2. Ballard thinks about pursuing the turned Electric Skeletons and attacking them from behind; however he realises that they will soon be out of his range and decides to go tie up Q and Medinet instead.

3. Ballard does his rope thing on Q and Medinet to restrict their movements (an art he has probably been practising on his followers). Q is blindfolded so he cannot use his Psionics (he has no line of sight) and Medinet is gagged to stop him casting spells. Ballard ropes Q up so that the act of trying to break free will strangle him and looks satisfied with his work – wait, was that a banjo playing then? Squeal like a pig Q!

4. The party decides to question Medinet. He is ungagged but continually shaken so as to disrupt any spells he might want to cast. Medinet says that he is okay now, and to release him. However Byron uses his Paladin’s detect evil intent on him and says “Oh yeah, he means us harm”. Medinet fails to convince the party that Byron is an interloper and not to be listened to, finally declaring “I didn’t cast a Flame Strike”.

5. Crayon suggests a Protection from Evil spell on Medinet to try and block out the evil control from his mind, but he does not have one memorised. It has some protection against Vampire mind control, if that is what is affecting Medinet. Palmerin uses a free magic to cast Protection from Evil on Medinet. Byron checks Medinet again for evil intent and believes him to be free of it, he no longer means the party harm.

6. Medinet is confused. He has no recollection on what has happened, and “Why am I tied up”? The party tries to convince him that what they are saying is true. Medinet can’t believe he turned against the party.

7. Someone suggests that they try the same thing on Q, but he is still stunned from the Zhi Bow so the party waits a few minutes for him to come around. Byron then checks Q for evil intent and assures you all that Q means to do the party harm. Crayon casts a Protection from Evil (he did have the spell, but was hoping to keep it for himself, in case of an emergency). Byron checks again and says that Q does not intend to harm the party. Smiles all round as Q begins to ask “what happened?”.

8. Crayon casts an Augury: Will the Dispel Magic spell possibly remove the mind control that is on Medinet or Q?
Essencia's Answer: I don't know.

9. What to do next? Palmerin casts a Find Traps spell and finds that a magical trap extends across the west end of the ante-chamber in a plane. Q decides to try and deactivate the trap. Somehow HE knows that when the Protection from Evil runs out he will loose control of his will again. If he is to die, Q decides he will die doing what he does best. Unfortunately what “he does best” isn’t good enough, the trap remains and time is running out on the Protection from Evil spells.

10. Someone suggest casting a Remove Curse spell. Medinet casts one on Q and Palmerin casts one on Q. Ballard trusses the two up as they were before and it becomes a waiting game. The party waits 35 minutes. Byron checks the two and there is no evil intent. The party has something to rejoice.

11. What to do about the trap? Hellyeah casts a Detect Secret Door and Portals on part of the walls and floor to see if there is a way to bypass the trap. None is found. Ballard volunteers (all those characters controlled as NPCs please step forward) to set off the trap. He has a 50% magic resistance so it may help. He removes all magic items that are not used to attack or defend. Byron, Cadra and Palmerin take up defensive positions behind pillars. Q, Crayon, Hellyeah and Medinet are back in the stairwell.

12. Ballard walks through the plane that marks the start of the magical trap to set it off...

13. Suddenly from the floor near Ballard’s feet there comes a glow of blue-red light. Amidst the fiery colours there is the suggestion of a hand shape. Hieroglyphs of eye-searing azure-crimson start to be etched into the stone and with a growing sense of dread, Ballard reads aloud what he sees:

Now reigns Rahotep, and the Set Rahotep in turn rains down upon those robbers who enter His most sacred Mortuary Palace, the Sixth of his curses!

15. All of a sudden, holes open in the ceiling down the centre of the room. Out of these holes clay pots fall. When they break they splash acid. The party moves to the sides where it relatively safe while the middle floor area starts to sizzle and melt. Unfortunately, the party has been split; Cadra and Byron are on the north side, and Ballard and Palmerin are on the south side. Watching the acid eat away at the floor and anything else it touches, you notice that the frequency of the falling pots starts to die down. Then all of sudden holes start to open up along the sides of the ante-chamber, and clay pots start to fall where you are standing too! Those in the ante-chamber jump forward into the larger chamber to escape the falling pots. Byron has to leap over a five foot crater caused by the acid. Q contemplates trying to catch one, as the acid could help his removing trap skills, however, the risk was too great.

