The Danger Gang Starts Hacking The Hilarious Tomb of Stratoniche
After a comfortable night in the guards barracks at Thessaloniki, the Danger Gang head out to survey the city. They stop and ask the guard Martialis had Charmed the night before, whose name is Clement. He is suprisingly knowledgable. He tells them of Thessaloniki's assorted points of interest, but the gang is especially interested in the Tomb of Stratoniche. He tells them it can be found at the Octogon, a municiple building erected in during the Roman era, that is now a church.
The gang heads there with all due haste. Brother Peter explains that they're in search of relics to aid in the defence of Constantinople against the Bulgar invasion, and the abbot agrees to help them on their holy quest. It seems the Tomb has been geting a lot of action recently, as Gershon was already there a few weeks ago. He calls out a flunky who leads them to the entrance to the tomb while he and Brother Peter wander off to discuss theology. The flunky explains that there really isn't much to see in there; once every hundred years or so a novice goes in there to sweep out the guano, but it's just one little room. The flunky points out the The Riddle Of Stratoniche's Tomb, although he has nothing to offer as to it's solution. He leads them to the double door to the tomb, and outside there is an inscription in Greek explaining that the Egyptian themed tomb was built by "the frozen beards of the Helbishi". Arben's legend lore reveals that the Helbishi were a Gualic tribe defeated by Ceasar and driven into the Alps.
They open the double doors to the tomb to a small corridor that leads to a 15'x15' room with a large statue of a jackal headed man (Anubis). After shooing away the bats, Ramble gets a closer look at the statue and realizes there's a secret door behind it. The statue slides away to reveal a secret corridor. They get in marching order and Martialis casts Detect Traps.
Within the corridor there's a pair of spears and an undersized pick axe. They snag the pick axe; might come in handy. Martialis's Detect Traps instantly starts flaring up at the end of the hallway; the door is trapped. Ramble investigates closer to reveal a panel on the ceiling right infront of the door. They stand a safe distance away and push the door open with one of the nearby spears. As the door creaks open, the panel slides back and some tar falls out of the ceiling. That tar sure looks sticky, but in no way deadly. Everyone eyes eachother suspiciously. Surely the tar must be highly flamable or acidic or poisonous. Closer inspection reveals that it's just tar. Now they're really nervous.
In the next room there's a frieze on the wall of Ra, the sun god with a glass eye piece. There are also two doors. The eye piece and the doors are both trapped. Everybody tenses up. Martialis attaches a piece of mirror to the end of the tarred up spear. He holds it up to eye piece and looks inside. Before he can get a clear glimpse, the mirror brushes up against the eye piece, triggering the trap. Black ink sprays out of it. The trap no tripped, Martialis looks through the eye piece to find a sculpture of a small scabarous penis. "Ha ha, you're gay!" says Can. "This dungeon is hilarious".
Indeed, the dungeon is hilarious. As they continue to explore there are spring loaded boxes gloves, trip wires, false floors that drop down a foot, and a bench that collapses when you sit on it (which Can particularily enjoyed). The party remains ever watchfull, just in case. It's always the one trap you don't check. After many such trapped doors and corridors, they eventual come across a 50'x25' room with a dais with a club on it and a menacing looking crocopotomus-lion. This one is a little more slender than the last one they encountered and a lot louder. It let's out a loud roar, defeaning the majority of the party. Everybody hops into action, though they're disorganized due to the lack of communication. Due to it's leaner construction, this crocopotomus-lion is able to claw, making it a much deadlier foe than the last one they fought. Everyone is getting clawed left and right. Lleryn and Martialis get laid out first. Martialis wanders off to the dais to grab the club, which he tosses over to Can. Meanwhile, Arben leaps onto the back of beast and covers it's eyes with his spare shirt. Blinded briefly, they are able to get some licks in. The crocopotomus-lion tries to roll over onto Arben, but he deftly leaps off the beast and then delivers the finishing blow. He's very proud of himself.
Everybody is still pretty beat up, though, so they decide to camp out here for a few hours and rest up before continuing through the dungeon.
