Session 44

General Summary

The date is Wednesday, 6th September

All through our rest the strange Homunculus continued to watch us. Possibly too late Idris wondered if perhaps Raoul was watching us all this time through its eyes. We moved onto the last door we'd not explored.

The passage ends in heavy, iron-bound, wooden doors which are barred shut.

Curiously barred on our side. Tinnan lifted the bar and wandered in.

In the dim light, you can see a vast hall with many columns holding up the roof, the walls are plain and unadorned. Hound-like shapes bound out of the distant darkness towards you.

We rushed in. Some of the hounds breathed fire. Idris called on the power of the gods to blast the dogs with holy light. One of the Canoloths lashed out its tongue which grabbed Chi, pulling it to within bite range and chomped down on him. The scout was unconscious before he'd moved far. Idris rushed to Chi's aid but was also bitten nearly in half by the devil dog. Next up Sellis was bitten by it and dragged into its mouth. Then she turned into a rat and scuttled away. So it then lashed Fyren with its tongue and bit him too. It was a very tough fight with the dogs being resistant to much of our magic and the bigger dogs having extremely powerful and dangerous bites. But, as we have become used to, we eventually prevailed. We discovered there was a staircase down to further depths, so we retreated back to the room we had met Biblo and settled down for a good sleep.

The date is Thursday, 7th September

We decided to descend to the lower level and cleanse this abomination. Chi summoned the shadows and we delved deep down the stone staircase.

A short passage leads away from the foot of the stairs. Pairs of eyes seem to glint out at you from ahead, some down at floor level and others from higher up. As your eyes accustom to the dark you realise that the eyes are reflecting light from crystals on carved fiendish beings on a very heavy-looking brass door. The floor and the walls around the door are covered in glyphs.

Idris cast a spell to sense the presence of magic, and indeed the door radiated Abjuration magic. Idris suspected that the spell was protecting us from whatever was trapped on the other side. Tinnan tried and push the door open gently and it swung open on silent hinges.

A vast chamber stretches out before you, the whole thing dimly illuminated with a pale green glow, and the air shimmers in a heat haze. The paved walkway you stand on divides to the left and right as it frames a deep pit below. A domed ceiling arches some 50’ overhead. In the pale green light, a few raised platforms can be seen set against the walls, each bearing a large statue that gazes down into the pit. Within the pit is what appears to be unearthly green lava slowly churning away and is the source of the fell glow. In the centre of the pit is an island of cracked stone daubed in occult symbols. Great chains hang from tall pillars, a couple of which are derelict. At the back of the chamber, a stone stairway descends over the lava and into the pit.

The party headed in bravely and approached the first statue. Both it and the braziers next to it radiated Conjuration and Transmutation magic. A search of the statue revealed it to be solid with no moving parts or levers. Moving on to the second statue and it was the same as the first - same magic, same solid statue. In fact, all five statues were the same. It was decided to descend down onto the island.

At the foot of the stairs to its right are a number of large wax candles, amongst them is a child-sized humanoid wax figure sitting on its feet with its hands in its lap. A black wick protrudes from the top of its head. A second wax figure sits further away on the left. More wax candles surround the pentagram.

The two candles shaped like figures radiated Conjuration and Transmutation magic.

The chains are all solid but two of the pillars have been pulled down. It appears the chains could reach the centre of the gigantic pentagram in the middle of the room. The pentagram was drawn in paint, blood or something similar. It radiated Abjuration magic. Idris walked the circumference and determined that it appeared intact. How this would prove to be wrong very shortly... Tinnan boldly strolled right into the centre of the pentagram. Nothing happened. Tinnan cut himself and dropped a blood drip onto the floor. Nothing happened. Chi lit the first humanoid candle. The candle burns normally. But...

As you light the wick on the wax figure it slowly begins to unfold itself and stands up and bows before you! Within your mind, you hear the following words: “Welcome master! I shall awaken the guardians”.

It started to walk up the stairs towards a statue, but Chi extinguished it with a cantrip. The candle creature stopped instantly. A brief discussion happened and then Chi relit the candle again. The creature stood and headed off to the north statue where it lit the two braziers. Sure enough the winged statue between them animated. The candle proceeded clockwise around the room, lighting the braziers as it went and animating all the statues. The statues took flight and landed at the chains, taking hold of them. Soon there were five winged statues holding onto the chains in the middle of the room. They appeared to be waiting for something. Idris lit the second candle figure.

As you light the wick on the wax figure it slowly begins to unfold itself and stands up and bows before you! Within your mind, you hear the following words: “Welcome master! I shall open the gateway”.

It began to walk around the circle lighting all the small candles around the outside. As the light came into the room, it became clear the pentagram was indeed inscribed in blood.

As the living candle walks round the warding circle, each candle ignites as it passes and tendrils of fell energy begin to flow from the green lava into the pentagram causing it to gently pulse with light as if it has a heartbeat. As each candle ignites more energy flows and the pulse becomes stronger.

The tension mounted. Suddenly a Spined Devil appeared in the middle of the pentagram. It did not look happy. The winged statues started to fly in, dragging their chains in the direction of the summoned devil. It flew out of the circle, not held by the partially-lit circle in any way. It continued to fire tail spikes at us, as we stood around, ducking in place and generally confused as to what to do and the slow-winged statues tried to catch it, unsuccessfully. Finally, Tinnan decided to throw his dancing battleaxe at it and it nearly cut the creature in half. He tried to communicate with it but it just screamed at him. Two winged statues managed to grab the creature and Tinnan's dancing axe finished it off. But as it did a new, bigger creature (a Bone Devil) appeared in the middle of the circle. This creature also flew out of the circle - which was clearly not as complete as Idris had originally believed. It seemed to try and summon companions but that didn't seem to work. We decided to try and destroy the newcomer.