Session 54: Ruins and Visions
General Summary
Approaching the city, the party beheld a vision. The air around them seemed to shimmer, reconvening into an amazing image of the city restored, its buildings whole and gleaming white stone, thousands of people gathered in a chanting throng around the ziggurat, where a man in ancient armor sat on a green throne. His stern face was unmoving as the crowd's chant whipped into a frenzy, screaming over and over "Kyuss! Kyuss!" until it shook the very earth, and the vision ended, as suddenly as it began.
The party was taken aback, but quickly realized that the history of this place lingered in the air, perhaps one of the effects on the Weave that Tenser had alluded to. They resolved to keep their wits about them, and their swords loose in their proverbial sheaths.
Sigvurd and Zeke approached the obsidian ring, and found elven writing on it. The paladin translated its repeated phrase as "Kyuss Forever Sealed." He also noted that the ground on the other side was absolutely writhing with Kyuss Worms.
Agreeing that walking on that wormy earth would probably not be a great idea, the party Flew over the wall and remained a good meter up in the air as they crossed the ring. On the other side, they found a parade ground, the pavement mostly untouched by the worms who seemed reluctant to crawl on the hot stones. On either side were sheltered galleries carved with the same symbol that had emblazoned the enthroned man in the vision: a skull and sickle. The party wracked their memories but couldn't place its significance.
They made for the Zigurrat, and the paladin warned them that the whole place stank of undead. No sooner had they all stepped inside, than the first of the tomb's guardians appeared behind them. An undead knight in heavy armour, with two fat, writhing worms where his eyes should have been. He pointed an unholy greatsword at them, and directed his forces to charge. The forces, two Huge beetles whose pitted carapaces writhed with green worms and whose twitching mandibles chittered with an unending, maddening cacophany, rushed forward.
The party met them in battle, but found their fire and radiance unnervingly less effective than usual. Nevertheless, they sent th eunholy knight's skeletal head bouncing down the Ziggurat steps, and sliced up his wormy beetles soon afterward.
This left them space to observe the room. It was decorated with a bas-relief of a man in ancient armor - the same one who occupied the throne in their shared vision - leading an army into a city, civilian adults and children falling under their feet, bathing the streets in their blood as storm clouds roiled ahead. Beyond this room was the centre of the ziggurat, which was marred by a huge pit in the centre. An expert in stonework, Sigvurd deduced that the pit was caused by an explosion of some kind, and was responsible for the knocked-over pillars around it. Moreover, it had once been the site of a staircase, which meant there were likely chambers at its bottom.
The party decided to explore the current floor before diving downward, but met ready opponents when they opened their first door. The party quickly gathered to face yet another knight, this one armored head to toe, and accompanied by winged undead-angels, whose arms were blazing swords.