The Lost Level

An Exciting Opportunity

Petherwick was working in the shop transcribing a fascination set of notes on arboreal tree-cats, when a voice interrupted his work. Glancing up somewhat irritatedly, he save a large grey-skinned muscular figure in a frock-coat, high-necked shirt and cravat on which a jewelled tie-pin gleamed with inner light. The voice spoke again and with surprise Petherwick realised the large figure had a companion. Peering over the top of the lectern he saw the speaker was a gnome, similarly dressed save he had a golden monocle in one eye.

The gnome introduced himself as Mr Weeble and his associate as Mr Stonehands and advised they wished to offer an "exciting opportunity" and retain the services of Petherwick's group on behalf of the Jessek Combine. They offered the "standard fee" of 1000gp, half in advance. Petherwick immediately agreed, and the two left, advising that he should meet them early tomorrow morning in the alleyway behind the apothecary's shop in the Clerk's Ward.

Petherwick regarded the large leather bag that Mr Stonehands had placed on the table, it chinked reassuringly when he tried to lift it but it was too heavy for the wizard to move. Fortunately at that moment, Allisaria his new apprentice,whom quite frankly he couldn't quite remember taking on, came down to help as did Dronic, who emerged from the kitchen. The returned to the kitchen where Fiara and Paget waited at the table (Hothfin had decided to eat out).  After a typically confusing Petherwick moment, and spirted discussion over something called "rent payments", the Party headed out to do some shopping for whatever mysterious assignment Petherwick had signed them up for.

Next morning bright and early they found themselves in the appointed alleyway where Mr Stonehands handed each of them a black woollen cloak. Mr Weeble wished them well, and pointed to a nondescript crack in one of the paving stones, advising that was the portal and the cloaks were the portal-key. Dronic was first to put on the cloak and step on the crack, seeming to fall into it somehow. One by one, the others followed.

There was a peculiar falling sensation and then suddenly the Party stood in the centre of a square room with exits at the centre of each wall. The exit to the east had a heavy metal gate set in its archway.. Littering the floor all around the room were various decaying bodies and skeletons, none of whom had any weapons, armour, or clothing, and appeared to have been tossed here after their possessions were looted. A sickly green glow illuminated a gray-tile octagon underneath their feet which had three large recesses in its mosaic pattern shaped like keyholes for very large ke. Suddenly light flared from the mosaic and just as suddenly disappeared, leaving the room in complete darkness, save for a faint green glow to the south. Paget lit a lantern to reveal that, unfortunately, the last pulse of energy had left behind four carrion crawlers!

After the carrion crawlers were dealt with, Dronic headed down the passageway to the south where the faint glow had come from - and immediately wished he hadn't! Across the room he could see the doorway there was filled with a greenish light emitted by a pillar of emerald flames at the back of this new room—possibly a portal leading out of here? Indeed, as he looked the word "EXIT" appeared in glowing runes above it. Unfortunately, the pillar was surrounded by a ring of floating beholders! All around them were petrified and shattered remains of other adventurers who had fallen before them. Wisely, the dwarf retreated back to warn his friends and they decided to look for another way out.

Paget picked the next exit to try, the eastern one, which led to a long corridor. Halfway down the corridor, a portcullis suddenly crashed down in front of them. Hothfin moved forward to examine it, but as he did, the corridor behind him dropped suddenly 100', taking his friends with it. 20-foot-long chains dropped out of the ceiling, and hung at the previous floor level ten feet apart. Courtesy of Allisara's spider climb spell and sufficient quantities of silk rope, the Party managed to extricate themselves from this trap and eventually managed to lift  the portcullis, allowing them to move forwards once more.

