Session 2: The Whispering Cairn

Having beat back a few wolves at the entrance to the Whispering Cairn Artemis, Iendae, Chasianna, and Verdon head deeper into the ancient burial chambers.

Further into the tunnel, the adventurers find what appeared to be a broken piece of an ancient portal in another alcove. The intricate stone work is shattered but for a single curved stone extending upwards with a spiral of obsidian glass.

After breaking through a thick layer of cobwebs, the group find themselves in a great cavernous room with an ornate sarcophagus resting in the center, ringed by alcoves with torch stands and unlit torches. A single green everburning torch is ignited in one alcove. Finding the sarcophagus to be trapped, they investigate a tunnel above the room which howls with winds of each shade of the rainbow.

After much investigation, they find lighting each colored torch stymies each associated bout of wind. However, two of the torches are missing - an indigo one was found earlier in the cairn that filled the third empty slot. Taking a closer look at each torch, they find two areas that appear to contain movable panels. For the first, they tried prying at it, stomping on it, burning it - everything they could think of - before Artemis noticed the central sarcophagus could be spun about a central point. With this new ability, they aimed the head of the figure on the tomb toward each alcove in turn. One of the two panels did budge, and revealed a small compartment that rose from the floor. Another groaned and shuddered, but did not give way.

By use of the sarcophagus and a button found in a chamber below, our group descends into what they later find to be a likely home of the architect during construction of this ancient mausoleum. As they traverse a hall lined with pedestals, a foul creature comprised of tentacle-like eye stalks wraps itself around Iendae's arm, and tries to constrict her. With a few deft attacks, her companions have her free of it, and they rush ahead to the chambers beyond, and find a grave robber killed some time ago by a trap at the intersection ahead. In his pouch, they recover a red lantern from the puzzle in the tomb above.

Here, in a workshop not touched in hundreds of years, the party meet Artophanx, a small earth elemental bound to the cairn by the architect. As our group tries to devise a way to free Artophanx of this binding, he professes an intention to destroy any peoples he comes in contact with. Our group decides - only after realizing they lack the power to free him - to leave the creature behind, and spend the night resting in the easily barricaded bedchamber across from the workshop