wheredafakawi?

After much head scratching and a bit of dithering thrown in for good measure, they take the inscriptions at face value and try to have the druid fly through the hallway that lies beyond the trapped doors. As Thraw crosses the plane of the doorway she vanishes. There is a moment of ‘let’s all jump in after her’ and then there is a moment of ‘what if we end up someplace terrible’? Hmm. Well…she’ll either be OK or she won’t. What if one of the mages disintegrates a hole in the far door – we scope the area with an arcane eye and then we all teleport there and thus bypass the terrible doorway? Sounds good. It’ll have to be tomorrow though. Hang in there Thraw!
They sleep upon the floor since apparently no extra dimensional spaces will open for them and they implement the plan on the morrow.

Disintegrate? Check! Deploy eyeball? Check! Scope the great beyond? Check! The eye spies a very large room filled with pillars that stretch from floor to ceiling. Three of the pillars are dull and spiderwebbed, several are black and glossy and about a dozen or so are sort of like a large aquarium in which float bodies of humans and elves, mages, paladins, clerics and Thraw! Pesky pillars…let’s disintegrate the one holding Thraw to release her. Thus it is decided and so it is done. Alas, when the disintegrate is used, the pillar now becomes dull and spiderwebbed and there is no longer any sign of the plucky druidess. Woah. Bummer. Further bummer…the cleric says that there is no contact possible with good deities, so they will be cut off from replenishing any divine magic. Use your resources wisely, I guess.

Further investigation reveals a large ‘well’ that Malchor says looks like a sphere of annihilation. In front of the well is an altar, three silver bowls, three obsidian knives and an inscription. The inscription seems to indicate that as long as one coats themselves in their own blood, they will be able to pass through the portal safely.

Bloodletting commences and healing potions are quaffed. Then, with a resigned glance around each of the members in turn jumps into the sphere.

They emerge atop a vast stone labyrinth that stretches out before them. To either side of the paths yawns a (bottomless?) chasm and the screams of the damned fill the air, which is hot, choking and sulfurous. Vision is extremely limited so it is decided that an eye should be used to find the path across. So, another wandering ocular orb is set loose and it sweeps to and fro, looking for a path. It find demons and several strange creatures, but it is starting tollok grim when the end of the path is finally spotted. There a pair of six-armed beings await them. Their upper bodies are voluptuous human females but their lower halves are serpentine. The six arms bear wicked scimitars that drip a smoky fluid that seems to burn holes in the stone. Ah…right. well…this should be fun!