. Caves of Chaos

The group finds a relatively safe place to rest again. Their dreams are not nice. By the time they get ready to head out again they have discerned the mask is the Mask of Baphomet which will enable the wearer to see in the dark. With one item left, they head out. South of the minotaur room they find a small room with four coloured pools of water. One red, one green, one blue and one yellow. The group spends considerable time carefully examining the pools, and the liquid. At the end they discover that the blue seems to be inert. The red makes you rage, the yellow is poisonous and the green protects you from poison. A discussion ensues about what the pools have to do with the items. Does each liquid match one of the artifacts they need to open the inner sanctum? Finally they decide to head deeper south down a long corridor. They find a set of dark wood double doors carved with many leering faces of minotaurs. The doors push in easily and a hot blast of warm damp air washes over them. The room ahead is carved from black rock. Here and there, pillars formed of piled bodies stretch from floor to ceiling. Gibbering mouths, darting eyes, and squirming arms which end in taloned hands move within the strange columns of flesh. As one, the forms within the pillars let loose a mournful howl.
As the group carefully enters the room the air around the pillars warps as the figures within scream in rage. Darkface, found himself teleported to the far end of the chamber next to another pillar. Immediately a Carnage demon squeezes out of each pillar, and one angry Balgura demon appears next to Darkface. After a frenzied and chaotic battle in which the demons and the group are teleported randomly around the room and often grabbed and entangled by the figures in the pillars, and even endure streams of acid from the mouths of the tortured souls, all the demons lay dead. They find a bell sitting on an altar in the farthest corner of the room. Mathers reaches out and picks up the golden bell in both hands. It is covered in glyphs but has no clapper as Mathers discovers by shaking it. He grasps the bone handle and the sharp, steel spikes along its length are driven into his hand dealing excruciating pain and damage. He feels a wash of anger pulse through him and a burst of crimson energy flashes when he rings the bell. He feels strong and reckless. The group runs from the room to avoid any further attacks from the Howling Pillars. They rest again and discuss what to do with the items and if the liquid pools have anything to do with what they need to do with the runes.
Is the length of time they have been underground taking a toll on them?
They decide to position Rayron, Darkface, Gandor and Mathers at a rune each. Panril and Surina stick together near the inner track to yell the trigger for each to drop his item on the rune. When each item is place on the runes at the same time the rune themselves pulse with a blue glow, the items themselves fade away, and suddenly every single door in the complex slams open the noise and vibration rolling over them. A moment of deep silence and stillness, then the eyes of alarm start screaming and an enormous roar, like evil incarnate, shakes them to the core. Something old, evil and very angry has risen unseen from the deep well in the centre of the complex. Chaos erupts. The blue pool of liquid bursts up and becomes a swirling vortex of frothing water. The skeletons chained to the walls which lie at Gandors feet start clutching and grabbing at the Halflings legs. Crossbows drop from the ceiling and start to fire at Rayrond. He escapes the minotaur room to the north and yells to Darkface that he is coming to his position. Mathers is pulled almost twenty feet by the vacumn created by the vortex and barely escapes being pulled into the water elemental itself. He moves out of reach and summons his familiar. Panril sees an enormous boulder rush past him, smashing down the inner track corridor, and then turns to see a small brown bear wearing a fez and riding a ball, rolling up behind him. The bear asks him if he is Panril.

Then a large green wyrm flies past them and takes a bite out of Surina as it flies by.
The battle is one the Guardian turns out to be a large Green Dragon. He flies around the inner track keeping ahead of the rolling boulder. Rayrond and Darkface encounter some small minotaur idols that start to scream and compels them to leave the room. They spend some time trying to smash them.
Surina rushes into the central area and blasts the dragon with arcane energy, it turns on her then flies past. Darkface is compelled to leave the room and comes face to face with the angry dragon. After knocking Darkface down the dragon spies Rayrond. Rayrond lets loose a volley of shurikens that rip the wings and knick the ankles of the dragon causing his mobility to be severely impeded. The group then starts to attack the dragon full force. The boulder comes past three times, crushing Darkface, but the dragon manages to scurry over the boulder. At one point the dragon compels Gandor to come within range. She tries to smash him with her tale, but Gandor morphs into a cloud of bees and flies to safety. It matters not because the group let loose with volley after volley of devastating damage. Finally the dragon collapses and dies. Gandor notices that the door is partially open now, and then ten rounds after the dragon had arrived the doors to the Inner Sanctum slam open to reveal a room full of glowing white mist.

