Session 74 - Ice and Fire

23/08/300 (late morning)

The group entered the tower, the drow following the party in. After a trip through a long corridor they emerged into a cavernous room. Suspended over a drop into a cavern far below was a narrow bridge that lead deeper into the tower. Braith quickly examined the end of the bridge and noticed there was a narrow gap and that the bridge was not connected to the ledge. Lloth expressed that the traps had previously been disarmed but that she agreed with the party's suspicions. Below Braith spotted figures progressing through the crystalline caverns below, marking driders and spiders creeping forward.

Braith was lowered down the examine the edge when a bolt of fire tore out from the darkness ahead and severed the rope holding her. Heskan's reactions were quick enough to grab her and he hauled her up. Ruric went down to apply some dwarven engineering when their unknown assailant summed a plague of insects that injured everyone but devoured two of the drow guards. Lloth identified a male drow across the 100 foot long bridge. Elnorin, Braith and Bankanir used arrows to pin the foe down.

The stand-off continued but, eventually, Ruric's work was complete and he charged over the bridge with Heskan counter-balancing the end as he crossed a pivoting point. The mage summoned a wall of ice in the dwarf's past. Arrows flew over, breaking the mage's concentration and he retreated round a corner before walking up the wall. The mage rained ice down on Ruric but Braith soon joined him. Ruric jumped, latching on the mage. Brad, in the form of a rat, darted out from Ruric's clothing and bit into the mage. Ruric, in his rage, reached to the one weapon he had to hand and plunged the flint dagger, taken from Ban Lior, into the drow's throat. As his life-blood spilled out both dwarf and drow fell to the floor. Heskan had just rounded the corner and there was a brief pause whilst waiting to see what would happen. As the seconds passed Heskan went to help everyone across. The corpse inhaled a ragged breath and floated up onto it's feet.

A large, winged and horned figure shadowed over it as the dead drow became the avatar of Asmodea. The tyrant Queen looked down on Braith and Ruric, energy pushing the dwarf back but not the defiant Morini. Braith whispered to Fail-Not and her prey was decided. The party began to join the fray and battle was joined. It raged on with Ruric and Heskan taking a lot of punishment from the ruler of Nessus. Eventually the energy of the diabolic monarch became too much and her vessel began to shred. Fire roared and burned a small arena around her, causing grievous damage to the party. Heskan fought on, using the grace of Abzu to keep him alive. Fail-Not struck true and Asmodea proclaimed that she would leave this plane on her own terms. She immolated her mortal form and the party recovered.

Lloth, whom had held back from what she described as a 'personal issue' offered healing. The party regrouped and headed on. To their surprise the stairs went up, away from their foes, and Lloth comments that there was a transportation ring that led to the archway so it is likely the Lost were headed in the same direction. 

The first floor held sleeping and working quarters. Here the group found Kartash's former quarters and some robes of a desert priest. They continued on through the workshop and up the stairs into a vast chamber. At the centre was Syndrid's Cosmolabe but the party knew they had little time for this. The next floor held a teleportation circle.

Ascending up again the group found a narrowing stairway and, towards the top, they found ice spread out. As they entered the room they saw a permanent arcane gate but, before they could approach, they were attacked by a huge beast with blue scales and 6 legs.