Motoring along, the group explores empty rooms and rooms with lingering signs of violence. THey zig and zag in seemingly random directions and there are multiple queries about the sanity of the builders. The process is uneventful, with doors being opened and rooms inspected for clues and/or loot. For a while, the most exciting thing to happen is Fingers locating a trap before it is triggered.
As the meander along, one door opens into an occupied bedroom with a training area attached. The occupant is a stocky elven woman and she seems to dislike uninvited guests. DIgin hews at her and barely leaves a dent. Fingers stabs her in the ankle and does no visible damage, but still manages to inject a dose of deadly toxin. She shrugs off most melee attacks and the few visible wounds weep a luminescent ‘blood’ that flows more like sap. Spells are deployed, and it seems that this is the more efficient way to end the combat. In the end, the party of six struggles to end her life. But, they are victorious and the post-combat looting is followed by departure.
They find a garbage disposal pit and a large room filled with the signs of older and newer violence. Bodies lie scattered about in piles. Some are obviously long-term residents with scraps of flesh barely clinging to bone, but some are newer. All appear to have been stripped of significant valuables. The party is intrigued and passes through the immense chamber after taking all due diligence in trying to locate any potential secret doors. None are found and so the door at the other end of the room leads to a large blood spattered hallway. A silvery glow emanates from the far end of the hall, in front of a massive door. Three other doors line the hallway on one side.
It is determined by Fingers that the silvery glow comes from a glyph in the floor. After some gentle dithering, the decision is made to send Fingers (and DIgin!) to investigate the doors. The first door opens to reveal a hound-headed man seated in a small, sparsely furnished apartment as his sorrowful eyes meet Fingers’, the gome closes the door and they decide to press on. The second room is full of statuary with a couple of chairs amongst the statues. Floating over each chair is a glowing orb. OK. That is spooky. On to the third door. The occupants of the third room are lion headed humanoids standing in front of a large map. The only obvious difference is that one is clad in plate mail. Digin does what Digin does and charges to the attack. One of the lions roars, and Digin stops dead in his tracks, obviously held or paralyzed. Fingers retreats.
Zaal and Sniffles enter the hallway and move to give Digin some backup. The armored lion is in hot pursuit of Fingers while the other stands in the doorway and “inspects” the party members. A Globe of Invulnerability surrounds the leonine figure and for their troubles, the rescue party earns a fireball that encourages Sniffles to retreat while Zaal deploys magic to try and reach the helpless dwarf. As Zaal enters, the second lion roars and Zall is left to the same cruel fate. As the armored lion leaps onto Fingers, one of the remaining members slams down a lever that causes the entire hallway floor to swing open, dropping the armored leonine and Fingers into the deep pit. Fingers ison top, but the impact still renders close to death. A quickly deployed swoop plucks the limp gnome from the lion’s paws and his comatose ass is flown to freedom.
The pit lion heals himself and starts trying to remove himself from the pit as a wall of shimmering force separates the two groups. The party retreats and takes stock of the situation. This could be bad. Indeed it is, but that is no reason things can’t get worse. Soon, one of the leonids bellows down the corridor that they are willing to let the dwarf and elf live if the party agrees to be bound to a task.
So it is that three days later, the geas’d group is traversing the haunted halls looking for a set of magical staves that will be used by the celestial guardians to reinforce the walls of the prison and the wards that bar the passage of evil. So far, they’ve found and murdered a pair of well equipped lizard folk that look far more advanced than the brutish figures they’ve encountered in the swamps. Their intelligence indicates undead, demons and the possibility of a necromancer in the area, as well as a rival faction of lawful automatons and the trespassing adventurers they’ve press-ganged into service. Ah, for the good old days…when the most exciting thing that was happening was Fingers getting fried by an undetected trap.
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