Nothing to See

After the completing the circuitous path the the Doors to Nowhere the party saw through an open doorway into a larger dark room.  Lythandar used his light capability to illuminate at least part of the area.  This room once had painted figures on the walls.  The group could make out humanoid shapes, and they could see shallow indentations that might have held circular pieces of glass.  Now only broken shards covered the floor.  Of more interest were the skeletons and a Bone Naga in the area.


 An encounter was joined as Mara rushed in to use a burst in a group of skeletons and Pretis charged the Naga.  Demin fired his crossbow into the room as the skeletons were found to be minions.  The Naga though was more fearsome as its aura caused dazing effects.  The Naga Death Dance was particularly effective with its necrotic damage and dazing effect.  Adding to the difficulty was the emergence of another Naga from the darkness in the southern end of the hallway.  More skeletons also moved forward firing their short bows.  

Gofin found herself between the Nagas and took considerable damage from both while Demin was teleported out of the middle of the Naga by Lythandar.  Pretis was dazed and then weakened whilst attacking her Naga.  The skeletons were falling to the burst and area damages but the Naga continued to press the attack.

The party whittled down the Naga and eliminated the skeletons and found themselves weak but willing to carry on.  Demin continued down the hallway finding more faded paintings, a small sloping passage leading east, another larger passage leading east and at the end of the hall an apparently bricked up passage through a familiar archway.

At the entrance to the larger passageway Demin found another plaque attached to the wall.  This plaque read:

“Your sacrifice was not in vain.  Look to the fourth to find your gain.”

In the small chamber beyond this point was the Legend of Garth the Wimp enhanced.  Whilst standing in the low chamber Garth was used as a stairway by the unnamed ancestor of ”She who must be obeyed”  to escape from the great asps slithering from the Golden Chest.

 Again the party was amused by the message but garnered no knowledge from the data.  After taking a short rest, Melisana wondered if they should take a extended rest but was overridden by the rest of the party who requested Gofin lead them down the smaller passageway.  The passage sloped down and wandered around, apparently passing under the large hallway the group had just left.  It then wound south for some distance before ending at a wooden door.

Gofin, finding no traps, called Pretis or Mara forward to open the door.  Mara stepped up and as she opened the door the party felt a sudden shudder, as though their souls briefly attempted to flee their bodies.  The rough hewn walls of the chamber before them changed into what looked like smooth white marble.  Form somewhere beyond, a fearsome wind wailed, and a chorus of funereal voices accompanied it.

Inside the room granite pews stood in rows.  As Melisana moved forward the song heard earlier lost on the wind, became louder.  She could not make out any word, but it sounded like a religious hymn.  Two low walls separated the pews from the dais on the south end of the chamber.  Against the back wall on top of the dais a rough stone block seemed to serve as a primitive altar.  Two candelabra, in a humanoid shape, frame the dais, blood red candles within them were partially melted.  To the west a stone arch in the wall provided access to a shallow alcove.  On the eastern wall a narrow opening lead away form the chamber.

Melisana moved up to the dais and ask her deity about the room.  She determined that she had left the moral realm -- but unlike prior occasions, she was not certain where she was.  Pretis moved down the eastern side of the room to the narrow opening while Mara explored the west side where she found another plaque near the archway.

“Acererak the eternal watches and scoffs at your puny efforts”

In the alcove beyond this archway two members of the MaBell party explored their gender confusion.   Upon their return from beyond the arch the gender of each adventurer had the opposite gender.

Upon retracing their steps each returned as their original self forever ending all confusion.

Again gaining no knowledge from this message the party continued on as Lythandar, Alhellara, Gofin and Demin also entered the chamber.  Suddenly the sepulchral singing rose to a nearly deafening crescendo as hideous apparitions emerged through the walls.  Horror stricken faces appeared and disappeared across the surface of pillars of roiling darkness that formed from the apparition.  Their mouths hung open, emitting a terrible hymn.

Scorecard:  The party received 1571 XP for this nights adventures and now have 70414 XP and are at 16th level.  They now need 12586 more XP to reach 17th level.