I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

After the main party finished its cursory investigation of the Great Hall of Spheres, Mekrob and Jaques both noticed that Billy Rubin was acting strangly. In spite of this, the party decided to camp for the night. Mekrob chose to keep watch with Billy Rubin in order to keep an eye on him.

During the last hour of their watch, Billy Rubin prepared his spells from his spellbook. As he finished, Billy stood up and calmly stabbed Mekrob in the neck. Only Mekrob's barbarian reflexes kept him from being assassinated. Mekrob sprung to his feet, simultaneously drawing his greatsword. Mekrob swung the weapon and hit Billy in the beak with the flat of the blade.

Billy Rubin moved sixty feet from Mekrob with fantastic speed and threw an exploding ball of fire on the him and the sleeping party. Shambhala sprang to his feet and threw a net on Billy Rubin. The rest of the party subdued and bound Billy while Klatu tended to the wounded. Sometime later that morning, Sayuri appeared from the Silver Sphere looking very much like an elf.

After the explanations, the party explored a small room at the end of a crawlway behind the Gold Sphere.

A broken, 8-foot-tall statue of a four-armed
gargoyle squats here, alone and in the dark. Its
three remaining hands appear as if in positions of
supplication, or need.

After some experimentation, the party figured out to place three gems from the gargoyle's collar into the palms of the statue. The statue then crushed the gems and dumped the powered remains onto the floor.

No one knows exactly when it happened but sometime later Sayuri fell victim to the same foul presence beyond the Bright Blue Sphere. She attacked Mekrob as soon as the opportunity presented itself but she was ultimately forced to retreat into the Bright Blue Sphere.

Now minus two team members, the reduced party explored two crawlways to dead ends. After further search, Shambhala discovered a secret trap door at the end of one of the tunnels. The trap door unceremoniously dumped the present PCs onto the floor of a hidden 30' x 30' chamber ten feet below.

The chamber is bare but for three conspicuous chests,
each about 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. One
appears to be of gold, the second is silvery, and the third
is constructed of hardy oak banded with thick bronze.

The party first opened the silver chest and set off an easily-survived fusilade of darts. The bronze-bound oak chest, however, was far more deadly. As soon as the lid was opened, a giant skeleton armed with two scimitars appeared. The team just barely defeated the strange enemy after losing two more of their own.

Sometime during the battle, Mekrob was forced to abandon his post guarding Billy Rubin. Jaques emerged from the crawlway just in time to witness Sayuri carry Billy into the Bright Blue Sphere.

Billy Rubin and Sayuri have been dominated by the presence beyond the Bright Blue Sphere. Mekrob and Klatu were killed in battle with the bone creature.

Treasure gained: a clear crystal box, a ring of protection +1, diamond dust.

The golden chest remains unopened. The mystery of the gargoyle statue remains unsolved.

The Arrow Smith

As the party rested on the north slope of Lonely Hill, the ghost of Blue Thunderstaff appeared at the entry hall of Acererak's Tomb. Despite efforts to communicate with the dead goblin, Blue seemed fixated on 'The Demons' that would not let him in the tomb.

For reasons known only to him, Eragon, resigned as a favored soul of Kord to begin his career in law enforcement and promptly abandoned the expedition into Acererak's Tomb.

For reasons known only to him, Melvin the Mystic journeyed through the great swamp to Lonely Hill. Whereupon he met and joined Jack's Inquisitors in their exploration of the Tomb of Horrors.

The day's adventuring started with the party exploring beyond the doors in the gargoyle room. After checking it for traps, Billy Rubin opened the first door to reveal an empty, dusty, boring room. But as he moved in to search the empty, dusty, boring room he was fired upon by an unseen archer.

From the rear ranks of the assembled party, Bosell the druid darted forth into the room only to be immediately grabbed by Mekrob. Jaques cast a spell to shower the room in glittering flecks of gold and outline an invisible assailant. No invisible opponent was revealed but two members of the party were blinded by the golden shower.

After evacuating the room, the party finally revealed the culprit to be a magical arrow trap. Billy Rubin was able to disable the trap - but only temporarily. The trap magically reassembled itself in under a minute. After taking several arrow wounds, the party followed a series of identical, empty, dusty, boring rooms to a dead end at a false door.

The party decided to give up on that endeaver and further explore the entry great hall. Billy Rubin began delibarately and slowly examining every foot of the red tile path. For reasons known only to her, Sayuri began cartwheeling, somersaulting and backflipping her way down the path. She deftly bounded over the first pit trap that she discovered but was not so skillful the second time.

Being a talented acrobat, Sayuri should have easily survived a mere 15' fall but she was nicked by a handful of spikes. Even as Sayuri called up to her teammates above that she was ok, she could see the bloody foam issuing from her mouth, and could not call for help as first her tongue and jaw seized and then her entire body. Her heart could no longer beat and Sayuri could no longer breathe. As the world went dark, she fell forward and lived her last few moments in agony in the bottom of that little pit under Lonely Hill.
Billy Rubin finished his survey of the great hall and discovered two more pit traps in the process. The party was then faced with two equally fantastic enigmas: a green devil face and a mist-filled archway.

Billy Rubin experimented with the archway for a bit but could draw no conclusions or illicit any reaction. Bosell cast a mighty incantation and bent the power of the wind to clear the mist but the vapors seemed to appear to fill the archway as fast as Bosell dispersed them.

