Adventure 2002 December 29

It's noon on the 1st Corday of Madrer. We're in a 30'x30' room, in the submerged tower at the lake. The room has a door in the northwest corner, one in the center of the west wall, a set of double doors in the east wall, with mud oozing in under them, and two sets of stairs, one up and one down.

As we discuss what to do next, Telryn is exploring the room; suddenly a stone comes loose and hits him in the head. He looks dazed. At the same time, Stone comes down the stairs (from the boat), saying he feels much better after some fresh air. Miriel examines Telryn and says he has a concussion and should go rest in the boat. Before he leaves, Hands of Fire says something to him, and he says he knows we all can't communicate, but we'll figure it out. Before he leaves, Miriel asks him for the prism, which he leaves with her, but he says he wants to keep it when we divide up the treasure.

As we talk, Hands of Fire holds out some things significantly - he has found two scroll cases, some coins, some topazes, and some lock picks. Telryn opens the scroll cases, but can't figure one of the scrolls out without casting Read Magic, which he is too woozy to do. The other is sealed with a double eagle, and seems to talk about troop movements of long ago. Miriel looks at it and finds that it contains troop movements for the Durrover invasion. We've heard that Lageni has been invading Durrover for the last few years. This document might be several months out of date, but it's pretty new. We send the scrolls back with Telryn to the boat.

Goldpetal and Miriel discuss whether there is more on this level. They say maybe we should go down the stairs. Goldpetal goes to the stairs to look. He can feel cold air wafting up; Paks says she has a really bad feeling about the next level. As he watches down the stairs, Goldpetal can see what looks like some rats moving around at the bottom of the stairs. Stone goes over and says he can see a lot of rats down there. We ask Paks if her bad feeling would prevent us going down, or just make us go carefully. She says kind of both. Chuck, Stone and Goldpetal think it's very strange for there to be so many rats which aren't coming up the stairs. Novalia asks how many rats there are - Stone counts "One, two, lots". Goldpetal says there's a swarm of rats down there, but he can't see as well as Stone. He says if the entire floor is like there, there would be well over 100 rats. Goldpetal suggests burning them. Miriel suggests throwing a torch down, then calls for weapons out and tosses her torch down the stairs. The rats scatter a bit to avoid the torch. Stone walks down the stairs a bit so he can see the room better. He sees a large square room, 50'x50', swarming with rats, all over the floor, up the walls, and up the pillars supporting the room. He back up to tell us this.

Miriel asks how we kill rats, or if Goldpetal can do something with them. He doesn't know of anything. Novalia suggests smoking them out. Miriel asks Goldpetal about a swarm of some other creature, but he says it's not powerful enough. Paks goes to the top of the stairs and fires her bow, while Stone goes upstairs to get a stirge corpse. Paks kills a rat, pegging it to the ground. The other rats start feeding on it. Stone comes back with an armload of stirges. He chops them into bits, goes down the stairs a bit, and starts throwing bits into the corners. The rats start swarming into the corners. Some parts of the floor clear up, and the rats seem to ignoring Stone in favor of the corpses. On the clear parts of floor, he sees rotted barrels and chests on the floor; they look over a hundred years old. There's a bit of water on the floor, too, pooled in the southern end. He looks, but can't see any doors out of this room. Novalia suggests smoking them out again. Paks asks if we should detect magic. Miriel likes the idea of burning/smoking, but Goldpetal is unsure. Miriel says she can do a Sound Burst, but it won't get the whole room. Paks suggests throwing a corpse down to get them to swarm in one area. Miriel says she needs to go rest before we head down, and she wants to go out of the tower to do so. Novalia offers to go watch her. Paks says someone should stay and watch. Stone sits down on the stairs to watch. Everyone else stays downstairs to watch. Miriel and Novalia go upstairs. Miriel gestures to Hands of Fire to come along and gets him to pick up the bag of coins and the sack of topazes to come out. He carries it up to the boat, then goes back down into the tower.

