[Back on Yacg'harr myself and Dak were about to try and get the portals to work in the Tomb of Evil King Thamas. Just to note; Irritator had teleported back home for a bit, which is a shame for him as he missed out on what happened next...]
DAY 534 (19th Eleasis) (August) cont...
They 'key' did fit into the hole in the first pillar. It clunked into place with a strong magnetic kind of attraction.
When it did so, a thunder and lightning storm suddenly brewed up outside. Looking out of the barrow we could see electrical energy running down the external pillars. All the runes and other symbols on the pillars inside glowed brightly.
After a couple of minutes it started to die down though and after five minutes it had stopped all together. The glowing runes remained, and there was a low humming noise inside the barrow.
I had the animals watching outside and they reported that some people had come up from 'Pirate Town' to see what was going on, but eventually they wandered back again.
Dak went to find Silas and four hours later they returned. Then together we all began to examine the settings of the key and the many and various symbols on the pillars.
Without going into too much detail here in my personal journal, suffice to say we worked out that these were runes known only to Thamas himself. Silas knew little, had only read references to them in books, and nothing at all as to their meaning.
And so it fell to blind experimentation. The first 'rune' we set it to seemed promising, a pictogram of what looked like a treasure chest.
When this was set, a swirling magical portal appeared between two of the pillars.
A stone was thrown in, then I stuck my finger into it. I then discovered that I could not pull it back out again!
After much mucking about, I turned into an eagle, then a mouse, then a snake and finally managed to wriggle free. I then turned back into a human and thankfully I still appeared to have all my digits.
I summoned a satyr and instructed him to go through the portal, take a quick look and then come back, which he did. Before he unsummoned he told us the room was dark, it appeared to be full of chests and he was not attacked.
We stepped though and Dak drew the Emberblade so that we could see what we were doing.
It was amazing! It was literally a room full of treasure. A large room too, about a hundred feet on each side, with all the walls lined with treasure chests, stacks of object d'art and other valuable items. It was an adventurers dream. Dak was practically drooling from the mouth at the sight of it.
There was also a portal beside us, glowing blue between two pillars that were similar in construction to those in the barrow. The symbol of the chest was replaced with that of a small hill.
I picked up a gold coin, but it in my pocket and stepped back through. Back in the barrow the coin still appeared real. I detected no magic.
When I went back in Dak was opening the chests and stuffing his pockets full of loot. He then gave up and started to drag one of the chests through the portal.
'Steady on old chap,' I said. 'It's as safe here as anywhere else.'
'Mine!' he snarled, like a dog with a bone.
While my half-orc friend went crazy with avarice I tried to estimate the wealth in the room. 50 or 60 chests, each containing 10,000 to 12,000 gold's worth of valuables.
That meant there was somewhere easily half a million in the chests alone! Everything else seemed to be worth about the same. Was I really looking at a horde worth a million gold?
I continued to try to Detect Magic. There was only a feint trace from the room itself. Everything else was apparently real.
I went back and talked to Silas, but he didn't know anything about Thamas's
Treasure, while Dak dragged another chest though.
'It's safer back there,' I repeated calmly.
'Much gold! Many gold!' laughed Dak hysterically. 'Much and many gold! Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!'
Silas, getting into the jovial spirit, cracked open a bottle of Jibi-jibi and proceeded to drink himself into a stupor. I was beginning to feel I was surrounded by madmen.
The portal 'powered down' after ten minutes, but it could be powered back up again.
I decided to risk a quick teleport back to Sasserine and using my boots teleported to the livingroom of Vanderboren Manor.
'I've not much time,' I gabbled at my wife. 'We've discovered a huge treasure trove back at the barrow. It's far too much to carry. We need to protect it before pirates come or Dak eats it all or something. Can you gather the guys, arrange teleports etc while I go back to protect it?'
She gave me a dumbstruck nod and I teleported back to the barrow.
Back at the barrow I spent much of the day in the trove, trying to stop Dak from bursting with excitement. After two hours of sifting through it all, I decided that my first estimate was roughly correct.
We went back through to find Rolanda and Jonathan squawking that Silas had wandered off about half an hour ago.
'Why didn't you come and tell us?' I asked.
'The portal powered down and since neither me or Jon have opposable thumbs we couldn't power it back up again you ninny!' scolded my pet rat.
We tracked him down easily enough and brought him back.
'But this is big news!' he enthused. 'I will have my name in all the great journals.'
Getting your name into the great journals is rather my thing, but I didn't mention that. I just told him it was safest to stay put for now, as we were now in possession of a huge wealth and at the same time only a mile away from a town full of naughty pirates.
I'm not sure he understood though. Like Dak, his brain had gone haywire.
Later in the day, I could see that we were being watched, two men had come along the coast from Pirate Town. I sent Jonathan out to eavesdrop on them.
He returned a while later to report that the men had been talking about 'telling the Captain' about what they had seen.
Dak and Silas had exhausted themselves and were asleep by dusk. I took out the key and the humming stopped.
Just before midnight Lavinia teleported into the barrow, in the company of Molly and Irritator.
'What did I miss?' asked the hapless halfling/kobold.
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