Session 54 – Through the Maze of the Shrine

[avisarr]

Session 54 – Through the Maze of the Shrine

The party continued working their way into the maze. They continued down the corridor toward the center of the Maze, following the twists and turns of the passageway.

As they rounded a corner, they saw that the corridor opened up into a chamber some 60 yards down the path. As they walked cautiously toward the chamber, they heard a loud metallic clang and the scraping of stone. With a sudden whoosh of air, a huge block of the ceiling fell behind them. The stone block was massive and as wide as the hallway. It came crashing to the ground, completely blocking the passage behind them. A second later, another block came slamming down. The ceiling was falling in huge sectional blocks behind them. This spurred them all.

They ran for the corridor with every ounce of speed they could muster. Ceiling blocks fell faster and faster, closing in on them. The last came crashing to the ground as they leapt into the chamber.

The characters coughed from the dust kicked up by the stone block. They picked themselves up and looked about the chamber. They were in a circular chamber with a large statue opposite the way they had come in. Before they had a chance to study the chamber in detail, the walls began to move. Four huge sections of the wall began to slide down, sinking into the ground. As they sank down, they revealed behind them four shallow alcoves, only six inches deep.

These four alcoves each had 24 glowing blue gemstones embedded in the wall in six rows of four each. Each gemstone was embedded in the stone wall behind a small iron grate, which covered the gemstone protectively, but allowed it's light to shine through.

As these glowing gemstones were uncovered, their blue light filled the room. The spellcasters of the party instantly fell to their knees, overcome with waves of nausea. Ugita, sealed in his power armor, struggled to keep his head clear. Tyron Orbus was likewise doubled over and dizzy. Martin, however, was completely overwhelmed. He fell to his knees, vomiting violently and shaking. As this happened. Teela's flaming sword was suddenly extinguished. Callister's tattoes flared suddenly and then went out.

Tyron recognized the gemstones as drellisite crystals. The radiation from these crystals befouls spells and magic items. The party quickly realized that all of their magic was rendered useless in this chamber. The spells, magic items – everything – was completely inert. Grimnoth, the construct, went "dead".

The party decided to investigate the statue that stood before them. It was a vaguely humanoid thing sitting on a throne. It had six arms. Five hands held items – a dagger, a whip, a scroll, a wand and a sword. The sixth hand was empty.

As the party stood pondering the statue, they heard a dull metallic clank and the sound of grinding stone. The ceiling began to descend. The party hastened to explore the room. The drellisite crystals were safe behind their iron cages and could not be shattered by weapons. With spells rendered useless, the party found themselves forced to use more mundane methods. They searched the room, tried moving the stone block that barricaded the way they had come in, all to no avail.

The turned their attention to the statue, thinking it was some riddle, but nothing was obvious. Finally, a search revealed a small concealed door in the base of the throne. It was small, only 10 by 10 inches. The doors were locked. Martin was in no condition to pick the locks. Callister began trying to pry the small doors open with a sword.

The ceiling was descending every second. Ugita pulled the comatose Grimnoth down on to the floor so as to not be damaged by the ceiling.

As the ceiling reached a height of three feet and everyone was forced on their hands and knees, Callister managed to get the doors open. At the far end of the passage, a lever was visible. The passageway was too small to crawl down. Rothgar tried shooting at the lever to flip it, but it needed to be pulled toward the party. Teela's mechanical spider was inert due to the drellisite crystals. Martin's familiar, Wes the weasel, was frantic and uncontrollable. Possibly because of Martin's condition. The ceiling came down further. Everyone was on the floor. It looked like this was the end.

At last, the party realized that Gruebal might be able to fit. Ugita took Gruebal and set him before the opening, trying to coax him down the tunnel. Finally grasping what Ugita wanted. Gruebal scurried down the tunnel, and with a great effort, managed to pull the rusty lever. There was a loud clank, and the rattle of a chain. The ceiling ground to a halt at 18 inches and then slowly began to rise. The ceiling panels reset themselves. Ugita scurried back out and the statue and wall behind it, descended into the floor. A passageway beyond was revealed. The wall panels rose back up, covering the drellisite crystals and the anti-magic field was lifted.

The party, having gotten past this trap room, decided to cause problems for Caramus and his minions, who would, no doubt, be following behind them. From the passageway beyond, they used a passwall spell to get access to the lever and they bent it such that it could not be put into the position needed to escape the room. The party wasn't sure if that would work, but it was worth a shot.

