid extended. But then, on the east side, she located a second notch. This one was considerably larger than the west side notch, about ten by ten feet. More importantly, the notch was covered by a wall of force!

Ho! What have we here! Lina thought to herself. Let’s see what’s inside. With that, she cast light on one of her claws, and used it to illuminate the entrance. She could see a downward-sloping passage from a small entrance room that seemed to narrow from ten feet to about six fee wide, before disappearing into the darkness.

Fixing the location of the entrance room in her mind, Lina burrowed back up to the surface. After the exhausting exploration, she needed to catch her breath, but finally announced her discovery to the rest of the party. "We can teleport into the entrance room," she proposed, "and then see where things lead!" The rest of the party agreed.

The adventurers successfully teleported into the entrance room. They formed up single-file, then proceeded to enter the narrow passage. The passage sloped downward at a steep angle of about thirty degrees. After about one hundred feet, they reached a junction where another passage sloped upward, while the original passage continued downward. They decided to go upward. The ascending passage extended upward, with no light sources other than those borne by the party, into the darkness, again at a thirty-degree angle. Edward cast light on his sword, providing some light to the party.

As the party entered the ascending passage, suddenly they began to retch and cough. "Trap!" shouted Green Arrow. A stinking cloud permeated the ascending passage. Edward and Green Arrow seemed not to be debilitated by the foul vapors, but Lina and Aloysius gagged, nauseated by the fumes. Lina was able to shapechange into vampire form, which was unaffected by the cloud. The cleric remained nauseated.

"Let’s keep going!" Edward encouraged the group. "The sooner we get out of this cloud, the better!" The adventurers climbed the ascending passage as best they could, Aloysius retching all the way.

Finally, after about one hundred thirty feet of ascent, the party reached another landing. This was a very large hall, about sixty-five feet long, thirty feet wide and twenty feet high. The adventurers spotted a horizontal passage at the south side of the hall, which appeared to extend further to the west into the pyramid. In the center of the west wall of the hall, they could see a high, wide gallery that reached upward and to the west.

But between them and the gallery, they also found themselves confronting the guardians of the hall: two squads of mummies, one armed with guisarmes, the other with heavy flails, all led by a formidable-looking mummy lord! They seemed to be expecting the party.

Combat commenced!

A blast of mental force assailed the party–Edward had somehow triggered a symbol. Green Arrow shook off the assault. Edward himself proved immune. But the mere sight of the waiting mummies were frightening enough to stop Lina and Aloysius in their tracks, paralyzed, as well as nauseated by the symbol!

Green Arrow got off the first shots, piercing the captain of the squad of mummies with guisarmes. The captain appeared to be seriously damaged but not incapacitated.

Then the mummy lord spoke words of power, gesturing toward the party. Suddenly a shimmering wall of some unknown type appeared, blocking the party’s advance and extending almost to the ceiling of the room, stopping just short.

Edward quaffed a potion of enlarge, hoping the extra size would make it easier to defeat the undead guards. Said undead guards advanced five feet toward the wall, then assumed defensive stances.

Green Arrow’s spellcraft was sufficient to reveal the secret of the wall–it was a wall of greater dispel magic. "We have a problem," Green Arrow advised Edward, telling him what he had discovered. The elven archer then cast shield on himself, and withdrew back into the entrance corridor, taking the paralyzed Aloysius with him.

The mummy lord spoke more words of power. Instantly, a gate opened, and a large insectile creature appeared. A thorciasid! The creature rushed to the ceiling of the chamber, climbed over the top of the wall, and struck Edward with its antenna. Edward felt his vitality under attack, but the scarab of protection he wore absorbed the attack. The creature then sprang back into the chamber, landing behind the mummy lord.

Not another of these things, thought Edward to himself. He cast death ward on himself, then backed up toward Green Arrow in the corridor.

The mummy guards advanced again toward the wall.

Green Arrow held up, waiting for the thorciasid to act. Suddenly a mighty noise, like a huge lion’s roar, blasted the adventurers with its sonic might. The mummy lord spoke, in an ancient language that the party didn’t understand. It seemed like an order of some kind.

