Category The Tormentors

The decision is made to advance. Well, first there are long discussions about whether or not Goldpiece should draw the Demonbane – but in the end the ill effects seem to outweigh the good so they close the distance on the wings of a magic potion.

Flying through the archway, Malchor sees nothing but a vast room, filled several feet deep with corpses, bones and equipment. Then the snakewomen appear. They immediately summon vulture demons that begin shrieking and releasing clouds of poisonous spores as they fly around attacking all within reach. Malchor lets fly with lightning and an ice storm, temporarily sealing off the passageway occupied by one of the demon women. Courier and Gal want to attack and Goldpiece flies into the fray...

After much head scratching and a bit of dithering thrown in for good measure, they take the inscriptions at face value and try to have the druid fly through the hallway that lies beyond the trapped doors. As Thraw crosses the plane of the doorway she vanishes. There is a moment of ‘let’s all jump in after her’ and then there is a moment of ‘what if we end up someplace terrible’? Hmm. Well…she’ll either be OK or she won’t. What if one of the mages disintegrates a hole in the far door – we scope the area with an arcane eye and then we all teleport there and thus bypass the terrible doorway? Sounds good. It’ll have to be tomorrow though. Hang in there Thraw!
They sleep upon the floor since apparently no extra dimensional spaces will open for them and they implement the plan on the morrow.

D...

There is much selling of items and discussing plans. Goldppiece announces that he would like to pursue a solo career as he isn’t sure why he is touring anymore. With that, there is an amicable split of gold and the promise of future shares once they liquidate gems and the like and Goldpiece avails himself of a helpful teleport to Urlimspyr to chat with Pearsay about fixing his loincloth. The news he receives is not terribly encouraging. It seems the mender of loincloths is only accessible through some sort of portal in the ruins of an ancient elven city positively swarming with dangerous thingies. Bleah. Anyway…

Meanwhile the rest of the group ponders and schemes, looking for a new lead to follow...

As the vision passes, the party is assaulted by the bone naga! The party rallies and within a matter of seconds, the threat is removed. There is a bit more investigation and they return to the cavern where the ‘god’ spoke to them. Inexplicably uninterested in poking the bear, they retreat and decide to avoid combat with gods, frogs, naga and drow in favor of descending to the next level, hoping to gain access to the school of wizardry they expect to find below.

Descending the stairs, they are met by The Headmaster, who gives the mages quite the sales pitch and implies that any who care to study are free to join the school, but until they do so they are not permitted to roam the halls.

There is an offer of safe passage on the table, if the group will be so kind as to remove a particularly...

Deciding on a plan for the temple, the group veers off in a different direction, performing an aerial tour of the swamp. They find a dismembered leg, then a legless torso. They spot some shambling mounds and see a ghostly figure poking through the ruins of a structure. The druid tries to detect thoughts but gets nothing. They press on further and overfly a second structure (less ruined) and spot a ghostly figure as they approach. Again the druid tries to detect thoughts and is surprised to learn that the figure sees them approaching and is fairly happy about it. “Oh goody! More suckers!”. Hmm. That is interesting – onwards they fly, but as they enter a large cavern, a surface to air flash-bang grenade detonates nearby, ruining everyone’s vision...