Stepping across the threshold into the next room was extremely disorienting. Every surface in this room from floor to ceiling was mirrored, and every step they took could send someone into a mirror or cause them to fall down due to the loss of perspective. It was impossible to tell where anyone or anything else is in this hall - there seeemed at least 10 of everyone! While Fiara and Allisaria began to cautiously search the mirrored walls for secret doors, Petherwick strode forward across the glassy surface - only to find one of the mirrors beneath his feet recess slightly, causing him to fall. Grease was spewed across the nearby area, making movement even more treacherous. As he was getting to his feet Petherwick suddenly came under attack by a will o' wisp, but a combined series of magic missile spells and a volley of arrows soon put paid to it!

Tunnels of Terror

The Hall of Mirrors proved a frustrating puzzle to the Party, they were able unable to find a way out. Petherwick even sought inspiration in his book, On Philosophy, but to little avail. Eventually however they decided that it must be some kind of magic. Hothfin cast detect magic and indeed found four sources of illusion magic in the mirrored wall. They still seemed unable to find a way through until Petherwick ordered all lights extinguished and unable to see the way blundered helplessly through the door that wasn't there!.

He found himself in a maze of corridors, suddenly a distance in front of him he spotted atop the landing at the end, an older man in black robes. He wore a black skullcap, carried a staff with a small skull mounted on it, and magic swirled about his fingertips as he’s started to cast a spell. A huge fireball roared towards Petherwick only to be suddenly snuffed out. by what they soon discovered was a dead magic zone!

The others eventually made their way to join him and they began moving through the tunnels overcoming  illusory wizards, more dead magic zones and even a manticore, before finally coming to a large reinforced double- locked door. In short order Fiara disabled the traps on the door and picked both locks.

Inside the door was a cobweb covered room with an angling row of five pillars bracketing each side of the door. There were four sets of wrist shackles on the far wall, and identical shackles on the centre three pillars on both sides of the room. Four people were imprisoned here. Two women shackled to the centre pillars on either side of the room, and two men chained to the back wall. All are clad in rags. As Dronic and Fiara entered the room,the two women and a dark-haired man begin pleading with the Party to free them. Their blonde companion looked up groggily, and then burst into a frenzy. He flexed his shoulders,
pulled the shackles out from the wall, and rushed toward Fiara, fangs and claws bared!

As Fiara, Hothfin and Dronic fought the frenzied prisoner, Petherwick held back and thus noticed a thick, miasmic mist flowing out of a gargoyle’s mouth high above on the wall. It rolled down the wall and coalesced into a striking female figure, clad in tight black silks and she wore a headdress and cloak made from a glistening blue-black pelt. Around her hands, she wears elaborate metal claws that she clicks together unnervingly.

She spoke in a soft beguiling voice that charmed Hothfin, though the others, engrossed in fighting their attacker,  managed to shake off. AS Fiara and Dronic finally dispatched their opponent the woman glided towards them, fangs bared and metal-shod fingers clinking as she invoked the name of Malar.

Dhusarra's Domain

Somewhat uncharacteristically, it was Petherwick who opened hostilities with this newcomer, casting a Melf's Acid Arrow. Almost casually, Dhusarra retaliated with a Flame Strike - which slammed down scattering the Party and incidentally killing two of the captives chained near them. Paget and Dronic launched into the attack, but as the Party engaged Dhusarra they quickly realised they were outclassed and the battle turned in to a somewhat frustrating fighting retreat. Frustrating , especially from Paget's view as every time he tried to hold the vampire, so the others could retreat, they stubbornly held position to support him!  

The fight raged while Allisaria and Fiara held the doorway, Petherwick took the opportunity of the distraction to free the last remaining prisoner. Hothfin, seeing Paget was badly wounded managed to heal him so he could continue the fight, while Allisaria cast Melf's Acid Arrow and then began firing arrows from her magic bow. Eventually, somewhat chaotically, they managed to withdraw in more-or less good order. As Allisaria slammed the door, she heard Dhrusarra say smilingly "And now, little adventurers the hunt begins!" 

As they fled back down the maze of corridors the man they had rescued identified himself as Arnulf of Waterdeep, a servant who had been snatched off the streets two nights before.