What lays beyond? What treasure was the dragon guarding? What did the BlackFang Gnolls want with the Well of Demons?

Exp. 7508 6th Level.

25th Eleint 9:45 am.
After some discussion about whether or not to put the two pieces of the dagger together, Mathers slams the hilt onto the blade. A pulse of dark energy bonds the dagger whole again. Mathers examines the dagger and reads some of the arcane marks on the dagger. He believes it is the bloodhorn blade, an evil dagger that is extraordinarily sharp and shoves its victims 15ft with a burst of necrotic energy. Weary from their last battle the group takes a long rest. They squeeze as much of the blood from their clothing and armour that they can. They heal wounds and stretch muscles, sharpen blades and tighten armour. By 4am they are ready to continue exploring the Well of Demons in search of answers. Where are the slaves? What does Maldrick Scarmaker need with them? How do they open the door to the Inner Sanctum? What is Paldemars involvement with the gnolls?

The group travels north to the area where they previously met the ghosts. A short corridor ends in a strong door carved with the face of a minotaur. They enter to find a small room, opposite the door, and along the sides of this chamber jet black curtains hang from hooks set into the ceiling. Mathers and Gandor approach. Gandor pulls back the curtain to see what is beyond. He immediately disappears, and the curtain falls back into place without a sound. Mathers asks if anyone else wants to see what is beyond the curtain. Darkface steps forward and he suddenly disappears. Surina grabs Rayronds shoulders and the two of them step past the curtain and into a large room beyond. Rayrond disappears from sight, and Surina feels dizzy for a moment. She glances around the room and sees a long corridor with several pillars supporting the ceiling. The room is lit with no discernable source by a slowly pulsating blue glow from above. On each side of each pillar hangs an eight foot tall mirror attached with a bronze frame. In the mirror immediately before Surina she can see Gandor and Darkface standing infront of another black curtain. According to the angle of reflection they should be standing just to her right, but no one else is in the room with her. Panril follows, leaving Gandor’s dog and Mathers in the curtained room. He too disappears.
Gandor and Darkface find themselves transported to the front of another curtain; this one about 40 feet wide, behind them a long room supported with pillars similar to the room Surina and Panril were left in. Gandor pulls this curtain aside to reveal an altar crafted from brass. It is flanked by two gray stone minotaur statues. And in the corners two Boneshard Skeletons as soon as Gandor opens the curtains they move in to attack.
Meanwhile Panril glances around the room beside Surina, his gaze rests on one of the mirrors and he too is teleported behind Darkface and Gandor. Surina feels dizzy again, but for some reason is not teleported.
Gandor summons his Drake, and the three battle with the skeletons. Panril makes the mistake of looking around and is suddenly teleport again, but his time to a new location.
While the battle with the Boneshards rages, Mathers comforts the dog, whispering gently “I am going to eat you, yes I am. Good boy”. He then stands and lights the curtains on fire.
Where has Rayrond gone? Panril finally discovers the answer. Rayrond finds himself in an odd shaped room devoid of windows, doors or other means of egress.
A very hungry looking Gnoll snarls at him and reaches for his spear. Thinking quickly Rayrond hurls a shuriken at the Gnoll wounding him before the Gnoll can attempt to gut him with its spear. He stabs at the now drooling beast with the bloodhorn blade. The blade sinks easily into the Gnoll’s flesh and then with a sudden burst of black energy throws the Gnoll back against the stone wall. Suddenly a rage washes over the Halfling and he wants nothing more in this world then to dissected the beast before him. With a deep guttural snarl he leaps on the surprised Gnoll and starts to stab him again and again with the dark blade.
Panril teleports into the room to see the Halfling elbow deep in Gnoll.

