Buuuuuurn!

The statue battle is pitched, but the slow speed of the statuary allows the group to subdivide them using walls of force, so they can be dealt with in relative ease. While Gutboy acts as bait, the rest of the party pummels them with various missile weapons and spell effects, until they are reduced to rubble.

The well opening unlocks, the lid is pushed aside – and after a return to the outside to try and recoup a bit – the group scouts the entrance to the next level. A set of whirling death blades proves troublesome, but eventually the central spindle is stoneshaped and the cuisinart of death is jammed. A large room with unlit braziers, and a statue of a crouching tiger is all that seems to be therin. A wide hallway set with slab-doors is dominated by a large carving of a scarab. Unwilling to take any chances, Malchor preemptively disintegrates most of it. The various rooms are investigated – and it seems that the trap-detecting magic is most unreliable in this area, as several traps nearly kill Gutboy. A cold-storage room is found to be filled with large jars bearing all the relevant innards of a human – save the heart.

These jars are destroyed and the organs are destroyed as well. “Hope we don’t need them later” says Goldpiece.

Eventually – after all the traps and trickery is dealt with, the group manages to open a door to the inner sanctum, where the mummy lord greets them and congratulates them on living through the experience. He assures them that they will be fine minions.

“Minion this!” says Thraw and the druid wreaths herself in a ring of fire and assumes owl form. Flying into the room she is assaulted by the glowing eyes of the triad of jackal-headed statues that loom at the points of the room. Luckily, the mask she wears renders her immune to the gaze attacks that would otherwise paralyze her and render her an easy target. Now the biggest issue is living through the disintegration attacks that the unholy mummy lord lobs at her, but the luck of the dice is on her side and the mummy lord is burnt to a pile of cinders. No heart though. Hmm. That bodes ill…smacks of regeneration and that will be problematic.
Still…job well done and they retreat outside again for a couple-three days, hoiping the regeneration timeline is less pressing. Upon reentry, they scope the last few doors that haven’t been opened and make a concerted effort to see if any hidden ways have been missed. For their troubles they manage to slay another half-dozen mummies and mummy adjacent creatures – but no heart is to be found.

Back to the inner sanctum. More detailed investigation is undertaken and eventually a hidden passage is discovered beneath a flagstone. It is followed and several branching passages are ignored. They plow onward and eventually find themselves in a large room – apparently empty save a floating jade jar. As they advance, the last deadly guardians appear, a pair of zombified purple worms! “Meh” says Goldpiece as he hammers them with the mace of disruption and blasts them into undeath again.

A disintegrate spell from the mage drops the jar to the floor, eliminating whatever magical wards protected it. Goldpiece scans the interior with his X-ray belt and determines there is a heart-like object inside. He breaks the wax seal and produces the shriveled organ from its briny bath. Various attempts are made to destroy it, but in the end a good old-fashioned burning seems to do the trick. The threat is ended and a feeling of change sweeps over the party. Whew!

The last few avenues are investigated and the treasury is looted. Hauling everything out takes a while, but time is on their side and they are able to reclaim their extra-dimensional spaces from the Immersea vault and fill them to the brim with loot.

They return to Sembia and meet with the archaeologists, who are greatly pleased. They escort the archaeologists to the site of the pyramid and show them around before teleporting them back home. Monetary rewards are received and the scholars are astounded by the numbers of objects liberated. The party receives a rich payout in Sembian currency and the deed to a long-abandoned estate in the northeastern portion of the Dalelends, near the town of Yulash in the shadow of the Zhentil Keep – a place long assosciated with intrigue, spycraft, assassination and skulduggery.