The party continued in the ossuary with Pretis and Mara on the floor, Demin and Alhellara standing on the ledge and the rest of the party on the bone bridge. Gofin was attacked by a Phantom which then disappeared seemingly into Gofin's body. Demin continued to fire crossbow bolts at the nearest phantom while moving away from the black fluid dripping down the walls. Mara and Pretis continued to battle Tormentors while managing to not sink into the bone covered floor. Lythandar and Melisana used area burst to injure as many enemies as possible.
Suddenly more tormentors arose from the ossuary floor surrounding several adventurers and blocking advancement on the bridge. Pretis managed to climb back up to the top of the bridge just as Gofin attacked Lythandar with a Phantom attack and then expelled the phantom. Lythandar teleported to safety on another part of the bridge. Mara moved toward a Phantom who had been knocked out of the air. She then found herself sinking into the boneyard and restrained. Demin caught himself on the edge of the ledge as a phantom attempted to slid him into the pit. Alhellara attempted to Turn Undead on several of the enemy.
The party gasped as Mara slid completely under the bone floor, Alhellara ran forward and jumped off the bridge onto the ossuary floor and attempted to find Mara under the dismembered boy parts. Meanwhile Gofin found herself on the floor of the boneyard also. Lythandar used magic missiles to eliminated some Tormentors while the rest of the party kept up the attack on the Phantoms.
Alhellara suddenly saw Mara's arm push its way through the grisly remains, she grabbed the arm and pulled Mara out of the bones. The rest of the group had eliminated all of the enemy, Gofin had teleported to the top of the bridge after temporarily being restrained in the bone pile. Several healing measures were completed and the party moved on the bridge checking all passages that ended in walls to see if there were concealed passages. Having found none they moved forward to the ledge in the northeastern part of the ossuary.
This ledge led to a more open area where the walls of black stone glistened with necrotic black fluid and the dripping echoed in the darkness beyond. In the first chamber were two niches holding sarcophagus' filled with dusty bones and gems. The lids stood against the wall in the niches. Black necrotic ooze glistened on the walls. Mara and Demin rummaged in the bones and gems finding nothing interesting since the gems were made of glass. Taking a short rest here the group recovered from the battle in the ossuary before pushing on to the north.
Coming to an intersection the party headed east and south where they found two more niches filled with sarcophagus. There was also an open 10 foot deep pit in the southeastern area, through which the stench of death permeated the air. Melisana, Pretis and Mara pushed forward to see an open door at the bottom of the pit. Looking past the door they found a not quite complete chamber with a purple stone dais in the center of a rune-scribed vault. A half dozen shadar-kai were laid out across the floor.
Seeing no movement the party moved into the room cautiously, noticing no breathing they determined that the shadar-kai were dead although no obvious wounds were seen. Checks were made for secret doors, magic and treasure. No magic was perceived although both Lythandar and Melisana again had visions of a vastly different architecture and aura before returning to the sepulcher. Melisana recalled that the group had seen shadar-kai corpses previously upon entering the towers of Moil. Melisana found a journal on the body of the shadar-kai leader. This journal related that this group of Raven Queen servants had been investigating an eldritch engine in the Feywild, and their investigations led them to Moil. They found a portal called the Shadow Gate which led them to the Shadow Tomb.
The shadar-kai are following a trail that they deem will lead them to Acererak the demilich. The inhabitants of Skull City are obsessed with the power of the dark arts, and they revere the demilich, whom they have named "The Devourer." Idolatry of Acererak has inspired the construction of a massive academy over Acererak's tomb. This school of magic and religion, named the Bleak Academy, harbors cultists who perform ceremonies to garner the attention and favor of Acererak. The inhabitants have left the tomb sacrosanct, though they allow groups of treasure-seeking adventurers to enter, regarding such allowances as offerings to the Devourer. The leaders of the Bleak Academy fear that in spite of their attempts to commune with the demilich, they know only a glimmer of Acererak's true motives. They wonder whether Acererak's skull, which lies within the Tomb of Horrors, is Acererak's true guise.
The Raven Queen has determined that Acererak's skull is a construct created by the demilich. Acererak designed the skull to facilitate an elaborate plot that involves the collection of souls. If the construct is destroyed, the demilich arranges for a new skull. The real demilich resides in the Fortress of Conclusion, a stronghold hidden in the Shadowfell. For centuries Acererak has plotted a terrible apotheosis to merge his consciousness with undead everywhere. He need only acquire sufficient power and ample souls. This last entry speculates that this Shadow Tomb must rise from the dead foundations of the Fortress.
Whilst the new information was pondered Mara was impatient trying to find another way out of this sepulcher but alas she found none. So back up to the twisting passageways the party headed. More sarcophagus were found to the north and then many such empty, but for bones and worthless gems, were found to the west. Alhellara and Gofin determined that under the sarcophagus in this western area were pits of some sort. Pretis and Lythandar attempted to move one sarcophagus and plunged into the pit. A search of the pit found no other exit. Taking more care the group then opened the pits under all the other sarcophgai. In the very western edge of the area they found a concealed door at the bottom of a pit. Mara determined that this was a false door with solid stone behind it. Gofin took extra time to search the wall opposite this false door but found nothing else. After a short discussion listing their options the party finally looked up at the ceiling and found a secret panel over one of the pits. Mara clambered up and found a rough crawl space beyond. Gofin led the way into the crawl space leading the group to a new octagonal chamber. In the center of this chamber were four Devourer heads in the colors of green, red, yellow and gray just as they had seen in the Black Well. In the middle of the heads was a pile of bones. As Lythandar moved toward the heads the bones and body parts started knitting themselves together into a larger mass.
Scorecard: The party earned 1700 XP for the nights adventures in the Boneyard. They now have 62900 XP and need 6100 additional XP to reach 16th level.
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