Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 90 - To the Doors and Back Again

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 8 / Thief 8) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 7) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 8) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 7)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 6)]

Date/Time

Patchwall 8 (late afternoon) to Patchwall 8 (early evening) 

Gathering up the dead Chossos' treasure, the party continued on it's exploration. Just around the bend from the gorgimera's lair, they came to a pile of old broken, worked stone piled against one wall. Solcha searches and realizes the stone hides a passageway, so the party starts excavating. One stone, oddly coloured and light, appearers hollow. Breaking it  open reveals a stone tablet inscribed with the following: 

In the center Lies the gate

But opening it is sure to vex

many are the guards who wait

as you qo to the middle hex

 

Randomly sent to find a way

Back to a different iron door

a seventh time and you may stay

and seek the glowing prize no more

 

you have won old Iqqwilv’s prize

her hoarded cache of magic

and freed the one with yearning eyes

whose lot was hunger tragic

With stones removed, they also find a set of stairs going down; it is takes only a short conversation to decide their goal must be somewhere down there. 

Over 900 steps stairs lead straight down to more caverns, which if anything, are more phantasmagorical than those above.  They wander a maze of branching tunnels for some time, always heading toward the 'centre' as they understand it. Eventually the reach a pair of iron doors,  Each door is 9' wide and 20' tall, and at least a foot thick, On each  are many leering demon visages in bronze, and weird symbols form a the border of each great iron portal. In the center of each is a plaque with the following:

Iqqwilv’s treasure nests within,

her curse on any who disturb it.

seek no further to steal it, nor

to free she who is prisoned here,

for a fate worst than death is

sure to come to those fools who

Violate this circumscribed place.

The doors are very heavy and difficult to move, but eventually the party gets them open. Beyond the iron doors is a corridor with walls of red marble. A thick black carpet runs from the entry to an ebony door 40' away. The arched ceiling is of black marble shot through with bands of scarlet. The walls and floor are polished and dust-free. From the entrance can be seen the gleam of silver hinges, studs, and ring set in the far door. A dim red glow seems to come from the ceiling, bathing the entire passageway in eerie light. A painting shows a wooden boat with a lovely, black-haired lady at the tiller, smiling under a stormy night sky.  The boat in the painting has a name on the prow—the name "SHRIMPKIN".

As the party moves down the corridor towards the black wooden door at the end, they feel a tingling in the air-a perceptible magic. The ebony portal's silver hinges are bright and oiled, so when Goro reaches out to grab the pull ring, the slightest tug swings it open. At this very instant there is a brief flash of golden radiance. When their vision clears, they find themselves in a square 30’ cavern with multiple exits. 

The party continues it's exploration, taking care to leave traces of their passage behind so they know if the end up retracing steps at any time.  Eventually reaching another iron portal identical to the first, they enter again and the same course of events repeats. After a couple of encounters with a pair of chasme demons and a lurker brings them once more to a third set of iron doors ... 

GAINS

9 gems (9x100gp)

potion of plant control

2x Keoghtoms Ointment 

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 lurker

2 chasme demons