Session 06
General Summary
It didn't take Magma Force long to search the rest of the ground floor of Vhalantru's mansion.
They discovered a fortune in exquisite wines and an illusory wall which hid a chamber with a 10
foot diameter shaft descending into the floor. The shaft appeared to have been created by magic.
Around the entrance to the shaft were a half dozen further statues which were clearly petrified
adventurers and more of Orbius' collection. Looking down the shaft the group could see the floor
of a chamber below, some 80' down. The statues thus performed a useful job of rope anchors and a
line was lowered to the floor. Gotrek descended first, the group unsure of how many of their
numbers they could safely have on the rope at once.
As Gotrek dropped into the room he found it to be a large circular room with a stone tiled floor.
And waiting for the group in this area were three evil looking and definitely dead humanoids.
Dead but upright and walking. Gotrek called out to his friends, dropped the last few feet to the
floor and drew his axes. Camero looked over the ledge and launched volley after volley of magical
missiles into the fray and Morgan, Braken and Harley rappelled down the rope to aid Gotrek. The
fight would have been quite routine, save that when each zombie was felled it shuddered, then
exploded in flesh and a demonic insect-like creature burst forth from inside it! These
mezzodaemons were fairly dangerous but once the group had grown alert to the fact this would
happen when they felled a zombie, they were able to deal with the threat.
Beyond this chamber was another opening which revealed a 20 ft. diameter shaft also leading
deeper into the dark. Camero pointed out that his Arcane Gate spell only had a range of 100 ft. so
going any deeper into the ground would preclude being able to get out without using a detailed
ritual to open a gate to the Cathedral of Wee Jas in the city above. Unpeterbed by this detail the
group sent Harley on a scouting mission into the shaft. Harley, an expert climber, was able to
skuttle down the shaft like a spider. He came back a few minutes later reporting that the shaft was
a little over 200 ft. deep in total and that it ended in a chamber with two small tunnels leading off
into the darkness. Also, about half way down the shaft, perhaps after 100 ft. or so, there was a
ledge with a strange circular door opening from it. This door has weird runes on it which Harley
could not read and was stylized after a beholder. There were 10 stylized small gems where the
beholder's eye stalks might be, and a huge clear gem in the centre. Harley felt that this door was
probably magically trapped and maybe beyond his skills to unlock. Camero was needed.
Harley popped back upstairs and reclaimed the rope the group had used to get into the first
chamber. All five members of the group donated their rope and a huge length some 250 ft. long
was made. This was tied to more statues in the room and lowered down. It was strong enough to
hold the weight of five adventurers in armour so they all clambered down. When they reached the
vault-like door half way down Camero examined it, letting his senses reach out to determine its
magical properties. He was able to determine that this central gem was the key to the door and that
to open it all that was needed was to cast a necrotic spell into it. Simple. However no one in the
party had any powers to summon necrotic energy so they decided to leave it be for now. They
climbed on and soon found themselves at the bottom of the shaft.
Gotrek did a little exploration as the others climbed the last few feet. He found a room adjoining
this one which had a vault door out of the north, and there was a vault door to the west. Camero
dropped into the room and told the group that the northen vault door was programmed to open
with magical force and the western door was programmed to open with fire. This area was also
littered with bones and strangely smouldering dog dung. Remembering that Vhalantru was
supposed to be in league with a Fire Giant King and his allies, the group suspected Hell Hounds.
They set up to the west preparing to fight a bunch of flame wielding dogs.
Camero fired off a scorching burst at the door gem which sucked up all the fire energy. The door
split into three parts and rotated noisily back into the wall recess. Beyond was a fair sized chamber
in which roamed 5 dogs from hell. Camero recognised them instantly as Hellfire Hounds, nastier
and more dangerous cousins to the smaller Hell Hounds. These dogs rushed the party who tried to
form a defensive wall with Morgan and Gotrek at the front. But the dogs simply phased into
insubstantial nothingness and ran straight through the walls to surround the party! Camero shouted
to everyone that they would lose this power when they were badly injured so it was agreed to
concentrate all attacks on one at a time and try and get it down. It was also clear that these
creatures used fire and that they had a firey arua about them that made their enemies even more
vulnerable to fire. Magma Force were surrounded and this would be a tough fight.
Report Date
11 Apr 2024
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