16. Crayon and Q dislike the idea of a split party, and jump into the middle of the antechamber and run up to Ballard and Palmerin. A pot glances off Crayon shoulders but causes no damage to our heroes as it crashes on the floor. Are those more skeleton pictures on the wall, but with a yellowish nimbus around them instead of blue?

17. Now you are in the larger chamber you can see that there are 6 boxes along the walls in the dark areas. On closer examination they look like sarcophagi (what a surprise). The party is not shocked to see the lids fly open and mummy-like creatures appear with . The electric Skeletons that the party turned earlier return and new skeletons appear off the walls of the antechamber with a yellowish glow around them which turns out to be Acid resistance (oh fuck).

18. Medinet can see some of what is happening from the entranceway, and when he sees the mummies and the lids of the sarcophagi that they emerge from he gasps in fear and yells “the Kheri hebs!”. Medinet shrieks that the party must be getting close to Rahotep, as the Kheri hebs were the highest of his mage-priests when alive (oh fuck x 10). Then the skeletons that again seemed like wall decorations step out of the wall, and advance, marching in precise step with spears leveled.

19. A major combat ensues, which has been recorded so that future generations can remember how their freedom was protected:

Round One

21. M25 stares at Crayon, Q and Palmerin, saying “look into my eyes and despair!”.

23. M25 tries to punch Q and misses. M10 punches at Ballard but also misses. Unfortunately, MQ and M12 both manage to hit Byron (one hit was a critical hit but he made his critical hit saving throw).

24. Byron is a sturdy warrior can take some pain and damage but his eyes widen in disbelief, as he feels his wisdom being drained from his being (6 points of wisdom are lost!!!!!!!!!). The ante has just been increased for this battle. Even if the party survives, they may come out permanently damaged. All the clerics watch in fear, after all what is a cleric without wisdom? Defeating these mummies immediately become the parties main goal, but what to do about the enclosing skeletons?

25. The Electric Skeles close in on the party, happily they are still out of melee range. Four of the Acid Skeletons close in on Cadra and Byron, 8 close in on Hellyeah and Medinet.

26. Hellyeah reaches for his Wand of Lightning and fires at the skeletons. He aims his shot to try and affect all the Acid Skeletons advancing on him; however, it has no effect on them. Are they immune, or just magic resistant? “Stand firm Hellyeah” says Medinet as he raises his holy symbol to turn the skeletons. The skeletons are either hard of hearing or Medinet’s holy symbol’s batteries are flat (rolled a 4). The skeletons keep coming.

27. Byron and Cadra are surrounded by the enemy before they can form a battle line. They have to fight as they stand, which unfortunately leaves Byron facing most of the Mummies. Cadra is left no option (sure) but to hit one of the Acid Skeletons. The Hammer of the Iron Hills is brought down heavily smashing into the bones, but the skeleton still stands. The Hammer Bearer may have to work overtime in this battle. Byron hits MQ with his double handed sword. It is a mighty blow but the cut doesn’t seem to do as much damage as it should. Bludgeoning weapons seem to be in order, but alas, Cadra is the only one using a bludgeoning weapon.

28. Q and Ballard’s battle line is also unplanned. Two mummies are attacking Ballard and one on Q. The battle is fierce and relentless, not allowing the two warriors to fall back to a more defendable line. The current line does have its advantages though, the mummies seem to have concentrated on the warriors, leaving the clerics and their wisdom untouched. Crayon breathes a sigh of relief. He wants to turn but his current position leaves him exposed. He needs to move to protect himself and the chance to try and turn the most undead. Crayon decides that acid is better that loosing wisdom and tries his luck in the area of falling pots of acid, and withdraws from the melee.

29. Q is a blur cutting and slashing at M25, however Q is not so sure that his slashes are causing the damage that they normally do. Ballard hits and knocks down M10. This leaves him facing only one mummy for the next round. It is small victory, but from many small victories battles are won. Palmerin takes a hugh swing with his battleaxe but misses, Ballard and Q do not see what he’s aiming at, and neither does he (he rolls two critical misses, ie “1” – where is your green dice Scott?).

30. At the end of the round the party is severely outnumbered and in a tight spot. The electric skeletons have now marched into combat. Hopefully next round Palmerin and Crayon can even the odds a bit with successful turns.

