Session #20 (Tomb of Trakas - Cemetary)

At the end of the last session, the party had arrived at the step pyramid Tomb of Trakas. The base of the stairway on to the pyramid was right next to a cemetary that the party knew to be infested with undead. They made the choice to take on the challenge head-on. (I had thought they miught try to scale the walls of the pyramid to avoid this fight).

The party faced a 2 skeletons (150XP each), 1 blazing skeleton (200), 1 Mad Wraith (250), and 5 decrepit skeletons (25 each). Total 875, split 5 ways is 175XP.

The Mad Wraith has the ability to use its "Touch of Chaos" to drive people mad, compelling them to attach allies. The party wisely focused their fire on the blazing skeleton (throwing fire orbs from a tower). They were able to take him out quickly. The Wraith has a stretch of bad rolls, and was only able to succeed with Touch of Chaos once - causing Samm to sprint across the battle field and strike Jhunter for 17 points of damage. The party was able to overcome all the undead creatures without too much difficulty.

Jhunter recovered a magical jewel from the Blazing Skeleton.

The party climbed the stair to the top level of the pyramid. There the found a Harpy ("Naivara") with a pack of 8 gnolls. This group had set up camp atop the pyramid as their base of operations. The party was able to talk Naivara into letting them pass. They entered the pyramid through a doorway in Naivara's lair (an ancient temple atop the pyramid). I'll score this as a level 4 skill challenge. On diplomacy and intimidation checks they had 6 successes and only 2 failures. That's another 875.

Total per character for this session is 350XP.