Random Plots and Places 9: What a crazy, random happenstance!

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

And so off the lich goes, to join the forces of VIGIL in protecting the Nexus.

Meanwhile, Dena loots the pyramids! She'll find the three piles of dust that were child-headed ogre-creatures have a large, leather apron each enchanted to be nearly impregnable, though they don't cover everywhere- just the front of the torso, with a belt around the middle and a neck strap, leaving the wearer vulnerable in the lower legs, arms, head, back and parts of the chest. One also has an eternally-hot branding iron, and a whip that oozes a potent nerve irritant and stimulant, so it hurts more but also keeps whomever it strikes awake. The dead prisoners are naked, and didn't own anything to begin with. The enchanted torture table might also be worth something, if Dena can move it; it's not built in, but is very large and heavy.

Inside the chest in the sarcophagus chamber is a half-metre cube of stone; when it's wet, it expands into a mountain, and rubbing a handful of salt into it shrinks it back. The ivory-white, finely-boned skull of an angel, delicately etched with spiralling patterns, protects the holder from draining magic, and the ebony-black, equally-delicate skull of a succubus with matching patterns gilded onto its surface protects the holder's mind from magical tampering. A pair of soft, purple satin slippers stop the wearer's feet from making any noise and leaving foot prints. A dagger with a blade of dragon bone slices through most magical protections, though it can't cut through any substance a normal dagger can't slice through. There's also a red velvet bag of green stones; a third of the stones smell of peppermint and explode (when thrown) in a small burst of negative energy, a third smell of ginger and paralyse living creatures they hit after being thrown, and the rest smell of coffee and can be eaten to prevent the need for sleep or supernatural sleep substitutes like elvish trancing or vampiric torpor. The bag generates a new one of that type whenever one is used, but there's fifteen stones inside. There's also a bag of mithril coins depicting an elvish monarch on one side and a sword on the other.