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your-favourite-explorer · 6 years

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Kerrail and Casemir’s Adventure

There were rumors about ancient treasures and relics deep within the Zandalari tombs that riddled these lands. Words that were whispered and shared in taverns by the fresh faced and veteran alike. It was these tales that drew Kerrail and Casemir into exploring a tomb despite any common sense against the matter. So, they both traveled deep into the jungle with the intent of finding their potential riches.

A heavy stone door barred their way, pictographs upon it depicting some sort of dance on the vine choked platform before it. The flora was easy enough to clear away, hacked at by Kerrail’s blades to reveal several raised plates upon the worn rock. Despite tripping over himself Casemir was able to follow the instructions upon the door and it slid away to allow them entrance into the tomb itself.

The place was dark, foreboding, long since abandoned and partially flooded. With a torch lit they began their journey downward into the tomb. As confident as they were the dim light and wet surfaces were unforgiving and Casemir slipped to plunge into the fetid water below, though luckily without injury. Their only course of action seemed to walk onward and ignore the various warnings inscribed upon the entryways.

Across the first room glowed an eerie red light with their path interrupted by a pit of vipers. They had to risk the journey across with Casemir making certain that his adored canine

Mercy was not within reach of their venomous fangs. When they arrived at the light it revealed an altar with a pressure plate like the ones outside atop it. Having gone too far to simply back out now they pressed the plate down and as the dim light faded a loud crash of rocks echoed throughout the tomb. Whatever they’d done it had changed something inside.

They carried on, but not without Casemir taking a strike from one of the terrible reptiles and hoping he wasn’t envenomed by the creature. In the space between the rooms there were piles of bones, stacked large and high. The supports of the hallway even more imposing with gigantic piscine bones. But this wasn’t why they were here. They kept moving, trying not to fall into the water where they could hear splashing creatures below.

The next room held a similar red light and more inscriptions upon the entryway. Once again, they were ignored as they wandered to the altar and did the same as they had before. Something else caught Kerrail’s eye though, a large set of mosaics that looked like the sun itself. He wandered into the center and suddenly a number of torches lit throughout the tomb, all with a void-like purple light, revealing more of the tomb proper. Across the chamber sat another mosaic and Casemir stood upon that one. More torches lit and revealed the cavernous inner chamber and a walkway below that sat not quite aligned to venture further inward.

They could not venture that way just yet, but across the room they could see another ledge. Another altar. So, on they moved. Here they came to another hallway, this one carved directly into the side of the soil. Below was a pool of the same foul water and now that the area was lit they could see the ravenous fish that lived within. The journey along the path was long and Kerrail suggested a shortcut, pulling two collapsible goblin gliders from his bag so they could go across to the ground on the other side. Perhaps luckily, they survived the journey and made it into the next chamber.

Within this room was a large bowl carved with elephant shapes and upon closer inspection it was clear that the water and fish from the room before were being drained into it once they entered. It slowly filled as they approached the altar. The same routine as before, this time they could see what caused the crash. A huge stone statue fell onto the platform in the center of the cavern and the walkway slid into place. But they didn’t have time to admire it, they had to leave the slowly filling room. Kerrail was first, using his grappling hook to swing across to the stairs on the opposite side. Casemir went to follow suit, almost succeeding before the hook slipped and he fell into the water with the carnivorous fish.

He shot and it only served to rile them up more, biting at both him at his dog. His dog retreated quickly, suffering only a minor bite to the ear while he took longer and suffered several wounds that were now doused with foul smelling liquid. He would have to deal with them later. They had to finish this trip. But his canine companion couldn’t wait, and he took the time to wrap her ear carefully with antiseptic bandages.

Now the walkway forward was clear though, and they wandered back into the previous room without any more dangerous. Even though they were hesitant they kept pressing forward until they came to a large altar, this time with glittering gold jewelry upon it. Behind it a large purple flame bellowed but their prize was within reach. A necklace, headdress and a number of golden rings. Surely these were worth money and Casemir was quick to claim his prize even with Kerrail’s protest to wait.

Suddenly the violet fire poured forth and engulfed the two of them. It didn’t burn as flames should have but it forced them to the ground, pressing down upon them as words in a foreign language echoed throughout. Dark words, obviously angry, until just as quick as it came it vanished and all the fires lost their hue returning to the orange flickers of normal flames. Pain hit them both at once, a searing stabbing pain in their arms. Upon Kerrail’s right and Casemir’s left arm it left markings, a rune that looked like the snake carvings of the tomb upon Casemir, and another that looked like a kraken upon Kerrail.. But, there’s a bright side to everything and no matter what happened beyond that their treasure was still there. They scooped up the gold jewelry and left, hopefully never to experience something like that again.

(This writeup was beautifully crafted by our DM, Alwyn. If any of you would like to enlist her services please contact me!)

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