Arnulf of Waterdeep

Str  Dex Con Int  Wis Cha  Race    Gender Height Weight  Class     HP   Gold     Personality

9      9     10       7     8     15    Human   Male         5′2        83       Fighter    4       0gp     Servile,Cheerful
Equipment: Ragged clothes, manacles, eating dagger, Petherwick's backpack, a nice hat.

Eventually the Party made their way back through the chamber they had arrived in and noting a curious mark on the wall and an arrow pointing to the east, took that corridor which led them to a temple of Dumathoin. They were greeted at the temple's antechamber by a carved face of the god above huge stone doors, which opened it's glowing eyes and spoke a riddle "reveal to me what tells no lies, answers many questions, and inhabits all, but lasts only as long as patience.”

Dronic looked bemusedly at his friends who looked at each other sheepishly, someone muttering that they "were never any good at riddles!". Dronic, unable to offer an answer stared mutely at the huge face in horror. Suddenly the statue smiled and the voice boomed again, “I extend my greetings, should you be earnest pilgrims. I extend nothing to those who would defile this place. Step beyond, and gain enlightenment, dwarf-friend. If you seek riches and plunder over knowledge though, to enter is to become a lonely secret hidden under the earth.”

The massive doors opened and the Party filed forward into the temple beyond, slanted walls widened the room to the west, and its walls were flanked at the entrance and at the back exits by statues of regal dwarves clad for battle, or for mining and exploration. The gargantuan statue of a dwarven deity dominated the western end of the temple. A large brazier glowed at its feet and illuminated it from below, making it appear even more intimidating. Mural carvings of some of Dumathoin’s myths cover the walls, guarded by giant silvery statues. The room was curiously silent—there were no echoes despite the high ceiling and open space. Hothfin informed them that as this was holy ground the vampire would be unlikely to enter here, so they settled down to rest watched over by the god.

The night passed peacefully but their breakfast was rudely interrupted by a a cracking but powerful voice comes from behind them! “Have you been lonely, little adventurers? Here are some friends to accompany you and to teach you it’s not wise to thwart the will of he who rules the Underhalls!” With that, a huge pair of glowing, ephemeral hands appeared within and unleash a wild flurry of mist and energy! Energy bolts both large and small flowed through the temple. One large arc of energy landed in the centre of the room and began shifting into three large forms - ettins! As the ettins attacked them, one of the silvery statues animated and aided them in dispatching the two-headed giants, pounding one of them to a pulp while the Party dealt with the other two.

As they regained their breath, one of the murals on the wall began to shift and the faceof a dwarf began to speak to them. “Well, it seems the curiosity of surface folk has brought some strife to my temple. You have fought well, young ones, and I entreat you to continue. Old Halaster has infested the temple and tombs with all manner of monstrosities and I have need of your help. You shall be well rewarded by both Dumathoin and myself, provided you fight bravely. I need your words that you bring only aid not harm  to us here! Swear thus, and be called dwarf-friend!”

The mithril golem standing menacingly over them, and three others regarding them from their positions on the walls, Party readily  agreed that they intended no harm, and the voice spoke again. “Very well said, young heroes. Come hither and aid Johanna in the library. She seems to have her hands full there. We are both long out of the habit of fighting, and in need of your aid to protect the legacy of clan Melairkyn.As tokens of our immediate thanks, you will find something that can help you cooling by the forge. You have been given a great responsibility this day: Take care that it leads not to ruin. Dumathoin has decreed that I may not aid you in this, disturb me not until your foes have been vanquished or taste Dumathoin’s wrath!”

Johanna's Library

The Party set out down the long stairway which descended either side of the altar of Dumathoin, and after a brief altercation with some crawling claws and a rust monster that cost Dronic his armour and weapons, found themselves in a wide octagonal chamber The centre of this otherwise undecorated room held a large brazier that seemed to have been carved from one immense diamond; the tripod that supports it was made of three rubies worked into the shapes of dwarves bearing the brazier on their shoulders. At the centre of the brazier, smoke-streaked and glowing from the heat, was the carved ruby torso of a dwarf, its hands resting on an axe in the bed of coals. Dronic touched the carved dwarf and it opened its eyes.

