The front doors groaned, something could be heard snapping, and the doors swung open with a loud creak. They party found itself looking into a 110'x30' hallway with ten pairs of glowing red pillars along either side, a 10' wide red carpet down the middle, a scimitar-wielding skeleton by every pillar, paintings on the walls, and another set of double doors at the far end (leading to the central courtyward of the octagonal structure proper). The ceiling was 20' high at the center and 15' at the side walls, and crystal chandeliers (unlit and untrapped) were hung from them (one between each pair of pillars). The doors at both ends of the hall had a small window over them. Silvana noted that the first section of rug and several paintings were magically trapped. Yves thought he saw the paintings shifting in his peripheral vision. Ganeth saw something imp-sized fluttering above the far door on DI.
Yves climbed up the outside wall (at a 5% penalty on the slippery surface) and looked in the near window. He saw a dead-looking black beetle with grey markings on the sill and came back down. Meanwhile, Stealth summoned some bullywugs, Silvana cast prayer, Ganeth faerie fired the implike thing, revealing it to be a homonculous, and Lorcan stunned said construct with a lucky Mikazuki.
The bullywugs and some of the party moved in; the front six skeletons engaged, while the remaining fourteen formed up about 70' from the door. The key details of the great hall combat are that the skeletons not in melee could do a fingerbone version of magic missile for one point of damage each (still unpleasant when they concentrate fire); the skeletons exploded in a burst of black light when destroyed, forcing everyone within 5' to make a spell save at +4 or be blinded (though this could be avoided by having one's eyes closed during the blast); more gargoyles attacked the rear of the party but lost morale and fled; an adverse chant within the temple (continually intoned by the main altar, apparently) affected all the party members (including the non-Good Yves) and the summoned bullywugs (but was canceled by Silvana's prayer while it was up); Silvana's undead turning was at three levels below normal; the homonculous was easily killed (doing some poor mage in the area 2d10); and the beetle on the windowsill didn't do anything.
Silvana used a wand of secret door detection and found a painting on the east wall (taking the party to have entered the building from the south) that slid upward. (The painting was of a famous Death priestess, with an inscription in Eastern Common.) Silvana unlocked the panel and opened it, coming face-to-face with a wight. The party killed it before it could drain anyone, and they moved through the doorway.
The 5'-wide door opened into a trapezoidal room, 40' along the west wall, 20' along the north wall, 50' along the south wall, a door into the central courtyard on the north wall, and stairs leading down in the southeast corner. Also weapon racks along the south wall, some tables and chairs, and a wight, which was swarmed. Two more wights came in through the north door, the gargoyles returned to harry the rear, a ju-ju zombie climbed through the window at the north end of the entry hall, and several bloated zombies with an enfeebling breath attack came up the stairs. Beeel's strength was reduced to 5 for a few rounds, nobody lost levels, the undead were killed, the gargoyles were killed, one bullywug survived the combat but ran out of spell duration, and the party was able to bar the north door of the trapezoid room before more wights (or something else) could pour in.
Silvana noticed a scroll and two potions among the weaponry. Nobody played with the potions, but Lorcan examined the scroll, which turned out to contain Weapon of the Holy Warrior, an unusual 4th-level Combat priest spell. Yves climbed the window at the end of the great hall, heard some chanting, made a charm-related save, and returned to the party.
The party figured there were several ceremonies happening that night, and they could probably only hope to stop one of them. They thought about crashing the courtyard, but the prospect of getting swarmed from a ridiculous number of directions simultaneously was distinctly unappetizing (though it would have provided plenty of frontage for all the fighters), it seemed reasonable to assume that the higher-level ceremonies were taking place deeper in, and there was still the matter of the (suspected) Deadlands power source to consider, so after some debate the party headed downstairs in search of a nukeable ritual (and perhaps a pentagram for getting themselves out again).
The stairway (narrow enough for single-file) spiraled around and opened into an octagonal room -- think 40'x30' rectangle with ten feet of each corner chopped off and the stairs coming out in the middle of a resulting 20' wall. The facing 20' was a passageway going over a trapped pressure plate, across an intersection, and onward. Some sort of invisible astral lattice (part of a cage, it seemed) was just past the intersection; beyond there, the passage had 5' diameter pillars every 20 feet. (Some of this wasn't visible at the outset, but that's the layout.)
The first pillar was accompanied by a set of three glowing red eyes (two small and one large), and the corners of the room had some shadows, who attacked Silvana but moved around Ganeth to get to Rogroc (who continued his fine tradition of fumbling and tossing away that floppy +1 sash spear G keeps loaning him). Combat followed, with people slowly filing out of the stairway to engage the shadows (who were happy enough to attack G after he attacked them), missile fire on the eyes, failed attempts to tumble down the stairs, and eventually a light spell at the glowing eyes, revealing...
