Our group discovered an entrance to what appeared to be the Thay necromancer's lair right where Inrah's vision pointed us. A small 5ft passageway led deeper inside, only wide enough for one person to enter at a time. It was at that point I knew I needed to take to the shadows. If the Shadow master's Guild had any perfect opportunity to flank and trap us, this would be their opportunity. I couldn't let them see me enter if we were under their surveillance, and so I took to the shadows and let the group proceed without me until I could join them again.
In the darkness I waited until several minutes had past, and my stomach turned as I heard shouts, blasts, and the sound of battle from within. Having surveilled the area and determined it was safe, I snuck stealthily into the lair. What I found inside was that my party had dispatched a grave full of undead skeletons and skeletal wizards -- bone dust was everywhere, and it was good to see my "talents" weren't needed for the fight they faced.
Three doors exited the room and so we chose one and proceeded forward. The next room we encountered had a pedestal with two heads stitched together, the eye sockets replaced with gems. One a rather normal looking head (despite the gems for eyes), and another that was giant sized and covered with several other gems as if it had eyes everywhere. While the smell was horrific, that didn't stop Feefifo from walking forward and slapping the head covered in gems to see if it would animate. As he did, the normal looking head that was attached to it disappeared into dust, leaving the monstrous head behind.
I gave the large head a psychic shove with my telekinesis and it felt to the floor. When it did, a blast of force came out of one of the gems and hit Sai (still in his raptor wild shape and surrounded by circling winds from the previous battle). Seeing this head could possibly be weaponized, I pulled out a 10' pole from my bag of holding and stabbed at the head to try and mount it upon the pole. It struck the head true but didn't stick upon the pole . . . instead it exploded on me. While the blast could have been worse if I hadn't jumped out of the way, it was still extremely painful. Dangerous, but I bagged up the head into the bag of holding anyway . . . perhaps we could still weaponize this gemmed head in the future.
Sai blasted his way through a locked door and created a small hole large enough for his raptor form to sneak through. On the other side was what only could be described as a chalkboard detailing body parts and their benefits. it appeared as though this was the research study of the Thay necromancer who most certainly was on the quest to construct his flesh golem. We noticed among the notes a description of the two heads we had already found. In fact, the notes detailed two of every body part needed to construct a golem: torso, legs, head, left arm, and right arm.
Next, I led the group down the hallway beyond the head room and again, my reflexes saved me as the floor disappeared along our narrow pathway to reveal a pit below and only the doorway at the end. Inrah flew ahead of the group and attempted to open the door when it collapsed down upon her, causing her to fall down into the pit and sustain minor injuries, while the door created a natural bridge for 10 feet of the 20 foot pit. I lit a torch and lowered it down to Inrah with my telekinesis to see she was covered in very black dirt and help light her way as she flew out of the pit and over to the other side. Sai used a Fae Step to cross the gap. I used my Cloud's Jaunt to misty step the distance. Lefty picked up and threw Feefifo like a tumbling acrobat across the gap, and then leapt the distance himself.
In the room beyond was a familiar face but also one contorted in pain. It was Salazar! Salazar the warforged merchant from our previous travels to Neverwinter. Sai held him down while I pulled out the dagger in his stomach and Inrah healed him with her wand. He soon passed out, but Sai was able to wake him with a pouch of smelling salts. He had no recollection of how he arrived here, but what he was missing was his own bag of holding that someone had stolen from him after an ambush back in Neverwinter.
To add to the strangeness, the room he was in had the two torsos mentioned earlier: One that was thin, and one that appeared muscular. Sai touched the muscular torso and the thin legs disappeared. Inrah mentioned that it appeared that perhaps we were somehow constructing the golem for the necromancer or possibly making a choice for him. The torso didn't fit in the bag of holding, so we left it behind, healed Salazar enough for him to join us and continued through the dungeon.
one by one as we worked our way through the dungeon we found the remaining body parts. While our plan was to never touch make the choice by avoiding touching the legs to select or disintegrate one, Sai couldn't resist his curiosity and touched the legs.
We encountered more trapped doors and dangers along the way until lefty found a strange wooden duck in a box. He ascertained no threat from the automaton and picked it up to claim the strange device for himself. That was a bad decision. It exploded in a fiery blast and while most of us dodged the main explosion, Feefifo took the full brunt of the explosion and passed out from the trap. Inrah healed him awake quickly while Sai cast a healing spirit in the form of a radiant beetle. We each touched the beetle and received its healing blessing. I can't say how nice it is to have friends with the healer's art.
by the time we had searched through most of the rooms we had touched an arm here, and a leg there thinking that perhaps that was how we finally escape this lair. The original doorway out had sealed, and it felt like we would be trapped here forever unless we figured out what the Thay's game exactly was. There was even a bookshelf in one corner that seemed to be missing a book, begging for us to return the book of flesh golem to it, but we resisted the temptation to do so.
Instead, we wandered through the final doorway we hadn't gone through back at the room full of skeletons, which took us right into the trap of the very demon who took the key from Seegis the mage of the magical tower outside of Phandalin! With a sneer he cornered us and simply said, "Now, you die" as we were charged by two hell fire boars, a demonic giant spider, and the undead griffon under his command. What followed truly was a vicious battle. Sai had enlarged himself and transformed into a giant toad. Inrah summoned for a flaming sword and began slicing at the demon. Lefty was petrified in fear from the sight of the giant spider, while swing and slashing at the hell boars. Feefifo was taking careful steady aimed shots at the griffon dealing shots with deadly precision. I was throwing my psychic daggers above the head of Lefty and into the boars and spiders . . . really anything I could see, and even Salazar joined in the fight with what appeared to be some kind of warforged gun.
In the end, we dispatched them all as they disappeared into flames. The demon dropped a bag on the ground as he disappeared in hellfire. We had won, and now it may finally be time to rest for a bit and discover if this is Salazar's bag and what it may have inside that was so attractive to the demon and his hoard.
