The party saw Torture devices filling the large chamber, from racks and iron maidens to spiked chairs and vises. Most of the implements were stained with fresh blood, and a coppery tang filled the air. A wide staircase in the northeast corner led down. Double doors stood in the south and west walls. The western wall of the room is dominated by a large apparatus with conical brass horns, fluted pipes piercing the ceiling, and oily tubes snaking from the apparatus to each of the torture devices. An odd, low wailing emanated from the machine like a faraway scream.
A redheaded woman had just transformed into an ebony dragon with red frills. The dragon appeared terribly contorted and trailed shadows.
As the dragon moved toward the center of the room it bellowed "You shall not pass!"
The acid breath of the dragon blasted all of the party but Ciprian, who had remained in the gear room playing with the lever. The blast was not deadly but put a hurt on the party. Gavril moved first to get to the side of the dragon. Armania was concerned with the contorted form of the dragon and used her wand to cast Break Enchantment, which had no effect.
The dragon then flew to block the staircase down, but it took opportunity attacks from Erevel, Gavril and Ciprian doing significant damage. At the stairs the party now saw seven dragons occupying the space. The party felt a wave of fear overflow them and some of the party became shaken.
Armania took advantage of the opening to cast a fireball which caught three of the devices in addition to the dragon. Ciprian backed away from the devices and cast haste on the party. Gavril took off after the dragon and then waited for Erevel to catch up for flanking. Between them they continued to pepper the images. Some images blinked out but at least one attack found its mark. Paullus was no more successful with three arrows than one.
Again the devices attacked moving when they needed to complete the attacks. Again non of the party was grappled by the devices. Ursina then attacked her device and it dropped to the floor.
The dragon now attacked Erevel with a bite and Gavril with a claw. Both attacks damaged the heroes significantly. Armania backed away and fired a magic missile at the monster which hit true. Ciprian identified the devices as Living Torture Devices, which had Darkvision and Hardness. He attacked with his mace and began a Bardic Performance against the dragon.
Gavril and Erevel again took turns knocking out images and damaging the creature. It still stood to the dismay of the group although they only saw one dragon now. Paullus again fired arrows hitting but not damaging the dragon. Ursina moved up to the dragon and attacked without success.
Another round of attacks from the Dragon left Erevel and Gavril barely holding on. Armania again fired magic missiles and Ciprian was busy with his Living Torture Device. Erevel took one mighty last swing and dropped the dragon onto the floor. Gavril wiped the sweat from his brow and noted that all the Devices had stopped moving. The low wailing continued to emanate from the machine.
Dropping to her knees, a still raging Erevel invoked Renewed Vigor. The rest of the party started to apply healing which was badly needed by Erevel, Gavril and Ursina. After the party was sufficiently back up to strength, Ciprian began looking for magic. The only new magic shown from a corner of the room. Ciprian began searching the area which was strewn with silver rings, gold teeth, and similar valuables. A pair of spectacles were emanating the magic aura.
Now a debate began as to where to go next. Erevel was sure that the noise they had created would have brought any creatures from the first floor up to investigate so she and Paullus moved to the doors on the western wall. Ciprian meanwhile, was declaring that he knew there were cells on this floor and started to move to the south doors. Armania picked up the spectacles and identified them as Spectacles of Understanding.
Ciprian convinced Ursina to follow him into the southern doors. As soon as he stepped beyond the doors he no longer heard his footsteps or the wailing from the machine. As Ursina entered she felt a wave of Evil rush over her as though the area was unhallowed. Seven barred, windowless metal doors stood in this grim and silent hall. Ciprian approached the first door and tried to open it, which failed as it appeared locked. He pulled out the key ring and tried each key. None of them worked to open the lock. He moved out of the room to call for Gavril to try his luck on the lock.
Gavril entered and first tried to detect traps, finding none he attempted to pick the lock but was not successful. Ciprian moved to the next door and found the same characteristics. Next began a sequence of random events by Ciprian to see if he could find the Yellow King. First he tapped on the first door with his mace trying to get a response from inside. No noise was made by the mace and since speaking did not produce any sound, Ciprian could not just ask if the Yellow King was inside. No response recurred from inside the cell. Ciprian could detect that the doors were well made, probably hard to break. He started pushing a piece of parchment under the doors. Since it was dark this did not work so well.
Ciprian then moved out into the larger hall and asked Armania to cast light on the end of the parchment. "We probably need keys, since this is a prison!!" Armania suggested to Ciprian.
"Yes I am getting a little itchy here, we need to keep moving," Erevel interjected as she opened one of the doors revealing a hallway to the south with stairs heading up.
"I want to try and find the Yellow King before we leave here," Ciprian stated as he headed back into the silent hall. Sliding the paper under the doors resulted in a tug on it from the third cell into the hall. Ciprian wrote tug once if you are the Yellow King. The result was as anticipated, one tug.
Excitedly Ciprian returned to the hall of terror with a smile on his face. "Found him, now we just need some keys!!"
Erevel headed down the hallway to the stairs. Followed by the rest of the party, Ciprian lagging behind again, the group climbed up to the second floor. Erevel and Ursina moved out into the room at the top of the stairs. Metal pipes and horns protruded from the floor in a cluster at the center of this room, bent in multiple directions as though to blast noise throughout the room. The walls of the room were carved with realistic maps of the Dreamlands as seen from the high vantage point of the moon, although all of the carvings have been scratched and smeared with blood.
Armania, Paullus and Ursina made their way up the stairs but could not get within attack range. Ciprian moved up from far behind.
The western twin cast a spell toward Erevel but she rebuffed it. The other attacked both Gavril and Erevel doing damage and draining away some health. Gavril and Erevel returned the attack. Armania moved up to have a view of both twins and pointed a wand. The scorching ray fizzled as the twins resisted the magic. Ursina rushed to the same twin as Erevel and Gavril and hit with her book. Finally Paullus climbed the stairs and fired his bow at the same twin.
DM's Notes: The party earned 2,400 XP for the night and now have 91,288. The battle with the twins will continue next week.
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