Chapter 33 - The Tomb of Sartine (Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress - Part 2)

Sartine was a shadar-kai master of shadow and illusion magic. Legend speaks of her passage into service to the Raven Queen when she died, becoming one of the mighty sorrowsworn. Before her death, however, she built a tomb—a place that exists simultaneously in the natural world and the world of shadow—to house her mortal remains.

The last guardians defeated, our Heroes enter the Tomb, finding themselves in an Ossuary. Two obelisks stand in this large chamber, one to the northwest and one to the southeast. A doorway is visible in the southwest wall, but a wide pit prevents easy access to it. To the east, a large alcove contains a great mound of humanoid skulls, all bleached a pristine white. A smaller alcove stands to the south, occupied by a hulking skeletal creature with long, skewerlike claws. Its mouth twists into a leering grin as it lumbers out of the alcove. The skeletal creature is not the only guardian of the Ossuary, as terrible Bone Nagas spring out of the skull mound, while arcane energies crackle on the pillars to blast our heroes. This threat handled, the party proceeds deeper into the Tomb.

They reach a chamber, appearing to be a wide hall with double doors standing closed to the north and south. An open archway opposite your entry leads into a crypt of black stone. There’s a heavy taint of ancient rot hanging in the air. Shadow-gray sculptures of monstrously large toads flank both openings. Each statue bears a glowing sigil in its open mouth. Here they must face many more undead guardians, including a fearsome Death Knight. They solve the riddle presented by the Frog statues, and enter into a mausoleum.

This echoing mausoleum is as cold as darkest winter. A bleak frozen pool fills its center. Each corner of the main chamber opens onto a small crypt. To the south stands a pair of frosted
double doors. To the east, the chamber opens into a side hall backed with funeral niches. A circle scribed by glowing lines of energy is set into the floor of the eastern hall. From the frozen pool, an Angel of Vengeance erupts, leading more Angelic minions, and undead Wraiths. Fighting their way through, they enter the magical circle and are teleported a new chamber.

Four roaring fire pits arranged around a 20-foot tall square obelisk light this massive chamber. The obelisk is carved of stone so black that it seems to absorb the light of the flames.
A word carved into the obelisk’s southern face, “Shadow,” can barely be discerned in the black stone. To the north and south of the obelisk, dark sigils are inscribed every 5 feet across the
floor. Statues of armored warriors stand in a line along the east and west walls. As the heroes begin to solve the riddle of the obelisk, Fire Archon guardians led by an Efreet appear. Only after defeating them is the party permitted to finally access the entrance to the Shadowfell.