It first pointed to its right and an apparently solid stone wall with its axe and said “To honour the clan’s craft.” It then turned in the brazier, pointing behind itself to a set of stairs leading down, and said “To honour the clan’s dead.” Finally, it pointed to the open door on its left and says “To honour the Keeper of Secrets and the other gods of the clan.” Deciding this last direction was probably where they needed to go they headed that way.

Petherwick led the way trailed by Hothfin, striding down the corridor, calling out for the mysterious "Johanna" they were supposed to help. Dronic, Fiara and Allisaria, more cautious checked out the rooms Petherwick strode past, finding the forge and the gift the god had left for them - six axe-shaped silver amulets.

Petherwick eventually found Johanna, fighting a rearguard action in the library against a mass of crawling claws that were busy throwing tablets and books off the shelves and ripping them up. Appalled at the wanton destruction of the knowledge held in the tomes, Petherwick immediately strode into action staff swinging. Hothfin, somewhat warily joined in as well. The others hearing sounds of battle rushed to their aid, and although it took some time eventually despatched the annoying creatures.

Johanna, a half-elf who, judging by her staff and the ioun stone lazily circling her head, was a wizard,  was grateful for their assistance and after offering them some healing potions and doing some initial clear-up in the library, invited them to her rooms for tea. Over tea and scones, she told them that she had been working on a history of the Clan Melairkyn for the last 20 years.
She mentioned someone called Bandearl, the "High Old One" and took them on a tour of the Museum and Library.

The Mortuary

Before the Party headed down to clear out the levels below the Temple of Dumathoin, Johanna presented Dronic with a chain shirt and Petherwick with a replacement staff ( that may or may not have resembled a broom handle). After descending a long stairway, the entry room was another octagonal room.This one had no carvings on the walls, but each wall had an 18’ high statue at its centre. Torches were above the heads of the statues on the 30’ high walls. A stone door led to a room on the west and portcullises led to other rooms to the north and south, but the southern portcullis had been shattered by something huge. As they  entered the room to explore further, they were attacked by giant spiders dropping down from the ceiling, but  these were quickly dealt with by Hothfin, Dronic and Fiara.

The stone door led to an interment chamber that had become infested by mycondids, but like the spider they proved little real threat especially after Petherwick had toasted them with a burning hands spell! Fiara and Hothfin found a cache of precious metals in a side chamber, but the Party decided to leave these left they offend the god by taking them - besides, they couldn't carry the weight!

As the northern portcullis seemed secure and the passageway beyond undisturbed, Petherwick led the way to th broken portcullis which led to along descending staircase. Disconcertingly, immediately inside were the torn and tattered remains of several duergar! After detailed analysis of the remains Petherwick examined the bodies and announced that something big had chomped on them!

The "something big" turned out to be a behir, which opened combat by using its lightning breath weapon on them before lumbering up the stairs towards them. Petherwick wisely retreated a distance to begin spell-slinging while the others confronted the monster head-on. The monster was eventually slain, but Hothfin in particular was badly wounded in the fight.

After healing the completed the descent down the staircase to find the octagonal room below vandalised and someone had prised any precious metal or gems off the walls. The culprits appeared to be more duergar, as two lay dead by the entrance. Great statues of King Melair lay toppled from their bases, shattered into countless fragments. All three flat walls were open, with once-secret doors pivoted in to the left. A grey, hook-nosed and bearded face peered at them from within the wall facing them. As they noticed it, a gruff voice yelled “You’re too late! The treasure is ours!” and the secret door on that wall pivoted shut. They rushed forward, but despite their best efforts neither Dronic nor Fiara could reopen the door.

