ragath6

The party returned to Rugoth's lair after a few days of healing in the mines. The party looked around the remains of the dead, set their weapons and armor apart, and burned the bodies. They searched for the drow's body, but couldn't find it. Again there were drag marks from where the body had been leading to the stairway down. The party got in their marching order (Dagmar and Jacen in the lead with Xendra and Triblet behind) and went down the stairs. Halfway down the stairs a dart shot out from the wall and caught Jacen in the ankle. Everyone held their breath but after Triblet looked at the dart he realized that the poison that had been on it had dried and lost its potency.

At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy iron door ornately decorated with scenes in bronze of a warrior holding the severed head of a dwarf by his beard.

"I'm not a fan of the art here," muttered Dagmar.

Triblet, now quite experienced as a locksmith, picked the lock on the door and the party entered a square room with six cloaks on pegs on the east and west walls. The cloaks were black with silver clasps of a hand grasping an eye. Jacen took one from its hook and put it on as did Triblet.

"Wow, it doesn't feel cold in here now," said Triblet.

"I can't tell the difference," said Jacen wiggling his ring finger with the cursed snowflake ring.

Dagmar and Xendra took a close look at the garments and determined that they were all both magical and evil as well.

"I don't think we should be wearing those," said Dagmar, "clearly they serve some evil purpose."

Triblet took off his cloak and stuffed it into his pack.

"I think it would be wise to wear them to disguise ourselves," opined Jacen, fastening the clasp.

Dagmar shot him an annoyed look and they went to the plain iron door in the west of the room. As always, they listened at the door and heard nothing. After determining that it was not locked, they entered. The room was irregularly shaped with a small stone basin on a pedestal in the center. Advancing, Dagmar could tell that it was unholy water.

"We won't be needing this," Dagmar shot a look at Jacen.

While the rest of the party listened at the door in the south of the room, Jacen quietly filled four vials behind their backs and spirited them away in his pack.

The party continued through the door and entered a hallway that opened into a large hall. The high ceiling was supported by large black stone pillars and at the far end of the room a large cloth-covered table was flanked by two unlit bronze braziers.

They headed toward the table when suddenly Xendra let out a cry. A bonebat had flown down, bitten her, and flown off. As the party turned, three more bats swooped down on them and started to attack them. Dagmar swung her greataxe and felt bones crunch, but the bat continued its attack and bit her as well. Jacen swung his sword at a bat attacking Triblet and wounded it. The distraction was enough to cause the bat to miss Triblet and Triblet's shortsword thrust at the bat, but passed through the creature's bones without harm. The fourth bat hovered for a second and then dove for Dagmar, narrowly missing.

Xendra cast a Web spell between a pillar and the floor ahead of one of the bats. Two skeletal bats flew into the web and started to struggle. Another of the bats bit Triblet's hand as he swung at it and Triblet suddenly stiffened and toppled to the floor, paralyzed. The last bat swooped down on Dagmar and went for her throat. Dagmar staggered and fell back but Jacen tore it loose and hacked at it with his sword, severing the bat's wing. Xendra fired two Magic Missiles at the other bat as it wheeled for another pass at the party.

Dagmar brought down her axe on the wounded bonebat and crushed it into broken bones, she jumped to her feet in time to see two skeletons with glowing red eyes walking toward the party. The lead skeleton reached out with a clawed hand and raked Xendra. The second walked past Jacen and attacked Dagmar but missed. Jacen swung his sword as it passed, hacking off an arm and breaking several ribs. The last skeletal bat struck Dagmar from behind. Dagmar felt her joints freeze up for a second but quickly recovered. Xendra fired another Magic Missile into one of the skeletons which crumpled to the ground.

"The cloaks," yelled Jacen, "they don't attack people in the cloaks!"

Dagmar swung her greataxe and cut the skeleton in half at the waist, its arms still flailing as it went down. Xendra waved her arms and spoke arcane words to send a Flaming Sphere rolling toward the last skeleton as it fought with Dagmar. The skeleton's bones cracked under the heat of the flames and it fell to the ground smoldering.

Dagmar quickly ran to Triblet and laid on hands, but Triblet remained paralyzed. She turned to heal the rest of the party as best she could and they looked around the room while waiting for Triblet to recover.

The room was very strangely shaped. In addition to the north corridor they entered from, there were four other corridors on the north wall. To the south beyond there was a descending spiral staircase beyond.

Finally, Triblet started to move and they explored the corridors to the north. In the first corridor they explored, the second from the west, they found a pedestal with something on it covered by a gray cloth. Advancing carefully and checking for a trap, Triblet pulled the covering off to reveal a glass box. Peering in, they saw a small broken metal box. Dagmar told them immediately it was evil and they backed away.

The next corridor they checked also contained a covered pedestal. Jacen took the lead and suddenly a spike sprang from the floor piercing his foot.

"Arrr," grimaced Jacen as he looked at the barbed spiked with green slime coating its point. He fought off a sudden feeling of weakness and Triblet tried to check the rest of the area for traps.

"This is going to hurt," said Dagmar as she pulled Jacen's foot off the barbed spike.

"Gaaaaaaah!"

Dagmar healed Jacen quickly and his foot wounds closed.

"I think I found the trigger here," said Triblet. "This pressure plate causes the spikes to release. If we avoid them, we should be okay."

Jacen tested his now healed foot and went over to the pedestal and removed the covering. Again, they saw a glass box with two golden dragon scales.

"Not evil," said Dagmar.

"Great," replied Jacen who opened the case and put the scales under his armor.

"You know," said Dagmar, looking at the map, "this room sort of looks like a hand."

They then went to the far western corridor to check the "thumb." Triblet was extra careful checking for traps and found none. Once again there was a pedestal covered with a cloth. Dagmar removed the covering and they looked into the glass case. This case contained an ivory hand and a eye made from a large pearl, topaz, and black opal. Dagmar felt their evil presence through the glass and shivered.

As they went to the last corridor, Jacen opened the case and put the hand and eye in his pack.

Dagmar eyed him sternly.

"We might need them," explained Jacen.

The last of the corridors was similar to the rest. Triblet went to the pedestal and checked for traps.

"Hey, this one is making noise!"

They all carefully approached the pedestal and, using his shortsword, Triblet removed the covering. A human heart was suspended in a clear liquid and was beating slowly.

"It is definitely evil," said Dagmar, seeing the dark aura around the heart.

The party headed back to the "palm," but before leaving Dagmar took her axe and and smashed the glass container. The clear liquid as well as the heart landed on the ground near the pedestal in a bloody lump amid broken glass. Dagmar struck again and again until the heart was reduced to twitching bits of flesh.

It was then they heard footsteps coming up from the spiral staircase.

Everyone readied their bows and crossbows and aimed for the stairway. The footsteps continued and soon a wand poked above the stairway and a volley of five Magic Missiles struck Triblet, knocking him down. The party let loose a flight of arrows and bolts, but the attacker was still hidden in the stairwell.

Slowly a tall dark elf in black and red robes arose from the stairwell. Xendra let fly her own Magic Missiles but the drow waved a hand and they dissipated. The dark elf looked over the party and slowly raised another wand.

"Retreat!" yelled Triblet and they all ran back up the center of the reliquary and out of the entire complex. The party didn't stop until they had reached their boat.