Round Two

31. The initiative is one by the party. DM rolls a 10 and is slowed a phase.

32. Cadra puts a bit of wellie into his next hit and critically hits an Acid Skeleton. (the DM notes that this is Cadra’s first critical hit since October 2005). He lets out a grunt of satisfaction, the muscles in his hammer arm are finally getting the workout they crave.

33. Q raises his daggers to attack his opponents but once again feels the compulsion to join the dark side and attack his interloper party members. “No! Not again!” he thinks as he relies on his magic resistance to stop the effect. Breaking out into a sweat he fights it, but feels that he is gradually loosing control. Even as his strength wanes, from hidden reserves the DM didn’t know he had (used a character point to reroll his magic resistance) he summons up all of his defiance and mentally shrugs off the oppressive thoughts “I said ‘Not Again!’” he shouts as he forces the last vestiges of evil influence out of his mind. Q is exhausted from the conflict and cannot do anything else this round.

34. Hellyeah finds himself in a tight bind. He and Medinet are toe to toe with eight Acid Skeletons. Luckily they are in the stairwell, which only allows 4 of the skeletons to get to them at once. Hellyeah raises he wand again and lets forth a lightning bolt. A small smile comes to his face as this bolt seems to have effected two of the skeletons. Hellyeah looks to Medinet to see how he's going. Medinet is casting a cool spell which should buy them some time. But just as Medinet is about to finish the spell, he is hit by a Skeleton and he curses loudly, and tells Hellyeah that a Hold Undead would have been very useful just now. Its Hellyeah’s turn to hold up their morale, “Hold firm Medinet” he says determinably and waits to loose charges off his Stoneskin.

35. Crayon looks to Palmerin to see if they can maximise their attempts to turn. He tries to hold back his fear as he sees that Palmerin is looking at him with a murderous glint in his eyes. Quickly Crayon turns back to what he is doing. If his worse fears are true, and Palmerin is about to join the dark side, then Crayon has only one shot at contributing to this battle. Crayon raises his Holy Symbol of Esscencia and utters a prayer, “oh Lady Esscencia, Champion of Lost Causes, here my plea. R*elease these abominations from evil’s hold”. He thrusts his Holy Symbol forward and shouts commandingly, “ I release you from evil’s hold, begone!”. Three Acid Skeletons and four Electric Skeletons immediately about face and march away from the combat to the west. The rest haven’t heard of Esscencia … yet.

36. Crayon manages a small smile at his victory before feeling the biting embrace of Palmerin’s battle axe twice into his back. Crayon briefly reflects on this turn of events “If Palmerin, the wisest of all of us, cannot resist this evil, what hope do the rest of us have”. At the same time a jar of acid falls nearby, splashing both Crayon and Palmerin. To make matters worse for Crayon, four skeletons break away from Medinet and Hellyeah and start to close in on him.

37. The party looks on in horror as they realise that Palmerin has joined the dark side. They quickly look to Q, who had fallen before. He gives them a reassuring wink and gets back to business. Will the evil try again for Medinet or has he already turned?

38. Crayon’s turning of the skeletons allows Cadra and Ballard to each get three attacks of opportunity on the skeletons as they flee. Cadra manages to knockdown an Acid Skeleton, he gives a quick roar of satisfaction and gets back to work. It would be undwarven to rest on his laurels.

39. Ballard holds his ground and hits Mummy X with his swords. Again he notices that his cuts and stabs do not seem to do as much damage as he would expect. Ballard digs deep into his determination. He has two of the wisdom draining mummies on him and several Electric Skeletons. If the party fails, then eight of the nine evil objects will fall into Rahotep hands. The fate of the world rests in the hands of the party again. It’s just another day at the office really.

Round Three

40. Party wins initiative (suck on that one DM)

41. Cadra critical hits the skeleton he has been attacking, nearly knocking its skull clean off; however, it is still “alive” and continues to attack.

42. Hellyeah decides a different wand is needed for this job (he has so many wands he is going to need a caddie soon). He pulls out a Wand of Burning Hands and fires on the skeletons in front of him. Hellyeah trusts his fate to the wild energies of the universe and two of the Acid Skeletons are affected. He turns to see how Medinet is faring and catches a glimpse of Medinet’s look of hatred directed at him. Oh no, Medinet has succumbed to the evil again. He once again believes that he is the god Anubis.