Miriel rests, while Goldpetal and Hands of Fire search all the rooms on the floor we were on for secret doors. Chuck searches the walls of the great hall. Stone is chatting with Paks and nibbling on bread and cheese; every once in a while he tosses a little cheese down and causes a scramble among the rats. The stirges are now stripped to the bone. Suddenly, in the southeast corner of the rat room, Stone sees something, nudges Paks to look. A trap door opens up and the rats scatter. He sees two human-looking arms coming out of the door. He readies his crossbow. A ghoul climbs out, grabs a rat and bites the head off of it. Stone whispers to Paks, who tells him to let the ghoul keep eating. The ghoul starts sniffing and looking around and Stone fires off an arrow at it and hits it.

Stone drops his crossbow, yells, and bullrushes the ghoul through the rats. Goldpetal and Hands of Fire hear the shout. The rats bite at Stone as he runs, scratching him up, but not injuring him seriously. The ghoul tries to bite Stone, but misses, and they both fall through the trap door. Chuck runs down the stairs after Stone, through the rats, and reaches the trap door, getting bitten by the rats as he goes. Down through the trap door, he sees Stone and the ghoul wrestling. He calls back to Paks to tell her what's going on. The ghoul tries to grapple with Stone, but can't get a hold on him. Paks heads up the stairs to summon the rest of the party, yelling as she goes.

Stone attempts a flurry of head-butts against the ghoul, and hits it twice, crushing it and killing it, but covering his head in gore. Chuck climbs down the ladder under the trap door, but the rats get in a few bites first. He finds himself in a hallway with Stone and the corpse of the ghou.. He asks Stone if he's okay. Goldpetal and Hands of Fire run to the top of the stairs and see a lot of rats, so they stop. Stone wipes smashed ghoul out of his eyes and looks around the hallway. It's about 20 feet long, ending in a big stone door, at the opposite end from the ladder to the trap door. He looks up to see if the rats are coming down, but they're not. He searches the ghoul corpse but just finds some rags. Chuck sticks his arm up through the trapdoor, but no rats attack.

Goldpetal sees the hand come up, so he casts a Flare into the middle of the room. The rats scatter away from the flare. Hands of Fire runs across the room to the trap door; the rats are dazzled and don't attack him. Paks reaches the top of the tower and calls for Miriel and Novalia to come down and help with the ghouls. Stone tells Chuck to bring his sack. He walks up to the stone door and listens at it, but doesn't hear anything. The door is large with a wheel carved in it, and a symbol marked on it in charcoal and blood. He gets a bad feeling from it. Chuck climbs partway up the ladder and sticks his head out, calling for Stone's sack. Goldpetal charges across the room to the trapdoor; the rats are still dazzled. Hands of Fire jumps over Chuck and down the hole, very gracefully, landing on his feet. Novalia casts Expeditious Retreat on herself and runs into the tower and down to the first floor. Paks and Miriel run after her, more slowly.

Chuck tries to construct a rope bridge across the rats while they're stunned. Novalia reaches the top of the stairs and sees the swarm of rats again. She bolts across the room and goes down the trapdoor. Paks and Miriel start to run across the room; the rats still don't attack, so Paks stops to look around. She sees lots of crates and debris it looks like this was a storeroom. Miriel keeps going to the trapdoor and down. When she gets to the bottom, she asks "Where's the ghoul?" Stone points to the mess on the floor. He picks up the dead ghoul and throws it into the room up the ladder. The rats show some interest in it; they're getting over being stunned. Paks grabs a ruined crate next to her and tries to carry it, but it falls apart. She runs to the trap door and down. The rats sniff at the ghoul corpse. Stone washes his face with water from his sack.

Miriel examines the symbol on the stone door closely and identifies it as a symbol of Chern. Meanwhile, Goldpetal is knocking on the walls and finds a secret door. He listens at it, but hears nothing. Miriel Detects Magic on the symbol, but it's not magic. Paks says she's got a very bad feeling about all of this.

It's freezing down here. Goldpetal finds an empty torch bracket, pulls it, and the secret door opens. He can see a rough-hewn passageway through it. It's 5 feet wide and leads off diagonally. Goldpetal shoots an arrow down the passage, but it just hits the wall at the end and breaks. Paks points out that this just makes sound to attract people. Miriel suggests closing the trap door so the rats can't get in, wedging it with a dead torch so it can be opened more easily; Chuck takes care of this.

