SESSION 10 - IT'S A TRAP!

The party once again answered the call to duty to protect heir village.  They snuck into the Black Edifice to obtain the disc and bring it back to Hannsport for study.  They were unimpeded as they made it to the one-time summoning room for the third time since their adventuring careers began!

Once they secured the disc, their magical light extinguished, and the darkness echoed with the sneering laughter of an unfamiliar, feminine voice.

The woman taunted them, speaking the common tongue with a heavy, orcish accent.  From her jibes they learned that by taking the disc, they had armed all of the traps she had laid for them and boasted that they were just as doomed as their elven allies were about to be.

With that, the party began to make their way out of the dungeon.  Reigniting their lights, they saw several panels in the walls of the chamber slide open, and lifeless, shambling corpses began moving toward them!

Zombies infected with yellow mold!

Yellow Mold Zombie

As they made their way further toward the lift and the upper chambers, more wall panels opened to reveal giant skeletons with smaller skeleton archers perched inside their ribcages.  Another mighty battle ensued, and the party was triumphant.

When they arrived at the lift, the control lever rotated into the wall and was replaced with a new control panel.  The panel had three parallel levers, one blue, one yellow, and one blue.  All were in a neutral position.  After trying several combinations, and receiving a number of electrical shocks, the party was able to generate the correct sequence and ascend back up the tunnel shaft.

Leaving the platform, the party entered the statue room on their way to the exit chamber.  As they entered, the flagstones nearest the door began to drop away, revealing a spiked pit trap!

As everyone successfully evaded the trap, stone panels started lowering over the entrance and exit, and the statue in the middle of the room animated!  The stone veneer cracked and dropped away from the thing, revealing a very angry clay golem beneath, and even worse, four large stone panels in the floor opened up, revealing pits filled with gelatinous cubes!  As the battle raged, the golem grabbed ahold of Sir Donaghast and jumped into one of the pits, regenerating itself while the cube began to digest the engulfed paladin!  The party was able to overload the construct with sheer amounts of damage and mayhem, defeating their foe and saving their slowly dissolving companion!

Clay Golem and Gelatinous Cube

With the golem defeated, the blocked passages reopened, and the way out appeared clear.  But appearances were always deceiving!

Waiting for them outside was a massive, ramshackle titan constructed of a stitched together assorted collection of giant bones.

Once again the disembodied female voice taunted them.

"Behold my greatest creation," she announced triumphantly.  "I prepared it just for you, and once you are slain, I shall turn it loose upon your wretched little village and raze it to the ground!"

Kikituk

The thing roared out it's evil intent, and immediately attacked the party!  As the battle joined and the gargantuan connstruct unloaded on the party, Professor Malort withdrew backward into the shelter of the Black Edifice, only to hear the telltale sound of a lever being thrown and the grating of stone on stone as a stone panel dropped in front of him, sealing his escape!

Calgrot immediately noticed that the panel dropped shut, trapping their wizard inside.  As they battled the great unliving beast, they also tried to open the door, using another control panel they managed find concealed in the wall beside the doorway- another set of red, yellow and blue levers, again in a neutral position!

As Malort considered his options, knowing that the outside of the Edifice was warded against translocational magic, he first created a magical light, and then heard the wicked voice again somewhere in the darkness.

"Foolish elf!" she hissed at him.  "You have left yourself at my mercy, but alas, Naaruz the Witherer has no mercy to give!"

And with that the elven wizard and the orcish sorceress began a harrowing mage duel that was as violent as it was brief.  Each unleashed spells at the other that ranked among the greatest magics they knew.  With superior tactics, Professor Malort's choice won the day, as his Black Tentacles disrupted the Disintigrate spell Naaruz had targeted him with.  As the orc was being squashed by the tentacles, she released a contingent dimension door, whisking herself away somewhere back into the dark depths of the dungeon, outside the range of the elf's keen sight.

"This isn't over, filth," she spat at him.  "You will not be so lucky the next time we meet!"

Naaruz the Witherer

Shortly thereafter, the party managed to get the door open, free their wizard, and defeat the giant engine of destruction.  As a final gesture, Professor Malort summoned an earth elemental to pummel the front of the Black Edifice into rubble, sealing Naaruz in the dark depths below.

Without further ado, the party then absconded back to Hannsport, to deliver the disc to the council and reflect on what had passed.