The occasionally heroic band approached the lair of the lich with a plan. As the door opened Lucian made an acrobatic leap into the chamber, backstabbing and batting it up the stairs of its little, detritus filled chamber. In response, the lich seemed to say, and act, pretty much exactly as it did before.
"Who dares to disturb the rest of Acererak? It is your death you have found!"
This included summoning the shadowzone, in which Nar-Heru was quickly dying, making it difficult to dispel the zone. Ghen and Buckthorn revived the wizard after everyone had taken heavy damage, and while the zone was dispelled, the real slog began. Everyone spent some time on the floor bleeding, and Forge, who was wielding the gold mace, spent a long time not using it. Eventually Forge started to really attack and they realized that the Lich’s crown was pulsing fear and disabled it, with Buckthorn riddling it with arrows. The Lich called the shadowzone one last time, but it was too little too late.
The Lich that called itself Acererak crumbled in a pile of ash, and the room suddenly began to shake as the ceiling started to collapse! The party retreated, returning to find a jade coffer with 5 potions of healing, a leather bag with arcane ritual scrolls, gold, and gems, and the lich’s no longer scary crown.
They wondered about the extent of their triumph, and what to do next. They reinvestigated this and that, took another look at the book, and realized they might need to go back to the beginning. The scroll was their only way out.
They returned to the magic circle by the stream. As they approached the hill with the tomb, large, strange feathers were found, perhaps from the infamous creature known as the owlbear. Of which there was almost certainly more than one. They also found the remains of various horses, and what they suspect was Malachia. In any case, Ghen called on spirits to conceal their campsite, and they feared not the great bird-mammals.
They returned to the mosaic hall. Motivated by the word “tormentor”, they wondered if they might need to go back to the devils mouth, and then in it, but did notice a door painted onto the wall of the hall. With a fiendish creature behind it. Nar-Heru used a ritual to see secret doors, and is able to notice things that not even the most skilled thief could. Including the fact that there seemed to be a real door behind painted one.
Forge and Ghen bash away the mosaic, find the door, and they are through and shortly to another room. A large four arm gargoyle awaits! Forge holds it at bay, and pays the price, but inspite of the rubble of past gargoyles grabbing atit is readily defeated. It has a collar with 9 sapphires…
Two small rooms are next to the gargoyles chamber. One has a secret door. Behind that is another small room with a secret door. And then another small room, with a secret door…Six such rooms. As they are entered, a pulse of force energy strikes the enterer. Then its strikes again. Over and over, even as the party struggles to figure out how to open this door then that. A good amount of harm is inflicted.
But open they do! They find themselves in the hall of spheres, coming out by the four-armed gargoyle. They quickly make their way to the other multi-armed gargoyle, watch it crush the sapphires, 3 after another, and when all 9 are gone, check the fourth arm. It holds a flatish diamond that can be seen through.
They look here and there through the gem, and eventually make it back to the secret door they couldn’t open. The invisible ward is revealed, and the door is opened. From there it is on to:
This ruined chamber was once a laboratory, and dusty jars still clutter the shelves that line its walls. The j100r is strewn with rubble and dust, workbenches and tables covered with clay pots and urns, and bones and skulls. Three huge vats stand to the south.
Three great oozes emerge from the vats, they strike with pseudopods, make great foul bursts, ooze all over, and hurt everyone, but are eventually stopped. It helps that they are not very smart.
The following are found in room:
A gold key, and another that looks just like it. If examined carefully, they turn out to be mirror images of each other...
Arcane components worth 300 gp.
(I will assume) that Nar-Heru and Ghen continue looking about, and realize that this laboratory (as Nar-Heru would call it) could be used to make things neither truly dead nor alive.
They also find all sort of old jars, dust, rotted ointments, linen wrappings, etc, etc.
Common sense, so rarely seen, takes hold and drags the weakened party away from continuing to inspect the junk. They go back through the gauntlet of doors, are not struck by force energy, and prepare to make camp.
