The Underground City, the Vast Subterranean Caverns Beneath the Great Pyramid
Lost City of Khemsa, Forgotten Kingdom of Verulia, Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
Day Seven. After midnight?, 19th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Beneath the cold lichen stars, Tjoruy the shambling citizen of the abyss implores the strangers to Pandemonium: "Come to the city, ye who wish to live in horror, in forgetfulness, in darkness, and in death."
The pale subterranean proffers sacred healing with his ominous invitations. (+1hp, +5hp and +7hp to Xorzen, Garrin and Loche respectively) Both are accepted by the explorers who then traverse the stone bridge and enter the brooding megalithic ruins of the inconceivable underground city.
Erected deep in the bowels of the earth, far from the sunlit world of men, the colossal netherworld metropolis possesses an oppressive architecture of grandeur and monstrosity, born of an epoch later than that of the Great Pyramid. Verulia's long harrowing decline can be felt in the very stones.
And the unsettling carvings, likenesses and statues here, of unspeakable interlopers that the outlanders know well from their nightmares and the Verulians from legends gone by, fill them with a nameless dread.
They venture deeper into the vast, timeless necropolis as pitch shadows melt before their torchlight revealing countless cyclopean towers, weathered by the cruel ravages of desolate eternities.
The eerie silence of the ages is deafening. Their footfalls on the ancient stones are the only sound, echoing in the infinite catacomb of unending night.
All they find is emptiness, decay and ruin.
After what seems like hours of wandering though the crooked paths of the dead city, vague shadows suddenly emerge from out of the timeless depths of the labyrinthine streets.
A dozen men slowly straggle forth... faces hidden behind masks of animals... thin naked limbs aglow with the alabaster hue of bleached bones.
Illuminated by the light of Amethu's lantern, the ghostly figures move aimlessly as if in a dream; human flotsam set adrift on the sea of their own shattered sanity. Seemingly blind to the adventurers' presence, they react instead to things unseen.
Their skin crawling with gooseflesh at the proximity of so many wretched madmen, the explorers wonder into what Hell they have strayed!
Actions?
Map:
PCs are within the Underground City. They cannot see anything beneath or beyond it.
PC Status:
- Amethu: Verulian Grand Magus Cleric/Magic-User 3/2: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 11/14, Spells: 2/7 1st lvl, 2/3 2nd lvl, Lantern
Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 3: Move: 12", AC: 3(1), HP: 14/26, Laying Hands: 0/1
Kiri Khutan: Kambujan Easterner Fighter/Magic-User 2/2: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 8/14, Spells: 3/3 1st lvl
Loche: Pict Savage Thief 4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 12/18
Mako: Khitan Easterner Illusionist 3: Move: 12", AC: 7(5), HP: 6/10, Spells: 1/2 1st lvl, 0/1 2nd lvl
Tjoruy: Verulian Osoran Cleric 4: Move: 9", AC: 3, HP: 11/31, Spells: 2/5 1st lvl, 4/4 2nd lvl
Xorzen: Verulian Osoran Monk 3: Move: 17", AC: 6(4), HP: 8/16
Zahra: Verulian Amazon Fighter 3: Move: 12", AC: 3, HP: 10/21
- Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
Healing Mists of Osorus (All except Amethu, Tjoruy and Zahra have breathed of the mists): All lost HP recovered with 8 hours of sleep. Wakeful rest, or sleeping less than 8 hours, enables recovery of 1 HP per hour. Duration: "months."