We head down the corridor past the secret door. It is quite long, about 120 feet, opening up into a big natural cavern, about 100 feet by 50 feet. There are lots of stalactites and stalagmites, and a large pool fills about three-quarters of it. Even Stone can't see the other end. Chuck and Stone go to the edge of the pool to examine the water, but it just looks like a pool of water, with a putrid stink to it. Stone pokes the 10-foot pole into the water.

Suddenly, a giant crayfish comes out of the water and attacks Chuck and Stone. Stone calls out "Butter!" The crayfish hits both of them, one with each claw. It grabs them with its claws and starts pulling them into the water. Chuck pulls out the glowing dagger and stabs at the crayfish, hitting it. Goldpetal squeezes past Paks and pulls out his bow and shoots at the crayfish, but misses. Paks steps around Miriel and shoots her bow at it, but misses. Novalia aims for the head, but misses. Stone tries to pry its claws open and aims a flurry of kicks at its head. One foot connects, with a loud crunching sound. The crayfish looks stunned. The crayfish drops Stone and moves back into the water, dragging Chuck with him. Miriel runs over to Stone and heals him; he feels much better. Hands of Fire dives into the lake and swims after the crayfish, clawing and biting at it. He hits it with a claw and bites it. It starts thrashing and tries to attack him. Chuck stabs at the crayfish again, trying to stick his dagger in the claw joint. He gets the dagger in deep, slicing the claw off, and the crayfish sinks ino the water.

Chuck swims up to the top of the water. He's having some trouble swimming around. Stone holds out the 10ft pole. Hands of Fire swims down and finds a dead crayfish. Hands of Fire and Chuck swim to shore. Miriel heals Chuck. She suggests that Goldpetal gives a healing potion to Paks and one to Chuck, so that they're distributed around the party better.

Miriel examines Chuck and Hands of Fire for signs of disease. She sees a color in the eyes of Hands of Fire that makes her think he might have come down with Slimy Doom from swimming in the lake. She warns everyone to stay away from Hands of Fire (and gestures at him) and the lake. She examines the lake water. Paks offers her a vial of holy water and suggests that she pour it into the lake and offer up Madriel's blessing. Miriel thanks her, and asks the others to help. Novalia, Miriel, and Goldpetal do a purify water ritual, invoking Madriel, Denev, and Tanil. The ritual takes about an hour. We have a pretty good feeling about it afterwards, and Miriel says that the lake doesn't appear to be disease-ridden anymore. She suggests resting before we go on. Paks says we should rest in the corridor, while Novalia says we should go all the way back outside. Chuck wants to change his clothes; he smells bad from his immersion in the lake.

We discuss it some further and finally agree to stay near the lake, in the long corridor. Miriel gives Hands of Fire a cure disease potion, and he looks much better. Miriel, Goldpetal, Novalia, and Hands of Fire rest, while the rest guard at either end of the group.

Four hours pass uneventfully. Miriel and Goldpetal reexamine the lake, and it looks much cleaner. Hands of Fire smells it, says something incomprehensible, and gestures that it's good. We go back to the hall; the secret door swings shut behind us. Miriel asks if we should block it, but Paks says not to bother. We scrub the sigil of Chern off of the stone door, and Miriel chalks a symbol of Madriel on the door instead.

It's still very cold in the hallway. Paks still doesn't like the looks of the place. Chuck and Stone try to open the door with the wheel on it. Stone swings it open easily, and we see another rough-hewn hallway, 10 feet wide. After about 20 feet, it opens out to the left. Chuck asks Stone if he can see anything - he says he sees a pool of water. Stone says "Do you got the butter?" Novalia casts Guidance on herself. Chuck and Stone take off their packs, Stone grabs the 10-foot pole, and they walk down the hallway, followed by the rest of us.