The thorciasid took this opportunity to rush forward again, and again the monstrous insect struck Edward, this time with a forelimb. Edward staggered as the creature drained him of strength, dexterity and constitution. But Green Arrow was ready, and struck the creature with a greater death arrow! The thorciasid took serious damage. Unfortunately, it proved too hardy to bring down, even with a death arrow.

Edward’s troubles weren’t over yet. The mummies swarmed to attack him, and the two leaders of the mummy fighters, armed with guisarme and flail, both attacked the mighty paladin, and were able to both trip and disarm him! But Green Arrow immediately ran up to Edward, picked up his sword, and took up a defensive position behind him.

The mummy lord again spoke, in the unknown language.

Again the thorciasid attacked Edward. This time the creature attempted to spew a viscous, adhesive substance at the paladin, attempting to cocoon him. The gluey material found its mark, but amazingly, Edward was able to escape from the cocoon before it could harden around him! He immediately teleported back into the corridor, taking Green Arrow and Lina with him. Once safely away from the monstrous insect, Edward recovered his sword from the elven archer.

Her courage suddenly returned, Lina now tried to cast greater dispel magic. To her surprise, the mummy lord dispelled her spell! Once again, the mummy lord shouted what sounded like an order in the unknown language.

Edward restored his lost strength. And from the entrance corridor, Aloysius at last found his courage and calmed his stomach enough to cast mass conviction on the adventurers, making them better able to resist the enemy’s magic.

Both forces now regarded each other, holding their positions. Lina tried to dispel the wall, but failed. Edward cast find the gap on himself. The enemy was now going to feel the bite of his sword! Aloysius, seeing that he was vastly outclassed by the rest of the combatants, hid himself in the corridor.

But now Green Arrow, with Edward and Lina, teleported into the gallery, behind the mummy lord and the thorciasid. They found themselves in a very windy environment! Lina quickly shapechanged into a dread wraith, which had the additional benefit of not being affected by the wind. She assayed the insect’s spell resistance, then landed Otto’s irresistible dance on the creature. Edward followed up by landing a flurry of sword blows on the hapless insect.

Suddenly, Lina began to cower from the sight of the mummy lord. She had been rebuked by the mummy! Green Arrow and Edward continued their assault on the dancing thorciasid. The other guards held their positions, while Aloysius continued to hide. The mummy lord attempted to dispel the dancing compulsion on the thorciasid, but failed, allowing Green Arrow to dispatch the creature with a lethal barrage of arrows.

A wall of fire suddenly appeared in the gallery, conjured by Edward. The mummy lord and his guards were now boxed in by two different walls. But then something else appeared. The mummy lord shouted in his native tongue, still not understood by the adventurers. Then an area of space seemed to open up, and a dark, hulking figure strode through. A black slaad!

Edward, recalling one of the functions of his sword, used it to cast tongues, then called out to the mummy lord, "Why do you fight?" The mummy lord did not reply. The slaad, however, had an answer for Edward: a stream of chaos spittle that seriously damaged the paladin and continued to do damage as the battle continued. Green Arrow, having held up for Edward, then teleported both of them to Aloysius’ location.

"Intruders and thieves must leave this place or die!" the mummy lord replied to Edward, who could now understand its response. The mummy lord then cast protection from good on himself as further defense against the mighty paladin. The paladin, however, found himself suffering continuing damage from the chaos spittle of the black slaad, and even his attempts to lay hands upon himself did not fully restore the damage being inflicted. Aloysius managed to restore some of Edward’s lost constitution, though.

The captain of one of the units of mummy guards suddenly fell, destroyed by an arrow of death from Green Arrow. The mummy lord called out to the black slaad, "The female is your enemy!" The slaad promptly turned its attention to Lina, now trapped between it and the wall of fire. It landed a heavy blow on the cowering caster. Meanwhile, Edward and Green Arrow both cast fly on themselves, then moved back into the entrance corridor where Aloysius still remained hiding.

"Deal with the one in the corridor!" the mummy lord cried out to the slaad, indicating Edward. The black slaad, now standing behind the mummy lord, spit again at the paladin. This time the chaotic creature missed. Edward teleported beyond the wall of force and into the presence of the black slaad. But now he was exposed to the attacks of the mummy guards. Four guisarmes landed serious blows on the paladin. "Fear not, Edward!" responded Green Arrow, who proceeded to shoot the paladin with three arrows of cure critical wounds. "Thanks, I needed that!" said Edward.

