Category The Tormentors

Returning to the froggy temple, the croaking frog and subsequent entrance of the party reveals a temple complex apparently deserted. The slowly bloating bodies of the priests the party dispatched during their escape are still on the floor. The rest of the place seems quiet and the cleric opines that everyone has bugged out.
*shrug*
Back down the stairs and back to the prison and a scanning of the prisoners by the paladins present a slight dilemma. Two of the captives are clearly tainted by evil. But they are helpless prisoners….hmm. Eventually a plan is hatched. The good aligned are escorted back to the steamy cave, and the evil prisoners are provided with a smashed lock and a stern warning. If encountered, they will be slain.
Over the next few days the mage uses his magics to teleport th...

Deciding against descending the sinkhole, the group turns back towards the main temple. They cross the temple grounds and approach the rear of the complex. As they cross the courtyard, a large frog statue near a pond begins to croak loudly. Encountering a locked door, the group unlimbers some magics and brute force and smashes it open. Beyond lies a long hallway packed with zombies (some carrying glowing candelabras) and beyond them, some capering creatures. There is a brief flurry of spells and the group is forced to retreat. They fall back and regroup, going up the rope for a bit.

Returning to the fray, the group seeks a different exit and enters into a dining hall of some sort. Stairs descend from the kitchen and a large hall lies beyond...

The group plots an elaborate strategy involving multiple sources of protective spells and energy drain nullification. As they draw near to the lair, they prepare with an unseen servant, then creep into the room. Using the mage to unlock the gate, they send the servant to open it.
As before, the throne swivels around and the plate-mail clad vampire bursts out of his coffin, rising to the ceiling, then beginning to float down the center of the hall. The elf remarks that this is _exactly_ what happened last time. A quick peek through the gem of seeing reveals a gourd on a wire, being pulled down the length of the hall. What the what? Is this an elaborate hoax?
The group is momentarily stunned and does not notice the figure that plummets from the darkened recesses of the ceiling to land betwee...

Exiting the vast underground caverns, the group rows out onto a large lake. They recognize the general area from the planeshift incident. Across the lake lies a troll community, crude huts ringed by a palisade. To the northwest is a large stone structure with battlements that overlooks the lake. Trolls or towers? Hm. Send out the mage!
The mage scouts the area and reports. The towers look uninhabited – the courtyard full of weeds, sacks of moldering grain, a half-sunken rowboat tied up to the dock. Underwater scouting reveals that the lake level has risen sometime in the past and a section of the outermost tower wall is submerged at this point. The group decides to investigate the towers and then press on to the frog temple that they saw a week or two earlier.
They land the boats and begin...

Drifting towards the mithril doors, the group notices an inscription. Magic is detected and the inscription is somewhat of a downer, referencing doom and whatnot. The doors appear to be impervious to the group’s attempts to open them, so an elaborate plan is hatched and powerful magic is used to tunnel through the solid rock off to one side of the doors.
They gain entrance and lay eyes upon the low-slung stone structure that stretches before them. A dock with a rowboat completes the picture – but the group is wary. They spread out and approach the partially opened door. Then two of the party (Kormeier and the Gal) are suddenly turned to stone! Gaaaah! With that a trio of gorgons charges out of the opening, trying to gore party members and petrify them.
The battle rages and it is touch and ...