Wherein Cromwell gets beaten up by a wall.
In this adventure several interesting encounters were had. Also, the party recruited a fledgling barbarian by the name of Davvyr [Darren] who started adventuring because he was tired of shoveling shit as a peasant. The first area that was explored by the party was south of the obelisk room. Trodding down these hallways, and opening these doors revealed a room with a skeleton that was covered in yellow mold. The party was not foolish enough to enter the room thankfully. Another contained a bunch of flooded sarcophagi that contained handfuls of gold coins. The next room contained an open sarcophagi that held a a nest of spitting cobras. One of the cobras spat venom in Sol's eyes and he was struck blind! the sarcophagus contained some gold chalices worth a hefty sum. The final room contained a several ghouls that were dispatched easily. Inside of the room the words "Life in Death" were scribbled upon the wall in blood.
When the party returned to town Cromwell cured Sol of his blindness, thus converting him to a believer of St. Ygg! Snake, also bearing witness to the miracle, and badly in need of healing services converted as well. They both tithed considerable amounts of gold to the church. Cromwell also recruited a female fighter by the name of Moriza [Her ability scored average a perfect 10 by the way!]. The next foray into the maze yielded several encounters with ravenous zombies They were slain but gradually whittled away at the party's HP and resources. As the party drew near some rooms, and peered inside, one of the was revealed to have many burial alcoves. Cromwell bravely entered the room and was sealed inside by a sliding stone tablet! Immediately a large section of the Flagstone wall animated and began to attack Cromwell. The party outside desperately searched for a lever of door opening mechanism, but there was none. Instead they began smashing down the stone slab door with sledge hammers. Cromwell casted every spell he had, but he still ended up getting pulverized by the golem. Luckily, before the golem could strike the final blow, the rest of the party had gotten through the stone slab, allowing Cromwell to flee. the stone golem was defeated by the fighters Kelg and Sol with the aid of ranged attacks and a prayer from the rest of the party. [As a side note. Cromwell lost every initiative, and Greg rarely rolled under a 17 for golem's attacks, the dice were not in Cromwell's favour. The golem also made a save versus spells against Cromwell's sanctuary spell (unlucky!). the only reason Cromwell survived was due to his gratuitous hitpoints]. A shield +1 and some treasure was found in the room afterwards.
The final thing that happened was that a room lined with 10 golden scarabs worth 100 gp each was found. The party was severely weakened by the zombies and golems, but the thief began working on the lengthy procedure of removing the scarabs. The party was first beset by a pack of roaming ravenous zombies, Cromwell turned some and everyone slayed the rest. Cromwell is out of heal spells by this point. The party was then beset upon by several more zombies as the thief continued his work. This time though, the zombies had a strange triangular rune on their foreheads, and immolated themselves as soon as Cromwell struck one. The intense blast of flames slew Davvyr, and there was much lamenting. the party took care of the remaining zombies, retrieved the final scarabs and high-tailed it to town. On the way back to town Davvyr's corpse was funeral pyred for exp.
