Session 40: The Tomb of Isociol
General Summary
On the other side of the black portal, the party found themselves assaulted by a screaming cacophony of wind and smoke. The incorporeal monsters clawed at them from inside their lungs as the hellish noise of the wind tore at their eardrums.
Eventually, the party was able to disperse the monsters and break the source of the sound. This done, they took a moment to recover before investigating the area. They were in a huge room, fraught with traps, but also engraved with runes and bas-reliefs.
Lins translated the runes, and found they spoke about someone named Isociol, his incomparable army, and a battle against Chaos on the plains of Pesh. While looking for signs of Allustan's passage, Sigvurd accidentally set off spouts of poisonous vapor which brought the bas-reliefs to life. They showed a noble Vaati leading an army against demons, striking a deal with a huge, ancient-looking construct, and presenting a long rod and a square seal to the viewer.
Sigvurd deduced from some bloody smudges that Allustan had opened the southern doors, and the party opened them into an intersectional hallway. After some trouble with an ensorcelled greatsword, they started checking doors, and ran into an egotistical, fast-talking Noble Salamander who called himself Lord Antyress Redspike, Earl of Coalchester.
He berated the party for their poor manners, and for trespassing. But Nemara picked up on the complaints he dropped about his long, isolated service in guarding the tomb. She manipulated his pride and malcontent and got him to allow their passage through the inner tomb in exchange for a favor: they had to remove the other trespasser: an elderly human mage who had passed through some time ago.