Meanwhile Mathers finally enters the Hall of Enforced Introspection. He glances at a mirror and gets teleported behind Panril. He notices that Rayrond seems to have the Gnoll at his mercy so he attempts to find a way out of the room. Finding nothing obvious he resolves himself to crouching on the floor leaning on his mace and watching the Halfling battle the Gnoll. With each stab of the dark blade the necrotic force tries to push the Gnoll through the stone wall. Finally the battle ends with Gnoll blood dripping down the walls. Panril says a quick prayer to heal Rayrond. As Rayrond notices his fight over he turns towards Panril, snarls once and rushes dagger first at his friend and comrade. A surprised Panril feels the blade stab into his side and then he is hurled back ass over tea kettle to the back of the room. Mathers deftly dodges the flying priest and thinks to himself “Now this just got interesting!”
He stands and sees the murderous rage in Rayronds eyes. Without a seconds hesitation he lets loose a devastatingly effective blast of arcane energy. Within a few seconds Mathers has blasted the life out of the angry Halfling.
Panril heals the Halfling and Rayrond seems to be back to normal.

Back at the altar one of the skeletons brings his scimitar down onto the drake. Gandor attempts to blast the other with a tundra wind from his staff. The icy cold wind blows through the skeleton without much effect. Darkface fires several arrows into the first skeleton . The battle continues and once the first skeleton is bloodied it bursts little boneshards enfused with necrotic energy in every direction. The blast destroys the summoned Drake. A severely wounded Gandor finally backs away from the skeletons blast range wisely it seems as each skeleton burst again with boneshards when they are destroyed. Gandor and Darkface rip down the curtains and attempt to cover the mirrors. They quickly realize there is no way to affix them to the pillars, and not enough fabric to cover all the mirrors anyway.
They bring their attention back to the altar. Resting on a sheet of black fabric is a simple mask made of black wood. Gandor shoves it into his pack, and then notices the indentation of a minotar hand in the brass top of the altar.

Surina and Gandor discover through yelling that they are in the same room and that the rest of the party is missing. Darkface closes his eyes and walks arms outstretched before him, towards the southern wall. He finds a smooth spot on the wall as if many hands have worn down the stone after hundreds of years of using the wall to navigate through the room. Gandor stays at the altar, he places his hand on the indentation of the minotaur hand. Surina yells out that a dead Gnoll body has appeared on the floor before her. Darkface follows the wall until he comes to Surina then he intentionally looks at the mirror in which he can see Gandor. He is teleported into the Oubliette of the Empty Mind with the rest of the party. He tells Rayrond to stand on the spot where the Gnoll body was. A minute later Gandor places his hand on the indentation again, and Rayrond is teleport back beside Surina. The rest of the party follows suit and they close the doors to this room and find a place to rest.

