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With their resources drained, the party leaves the Caverns and rests for the night. The next morning, Imbo awakes with a strange headache that seems to have numbed his mind and stripped him of his spells. When Oin's Cure Disease ritual is unable to remove this affliction, the party reluctantly opts to return to the cavern without Imbo.

Beyond the cavern where they fought the undead, the party has to climb another 30-foot cliff to continue. However, this room is occupied and sealed by some kind of ooze-like magical barrier. When they try to enter, they provoke an attack from a Red Slaad.

After a brief fight, the party manages to force the Slaad to flee. Giving chase, they climb the cliff – only to find a second Red Slaad, three more deformed human cultists, and their leader, a human abomination named “Obsen”.

The fight drags on, with the party making slow progress as their powers, one by one, get used up. In the end, though they kill all of Obsen's servants, only luck keeps Obsen from killing them all.

Leaving him behind a bolted door, the party is forced to flee. Following a kind of sixth sense, the party opts to go deeper into the ancient tomb rather than head for the main entrance…

At first, their hopes of an escape are dashed when they arrive at a large, metal door with a stuck lock. As Zim and Ibiza try to get it open, Oin steps up to help and the latch unseals with a loud crack. The lock opens easily at this point, though the door itself requires considerable effort to swing open. As it is on a slight uphill slope, the door slowly closes on its own. With a known and deadly danger behind them, the party opts for the unknown potential danger ahead and lets the door close.

Ahead, they find themselves in an unspoiled section of the tomb. Every surface is covered with a thick layer of dust, and every tomb seems to be still sealed as it was when first occupied. Still on edge from the undead and abominations found earlier, the party carefully explores the first few rooms, and when they find no threats, they sit down for a brief rest.

After the rest, the exploration of the tombs resumes, but they find only a few additional rooms before coming to an apparent dead-end. In this “last” room, though, they find a puzzling assortment of treasure. Unlike typical tomb loot, these items sit out in the open on a small dais – and unlike everthing else in this section of the tomb, there is no dust covering them.

The treasure consists of the following:

• A chest containing 2,600 gold pieces
• Three 500 gp gems
• An “Art Object” worth 1,500 gp
• Magic Item: Common Level 13
• Magic Item: Common Level 11 - +3 Throwing Hammer Ibiza
• Magic Item: Common Level 12
• Magic Item: Uncommon Level 11 - Survivor's Belt Ibiza

While the rest of the party puzzles over the treasure, Damazi spots what he believes to be a secret door. When Oin begins examining it, she quickly finds a small latch to open it, revealing a narrow tunnel that extends up and out to the surface.

Once out in the open, the party is reunited with Imbo, who reports that a number of humans (some of whom were deformed) fled the area and made their way down the mountain.

This adventure was included in Dungeon Magazine issue #162 (pages 4-26) and is part of the “Scales of War” adventure path.

Hoo Boy! This fight was epic. Because of a missing player, Imbo was not available – leaving this 14th level encounter up to the remaining four ninth-level PCs.

The fight lasted twenty-four rounds and pretty much consumed all the party's daily powers, healing surges, and luck. Near the end, a very timely Natural 20 on Ibiza's death saving throw was a turning point. It was, sadly, squandered when the party opted to make one last ditch effort to take Obsen out.

As the fight progressed, I opted to ignore a couple of powers to soften the blow. Obsen's “Entropic Imperative” aura and the Horrid Spawn's “Mutilating Rend” attacks were left on the cutting room floor. The aura (+2 on allies' attack and damage rolls) probably wouldn't have made a big difference. However, the “Mutilating Rend” (+12 vs. AC, 4d6+5) could easily have killed the party, even though it would likely have been useable only once from each of them.

Check it out!

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