The party descends the stairs beneath the mausoleum. The passageway below — dark, narrow and winding — eventually passes a large room. The room is littered with broken furniture, bookshelves and other rubble. Dare finds a mysterious black powder in some of the barrels. Having a hunch what it is, he smashes a bit on the ground with the wide edge of his blade. Sure enough, there’s a spark. He stores the powder in his leather pouch. The rest of the party fully investigates the rest of the room, finding such things as town records and a ceramic urn on its side. Lilvari holds onto the records in case there’s some historical significance. The urn has the name Herivo Tav engraved on it — the name of one of Desilav Phandalin’s council of 5.  

Before Mystic can investigate the urn further, a hot spark ignites in the middle of her chest. The rest of the party watches as a small glowing orb rushes from her body. For the first time, the party witnesses what Ultorin can do. In the heat of battle, he creates two small shards resembling pinkish-purple blades in his hands and throws them at the creature as if they were daggers. The others assault the creature as well and In a matter of seconds the glowing orb is destroyed. After Droop takes a bit of what’s left over from the creature, the party carries on, heading further down the passage. 

The next room they come across appears to be a study. There’s a desk and a chair though both have been smashed into pieces as if done so in rage. The room also contains a skeleton and a pile of Tiefling skulls. Ultorin starts towards the pile of skulls but on his way notices strange markings on the stone floor below the skeleton.  Lilvari and Ultorin move the skeleton off the markings, and as they do a journal drops from its grasp. They read it.

The text is scribbled as if it was written hurriedly. It talks about a horrible secret that one has taken to ‘HIS’ grave, a secret that the author can’t stop thinking about. “Ever since I ‘ve read about the hanging tree, I needed to know more. It was like a drug. I felt Desilav’s presence in this unholy place. I know he suffers. I need to know why. I think he’s trying to tell me but I can’t listen. It hurts too much.” The writer goes on to talk about self inflicted pain. That he, the writer, can’t take the inssecent whispering. It’s driving him mad. The voice won’t stop. If he could just figure out how to pass the wall of ivory, he thinks he might be able to find the source. He mentioned the carved floor in this room and then writes, “I found some text that I believe holds the answer, but I’m too stupid to understand. With the voice constantly in my head I can’t think. The text is this: Pitiful demon-spawn met their demise foretold. Their secret kept shall yet unfold. If crowns placed correctly on the shrine, Celestial beds for four of nine.”

The writing gets sloppier. “I started cutting myself,” he says, “it keeps the voice at bay. Its getting angrier… more persistant. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it out.”

The last entry, written the most horribly of all says: “I’m going to end it now, and thank the gods. This torture is too much.”

The strange markings on the stone floor seem to be the puzzle the author was referring to. The party discusses ways to solve it, eventually deciding on placing the skulls onto certain squares. It takes some time, but eventually with Mercarri and Droop taking the lead, they solve the puzzle. The floor rumbles and they hear the sound of stone grinding from somewhere. 

The party then continues down the passage. As they’re walking, Dare suddenly takes a dart to the knee. It’s a trap. As the party looks for more, a mechanical clicking sound can be heard from behind the wall from which the dart came as if it’s resetting. Dare moves back quickly. The wall is covered with small holes. Investigating further, they see that several tiles along the floor are trapped. Dare, Lilvari and Droop (using his spider-like cannon) provide cover for Ultorin who disarms the tiles one by one. Finally, the party easily jumps over the last trapped tile and continues down the narrow passage. 

Soon, they see a flickering light in the distance. They follow it to the end of the passage, which ends at the entrance to a large room. The room is split into two levels. On the level the party is on, there’s a large lion statue at either end. Next to the statues are stairs heading to the next level where there’s a chest on top of an altar. They also see four metal cages lining the far wall. Before heading up to investigate further, Mystic examines the statues. It appears that the eyes are bloodstone known to fetch a lot of gold if the pieces are sizeable enough. Remembering what happened when the emeralds were removed from the statue in Wave Echo Cave, Mystic holds off trying to remove them.

The party heads up the stairs to get a better look at the cages. The cages are made of strong iron and appear to have no way in. Inside each one is a ceramic urn resting on a large blue pillow. The iron cage offers little room to reach in, so the best they can do is investigate the cages from outside. Each is engraved with a name — Bim Dervak, Haro Keen, Talfen Jurn, Vanan Horance — the other four members of Desilav Phandalin’s council.

Shortly after the party gets close enough to read the names, they hear an eerie voice echo in their minds: “Tell me your secrets…”

Dare spins around. The room is empty. “I like to snort shit up my nose,” is his reply.

As he speaks, a human-like form appears, hovering several feet above the altar. It’s semi-transparent, dressed in robes and swarmed by shadows. It’s eyes are sunken pits containing a faint red glow. Its freakishly large scowl stretches into a grin. “Now hear my secrets,” the creature says, “for now they are yours.”

Dare manages to swipe at the creature with Talon. It screeches in alarm and in pain.

A quick, breathless mumble pierces their minds. Lilvari, Mystic and Mercarri manage to quickly think of other thoughts strong enough to drown out the creature’s. Dare, Droop and Ultorin, however, aren’t so fortunate. A whimpering voice tells them how there was no pact with the devils, that the tiefling and his family were innocent. “The guilt”, the creature mumbles, “became so heavy that I couldn’t breathe. In the end there was no choice but to end myself if only to grant a semblance of peace, but it was not to be. Even in death I suffer. But no more! Now, you have to bear the burden!”

Mercarri invokes shit hammer, which flies towards the creature, striking true. Lilvari mutters some arcane words, and a blackish-purple shimmer surrounds the creature. She follows up by extending her hand and launching dark magic at it. By now, the creature’s robes are torn. Dark smoke and shadows pour out from within.  It seems as if it’s end is near. But then, bright flashing light appears behind the party. Four more orbs glow angrily from beside the cages. The dark, shadowy creature starts to laugh.