Tomb of Annihilation: Wyfingrem Hulwir's Journal - Entry 36

My regular Dungeons & Dragons group is playing through Tomb of Annihilation and I am very excited to be doing so. For this campaign, I am playing a Fallen Aasimar Cleric of the Grave Domain named Wyfingrem. Her family is renowned among her people as Resurrectionists. With the world stricken by a Death Curse that has prevented resurrection, Wyfingrem and an odd assortment of adventurers have answered the call from a mysterious benefactor to find the root cause of the curse and destroy it. Each day, Wyfingrem journals her experiences as a way to feel close to people, especially those dearest to her heart.

Day ??? - I have long since lost track…

My dearest love,

We found ourselves standing in a room containing a sizable pit. By my estimation, it was easily 15 feet deep and every but of that in width and length. At its bottom stood a massive clay figure we guessed to be eight feet tall or more, guarding a chest. If this dungeon has taught us anything, it is that everything is a trap. Everything has been engineered to deliver peril or death to all who come near it. Nevertheless, the clay figure has a silver key hung around its neck and we have gleaned from our experiences here to know that that must mean something important to our quest.

On either side of the pit’s length was a plinth bearing a statue. A third plinth sat empty to another side. One statue was of a bearded man, his left hand held high, and a finger pointed upward. He looked to be some sort of magic wielder. The other statue was of a man in armor, perhaps a knight. It had one arm extended outward, the hand palm-side down.

Zilditch, who remains a vessel for the island god called Moa, insisted the deity had communicated only weapons of adamantium or those bearing an enchantment could threaten harm to the clay statue.

As a team, we pondered on this latest puzzle this foul dungeon had proposed for us. After producing scrolls and rubbings taken from the various placards found on our journeys, we keyed in on one particular phrase, “Right the Gods”.

After performing more detailed research on the statues and their plinths, we discover that the two occupied plinths can be rotated. Emboldened by our seemingly correct guess, Zilditch climbed upon the empty plinth, and with a signal to demonstrate his readiness, Walter rotated the statue of the knight to the right.

Instantly, Zilditch was transported into the pit with the clay figure. Much to our horror, the figure became animated and began attacking the brave goblin. Fortunately, Zilditch is crafty as he is brave, and he became invisible. We watched in relief, and I must admit some glee, as the clay construct became motionless with confusion while the key around its neck seemed to levitate on its own over the figure’s head and then float away.

We surmised that if the statue with a downward facing hand sent Zilditch down into the pit then the statue pointing upward must do the opposite. Dimo quickly rotated the statue of the magic wielder and with a whooshing sound, Zilditch was suddenly back among us.

Armed with the knowledge that we had solved this riddle and with no harm to any of our members, Gods of Life and Death be blessed, we sent the still invisible goblin back into the pit with the key. It did open the chest and inside were the remaining two crystal eyes!

Now with the pale green and pink objects in our possession, we knew what we must do next. It was time to return to the door bearing the mirror with the 10 orb-shaped slots around it, install the collection of crystal eyes, and hopefully find beyond it the root of the Death Curse.

I regret to tell you, my dearest love, that we were woefully incorrect in that assumption.

After finding our way back to the mirror door, Walter and Zilditch began plugging the eyeballs into the slots. We determined there did not appear to be any natural order for their placement and so the eyes were installed at random.

One peculiar affect, however, was the mirror on the door made whoever place an eyeball appear to have aged significantly. What’s more, the more eyeballs a person placed, the more advanced their aging was reflected in the mirror. We discovered that no one was physically affected by this, much to our relief, however we still decided to employ the services of a mage hand to insert the final orb.

Upon its installation, the door opened to reveal a domed room with a brilliantly polished floor. So polished, in fact, it looked to be like a mirror in an of itself! There were nine alcoves spaced about the circular room and at its center looked to be some sort of spherical object. The object appeared to be floating and it was covered in a thick black drape.

Scattered about the room were riches untold! Thousands upon thousands of coins of every denomination. We also spied a potion, a bronze shield shaped like the face of a devil, some masks shaped like children’s faces, and a coronet that resembled an octopus.

I could see the awe and hunger in the eyes of everyone around me and so I loudly declared that we should touch nothing. It was entirely plausible to me that this too was nothing more than a trap. And how could it now be?

My warnings unfortunately fell upon deaf ears.

