The party had entered a chamber held up with twisted stone columns, their misshapen forms making them seem almost alive. At the far end of the chamber they encountered the Devourers green face set into the wall. The face had been marked with black scorch marks and rough carved glyphs that repeated "My Master, Dread Devourer, Die Forevermore ..." over and over. As Pretis and Mara placed the keys in the keyholes hidden in the eyes, a blast of Arcane energy emerged from the mouth of the face.
As stated in a previous post a hazy simulacrum of Lythandar appeared and attacked the party. Just as this simulacrum died from the party's attacks a simulacrum of Pretis appeared. The battle continued as the hazy Pretis attacked. Meanwhile Demin, Lythandar, Gofin and Melisana kept attempting to disable the trapped face.
Just as the false Pretis died, the face again attacked with a larger blast that caught several party members further reducing their healing abilities. One last blast from the face missed everyone but Gofin who leapt out of danger and only took minor damage. No hazy simulacrum of Gofin appeared and the party attempted to find a passage through the Devourer's face. No passageway was found but Lythandar determined that they might be able to move the face away from the wall. Pretis and Mara both aided Lythandar's attempt to move the face and they successfully could slide it off to one side.
Beyond the Devourer, and iron portcullis filled an arched portal. On the other side of the barrier was a landing and a flight of black granite stairs leading down. Lythandar used his light to try and find a mechanism on the far side of the portcullis to no avail. Melisana determined that the portcullis was trapped with health reducing capability. Lythandar said he could teleport to the far side but since no mechanism was seen he didn't know how this would help.
Mara was dubious about trying to move the portcullis, not wanting to risk more damage. Melisana stated that she could teleport everyone beyond the gate if they all gathered near it. This was decided to be the best course of action and was accomplished as the party found themselves headed down the stairway into dead silence.
After traveling about 60 feet east and down the group found a landing at the bottom of the stairs. An empty chamber opened up beyond the foot of the stairs. Pedestals about 2 feet high were visible on each wall, the floor and the ceiling. On the north wall pedestal an enormous statue of a four armed gargoyle crouched. Seeing no exits Mara eventually moved into the chamber and found herself pulled off her feet. She had the sensation of falling and landed on the south wall prone. Demin followed and found himself also falling but he landed on the north wall. Both Mara and Demin felt as if they were standing on the floor, gravity seemed variable in this chamber.
Pretis entered and found herself on the east wall, where she stood and moved again falling to the west wall. Gofin, Melisana and Lythandar entered the room at a slower pace, as it appeared that moving more than 10 feet in the chamber caused the effect. Alhellara stayed at the bottom of the stairs. Gofin moved toward the gargoyle and saw it change from stone to flesh. It then flew into the air and attacked 4 party members before hovering next to Mara.
Lythandar tried laying on the floor and putting his feet on the side wall, where he then stood on the new "floor." The battle was joined by everyone as the gargoyle used Mauling Claws on Mara. All the other members tried to move slowly to attack, Gofin using his crossbow, Pretis her crossbow with Melisana using area bursts and Gofin ranged attacks.
Lythandar was having difficulty hitting the beast and resorted to continual magic missiles. Pretis yelled for everyone to move to a pedestal, sensing that this may open an exit from the room. Of course moving to the pedestals took some time at 10 feet a turn. Alhellara entered and moved onto the south wall to aid Mara. The gargoyle kept up his Claws attacks while flying around the area. The gargoyle only landed once when knocked prone by an attack.
On last Flying Strike was performed by the beast and then it fell inert to the "floor" of the chamber. The party settled down for a short rest followed by each member moving to a pedestal on Pretis' urging. As they all stood on pedestals nothing happened so Mara suggested standing on one pedestal. This seemed to have to affect either. Alhellara, Gofin and Mara then tried to find any hidden passages out of the chamber. They determined that there was a passage under the pedestal on the south wall. Moving it out of the way exposed a 10 foot wide tunnel leading east. As they moved into the tunnel gravity returned to normal.
This tunnel led east for around 100 feet before opening up into a simple shrine. A 50 foot square chamber with a human skull sitting atop a white stone altar. Flashed of color came from the jewels set in the eyes and teeth of the skull. Wary of entering the shrine, Demin used his glove to try and grab the skull but it merely passed through the skull. So the party, except Alhellara moved into the chamber. Mara noted that the altar seemed to sit loosely within the solid stone of the floor, as if the floor and the altar were separate. Demin noted that the skull certainly seemed real while Gofin declared that where the walls and floor met there was a concealed seam.
The party decided to step up onto the altar and pass a rope to Alhellara still in the entryway. Demin of course grabbed the skull. They heard a rumble and the floor collapsed, falling about 100 feet down into a pit leaving them on top of a white stone pillar. Gofin used his flying hook to bring Alhellara over to the top of the pillar. Just as they made it another rumble was heard and the ceiling collapsed on them.
Scorecard: The party earned 3429 XP for the nights adventures and now have 91577 XP needing 7423 additional XP to reach 18th level.
No comments:
Post a Comment