Black Well

Our hearty adventurers milled around the oddly shaped sarcophagus room attempting to find another exit, other than the obvious one leading west.  Sadly nothing was found.  Gofin headed toward the exit and caught herself before falling into the 20' pit at the doorway.   Gofin and Demin determined a method for bypassing the trap door and headed out into the hallway.  Heading west they soon came to a T intersection and another pit.


The south end was a short 5 feet away where Gofin found no other passage.  Heading north they found 3 more pits before the passageway turned west and ended with another pit.  Now completely frustrated the party discussed their next move.  Check the pits, return to the tapestry room and check the fire pit, look behind more tapestries, open all the sarcophagus.  None of which came to reveal an exit from the area.  Even laying in the sarcophagus, which Gofin was loathe to do since she could not open it, proved fruitless.

At last they determined to enter the pits.  Gofin was lowered by rope into the first pit where she found a concealed door leading south.  Opening it proved dangerous as she had to exposed to the dripping black ichor.  Taking a little damage she managed to open the door and found a 15 foot passage with no other exit.  The next pit revealed a door leading north, which led to a 25 foot passage leading north and then an east west passage that led nowhere.

Several other pits were just that, pit traps with necrotic essence pooling in the bottom, but the last pit on the northern hallway led to an opening.  A Black Well where most of the chamber had collapsed into a great chasm, where a steady outpouring of black necrotic sludge flowed over the edge from great cracks in the walls and floor.  A greater torrent jetted out from faults in the rough rock of the chasm, falling as a hissing curtain of necrotic rain.  Rough ledges jut out from the chasm's walls as the necrotic rain fell 70 feet to fill a wide pool.  Above the surface of the pool, a circular slab of white stone was set with four trapdoors, each one bearing the Devourer's face in colors.  The nearest ledge being 15 - 20 feet lower than the characters.

Moving around the group crept up to the edge of the overlook.  Melisana decided to fly down to the stone platform carrying Gofin and a weighted rope.  As she was about to leave the ledge she felt it crumble beneath her feet and she quickly moved backwards as the rocks fell into the black sludge below.  Regrouping she flew down with Gofin but after 15-20 feet tendrils of black sludge snapped out from the curtain of rain and attacked both Melisana and Gofin, they were damaged but escaped being pulled into the curtain of rain.

Demin followed by changing places with his glove and Lythandar and Pretis followed now using the rope as a guide down.  They also were attacked by the shadowy tendrils and were momentarily pulled into the necrotic rain.  Alhellara and Mara discussed staying at the top of the Black Well while Gofin and Demin examined the carved face doors.  Each face was a different color, green, yellow, red and gray, there was a keyhole on each.  Melisana looked for magic in the area and saw a glyph written in each Devourers mouth.

While Mara and Alhellara were waiting the party at the faces said they didn't want to open them without all the party down at the bottom of the well.  Reluctantly Mara and Alhellara also slid down the rope the stone platform.  Gofin and Demin went to work attempting to remove the power of the glyphs from the faces.  After completing that task they then picked the locks on the doors and with the help of Lythandar and Pretis the doors were opened revealing a continuation of the stone platform underneath.

Once again stymied in their attempt to advance farther the group set about various tasks, looking for hidden passages on the platform, checking the 5 foot edge above the roiling black sludge pool, attempting to use the doors as levers to push the platform around a circle, all to no avail.  Tired they fell back on any historical knowledge regarding Acererak recalling that he always left a way out even though it may be a trick.  Rereading the message received in the Perilous Archways they caught upon the line Condemned to seek outside the veil.  

Sensing that they may have to look behind the curtain of necrotic sludge, Demin moved his glove to the lowest ledge, changed places with it and poked his staff through the rain after niftily avoiding falling as the ledge gave way.  Finding nothing he moved to the next highest ledge where again he sidestepped the crumbling ledge and heard that about 10 feet above his head the steady hiss of black rain echoed strangely.  Now how to get there.  

Melisana, carrying Gofin, flew up and through the sludge, taking damage from the tendrils, she anchored a rope in the rough hewn passageway and the rest of the party climbed up to the tunnel and they proceeded onward.

The passage curved around to the southwest, west and then north where the group came upon a fork in the tunnel.  Taking the passage to the east they emerged into an alcove adjoining a spherical chamber.  On the far side of the sphere was another platform.  The rune covered walls of the spherical chambers had a silvery sheen.  The sphere was about 40 feet from top to bottom.

Scorecard:  The group earned 1229 XP for their adventures in the Black Well and I am awarding them 200 XP for making their way through the forgotten city of Moil.  They now have 58657 XP and need 10343 more to reach 16th level.  No one has claimed the Skull Bracers at this point.