Roleplaying table top games make for great stories! The Envoys of Spark is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign created by Elyse T. Join hilarious and entertaining player characters on their voyage in an unknown world, as they try to accomplish an enigmatic mission.
The Envoys of Spark Chronicles are published every Monday! Check back for new adventures!
Check Out Part I of The Envoys of Spark
Check Out Part XVI of The Envoys of Spark
Riches and Curses
The secret entrance, magically opened in the mysterious hall of spheres, only led to a small tunnel dug in dirt, and a dead end. Not understanding how to move ahead, the Envoys, accompanied by the grieving Widow, began to carefully investigate the hall. Murals on the wall displayed a variety of people, old and young, rich and poor, each holding a coloured sphere. Touching some of the orbs triggered interesting effects; Medea touched one, and her eyes clouded over, apparently turned blind. Beatrice, after touching one, began to see everything in gray tones, at perceived colour only when movement occurred. Regor III’s vision became slightly dimed, yet something bright suddenly shone in the corner of his eye. He quickly returned to the secret tunnel, seeing a strange light through intangible cracks in the wall that his companions could not.
A bit of fiddling with the wall was all it took; yet another secret entrance opened. The group entered a small room with three promising-looking chests, bronze, silver and gold. Regor quickly exclaimed that since he had opened the door, all three chests were his.
Medea, still blind, entered the room. She could miraculously make out one of the chests, the gold one, across the fog of her vision. Something magical oozed from the chest; she mentioned to Regor that a magical seal kept it locked. Virgil worked on the seal and opened it without trouble…and quickly regretted it. Out of the chest, a ghostly skeleton emerged, brandishing two sharp scimitars at the Envoys.
A few hits by Kohmai frightened the creature; it returned to the chest, the lid snapping close and the magical seal reappearing in place. Regor moved on to the next chest, as though nothing had happened.
Regor’s tampered eyesight could see that the center chest, the silver one, glowed just as the secret entrance had. He begged Beatrice to pick the lock for him, which she did very carefully, leaving the task of opening the lid to the Hynerian.
When Regor opened the chest, a volley of darts flew at his face. He barely noticed the damage, and instead focused on the treasure inside; a large amount of Solem coins! Despite the guarantee of more traps, he was very excited to open the last bronze chest, which was locked by a strange labyrinth mechanism. Using his logical thinking, Regor unlocked the chest while laughing under his breath. Inside waited angry vipers that the Hynerian merely shooed away. At the bottom of the chest, he found a strange magical ring, which Medea confirmed protected the wearer from psychic attacks. Kohmai decided that if anyone’s mind had to be controlled by an external force, it should not be his, and put on the ring as the others agreed.
Familiar Paths
With the three chests triggered, the sound of stone sliding against stone reverberated from the hall of spheres. Virgil investigated and found that yet another secret entrance has opened.
Before leaving the chest room, Beatrice spotted in the ceiling a small hole and asked for a boost to see what it was. She uncovered a narrow tunnel in the ceiling, the seemed t lead a bit further south, but that also spread northward. She tied a rope around her waist, gave the other end to Kohmai, and went exploring to the south.
Ahead, Beatrice found was a small room that looked incredibly familiar. It seemed to be the exact room with the counterweight floor she had found at the start of the adventure. She yelled back at her companions to hold the rope tight, and slowly lowered herself down to balance perfectly at the center of the floor. On the back wall, Beatrice spotted a strange residue, which reminded her of the thick fog exuding from the magical portals found across the entire tomb. Taking a deep breath, she acrobatically ran up to the wall, vigilant not to shift her weight too much to either side and slip down the counterweight floor. As suspected, she went right through the wall.
Beatrice’s eyesight was just starting to return to normal as she noted her surroundings. She had just emerged from a familiar looking portal, the rope around her waist still attached. Stepping into a hallway, she spotted the very familiar large sculpted face with a wide-open mouth and pitch black eyes. She had returned to the entrance of the dungeon!?
Not wanting to get stranded, Beatrice ran back through the portal, watchful to plan her landing on the teetering floor on the other side. This was a bit more difficult than she had anticipated; she skidded and held on for her life as the floor slid to the side, exposing the rusty and bloody spikes beneath. Luckily, Kohmai pulled on the rope at the first sign of trouble, he helped Beatrice reach the tunnel in the ceiling, and return to the group.