Petherwick meanwhile peered into the other doors. The western doors led to what looked like tombs, in one he could see a great pile of rubble and what looked like duergar boots sticking out from under it. In the other, about fifteen feet in, there was a scattered pile of duergar body party - hacked and chopped to bits.

The western door and its adjoining wall were broken, apparently by great force, or a spell. There were huge slashes scoring the wall around the opening and a large web of cracks from the blows of something very large and strong. All around the opening and the door was a light layer of frost. Immediately inside the opening was a great pile of mangled and broken ogre bodies, pierced with wounds in many places. The floor was covered with an alternating pattern of 4’ square blue and white marble blocks. Along the corridor’s length Petherwick could see more bodies of ogres; the closest is 30 feet down the corridor. Blood covered the floor from the furthest ogre to a spot close to where he stood. All the bodies had fallen face down, except the third corpse, which was pinned sideways against the right wall, a spear sticking through his side and caught on his hip. The farthest corpse lay about 10 feet from the end of the corridor. Deciding this looked like a room full of dangerous traps, Petherwick decided to go fetch Johanna!

When they arrived back, the others had given up trying to get in the secret door and as Johanna read instructions out to them for a scroll about which squares to step on in what order they made their way cautiously to the room at the end of the corridor. The walls of this room are decorated with murals.These once great gilded carvings have a number of disfiguring axe marks and divots from club blows. Part of the eastern was hinged away from the main wall, the hidden door triggered and blocked open by a corpse of an ogre atop a shattered golden statue of a dwarf. Strewn about the rest of the room are six dead ogres, one dead hill giant, and a second golden statue lying in pieces. Heading through the hidden door they found another corridor, the traps here were easy to spot as they were marked by corpses. Trailed by Johanna, the Party followed a trail of dirty, bloodied footprints—much larger than any dwarf or human - through a meandering path of the fallen: five ogres, three ettins and two hill giants! All are either suffering from severed lower limbs, or decapitation.

The final bend was turned and they could see a lit room,  a fallen giant blocked the door open, crushed between the door frame and a huge block. They could hear crashes and loud bellows of laughter from the
room beyond! Petherwick wormed bis way into the room which looked like a huge library of some type - but of stone tablets rather than books! Suddenly, stone tablets began raining down from above - someone is laughing loudly and throwing a number of these tablets off their shelves and over the balconies to shatter on the bottom floor!

Yet again horrified at this destruction of precious knowledge Petherwick cast fly and stormed into the room to give the miscreants a piece of his mind. The miscreants turned out to be a frost giant and a hill giant, and a "piece of his mind" rapidly turned into a lightning bolt! The other members of the Party quickly came in support and after a nasty brutish fight both giants were slain.

Ignoring everything else, Petherwick and Johanna immediately began trying to retrieve and reassemble what they could of the broken  stone tablets.

The Hunt Begins

The rest of the day helping Johanna clear up which was either tedious or gruesome depending on whether you were repairing stone tablets (Petherwick) or on body disposal (everyone else). After they had finished and Johanna had used a disintegrate spell to remove the pile of bodies, they returned to her rooms where she made tea for everyone.

After tea she announced she was taking them to see Bandearl and led them through a secret door and down a steep, winding staircase down into the depths. They each felt a presence of power from all sides. At the bottom of the stairs, the worked stone ended in a rough cavern mouth on the eastern wall.Forty feet into the cavern, a rough, wide outcropping of rock served as an altar for an ancient dwarven priest. Magic
sparked around the altar, arcing from the priest and from gems high above the altar, His voice raised higher for a moment and then fell silent as he leaned back and spreads his arms wide.Suddenly, the cavern was ablaze with light from every gem, every rock crystal, every tiny piece of metallic ore, and all that light swirled about the cavern like a magical river, all flowing into the item on the altar before the priest. The priest picked up the item, warhammer,  from the altar, raises it high above his head, and yelled “Rukkoth Dumathoin!” With that, the flurry of energy abruptly lanced into the warhammer and stopped. The dwarven priest turned and faced faced the Party squarely. “Successfully routed the invaders, have you?”