We see a large room with a pool of water and four sarcophagi. Suddenly, three ghouls jump out at us and attack Chuck and Stone. Two hit Chuck, injuring him badly and paralyzing him. He falls to the ground. Goldpetal shoots over his body and hits a ghoul. Stone punches a ghoul with a flurry of blows and injures it badly. Paks swings at one of the ghouls with her longsword and hits it, killing it. Hands of Fire charges, leaping over Chuck, and attacks a ghoul. One bites him as he goes by, but doesn't paralzye him. He claws and bites, but misses. The wounded ghoul attacks Hands of Fire; the other one attacks Stone. It misses Hands of Fire, but hits Stone and paralyzes him. He falls, and the ghoul steps over him. Three more ghouls run up. Novalia steps up and attempts to turn the ghouls, but fails. Miriel tries, and almost succeeds, but the ghouls seem strangely resistant.

Goldpetal drops his bow, draws a scimitar, steps around Paks, and swings at the ghoul in front of her, but misses. Paks steps back and attempts to turn the ghouls, but fails. Hands of Fire steps back and swings at the same ghoul again, but misses. The ghouls attack. One goes after Hands of Fire, but misses. The wounded one attacks Goldpetal and hits. He is paralyzed. Another ghoul steps over towards Miriel, and Hands of Fire swings at it, but it misses. It hits, scratching her. She is paralyzed and falls. Novalia pulls out her longbow and shoots one in the head, putting the arrow right through it, but not killing it. Paks steps in front of Novalia and tries to turn undead, calling on Tanil and Madriel. She succeeds, and turns them all. They scatter and run away. Hands of Fire attacks the one Novalia shot, but misses. They run away. Novalia grabs Miriel and drags her back into the hallway, Paks and Hands of Fire follow suit, close the door, and brace against it. Novalia performs minor healing on Chuck and Hands of Fire. Paks is astonished; "Damn, I didn't think that would work!"

The corridor is still freezing, but not as cold as the crypt. Paks tries to wedge the door with Stone and Miriel's daggers. Novalia watches the big door with bow drawn. Paks opens the secret door and tries to drag everyone into that corridor. We hear pounding on the big door. Everyone is now behind the secret door, and Novalia closes it. Stone and Goldpetal start to move. Stone asks about the pounding. Goldpetal tries to listen at the door, but just bruises his ear. Goldpetal looks into Chuck's pack to see if he can get rid of the duck without touching it. Paks tosses him a shirt to wrap around it. As Goldpetal rummages, we hear a loud boom - the other door has opened. Stone steps up between the party and the door. Hands of Fire and Paks join him. Novalia starts dragging Chuck further down the corridor. Stone shouts out "Hey, we're in here!", telling Paks that we can take them one at a time. Goldpetal takes the duck down to the lake.

We hear the ghouls climbing back down the ladder. Stone helpfully shouts "The torch handle!" Goldpetal throws the duck in the lake. Novalia finishes dragging Chuck to the lake. The ghouls finally figure out how to open the secret door, as Miriel starts to move. The ghouls rush in through the secret door.

Stone punches the first ghoul in line with a flurry of blows. One fist connects hard, crushing the ghoul. Paks shoots at the ghouls past Stone, but misses. The ghouls rush in, attacking Stone. The one in front misses. Goldpetal comes back into the corridor. Novalia guards Chuck and casts Guidance on herself. Hands of Fire throws his javelin at the ghoul in front, but misses. Miriel casts a sound blast at the ghouls and stuns two of them.

Stone attacks the ghoul in front, hitting it once, but not killing it. Paks shoots at the ghoul in front and hits it, killing it. The non-stunned ghoul leaps forward, attacking Stone. It fumbles and bumps into the wall. Stone swings at it, smashing it hard, but it's still alive. Goldpetal waits and watches. Novalia invokes Tanil. Hands of Fire waits for Stone to get out of the way. Miriel fires off another Sound Burst and kills the first ghoul. The remaining ghoul in back is stunned. Stone steps out of the way and waits for the ghouls. Hands of Fire steps past Stone and charges the ghoul in front, but misses. Paks shoots past Stone and Hands of Fire, but misses the ghouls. The ghoul in front of Hands of Fire attacks him. It hits him with a claw and bite; he's paralyzed. The ghoul trips over him and falls. Stone charges over the fallen ghoul and attacks the stunned ghoul, hitting and killing it. Goldpetal waits to see if he can do anything. Novalia continues to invoke Tanil. Miriel waits.

