Elaryan wakes at the bottom of an open grave, in a cavern that is too quiet and too dark. His keen lycanthropic senses can pick out the sound of Eovan sleeping beside him... but beyond that, he senses nothing, not even breathing. He sends a mental message to Eovan-- wake up -- then scrambles up out of the grave, summoning forth a light spell to reveal his situation. Arthas, Asteris, Lor and Nor are gone. Malak is standing silently by the water's edge, looking out over the subterranean bay. Next to him stands his master, Birgitte. "Good morning, Elaryan Enoram," says the dark-haired beauty. "Your companions left in the night. They took one of the canoes." Elaryan suddenly feels very, very alone. "They must be searching for the golden key," Birgitte continues. "We should do the same. Perhaps it is for the best, actually... the party will cover more ground this way. But I'm a bit of a loss at where we should start our search. Malak and I were just thinking that if Lor were here, he would pray for guidance." Malak nods mechanically beside her. Elaryan returns to the graves, where Eovan is just now climbing out. He retrieves his haversack, and pulls forth his ritual ingredients. He might not be able to cast a proper divination , but he knows how to commune with his God when he has to. He takes a triple dose of eye of Angazhan and as the visions claim him, he begins to beat upon his drum, the one made from the skin of those who once dared oppose the Ravenous King. Malak, Birgitte, and Eovan wait patiently as the sorcerer drums out a fierce tempo. None of them moves at all. After two full hours of drumming, Eovan suddenly looks up and speaks with a deep voice that is not his own: Take the blue key to the Lazarus Chamber... Southwest from the spider-shaped hall, Then West through five rooms, touching nothing. In the sixth room, Northwest becomes North, Past the amaranthine axe, to the door you seek. With this, the drumming stops and Elaryan's senses return to him. The companions discuss the clues that mighty Angazhan has laid out: Elaryan remembers a room with eight hallways on the second floor of the dungeon, which could be the spider-shaped hall. And while none of them has a blue key, the sorcerer still has the blue crystal skull from the hidden niche in the Hall of Murals. The party returns to the second level of the dungeon, and quickly finds the eight-way hall, near fat Grundle's lair (though they are careful not to disturb Grundle himself). Following Angazhan's directions, they head southwest, then west through a series of rooms. Eventually, the hall turns north and widens into a broad subterranean highway with niches. The heroes find a door with purple crystal axe set in it, and a little further down the highway, a stout oak door leading to the Lazarus Chamber. The most prominent feature of the Chamber is a large metal dais at its center. Twin columns run from floor to ceiling, carved with skull-headed angels, and a square niche is set into the wall, four feet up from the floor of the dais. Elaryan places the blue skull in the niche, and it begins to glow. The dais itself is suffused with a blue light that Elaryan finds comforting, but there is no other effect. "Let me try," says Malak, stepping onto the dais. He is immediately slain. Moments later, he stands up again. The blue light is gone and the crystal skull has been consumed, but Malak lives! The color has returned to his features, and his heart beats once more. He embraces Elaryan. Birgitte is a little perturbed by the loss of her minion, but neither Elaryan nor Malak have really shown any indication of disobeying her anyway, so she lets it go. The party decides to continue their search for the golden key, starting with the purple axe door they passed earlier. The door leads to a chamber with two drum automatons that guard a stairway down. The automatons attack, drumming out a rhythm that fills the party with dread. Malak is particularly affected, fleeing for his life and leaving Elaryan and Eovan to face the automatons alone. The battle is going poorly-- the automatons are seemingly immune to magic, and Eovan's arrows have almost no effect-- when Malak returns. Birgitte has dominated him, overruling his fear and dispelling the effect of the guardian's drumming. With the party's fighter back in the fight, the tide turns, and the automatons are defeated. Inside one of them, Eovan discovers a slip of paper with musical notation upon it. At the bottom of the staircase, the heroes find an ancient crypt containing a stone sarcophagus. The body within wears a golden mask, and in his hands is a massive two-handed, two-bladed battle axe. The axe has a mirror-finish platinum coating, a haft of lightweight black material that gleams like obsidian, and four stainless-steel strings running the length of the axe, over frets of pure ruby. Malak grabs the axe and begins to play the song from the paper upon its strings: White man came across the sea He brought us pain and misery As he strums furiously on the metal axe, Eovan is filled with dread, similar to that which filled Malak at the sound of the drummers. He begins to flee from the room; fortunately, at that moment, Malak fumbles a note and the effect ends. The party searches the sarcophagus more thoroughly, finding more treasure, then retreats back to the main hallway. One of the hallway niches is covered by what appears to be a red force field. When Malak throws a skull into it, it moves, revealing itself as an enormous gelatinous cube! Strangely, this ooze has the ability to cast spells... in quick succession, it curses Malak, disables Elaryan, and kills Eovan. Malak manages to save Elaryan's life via clever use of a potion of superheroism from the Tomb of the Metal Axe, and the sorcerer destroys the cube with a series of fireballs . The party is once again victorious, but at a price. Eovan is dead, Elaryan can barely stand, and Malak spends half his time staring into space, doing nothing... Everyone who played gains 3,000 XP