Johanna and the members of the Party brought Bandearl up to date with events which news he greeted with grim satisfaction. Then he urged the Party to follow him, and led the way back upstairs. On the way, he asked if any wished to join the clan - only Dronic took up the offer, though Petherwick seemed tempted for a moment!

From a secret storeroom the ancient dwarf offered each of the Party member a gift as a reward for their efforts. Hothfin took a ring of x-ray vision; Petherwick received boots of levitation; Allisara chose the Diadem of Lady Armatha; while Fiara and Dronic took magic weapons. Bandearl then asked them to follow him once more, and led them down to the true tomb of King Melair. As they arrived in the tomb, the spectre of the king rose to greet them. He declared that the     non-dwarf members of the Party were "Friends of Clan Melairkin" and each was gifted a mithral chain mail baldric with the clan mark as a seal (Dumathoin’s symbol with an axe as the inner gem’s border) at the shoulder. Bandearl then brought Dronic forward. The King, laying his hands on Dronic's head began the ritual to induct Dronic into the Clan.After the ritual completed, and the King swore Dronic to help restore the Clan to it's former glory, Bandearl handed him the magic warhammer that he had created naming it Dumathoin's Wrath.

They rested that night in Johanna's rooms, and before they left next morning, Bandearl took them up to the temple and handed each of them two vials of holy water and a scroll of passwall, which he said may prove useful against the vampire.  They had barely left the hallowed precincts of the Temple when Dhusarra stuck, dropping form the ceiling and attacking viciousl, badly wounded Petherwick and Dronic, then shifting to gaseous form before the Party could damage her too badly. After healing, and Hothfin offering his healing amulet to Petherwick, the Party started to head up the northern passage, only to be hit by a flame strike - a parting gift from Dhusarra.

In the northern passageway which showed signs of ancient neglect and recent use, the Party successfully negotiated another portcullis, a rusted lock,  and trapped door that wasn't, and the near-death of Petherwick from another ambush by Dhusarra, before finding themselves in a perfectly clean hidden room. Clear of webs, soot, and the sound of dead spiders crunching underfoot. There is was a simple stone table against the west wall. Atop it was a pile of eight diamond-shaped rocks with spider symbols carved on them. Looking around the rest of the room, there was no other furniture, but there were small niches in the ceiling, floor, and walls that seem to match the rocks’ size.

Petherwick began inserting the rocks into the niches, using his boots of levitation to reach the ceiling. The stones’ spider sigils began to glow, and a magical web grew slowly between the points. A voice rose from the web speaking in the Drow tongue. Suddenly the web-lines shimmered slightly and a cracking but powerful voice cackled, “No one uses the drow warden’s gate without my leave. Naughty that you should try to depart so soon. . . ." Halaster then teleported a two-headed troll through the gate which then deactivated. The fight with the two headed troll was nasty and brutish, Hothfin being near slain without the protection of his amulet, but fortunately Fiara managed to get to him with a healing potion in time. After cutting both heads off the troll, they shut the body in the secret room.

The Prison

The Party decided they needed to rest after their unfortunate encounter with the troll and headed back to the Temple, where they purchased some healing potions, as a discount as "Friends of the Clan". Next morning they set out again to explore the drow prison managing after some difficulty to open the portcullis that led to the east. they found some cells with the scattered skeletal remains of prisons who had obviously been left to die when the drow abandoned the area. Hothfin also found a strange silver ring with a spider motif inscribed inside that he handed to Petherwick for investigation.Where they were puzzling over the ring, Dhusarra struck again. She opened with a confusion spell, that fortunately only affected Arnulf

The Party managed to drive her off again and continued their exploration heading northward, till at the end of the corridor, Paget found a pile of thick chains cast into the western corner. To the right the hallway blocked by a dropped portcullis. The winch chain to raise it had been unhooked and removed, but the area was generally free from webs, suggesting that someone had been here recently. While the Party were pondering this a flame strike spell hit them - turning they could see that Dhusarra had returned!