43. Medinet pulls out his own wand and points it at Hellyeah. He writhes as two magic missiles stab into his body. To rub salt into the wound, Hellyeah’s stoneskin is now gone. The stoneskin was a key factor in his fight with the Skeletons. Now he not only has eight Acid Skeletons on him, he has a thousand year old lunatic on his hands; however, Hellyeah is not afraid (unless they turn blue).

44. Palmerin’s condition hasn’t changed and he is intent on killing Crayon. Crayon decides to stop holding back his tremendous force and tries to overbear Palmerin. It seems Crayon still hasn’t learn the cardinal rule: “Crayon is not a fighter”. As soon as he tries to overbear Palmerin., Palmerin. critically hits him with his battle axe (attack of opportunity). Crayon soon learns that Palmerin. is hard to wrestle (A/C 1) and is pushed back. Palmerin. tries to reward Crayon with another taste of his axe, but misses.

45. Q’s daggers still whir and stab where openings appear. Mummy 5 almost smashes Q, draining him of his wisdom, but Q quickly blocks the attack. Q has seen the effect these mummies have had on Byron and decides a defensive fighting strategy may be the go. He plans on blocking every attack from the Mummy.

46. Byron still holds his ground. He is hit by an Electric Skeleton, but at least it isn’t one of the mummies.

47. On the other side of the room Ballard is also holding his own. He wields a short sword and a long sword. Both he and Q want to form one skirmish line but to do so would open them up to attacks of opportunity. He also decides to adopt a defensive fighting strategy.

48. The battlefield has not been kind to the party. There are three main areas of fighting, which splits the party’s resources into three. A combined front would be more advantageous but is too difficult to achieve.

Round Four

49. Initiative won by party ( simultaneous initiative. Electric Skeleton on Byron and Cadra looses it’s spear)

• Cadra hits M5
• Q hits twice
• Ballard critical misses
• Hellyeah casts stoneskin. He is back in the fight.
• Ballard and Q both successfully block a mummy attack; however, Byron gets hit by a mummy and looses 5 more wisdom points. Luckily, he was fairly wise to start with.
• Palmerin changes focus, and makes a one square adjustment and hits Q square in the back.
• Medinet uses his wand of magic missiles on Hellyeah.
• Cadra hits and kills M5.
• Byron tries to turn some of the undead. He reaches down into the depths of his faith and calls on his god to banish these abominations. He feels joys as he feels almost all the possible goodness he has go into his turning ability ( rolls 19). His joy is momentary, as none of the undead turn.
• Palmerin hits Q again. Luckily Palmerin. hits like a girl.

Round Five

50. Initiative won by DM

• M25 misses Q
• Electric Skeleton hits Ballard
• Electric Skeleton is blocked by Byron
• Four Acid Skeletons break away from Hellyeah and move in one Crayon. Two of them hit him. Crayon is battered and bleeding heavily. He resorts to shape changing to try and regain some hitpoints (which works a treat).
• Medinet uses his wand of magic missiles on Hellyeah. Medinet just doesn’t tire of that wand. Two missiles go stabbing into Hellyeah.
• Palmerin. tries to be cunning (which is a sign he isn’t in his right frame of mind). He tries to hit Q with the rod of cancellation ( hey that’s group treasure). He aims for Q’s braces and hits. The braces save (a 12 was needed and Ivan rolled a 12. Why waste better rolls - smug bastard)
• Byron hits M12.
• Cadra hits M12
• Crayon manages shape change into tiger. He gets 50% of the damage done to him back; however, in shape changing he can only take two items and his clothes with him. He decides to take his holy symbol and the Hand of Esscencia (after some inner conflict (what to take)) The rest of his gear falls to the floor.

Round Six

51. Initiative won by DM (simultaneous initiative. Nothing happens).

• Q blocks M25.
• Byron blocks M12
• Crayon gets hit by Acid Skeleton
• Cadra kills M12
• Q kills M25 (about bloody time).
• Byron hits electric skeleton
• Hellyeah uses wand of Burning Hands. 2 fail magic resistance. One Acid Skeleton is killed.
• Crayon withdraws from the fray.

