Adventure Two, Session Eight Recap

The trap is set! After making the final preparations for the "Liar's Day Ball" (now the "Diamond Ball") snare, the party retired to take care of additional items of business in Angleport. Teffa accepted a dinner offer from Lewelynn, thus commencing a budding romance. The following day, with less than forty eight hours until the event, the adventuring party also sought augment their supplies with some magical items. This coincided with the arrival of their old friend, Brill Brall the kenku, who was tracked down by the wonder team of Fluff and Grumbeth. Conveniently, Brill knew the location of a possible fence for contraband magic items, down in Angleport's seedy warehouse district.
The group traveled to the "bad part of town," where (unlike in the spacious and green "noble district") the buildings are practically built on top of each other, with no architectural forethought or uniformity of style. They came across a bar called "The Skinny Adam," literally built into the easement between two larger buildings. Within the rough and tumble watering hole, they met a heavily tattooed dwarf named Varnas, who Manny negotiated with, eventually agreeing to follow the strange dwarf to see an underworld contact who could possibly provide them with the magic they sought.
After risking a back alley journey, all the while being watched by unknown forces from the rooftops, the party ended up at simple wooden door with a handwritten sign stating "Readings." Inside, Varnas introduced the party to Hanier, a one-armed gnome with access to plentiful magic items. After some haggling, Manny walked away (lighter in pocket and minus the necromantic scroll he found at Emmeline's in adventure one) with a "Luckstone." Brill Brall gained a magic arrow head. And finally, Teffa purchased the "Staff of the Woodlands," a powerful druidic staff with the ability to distort nature itself.
Upon returning to Lewelynn's estate, the group then picked out costumes for the masque ball. Manny and Brill Brall decided to dress as attendants under Figoras' employ, and the remaining members decided to pose as opulent guests.
Thus they reached the night of the ball itself. Manny arranged for the Watch Captain's men (twenty of whom were dispatched to help trap Vorliss) to be stationed at various points around the museum premises, with several at the front door, the stairs, the entrance to the sewers and finally, the graveyard just beyond the museum property line.
As the party commenced, it was quickly apparent that more guests were arriving than expected, and soon the museum was packed beyond capacity, creating a possible problem. As the party mingled with the guests, Faylin Harbole approached Manny and attempted to warn him that he knew "who they really are." He said that Krimko wasn't the only party interested in the complete Rod of Ryktuss and implied that they were in danger from "forces beneath the surface." Manny took this to mean the sewers, and rushed down the stairs to the sewer access door. Down in the dark, he heard rats scurrying his way, as if they were running from something. He then saw something slowly large, slowly floating towards him through the scummy waters of the sewer. Manny determined that this was the attack they were anticipating and ran back upstairs to warn the others.
Feeling that the crowd was too much to handle, Manny yelled "fire" in the crowded room, in a botched attempt to get the crowd to exit the building. All it did was create chaos. A few guests who, up to this point, seemed to be watching Teffa closely, began to close in on her. They were a group of men wearing the bright colored silks of the Southron Lands. Their leader wore a mask making him look like an "efreet" (an evil genie from the Elemental Plane of Fire).
Teffa at this time saw a strange woman, dressed as the personification of death, her face painted like a skull. It didn't take long to identify this woman as their missing friend Zelna. However, when Teffa approached her, Zelna seemed to have no memory of her, and even falsely presented herself as "Clarise." Fearing Zelna was under the magical thrall of Lord Vorliss, Teffa cast "dispel magic" on her. It seemed to work. She took the now disoriented Zelna to the bathroom, so they could speak. Shortly after entering he privy, they heard the chaos brewing on the main floor. Teffa, with the still very confused Zelna in tow, went out to investigate.
Before Teffa even had a chance to really notice, Faylin Harbole snuck up behind her and placed a blade to her neck in what seemed to be an attempted kidnapping. Without hesitation, Teffa used her druidic ability and transformed into a war horse, tossing Faylin from her in the process. If the room wasn't in full chaos mode before, it certainly was now.
Guests began screaming and running away from the "wild" horse that suddenly appeared in the room. As the party descended upon Faylin, Zelna walked away, mostly unnoticed, to the room where Inhopthek's sarcophagus was being held.
Concurrent to this, once again Temerity heard the voice of the diamond in her head. "It's time! There will never be another chance! Go to Inhopthek!" When Temerity refused, the diamond cast a spell upon her, taking control of her body. Under it's sway, she made for the room with the sarcophagus, beating Zelna to it. The more she tried to fight the diamond's control over her body, the more it hurt her, body and soul. She couldn't stop it. And soon, most of the locks were shattered by her sword.
Zelna arrived at this point and screamed for Temerity to stop, but it was too late. With the final lock destroyed, the lid of the sarcophagus fell to the floor, pinning Temerity beneath it. Brill Brall arrived in time to help the prone tiefling, who was now free of the power of the diamond. The assembled group looked up just in time to see the "resting" body of Inhopthek. He looked to be a textbook mummy. At first. But then his wrappings began to fall away, and the desiccated flesh began to literally melt from his face.
What was revealed beneath was not, nor had it ever been, human. Inky black eyes fluttered open, and tentacles (where its mouth should be) began to writhe. This creature stood as a man, but had the head of a squid!
Seeing the vile creature, Zelna suddenly screamed to the heavens, "Vorliss! Now!" And with that command, Lord Vorliss, the death knight, materialized out of thin air in the center of the museum, sword in hand...