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?
