A30

The Trap

Following the lucrative dungeon delving, the party (Dominic, Fick, Ignatius, and Jack with Drusila and Yarol) enjoyed its wealth and some time off. As they waited for their weapons and gear to be enchanted they had to endure several encounters.
     First they were summoned by chaos via a strange blue fog that enveloped them and deposited them in the throne room of Lady Amethyst. She had some information on their next mission, a raid on a hidden vault hiding several magical tomes.   In a sense this was to increase their overall power for further missions. The tomes were hidden on a demiplane temple devoted Nyssa, goddess of secrets. They needed to a key to get into the area unfortunately, which meant they would have only one chance to get the tomes. The key was being acquired by agents of chaos so the party had to wait for now.
     Later in the summer, they were contacted by Portia, who was helping Gwenydd avenge her father. Lothar Noctus managed to resurrect her before his death and now she was planning to attack the secret fiendish rulers of Ivalice. It was they who had her killed and she was training to destroy them. At the same time, Nemo vanished along with his intelligent sword.
     When their equipment was finished they decided that with little else going on that they could deal with to go on a treasure hunt. Unfortunately their teleport was diverted and they discovered them selves in a small room full of threads of magic energy. As they explored this mysterious dungeon, they discovered a small blast crater full of bone shards. Nearby was a crack in the wall as if a sword or other blade had been plunged into solid stone. They quickly realized that this was what was causing teleporters to go missing recently.
     After investigating the level they descended into a chilly room, caked with ice. Several blue balls of light floated about the room and half a dozen huge blocks of ice entombed mysterious creatures. As they entered the room, the balls attacked and were torn apart by arrows. After investigating the blocks of ice, they discovered a unicorn in the center of one. As they chipped it out, two insectiod devils attacked. They were quickly dispatched but Fick was sent fleeing upstairs by their fear aura. Then two of the blocks of ice imploded and Fick discover, two more of the gelugons, who quickly charmed him. The devils used their ice walls and cones of cold to help Fick defeat Dominic and isolated the party. But soon they saw they were clearly out matched and fled for safer locals.
     After failing to defrost the unicorn and wary of freeing either the frozen woman or vrok, they opened the iced over door out of the room and descended into a warmer if more hazardous region. The level was a large antimagic area populated by three deformed giants. The scout Fick was forced to flee quickly. One of the giants attempted to attack the party outside of the antimagic region and was torn to shreds. The others waited outside of range for adventures to try a frontal assault. The party�s next foray was bloody, as Fick and Drusila attacked from the front and Yarol and Jack attacked from the rear. Both Yarol and Drusila were horribly injured by massive flails. Jack was crushed to death by a particularly massive blow before the tough fomorians were defeated.
     After raising Jack, the party was also able to reanimate the unicorn wh helped heal them. After climbing over a wall of force they made their way to the next level of the dungeon. It was a simple maze filled with nasty traps. Jack was the first. He found a set of circular holes in a wall and fell prey to a compulsion trap to place his hands inside them. After binding his stumps and using alter self to grow new hands, the party discovered the next trap. Fick ran right up to the oddly placed periscope and placed his eyes up against the glass. The party pressed on unable to help the poor sightless halfling. Ignatius dispatched the next trap a simple glass of green slime as well as stopping anyone from touching a discolored patch on the wall.
     It was at this time that a balor wreathed in flames attacked, wielding Rauthym, the sword lost with Lothar. The fight was quick and deadly, Yarol charged the demon and was punctured by the blinded Fick�s arrows. When the demon exploded, he was killed outright.   At this point the party decided to rest and recover. They found their way to the final level, a deserted series of rooms used by the fiendish masters of the place. In a lab they found mysterious computations and in another room they found two doorways.   One door led outside to the positive energy plane and the other was sealed by a blue liquid barrier. Fick was able to pass through it and disable the lock on the portal. The party then began to investigate the abandoned githyanki astral fortress they found themselves in.