Shrine of the Awakener

The Narthex

After the fireball detonated, Seawyr withdrew back up the stairway, leaving Juntrik and Yangrit to explore, Tamarie hanging back in case anyone needed more healing. Juntrik tried the door in the west wall which led to a small corridor with a door at the far end. Moving forward, followed by Yangrit he opened the door which led to a large room. As soon as the door opened, a rank odor, like a burned corpse was left out in the sun for a week, rushed out. The room was an irregular octagon, and stone and wood barricades have been built in front of the doors on the south and west walls. It appeared the walls were once covered with frescoes, but these had all been smashed, leaving rough walls and jagged debris all over the floor.

High-pitched voices called out in a language he didn't understand and as Juntrik stepped into the room, two javelins hurtled towards him from behind the barricades. Fortunately only one hit and Juntrik scrambled back into the safety of the corridor. Yangrit didn't understand the words either so he decided to head back and find Seawyr.

When they eventually returned, the second door had been closed and there was no obvious lock for Thyrus to attempt to pick. Stymied somewhat, they pondered their way forward. Seawyr tried negotiating through the barred door, but to no avail. Eventually Tamarie spotted the writing on the candle racks and pointed it out to Seawyr. Seawyr used his magic to translate the words  which read “Offer prayer to Kro’akoth the Awakener, scaled brethren, and be welcome here.”  Pooling what knowledge the had they vaguely recalled that Kro'akoth was related to Lamashtu somehow, but little else of use. Eventually Juntrik uttered something that might vaguely pass for an invocation to The Awakener, and the door unbarred itself.

The two dwarves led the charge into the room, coming under instant javelin attack. Juntrik retaliated by summoning celestial dogs behind the barrier to harry their opponents, and then casting invisibility. Yangrit summoned an elemental to batter through the barricade, while swapping blows with a fiendish troglodyte over the top. Tamarie came to join her in the attack. As Juntrik summoned a celestial hyena to replace the quickly slaughtered dogs, Seawyr joined the fray, a flaming sphere quickly finishing off the two fiendish troglodytes.

After Tamarie had healed everyone and the earth elemental finally managed to bash it's way through the barrier, they took the southern door, which led to a guard room. Two more fiendish troglodytes were the only occupants. In the center of the room was a fire pit with a sizable blaze crackling
away. On either side were two tables with four chairs each. The remains of several small subterranean creatures—mostly rats and lizards—covered the tables. Along the walls were several barrels, one of which was full of javelins. There were doors to the east, west, and north.

Juntrik, Yangrit and Sherm charged in to engage. The troglodytes were quickly slain, but the fiendish necrophidius, lurking unseen in the fire-pit, until it leaped out to ambush Juntrik, proved slightly more troublesome before being destroyed. Fortunately, Tamarie managed to keep everyone alive, and after the combat was over Seawyr found a magic ring, but was unable to identify it's function.

The Forge

Thyrus, knelt before the  wooden door that unlike others they had seen on this level, had metal plated fastened to it. As he reached out to try the door, he felt it warm to the touch. Opening the door released both a blast of heat and a blast of invective in an unknown tongue. Before Thyrus could step back, a flaming figure charged towards him and pushed him out of the doorway - using the pointy end of a spear. As Thyrus reeled back into Sir Godfrey, the door slammed shut!

After a brief confab, the Party readied themselves, and this time as Thyrus opened the door, deployed rapidly into the room. Inside the scorching hot room was a great anvil, a pool of magma, and a stack of barrels along the north wall. The occupant, a salamander, turned from where he had been returning to the anvil and once again shouted angrily at them charging towards them, spear raised.

The Party eventually managed to destroy the salamander, but several bore serious wounds that needed urgent attention from Tamarie. Searching the room they found a partially completed magic breastplate on the anvil, as well as a magic barrel that contained cold water despite the intense heat in the room. Seawyr also found another Spire token.

The next door down led to a small prison complex guarded by four degenerate serpentfolk. Much to Juntrik's annoyance, the battle to take this room, cost the Party the support of Sherm who was slain and temporarily banished from the Plane. Seawyr found a lone serpentfolk, Draa, locked in one of the cells , but his mind had been completely broken by whatever horrific experiences he had undergone and as he proved irritating, Seawyr eventually locked him back in his cell.

While the others pondered what to do next, including Seawyr's offer to get them back to town to rest and resupply, Sir Godfrey wandered off in search of more evil to vanquish. He found it in a nearby room full of statues, most of which had been broken as a necrophidius attacked him. Thyrus, who had realised Sir Godfrey had wandered off, came along in time to help despatch the construct. Two massive doors led off this room and as Sir Godfrey could detect an evil aura behind them, they of course charged in!

On the left and right of the door were six alcoves, some empty and some with rough bedding on the floor. In the centre of the main chamber was an enormous pillar of green crystal. A stone serpent was wrapped around it, its head aflame. In the back of the chamber was a raised altar, and behind it a wall mosaic pulsed with green light. As the charged in, a voice echoed all around them saying something about a prophecy. Ignoring the voice, they continued their charge, only to be met first by a lighting bolt then a series of scorching ray spells, seeming to come form the pillar. While Sir Godfrey examined the pit circling the Emerald Spire, preventing anyone getting close, Thyrus charged towards the back of the room smashing his mace into the mosaic and breaking a few of the tiles.

As the others eventually arrived into room, Sir Godfrey came under assault from an unexpected direction as a fire-bolt slammed into him. Turning he saw a dual-wielding serpentfolk, in priestly robes emerging from a secret door. Immediately Sir Godfrey charged in and attacked.