Paks steps up to the ghoul that tripped and chops its head off. Stone is stomping on the one he knocked down "You ain't so tough! Get up, damn you!" Stone calls down the corridor to let everyone know it's over.

When Chuck recovers, he angrily calls out for Goldpetal: "What kind of cameraderie is this - I'm paralyzed, and you steal my duck!"

Goldpetal: "You have been enchanted."

Chuck: "Sure, I was, but you stole my powers! I will never trust you again! Dirty little elf!"

Goldpetal: "The enchantment was not good for you!"

Ston: "I hate elves. Actually, they're not so bad wiht a little ketchup."

Miriel goes down to reason with Chuck, but he stays angry: "You let him steal my duck!"

Miriel: "I was paralzyed!"

Chuck: "Oh, okay. But my duck!"

Stone: "That was a cool duck, too."

Miriel finally manages to calm Chuck down. Hands of Fire can move again.

Miriel (to Chuck): "Let's go fight the ghouls - they did a lot damage to us; they're our enemies, not each other."

Chuck (sadly): "My duck!"

Paks: "Chuck, the ghouls might have another duck."

Chuck (hopefully): "Another duck?"

Chuck goes to find his pack to make sure nothing else is gone.

We go back into the sarcophagus room. Novalia stands watch with bow drawn. We see that the lids have been torn off of the sarcophagi, and they're smashed and broken. The room is filthy and defiled, piled high with trash, and the walls are covered in graffitti. The small pool also smells foul; there may be pieces of flesh in it. Stone pokes it with the 10 foot pole, but it's much deeper than that. Paks starts searching the sarcophagi. Miriel stops everyone and warns them about disease. She suggests another cleansing ritual, plus removal of all the graffitti and cleaning up of the trash. Goldpetal says that this will take a couple of hours, and what's the point, but Miriel says that we have to remove this source of disease.

Stone goes over to look down one of the side hallways. He sees that the filth does not continue down that way, and it opens into another cavern. He goes around to look down the other one; he sees more open and damaged sarcophagi. He comes back to tell the others. Miriel suggests the purification ritual again, and Paks agrees. Chuck, Stone, and Hands of Fire watch the corridors while the other four do the purifying ritual again.

As we're chanting and pulling up magical energy, about ten minutes into the ritual, Chuck suddenly sees something in the room he's watching, out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly, a humanoid appears in front of him, flanked by three ghouls. The skin of the humanoid is deathly pale white, and he's wearing what must have been at one time exquisite robes and a jeweled crown. His hands are twisted claws with long nails and he has just wisps of hair hanging down from his skull.

Crowned humanoid: "Who dares to say those names in my lair? How dare you defile my sanctum? You will serve me for all eternity."

Paks walks over behind Chuck. Stone jumps over the scarcophagi, flipping and rolling, showing up behind Chuck. Hands of Fire runs over next to Paks. The crowned humanoid attacks Chuck with his claws, but misses. Miriel pulls out Madriel's Tear, invokes Madriel, comes over towards Chuck, and attempts to turn them, but fails. Goldpetal jumps up on a sarcophagus and draws his bow. Chuck steps back and fires off two shots at the crowned humanoid. One hits, but he just laughs evilly and pulls out the arrow. One of the ghouls leaps forward and bites Chuck, who is paralyzed. Another ghoul tries to slide by and Stone attacks it, hitting it hard. It attacks Hands of Fire, but misses. Paks swings at this ghoul and misses.

Stone punches each of the two ghouls next to him, hitting the injured one and killing it. Hands of Fire steps forward to attack the other one, hitting it hard. The crowned humanoid waits. Miriel casts a Sound Burst, killing the injured ghoul, but not stunning the crowned humanoid or the ghoul. Goldpetal shoots at the crowned humanoid, hitting him. Novalia shoots at him too, but misses. He moves up to Hands of Fire, with the ghoul following, and attacks Hands of Fire with a slam attack, hitting him. Suddenly, Hands of Fire seems very cold and weak, and the crowned humanoid seems more powerful. He laughs evilly again. The ghoul slides by and Stone attacks, hitting it and killing it. Paks steps up and smites the crowned humanoid, hitting it.

