Lizards and Swandives Part 1: The Pyramid of Zombies

Last year I ran a campaign which stretched roughly from the beginning of March to the middle of January. This was mostly a weekly game, with about 3 two week breaks. This campaign began with 5 players, one dropped out, and another joined. The players were one Paladin of Freedom, one Paladin of Tyranny, one Sorcerer, one Rogue, and one Dread Necromancer later changed to a Warmage. It was an interesting party to say the least. We started at level 2, because at level one a brisk breeze will kill you.

We begin the tale exiting a city, setting off through a tunnel a few miles out of town looking for some heroes. This was sort of a throwback to an older game, where the goal was to look for heroes, though this was quite a bit more exhaustive. This cave had two interesting occurrences; the party rogue was mauled, and almost killed by a dire rat, and the party necromancer managed to roll three 20s and send a different rat off the plane of existence. So there was that, in an encounter which should really have been just an attack here, an attack there, showing that this would be a bit more than a normal game.

The tunnel opened up to a beautiful jungle vista, hinting there may be something more to this world. The party descended down a small cliff face, and began a journey through the jungle, no immediate end goal in mind, just hoping to find something. The first thing they find on this expedition is a small tribe of lizard folk, less than 100. These lizard folk are all green, and are at war with another tribe of blue lizard folk.

They decide they need a decent army, and challenge the chief and his top advisers to a battle. He accepts, and we have an interesting arena fight between the paladins and the rogue, and the three leaders. So after winning this fight the only one who spoke lizard folk was in fact the rogue, but the paladin of freedom had the most leadership potential. Fights were had because of this.

By now they had made no progress unto the main goal, and decided to wander around trying to find the missing heroes. They stumble upon an enormous structure, essentially a Mayan pyramid, and decide to investigate inside. Their first encounter, aside from the traps which the rogue easily disarmed, was with members of the blue tribe. The party rogue had a plan though, and led one of them away, using a little bit of sweet talk.

Now murder was his next goal, and by slaughtering the lizard every so carefully, he managed to construct a full body mask out of his skin. This was quite a surprise to the other lizards, as well as the party, when at an opportune moment he erupted out of the skin, sneak attacking a few lizards on the way. I believe the term used was erupting out of his ass. So these scouts easily dispatched they decided to adventure downstairs, where they believed the treasure to be. This was a slight mistake though, as they got more than they bargained for from a Shelob impersonator.

This proved an interesting encounter, as opposed to the fairly standard ones which we had had so far. The fact that it was crawling on the ceiling meant they could just barely reach it, and had to adapt to new tactics. Once the ferocious beast was down, they now had to contend with a dinosaur downstairs. This being a Megaraptor, it jumped all over the place making for another different fight. It’s hopping around was entertaining, given that they had to run after it whenever it moved, but in the end victory was had.

Then came the looting. There was actually a treasure vault hiding behind the monster, and much cheering was had after this discovery. This made the trip already a fruitful venture, but there had to be more. There was too, as they traveled back to a staircase leading up that they had missed before. I should point out too at this point, that they had captured a member of the blue reptilian race, and had been leading him along for a fair while.

The next encounter was an enormous statue which they were forced to climb, made especially difficult with the full plate wearing paladins. This was also difficult because of the steadily rising water level. The reward was worth it though, as they emerged to the top of the pyramid, bearing a large gold idol, which they then rolled down the pyramid. Their tactic to get down themselves was to used summon zombie to create a cushy cushion to land on. This worked as well as expected, and everyone left alive.

 The only thing they forgot was the lizard.