Mekrob could take no more. Out of patience, he lunged through the mists to find himself transported to an unlit cell empty save for three iron levers on the south wall. Mekrob immediately began experimenting with the lever positions.

Meanwhile, the party tied a rope around the waist of Bosell and he, too, entered the mists. Bosell was transported to the same cell as Mekrob. Right about then, Mekrob found entirely by chance the combination to open the trap door in the ceiling. The open trap door revealed a narrow crawlspace above. The dwarven barbarian easily scaled the rock walls and began squeezing through the dirt tunnel while the druid ruminated for several minutes to determine into which animal form he would change. The barbarian and the snake-form druid eventually emerged into the pit trap that killed Sayuri.

Without further investigation, the party returned to the puzzle of a single empty arrow-trapped room. Using divinations, Billy Rubin detected a secret door. Once again, the party faught its way through a series of trapped rooms this time with the added fun of struggling to open the secret doors.

Finally the few party members that made the trip emerged in a second great hall. Billy Rubin immediately began his survey. Shamballa bravely volunteered to run the gauntlet again in order to escort the rest of the team through. after a few tense moments, the entire team (less Sayuri's corpse) was present in this 130' x 20' hall.

The floor of this long, wide hall is inlaid with tiles, and the walls and ceiling are painted with figures of animals and strange signs and glyphs. Humans and humanlike creatures hold painted spheres, each a different color from the next.

At the end of this hall was another mist-filled archway almost identical to the first one. Recklessly, Bosell charged into the mists only to appear at the entrance of the tomb completely naked and bereft of posessions. Bosell set up camp with the expedition's hired porters and after preparing spells the next morning, reincarnated Sayuri as an elf.

Thus, dawn broke on the Great Swamp and saw the rebirth of Sayuri and a day filled with hope & promise. But what fate befell the rest of the party that dared to brave the night inside the Tomb of Acererak the archlich?

Blue's Clues

The 'businessmen' in the tunnels under the bathhouse were startled at the presence of a zombie shambling up towards Cauldron. The zombie was intercepted at the bathhouse and relieved of his scroll case.

Inside the scrollcase was a letter from Blue Thunderstaff addressed to the elders of the temple of Wee Jas concerning the location of Blue's obsession, Acererak's Robe. Blue believed that he was finally close to locating the Acererak's tomb in the great swamp just three days' travel from Cauldron. Blue wrote that the swamp locals spoke of a place called 'Lonely Hill' that was rumored to be the ancient lich's final resting place.

Jack's Inquisitors kept the note for themselves and with great care and attention purchased the gear that they hoped would lead them to victory in the tomb where so many others are rumored to have died.

Without any clear leads, the party first ventured to the hut of Thingizzard, The Witch of The Fens. Although quite diplomatic, Jaques D'Artangon was unable to obtain any real information from the hag. After some search, the party encountered a group of 10 lizardfolk spearfishing in the marshes. After some parley, the primitives were falling all over themselves to help lead the party to Lonely Hill and even agreed to act as porters for daily wage.

The sandy, scraggy Lonely Hill was remarkable only in its desolation. While exploring around the base of the north slope, Billy Rubin (and later Bosell) discovered the naked, bloated corpse of Blue Thunderstaff partially submerged in the swamp waters. Taking this as a clue, the party searched around the face of the north slope and Billy Rubin discovered a mostly-obscured ancient tunnel. He had discovered the entrance to the tomb of horrors!

A few minutes of frantic digging expose the tunnel as a 20' wide corridor with plaster, frescoed walls. Several member of the party immediately noticed that the many-colored tiles of the floor mosaic spelled out a barely-visible message in the common tongue.

ACERERAK CONGRATULATES YOU ON YOUR POWERS OF OBSERVATION.

SO MAKE OF THIS WHATEVER YOU WISH,

FOR YOU WILL BE MINE IN THE END NO MATTER WHAT!
Go back to the tormentor or through the arch,
and the second great hall you’ll discover.
Shun green if you can, but night’s good color
is for those of great valor.
If shades of red stand for blood the wise
will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of
magical metal—you’re well along your march.
Two pits along the way will be found to lead
to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.
These keys and those are most important of all,
and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.
If you find the false you find the true
and into the columned hall you’ll come,
and there the throne that’s key and keyed.
The iron men of visage grim do more than
meets the viewer’s eye.
You’ve left and left and found my Tomb
and now your soul will die.

Billy Rubin found two spiked pit traps but was oblivious to the poisoned needle until it stuck him. A search of the pits led to the discovery of a pair of magic goggles among the debris in the bottom of one.

After further investigation, the party discovered a concealed door behind one of the frescoes. Soon after, the party encountered a savage, 4-armed gargoyle towering 10 feet tall. The party warriors Sayuri, Mekrob, & Shamballa held the line while Drakel unleashed volley after volley of devastating spells. After a lengthy, brutal fight, the party prevailed and claimed the beast's gem-studded collar as their prize.

The collar concealed a note in magic runes. Jack deciphered the note to read:
Look low and high for gold, to hear a tale untold.

The archway at the end, and on your way you’ll wend.
—A.

Captain's (b)Log

This is going to be the place where I express my thoughts about the strange happenings in Cauldron.