The creature stands about 8' tall, supported on 6 short and massive hooved legs (like a bull). Its torso is hairy like a bear, but the colors are a mottled grey-green. Four tentacles sprout out of the torso, each one ending in nasty-looking barbs. The head looks like a wolf, except that it sprouts a third large eye in a high forehead. The skull looks like it holds an oversized brain. Very odd creature, and fortunately it's chained to the pillar by a large dark chain (to one of its hooves).
Everyone who saw the creature had to make a fear save (at +2, wisdom-adjusted) or be paralyzed with fright for a round, which Lorcan, Ganeth, and Stealth were. The shadows were smart enough to attack paralyzed people, though it didn't do them a lot of good.
After finishing the shadow on him, Rogroc (suffering from Not My Regular Player Syndrome™) ignored the remaining shadows and charged the creature, successfully leaping over the pressure plate on his way. Beeel went in after him, mistimed his jump, stepped on the pressure plate, and got a portcullis slammed down through his leg for his troubles. The creature got attacks with each of its tentacles (damage; grab on a failed strength check) plus a trample, doing lots of damage to Rogroc and Beeel.
Ganeth recognized the creature as a yugoloth, though not a variety he was familiar with. Since yugoloths take double damage from cold, Stealth opened up with his ice bow; unfortunately, one of his shots went wild and hit Rogroc, who dropped and then was further trampled by the 'loth out of sheer evil.
- Zanthaloth: [E.C.]
- "Thank you, friend. I will give you a boon."
- Beeel: [E.C.]
- "Rogroc's about to die, his death bomb is going to go off! Everybody duck!"
The zanthaloth wasn't buying and looked ready to send Rogroc into the next life, so the party opened up with ice arrows, a reflected lighting bolt, and a few nunchaku (after the bolt) and put it down first, though it clearly started regenerating. Beeel was quite happy to apply more damage to stay ahead of the regen.
Pepper reported that wights were starting down the stairs, so Stealth blocked them (and the party's retreat) with an Evard's. Silvana, after noticing that the portcullis bars were electrified, wraithformed across and found a control box (which looked suspiciously like githyanki technology and probably controlled more than the portcullis) about 30' down the intersecting passageway. A wraith tried to stop her from picking the puzzle lock and opening the gate, but Beeel was able to parry for her while she finished the job. Once the portcullis was up, the wraith retreated.
Lorcan felt something try to take over his mind, and G sensed something behind him in the ethereal (trying to stay out of his LOS). Figuring ghost, the party crowded into Silvana's prot evil 10' and set about trying to heal Rogroc back to positive hit points. Since the ghost couldn't possess anyone inside the prot evil, she materialized, costing Frankel, Beeel, and the grey elves a decade of lifespan.
- Frankel:
- "As someone who just lost a larger proportion of his life, may I assume I have some right to suggest, politely, a lower degree of hostility? Insofar as I have a vote here I am willing to be peaceful..."
- Sunset:
- "I don't want peace. I want violence and vengeance! Retribution and destruction! Just not against me."
The ghost said her name was Sunset, and in life she'd been a Priestess of the Nine Jewels (clearly one of the excessively friendly variety). Her story is that she's stuck in the Temple, unable to harm it or its worshippers, until the Circlet of the Nine Jewels is removed from the Temple grounds, and she's willing to provide information in return for help with her situation. (She also mentioned great rewards for anyone returning the circlet to Marakeel.)
(Lorcan, incidentally, had heard of the Nine Jewels -- it's an official religion of the Marakeel Empire, worshipping magic, wealth, and astronomical phenomena. The Nine Jewels refers both to a set of secret gemstones and to a constellation. They are considered a minor but secretive religion.)
Meanwhile, Beeel and Pepper beat the zanthaloth out of its body, but its soul was trapped inside the astral barrier.
The party decided that the most useful thing they could probably do was take down the astral shielding, since their retreat was blocked and they probably wouldn't be able to teleport out with the shields in place. There was also the chance that the shielding was there to keep prying extraplanars from seeing what has happening inside, which made dropping the shields and running like hell a potentially attractive option. Working on the assumption that the shield generator would be somewhere within the shielded area, plus Sunset's assertion that the local undead wouldn't pursue the party past the barrier, the party headed down the pillared hallway -- or tried to, until G's eyes (which extended onto the astral while Det Invis was running) were blocked by the shield. Sunset found this rather amusing.
- Beeel:
- "We could just kill her, you know."
- Sunset:
- "Already dead, my dear."
- Ganeth:
- "That's never stopped him before."
Stealth cast a minor globe straddling the barrier, which suppressed G's spell and enabled him to cross. Once through the globe, G noticed a number of astral figures, presumably other beings trapped inside the the field. The pillars themselves appeared to glow faintly, and the shapes within their marble seemed to flicker in the light. Sunset said that all of the beings chained to the pillars were being drained, and the next pillar's guest was an invisible, insane night hag called Aunt Exelia.
