AFF solo - Part XXIII: The Skull of Ukhuttaz

Room 27
Challenge: Awareness (+1)

The next chamber is decorated with low reliefs; a welcome change from the sequence of bare walls they've traversed. The reliefs depict fairly standard scenes of city life: markets, processions of soldiers, livestock, etc. Ksandajja and Ilog insist on a thorough examination. Grebdal Themp is frankly bored by it, and would rather just take the corridor to the next room, but [Awareness roll succeeds] then he notices a single bit of inlaid metal glinting in the eye of a sacrificial bull. He presses it, and a section of wall slides open to reveal another passageway.


Room 23
Challenge: Encounter (-2)

Standing in the centre of the next chamber is the four-armed skeleton of an ogre or small giant, standing unaccountably between the three companions and an altar of pure white marble on the far wall. The creature holds a terrible, rusty scythe in each set of arms, and raises them high to strike down the hapless mortals who have disturbed its millennium of slumber. The THASSALOS advances upon them, eye sockets glowing green with unholy malice.

THASSALOS    SKILL 10    STAMINA 15

"Keep it busy," mutters Ksandajja. "I'll use my magic."

[Round 1]
Ilog and Grebdal Themp go forth to meet the monstrosity as Ksandajja lingers at the threshold. She produces the energy crystal from her pouch, and slowly lets the magic build within her.

Grebdal Themp opts for a defensive stance, and adroitly dodges every pass of the whirling blades [nat. 12]. Ilog opts to assault the fiend head-on, and takes a long jagged wound across the torso for his impetuosity [4-0 damage]. As he recoils from the blow, the thassalos emits radiant green rays from its eye sockets, enveloping the the warrior in their freezing effulgence [1 more damage leave him at 6 Stamina].

[Round 2]

Ksandajja focusses her will through the crystal, which is consumed as she unleashes a blast of crackling energy. The thassalos is caught full in the chest; shards of burnt and shattered bone rain over the battlefield. But though the cracked and limping thing be near to collapse, still it fights on with redoubled malignancy.

[She took an extra round to cast ZAP (for +2 to her casting check for 9-); the one-use energy crystal provided the 4 stamina for the spell. 3d6=13 damage leaves it with 2 Stamina.]

Grebdal Themp again opts solely for defence, but the furious skeletal colossus has learnt to anticipate his feints. A rusty blade cuts across Grebdal Themp's side, hampered somewhat by his stiff leather hauberk [4-1=3 damage, to 7 Stamina]. Ilog cannot find an opening for attack, and the thing's superior reach means he comes away with a gory gash across his shoulder [4-0=4 damage]. Another gout of green energy freezes the hapless warrior, nearly overcoming him [1 more damage drops him to 1 Stamina].

[Round 3]
Ksandajja moves in to join the fray, but cannot find an opening in the Thassalos' defence. Grebdal Themp tries to fight back, and receives a cut across the thigh [3-0 damage to 4 Stamina] for his effort. Ilog tries desperately to defend himself, but the scythe blade smashes past his shield and slices into his abdomen; the warrior falls senseless at its clacking feet into an ever-spreading puddle of his own blood [4-1=3 damage, to -2 Stamina]. The green ray shoots past where Ilog had stood, making a patch of frost on the stone floor [miss!].

[Rounds 4-5]
At last Grebdal Themp's blade strikes true -- but only a few chips of bone fly off from the thing's spine; the counterstrike nearly saws him in half [both down to 1 Stamina]. Ksandajja is frozen by the thing's baleful glare, and nearly has her arm taken off [3+1 damage, down t 2 Stamina] before finally felling the thassalos with a well-placed strike.

The bones are still skittering over the floor as they rush to the side of their fallen comrade. There is still life in him -- but swiftly ebbing! Grebdal Themp flips him over and Ksandajja hurriedly pours a healing elixir down his throat. All his wounds close up, and he opens his eyes. "I take it victory was ours?" he says.

Grebdal Themp drinks his own potion, whilst the sorceress must content herself with a tightly-wound bandage or two [G&I back to full Stamina; K gains +2 for first aid, up to 4.]. In contrast to her companions, Ksandajja still feels the pain of her wounds, but it is soon forgotten as she turns her attention to the marble altar, for upon it rests a gleaming human skull.

She leaps to her feet and rushes toward it.

"Be careful!" calls Grebdal Themp.

"I am!"

She is inwardly certain that no further trap would profane the holy altar with its eerie relic, so reaches out to claim her prize...

[Q: Is there a final trap? 50/50 (4+): O3 C1 - no, and...]

