Pyramid
The sole entryway slopes downwards and leads to a huge chamber where there are clear signs of previous looter, disabled traps are visible all over. Another chamber holds a huge chest that was well protected; a skeleton lays crushed under a boulder. But the traps were not enough to prevent someone from emptying the chest.
Going the other way they come to a huge library filled with tablets and scrolls. There's nothing magical there except for a huge tome laying on a massive stone desk. Zayn has a look at it, using his Arcana skill and then hears a "hmm" in his head. "I think we could use this," his patron tells him. It takes some studying and expensive reagents but the end result is that the warlock can now summon a book mount with his Tome of Sedar.
Moving further, seeing more disabled traps, they come to another massive room, this one containing a large obsidian throne and an opening in the ceiling that seems to lead somewhere. With Kieran using the Snake Charmer's Flute, Boldrek climbs the snake and manages to fall off of it twice; its not an easy climb. But then he succeeds and the rope the snake turns into is fortunately easier to ascend, bringing the entire party up.
They come to a beautiful room with a reflecting pool and sapphires embedded in the wall, arranged to form phases of the moon. Boldrek tries to cut the gems from the wall and the second he does so, he and Kieran, who stands next to him, are hit with a Flame Strike spell. The sapphires haven't been damaged in any way. Suitably humbled they continue their journey.
They come to a room lined with rows of stone sarcophagi along the walls. As they move further into the room they trigger a trap and poisoned darts shoot out hitting everyone but Kieran. At the same time, two heavy, stone blocks appear in front of the exits as do four creatures, the locals call them Sand Poachers, they look like frigging huge scorpions.
Her Eye-er cypher makes it that Izzy isn't surprised and she acts quickly, just like Boldrek, who's barbarian senses are primed. It's more than a tough fight due to the fact that all of them have taken quite a bit of damage already. Zayn drops and Kieran would have as well if it hadn't been for his Aegis of Recovery.
They decide to spend the rest of the day in the room, with both entrances blocked they should be safe from any other pyramid dwellers. They search all sarcophagi and find just one thing of interest; a large iron bottle with a brass stopper, Izzy takes it. They spend the night and in the morning remove one of the stone blocks to continue their search.
Soul Hungerer
They find a room where a grotesque mosaic of enormous undead faces covers the floor, though it's hard to identify what creatures they exactly are. Our friends are understandably wary of traps but eventually Izzy steps onto a tile with a Shadow draw on it and promptly loses all her strength. Luckily it returns after a number of minutes. Zayn then summons his new book mount and floats over a Skeleton tile. This does not stop the trap from triggering but he saves and takes zero damage.
They have different theories about what the best route is and Kieran even steps onto a Lich tile, which causes a Flame Strike spell to hit him. But in the end they make it across to a large stone door, painted upon it from floor to ceiling is the visage of an old woman with sickly yellow eyes, a prominent nose, and thin lips. Izzy can't resist the red gems that make up the eyes of the Lich and steps onto the tile, taking a Flame Strike spell, her resistance to fire helps. Then Boldrek uses his mason's tools to pry out the two red spinel gems.
Once through the door they come to a dark, damp room. In the center of the room stands a solitary onyx statue of a robed figure, its face obscured by shadow no matter how closely it is examined. A female voice, old and cackling, speaks inside their heads: “Who is worthy of the Gift of the Soul Hungerer, only one of you can receive it, maybe you should fight for it, yes, that would be marvelous. The one who touches the statue will receive the ability to raise the recently deceased, imagine holding that kind of power, who wouldn’t want that?”
Kieran wastes no time and goes over to touch the statue. When he does, his eyes glow a sickly yellow and remain this way. He has received a gift; he can now cast the Raise Dead spell three times. However, he also gained a flaw: "If I help someone, I expect payment in return."
So Much Boulder
Very broad and shallow stairs go up so far that the end is hard to see. There are three landings evenly interspersed on the stairs and on each stands a small pedestal with something on it. The first landing's pedestal contains a palm sized beetle made of gold, covered in jewels of different colors, it looks quite a bit like one of the fish they caught two days ago. Zayn decides to pick it up with a Mage Hand spell. Nothing much happens and he takes it in his hand without problem.
On the next landing stands a very detailed basalt carving of a sitting cat, about half a meter tall. The base plate is gilded as are the ears. The cat is wearing a gold collar set with small rubies. The warlock decides to cast a detect magic spell and the statue lights up. Wanting to get as much use as possible out of his spell he goes up to the next landing where the pedestal contains nothing but a simple, worn, and very battered clay cup. The half-orc continues up the stairs to the corridor there and looks around before his spell runs out.