Round Seven

52. DM wins initiative. DM rolls “1” and moves up a phase (great that’s all we need)

• Ballard is hit by M10 and looses 6 points of wisdom
• 2 acid skeletons close in on Q
• Hellyeah gets more Magic Missiles from Medinet’s wand. Hellyeah falls to the ground bleeding. Hellyeah is the first of the party’s causalities. He had been calling for help, but no one could get to him.
• Q tries to neutralise Palmerin. Q uses his psionics. He manages to open Palmerin.’s mind but is unsuccessful in his next psionic attack. (Palmerin.’s mind is left open – will his brains fall out naturally?).
• Ballard blocks a hit from M10 and then hits it
• Palmerin. casts “Slay Living from” from a group treasure scroll. The target is Q, who manages to save. He still takes some damage though.

Round Eight

53. Initiative. won by DM( rolls 2)

• Both Mummies hit Ballard. Ballard blocks the first one but has to use 2 character points to block the second hit. (Lucky, he would have been on 0 wisdom. We don’t know what would have happened there, but suspect he would have become a daddy…).
• Ballard hits and Kills M10.
  Cadra hits an electric skeleton
  Crayon uses the regerative scroll that casts a protection from evil 10’ radius.

Round Nine

54. DM wins initiative. (again!).

• Cadra was going to cast wall of iron/stone (granted power). Cadra gets hit by electric skeleton. Granted power wasted - bastard.
• Ballard gets hit by electric skeletons (one was a critical hit)

• Q gets 2 acid skeletons hit and Palmerin. also hits him.
  Q critically misses on one, but hits an acid skeleton on next hit.

• Crayon moves with protection from evil 10’ radius into middle of room. Calls for all party members to fall back to him.

Round Ten

55. Party wins initiative. (finally).

• Q & Ballard retreat to Crayon and into the protective circle.
• A Mummy, 2 electric skeletons and four acid skeletons pursue but are blocked out.
• Palmerin. closes in on party to attack, moving into the 10’ radius. He regains control of his mind and looks at Crayon with bewilderment. “Throw down your axe Palmerin.” Crayon pleads with Palmerin.
• Medinet the sneaky bastard has been watching from the steps since missiling Hellyeah unconscious, and now casts “Dispel Magic” on Crayon. It removes the protection, and nullifies all the spells on the party (such as fools speech), and destroys one or two potions. Palmerin. goes crazy again – bugger!

Round Eleven

56. Someone wins initiative.

• Ballard blocks skeleton
• Cadra kills skeleton (critical hit)
• Palmerin. does attack of op on Crayon, who runs (standard movement rate) over to Hellyeah to bind his wounds (Hellyeah is on -9hp. He won’t last another round).
• When Crayon gets there, Medinet casts a Burning Hands spell on Crayon. Luckily, Hellyeah was just under the flames and takes no damage (lucky my arse, Hellyeah has to use a cp to re-roll the chance).
• Crayon binds Hellyeah wounds. Now Crayon is facing the madman Medinet (“I’m not Medinet, I am Anubis”
• Q hits Mummy X. Ballard does critical hit on Mummy X.

Round Twelve

57. Party wins initiative

• Cadra is hit or hits something.
• Q attempts to hit Mummy X but makes a critical miss.
• Crayon tries to grab Medinet’s wand and wrestle it from him (the act of a desperate man). Crayon fails and in the next moment, Medinet raises the wand at Crayon and fires two magic missiles into Crayon. Crayon goes into negative hit points. Ironically, Crayon has a Brooch of Shielding that has never been used. It was his starting magic item. When Crayon shaped changed all his magic items (except his holy symbol and the Hand of Esscencia) fell to the ground (except those in the backpack).

Round Thirteen

58. Party looses initiative (roll 0, they are slowed a phase)

• Q parries (increasing his AC to -9). Q is desperate he doesn’t try and defeat the monsters but hold them back to buy Cadra some time. Q is on 17hp. He knows that if things don’t change then he will be dead soon. He calls to Cadra that they should retreat. Q will hold them off while Cadra binds and gathers the party. Cadra has the portable hole so he should be able to push the fallen into it.
• Ballard and Byron move to Cadra. One of them can cover the other while the other binds the wounds of the fallen. He is hit by an attack of opportunity by? Taking him down to 3Hp. Ballard’s brave actions were in vain as Medinet flame strikes Cadra, Byron and Ballard. Ballard is on negative HP and Byron is dead.

59. What will happen to our intrepid adventurers? Once again the backbone of the party (the dwarves) are left to pull the party out of the fire. Can Q hold them off? Can Cadra bind everyone’s wounds and escape? If they do escape, what happens to Palmerin. and Medinet? Will their arses become Rahotep’s foot warmers? Stay tuned.