THE ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD: CONCLUSION

The Elephant’s Graveyard: Conclusion.

After the epic battle against Honapo and the golem, the party spent the next day in the relative safety of the priest’s tomb, healing and resting. Soon, they begin to finish their explorations of the temple, as there were several locked rooms they had not visited. One in the main hallway had a symbol on the door that Alando had identified as a Symbol of Death, so they avoided it. They went into the room next to it (which appeared to be a priest’s room and tomb) and stone shaped a door out of the wall, entering the large room. It was a mage’s tomb, with only a dozen or so skulls there, and a large book resting on a pedestal in the center. Once again, using the powers of a priest of Vistna, Alando was able to see another symbol upon the pedestal. Not wanting to disturb it, they brainstormed various methods of retrieving the book, and finally stone shaped the floor under the pedestal, causing the book to drop, which Cadelaine expertly caught before it hit the ground. Checking out the book, it appeared to be a large ancient spellbook with dozens of spells, all written in ancient Armec.

Also in the tomb was found a long stone rod. Alando examined it and noticed the runes along the sides were a history of sorts…the history of the Armec people! This would prove invaluable to the priests of Vistna. The top unscrewed, and within the hollow center were five potions. All were tasted and found to be potions of longevity…Alando said this fit the history of the Armecs, which stated mages were rare and might live 100’s of years.
With the spellbook and rod, the group made to exit the tomb. Mongo went back to the resting place of Armec to retrieve the sword. The sword, Sentinel, stated it was a Defender blade that could give other powers (flight and Detect Magic). All it asked is that it’s bearer be the protector of the Armec people, who were in perilous danger of becoming extinct since there were so few of them left. The blade also noted that Armec’s skeleton was wearing powerful studded leather armor, and Mongo should also wear that in his quest against evil. Mongo assented to the terms of the sword, a small price to pay for such a powerful weapon.
Leaving the lower level, the party made their way back up, and brainstormed a way to get the elephant god icon out of the room with the statues. Working a method where Mongo flew in and attached a line to the icon, it was yanked out, and Mongo narrowly avoided one of the stone statues that came to life and tried to crush him (but did not follow him out of the room). The party then decided to leave the building, and begin the long task of summoning their bearers, and gathering the ivory, and telling the Armecs the valley was again clear.
However, danger still awaited them. Upon exiting the temple, a hideous site reached their eyes…as they passed through the gate (noticing the elephant that had earlier attacked the temple peacefully grazing outside), the 20 stone statues surrounding the temple suddenly moved, and came to life! As one, they began striding after the party, death in their eyes. The party scattered, trying to separate the statues, but they kept heading after Endefal…who was carrying the elephant god icon! Endefal immediately went into the lake, and although it slowed the statues down, they doggedly followed Endefal across the lake. Getting an idea, Endefal yelled to Mongo to fly over, take the icon, and throw it in the lake. Doing so, Mongo dropped the jeweled icon in the center part of the small lake. The statues followed, to eventually come to a halt surrounding the sunken icon. Standing thus, the party decided they were no longer a menace and made quite a good monument up to their rocky waists in the lake. Whatever the icon was worth, it was not worth battling the stone guardians over

Again resting and preparing to travel back to the entrance to retrieve their porters, mules and water buffalo, the adventurers were surprised to see a long caravan of people and belongings headed their way, followed by their own merchant train. Soon, the Armecs reached the area by the lake. Brolo the shaman commended the party on task fulfilled, saying he saw their victory in his dreams, as well as the death of Ark and the destruction of Honapo. Saying that now that the valley was cleansed, the Armec people would resettle the valley, and stop the decline of their race. Having spoken thus, Brolo collapsed, as his 90 years appeared to be finally catching up with him. He whispered that he only wished he had been able to train another elephant shaman, as he was the last of his kind. Quickly, Endefal grabbed the rod and poured the contents down the throat of the dying shaman. Immediately, Brolo grew younger, and soon was a heartier 80 years of age, and not in danger of dying! The slightly rejuvenated Brolo thanked them, saying they had given him the gift of another decade to train another Elephant God shaman to protect the tribe. The now victorious group gathered their men, and the Armecs, and had a huge celebratory feast where for the first time in several weeks they allowed themselves to enjoy themselves (and Mongo seeded himself liberally among willing Armec women).