Yavana Session 4

Brandon as Xenophon (Ilionian Fighter 1 - 2)
James as Diomedes - Dio for short (Ilionian Fighter 3 - 4)
JP as Janster (Margive Assassin 2 - 3)
Chris as Adom (Khemian Rogue 3 - 4)

The session opened with the news of the Satrap Ajaxos's "death" at the hands of his "own guard."  High Vizier Babashek has brought in a group of Margive pirates known as the Black Brotherhood to oversee security in the city during this troubling time.  Xenephon, knowing the true fate of Ajaxos saw a silver smith and asked him to make a miniature model of Babashek's tower so that they might replace the miniature tower Babashek is using to hold the satrap with a fake.  Since this tower would take about a week of work to create, the party decided to pursue other ambitions.

Janster and Adom both purchased magic weapons (a +1 dagger and +1 rapier respectively)* since their encounter with a Messenger of the Outer Dark, as Babashek named it to Janster, had left them feeling impotent.

They decided that they wanted to see the mustaba on the "island of yipping lizards" they had heard of in the first session.   Hiring Captain Proetus of the Margo, they made sail for the island.  On the first day they camped at a small pirate base on an island off the coast and the captain told his guests not to leave their quarters during the night.  This they did, and the next morning they set sail again.

At dawn on the third day the Margo had a close encounter with a mosasaurus.  The party was rightly disturbed by the sight of the beast and even more disturbed by the captain's warning that if the ship's ballista didn't hurt the creature it was a 3 mile swim to the island.   Luckily, the creature seemed to nuzzle the ship, determine it was not made of fleshy bits, and then move on for more supple prey.

Arriving at the island within sight of the mustaba, Captain Proetus informed them that if they did not return by sunrise the next day the ship would sail away without them.  Worried by this "timer," but also feeling the mustaba looked easy to check out, the party headed into the rocky hills surrounding the dungeon.

The entrance to the dungeon was home to a group of compy nests, but with the proper application of stairs and doors and oil the party was able to funnel the little creatures into a kill zone, though a few bad rolls meant that Xenophon almost lost a toe and almost fell prey to 10 of the little guys.  Still, they managed to sweep aside the compies and move deeper into the complex.  Bypassing two doors they headed into a large open space whose decoration seemed to depict a war among the stars.  This war was seemingly between dino-men and yellow hairless men.  

Janster, being adept int he arts of purloining, managed to climb up to the ceiling and use the decorations as hand holds to recover a large number of small gems that served as sparkling stars.  From this room they found a room filled with the mummies of raptors.  When Xenophon headed into the room to investigate two of the mummies animated and battle ensued.  Adom was struck by one, but these undead versions seemed much less deadly than the living counterparts they encountered last session and they were slain fairly quickly.  In this chamber they discovered a crate of spices used for mummification but decided these were likely several thousand years passed their sell-by date and thus they moved on.

In an adjacent chamber they found a large number of canopic jars.  Checking the contents they found that each jar seemed to contain amber wrapped around a small compy.  Deciding the amber was valuable, they pocketed these and moved on.  Next they found a room containing skeletons wielding strange khopesh-like swords. Believing these skeletons were guarding something, they did battle despite the lack of crushing weapons.  Unfortunately they found nothing beyond them, though they did decide to take one of the swords.

After passing through a number of decorated chambers, the party came to a small shrine dedicated to a dino-god they had seen depicted in the village of the Iguana People.  Leaving some food at it, Dio found himself transformed - his skin became squamous and scaly and he gained a +3 bonus to his AC.  While these effects dissipated after a day, he was greatly impressed by them.  

A light beyond the shrine turned out to be a flame skull guarding a large treasure horde.  The flame skull seemed incredibly dangerous after it struck Dio with two magic missiles, but the application of superior numbers quickly overwhelmed the construct.  Realizing the creature regenerated fairly quickly, Dio was tasked with "mud stomping" it until the treasure could be gathered.

Adom, a curious fellow, decided to check the other rooms while the party decided what to do with the treasure they had acquired (2000gp, 20 garnets, and a large golden raft).  He found sarcophagi with inanimate inhabitants and a sword similar to the ones used by the skeletons in the earlier encounter but much fancier.  The party debated how to get the treasure out of the dungeon and decided to set two men to carry the raft (and extra treasure loaded onto it) and two men to carry the chest of gold.  Despite their worries the pirates seemed willing to let them keep their treasures due to the captain's insistence that they had already been paid.

* I've been worried for the past session or so that I'm running a Monty Haul game.  The players seem to be enjoying themselves, but I suppose they often do in Monty Haul games.  With all of the regular members of the party having magical weapons except one, and most of them having over 2000gp in expendable income I may want to think about re-balancing the base value I use with Courtney's treasure tables.  My initial response to this session was to Delete Fucking Everything but I like the setting too much to do that and my tendency to be Demogorgon must be pushed aside.