The mummy lord pointed a bony finger at Edward. The paladin felt a moment of weakness, as if something were attempting to drain his life force. But the power of the death ward spell blocked the mummy lord’s attack. Unfortunately, the black slaad’s full attack was not so easily defeated. Tongue and claw attacks devastated the valiant paladin with chaotic power. He had no power that could resist the slaad’s chaotic attacks. There was only one thing to do. Edward suddenly disappeared.

Green Arrow only briefly wondered at Edward’s unexpected withdrawal from battle, but quickly turned his attention to firing arrows of cure critical wounds at the mummy lord. The undead lord took significant damage from the elven archer’s barrage, but blasted him with a wand of lightning bolts in return. The black slaad suddenly took flight.

Suddenly, a fearsome form materialized in the chamber. Lina had shapechanged into a huge red dragon. In dragon form, the sorcerer breathed fire at the tomb guards. The skeletal creatures charred, but to Lina’s surprise, they remained standing.

Another flight of arrows flew from Green Arrow’s bow. But this barrage failed to so much as scratch the mummy lord.

The mummy guards held their places as their lord pointed his finger at Green Arrow. A bolt of black energy flew toward the elven archer, but was absorbed by his scarab! Meanwhile, the black slaad launched another spittle attack against Lina, inflicting heavy chaotic damage on the sorcerer. In return, Lina sent a meteor swarm into the massed mummy guards. All but two of the remaining guards bearing guisarmes were blasted into oblivion. The second squad were severely damaged by the explosions.

Green Arrow realized that stronger measures would be required to deal with the slaad. He lowered his bow, then pulled out a ring and placed it on his finger. "I wish this black slaad before us back to its home plane!" he pronounced. And with a clap of thunder, the slaad suddenly disappeared, banished back to the plane of Pandemonium. "Well done!" Lina cried.

The mummy guards still standing began to regroup. Only four were left to defend their lord. But the mummy lord spoke mystical syllables, and waved his arms above his head. In response a gate opened. From out of the gate emerged a torrent of smoke. The smoke quickly took shape as a huge, vaguely humanoid form. A smoke monolith! "Destroy her!" hissed the mummy lord, pointing at Lina. The smoke monster immediately flew toward the sorcerer and engulfed her. Although she resisted the creature valiantly, she was unable to resist the effects of smoke inhalation, and began to choke and cough violently.

But fresh from his banishment of the black slaad, Green Arrow now drew his bow. "Now it’s your turn!" he warned the mummy lord. Five arrows of greater undead slaying flew from his bow in rapid succession. Only one hit the target. That one arrow, however, proved sufficient. The mummy lord shrieked, then collapses into a pile of moldering linen strips and shattered bone as the arrow ended its un-life. As its summoner fell, so the smoke monolith was sent back to its plane of origin as well.

Paralyzed by the fall of their lord, the remaining mummy guards merely stood their ground. Now Lina, still suffering the lingering chaotic effects of the black slaad’s attacks, shapechanged into solar form, preparing for her next attack. Green Arrow shot at the surviving captain of the mummy guards, bringing the undead leader down. Behind him, the elven archer heard footsteps. Aloysius ran up from the ascending passage to position himself behind the elven archer, now that victory appeared to be at hand.

Lina was still wracked with pain from the after-effects of the black slaad’s chaotic attacks. Seeing this, Green Arrow expended another wish to remove the lingering chaotic damage from the sorcerer. "I owe you for that!" said the grateful Lina. Green Arrow nodded, then proceeded to dispatch the remaining mummy guards until all had collapsed into heaps of scrap cloth and clanking armor.

The adventurers proceeded to search the fallen undead for valuable booty. The mummy guards were all equipped with magic armor and shields, strong rings of protection, and powerful human bane weapons. The two captains had borne still more powerful versions of the various magic items. But it was the mummy lord who yielded the greatest trove. "Periapt of wisdom. Human bane defending khopesh. Ring of greater energy resistance. Wand of lightning bolts!" marveled Lina, as she identified the various recovered items. "Too bad this fellow never really got to use them."

"Not too bad for us!" replied Green Arrow.