Back to the second landing and there is some discussion about the statue; it's going to weigh quite a bit if it's not hollow. Kieran lifts it from the pedestal and the item identifies itself to him; it's a Bast Statue. Zayn had carefully checked the first pedestal for traps but not this one and as the paladin takes the statue, a trapdoor opens at almost the top of the stairs and a huge boulder comes rolling down at them.
When the boulder gets near, Zayn reacts first and grabs Boldrek, using a Dimension Door spell to bring the two of them up the stairs and out of the path of the huge rock. Kieran and particularly Izzy are less fortunate. The paladin doesn't take too much damage but the bard takes so much she immediately drops and is deposited further down the stairs as the boulder comes to a stop at the bottom of the stairs with a crunching sound like no other.
A quick application of Lay on Hands brings the bard back. Zayn feels quite guilty about this when Kieran asks him why he didn't take the most squishy of their group but instead the one who can weather the most damage.
Star of Secrets
Our friends find an unnervingly quiet room with polished white walls and a large round pool of still, black water. A female voice, low and whispering speaks inside their heads: “Who doesn’t want to know all the secrets of others, I know you do, you can’t hide anything from me. I offer one of you the Gift of the Star of Secrets, the power of divination. Stare into the pool if you want to receive my gift and learn all the things that are hidden from you.”
Kieran sees Izzy step towards the pool and thinks this isn't such a good idea and tries to stop her. With the two of them thus distracted, Zayn sees his chance and gets to the pool first and stares into it. He receives a gift; he can now cast the Scrying spell three times. However, his voice has becomes a low whisper, and his smile cruel and evil.
He of the Many Teeth
Another room, this one containing a large anvil in the middle of it, a cold forge in the corner and many abandoned tools and broken weapons. A loud male voice rings out, this time it looks to come from the room itself: “Enter, heroes. You’ve proven your prowess in battle many times but deep down all of you know that one day will be your last. I offer one of you the power to live multiple lives, cheat death and gain another chance at glory when that fateful day arrives. Are you worthy of the Gift of He of the Many Teeth? Touch the anvil and it will be yours.”
Boldrek steps up and touches the anvil. He receives a gift; when he dies, he will immediately be Reincarnated into a new body which will appear next to the old one, and this will happen two more times if he dies again. However, he has lost all his teeth and the first two bodies he will Reincarnate into also won't have teeth.
Hidden Room
More stairs and a corridor, the air smells fresh, filled with the scent of damp earth and blooming flowers. Small niches carved into the walls hold fragile clay jars, sealed with long-dried wax. Izzy is interested in their contents but asks Zayn to carefully check them out first. As he does so, he finds a secret door that leads to a room filled with green vines and small flowers, the floor covered in soft moss. The room contains a stone fountain, still flowing with crystal-clear water. An ornate wooden box, painted in a black and gold pattern sits on top of the fountain.
Kieran goes for the box and it feels quite nice when he touches it, restful. He holds onto it for a minute and he gets the effects of a Short Rest, and the effect of a Bless spell to boot! Unfortunately he can't resist the compulsion from the box to open it and when he does so, a magical emanation makes everyone in the room go berserk, only Zayn is able to resist the effect.
Our friends start attacking each other and the warlock decides to cast a Confusion spell, rightly thinking that might slow the number of attacks each round. But Kieran resists the spell and Izzy is the first to be brought low. Zayn quickly rushes over to her and Dimensions Door to the corridor, away from the fighting. The berserk effect only lasts for half a minute so both Boldrek and Kieran are still standing at the end of it.
Izzy and Zayn return to the room where they all discuss what just happened and sheepishly apologize for what they just did to each other. The wooden box disappeared immediately after making them go berserk but the half-orc decides to search the entire room carefully, just to make sure. His search turns out to be fruitful; laying in the water of the fountain, almost invisible, are five transparent gems, worth 20 gp each.
Path of Blades
After a good rest in the hidden room our friends continue on. The come to a door and behind it is a corridor going left. This long hallway looks rather mundane compared to what has come before. It is made of unpainted sandstone and deep grooves in them are quite noticeable. About halfway down the corridor the floor is all broken and cracked, only the last bit of the corridor the floor looks fine again.
