After taking an extended rest the party arose and looked over Tovag Baragu again. It seemed to consist of several circles of stone monoliths. It appeared to be around a mile from one side of the complex to the far side. As the group was preparing to eat a light brunch Pretis called out saying that she couldn't stand up. Melisana and Alhellara moved over to examine her and found her laying on the ground where she had spent the night. Pretis was able to feel her legs but she couldn't move them or stand up. Everyone started discussing what could have happened when Pretis said that for the last couple of days she had been having a hard time keeping up with the party. It seemed as though this was soon after they left the library. Lythandar recalled that they had fought the living shard in Vor Rukoth and maybe this was related. So Alhellara prepared to perform the Remove Curse ritual and Melisana decided to attempt to aid her. The ritual was performed and Pretis was able to regain her feet.
After a short brunch the party move down to the vast circle complex. The slightly raised platform was made of large pale paving stones. Mara dug down the side and found that the stones seemed about a foot thick. There were two or three raised ten foot wide pathways leading toward the center of the complex. The rings of standing stones seemed to have some archways build into them but it was hard to see from this distance. The party started to move inward on the pathway leading directly north. Coming upon the first ring of featureless stones they saw the pathway continuing directly through and archway. Only the archways had lintel stones and as they group examined the standing stones they noticed that the stones appeared immune to erosion and none of them were canted at all.
The party continued moving north toward the center, which they could see was surrounded by stone archways of much greater height. Moving through three more circles, identical to the first, archways, no erosion, perfectly straight stones they came upon some bodies laying around outside the inner ring. The bodies seemed to have been flung back from a detonation marked by scarred and blackened stone tiles. The bodies had a tattoo on each wrist of a skeletal hand with a single eye implanted in the palm. Several party members immediately recognizing this as Vecna's sign. The archways around the inner circle were forty feet high and the one directly ahead of the party was opaque with a black "curtain" hung across the opening.
From inside the circle the group heard movement and before they could even respond two ogres moved out from the inner circle to engage the group. As the party took aim at these ogres they move around the circle and could see that some archways were open and they noticed several other ogres inside. The battle raged as several more ogres moved outside, including one in robes who planted a standard in the ground. An ogre through a javelin at Alhellara and charged her bashing with his club and she found herself bloodied. Gofin, as is her wont, was soon bloodied also. Pretis moved into whack at an Ogre and the group soon found the minions who fell quickly.
Demin moved around east around the circle and ran into a Crazed Carrion Crawler while Pretis moving west found a Carrion Crawler Putrifier who soon stunk up the area. The Ogre Shaman called forth an area of Drenching Rain and hurled lightning and thunder at the party, even though fire damage was taken. Some Ogres and even a Carrion Crawler seemed to be causing fire damage also. Strange Days indeed. Mara waded through the Ogres waiting to pounce but they enemy kept stopping one square away from her allies. Alhellara healed herself as Melisana flew to the top of an archway. Gofin and Pretis surrounded the Shaman but Pretis also was being besieged by an Executioner whose Savage Cut did considerable damage. Demin moved into the circle with Lythandar and they used ranged attacks to pepper the opponents. The Crazed Carrion Crawler was bloodied by Mara and responded by attacking with both tentacles and a bite. The putrifier tried to climb the archways to get to Melisana but Melisana simply flew to another archway.
The Ogre Warriors fell and Gofin finished off the Shaman and pulled the standard out of the ground and threw it down. At this point the fire damage ceased and the Carrion Crawlers succumbed to their multiple injuries. Pretis and Lythandar focused on the Executioner and the battle was done. Searching of the bodies followed and Melisana and Lythandar both did Arcana checks. The standard turned out to be "Battle Standard of the Fiery Legion" which meant that the groups fire based attacks were doing less damage than expected and it also caused all that fire damage.
Looking around the group saw sixteen archways comprising the inner circle. From the outside every other archway was opaque, while the others seemed normal. For the most part they group has not searched the inner circle area yet.
Scorecard: The party gained 807 XP for the battle and now have 29812 XP total, they need 2188 more to reach 12th level. Who was taking the Battle Standard was not decided.
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