Old Man Xalver translates the book liberated from the late Phlouwurz the Skeletal Necromancer by Alpha Company three weeks ago. The book reveals that APPOTHROMAX is an astral dragon and that there is a compass, probably still locked in the late Phlouwurz’s lair, that will guide its possessors right to APPOTHROMAX. These revelations come to Alpha Company convalescing at the Inn Decision’s lounge to the soothing tones of local bardic talent Doctor Djonnn. As Alpha is already familiar with the lair, it will be up to them to return with the jade key and liberate the compass as well.
Five kobolds have the misfortune of encountering the rested and fully staffed Alpha Company as they traverse the Hall of Doors back to Snakewood. Four are brutally slain and the fifth departs to tell the tale.
Back at the stone cap into the lair, Tango leads the party back through the explored passages. Ssatschia guides Tango past the danger zoned cleaning closet of sneezing, coughing dust and around the mean green moss carpet. Nala kicks the lock off an unexplored door which opens to a room of two extra long sarcophagi. Each one releases a wraith of ordinary height when opened. The wraiths are defeated without too much inconvenience. Tango loots out a couple of valuable, gem encrusted gold crowns from one sarcophagus [1200 gp each]. Moth gets a bronze key from the other. Scram grabs the golden statue from the end of the hall.
Nala and Tango explore a side hall that ends with a locked door. Once cleared of traps and picked open, the party finds a waiting skeletal executioner with an oversize, novelty great axe guarding a room of five closed sarcophagi and eternally burning braziers. Scram tries to reason with the skeleton. When communication fails, Tango sneaks an attack. The executioner brings its great axe down on Tango, but Tango leverages his timely luck to foul the swing. Nala and Moth take out the executioner before it can recover.
Tango, Nala, and Moth push lids off the sarcophagi. A couple of them release wraiths that are dealt with easily. Snory glimpses light through the wall and eventually locates a secret door which Scram opens into a rough cavern. On the other side of the little cavern is another door, secret only from the other side, that opens into the back of the cleaning closet that nearly killed Ssatschia on the previous visit. Neither Snory nor Scram recognize the danger. Scram empties an urn of its sneezing dust finding neither key nor loot. Tango rushes to shut the closet door before the dust cloud emerges and drags choking, suffocating Scram out. Quick thinking Ssatschia produces a Theki root and blesses Scram. Scram easily recovers.
All five sarcophagi are double checked for valuables. Moth finds yet another secret door into a rough cavern and explores through the other side before anyone else can see where he has gone. He wanders into a tangle of webs. A web zombie does whatever it can do to slam Moth and closes the door behind him.
Nala chases after Moth and reopens the door. Moth laconically explains he is stuck. A second web zombie slamming into Moth requires no further explanation. Snory and Tango take out one of the zombies as Scram’s fireball flies past them incinerating the room full of flammable webbing. A death weaver spider, deprived of his concealing webbing, drops to the floor. The surviving web zombie slams Moth bloody. Nala’s greatsword exacts fatal revenge. Tango’s sneaky shortswords and Scram’s scorching rays get deep into the death weaver’s business. Nala brings critical greatswording and slays the death weaver.
The cavern, secured by secret doors and cleared of dangers, shelters a short rest. Tango checks out a bird statue on an altar which is found, happily, to be holding a crystal key in its statue beak.