The group returns to the room they found the dire boar in. They head to the door on the western wall, pausing to listen carefully before opening it. Confident that nothing is beyond, they open the door to find a corridor that runs north back to the room with the chokers, and south into territory unknown. Using his ability to see in the dark, Darkface scouts ahead signaling the others to move up once he feels the area is secure. Around one corner, the corridor widens and a wide swath of dried blood runs across the floor from an eastern corridor to a door on the western wall. As Darkface walks towards the dried blood, the air temperature plummets dramatically, causing him to involuntarily shiver. Slowly the translucent forms of four figures rise from the stone floor in front of Darkface. The rest of the group still huddle around the lantern further back. The ghostly figures hail the dark elf with outstretched arms. A large human with a thick black beard is clad in torn chainmail. He appears to be a cleric of Kord. The second figure may be a dwarf, but his helm’s faceplate is closed. He wears full plate mail adorned with the sun symbol of Pelor.
A thin female elf in long green robes and carrying a wooden staff stands behind them. She is missing an arm. To the side a Tiefling in leather armor with daggers strapped to almost every part of her body skulks cautiously. They offer to tell the adventurers about the Well of Shadows and specifically what Valdrog the Brute calls the Proving Grounds. With a few insults towards the elf, they question the heroes about their motivations. Accusing them of being mere treasure hunters. Slowly the adventurers convince the spectral figures that they have honorable intentions. They wish to free slaves and rid the world of evil. The adventurers learn that the area beyond is the Proving Grounds, a testing place for worshipers of the demon lord Baphomet.
They must find the four items; a knife, a mask, a bell and a book. Each item must be placed on one of four runes found in the complex, at the exact same time. Three of the four items are held in chambers built to test worshipers of Baphomet. To the east is the inner sanctum. Its door opens only when the proper ceremony is completed. The spectral party also tells them that they were killed by the Guardian when trying to complete the task. They then wish the adventures luck and disappear back into the stone.
The heroes then try the door to the north. This opens up into what seems to have been a latrine or garbage disposal. Next they follow the trail of blood through the double doors to the west. They open to reveal a long chamber stretching south. Two stone statues of minotaurs stand against the north wall, and several pillars hold the ceiling up. A circle of runes is inscribed on the floor. Around a corner they find another of the bronze minotaur warders that attacked them in the ambush a couple days ago. The trail of blood ends in a large dried pool of blood before an altar made of bones. The bones are stacked upon each other and support a marble slab with a rotting red velvet cloth. Upon this cloth is a simple bronze bowl. There is only one set of double doors leading to the east. Before they leave Gandor notices that a potion of the bone altar can be moved. They remove this panel to reveal a small chest in a cache. Within this simple wooden chest they find 600gp and three rubies. They collect this booty then continue on through the doors to the east. Here they find a long corridor. This corridor encircles a central area and is covered in bloodstains. (D) The walls and floor look scarred as if a massive object was dragged through here. The central section contains two small stone altars and a deep, pit. (G) The pit is about ten feet by ten feet, and goes down as far as they can see. Gandor retrievesa gnoll finger from the back of holding and they drop it down the pit; they don’t hear it land. A cold sour smell wafts up out of the darkness. The next room opens up into another long chamber, this time there are four stone minotaur statues and two more that seem to have been smashed. Yet another bronze warder stands silent watch in the corner. This chamber also holds a circle of magical runes. Mathers discerns they are written in the language of the minotaurs but can tell nothing else from the runes.
To the west another set of double doors stands, these carved out of some dark black wood with many relief carvings of Minotaur faces. Cautiously they enter. Beyond them is a scene torn from the Abyss.

They stand on a small stone platform overlooking two large pools of blood. A stone walkway divides the room and sits five feet over the top of the blood. On opposite sides of the room, large bronze statues of snarling minotaurs face each other. Each 12 foot statue holds a long barbed whip as if about to strike. A smaller minotaur statue stands beside each of the doors leading into this place. Flanking the large statue on the far side of the room are two pedestals that rise out of the blood. On one pedestal rests a gray dagger sized blade on the other rests a matching hilt. Gandor notices that the statues are built with hinged torsos and shoulders. Figuring that they need to get across Mathers teleports to the nearest platform. Half the party heads back to circle around and come out at the other set of doors that lead to this chamber. That way each smaller group can fit on the platforms. Mathers teleports again to the walkway between the two pools of blood. Suddenly the nearest huge minotaur statue animates and starts swinging its barbed whip, covering a 35 foot radius. Also three snarling fanged creatures burst from below the surface of the blood and start swimming towards the party. These grim looking demons are hairless, and coated in blood. Oversized insicors snap as they make their way to the party. Fortunately the party is able to defeat them without too much trouble. Several times the barbed whip of the minotaur knocks down members of the party and even the demons within reach. With a cunning defined by his race, Darkface lures a demon in close and lets loose a devastating arrow shot right through its dark eye. With the arrow still embedded in its brain the foul creature falls backwards and dies. After the final demon is defeated, the group tries to get the two pieces of the blade. Rayrond bravely decides to climb along the face of the wall to get to the central platform. Unfortunately a piece of plaster comes loose in his hands and he plummets into the blood. He immediately regrets this decision as the blood starts to burn his eyes and mouth. Pain racks his Halfling body as he struggles to get out of the blood pool. Even when he exits the blood the pain continues. Eventually with the help of a magical disc created by Gandor they get both pieces of the dagger and exit this horrible room.
Found 600gp and 3 rubies spent 10gp on ritual.

Exp. 7008 end. 9:40am 25th of Eleint