After the harrowing experience of grafting a Vecna relic to their body the group decided to take an extended rest. They arose refreshed in 8 hours and immediately returned to the doorway to the Atrium. Just as before they all could now see through the door into a room with plates of mirror-bright metal tile panels on the floor, walls and ceiling. The walls and ceiling were covered with heavily graven relief sculptures showing Vecna exterminating thousands. The room was lit by an eye-shaped lantern which cast a blazing yellow light upon the pile of carrion littering the chamber.
Bodies of Ogres, mercenaries, ghouls, cultists and a few centaurs were strewn across the floor. Some died in melee others stood glassy and half melted into the floor. There were Zombies, skeletons and ghouls wandering around the chamber. Pretis charged in and planted the standard while Melisana attempted a Sun strike through the doorway. She saw no affect on the inside of the Atium. Demin decided to enter the Atrium before firing his crossbow and the others followed. Soon they were surrounded as more Horde Ghouls moved up from the south end of the chamber.
As the battle raged some ghouls fell easily, but when a Zombie died it expired with a Death Burst that caught most of the group. Then a skeleton was bloodied and it caused a Shadowy Rejuvenation which damaged the party without an attack and created a zone of absolute darkness. Alhellara and Melisana were harassed by immobilization near the doorway while Gofin and Lythandar moved out of the darkness.to attack the creatures who they could see. The monsters seemed to have no difficulty seeing or moving around in the darkness.
Demin headed south to attack some ghouls while Pretis and Mara kept up the attack on the undead. Alhellara and Melisana both used their repel undead powers to great affect while Gofin shrouded and attacked. Soon more zones of darkness were created and the battle bogged down. Without much else to do Demin unsuccessfully attempted to pick the lock of the doors leading west. Gofin moved north into an antechamber which was artfully decorated with tapestries and sculptures. These showed a powerful and fell lord, the blazing symbol of a withered hand predominating. At the western end of the chamber Gofin a smooth silvery door. Next to the door stood a massive iron statue sculpted and cut to form a disembodied hand, poised on its fingertips.
Meanwhile the Zombies kept exploding and the skeletons created more zones of darkness, but the ghouls had all fallen. A flurry of attacks finally finished off the last Zombie and Skeletons and the party sat down to rest. Demin was searching all the bodies but found nothing of interest, the carrion seemed to have been looted already. On the eastern wall was a heavily graven font holding a small amount of liquid. A short rest was taken and the group moved up to study the area Gofin had seen. Lythandar and Melisana soon found that the door was emitting magical energy. While deciding how to proceed Demin suggested that maybe they should check the southern end of the room. He couldn't raise any interest but Demin headed that direction anyway.
At the south end he found another antechamber, this one with smashed statuary, torn and burned tapestries and an open silvery door half melted and slumping on its hinges. The decoration that remained bore the eye symbol predominately. Next to the door was a five foot metal orb, melted and corroded but still recognizable as a large eye. Through the door Demin observed gears, spring and shiny metallic discs with razor edges filling the chamber. Many discs were jammed halfway in some of the hundreds of slits in the walls. Others lay crumpled and melted on the stony floor. A five foot wide path was cleared though the jumble to the remains of an obsidian door on the western wall, the door now just a pile of rocky chunks.
Returning to the northern chamber Demin warns that they need to proceed with caution given the ruins seen at the south end. Pretis moved up to the door but just as she moved to within 10 feet of it the hand came to life and attacked with its Log Finger. Again the encounter was joined as Gofin and Pretis attacked and then failed to jump on top of the hand. Mara moved up to attack and Lythandar used a power in which he teleported Pretis, Gofin and Mara to the top of the large hand. The hand moved through the group and pummeled three party members with Log Finger on one action. Fire damage to the hand seemingly moved it two squares.
The trio on top of the monster attacked with impunity as the hand could not reach them with its fingers but just as it was bloodied, Toxic Death exploded around the hand catching most of the party. Alhellara fell unconscious but was quickly revived. This was an air based poison which seemed to remain around the creature as it now had an aura of poison damage. The hand was alternately, dazed, and blinded limiting its powers as it could never use Dazing Fist and eventually the group wore it down. During the battle Demin suddenly turned and fired a crossbow bolt at Lythandar. As it fell though another blast of Toxic Death surrounded the group knocking Demin unconscious and gravely injuring most of the party. (DM note: even Lythandar was bloodied.)
After a short rest and much healing the group was poised to move forward. Seeing no traps on the door Demin moved up to try and open it.
Scorecard: The group earned 1000 XP for taking out the iron hand and 1257 XP for the battle with the Ghouls, Zombies and Skeletons and now have 44641 XP needed another 2359 to reach 14th level.
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