What’s in the box? Bacon?

Gathering around the golden sarcophagus, the party begins poking, prodding, prying. Lubbitch’s xray eye is brought to bear and stymied.
Finally, the ram is produced and as Reza stands ready with the Mace of Disruption, Barada and Lubbitch try to open the lid. Varying degrees of success are achieved when a crack opens along one side and it is seem that it is sheets of lead, gold and iron over stone. When the crack opens, a column of fire roars out of the ceiling, but the party members avoid most of the damage by springing aside, or standing far in the back of the party. On the heels of the fire column, a ring of blue fire encircles the sarcophagus, prompting the party to fall back and begin dithering. Dalliance sees that light flashes are being emitted by whatever is within the coffin and she urges rapid action.
Bud uses his Anti-Magic Shell to bridge the ring and the party splits, with Reza, Barada and Lubbitch going to open the lid the rest of the way, while Dalliance and Humbar hide ….er…position themselves strategically.
Another blow causes the lid to begin sliding, and the occupant is lending a helping hand. Blinding light flashes forth and a mummy wrapped in luminescent-rune-inscribed bandages rises out of the coffin. From that point it is a little more than a minute of stark terror and adrenaline-fueled mayhem. As the lid opens, Barada and Lubbitch turn to run, leaving Reza to attack … and miss. A Power Word Kill does not kill Lubbitch, as she is still strong enough to resist the effects, despite her earlier roasting. Humbar unloads bursts of undead-slaying light from the Wand of Illumination. As Reza continues to swing and miss, the creature emerges from the wreckage, brushes Reza aside and engages Lubbitch who has charged with her two handed sword after drinking a potion of Cloud Giant Strength (thoughtfully provided by Barada).
The battle rages on, the creature dealing terrible damage and hissing like fat on a hot griddle; eyes bulging and flaming with hate/lust/whatever. Dalliance shouts encouragement from the back and fires off whatever spells seem useful at the moment. The creature is warded and guarded and absorbs her missiles, or turns them back upon her. It likewise turns Barada’s arrow back upon him, nearly slaying him. Lubbitch, Reza and the monster dance the deadly tango of doom while Bud nervously stands still in order to make sure an avenue of escape through the ring of flame is still open. ‘Flash’ goes the wand, ‘miss’ goes Reza, and it is up to Lubbitch to strike the creature – which earns her a proboscis-induced loss of energy level, as the creature tries to heal itself.
Reza flails (woosh woosh), Lubbitch battles (whackity whack), Feaster is still (ooooooommmmmmm) and Humbar and Dalliance (flash! boom!) keep up the long-range assault. Things are looking grim when the mummy transforms into a demon from the deepest pits of …someplace really bad. It fireballs the party and levitates into the air, but the group is ready and Lubbitch deploys her Wings of Flying while Reza pounds a Potion of Flying. Dalliance yells to Barada “I bet it won’t turn your arrows now!” and Barada looses a wondrous shot that takes the creature ‘twixt the eyes and renders it inert.
Indeed, soon all that is left is a pile of dusty, rune covered bandages and a ruby the approximate size and shape of a human heart.
This is swept into a bag, and then the group settles down. On the morrow, Humbar restores the lost energy level and the party does some quick thinking, Leaving the immediate vicinity, they journey to the village of cheese-making goat herders. There they relax amidst moist and fragrant cheeses while they plot and plan. In the end, it is decided that Barada and Dalliance will travel to Waterdeep while the rest of the group winters in the desert.
While on patrol in the desert, Bud Feaster reports seeing Mr.Slippers (the mage-killing ‘rug merchant’) trudging through the sands towards the party. As soon as Dalliance leaves, he turns and begins heading towards Waterdeep. Dalliance and Barada journey to Silverymoon, where Barada parts with 300,000 gp to buy a bardish lute. They also pawn some of the more evil items to the Lathanderites. Thus replenished, the group returns to the desert and collects the party members.
Deciding that to keep moving minimizes teh odds of running into Mr.
Slippers. Rehashing old leads, it is decided to seek out an abandoned dwarven gem mine. The only salient question is spoken, but unanswered What could be so bad as to cause dwarves to leave a mine full of gemstones?

Guess they’ll find out soon enough…