Stone tumbles past to flank him. He attacks Stone as he passes, but misses. Stone punches at him, but misses. Hands of Fire lies bleeding on the floor; Miriel runs over, and pulls him out of the way. Goldpetal shoots at the crowned humanoid and hits him. He screams in pain: "I will get you!" Novalia jumps down and heals Hands of Fire to stop the bleeding. The crowned humanoid attacks Paks, but misses. Paks attacks him and hits him. He falls to the ground, grinds out "I curse you all in the name of Chern," and dies. Paks cuts off his head.

Stone turns around to look in the room behind him. He sees another cavern, a little smaller, with four more broken sarcophagi. There is another tunnel leading out of the cavern from the far side. Miriel suggests getting out of the cavern system until Chuck wakes up and she regains spell points. We go back to the corridor to the lake and rest as before, for six hours. Goldpetal meditates to get Lesser Restoration to heal Paks. It's quiet. Too quiet. Novalia heals Paks and Goldpetal. Miriel heals Chuck. Goldpetal heals Paks.

We go back to examine the body of the crowned humanoid, and Miriel identifies him as a wight, who would have sucked the life from us and turned us into wights if he had hit us. We perform the purification ritual again, and things seem much better - the oppressive evil feel is lessened, and it feels less cold. After the ritual, we scrub the graffitti off the walls and search the room, but we don't find anything. Paks checks out the two corridors to see which one feels more evil. The first room has only one sarcophagus and is smaller, and it doesn't feel as evil. We go towards that room, which is a cavern about twenty feet in diameter, with just one sarcophagus, intact, in the center. There's another exit from this cavern. The sarcophagus has the symbol of the wheel on it and it also has the symbol of Madriel carved into it. Miriel goes over to examine it. Chuck looks out the other exit - he sees another long corridor. Paks asks if we should open the sarcophagus, but Miriel says it's not defiled, so we should leave it alone. Paks joins Chuck at the new entrance and sees how it feels; it feels very evil. She says this is where the evil is coming from. Stone starts walking down the corridor, followed by the rest of us.

Fifty feet down the corridor, we reach another rough-walled cavern. This is a circular room, about 40 feet in diameter. There is another exit across the cavern. We now all feel the oppressive power of evil. We see a shrine and a wooden throne (more of a chair), and a big pile of coins in the center of the room, all heaped together. Paks holds Stone back, and he just looks at her and says "What?" All over the walls is the evil graffitti. On the shrine, there is rotting, maggot-filled flesh. Stone and Paks go to look at the shrine. It smells awful. Chuck comes in and looks up at the ceiling, but doesn't see anything. Novalia comes in. Miriel comes in and examines the shrine. It's clearly to Chern. It's a rough shrine that perhaps undead might have put together. The meat is a month or two old. Hands of Fire walks in and moves to the other exit. It looks into another cavern, about 40 feet in diameter. There are more broken sarcophagi in there.

Goldpetal comes in and also examines the shrine. Miriel explains about the shrine, then examines the pile of treasure, but can't tell why it's here, other than possibly as an offering. Goldpetal looks at the graffitti; it's Titan speech, invocations to Chern and whatnot. Chuck examines the throne; it's just an old chair really.

Miriel says we should clean the graffitti, destroy the shrine, and do the purify ritual. Chuck suggests detecting magic, Miriel does and finds the shrine is somewhat magic, but nothing else is. Stone asks about the pile of gold - something might be under it. We circle the pile and Stone scatters it with the 10-ft pole. There are thousands of coins there, but only the top layer was platinum and gold; the rest are mostly copper.

As we clean the room, we pick up the (77) platinum, (235) gold, and (1340) silver pieces. As we search, we find an excellent longsword, again marked with the wheel. Miriel detects magic again, but there isn't any more. We clean the graffitti, purify the meat, and destroy the shrine. The room feels significantly less evil. Chuck smashes the throne on the way out.

We move into the next room and clean the graffitti there as well. Chuck searches the sarcophagi. He finds a silver dagger with an opal on the pommel. Tossed in a corner under some refuse, Novalia finds a piece of paper; it's a scroll. She calls out for others. Miriel looks at it and determines that it's a magic scroll. It's in divine religious writing; it's a divine scroll which allows a good cleric to cast protection from evil and searing light; the caster was probably level 6. Miriel picks it up and stows it in her pack. She looks around for other signs of Madriel.