A Hasty Retreat

 Seawyr quickly realised that the Party was woefully under-prepared fro this encounter, especially when the lizardfolk dual-wielder slammed Sir Godfrey into a senseless heap using smite good. He began to organise a withdrawal, as Tamarie dashed in to retrieve the staggering paladin, and Yangrit moved to distract the serpentfolk. On the far side of the room, Thyrus hastily downed a healing potion then dashed for the exit, the naga, slithering round the spire to follow him, unleashing another lightning bolt that slammed into Juntrik and a hastily retreating Tamarie. The smoothness of the withdrawal was interrupted as Yangrit crashed to the ground, badly wounded. A channeling from Tamarie kept everyone alive as Juntrik and Seawyr rushed forward to drag the fallen druid out. Fortunately her opponent had paused to heal himself and let them escape.

As they hastily departed up the corridor Seawyr urged them up to the level above, leading them to the Emerald Spire on that level. There he distributed spire token and instructed them on their use. In short order them were back on the first floor. A few hours after that they were back in Fort Inevitable. They spent the next few day in the Juliver Arms, resting, recuperating, disposing of loot and shopping! Thyrus even managed to make contact with what passed for the local Thieves Guild, where he was warned that the remnants of The Splinter had put a price of 1000gp on Seawyr's head!

Eventually they felt ready to return. As they passed through the surrounding forest Thyrus keep a wary eye out for an ambush by the bandits, convinced unseen eyes were watching from behind every tree. As they entered the upper level of the Spire his wariness increased, but the expected ambush, when it arrived, was not the Splinter bandits, but a grey ooze that dropped on his head from the ceiling. Thyrus managed somehow to get out from it's grasp and his friends slew the thing. Seawyr once again distributed Spire tokens and they teleported back to the Clockwork Maze.

Heading downstairs they unfortunately had forgotten about the trap in the narthex and immediately tripped it again, detonating a fireball -  and sounding the alarm through the level. Wisely, they decided to withdraw and wait  for things to calm down. On their return Seawyr used comprehend languages to decipher the script on the candle-rack. He muttered an invocation to Kro'akoth and used his ioun stone to disguise himself as a serpentfolk!
He passed through the trap without trouble and moved through the short passageway to the barricaded room. This time, three serpentfolk guarded the room rather than the troglodytes they had killed previously.

 

The Shrine of The Awakener

Seawyr trusting to his disguise called out to the serpentfolk guards - "They are attacking me!" As the guards attention switched to those following him, Seawyr darted to the corner of the room and then tossed a fireball over the palisade! 

Taking advantage of the guard's shock, the others deployed into the room. Juntrik summoned an aurochs to charge the palisade, while Tamarie nocked her bow and began firing arrows. Yangrit and Sir Godfrey charged in - going route 1 and smashing into the serpentfolk guards over the top of the palisade. Already weakened by Seawyr's fireball, it wasn't long until the guards were slain. In the room next door they found three more of the fiendish troglodytes, who proved even less of a challenge. 

While the others looted the corpses and Tamarie doled out healing, somewhat uncharacteristically, Juntrik went to confirm the nearby rooms were clear. He confirmed all of the rooms nearby were clear, but unfortunately, emboldened, he became over-confident and  he went all the way to the Shrine where the Spire was. He immediately came under attack by the naga and dual-wielding serpentfolk cleric!

The others eventually noticed Juntrik was missing and followed after, only to run into an ogrekin, carrying what looked suspiciously like Juntrik's body, towards the prison room. As Sir Godfrey charged down the corridor towards him, the ogrekin fled back the way he had come. The Party chased him all the way back to the statue room outside the Shrine when another ogrekin guarded the door, and battle was joined.

As the first ogre fell, Tamarie rushed forward to heal Juntrik. Sir Godfrey spotted the serpentfolk cleric and immediately charged in to attack. Seawyr after hanging back initially moved to the doorway as the second ogre fell, only to be hit by a lightning bolt from the naga who suddenly appeared wrapped round the spire as before. 

While Tamarie channelled positive energy, healing her friends, Juntrik summoned an aurochs which was swiftly cut to ribbons by the evil cleric, but at least distracted him for a second as Sir Godfrey attacked.  After tossing a flaming sphere at the evil cleric, Yangrit then moved to support Sir Godfrey who was already bleeding from several cuts from the cleric. The cleric dodged the flaming sphere, taking another hit from Godfrey. Juntrik summoned another aurochs which fell to a scorching ray from the dark naga, he then charged towards Juntrik. This proved to be a really bad move as he was unable to dodge attacks of opportunity from Sir Godfrey and Yangrit.

As the cleric fell in a pool of blood, the dark naga howled something threatening about "the revenge of the Awakener!" before using a spire token to teleport away.

Cleansing The Shrine

As the Party began looting the corpses, Seawyr examined the strange mosaic at the far wall, quickly determining that it was radiating powerful magic. After further analysing the magic he determined that the mosaic was actually a Gate, and it was open and active! This seemed to fascinate Juntrik who started at the back wall for some time, as if contemplating finding out where it went!

The rest of the Party had meanwhile continued searching the rest of the area. The secret door led to what was obviously a bedchamber, dominated by a large bed, a bookcase and a desk, Searching the area they came under attack by a constrictor snake lurking beneath it, but it was quickly despatched. The bookcases contained what appeared to be religious texts in a language none of the spoke, but they did manage to recover some treasure from the desk drawler which also contained what appeared to be a large stone fang! The last room, which ultimately led to the stairs down was guarded by, of all things, a quickling, who proved briefly annoying before being killed by Godfrey and Yangrit.