Written by the Almighty DM

After a long rest in Withers’ office the party follows another secret door to the Grand Balcony on the 2nd level. There written on the wall is Acererak’s 2nd Warning:
 

“The ring is a path to another tomb. The dead abhor sunlight. Only a jewel can tame the frog. Bow as the dead god intoned. Into darkness descend”

Below the warning is a skeleton walking on the balcony. Its skull is shaped like a square in the back, and when it notices the party it tries to run away. [title redacted] dart around the balcony and skillfully smash the skeleton into parts. Sensing that this unique skull might be valuable later, they hold onto it. 

There is a large door with three zombies pushing their heads out of three holes. They are harnessed, have bits in their mouths, and are snarling and trying to attack the party. Kanye clobbers one of the zombies to dust, then realizes that there might have been some kind of puzzle to solve regarding the zombies and the door. Nor, Kanye, and Zyldi simply brute force the door open and dispatch the other two zombies. Puzzle solved!

They enter a large room with a golden chariot heaped with treasure in the center. On the chariot is a gilded sarcophagus with imagery of Papazotl the Eblis. Along the walls are 6 large pots filled with human bones, and at the far end of the room are 4 statues and a giant shield. The shield depicts a Chultan archer, and the statues are of Chultan warriors each holding different weapons. The statue on the far left is missing its face. Written on the wall is the command “Bow Before No One”.

Kulu approaches the chariot and grabs some of the treasure which causes the room trap to spring into action! Twelve skeletons climb out of the giant pots and begin to attack the party. Sophitia holds up her holy symbol and calls upon the gods who blast most of the skeletons into dust. 

“Well that escalated quickly!”

The Chultan Archer drawn onto the shield springs to life and blasts a force arrow into Nor. Elgard holds out his hand and arcs a powerful lightning bolt into the shield. The loud sound echoes loudly in the room but the shield is undamaged. More skeletons begin to pour out of the pots on the side of the room when Zyldi has the idea to bow before the faceless statue. The shield archer ignores Zyldi and fires another arrow at Kanye, smashing into him with great force. 

The rest of the party bows before the faceless statue, causing the shield archer to deactivate and the giant pots to stop creating skeletons. Now that the fight is over Kulu approaches Papazotl’s casket and takes the items upon it: lots of fine decorative jewelry and a big amulet next to some bird bones. 

When Kulu touches the amulet the voice of Papazotl calls out in her head “You will do as I command!” Papazotl is selfish and bossy, and convinces Kulu to keep all of the treasure for herself. 

After searching the tomb for a few moments, the party finds a secret door right as they hear a large creature moving about on the Grand Balcony. A quick peek outside the door shows a huge golem with fire coming out of his head, smoke issuing from the seams between his armor plates, and instead of hands there are small jets of flame pouring out of his arms. 

“Artist Rendering”

 

As this Fire Golem walks past the room the party pulls the heavy stone door up, and Kanye and Nor rush out and tackle this large golem off the edge of the balcony! They watch it fall down several stories and crash into the 4th floor. It stands up and walks away down on level 4. 

The secret door leads to a small chamber with a dusty bottle on a table. Inside this bottle is Keshma Al-Wazir, a trapped Dao (earth elemental genie). She wields a huge hammer and is imposing even when trapped in this bottle, wearing a hateful expression, jewels braided into her dark hair, and fine clothes ending in a magical swirl. Acererak imprisoned her in the bottle centuries ago, and she begins to negotiate her release with the party. Despite her insults and demands the party is able to negotiate that they will free her on the condition that she help them 3 times in battle – 3 times of the party’s choosing. She is not super happy with this arrangement but accepts it, and the party takes her bottle with them. 

The next room has a giant salt pentagram on the floor surrounding a sarcophagus decorated with the froggy image of Nangnang. Kanye approaches and is attacked by an invisible Grey Slaad! 

Walls of fire and general party aggression cause the Slaad to retreat back into a small hallway that ends in…wine? It dies from its many wounds and Kanye dives into the wine.

“Cowabunga!”

Elgard reaches into the sarcophagus at Nor’s urging. As he reaches toward the Pearl within he hears loud, discordant percussive music in his head, and cannot resist dancing to the awful sounds. The sounds are so loud and abrasive that they begin to suck Elgard’s life away! 

No one else in the party can hear this music, but can see Elgard’s sick dance moves. He collapses in a heap on the floor but his body is still twitching, and Sophitia kneels down beside him and casts some powerful healing magic on him to keep him alive.

Kanye swims forward in the wine pool and finds  the inside of a valve. Not knowing what to do with this, he goes back up for air and swims down again, this time finding a giant reservoir tank filled with wine. Not seeing anywhere else to explore, he returns to the hallway.

Elgard awakens but continues to dance. He tries to get the music out of his head but fails – the magical music is just too powerful. He collapses again but this time his body stops twitching. Sophitia checks his body and finds he is still alive. They heal him again and take a rest. Kanye reports back what he found in the wine, and [title redacted] decide to leave Nangnang’s sarcophagus alone.