Powering through the remainder of the trapped and secret door riddled maze, the group exits into a decorated hallway. Several crawl spaces are discovered and they are explored by the elf, one by one. Hours of crawling around, the group has lost a set of blue gems, but has gained a gem of seeing. They have also spent a ton of time and energy to obtain a magical ring of surprisingly limited power – given how difficult it was to obtain.
In the course of the exploration, the group defeats a chest full of poisonous snakes, an animated giant skeleton is teleported into the area, and a well-hidden and a trapped holding cell are explored. A tunnel is discovered that leads back to a trapped area in the entrance hall.
They go on to explore a temple – dedicated to apparently good religions – that quickly reveals itself to be tainted. Trapped archways and pews and a strange slot in the wall. After some head-scratching, the group shoves the hard-won ring into the slot and open access to a well-hidden passageway.
The passageway is punctuated by pit traps and doors and is capped with one massive door. Sounds are heard from beyond the door, so it is with great determination that the group spends a day and a half attempting to open the door through various means. Finally a gaseous mage inadvertently reveals the fact that this section of the passageway is a trap designed to dump the explorers into a fiery pit of lava.
Backtracking reveals a hidden doorway at the bottom of a pit. There are descending stairs. A hallway full of gas is dealt with by opening a door, allowing the gas to drain into a lower crypt. The crypt entrance is full of webs and the flaming swords of the party make quick work of them. At the bottom of the stairs a lich lurches off of a golden couch and attacks the party.
Although the magic missiles of the mage are absorbed, the blows of the fighters slay the fearsome specter with a few seconds. Hmm. That seemed exceedingly easy.
With that, the ceiling starts to cave in and the group scrambles to escape the collapsing crypt. They flee for a bit, then pause. Investigation with gems of seeing reveal thatr was all an elaborate illusion.
As the realization that they may have been hoodwinked starts to set in , the party discovers an exceedingly well hidden doorway located halfway up a set of stairs leading back to the pit by which they entered. More useless exploration, or is it finally a route to their goal?
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