Sunday 12 July 2009

After resting, we decided to try the brass key in the gargoyle door. As a precaution, E'bor used mage hand to float the key into place, which caused a blast of freezing cold. Still the wrong key.

With nowhere else to go, and not willing to try our chances with an enraged carnage demon and two gargoyles, we searched the rest of the complex. We found that the block trap that had slid across the passageway as we entered had reset itself. In the clay scout's pedestal, we found an iron key with a dragonshard. We tried this new key in the gargoyle door, which caused the door and the key to disappear. The next door -- circular -- was opened with the wood key (after the brass key caused activated a burst of flame). The final door -- diamond-shaped -- had the phrase "Let he who would enter speak his name" written above it. Putting the brass key into the door didn't do anything, until someone finally said "Gutannis".

Beyond the final door was a 30' diameter circular chamber. Opposite the door were five stone gargoyles, each holding a chest. Painted on the wall was a mural of a strange desert world: lightning illuminated dagger-sharp mountains, while three large scorpions dominated the scene. According to E'bor, magic emanated from the chests and the painting.

Baxter -- natch -- skipped up to one of the statues. The chest it was holding wasn't locked, and didn't appear to have any (mundane) traps, but as soon as he tried to open it, the scorpions vanished from the painting, and three stormclaw scorpions appeared in the room [level 1 soldier]. One grabbed Baxter and stung him, rendering him near death. The rest of the party engaged the scorpions, eventually defeating them and rescuing the rogue from Death's clutches. However, before we could do anything, the imp appeared and attacked E'bor, before fleeing.

Taking a quick rest to recover, the party decided to put up bedrolls over the doorway, so we'd have some warning if the wretched imp tried returning. In the chest Baxter tried to open, we found a variety of potions. In another chest was an orb emanating a strong magical field. When E'bor touched it, he was flooded with images from around the world -- the Orb of Annata!
Fardrak opened another chest, and was attacked by a fire warrior, which proved no match for the party. The chest itself was empty.

The fourth chest contained a wand of psychic ravaging +1, which Tirah took, while the last chest contained treasure (400gp, 3 amythysts worth 25gp each, and an 80gp sapphire).

Having found what we had come for, we started to leave the dungeon. The imp, however, had other plans. It hovered over the parchment in the demon room, and threatened to shred the parchment (and thus releasing the demon), unless we left all our equipment behind. Realising that its guarantee of safe passage was meaningless, the party attacked. E'bor cast sleep, catching both the demon and the imp, then Tirah cast blunder, causing the imp to fall into the demon's circle. The party started running, while the demon was able to escape its circle. The two gargoyles flanking the pedestal animated, and attacked the demon, letting the party escape. As we left, we deliberately triggered the block trap, giving us at least several hours head start.
We headed back to Threshold with the Orb, handing it over to Horin Milnar at the Council Buildings, before heading to the Lonely Tankard for some much needed rest.