Players: Kathi, Chris, JC, Davy, Kris, Bryan

Characters: DM, Lew, Illuverin, Caland & Saunder, A'Tora, Maulgrim

We see a large Fireball erupt from the direction Caland has gone. A'Tora picks Illuverin up and puts him back on her shoulder, takes Lew by the hand, and we advance down the cooridor to look around the corner. The fireball seems to be receding and actually looks to be rolling down the hallway. Caland is nowhere to be seen.

We come to a small passageway to the left that ends with a door. Illuverin crawls under it and looks around. He can't see much but hear faint scratching above the door. Looking up as he hastily crawls back under the door he sees claws and a face on a ledge above. Another one of those Mephit things no doubt.

He report this to the others and we continue to advance in pursuit of Caland. Then the fireball begins to adance toward us and we back up a few steps. It turns out to be Caland who's somehow transformed himself into the flaming sphere. We can hear him, but can't see him because of the flames. He tells us about the big storage area ahead and we let him know about the door with the Mephit.

We manuver around Caland and then Illuverin checks under the large double doors. It's a wide passageway running straight ahead. He returns to the others and asks A'Tora to cancel her spell (which she does) and Illuverin returns to his normal size so he can check the strange set of chains and gears on one side of the room.

Examining the apparatus Illuverin decides it's a big elevator type platform that is not trapped. He looks down between the floor and the platform and sees a faint light from below. Lew hears slight whispering and the faint sound of bells. Caland cancels his Fireball spell and with Lew's help Illuverin cranks down the platform with us all alert and ready for action.

The plan is to stop when the platform gets into an open area so we can look around but when we get about 10-12 feet down when all of a sudden the platform itself breaks apart. Illuverin grabs a chain but then notices he (and all the rest of the group) are Feather Falling. Not willing to trust the spell he climbs down one of the chains. The others are falling a bit faster than he is climbing so he hurries to try and keep up with them.

When the shaft opens up we see a room lit by many torches. It's an odd shape and in an alcove there are two large levers. One is flaked with red paint and is down. The other is green and is up. Near the levers is a large double door. In the other direction there is a passageway that continues out of sight. Caland almost misses his opportunity to get out but catches the lip of the shaft at the floor and hauls himself up.

Illuverin finally gets down and joins the others. He examines the levers, decides that they are both trap controllers and that the red one has been activated. He raises the red lever to disarm the trap. Suddenly the sound of faint bells becomes much louder and more agitated and there is a loud sound of wailing and howling. Then the sound begins to slowly retreat. We go to investigate.

We come to a 30' square room in which a large bald human seems to be standing guard. He sees us, but doesn't attack and continues to look around as if we are of no interest or concern. Suddenly there is a loud SLAM from behind us. Turning to look we see a bunch of large golem looking things with a large pack of hounds of some type charging to attack. Illuverin does not take his eyes off the stranger who charges past him. It takes all of his self control not to attack the man as he runs by so Illuverin advances behind him.

Caland yells "Duck!" and Illuverin crouches down low against the right hand wall as the others dive for the floor, including the unknown human.

MELEE

There is a the flash of Lightning Bolt and a TREMENDOUS crack of thunder. Six of the odd golem like things (dretches) are fried. The newcomer gets up quickly and rushes to Caland's side where he is fighting with us, not against us.

"Well that's a switch!" Illuverin thinks to himself. Not able to join the melee because of the close quarters Illuverin sheathes his sword and draws his bow. This new guy seems to be an awesome fighter.

When it becomes apparent that the battle is well in hand Illuverin turns and advances back into the 30' room to make sure no one else is coming to attack us. It's a good thing he did as advancing down the cooridor are four more of the golem things. He gets two arrows off against them and then tosses his bow aside and redraws his sword.

MELEE (continues)

Soon all of the creatures are dead and we introduce ourselves to the new guy. His name is Maulgrim and as we speak briefly Caland reaches for his temple and gets a far away look in his eyes. After a moment he tells us Estarria has contacted him again and told him that the bad guys are somewhere below us in a lower level, but that the Dragongift is somewhere on this level.

Illuverin wants to check out the double doors next to the trap levers so we head back in that direction. The doors are open revealing a HUGE storage room. The ceiling is 50' high and the room is at least 100' wide and 100' deep. There is a small path wandering through enormous piles of junk. It leads away from the door. When all of us are within we close and lock the door and investigate the room. Caland hands out a Potion of Healing to each of us. Illuverin drinks his on the spot and then watches with interest as Caland pours others out into other vials.

Illuverin and Maulgrim investigate the path through the junk and are quickly out of sight of the others. At the far wall there's an opening in one of the far corners. Cautioning Maulgrim to remain here Illuverin invokes his Ring of Transparency and slips quietly into the passageway. To the north he comes to a large room with several alcoves in which chained dwarves are working at forced labor. There are more of the dretches and a bunch of creatures that look like larger ghouls. Returning to investigate the other passageway to the east he finds several cooridors, some double doors and more continuing passageways.

Returning to Maulgrim he tells him what he found and the two return to the others. As we are all discussing what to do we hear a snort from behind us and turn to see a couple of the ghoul-like things, who begin to howl.

End of session.

Next date 9/23/2001