DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7)
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6)
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6)
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]
Wealsun 12 (morning) to Wealsun 14 (morning)
The party takes one last scan of the bedchamber and decides it is time to head back down to the laboratory to figure out what to do with whatever pulsed and swirled above the pentagram. But as they head for the stairs, Solcha notes a strange crunching sounds emanating from her backpack. Opening it up, she is horrified to find a pair of the big green worms crewing up her spell book! One is quickly squished, but the other escapes to the sounds of muttered sweary elfish.
One back in the laboratory, they decide to remove Asflag (assuming that is who it is) from the swirling ashen cloud, hoping that will close the gate or portal. A complex collection of rope is used to brace around the pillars at the edge of the room. Solcha lassos the legs as they pass by, and the whole party heaves and pulls the body out of the cloud. Horrified, they see the upper half of the body is partly skeletal, defleshed, torn and bleeding and diseased. Equally horrifying is the view through the 'hole' left in the cloud; a gloomy dull grey landscape emanating waves of ennui. As the party turns to see what can be done to help/pump information from Asflag, a cloud of green-grey spores shoot out of the cloud causing all the hack and cough. This is shortly followed of a trio of strange creatures, like man-size storks with wickly long and sharp beaks, and human like hands. Battle ensures, and the party takes much hurt before the three vile things are destroyed.
Turning to Asflag, they try to question the wizard. But being short of tongue and missing part of his brain, communication is difficult and degenerates into grunts and pointing. Solcha use a potion of ESP to pry into what little grey matter is left. She learns the wizard had been trying to entrap the Oniodaemon from the glooms of Hades, but something went wrong and he was himself pulled partly into the Lower Plane. Asked how to close the gate, his response was a bit confusing and garbled, but they party surmised either someone has to go though the cloud and close the gate from the other side; or they had to 'reverse' the pentagram on the floor. They opted for the second, and the party started work under Solcha's supervision, shifting the diamond powder forming the pentagram into the mirror image of that protective device. Chanee, refusing to even touch such an evil thing, dispatches the dying Asflag and stuffs the body back in the hole, hoping that will block it while the party works. That work takes painstaking hours to shift the grains perfectly one by one. Nearly complete, it is interrupted by another strange creature that pushes Asflags body out of the way and bursts out of the grey haze; round with five wicked clawed arms, three legs and a beetle like head. It grabs Skeef with all five claws and nearly kills the druid with one blow; luckily the blades and magic of the rest of the party destroy it before it destroys Skeef.
Successfully completing the mirror pentagram, the party watches the cloud quickly fade and disappear. And then they sweep up the diamond dust, hoping the gate does not come back. Which luckily for them, it does not. They also gather up the dead wizard, wishing to speak with dead with him later.
They leave the tower, going over the wall (on which they note the flickering electrical protection is now weaker than before) and head for a new inn, "The Tall Queen", to try shaking any wizardly attentions. There Skeef and Solcha examine the spellbook, and the thief opens the three locks on the lead bound tome. This releases an enchantment that withers Skeef's left leg, a ray that drains Baqua's strength, and an umber hulk that tries to kill them all. Everyone survives, and they settle in to rest so they can memorize new spells in the morning.
In the morning, Goro speaks with Asflag and learns the crystal ball and carpet of flying are actually his; it would appear the two College wizards had lied about their ownership. He also extracted the command word ("command word") for the carpet of flying before letting the wizard return to his final rest. However, when Solcha goes looking for the crystal ball, she finds it is missing. A locate object from Goro points them to the College of Wizardry and Thaumaturgistry; it seems the gnome Endoc obtained the object of his desire afterall.
After letting Solcha salivate over her new (sadly somewhat worm-eaten) spellbooks for a bit, the party prepared to head out to the College and discuss payment for a successful job from their employers ...
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