10.5 Went through the desert on a horse with no name

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Taran – Half Elf Fighter/Priest of Mannanan Mac Lir, cousin to Carinne and Galvish
Carinne Rhianne Talynnart – Half Elf Ranger/Mage, Cousin to Taran and Galvish
Krachtig – A Shocked and Charred Gnome
Galvish – Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Cousin to Taran and Carinne
Barrigan Stonebeak – Dwarf Fighter/Priest, Company Engineer.
Lanneus Tuard – Paladin of Manannan Mac Lir

5/26/12
Valley of the Kings Continued

We continue our search for the tomb where we can find the Shard of the Sun.
On our quest we spot a tall figure moving towards us, as it gets closer it seems to be an automaton of some sort.  Carinne gleefully reaches for her rod which she says can smite goblins, her cousins turn round to look at her incredulously and she quickly corrects herself, Golems she means. Apart from a couple of mighty blows we take it down easy. We spy two tomb entrances in the valley, one on the left and one on the right hand wall.  We opt for the left hand tomb.  On the stone door is carved a strange sigil, a circle with two chevrons above.  The door also has a magic trap which Krachtig manages to circumvent.  Inside the tomb we spot a pit trap through Tarans Trap Finding Spell.  
We emerge into a large chamber with several exits off, as we begin to explore a number of apparitions rise from the floor and attack.  Taran just avoids having his life energy drained by his magical scarab.  Galvish is annoyed that he cannot decapitate these ethereal specters. The party triumph through the two priests skillfully wielding their maces of disruption.
The chamber off the main one contains two coffins and many skeletal warriors, battle ensues with Carinne and Krachtig hurling spells from the corridor.  The creatures have a high magic resistance.  One of the skeletal figures hurls spells back with lightning bolts catching our two mages in successive attacks. Carinne drops to the floor but Krachtig has the appearance of a heavily charred lump of meat.  Carinne crawls over to the smoking gnome and finds him dead, she cure herself of some of the damage.  The warriors cut through the ranks of skeletal warriors with the aid of the priest’s maces once again. When the battle is over Taran restores life to Krachtig.
The next chamber holds the funeral trappings of the king buried here together with a group of zombies who take a lot of damage to kill them before they drop, when they do they later explode causing more damage.
We take stairs down to the next level and spy two statues and a horde of hell hounds.  Close quarter combat ensues with the statues firing magic missiles when the combatants get too close.  After the last of the hounds are dealt with the two priests and Lanneus start beating on the statues with their maces, ceasing their missile attacks and reducing them to rubble.
We investigate another chamber and discover skeletal undead, just as we kill off the last of these creatures we are rushed by a group of demons who summon more of their kind. The combat is strung out with Taran holding one corridor to stop them getting round the back of the party, when he sees another group gate in and he is faced by six of them he uses his last resort – the Holy Word spell, this is the highest magic he knows and in an instant two thirds of the creatures are sent back to their plane. Seeing its effectiveness, Barrigan and Taran reach into their packs to gain the scrolls with copies of this spell on. In conjunction with these spells and the Haste which Carinne casts on the party we dispatch the last of the beasts. Now to find cousin Galvish who succumbed to the fear these creatures were exuding.