- Exelia:
- "'ello! Who's there?"
- Sunset:
- "Hello Aunt Exelia. Just another bunch of do-gooders. Let's see how far these ones make it."
- Exelia:
- "Oh, how fortunate! I was just getting hungry."
Exelia was willing to let the party by if she got someone to eat, and while Frankel was considering volunteering, Silvana tried negotiating.
- Silvana:
- "If you want, we can unchain you and let you go, but we aren't feeding anyone to you. This might be your one chance to get out of this draining effect."
- Exelia:
- "I'm not chained! I'm sucking power out of the Temple. Don't you mess with me! Aaah! I feel so strong. Yummy power!"
Stealth, Silvana, Yves, and G eventually drove her to the other side of the pillar with a few silver arrows, and the party moved on. Meanwhile, six wraiths and a pair of mummies in metallic bandages appeared in the intersection and lined up along the astral wall.
According to Sunset, the third of the four pillars was hosting an "Ice Monster," which the party feared was a gelugon. The party heard casting sounds, and Yves went forward to try to interrupt the spell. When he rounded the pillar, he saw a large inverted icicle, not a gelugon, and the creature turned out to be immune to nonmagical silver. The spell went off, and Yves found himself separated from the rest of the party by a wall of ice. His sally had also taken him out of the prot evil radius, so Sunset crossed the wall ethereally to keep him company.
Stealth tried to dispel the wall but failed. Aunt Exelia fired a bunch of magic missiles into Silvana. ("That's for looking young and pretty!") Yves learned the hard way that the icicle could do a cone of cold with no casting time and its AC was better than 7.
- Sunset:
- "Your pilfering skills will be richly rewarded if you retrieve my circlet. What do you desire out of life? Wealth? Power? Slaves?"
- Yves:
- "Could we shelve this discussion till I'm not so busy?"
- Sunset:
- "Surely a powerful adventurer such as yourself wouldn't be distracted by a beautiful ghost such as I?"
Silvana mounted Pepper and rode back to the minor globe, sunbursting the collected undead in the process. (Turned out the metallic mummies had some magic resistance.) The rest of the party followed, crowding into the globe and engaging the mummies, while the wraiths retreated out of the intersection. The next round, Lorcan fireballed the passageway, turning the wall of ice into a giant fog cloud; the flames shot out around the minor globe, through the intersection, down the side passageways, and into the room at the bottom of the stairs, toasting the remaining wraiths and possibly some other stuff as well. Beeel and Ganeth finished off the mummies, Stealth put up a bat sense to "see" through the fog, and the party headed back to the third pillar, parrying attacks from Exelia on the way.
They arrived to hear Yves' sword shouting, see his armor on the ground, and (for those who engaged the creature) eat a cone of cold (which it could only do every few rounds, fortunately). Pepper and Silvana teleported out of the way, happening to land close enough to Yves to suppress Sunset's possession. Beeel was stuck in the way and dropped. The creature took full damage from slashing, half from piercing, and 1 from bludgeoning, had a 2d6 ramming attack when it wasn't casting, and shortly expired.
Yves turned down an offer of healing and said that he was willing to be possessed by Sunset for the time being. Sunset regained control when Yves moved off to retrieve his sword, but she left Yves' body as a gesture of goodwill (ahem) and told the party the the last creature was something called the Gatekeeper that packed a disintegration attack. She wanted to wait for the fog to disperse before in engaging it (her plan was power word stun followed by heavy beating), but the party didn't think they had time, so she took off to "scout". Meanwhile, the party used its remaining healing trying to revive Beeel, eventually having to resort to Lorcan's weal/woe flask (55% chance of healing, 45% chance of damage) to get the job done.
The party suspected that Sunset might be setting up some kind of ambush to whittle away party members and grab a less damaged body in the confusion, so they moved right in (following a round of listening, whetstoning, Nuket blessing activation, and a prot evil on G [as the overall best possession candidate]). Yves avoided some kind of red beam/gaze attack (which left an odd smell in the air), and party entered combat with a githyanki cyborg (an oddly mutated githyanki with a grey metal exoskeleton). Silvana's dispel evil removed the extraplanar part of the creature, leaving it vulnerable to nonmagical weapons, though slashing weapons did only half damage (and piercing did more like 1) without called shots. Its small hands held a vibrating knife (sonic stunning and perhaps sharpness special effects) and a black rod (death-save-inducing special effect), and its large hand was modified into a giant claw (which grabbed Ganeth and lifted him for a big bad bite, except there was nobody home inside the suit to do the honors). Stealth eventually managed to disable its attacks with called shots into its helmet, and it fell from massive damage application shortly thereafter.
The party found a grey cylinder with three unmarked buttons strapped on to what was left of the construct's back, as well as a wire net headpiece with red monocle that was presumably the source of the githiborg's beam attack.