Paks asks again about opening the other sarcophagus. Miriel doesn't think it's a good idea, but Paks points out that maybe Madriel has placed it here for a reason. Miriel thinks this is reasonable, so she and Paks go to meditate over it. Stone suggests taking the contents and reinterring them in a non-evil place.

The four fighters lift the lid, while Miriel invokes Madriel to say that no desecration is intended. We find an old skeleton inside, in beautiful armor with a wonderful sword and shield, all marked with the wheel symbol, and still shining and clean. There are also two vials in there. Miriel looks in and detects magic. The potions are magic. The armor and weapons are the sort a king would use in battle. It's the best armor Paks has ever seen. Stone starts putting the lid back in place. Miriel invokes Madriel again.

As Stone walks through where the wight was he gives it a kick and notices the crown. It's gorgeous, and Chuck notices it also has the wheel symbol on it. Miriel suggests taking it back to the sarcophagus. Stone points out that it wouldn't have come out of the sarcophagus, which was undefiled. Novalia says it could have been on top of the sarcophagus. Miriel detects magic on the crown, but it's not magic. Miriel asks if we should take the crown; Stone says yes and sticks it in his bag. Paks says we should take everything from the skeleton, but Miriel says it's grave robbing. Paks counters that Madriel clearly protected those items for us. Chuck doesn't think grave robbing is wrong, but Goldpetal says it's disturbing to rob this particular grave.

Chuck: "We can put the bones back where they were."

Goldpetal: "We'd be robbing not just this grave, but the last heritage of this great empire."

Chuck: "Is it worse to rob it or leave it to rot under a stinking pile of refuse?"

After more discussion, we decide not to take the items from the grave, but we do take the crown (not much of a choice, since Stone is clearly unwilling to give it up). As we're walking out through the corridor with the secret door, Chuck suddenly decides he needs to go look at the lake. He starts to takes his armor off. Miriel grabs him and calls for Stone to hold him. Stone grabs him and holds him tight.

Chuck: "I want my duck!"

Paks: "It's an evil duck."

Stone headbutts Chuck to subdue him. Miriel casts Hold Person, but Chuck succeeds at the will save. Stone and Chuck grapple, but Stone holds him and headbutts him again, knocking him out. Miriel tells Stone to grab a rope out of Chuck's pack and tie him up. Stone does his best. Goldpetal goes up the ladder and casts a Flare at the rats. We all run across the room and go upstairs and out to the boat; it's dawn already . We get in the boat and across the lake. As we land, Chuck wakes up and escapes from the not-very-well-tied rope.

Chuck is angry again, now with Stone, but he resists the urge to go back for the duck and we head back to the lizard man camp, led by Hands of Fire. As we travel, Stone looks worse and worse. Miriel stops and examines him and gives him the other potion of cure disease. He almost vomits again, but looks much better. We get back to the lizard cavern.

We divide up the loot, with a share to Hands of Fire, and then Hands of Fire goes to rest. Miriel thinks the crown is worth at least 2500 gold. Telryn casts read magic on the scroll and determines that it has Flash and Flame Weapon. He asks Hands of Fire if they have any pearls, and he trades one of the garnets for a pearl and identifies the prism. It's an Ioun Stone. He tosses it up into the air and it circles above his head; he explains that now he has +1 to his armor class. Stone tries to punch him, and the field slows his fist down.

Miriel asks for the divine scroll. Novalia just wants 50 gold, nothing else. Goldpetal takes the elven cloak. Stone asks for the Ioun Stone, since he can't wear armor. Paks asks for the fine longsword, Chuck wants the lockpicks, Telryn wants the magic scroll. Hands of Fire wants a pair of garnets, Miriel wants the silver dagger. Goldpetal wants the gold candlestick holder, Stone takes two garnets, Hands of Fire takes another pair of garnets, Chuck takes the military scroll. Telryn trades the topaz and the garnet for two more pearls. Chuck thinks he should get more since his duck was taken away from him.