Lets see…enter a pocket dimension and steal things and murder folks, or skip town altogether, or go deeper into the home of the most powerful and mace-meltingly evil stuff a righteous cleric could collect…hmm. Deeper it is!
They ask their evil magic 8-ball skull some questions and make haste to leave behind the Lothianites. While it would be good to have extra cannon fodder, having a bunch of righteous folk along might make for awkward times. They pass through the cordon of troops and return to the passages. It looks like there haven’t been any unauthorized entries into the maze of sealed vaults so they navigate to the area of the anti-magic shell. Long ropes are deployed and the chasm is traversed. Sniffles, Bayga, Zaal and Kegdrain remain on one ledge, missile weapons at the ready. Digin and Fingers climb up the opposite cliff and once they make their way to the top, they are assaulted by a wave of filthy grey humanoids that rush down a staircase to attack.
Fingers and Digin remain roped to the cliff face while the rest of the party unleashes a few volleys of missiles into the seething mass. Eventually, the damage takes its toll and several are felled. The rest break and retreat. After another round or two of this song and dance, the will of the defenders evaporates and the way is clear for the rest of the party to traverse the chasm. Once atop the opposite cliff, they climb steep stairs to a second charm, still within the dead magic zone.
The second chasm has a winding staircase that climbs even further upward and as the group prepares to endure stairmastering upwards, another wave of grey humanoids launches an attack from the cavern floor. This time, the party has the high ground and a fireball from Zaal and an illusionary lightning bolt from Sniffles helps quell the uprising. The party quickly climbs the stairs and emerges with aching quads in a large antechamber, decorated by a huge and forbidding statue. Beyond, a large silo whose walls are studded with doors and balconies and the occasional bridge arching from one side to another.
Time is spent investigating and it seems that security is a whole order of magnitude higher in this area – the vault doors all seem to require two keys. One is probably the hand they hold, the other is a traditional key – whose whereabouts (and existence) are currently undetermined. The group hatches a plan involving vertical movement and retires for a period of rest.
Upon awakening they send up Sniffles and Fingers – both of whom have boots that can provide flight – to investigate a bridge several hundred feet overhead. When they get close, a creature emerges from one of the vaults and fires at them with a pair of hand cannons. This is followed up by it teleporting next to the gnome and trying to eat him. A series of near misses preserve Finger’s life and volleys of magic missiles from the ground floor help drive the creature back inside the door while Fingers and Sniffles flee.
Additional time is spent planning and a plan is planned. The plan is partially executed, with multiple flying party members in position when the creature reappears to attack. The mayhem that follows sees Digin felled and restored to consciousness while the creature is pummeled by magic missiles of all types. When it breaks away and flees, Digin pursues it with Sniffles hot on his heels. A short hallway leads to a closed door and no monster in sight…
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