“Well,” she said, brushing dirt off her clothes, “that was pointless.”
Chapel for the Dead
The heroes marched to the newly opened path, eager to move on. The winding tunnel led them to the largest room they have uncovered thus far. It was a chapel, empty and dusty. Religious accoutrements filled this chamber, including great wooden pews on either side of a central familiar-looking red mosaic path that led toward a large throne on the far side of the room, which was separated from the pews by a wooden railing. Scenes of everyday life were painted on the walls, but all the people were portrayed with rotting flesh, skeletal hands, and worm-ridden orifices. Yet depicted amidst these disturbing portraits were various symbols of recognized benevolent deities. The Envoys identified Miapolafa among them, drinking molten gold as her lower jaw burned away. Among them, the iconic lady in red stood, with her wide open mouth and silver strands escaping it.
Out of the blue, a eerie female singing voice was heard, echoing from further into the tomb.
Behind the wooden railing was a tiered dais that supported a well-carved and padded wooden chair. A pair of brass candelabra, each holding five white candles, stood on either side of the dais. Two large white pottery urns, each stoppered with brass, sat in each corner. A human skeleton wearing badly rusted and torn black chainmail lay dead in the southwestern portion of the room, one outstretched arm seeming to point into a mist-filled arch on the southern end of the west chapel wall.
Regor decided to immediately sit on the throne, but thanks to Medea, spotted a pressure plate awaiting on the seat. Beatrice triggered it with a pebble, and down came a large iron cage, trapping the throne. Disappointed, the Hynerian instead followed the instructions of the skeleton, and investigated the mysterious archway, wondering if it might teleport him somewhere interesting. Unlike the misty portals uncovered previously, this one was not decorated with colourful lights, and instead displayed human skulls.
Curious, he stepped through, felt something strange, but went nowhere. He stepped away from the portal towards his friends, and was confused when their faces showed shock and dismay. Regor looked at his hands, and realized that he could see right through them. The veins, muscles and bones were now visible under his skin, and were composed of ectoplasm, an almost clear substances. He no longer felt his own feet, his legs simply faded away…he seemed to be hovering above the floor!
“Am I dead?” the ghost of Regor asked.
“Well if you are, I will join you also,” said the Widow, as she lifted her skirts and walked straight through the portal. She too was turned into an ectoplasmic being. “Perhaps this way, I will be able to join with my husband in the after life.”
The Envoys felt a bit guilty at the Widow’s resolution, and really hoped, at least for Regor’s sake, that the effects of the portal could be overturned. Nothing in the chapel seemed to help.
Nothing but Surprises
Near one of the urns on the eastern side of the room, Virgil and Beatrice found a small slot in the wall that seemed to connect to another space past the wall. Regor’s knowledge of such apparatus told him that this was a means of detecting some sort of material sacrifice. The group teased him as they dropped 100 Solem coins through the slot, something the greedy Regor’s incorporeal form would have no use for. He tried to stop them, but had no yet mastered the ability of manipulating objects with ectoplasm alone.
Once the monetary sacrifice had been deposited, a passage leading further into the dungeon opened. The heroes came upon a thin door that had, for reasons unknown, been cemented closed. Kohmai and Virgil took and small running start and smashed right through…only to find a spiked pit on the other side! Quick reflexes allowed Kohmai to hold on to the doorframe, while Virgil was spared, by some miracle, thanks to Beatrice and Medea.
On the other side of the tiny room was a ledge, with yet another door cemented closed. They expected a trap on the other side, and carefully broke away the cement on the door instead of charging at it. A pit filled with snakes awaited them on the other side, with another thin ledge across. Kohmai jumped over the snakes without trouble and began working at the next door. Regor followed, laughing at the group’s misfortunes, while the Hynerian’s ethereal predicament at least kept him from harm. He observed the door, and realized that on the other side would probably be a much wetter environment. Beatrice jumped across the snakes as well to help Kohmai, and ensure that breaking the door open would not flood the tunnel they stood in.
One of Kohmai’s punches finally smashed through the door, and they found a small pool of green liquid on the other side. In the strange water, tiny fish swam happily. Medea and Virgil were helped across the snake pit with rope.
“I think the fish are there to make us think the water is safe,” said Medea, “but it isn’t water, it’s something much more corrosive, and magical in nature.”
All agreed that no one should join the fish for a swim.
