Category The Tormentors

Following the maps leads the intrepid explorers northwards into the increasingly wild landscape. They blaze a trail straight across the large expanse of prairie that separates a large inland sea from an imposing mountain range. When they realize that the ‘treasure’ map leads to a complex that they have already discovered and plundered in an earlier excursion to disrupt the plans of the Rotting Man, they decide to beeline for the coast.
They deploy the folding boats and travel in style and comfort along the shoreline – disappearing with boats and gear up a rope trick in the evening – and make their leisurely way northward…ever northward.
The main point of excitement of the trip is the sighting of a huge red dragon near an island in the inland sea, and the cryptic divination uttered by the ...

Summoning their last scraps of hope the group enters the room with the scary iron statues and spends some time investigating. They find one secret trapdoor that leads to a narrow passageway below, one smoking urn of large size and a couple of trapped chests that they plunder.
A few days pass and a door is investigated, the urn is opened and an efreet pledges his service to the bemused elf. The efreet is tasked with finding the key to the door and off it goes. Meanwhile side passages are explored and it is found that they lead back to previously explored areas of the complex.
The efreet returns and the key is used. An empty room soon reveals its secrets and the key is used to unlock a hatch that causes a mithril vault to rise from the floor...

Undaunted by the fact that they have been exploring this …tomb…maze of deathtraps…whatever it is for almost month, the intrepid heroes press on and after exploring some death traps, find their way through a secret door into a hallway that ends in stairs that lead up to a trapped wall, and a hallway that leads to another door. That door registers as a trap and an elaborate scheme is hatched to open the door from afar. When the door opens a cloud of gas floods the hallway and the mage falls into a deep sleep. The rest of the group drags him to safety and watches as a stone roller proceeds to travel the length of the hallway – it would have certainly crushed anyone who was prone. Upon doubling back, they find a secret trapdoor set into the floor.

Eventually it is opened and a steep staircase...

The secret door is difficult to open, but eventually it reveals more passageways, more traps and even a few trapped traps. The days slide by in what becomes a routine. The party awakes, chooses spells – casts detect traps and starts walking. A trap is found and investigated. Rinse, lather and repeat until out of spells. Then, deploy rope trick and enjoy some clerically created foodstuffs before awaiting the next day’s slog. Some days they cover a few hundred feet of corridor, other days less.
The party members are torn between the thought that there is no point to this and all that exists are more traps to slay the unwary, or the compelling thought that there is no way that anyone would invest this much time and trouble to protect nothing – so there must be a rich reward somewhere...

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 qui...