Part 11: No More Bugs

The dark smokey apparition departs
A sight not for the feint of hearts
The party gets up and decides to leave
While they have the night’s reprieve

The cool trek is long, cold and dark
The sun finally appears - a small spark.
As it gets hot an ill wind blows!
A sandstorm! Keep on your toes!

The party is split! Tsara is gone!
And the rogue Averson? Dunno. Lead on!
Then out of the sky descends a huge beast
Flying in on a wind from the south-east.

I believe a gynosphinx it is called
“Give me a riddle or you will be mauled!”
Nigel tries to convince it using his vow
but the Sphinx purrs and raises an eyebrow.

Then Gwenelda steps forward. "I love these!"
They all hope the sphinx she can please.

“Who makes me does not use me.
Who buys me does not want me.
Who uses me doesn’t see me.
What am I?” she asks with glee.

The gynosphinx is very confused.
The fight in it is all but diffused.
“I do not know. Please tell me directly.”
“‘A coffin' would be to answer correctly”.

The creature departs and they are relieved
Gwen thinks she sees water, or is she deceived?
They all strut over and find an oasis.
Water in the desert, what antiphrasis!

Nigel takes first watch as they all stop to rest.
He struts around like a chicken who's stressed.
Straight into a trap door covered in sand.
Certainly not what he had planned.

Scarabs appear and bite the young bachelor
Mara jumps up and down to the battler
At the top of the hole bugs attack the bard
Gwen shoots them from within a yard

Lioniel screams and takes off his shirt
He didn’t expect that this was going to hurt
Gwen throws a rope down to the help the others up
Nigel grabs it and pulls her down onto a pileup

Lioniel screams and falls to the ground
The others scramble up to see what is found
Nigel asks his god to help the storyteller
Worried that he might not get his bestseller

The bard opens his eyes with confusion
Has all this time been a delusion?
He opens his mouth with one thing to state:
“FUCK. THE. BUGS.” he growls while prostrate.

The party head down the hole to the entry
And find huge statues and standing sentry
Sarcophagi are all over the place
Secret passages reveal a new space

The bodies within show signs of mummy rot
"I think they are cursed!" Nigel says at a trot
He opens up a sarcophogi with a thrust
Coughing all the time from the dust

"Undead!" he yells loudly lighting a torch
He sticks it inside and watches it scorch
They move along through another secret way
What else would they find that Nigel would slay?

A room full of treasure, hidden behind a piller
In the middle stands a coffin. Is it a killer?
The party read the walls and find out about a curse.
Touch the treasure and your life will be worse.

They argue about whether to kill everything.
Nigel says "its the only way" but Lioniel won't sing.
In the end they decide to leave it alone.
They will return again after the curse is blown.

To camp they return as if they fought a mighty battle.
"No more bugs. No more of that prattle."