The party gingerly heads up the steps towards the fish mouth. A few party members note some Kua-toa hiding behind the crenelations around the eyes.As the party begins their approach four bolts shatter against armor and stone. A number of party members charge into the mouth of the giant fish. Meanwhile, Barrett activates his magic slippers and climbs up to the eyes surprising the Kua-toa. The Kua-toa prove to be more difficult than one would expect, but Barrett still makes relatively short work of these two.
In the foyer, Churchkey pulls back a curtain noting four more Kua-toa preparing themselves for battle. The party launches themselves into the fray. It is noted that a sticky slime encompasses their amphibian bodies and oozes over their shields. This combat also poves to be more difficult than previously thought, but in the end the group destroys the remains of the Kua-Toa.
From here the party licks some of its wounds. Bolgrim listens at the double doors and can just barely hear some kind of rhythmic croaking. Meanwhile Donner heads over to the portcullis. There is a lever to his left and through the portcullis he can see four doors that look very much like prison doors made of mettle mesh woven together making 1 inch holes.
Churchkey and Barrett head upstairs to an armory. Here they mutilate and destroy many, many spears and other weapons.
From here, after taking some time to disable the portcullis mechanism, they walk in and find themselves with two prisoners. One is a human and the other is a halfling. They both claim the other to be lairs. They seem to dislike each other immensely. After a bit of talking with each individually so that the other can not listen in the deduce the following:
- Cherrit the Halfling is from Cauldron... in fact Barrett recognizes him but can't place him.
- Cherrit says he has been locked up for some time and is also looking for Splintershield.
- Cherrit claims he used to work with Splintershield but abandoned him when he wanted to leave the Malachite Fortress to go hunting those in the Underdark.
- Says the place is a maze
- Can't go anywhere without going through the central chamber
- Says Whiteeyes was placed here just a few days ago as a Kua-Toan Spy.
- Cherrit detects evil
- White eyes is a human who was doing a bit of pilfering and got lost in this place
- White eyes said he saw a dwarf sitting in a throne someplace upstairs
- White eyes says its near impossible to get there.
- There is a torturer just down the stairs
- White eyes detects evil
the party makes their way down the stairs and then down a dark corridor that slopes down. Up ahead they can see the glow of a brazier giving dim lite to a room. The room has water around 3-4 feet deep. The party moves to the edge of the water and then Barrett climbs on the walls and then the ceiling into the room.
At this a creature rises from the water. Its shape and demeanor are so horrifying that Barrett is terrified and can't get himself to move. A few member of the Vanguard try to move and make their way into the room but then this creature easily cuts through the water and swats at Barrett like a pinata. Bolgrim boldly moves into the room and very deftly calls upon the power of Pelor. Light leaks out of the soaking bandages and with the sound of a breaking suction cup wet bandages are flung wildly around the room.
There is a passage that continues on but the party decides to go back. They do some more research on the double doors that Bolgrim heard the croaking. After some searching a magical ward is found. Pepper examines it more closely and finds that it is a great ward. With that the party steps back and Barrett goes for it. He attempts and fails.. but not enough to set it off. They opt not to try again and hammer spear heads under the door to jam it closed.
The party makes their way back through the muck of the torturer room and end up at a dead end hallway. They easily find the secret door and open it. The door opens under some kind ceiling supported by a great number of pillars and a stairway leading up to it. The sheltered section is part of some greater room that is surrounded by two theirs of catwalks. The room is Huge... both tall and length x width.
The sounds of chanting are noticeable and right above their heads. They have a plan of action. The paladin will have "silence" cast upon his light pendent and ride on the back of Barrett. This should keep the chanters quiet. Donner and Connell are to take care of any guards on the catwalks.
Just before they put the plan into action, there is a sound of some kind. There is a temporary pause and then a totally different chant is heard. The party sees a winged woman with sinewy line of fire always dancing around her pulling out her bow.
At this the party jumps into action.
To make a long story short. The Clerics chanting are amazing hard to hit. The woman can shoot her bow four times a round and does a devastating large amount of damage. Churchkey is being honed in by the winged woman and Bolgrim is doing everything at his disposal to keep Churchkey alive. His Hp are going up and down each round with frightening frequency. Churchkey drops but is brought back to consciousness.
Donner and Connell take care of the soldiers on the catwalk. Donner goes to help Pepper who is being attacked by one of the clerics and Connell tries to distract the winged woman. It works and for two rounds Connell takes a beating that puts him in the barely alive category.
Finally the four clerics are felled leaving only the winged woman. Her quiver is almost empty... Churchkey and Connell look like they are barely holding on. Bolgrim's wand of healing is smoking from all the uses and pepper is beginning to run out of spells.
It is hear that we left our desperate, yet heroic adventurers.
The Spintershield name rests on your success.