As the party headed down the next corridor, a shimmer of light filled the hallway and the apparition which had met them at the entrance to the maze appeared.

He said "I have been sent to tell you that your friends above have managed to force a hole in the dimensional lattice. In other words, Lord Caramus is inside the mountain. He and his minions are flooding through the first level of the dungeon right now, far above you."

With that, he faded away. No doubt, sent by his sarthak masters to hurry the game along.

The party came to the next section of corridor which was only 5 feet wide. The corridor was marked with gaps in the walls and ceiling every 5 feet. Through some experimentation and Callister's spyglass x-ray mode, the party quickly realized that the corridor was a trap set off by the presence of a living being inside it. Sliding metal doors sectioned off the corridor into 5 foot sections and the walls were piereced by dozens of metal spears, skewering anyone caught inside. The party managed to bypass this corridor with a few wall of force spells, blocking the gaps in the walls and preventing the spears and metal doors from entering the corridor, thus rendering the trap harmless.

The hallway beyond continued for awhile until it became rough hewn stone and then natural cavern beyond. The passageway opened up into a huge cavernous chamber. The party found themselves at the edge of a great cliff overlooking a gaping chasm. The huge cavern was dark. They held their meager light sources up and could barely make out the gleam of metal. Suspended from the cavernous roof high above were iron cages dangling from iron chains. Some of the cages had corpses in them.

Far below, at the bottom of the chasm, the party could see something glowing. Callister used his spyglass and could just make out a body. The detect magic mode of the spyglass saw several magical items. Tyron used a telekinesis spell to bring the body and items up. It was attached, by rope around the waist, to other bodies. Through another telekinesis spell, all the bodies and their equipment were brought up. The bodies were old, mere skeletons. They had been lying down their a long time. The bodies were searched and their magical booty removed.

From these corpses, the following items were taken:

A short sword which glowed brightly under detect magic
A potion
A suit of supple black leather armor which also glowed brightly under detect magic.
Two wands.
A ring.
A cloak.

The party used Tyron's flying spell to fly over the chasm.

On the far side, the corridor continued. It eventually ended in a pair of double doors. The party opened them to find a maze made out of huge 10x10x10 stone blocks. The walls and ceiling of these made were all made of the same stone blocks. The party ventured in, but soon found that the stone blocks rearranged themselves every few seconds. As the party made their way through the maze, the walls kept shifting. On several occasions, the party had to leap out of the way, as the stone blocks closed in to seal off a passageway. It was not long before such a sealing of the passageway occurred and not everyone was quick enough. In fact, the party got separated as the walls shifted between them. Gruebal, Grimnoth, Martin and Teela were separated from the core party. The remaining four pressed on.

Soon, the shifting walls began opening up to areas where creatures came out. The first was a small stone golem, quickly dispatched. Next a giant spider leapt out and attacked. Next, a strange tentacled creature that dangled from the ceiling shot stingers at the party as they rounded a corner.

Callister, Rothgar, Tyron and Ugita could hear the other half of the party yelling and fighting some beast elsewhere in the maze.

Soon, Callister and the other three came across a creature which looked very much like a goblinoid. The poor creature had wires and tubes hooked into his body. It was clear that he had been tampered with by the sarthak, who love to experiment on living creatures. He wore a heavy metal chestplate and something on his back. He held a rod of some kind in his hand. He charged the party. Rothgar put an arrow in his heart killing him instantly. However, before he hit the ground, the thing on his back exploded in a tremendous ball of fire. Flames filled the area, cooking the party.

After another of these "bomber" goblins, the party began to grow wary of them.

Finally, the walls shifted and the party found Grimnoth locked in battle with a large beast. It was humanoid and seemed to be an odd mix of creatures. It had cloven hooves, and walked on two legs. It was covered in fur and had a horses mane down its back. Two huge leathery wings sprouted from its back. A beak dominated its face. And its two large arms ended in pincers. Grimnoth staggered back under the blows of this creature. The party did battle with it but were unable to defeat it. When Rothgar fired an arrow at it, the creature formed a hole and the arrow passed through harmlessly, just like a morphian.

The party did not know if this was a true morphian, or perhaps one of the strange morphian-like creatures that had met in the upper levels. In any case, this creature was beyond them and they fled.

Here were ended Session 54.