Agna studied the floor and found footprints of the Moon Beasts plus goatish hoof prints leading to the northwest. Ciprian was eager to head off in that direction but Gavril wanted some healing first.
After the healing was completed the party headed to the northwest and wandered around the passageways again, up and down curving in inexplicable manners and crossing crevices. The prints did not seem to waver from their heading, no side trips to the walls or stopping.
The group found themselves coming toward the lake where they had fought the GraveKnight from the northeast, the only path the group had not taken. A study of the lake bottom found no evidence of the Necronomicon, neither did a review of the hidden Yithian cache.
The party followed the tracks to the entry chamber, following here was a little more difficult with the parties tracks intermingling with the creatures tracks. It appeared that the monster came down the well also after the party was in the underground.
At the top of the well Agna studied the tracks and determined that they came from the north but she also found that the Moon Beast tracks began here at the well. Only the goatish hoof tracks of Weiralai were followed to the north where they emerged from the southern exit of the snarl.
At the area of the previous haunt that seemed to be gone, the goatish prints led to the northwest where the party knew Eshimal the Heresy Devil dwelt. Entering the chamber Ciprian, Gavril and Erevel saw him floating in his throne with a large tome in his hands.
"So you have returned once again. Are you looking for something?" Eshimal sneered.
"We told Weiralai to deliver the big bad book to you. I see she succeeded," Ciprian bluffed.
"Hah, I doubt that but now I have what I have been looking for."
"You won't keep it long," Erevel said challenging her.
"He is flying so maybe we all should take to the air," Gavril suggested.
Ciprian saw Eshimal start a spell and then there were four Eshimals floating in the air.
Agna flew down to see the Devil and fired arrows away which did less damage than she anticipated. Ursina cast Bless on the party as Erevel flew northward to engage the Devil, but even Erevel's attack did less damage.
Ursina began to hear a low drone and Druj Nasu attacked her and became visible just as another appeared with a black ray springing from a leg that hit Ciprian and knocked him down three levels. Agna again fired away at Eshimal as Ursina, taking multiple attacks flew around the corner away from the flies and the Bone Devils. Kaklatath used Hold Monster to stop one of the Bone Devils in its tracks.
Erevel and Gavril continued their ministrations on Eshimal who didn't make a peep. But he could attack with both Erevel and Gavril once again. Armania seeing an opening Dimension stepped to the rear of the chamber and unleashed Starfall on all five enemies. Eshimal fell from the sky crashing on his throne and dropping the Necronomicon. Ciprian cast the same spell to deafen the non held Bone Devil. He identified the Bone Devils and the Druj Nasu. The Druj moved forward, one attacked Ciprian while the other cast the same black ray on Armania who dropped three levels. Ursina moved to attack the held Devil and Erevel flew down apace to join the battle. Armania yelled for Gavril to grab the book as Kaklatath held the other Bone Devil.
Gavril flew down to the body of Eshimal to recover the 'Big, Bad Book' and then continued to the area of the battle. The Bone Devils lay still on the floor of the chamber. Armania flew down and then cast a lightning bolt to catch the two Druj Nasu. This seemed to do little damage, and Armania tried to get more information by identifying the creatures but she got no further information. Ciprian again cast the Sound Blast to try and deafen the Druj but no such luck was had.
The Druj furthest away moved forward and began beating its wings with more vigor. The droning sound increased to the sound of millions of buzzing flies. The cacophony was distracting and sickening for all but Agna and Kaklatath who seemed further away. The other Druj backed away from Ciprian and again a black ray emanated from it and struck Ciprian inflicting further negative levels. Agna fired arrows at the Druj which happened to do no damage. Ursina swallowing hard, saw the stinger of the Bone Devil move slightly as she attacked with her holy book. Erevel also ignored the enhanced drone and cleaved one Bone Devil to death and the injured the closest Druj. Kaklatath attempted to hold a Druj but failed.
Gavril felt nauseated as he moved around to try and get leverage on an enemy. The remaining Bone Devil seemed to Teleport behind Agna and flew up to threaten her. Armania also was nauseated and moved behind Kaklatath. Ciprian cast Virtuoso Performance and began a Countersong that allowed Gavril and Armania to overcome their nausea. He moved away from the enemy. One Druj attacked Erevel while the other hit her with the black ray inflicting negative levels. Agna rose flew slightly up and fired arrows that downed the final Bone Devil. Ursina cast healing on Gavril as Erevel killed the two remaining Druj Nasu.
With the enemy down the group set about healing and restoring what levels they could and then began to search the area filled with tome, treatises, scrolls and loose papers. There were several small books that gleamed with magic, they appeared to be various spell books. Two other large tomes were magical. The rest of the books, tomes, scrolls, etc were collections of literary, scientific, geographical and historical. One interesting paper indicated that Eshimal was making a copy of the Necronomicon. The group gathered together all the loot that they could and proceeded to the camp grounds where they found Hassad but not Mother Grim Moon. Hassad indicated that no one had come back to the camp but he still feared for his life.
The group set about reducing the level of their madnesses, restoring levels, sometimes removing all lesser madnesses and doing general cleanup. They then started to identify the new magical items from Weiralai and Eshimal. Then the group spent the night not preparing what to do the next day.
DM's Notes: The group earned 10,133 XP for the night.
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