Zhray Lives Again!

The Cast

Joe as: Jax - Male Human SpellThief (Complete Adventurer)

James as: Rookwood - Male Dwarven Totemist (Magic of Inarcnum)

Matthew as: Zhray – Human Wizard

Ron as: Durgall - Male Dwarven Cleric

Jessie as: Hendor – Male Half-Orc Paladin

Jeff as: Mothoopal – Male Gnome Sorcerer

John as: Lorash - Male Human Druid

and: Mort - Wolf Animal Companion

The Heroes make short work of the Dark Ones that ended Zhray’s life. Rookwood finds a secret door, but in their beaten state Rookwood and Lorash decide to head back to rest with Zhray’s lifeless body. Meanwhile an uninjured Durgall & Jax investigate what is beyond the secret door. A room with green marble and a mushroom forest painted on the walls and a small hoard of treasure including a an armor stand which they are wary of animating and attacking them. They brave it, and discover no traps laid, and recover the hoard, which is just barely within their limits to carry to the surface.

The heroes meet Mothoopal & Hendor at the Temple of Dol Arrah, who wish to join their troupe. The heroes having been beaten so badly gladly accept the offer. Lorash contacts his coven of druids and is able to procure a scroll of reincarnate with the majority of the treasure they recovered. He fails to grasp the complexities of the spell first time he tries to use it’s advanced magic on the body of his companion, as it fails. Fortunately the magic did not dissipate, and trying again he succeeds. Zhray appears as a human once again in a brand new 18 year old body, gaining a new lease on life, however, she is quite surprised and confused to be a he.

They return to the hidden treasure room and find two more hidden doors, to yet more treasure rooms. The first they investigate holds another stand of mail, which this time does animate and attack Jax. Hendor & Rookwood beat it down quickly. Investigating the chest, Jax finds that it holds invisible treasure, which appears when he takes it out. They tried to take the chest but were unable to lift it from the floor. Investigating the other hidden room they find 2 empty chests, one with a hidden compartment which Jax finds, and another with yet more treasure. Rookwood sure there must be more treasure hidden in the chests, breaks them all up, but finds nothing more.

The group trek through the dungeon, making their way to a room marked as having some big nasty monster by their skulk turncoat. When they get there they discover a mass of webs hanging from the ceiling with a humanoid cocooned in it dangling over a pool of crystal clear water. Two man sized spiders are spotted in the webs. Rookwood & Hendor both enter the pool, trying to find a way to cut down the cocoon. As soon as Hendor enters, he feels a painful fiery bite on both his legs. Mothoopal reacts by creating a mist that conceals him, unfortunately it also conceals everyone in the room, making it difficult to for the heroes to determine where their enemy is, or even what is happening. The spiders drop from the webs above and attack the hapless heroes in hopes of an easy meal. Hendor and Rookwood escape the pool, and a find that the pool is actually an illusion concealing a spider the size of a horse, which follows them out. The heroes manage to put an end to the threat after a short fight, an no further injuries to themselves.

Hendor is healed, and the heroes continue making their way to the other room marked as having a large monster in it. They find a number of interconnected hidden doors and tunnels, finding their way to a workroom with a half-finished gnomish golem, and broken parts scattered around the room. Hendor beats the golem to pieces to make sure it doesn’t attack them at an inopportune moment. While he does so, a body covered in rags rises up from the floor and attacks. The heroes make short work of it, unable to even touch the armored heroes.

Following the rough tunnels they make their way to an alchemy lab not even shown on the map. It’s smashed up with a number of liquids mingling on the floor. As Rookwood approaches the debris flies into the air and tries to attack him. He makes very short work of it. And examines the room finding a number of potions and alchemical supplies still intact. The heroes make a thorough search finding nothing else, but expecting to find a path further on they double check finding 3 more hidden doors. Checking them, one leads to a repository of potions, none are magic however as Jax’s detect magic shows. Zhray examines them further and determines they have found a small fortune in potions ready to be magiced. They gather them up.

Neither other door leads them to where they were headed, so they go back around to where a dark stalker was marked. They do not see him as they begin to filter into a woodshop, as Jax enters, he spots the dark one hiding behind a chest and lets loose a bolt from his crossbow that skewers the surprised creature through the heart. They find another secret door there leading to an antechamber with JZADIRUNE spelled out in a semicircle on the floor before large temple doors. Jax finds a normal lock on the door instead of the (un)usual triangular depression on the other doors, and sets to picking it with tools he found in one of the earlier hoards. After 20 minutes of desperately trying, he finally rolls the tumblers over as the picks strain with the effort. Opening the doors he spots a large temple with a giant glowing gear suspended from the ceiling, and a number of desks scattered haphazardly, as well as something looking to be a giant brain behind a desk on a balcony. He points this out to the party and Hendor charges in.

The brain floats up from behind the desk, a dripping mass of tentacles dangling a full 10 feet below it, and a murderous eagle like beak jutting from it’s front, no other organs or features showing. It zooms over Hendor, and lashes him across the face, then returned to its perch. Rookwood, Durgall, Lorash and Mort charge in making for the balcanies. Mort closes with the monster, but it just grabs the wolf lashing it a number of times, Lorash quickly shares a healing spell with Mort, before the monster tosses him to the ground. Jax, Hendor, and Zhray start peppering it with bolts and arrows, while Mothoopal hides his magic expended. The monster lashes at Lorash, grabbing him and pulling him up, and Lorash goes rigid with the noxious substance in the stings of the monster’s tentacles, while Durgall heals Mort yet again. Rookwood runs up the opposite balcony and tosses a grappling hook up at the monster, landing on it’s brain. The monster wraps a tentacle around the rope and pulls Rookwood off the balcony, but manages to hold on dangling a few inches above the floor. Hendor leaps up and grabs the rope, but the monster just tosses it down along with Lorash. Durgall quickly reacts healing Lorash, and Mort drags Lorash out, back to the antechamber. The bolts from Jax angering it, it heads toward him and the antechamber, as it gets to the wall above the door Rookwood gathers his hook and once again tosses it at the monster. It casually catches it and starts pulling him up toward it. It lashes at him, but his totems protect him. Jax fires a bolt up at it but Rookwood is in the way, fortunately his totems protect him from it as well, as it bounces off his thigh harmlessly. Rookwood held by the monster’s tentacles, uses both his totemic claws to strike at the monster, and destroys it, but falls to the ground from a height of 30 feet.