The Party barely had time to see Hothfin crumple to the ground when they were plunged into a continual darkness. Paget and Dronic rushed forward to the last place they had seen the vampire and attacked, Petherwick and Allisara supporting with spells as best they could. As Hothfin, revived by the amulet that Petherwick had returned to him, got to his feet Dronic got in a luck blow his warhammer crushing the vampire's hip! Dhusarra unable to move and severely hampered in combat, transfer into her gaseous form and fled.

This time the Party followed her - all the way back to the room they had rescued Arnulf from. Petherwick used wraithform to follow the vampire through the stone gargoyle head while Hothfin used his ring of x-ray vision to see there was a void about two feet beyond the wall, which Allisara used the scroll of passwall to allow them access.The Party ran into several traps on the stairway beyond - but also located a small golden key hanging on a hook on the wall!

Petherwick, still in wraithform, was first to arrive at a large sarcophagus, and also discovered that Dhusarra was still outside it when she cast a blade -barrier blocking the entrance. Fiara managed to dodge through the blade barrier, but Paget and Dronic muscled their way through it and engaged the vampire. As Dhusarra, still limping, moved to the attack, Paget, swung his blade at the vampire, contacting soundly with the side of her skull, crushing it!  

Dhusarra immediately transformed to her gaseous form which oozed into the minute gap under the lid of the sarcophagus.

Escape

Realising from what Hothfin had told them, that the had to find Dhusarra before she could completely regenerate the damage done to her, the Party quickly removed the heavy lid of the sarcophagus, to no-one's surprise there was no body within - only a stairway leading down. Walking down the stairs, they reached a landing above an open torch-lit room with a ceiling 20’ above the landing. The floor of the room was below about 50 feet down from. All the walls were lined with exotic animal and monster hides. Dhusarra is nowhere to be seen. The located the vampire's coffin in a hidden alcove and Dronic swiftly hammered the wooden stake into the vampire's hear while Allisara sprinkled Holy Water over her. They watched in satisfaction as the Huntress crumbled to dust!

After looting the area, finding many riches both in a treasure room and amongst the dust of Dhusarra's body, the Party headed back to the Prison area, where in the cleaned-up part, they found a Priest of Sune called Lineus Kherrispehril, Johanna's brother and the last survivor of a group of Adventurers who had fallen foul of Dhusarra several weeks ago. Lineus had found one of the keys and informed them that a divination had told him the third key was "Watched by many eyes". With a sigh they realised this meant it was in the room the beholder's guarded!

After taking Lineus to his sister in the Temple, the Party rested, identified the magic loot they had recovered form the vampire, and tried to formulate a plan to face the beholders. Most of their plans were stymied by the beholder's ability to negate magic with their central eye! Eventually they came up with a makeshift plan, aided by the fact one of the magic rings they had found actually allowed teleportation magic with Undermountain!

At last they were ready, Allisara cast invisibility and fly while Petherwick, wearing one of Dhusarra's rings cast dimension door to get behind the beholders. Dronic and Hothfin charged in down the short corridor. An epic battle ensued and though Petherwick and Hothfin almost perished, the beholders were slain and the final key retrieved!

Returning to the chamber that had arrived in, the Party used the keys to activate the portal there, and were instantly transported to  a huge room with 25 identical flaming pillar gates just like the false one from the beholders’ room! The only difference between these gates is that all
their colours shifted and altered in synchronous fashion. One second, all burned with blue magical flames, and the next second, they shifted to green, then to yellow, orange, red, purple,and finally back to blue. Each change in colour took about a minute. The room was utterly silent.

There was nothing to indicate where each gate went or what the colours indicated but Dronic noted an ill-fitting flagstone in the floor where a helpful adventurer had left some notes from which they determined that the last portal led to The City of Doors, and home!