Well, since the silver dragon told them this was their last trip, they decide to poke around and see if they can’t find at least one of the items for which they have been seeking, namely the sword of lies that the church seems to have taken an undue interest in acquiring. They flit, fly and float down from the lofty heights of the spire and take a crack at defeating the iron golem guarding the trapped doors. The golem proves to be a tenacious adversary, shrugging off most everything except Digin’s rage-fueled blows. It does get dicy a time or three, but remote healing provided by the post-pubescent Sniffles keeps the wobbly dwarf alive long enough to fell the creature.
The doors leading to the unexplored space are both trapped and this starts another round of brainstorming, but eventually synchronized knock and open spells do the trick.
Although protected by plenty of illusions and another set of bloody traps, the plucky group finds themselves in possession of the sword in question. Sweet!
After looking all around, they think that the only unexp[lored avenue is up through the center of the spire and further into the lair of the dread lord – and no one seems particularly interested in doing any of that, so the only path to travel is the one that leads them to the outside. So, they start to travel that path and eventually are face to face with the silvery dragon atop his floating throne and a significant number of paladins and assorted church folk. The party parts ways with the staff of sealing and informs the church that they were not able to locate any of the parts of the artifact required to destroy the key. They part ways and the group travels through the halls, now full of light and noise as the church moves in to secure unopened vaults and to establish control over the warrens so that other plunder-happy adventurers are disincentivized to enter the place. On the way out, Fingers convinces the group to plunder a handful of vaults and they do so, liberating various ancient artifacts.
So it is that the party emerges from the long tunnel that stretches beneath Oldtown and enters the manor house. As they traverse the halls, a pair of demons puff into existence and begin savagely attacking Kegdrain. Although the party rallies magnificently, the creatures eviscerate the bard and root through his entrails and the ruins of his equipment. Bayga manages to dismiss one of the duo, and Digin applies his axe with great vigor. Zaal tries some missiles of magical force and Fingers waits outside. Two of the paladins acting as guards are also slain before the infernal creature finds the rings it was seeking and departs for parts unknown.
Kegdrain is scooped into a sack and the party hails a carriage to return to the manor house. It seems the guards have fought off another attack aimed at penetrating the grounds soon after the group departed the last time, but things appear calm for the moment. Some discussions are raised and the plan eventually culminates in Sniffles taking a bit of Kegdrain on a carriage ride across the city to treat with the Lothanites. The bribe offered is large and the church is honor bound to restore the fallen hero of Ptolus, as well as providing a significant amount of magical healing to boot.
The group immediately enters into discussions with the members of the Inverted Pyramid and the mages are eager to lay hands upon the Sword of Lies. They are less eager to take possession of some of the other nasty bits the group disgorged from the vaults they plundered, but better to have them in the hands of the mages than floating around where deranged cultists can get their deranged hands upon them. Some bartering culminates with magical items donated to the party, as well as the party’s magical items being recharged.
Now that everyone is hale and hearty, and the Banewarrens are no longer an option, the inevitable question that must be answered is “Now what?”.
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