The moment Kieran steps into the room it becomes clear this is some kind of elaborate trap. Sharp blades extend from the grooves and whirl around the first half of the corridor, attacking him but missing. It becomes evident why the floor is in the state it is; crushing pillars move up and down fast, ready to pulverize anyone unlucky enough to be caught under them.
The paladin looks at the distance towards the far door and tries to work out a plan, with a Misty Step spell he should be able to get to the end whilst only having to brave one more blade attack. The others aren't all that sure this is a good idea, especially Zayn and he decides to Dimension Door to behind the far door, asking Boldrek to come along. The end up at the bottom of a spiral staircase.
They open the door and peek inside, seeing Kieran coming right up at the door with his Misty Step spell. Boldrek grabs him and drags him into the stairwell. With no one now in the hallway the traps come to a rest but Izzy is still at the other end. Zayn knows he can cast three spells between rests if he really wants to, though last time it did turn him into a kleptomaniac.
He Dimension Doors back to Izzy and then tries to regain a spell slot. It works, but not without taking a certain toll. "Being drunk keeps me sane," is what the warlock is thinking now and he asks the bard if she carries any alcohol, she does not. They Dimension Door back to the others and then the half-orc asks for the Emperor Caeus Teapot. He empties his waterskin on the floor and then uses the teapot to fill it with aqua vitae.
He then sets it to wine and puts the spout to his lips, drinking as much as he can. The others are all concerned at this behavior and Izzy uses a Charm Person spell to make him put down the teapot. A Protection from Poison spell from Kieran removes any trace of alcohol from Zayn's body and will make it more difficult for him to get drunk again. Boldrek, thinking quickly, changes the teapot setting to tea, knowing it won't be able to pour anything else today.
Our friends discuss what might be going on, wondering if it's the Dimension Door spell playing havoc on the warlock or if it's just the recovery of a spell slot. They decide to test this, taking a Short Rest and then having Zayn cast two sending spells to them. Next, he recovers a slot again, and immediately falls to the floor, unconscious. Now they are sure of the cause and warn the half-orc of the dangers after bringing him to. Another rest and they set off again.
Storage Finds
Up the staircase they go and they come to a rather grim corridor, its walls and ceiling made of rusting iron plates bolted together haphazardly. Dangling from the ceiling are dozens of long, rusted chains, some with shackles attached. About halfway down there are two simple wooden doors opposite each other. Behind both doors are large, dimly lit chambers smelling of old wood and dust. Stacks of rotting wooden crates and stone urns fill the space.
It seems no one has been in these store rooms for a long time and our friends decide to search both of them from top to bottom, hoping to find something of use. They are not disappointed. In the first room they find a scroll of Galder's Tower which had fallen behind a crate. The other room contains a medium size chest, it has a lock but the key is inside it. Zayn decides to be extra careful and uses Mage Hand to turn the key. Just as he wants to try and lift the lid the same way, Izzy walks up and opens the crate, triggering the hidden poison needle and taking a lot of damage.
The chest contains a number of useful items; two Swapper cyphers, a Gender Change Potion, a Luck Potion, a Magic Power Potion, and a Rage Potion.
Snakey Rooms
A corridor of winding serpent patterns leads to a large, circular brass door. It takes a lot of combined effort to roll the door into its niche and gain entry. The walls of this square chamber are hot to the touch. Four towering statues of snake-headed creatures loom over the chamber, each holding a glowing orb in its hands. A large stone altar sits in the middle, engraved with hieroglyphs that pulse with faint light. The floor contains a number of narrow channels that all start or end at the altar, they contain a viscous liquid that smells of rotten eggs.
Our friends take a lot of caution as they investigate the room. A detect magic spell shows abjuration, evocation, and transmutation schools on the altar. The fluid is set on fire and it turns into something like walls of fire, weaker than the spell but still quite dangerous, dividing the room into smaller spaces. It takes about an hour for the fire to die down. There is no change to the altar and Kieran decides to cut his hand and put some blood on it, but this also does not seem to do anything.
The orbs are too high to reach from the floor but with one person giving the other a leg up they can be reached. They seem to be stuck to the hands holding them and so, eventually, the party decides to continue on, opening the other brass door in the room. A sinuous corridor leads to yet another circular brass door, this one even larger than the previous ones, it takes all four of our friends to push it open enough to see inside.
What they see is a room that is similar to the previous one but a lot larger. There is a massive altar in the middle of the room, more channels in the floor with the same liquid. There are no statues but instead the two side walls contain sort of open galleries twenty feet high off the floor, a weak light seems to be coming from there but that is hard to see from the floor.
