As Demin moved into the chamber two ghouls arose from the chairs facing the crystal wall. Demin heard some whispering and his psychic was bruised and he was dazed. The rest of the party prepared for battle as they tried to manuver into the chamber. Gofin headed for one of the Ghouls and soon found herself grabbed and under attack from saliva dripping jaws. The other Ghoul attacked Pretis with a ranged attack causing ongoing psychic damage and sliding away. The ghoul then moved up and clawed at Mara.
As the battle continued the party found that when they were near the ghouls they took psychic damage and were dazed. This caused some consternation as various members attempted to move away, others decided to march forward and Gofin took additional damage as she could not escape the grab. Alhellara attempted to turn undead with little success and Melisana cast radiant damage upon the creatures and then teleported several mates out of the whispering aura of the ghouls, or out of a grab in Gofin's case.
The battle continued with various party members either dazed or grabbed or both as the ghouls pressed their advantage. One even moved up to Alhellara and struck a claw blow, grabbing her into its embrace. She quickly used the power of her new bow to teleport out of the grab and fire an arrow at the beast. Through steadfast attacks while dazed the party finally wore down the ghouls and thy fell "lifeless."
The group set about to heal their wounds and a quick check of the room found no treasure or magic. As Lythandar moved up to the crystal wall a ghoul suddenly appeared in the frame and then moved out. Assuming he was looking into another chamber Lythandar cast a light into the area. It merely showed part of a room with some litter and difficult to identify piles.
Melisana and Demin were examining the iron wheel on the wall which appear untrapped. Demin attempted to turn the wheel and found it was positioned all the way to the right. H?e turned it to the left and after one full turn it stopped. Looking around the chamber nothing different occurred and even through the crystal wall nothing seemed different. After a short time pondering the meaning of the wheel, which was left in its new position, the party decided to backtrack since there was no way forward here.
Returning to the Library the group examined the door on the west wall, no traps were found and the lock seemed to have been broken. Opening the door they found a Knowledge Vault similar to the room they found near the entrance. This vault seemed to have been ransacked as they found no magical items. Moving to the south door of the Library which was untrapped and unlocked they found a east-west hallway with the west end turning south. Directly south from the door the hallway also extended south and there was a door on the west. Again Demin examined the door, the lock had been shattered and the party found another sacked Knowledge Vault. Moving further south the hallway turned east, with a door on the north and a larger iron bound stone door on the east.
The northern door was found to be another sacked Knowledge Vault. Studying the door to the east Demin could find no way to open it, in fact it looked as if it could not swing open in any way. Quickly the group determined that it may be controlled by the wheel in the Observation Chamber. Melisana ran back and turned the wheel all the way to the right. As she did so Demin say the door in front of him rise up into the ceiling and he noticed that 20' into the room another door was lowering at the same rate. Inside the group found a twenty foot square area and no way to open the far east door either. Mara speculated that this was some kind of "beast lock" to let monsters (or people) into or out of the chamber on the east. The group had much discussion on how to proceed. They wanted to assure that they couldn't get locked into the eastern chamber, which they speculated was observed through the crystal wall. Others didn't want to enter the area at all, Melisana wondered why they were so leery of entering this chamber and not all the others they had already found. Moving the chairs from the Observation Chamber the group blocked the downward motion of the west doors and prepared to enter. But eventually they determined to leave the area alone for now.
Moving back up the hallway, then west and then south they came upon another door which led to a Laboratory (Supplication Chamber) as they had seen previously by the entry. This one contained lots of pieces of necrotic looking flesh along with the mundane alchemical apparatus. Since this seemed a dead end also the group moved back to where Lythandar had tripped a trap floor outside the gorgon area. Demin determined how to reset the trap doors and leverage them so that they wouldn't open and he moved to the door. Inside was another Supplication Chamber with a door on the south wall. This chamber held various clays and other minerals along with its alchemical apparatus. The south door opened onto an east-west hallway with many doors. At the east end the passage turned south and there were doors flanking the one the group moved out of. There were two doors on the south of the hallway and one at the west end. Mara and Pretis moved to the door northeast which was locked. Inside was another Knowledge Vault, this one containing some purple and green striped pills in green parchment along with what seemed to be 3'' diameter patches of skin separated by cork wafers. Melisana took charge of these evil radiating items as they discussed whether this might be the skin of Vecna! Melisana had noticed that the first door to the south was an relief carved iron door, the carving being a human missing his left eye and hand. The door to the west also matched.
Demin moved to the west door and found and disabled an Accumulated Years trap and he picked the lock. Mara opened the door and the group saw a room with vibrant mosaics covering every surface. In one corner stood a slim pedestal fused with the floor. The top of the pedestal held a lamplike glass container. Melisana moved in and beheld that the glass container held a thick, blackened finger. It appeared to be a right hand first digit. Identifying no traps Lythandar used his mage hand to lift the glass cover off and Melisana used a piece of cloth to retrieve the finger.
In the hallway Gofin and Alhellara had seen two more doors to the southeast and one to south. Pretis moved forward to the next eastern door but just as she move closer a trap door opened and she fell 40' into a spiked pit. After retrieving Pretis, Demin again reset the trap and jimmied it shut. He then moved to the door and seeing no trap tried to unlock it. He was attacked by a Death Mold and stumbled back before moving up to unlock the door.
Mara again opened the door and the group found another Reliquary, this one holding a thin, blackened finger, the second digit, which Melisana added to her collection. The next door on the east was a wooden door with no relief carvings and the lock was broken. The group found this was another Knowledge Vault that had been sacked. There was a difference though as Melisana noticed a concealed door to the south. Demin again found no traps but a mist was sprayed into the Vault as he tried to open the door. Mara moved up to open the door and found another Reliquary, this one holding a fist sized lump of dessicated tissue. Melisana opined that this may be the Heart of Vecna and she stored it away with her other Relics.
The hallway continued west from this area with three doors on the south, the most easterly of which was an iron door carved into a relief of Vecna.
Scorecard: The party earned 1100 XP for the nights work and now have 38520 XP with only 480 more needed to reach 13th level.
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