Eved 33, 646
Notes by Joshua Jacobson
After the last of the fallen burst from his skeleton prison and was defeated, the rest just fell about. The enfeeblement the things inflicted still had to be dealt with. It was all I could do to get my weary bones to stand, so I addressed my own needs first and then made my way around to the others. I was near spell exhaustion when everyone at last was healed so we decided to camp.
The night passed uneventfully.
Eved 34, 646
The next morning Slask was good enough to fix breakfast for us all again. He is actually quite a good chef, but asking for anything to be cooked less than medium well hurts his feelings. After my morning ritual, we preceded though the corridor and were faced with another sheer drop. As we were quickly running out of rope I volunteered to scout first. I jumped into the near black pit calling upon my light ring to illuminate my passage and my feather fall band to slow my decent.
Around halfway down I came across a doorway into the sheer surface with the stylized image of a beholder made of bone and wood in some abhorrent melding. The beholder?s eyes were some sort of colored gemstone and there was writing on the surface below the beholder?s main eye. Before I could decipher its meaning, I was falling too far away to make out the symbols.
I came to rest in a small circular room with a corridor leading south and a doorway similar the one in the surface leading north. I cast an enchantment that allowed me to tread on air and made my way back up the others to describe what I saw. I tossed my enchanted feather fall band to each of the others so that they could all make the decent. On the mage?s trip, I held him in place above the door and, though he could not name the language, he did puzzle out that the doorway said, ?Oblivion.?
The last to make the decent was Slask. After having him remove the band, and, after pouring some water on it to cool it, I replaced it on my right ring finger. We decided to head through the corridor to the south. It was only a few yards before it opened into a perfectly cut sphere. Another abhorrent doorway stood on our left hand side and the Rogue moved up to investigate. After fiddling with the eyes for some time he placed his palm above the center stone and pushed firmly.
The door blasted him across the room.
I made my way across the room to heal him and, when he could stand again, he reinvestigated the doorway. This time he worked his way counter clockwise around the gemstones ending once again with his palm over the beholders main eye. He pushed firmly while twisting the gem to the right.
The door blasted him across the room.
I once again moved to heal his wound and, when he was steady on his feet, he moved again to address the door. After taking some small metal contraptions from a case in his side, he moved them in esoteric means around the outside of the stylized gym. When he was satisfied he again retouched all the stones in a clockwise pattern ending with the main beholder eye which he pushed in while twisting to the right.
The door blasted him across the room.
While I addressed the rogue?s wounds, the wizard took position in front of the door. He made a few movements and uttered a phrase I recognized as a general dispelling and the door crumbled apart into its component parts. Behind the door were jewels and crowns, scepters and piles of gold coins all carefully arranged around the far wall into niches cut out from some ancient brickwork.
When the rogue was again steady we investigated the room. Noticing right away that the items were quite ancient and likely to be guarded by wards, the wizard and I used divinations to determine what items had magical energies and which did not. The floor glowed fair with transmutation and we expected that walking upon it would trigger a sudden change, most likely in a nasty fall.
Having no desire to end their lives on spikes set hundreds of yards below a false floor my companions allowed me to investigate first. The enchantment which allowed me to tread on air was still active, so I made my way over to the far wall without setting foot upon the floor. As cautiously as I was able, I picked up a likely looking golden crown inset with gems.
The floor came alive as two huge constructs of stone arose hurriedly from the rippling surface. They set about pummeling me and I can attest to the strength of the monsters. The others moved in, now not worried about an elaborate spike trap, and engaged them. Knowing that I could not take another pummeling without my brains being bashed out of my skull, I worked hurriedly through a sanctuary spell and retreated to the top of the room.
It was a long drawn-out battle. We suffered many wounds, but by running myself to exhaustion I was able to keep everyone ambulatory and in rough fighting shape until the last of the stone monsters was smashed to bits. There was nothing to do except spend another night. The wizard cast a long Leomund?s dweomer and brought the stones of the floor into a rough hut for the night. We drew lots and looted the room.
Eved 35, 646
The next day we checked the room once more and then headed to the north door across from our original settling point from the slow fall the day before. Once again the wizard dismissed the magic around the door and it tumbled away into bits of wood and bone. We were immediately set upon by great evil hounds. Dealing with flesh this time, I brought up an evil enchantment to divide the room with whirring blades stretched into walls. The rogue dashed ahead and through a door on the other side of the room and was lost to view. The rest moved to engage the hounds.
The fighters keeping up pressure on the hounds freed me to further divide the room in such ways as to catch the massive beasts in whirring death. They were soon defeated, but out from the room the rogue slipped into came two humanoids with fiendish aspects who engaged us in the quick thrust and step style of street fighters.
They proved troublesome with which to deal. They seemed to dance through the walls I set up previously but were vulnerable to steel. While the rest of my companions engaged as best they could, I did my best to heal their wounds and keep them on their feet. The male was the first to fall and the female retreated back into the room from whence she came. I followed her and motioned the others back. Using one of the words of power I have been given, I sent her screaming back to her home plane?along with Ya-Nanje, my friend with the smoking eye. But he came back almost immediately. I?ll have to ask him if Occipitus has been improved during his absence.