Since they know what the fluid did in the other room, they decide to throw in a torch and light the liquid here. Izzy is impatient and decides to quickly enter the room. Kieran tries to grab her and stop her from doing this but her cloak's ability means she succeeds and ends up in the room with the walls of fire as the door rolls into the closed position.
The bard is less affected by fire than most and wants to waste no time to reach the altar. The few walls of fire she has to rush through still do a significant amount of damage and when she reaches the center of the room she finds out that a number of snake like creatures, known to the locals as lamias, are hidden behind the altar and immediately take her prisoner.
The rest of our friends have no idea what is happening to Izzy but decide to wait for an hour so the fire will be out. Then they have a really difficult time opening the door with just the three of them. When they eventually succeed they quickly enter the room, not seeing the bard, or anyone else. Only when they get closer to the altar, the trap is sprung.
Lamias appear on both sides of the altar and one gets on the top of it, one also appears on each of the openings in the wall. It is a very tough fight with the enemies using many rather nasty abilities such as making one face their worst fear. Some can also attack at range with spectral fangs that do psychic damage, something Boldrek has no defense against.
The two more melee focused enemies go down quickly but the others are very hard to take down, also because of their positions. Zayn gets incredibly unlucky as he uses his Incomprehensible Knowledge to cast a third spell and is then paralyzed as madness overcomes him. But even with all that, the party manages to overcome the challenge without anyone succumbing to the enemy.
There isn't much to loot, these snake people don't seem to do personal possessions. However, one of the enemies is wearing a suit of armor that is constructed of sand poacher chitin plates. Kieran takes it and it turns out to be a cursed Sand Poacher Armor.
Lady of Delights / The Inscrutable
An intersection leads in three other directions and going left the party comes to a room where reliefs of frolicking creatures cover the walls, shining with inlaid gold. In the center of the room stands a stone altar covered with offerings of food, flowers, and drink, all untouched by time. A small stone basin with an artificial waterfall takes up one corner of the room. The air is warm and comforting, with the faint scent of sun-warmed grass.
A female, sensuous voice speaks inside everyone's mind: “Welcome, you beautiful people, please, sit, rest, take a load off. You deserve some time to enjoy your spoils, all hard earned, I’m sure. You deserve to be admired for all that you are. Partake of any refreshments, feed those well-formed bodies. And please, use the waterfall for a much needed deep cleanse, don’t be shy. Now, one of you I can offer the Gift of the Lady of Delights, the power of persuasion. Isn’t it marvelous when you can just make people see your way and do as you want? Eat the cherries on the altar and you will have my gift.”
Our friends decide that Izzy should be the one to do so as she has not received a gift yet. She goes over to the altar and then picks up the cherries and pauses. Then she squishes both cherries with her thumbs till nothing remains of them. The others look at her very puzzled and the bard just remarks: “I don’t like cherries.”
You're the Top
Going right at the intersection lead to a mostly empty room but the way across leads to stairs up and at the end of them there is a large door with a mouth carved into it. When they near, it speaks: "Forked like a serpent's tongue, I spark the thunder's peal; With every stroke, the storm is wrung of darkness by my zeal."
Our friends soon decide 'Lightning' is the correct answer but saying it out doesn't do anything. Eventually they figure that maybe making lightning touch the door might be the solution and when Kieran touches his Storm Spear to the door, it opens wide.
[There is this much more difficult riddle from a few centuries ago: "My mother abandoned me, I was found by a man who cut off my head, scooped out my heart, and gave me something to drink. Then I began speaking. What am I?" The answer: a quill. This from an episode of the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast.]
Beyond the door is a room that makes our friends think they might be at the top of the pyramid as the walls run at an angle towards the top. The room is filled with a number of platforms hanging in the air, each higher than the next. On the platforms are levers and a structure of wooden beams holds large blocks of stone. Incredibly strong gusts of wind come from grates along the entire side of a wall at certain heights, which stops any kind of attempt at getting to a platform. The levers are somehow connected to the structure and allow for the blocks of stone to be moved in front of a grate to block the flow of wind.
All this is immediately bypassed by Zayn using a Dimension Door spell to go to the top platform and grabbing the carpet that is laying there. He then returns down to the others and they carefully unroll the rug, which does indeed turn out to be a flying carpet. It seats four and they have their first attempts at flying it, which takes some getting used to.
But eventually they learn and then solve the lever puzzle to reach the top platform again, seated on their carpet. The final lever opens part of the outer wall and the party can fly out of the pyramid and back into the desert.