“That rubble in the distance was once Halicarnassus, the jewel of the Anatolian coast. Those crumbled walls were once temples, towers, fortifications, and homes. They look so solemn there, like something out of a demigod’s legend. The remains of the city, you have heard from many travelers over many years, is full of the wealth of its once-lord. How it has not yet been plundered speaks volumes as to the true nature of the tale.”
The party approaches the once-great city of Halicarnassus, which has not seen preeminence since the days of Alexander well over half a millennium ago. Any player with Lore: Architecture will be generally familiar with the great Mausoleum, the shining tomb of the sorcerer-king Mausolus who was buried with all of the riches of his dying state. If said player (and nobody else) succeeds a DC 15 Arcana check, they may also be aware that the stone used in the construction of the Mausoleum is no mortal stone, and there will be no warping it or drilling through by either mundane or magical means, nor will it be possible to teleport within or out. Critically succeeding that check will let them know that the stones themselves were created of an ancient and costly rite, draining the power of whatever resides in the mausoleum, and by their best estimates even the strongest living being that stays within those walls for three days will die an atrophied mindless husk, probably more like two days for the party.
Their first and last stop will be the pandokeion of Diomedes, a friendly and surprisingly young man, who with his wife Artemisia consist of perhaps the last permanent residents of Halicarnassus. Merchants were known to come and go, stopping at the inn on their way to yet-living cities to the north and east, but Diomedes will admit that nobody stays here a minute longer than they need to. If you let him, he will tell the party some lesser-known myths he heard from his parents, as well as some humorous stories he picked up from other adventurers who have not returned. Artemisia will cynically warn the party of the mad shamblers that sift through the ruins of the city, noting that they are often magical but rarely intelligent, and that their minds have been stolen by an obsession with Mausolus and his power. She recommends scouring the city at night, when it will be easier to slip past them.
When the party is fed, rested, and ready to leave, they may venture into the city proper, ringed with stone foundations long deprived of the buildings they held up.
“Just behind every corner you can hear the sound of whispering and muttering, occasionally punctuated by dark chuckling, less of a malevolent and arrogant nature than of a natural philosopher uncovering the secrets of the world. Fragments of spells, of medical formulae, jammed together incoherently such that even the untrained magus could be certain they would never work, at least to the mind of the sane.”
Non-Greek speaking PCs will be unaffected by the whispering, but every Greek speaking PC of Intelligence +1 or above will see their Wisdom reduced by that value until they either reach the Mausoleum or quit the city entirely. As GM, roll a d10. If the party enters the city during the day, then a result of 1 or 2 means they are being watched by a maddened scholar. If they enter at night, then only a roll of 1 will count (but at night the whispers will be noticeably louder and sound worryingly reasonable). Any humanoid creature in the Bestiaries within CR 6 and 8 may substitute for this encounter, so long as they are capable of magic. If the party decides to rest within the city’s ruins, they will certainly be ambushed again. This encounter shouldn’t be too difficult, but excessive caution on the part of the players will inevitably wear them down (start ramping up the difficulty of these encounters until they are forced to either abandon the quest or advance.)
“The great tomb of Mausolus is the one building undamaged by time. It could have been constructed yesterday, or even today. Its pillars defy entropy itself, not even losing the luster on its Tyrian paint. The gold required to leaf every inch of the vast roof could buy a city’s worth of slaves and the land to house them.”
At the foot of the steps patrol the elite guard of what was once the Carian Satrapy of the long-gone Achaemenid Empire. They are nothing but bones and armor now, some even having half of their feet worn away by the constant march. Use the “Skeleton Infantry” from Bestiary 3 statblock. When the party approaches, they will stop marching and form up into a phalanx. They will brandish their spears at the party, but will not advance or attack unless either the party attacks them or approaches within spear range (presumably to get into the Mausoleum). When the mass of undead soldiers is defeated, have one survive just long enough to speak. With an otherworldly voice and in the long-dead Doric dialect of Greek, they will say the following: “You have undone us; you have undone our city.” Then they will crumble. With the gates unprotected, the way is clear to enter.
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