The PCs returned to Moonstone Keep with the wounded Mab. Cassius ably healed the genasi's wounds and insisted the rest of them wait until tomorrow when they're fully rested before returning to the Tombwood. In the meantime, they took advantage of their reprieve to take care of a few things, namely the renovation of their tower. Looking into the party's coffers, Benjaar found a discrepancy. After some mild detecive work, the dragonborn discovered that Akriel was responsible for spending a good deal of the group's money. Benjaar confronted the drow about this, and though he considered evading the fighter, Akriel admitted to his borrowing of the bag of holding and his misappropriation of the party's funds. The dragonborn, with the rest of the goup in tow, led Akriel by his pointy ear to the Silver Unicorn. There, Wisara Osterman put the drow to work, cleaning up the damage from the fire. Grudgingly, the drow went to work.
Just ouside of town a man was awaking from a dream turned nightmare of silver fire. Helios Marten groggily lifted his head from the riverbank to survey his surroundings. He noticed a walled city not far away and the river to his immediate right. Off in the near distance he noticed a well traveled road, with a few wagons heading for the walled city. His immediate area seemed to be mostly farmlands but far off in the distance he saw something he'd only read about; a floating mote of earth. After rubbing his eyes a few times Helios decided he wasn't halucinating and checked his gear. Most of it was still on his person, including his holy symbol, but it had all changed somehow. His most crucial item, his spellbook, was perhaps most changed; It was now a massive, iron-bound tome full of spells. Before, Helios had only used his spellbook as a notepad, since his eidetic memory held all the spells he knew. It now also possessed an iron chain and arm-shackle so that it might be bound to its reader. Helios's grip failed momentarily while maneuvering the chain and shackle and the tome dropped from his hands… only to float a few feet off the ground. After marveling a bit at this he decided to leave solving its mystery for another time. He gathered himself up and headed for the strange walled city.
"And make sure he does all the hard work!" came the call from Benjarr as the group left Akriel to work off his debt. Helios, having entered the city, noticed the strange group, as the perceptive Cassius noticed the lost mage. The cleric of Bahamut approached Helios and introduced himself and the group. After discussing the finer points of the Atroan and Faerunian pantheons, the group offered to help Helios discover the mystery as to how he got to the Nentir Vale from the Vast Swamp. Mab escorted the mage to Nimo's tower as the rest of the group split up; the dragonborn bard and fighter headed to the Blue Moon taphouse while the rest of the group went to speak with Grundelmar at the temple of Pelor. The dwarven cleric gave them the names of a few good crafters from Hammerfast, so that the group could decide who to hire. On the way to Moonstone Keep to draft a letter for a courier to take to Hammerfast, they encountered a halfling riding a large gray bird after speaking with the man, who went by the name Gendo Harfoot, they discovered that he was, in fact, a courier and a rancher who lived just outside town. Gendo raised the large riding birds, called chocobos, on his ranch. The PCs arranged a meeting with the halfing for later that evening, once they'd composed their letter.
Meanwhile Mab had just showed Helios to Nimozoran's tower (pointing out the awsome waterfall along the way). Helios was greeted at the tower by Tobolar, the halfling apprentice, and led into Nimozoran's study, where the old alchemist was buried behind his desk by old tomes. Helios eventually got his attention and informed him of his origins, trying to glean any clues as to how he got here, where ever 'here' was. They dicussed Mystra, Netheril, and Faerun. Nimo even had a few books of 'mythology' containing a few historically infamous Faerunian events. Nimo was more than happy to let the strange man borrow the books, but was convinced Helios was quite mad. Helios returned to Moonstone Keep where Lord Markelhay requested a brief audience. The Lord welcomed Helios to Fallcrest and inquired about his intentions before dismissing him.
At the Blue Moon Taphouse, Humphrey and Benjaar were well into their cups when they decided to look into hiring laborers to help renovate the tower. They overheard talk of the Swiftriver Clan of halflings and how they often do odd jobs around town for fair pay. After inquiring further and getting all of the information they needed they headed back to Moonstone Keep. Once there, they and the rest of the party composed the missive they would send to Hammerfast. They included the name of the Eitir Clan, a little known but reliable group of crafter dwarves referred to them by Grundlemar, and the Swiftriver Clan. Gendo showed up shortly after, meeting them in the feast hall. They agreed on payment and the halfling took the missive and prepared to leave for the dwarven outpost the next day, while the group finished their meals and retired to their rooms (except for Benjaar who passed out in front of the fireplace).
The next morning they set out, once again, for the Tombwood (which wasn't much of a journey, considering its inside the town). Akriel returned to the Silver Unicorn, under the heavy glare of the dragonborn fighter, and Zaane decided to try and gain another audience with Lord Markelhay to discuss other recent happenings in the Nentir Vale. Cassius, Humphrey, Benjaar, Mab, Hadarai, and Helios entered the cavern at the back of the wood. They noticed shortly after entering that the large stone door, which they had gone through such pains to open the tiniest crack, was closed again. Splitting up again, they re-entered the side tombs and proceeded to disable the locking mechanisms, simultaneously. Again, they were ambushed by creatures, this time skeletons large spiders and swarms of centipedes. Helios deftly handled the swarms on his side while the spiders caused trouble all around. The skeletons stayed away from the PCs and peppered them with arrows, while the spiders leapt from hero to hero, dealing some nasty damage. Eventually the PCs prevailed and managed to open the doors. Cassius noticed the faint sound of slithering coming from the main cavern, but the PCs in the tomb on the other side got to witness the source; a giant snake-like creature composed of rotting flesh with a fanged horse skull for a head. Once Mab, Helios and Humphrey got over their initial shock, they decimated the thing with dazing attacks and magic missiles before it even got close enough to attack. It made one attack against the mage before Mab took it down.
The PCs on the opposite side were rushing over to help when they were ambushed by wights and more skeletons with bows in the main cavern. The wights took quite a toll, taking HP and healing surges with each hit and the skeletons sent volley after volley of missiles into the PCs. The other group of PCs rejoined with Cassius, Benjaar and Hadarai, turning the tide back in their favor. But, a necromacner began blasting the group from beyond the doorway they just opened. Helios and Benjaar neutralized the skeletons with some ranged area attacks while the rest of the group focused on the wights. Once the wights were out of the way, Cassius and Benjaar rushed the necromancer and dispatched him in short order.
The room beyond the large stone doors was littered with ruined columns and was crafted quite some time ago according to the age of the stonework. Although, the iron-shod door on the opposite side of the chamber was significantly newer. Additional chambers on either side of the room housed three coffins each; Two mundane and one ornate. Upon inspection, the PCs found levers inside the ornate coffins and a nifty Vistani instrument that was enchanted. Very beat-up from the last battle and lacking many healing surges, they decided to leave the levers for later and they took an extended rest with the least wounded taking watch.
