After Demin failed to pick the lock on the silvery door he started to move away but his movement was interrupted by Pretis attacking with his pick. Lythandar cast scorching burst in the middle of Demin, Pretis and Gofin. This was followed by Gofin attacking Pretis and Melisana shouting "what is happening? Why are you attacking us?" Mara grunted that she was going after green slimy things and she moved up to attack Melisana. Meanwhile Pretis continued with his attack on Demin and Melisana and Alhellara tried to move as far away from their former allies as possible. Pretis and Mara kept shouting about attacking green slimy monsters as Mara followed Melisana into the Atrium. After two rounds of battle the rampant party members sheepishly stopped attacking their allies and apologized profusely.
When questioned Mara related that she saw her fellow adventurers morph into horrible montrosities, merging human and green slime. Gofin, Pretis and Lythandar concurred and the party set about determining how to open the door without seeing a reflection in the surface. The party gathered in the southwestern corner of the antechamber, Melisana and Alhellara staying in the Atrium, and Demin again tried to open the door. After another failure by Demin Gofin tried her hand at the lock and succeeded. Lythandar used mage hand to open the door where he beheld an empty plain stone chamber. Various shades of color stained the hard stone floor which was perforated by hundreds of half-inch holes. A door on the far side of the chamber was closed, and it was apparently composed of obsidian.
Scanning the room the group thought the stains could have been remnants of bodies but they were not sure. Melisana looked up at the ceiling and saw it was perforated with thousands of small holes. Unsure what might occur, gas, poison, etc. the group discussed their next move. Arcana checks revealed nothing magical in the chamber. Melisana dragged a couple of zombie bodies from the Atrium to the door. Pretis and Lythandar tossed one into the room and again nothing happened. A body tossed in with a rope tied to it was dragged back across several tiles but still nothing occurred. Lythandar, showing his excellent judgement, decided to enter the room, although he did use as rope tied around his waist. As he moved to within ten feet of the far door he saw a small symbol inscribed above the door and he froze in his tracks. Just as the party was pulling him out a shower of green slime rained down from the ceiling covering the floor and Lythandar.
When dragged into the antechamber the group the group scraped the slime from Lythandar and he revived but at least now they knew the trap. Demin used his glove to move to the far door and unlock it, he used the glove to press on the door, push on the floor around the door to no result. Now aware of the symbol, Demin used the glove to hold a piece of cloth over the symbol, while Lythandar ran across the room and opened the door. Inside he saw a mosaic of green and gold tiles covering the floor and ceiling, while stone relief sculptures adorned the walls. An elaborately carved iron pedestal rose from the floor holding a shining lamplike reliquary. Lythandar attempted to use mage hand to lift the glass reliquary as he had done with the other Vecnan reliquaries but it didn't move. After calling for Gofin and Demin, Lythandar heard a chat of "Join Us" emanate from the walls. Demin and Gofin made it into the chamber although both were slimed on their way in. Demin picked the lock on the crystal reliquery and Lythadar used mage hand to topple the crystal covering. Inside was a disembodied hand. Melisana immediately warned that this may be the "Hand of Vecna". A cloth container was created to carry the hand and just as it was placed in the cloth the walls again chanted "Join Us". Looking around Gofin was nowhere to be seen.
Speculation immediately began as Demin remembered being teleported to a pit. Melisana wondered if Gofin might now be behind the middle door they had yet to open. Pretis said maybe she was now in the south end chambers with the eye symbols. Mara marched into the reliquary and looked around for secret doors and chambers and saw nothing except Gofin in the wall as a relief sculpture near the doorway. Again the walls chanted "Join Us". Alhellara was called forward to use her Ritual of Remove Affliction, with Melisana aiding her. On their way through they both were slimed. The ritual worked as Gofin emerged from the wall and the group fled the area to finish exploring the southern chambers.
As they moved south they found the blasted chamber with eye symbols, the blasted eye creature, the melted silver door, the broken machinery room and the shattered obsidian door. In the final chamber burnt and shattered tiles covered the floor and ceiling, metallic relief sculpture adorned the walls although all the figurines and heads slumped as if exposed to exceptional heat. The stump of a pedestal stood in the chamber, with a broken lamplike reliquary on the floor near it. Bloody graffiti spatters one wall, above the form of a fallen cultist.
Mara called for someone who could read, and Alhellara read the graffiti as "Iuz was here". In the reliquary was a velvet depression, empty, but large enough to hold a small one inch diameter sphere. Here was the "Eye of Vecna" was postulated by the group. Next they wondered if someone needed to implant the hand to make it through the center doorway.
Moving back to the Atrium, Demin again tried his luck on the doors and failed but Gofin had better success. Opening these doors was too much for the mage hand so Mara flung them open and gazed upon a group of ghouls and a female mage? Crumpled and shattered sapphire tiles cover the floor, and remnants of silk tapestries draped the walls. Thousands of tiny points of light on the ceiling, reminiscent of a star-strewn night sky, provide dim illumination. In northern and southern alcoves stood bone-pale altars embellished with variegated relief sculptures. The southern altar held a variety of implements, (un)holy and alchemical, along with a sphere of utter blackness. The woman moved east across the room, out of sight of the party, Mara charged in the room and was surrounded by ghouls. Alhellara summoned here Astral Defenders in the doorway as two more ghouls moved forward. The encounter was started and the woman Word of Pain on Mara and moved up to the Guardians. Several of the ghouls fell as Melisana used written in fire.
Scorecard: The group earned 200 XP for (mostly) evading the green slime and stunning symbol. They now have 44841 XP and need 2159 more to reach 14th level.
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