She lifts it from the altar, turns it over a few times in her hands, feeling it unexpectedly cold and dead. Then, realising it's incomplete, she roots round in her pack for the jawbone. She hold it in place, and feels it bond with the rest, held on by the centuries-old enchantment. The completed skull throbs almost imperceptibly beneath her fingers, and she knows instantly she holds a potent weapon against the undead.

[The Skull of Ukhuttaz - Banish Undead 1/day (as the wizard spell, but affects 100' radius; counts as the Disrupt battle magic spell in mass combat); the possessor may use any weapon to fight undead, even incorporeal ones.]

"Come," says the sorceress, "let's go destroy the phantom that killed Fhenteskeer."

[Q: Can they get out from here without incident? Likely (3+): O6 C8 - yes
Q: The hamakei wasn't trying to trick them, was it? Doubtful (6): O1 C7 - no.]

The little gremlin is flitting about impatiently as they at last emerge from the temple. "Come," it chitters, "back to my master's dwelling to rest!" As much as they burn with the desire to avenge their friend, the fire-priest, weariness and the promise of a proper meal propel them to follow the tiny creature to partake of the Hamakei's hospitality.

But the next morning sees them up with the dawn, trudging solemnly back to the ruined manse.

[Q: Any surprises? Likely (3+): O2 C6 - no]

The air inside is even less salubrious than before, the bitter incense being entirely overshadowed by the reek of decay. As they come into the circular atrium, they find Fhenteskeer's corpse lying next to the dead wizard's, already bloated and swarming with flies.

"Show yourself, coward!" calls Grebdal Themp with only half-feigned bravura. The SPECTRE meets his challenge with an inarticulate screech as its glowing form fades into view.

SPECTRE    SKILL 10    STAMINA 14

Ksandajja steps forth defiantly, brandishing the Skull above her head. The relic's potent enchantment roils round the chamber in an unseen tempest, felt even by the sorceress' magic-blind comrades.

[Banish: the target may roll SKILL to avoid, minus the MAGIC of the caster.
Skill 10 - Magic 5 = 5; 2d6=6]

The spectre is drawn howling into the Skull's gaping mouth and is no more.

Their foe annihilated, the companions' thoughts turn immediately to their fallen friend. Grebdal Themp is wracked by grief, so Ksandajja and Ilog bid him sit apart whilst they attend to the grim task. Chasing away the swarm of flies by beating their cloaks in the air proves futile, so in the end Ksandajja summons a sorcerous gout of fire to blast them all away. Then they divest poor Fhenteskeer of his pack and wrap him in a cloak.

Meanwhile Grebdal Themp has plucked up his courage to rifle the necromancer's laboratory. Ilog moves to stop him. "Something here killed the necromancer. Mayhap we should let our sorceress do the searching."

[Q: Are there dangers in the treasure? certain (2+): O2 C3 - yes, but... only the book
Ksandajja rolls against Second Sight (2d6=2!) and Magic Lore (6, succeeds)]

Ksandajja uses her witch's sight to examine the wizardly accoutrements. The tome is radiant with unsettling power, and she shivers each time she looks at it. She uses a wooden chair leg to close the tome, and wraps it in a blanket without letting it touch her skin. She volunteers to carry it so no one else has to.

But there is nothing else possessing even a slight dweomer, save for a beaded necklace worn by the necromancer's rotten corpse. Ksandajja beheads him with a stroke of her sword, and plucks the necklace off, wrapping it in a bit of linen until it can be washed. She pronounces the rest of the lot mundane, and her companions eagerly begin searching for valuables, though fruitlessly. The implements of the Art are serviceable rather than costly, the incense is too foul and cloying to be worth much, and everything else is made of cheap bronze, too bulky to be worth taking. But at least there are ample materials to construct a litter for Fhenteskeer's body, to spare him the final indignity of being dragged through the dust.

[Treasure was rolled on the AFF charts (p.A-142)--
coins +0: 2d6=4sp
treasure +4: 4d6=8gp worth of sundries
magic item +5: yes, necklace of survival 5 beads]

"We should send him off with his axe," says Ilog. "But his pack is too... befouled where it lay against him."

"But his elixirs," says Grebdal Themp. "here, let me... three potions, one for each of us. Let us take them, and swear a solemn oath to our own gods, and of course to mighty Filash, that we will use them to combat evil. It's what he would have wanted."

[Q: Anything happen for the rest of the day? 50/50 (4+): O3 C2 - no, and...]

Their several oaths sworn, the companions spend the rest of the day collecting wood from the ruined manor and surrounding buildings, and that night burn their comrade on a great pyre. Grebdal Themp stumbles through a half-remembered prayer to Filash that he's heard the priest often recite that it may speed his soul into the empyrean to stand beside the blazing throne of his lord.

next post: as one Quest ends...