We rested for the night in the hub room. The next day, Eliatris used her Lay On Hands ability to cure Dottie’s and Gulnyr’s remaining diseases.

We returned to the Gluttony area of the Runeforge, where we had arrived from Abaddon. Upon entering the round room decorated with skull carvings, we were attacked by the two mummies that we had previously left trapped behind a Wall of Force. We dispatched them quickly, and then went to the room containing crystal pylons with a curtain of blackness between them. Dottie tried to scratch one of the crystals with her silver dagger, but the crystal was too tough. Gulnyr started to smack it with his hammer, and Devin and Ash retreated to other rooms while he did this.

Eventually the crystal shattered, causing the curtain of darkness to explode. This had two effects. First, the coldness that seemed to radiate from the stone subsided. Second, a large bat-like creature from the negative energy plane materialized where the curtain had once been, and attacked us. It channeled negative energy as us as though it were a cleric. During the fight, Dottie tried to use Baleful Polymorph and Magic Missle on it, but failed to overcome the creature’s resistance to spells. We eventually killed it, and examined the rest of the room. We found a cache of books, three scrolls, and a small wooden box containing a tuning fork attuned to the Runeforge.

We next returned to the room containing the blue-robed corpses. Two other doors led out from this room, and Ash peeked through them using her gloves. Behind each one was a corridor. We went through one of the doors, and found that both corridors led to the same room. This was an alchemical laboratory, which contained books about undead. Two more doors led from this room, each of which Ash again discovered led to a corridor.

We went throught the southern door, and its corridor led to a U-shaped catacombs. It contained 10 burial niches, each containing an large enough for a person to hide inside. Gulnyr lifted the lid on the nearest urn, and as he did so, a mummy reached its arms out at him. Ash shot the urn, which shattered it, freeing the mummy. The mummy had an aura that radiated despair, which temporarily paralyzed Gulnyr. The mummy then struck him, infecting him with Mummy Rot.

As we fought the creature, another mummy emerged from a different neraby urn. After we had killed both of them, Eliatris smashed yet another urn, which freed a third mummy, which paralyzed Dottie with its aura. While Eliatris fought it, Devin went to the other side of the U, and smashed the two nearest urns, hoping to channel negative energy at the mummies within before they could do much damage. Ash moved forward to assist, but was paralyzed by the aura of the third mummy. Unfortunately, the two mummies that emerged from the urns that Devin smashed attacked him, and one of them broke his leg. Meanwhile, Eliatris fell unconscious, just as she killed the third mummy.

Mummies four and five then knocked out Devin before he could channel energy at them. Gulnyr went down due to the Mummy Rot draining his Charisma. Meanwhile, just as Devin was on the verge of death, Ash and Dottie became unparalyzed. Ash stabilized him, and Dottie used Scorching ray on mummy four. The mummies then charged at her, while Ash used Lesser Restoration on Gulnyr to restore some of his Charisma, making him conscious again. Dottie then became paralyzed again as mummy five came into view. Ash stabilized Eliatris, and Gulnyr killed mummy four. Mummy five moved up to Dottie, and killed her. Gulnyr then killed the mummy.

Ash came to Devin’s aid, and fed him his own potion of Cure Moderate Wounds. Suddenly, a sixth mummy emerged from another urn, causing Ash to become paralyzed. Devin cast Heal on himself, bringing him back to full health. While Gulnyr fought mummy six, Devin went to check on Eliatris and Dottie, and discovered that Dottie was dead. He then became affected by Mummy Rot, as Gulnyr killed the last mummy.

The battle now finally over, Tris cured Gulnyr of his Mummy Rot, while Devin cured his own. He then cast Restoration on himself and Gulnyr.

We returned to the hub room, and rested again. During the night, an acolyte of Delvahine came by, and asked us if we had cleared out the Pride area yet. We told her that we had, and she went away satisfied. The next morning, we had our eight-armed friend reincarnate Dottie, who became a bugbear.

We returned to the alchemical laboratory, and exited through the door opposite the one that led to the mummy room. This led to a room filled with bookshelves, where a creature named Xyoddin Xerriock was dissecting a humanoid upon a stone table. When he saw us, he said, “Master Azaven says I can eat you!”, and attacked us. Gulnyr charged in, while Dottie attacked with Scorching Ray. However, Xyoddin was most interested in eating Devin’s brain, and went straight towards him. Gulnyr then killed the enemy.

We examined the books. They detailed the steps that Runelord Zutha‘s followers used to achieve undeath. Zutha had split his phylactery into three pieces, which his agents could use to bring him back to life in the future.

We returned to the round room with the cross-shaped bridge, and went through the remaining unexplored door. This led to a room that contained five alcoves, each of which was filled with dozens of niches holding wine bottles. There was also a clay statue of Lissala, the Goddess of Runes. She had the body of a snake, and a sihedron where her head should be. A golden sarcophagus was also present, and was decorated with a depiction of a handsome man holding a bunch of grapes. His eyes were sapphires, and each of the grapes was an amethyst.

As Gulnyr moved closer to the statue, it slithered forwards and attacked. Gulnyr fought and killed it, but the damage that it did to him was of a kind that was particularly difficult to heal, even with the use of cure spells. Devin healed him up a bit, with multiple castings, some of which were completely ineffective.

Ash peeked into the golden sarcophagus using her gloves, but it was empty. We then decided to investigate the floor below the cross-shaped bridge. Ash cast Fly on us so we could get there easily. The floor was 150 feet below the bridge, and covered with hundreds of empty sarcophagi. We found nothing of interest there.

We returned to the door leading to the room with the mummy urns, which was now closed, even though we had left it open. Ash looked through the door, and saw the dissected humanoid in the room, now in mummy form. Gulnyr opened the door, and killed the creature quickly. As it died, it seemed that a light diminished from its eyes, and Dottie realized that someone had been watching us through them.

Gulnyr searched the room for secret doors, and found one. Behind it was a short corridor that led to another door, behind which was a small closet. The closet contained another secret door, which Dottie peered through using Ash’s gloves. Beyond was a large room containing work tables and tools for working with corpses. Sitting at one of the tables was Azaven, servant of Zutha, with his back to the door.

Gulnyr opened the door, and Dottie cast a Fireball into the room, but it was blocked by a Wall of Force. Azaven told us that he wanted to parley with us, and asked us for information about the world. Eliatris spoke with him, but failed to give satisfactory answers to his questions. Azaven became frustrated at this, and declared the parley over. He commanded a large creature to attack us from behind an illusory wall. He then cast Fly and Mirror Image on himself. We killed the creature, and then Gulnyr started trying to smash through the Wall of Force.

The rest of us waited for Gulnyr to finish breaking through. Meanwhile, Azaven summoned a shadowy creature, who then stepped through the stone to get to us. We fought and killed it, and shortly afterwards Gulnyr finished breaking through the wall. However, as soon as he did so, Azaven cast Finger of Death at Devin, killing him instantly. Dottie cast Dispell Magic at Azaven, but it failed to affect him. He then cast Prismatic Spray at us, causing Eliatris to turn to stone, and Dottie to die from electrical damage. Meanwhile, Gulnyr and Ash proceeded to fight Azaven, but after he had sustained some injury, he escaped by teleporting away.