Chapter Four: The Manifest of the Harikan Squall

The brunt of the frost passes through the gaps in the skeleton's ribs, leaving it unharmed.

A new round starts. Eight skeletons remain, but they seem unmotivated and disengaged, taking tentative, aimless steps around the room. Any player may take an action at this point.

Mordred rips a bib off one of the standing skeletons as he passes, stealing a quick glance at it: the face is that of a thin, dignified-looking man in his late middle years, with receding hair.

The south exit leads to a short, wide hallway, about 10' wide and 20' long. There are niches in the wall to your right holding jars and urns, and there's a scene painted on the left wall -- you don't stop to examine it closely, but there's a large tree, lots of little portraits, and some ships.

The hall exits into the center of a chamber about 60' wide and 25' long. There are four arched passageways set at intervals along the south wall, and another hallway to your left, leading east. Inscribed copper plaques are affixed to the wall between each of the arched passageways. The west wall bears a large, faded painting of the strange horned figure, sitting cross-legged, with men, women, and children standing in attentive postures on either side of him. A large upside-down bowl has been painted above his head.

In the middle of this chamber, on the floor, is a small xylophone made of dark wood, and a single mallet with a round head.

With a careful eye, Zangua notices faint paths tramped into the dust on the floor: they connect each other four archways and lead out the hallway you came through (where your own foot traffic obscures any further tracking), but the dust on the east side of the chamber, where the other hallway leads out, seems comparatively undisturbed.

Felor picks up the xylophone. The old wood is a bit smoother and slipperier than he was expecting, and he drops it, knocking one of the bars loose. Chagrined, he sets it back down and ambles over to the plaques. The writing on them appears to be in the Old Mezian language.

Zora stares at the painting on the west wall, squints at a stylized curl of lettered ribbon floating by the horned figure's elbow. "Zapan, the father of wisdom," she quietly reads aloud.

Have we seen this horned figure before?

Yes, there were paintings in previous hallways. See page 9

The obvious inference is that the xylophone-player went into one of the four archways.

Each of the archways leads to a small room, about 8' x 15". None of them are quite identical, but each contains a stone sarcophagus, some number of niches and alcoves in the walls, and a small amount of unremarkable jars, urns, and other grave goods in the niches or on the floor. From his visual inspection from the archways, Mordred sees no sign of the musician.

The thing you saw slip out of the skeleton room was small enough that it might have various concealment options in these tombs.

The easternmost tomb holds a sarcophagus of pink granite. Behind the sarcophagus sits a three-legged stool, and on the stool, four small crud-filled ceramic pots that may have held incense or perfume once upon a time. There are five niches in the walls of this tomb and all of them are empty.