Zilditch found a lever protruding from one of the walls. It has some sort of script on it, but he was unable to comprehend the language. My acolyte, Toni, performed one of her innate abilities and seemingly was able to read it. She then turned to the group and said she needed money.

Despite my effort to reiterate my warning that nothing was to be touched, Dimo quickly scooped up a handful of coins. And when he did, my fears became reality as a cryptic laughing voice echoed forth from above and suddenly the drape was drawn from the floating sphere.

Instantly Sir McManly was flung across the room and up against the sphere, sticking to it. We quickly determined it was some sort of gigantic magnet.

Zilditch drew his bow and fired some arrows into the air where the voice came from but then was dragged straight up into the air himself and dropped from a dangerous height.

At this moment, chaos ensured. It was difficult to keep track of the events that followed but I shall do my best to share what I recall.

I remember Dimo suddenly flying across the room and smashing into the wall. Eldritch beams of energy crackled about the room, narrowly missing Zilditch but slamming into the helpless Sir McManly. A surge of blue energy zagged through the air in my direction, but the Gods preserved me, and I successfully dodged out of the way.

While Sir McManly summoned his mage hand and willed it to grab the dark drape, Dimo exploded into a rage and leapt high into the air, slashing wildly with his ax. A blue beam identical to the one meant for me struck true on him though and he dropped to the ground frozen as if in a block of ice.

I called upon the Gods of Life and Death to bless me with an aura of healing energy. They did but for some reason I cannot explain, it did not work on Dimo. Before I can think on this too hard, I find myself being lifted into the air as well and then dropped to the hard, polished floor.

Sir McManly had managed to free himself by now by using his mage hand to replace the drape on the magnetic sphere.

I begin to pray for a blessing upon him, Toni and Zilditch but it only seemed to work for Sir McManly. As I am speaking the words to my prayer, I am dragged into the air once again and then dropped. All the while, a disembodied voice is mocking us using the abyssal tongue and calling himself Belchorzh.

Before I fall the second time, I see a beam strike Zilditch, paralyzing him. A second, more deadly energy beam narrowly missed Zilditch, but it completely disintegrates a section of the wall behind his frozen form.  

My fall had caused me to lose my aura of healing, but I felt the power of the Gods of Life and Death welling up inside me. With a fiery prayer on my lips, I called forth the blazing light of dawn and filled the entire room, from about 10’ high to the ceiling with searing radiance.

I appeared to have angered this Belchorzh as it shot one of its beams at me that appeared the same as the one that paralyzed Zilditch. While I was fortunate there, another blast took me in the chest, and I felt waves of oily necrotic energy surge throughout and over my body. While I was protected by my faith in the Gods of Life and Death and our strong Aasimar heritage, the blow did wound me grievously.

We made the prudent decision at that point and decided to run quite literally for our lives. In an absolute act of heroism, however, Walter decided to stay behind and fight. Having gone invisible earlier in the battle, he determined the approximate location of the creature by sound. Taking his most informed guess, he fired of his own blasts of energy, appearing to strike the monster solidly. Then, wielding his magic staff, he physically struck the invisible beast, and in doing so, banished it to another plane of existence.

Despite the pleas from some of us to continue our retreat, emboldened by the sudden success against the creature, many of our party decided to return to the room, taking up position at all points, and prepared to ambush the creature when it returned.

Knowing the state of my injuries and exhaustion, I chose to wait outside the room and around a corner down the hall. From there I could support the others at a range without endangering myself.

The creature announced its return by blasting Dimo with the same necrotic energy I was hit with. He is more hale than me however and was not as severely impacted. Toni bravely tried to come to his aid, turning herself invisible and slipping into the room, but as soon as she entered it, the invisibility failed. Thankfully she was able to back out of the room before she was noticed and disappeared from sight once again.

This time, after an effort as futile as the first against this Belchorzh, our friends decided it is folly to continue and quickly ran away. While Dimo was struck down is his retreat, we did manage to pull him to safety, revive him and get away to more safe surroundings.

I cannot begin to describe how crestfallen I am to learn there were no answers to solving the Death Curse to be found in this room. I had been so confident we were close but now I just don’t know. Nevertheless, I must put my faith in the Gods of Life and Death, as they have put theirs in me, and be confident that the righteousness of our quest shall guide us forth to our destined conclusion.

Until I see you again, my dearest love, know that I continue to fight for you and all our people.

All my love…