Daunting Doors

As the party entered the octagonal chamber they saw a low round dais in the center of the room on top of which were four carved faces of the Devourer.  These faces looked just like the faces in the bottom of the Black Well.  From a pile of bones on the dais a huge creature knitted itself together.  It was composed of bones body parts of various kinds.  Pretis moved to flank the creature and planted the banner.  Mara moved in toward the creature as Demin fired his crossbow.


The Barrow grabbed Mara and Pretis and then applied crushing hate to them.  Melisana quickly tried powers with radiant damage and found its vulnerability.  The party alternately blinded, dazed, immobilized and knocked the barrow prone.  Even so it held on to Pretis as Mara teleported out of the grasp.  Fury of death was aimed at four adventurers and the barrow again tried to grab various adventurers.  Demin continued to pepper the barrow with crossbow bolts while Gofin stepped into the barrow at one point.

Alhellara and Melisana used their undead repelling powers but the barrow was still not even bloodied.  The party also found they could not use Action Points further limiting their attacks.  Finally the barrow stood, crushed Pretis, took an action point, moved toward the remainder of the party, attacked with Bone Grab and Fury of Death.  Demin looked on in awe at the powers of the creature.  Meanwhile Lythandar was having a hard time attacking this monster and fell back upon Magic Missiles.  Alhellara bloodied the barrow at which point it produced a shadow storm which both damaged and blinded some of the party. 

Melisana pushed the creature away from most of the party, even though it held on to Mara and Gofin.  The battle proceeded with damage taken by everyone.  At last the party felled the monster.  At which point it again produced a Shadow Storm. 

The breathless party fell back on their haunches as they tried to recover from battle.  Taking a respite Melisana and Lythandar looked for magic and found nothing.  Mara, Demin and Gofin looked for secret/hidden doors and also noted nothing.  Lythandar examined the mouths of the Devourer faces and noted blackness but no traps neither did Gofin or Demin.  Melisana dropped a rock into one mouth and heard it hit stone a second to two later.   Lythandar moved his light down into the mouth and the party saw an open area below.  Gofin clambered down and found a round chamber with a pathway leading west.

The whole party moved down and followed the path west to a pair of rune scribed mithral doors.  Wide keyholes in each door pulsed with white light -- one in the shape of a skull; the other, a faceted gem.  Mara attempted to peer through a keyhole but it didn't lead anywhere.  So Demin and Mara produced the keys previously collected and placed them into the keyholes.  The keys turned to ash as the doors swung into the hallway.

Before the group was a broad circular chamber, its floor sunken 20 feet below the doorway.  In the center of the chamber a fantastic device hung in midair just below the ceiling, which was 20 feet above the doorway.  The device was a spinning web of platinum cables and black iron rods set with hundreds of blazing gems.  A crackling pillar of eldritch power arced down from the engine, disappearing into a teleportation circle set in the stone floor.  The group all noted the resemblance of this device to the one they had destroyed in the Garden of Graves.  Demin noted that his glove and Lythandar Mage hand had taken down that device.  Melisana pondered this fact but noted that this engine seemed more complicated.  She noted that it would probably take a few skills to bring down this engine, suggesting Arcana, Religion and Thievery.

Demin took out his flying hook and commanded it up to the ceiling, then with another rope around his waist he swung out to the engine, which came within 20 feet of the door.  He then used his Thievery to disrupt the precise arrangement of the shadow engine's gem array.  As he finished the pillar of eldritch energy suddenly flared brilliant white.  A human skull emerged from it, floating unsupported in midair, eyes and teeth set with brilliant gems.  "Defilers!" it shrieked as it rose to attack rendering Demin dazed and restrained.

Alhellara grasped the rope as Demin was hauled back to the door way and climbed up above Demin, where she then used Religion to disrupt the transfer of power to Acererak's phylactery.   Pretis slid down the rope to the floor followed by Gofin.  The skull used a Ray flurry attack to damage several party members.  Alhellara found herself dazed and restrained also while Demin recovered.  Melisana wrote in fire and Lythandar joined the group on the rope to use Arcana to tap and disrupt the eldritch power pulsing through the engine.  The skull flew completely out of the fire damage and again sent out a Ray flurry while Alhellara found herself stunned.  The skull then burst a Soul Shriveling Pulse out again causing necrotic damage.  Demin completed another Thievery check, and Lythandar another Arcana check.  

The Shadow Engine's power waned as it crashed to the floor, cables and gems shattering as its flow of planar power was cut.  The pieces of the engine opened several trap doors on the floor exposing pits.  Lythandar teleported to a safe spot on the floor as Alhellara awoke from her stupor.  Demin scooped up a couple of gems using his glove.  Pretis, Mara and Gofin were still in battle with the skull which continued to cast rays of shadow.  Lythandar moved toward the edge of the room and fell into an unexposed pit.

Scorecard:  The group earned 1429 XP for the battle against the barrow and now have 64329 XP needing 4671 more to reach 16th level.