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Old 03-11-2015, 08:13 AM   #520
Abe Sargent
Hall Of Famer
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Catonsville, MD
They head back out and up the road. There is a large statue of Set at the end of this walkway and a destroyed temple to Horus. A tall Obelisk is vibrating, and they circle it and see some glowing runes and a pentagon shaped symbol with five ends missing, and the right size for the Five Gems of Martek. One by one they are placed in, and the Obelisk lights up as the last one is placed in.

A ray of power lances from the Obelisk and hits a wall a few hundred feet away. The wall disintegrates and behind are the shiny entrance to a new and hidden space. The Gems have been drained of their energy for the moment and are now inert rocks of clear crystal. Alzar grabs them.

As they pass the statue of Set to get to the newly opened area, they are forced to get in really close, and Volcifar detects a hidden cache. They open it up, and inside is a bottle. Alzar knows what this is.

He opens the cork, intones the word on the amulet and palm that Martek planted, and the noble Djinni arrives. In a few seconds he sees where he is, and then flies away, shattering the dome of magic that protected this place on his way out, and calls for the Efreet Khalitharius and flys out to challenge him.

Alzar pockets the bottle, just in case (it’ll turn out to be inert as well) and they head into the Lost Tomb of Martek.

(I have collapsed several places and plotlines. The Temple of Set was in another long-lost city you have to get to, I combined both cities into this one. There’s no sense dragging this thing out any longer. I’m also removing any annoying plotlines like what I feel are the sillier aspects of the Final Tomb.

For example, in the final Tomb are a variety of descendants of adventurers that came this far but no further, and there are two different factions. There is a rival party of evil adventurers fighting you for the end. There is another search and fetch quest – you have to go to three different places to get three different items to attach to a magical item to give you final access. There are a bunch of places on different planes – none of which makes a lick of sense for what I’ve created and done here. Plus Alzar can’t go to other planes, so he couldn’t do them anyway. So, instead, I have created a sort of pan-Crypt that uses rooms and places from all of the various places.)

It’s time to finish this quest. Inside the Lost Tomb of Martek should be the Sphere of Power that he found and used to capture and conquer the Efreet. The Djinni will likely just weaken it. Although it would be poetry to assume one will defeat the other, this is a place of strength for the Efreet. It has prepared. As they’ve seen, it has some allies of various places, from the cultist dervish branch to undead and other servitors.
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