Demon Patrol

The party had just finished off a group of skeletons, wights, a bone golem and the skull who stated he was Acererak.  The group decided that the skull was really not Acererak as it fell much easier than even the skull they dispatched in the Shadow Tomb.  Demin retrieved the skull while the rest of the group rested and looked for magic. 


Nothing showed up as magical, but Demin had retrieved two black sapphires worth 10,000 GP each and a collection of seven diamonds, jacinths and amethysts at 2,000 GP each.  After the short rest was over the group again headed for the Abandoned Tomb.

Entering the main hall way the party marched through the maze of secret doors, and the arcade hall and moved through the winding passage to the "Unholy Shrine."  Mara and Pretis entered each holding a key, they experienced the sudden shudder but nothing immediately appeared different and they moved around the room toward the altar.  Melisana joined them in moving toward the altar while Gofin moved to the narrow passage leading east.  Demin stepped into the room and Lythandar and Alhellara entered staying toward the back wall.

As Pretis examined the altar for keyholes, or traps the room shifted again and Lythandar noted a doorway on the floor between the rows of pews.  But there was a demon standing on it, while flying above Pretis was another huge demon.  The large demon immediately attacked with  a slam after which Demin shot it with his crossbow.  The huge demon blasted most of the party with chaos and blasphemous Words.  Mara and Melisana soon found that just standing near the large demon caused poison damage which worsened when the creature became bloodied.  Also the demons seemed to be able to resist various types of damage, which further confused the party.

The battle was fought swiftly as the large demon fell early on but the huge demon kept up multiple Pincer Claw attacks interspersed with Abyssal Bolts.  Gofin shrouded and damaged the creature while Demin continued peppering the enemy with bolts.  Alhellara and Lythandar entered the fray with various attacks but as the creature became bloodied he again blasted most of the party with Chaos Word after teleporting into the middle of the party.

Demin moved back outside the doorway as the party tried to back away from the Demon.   Finally the creature was dispatched after a short flurry of hits from the party.  Healing was necessary for several party members as the Demons had inflicted pain and suffering.

Now what to do about the trap door in the floor?  Gofin looked for traps and found none, but she found no obvious opening mechanism either.  Lythandar checked for Arcane magic but just saw the outline of the door shimmer somewhat.  Mara moved over to stand on the trap door which caused the outline to shine birghter and when Pretis joined her the whole doorway shone.  Finally they each touched their key to the floor and the door started to slide open. 

Mara and Pretis quickly moved back to the floor and beheld a dark pit under the trap door.  Lythandar shone his light down and they saw a 30 foot deep pit at the bottom of which a passageway led east.  Demin used his flying hook to create a rope moving into the pit.  As the party moved down the felt another shudder about halfway down.  At the bottom the passageway led east and down.

After traversing the rough passageway for around 300 feet the group saw an archway that opened into a larger chamber.  Not wanting to just walk in on Moghadam they moved up slowly.  Peering into the chamber they saw twisted stone columns that support the roof, their misshapen forms made them almost seem alive.  The chamber was more than 50 feet long and the party moved up slowly spreading out around the pillars and along the walls.

Along the way Alhellara was suddenly convinced that a pillar moved and was about to collapse, but this seemed to be an illusion.  At the far end of the hall a familiar image loomed: the Devourer.  The green face was set into a fractured mass of rock, as if it had been torn from another location and fused to the walls here.  It had been marred with black scorch marks and rough-carved glyphs.

Melisana recognized the ancient script of the glyphs which were crudely carved, they repeated the same phrase over and over: "My Master, Dread Devourer, Die Forevermore..."  Melisana then repeated this phrase over and over to no effect.  Mara examined the mouth, which was just a black indentation about 6 inches deep.

Gofin examined the face and noticed that scar marks across the eyes partially concealed two keyholes in the shape of a closed fist and a sword.  Mara and Pretis remarked that these matched the keys that they held.  So they moved forward and inserted the keys while most of the party moved back and/or tried to hide behind a pillar.  As the keys were turned a blast came from the Devourer and Lythandar and Pretis started attacking the party.  

A battle was joined and soon a hazy simulacrum of Lythandar appeared next to him.  The simulacrum let off a fireball amongst several party members.  The party focused their attacks on the Lythandar Simulacrum which soon dispatched the creature.  Just as this happened a hazy simulacrum of Pretis appeared next to her.  Meanwhile Gofin approached the skull and attempted to disable the magic by use of thievery.

Scorecard: The party received 2050 XP for the battle against the Demons.  They now have 88148 XP and need 10852 more to reach 18th level.