Session+96

**Session 96**  **12-10-2016** **Entering Mask's Hall and the Great Challenge**

A 10 foot wide corridor of utter darkness welcomed the companions in. Thorn led them in, moving with caution as he scoured the area for traps. Ioun stones of light floated and swirled around everyone, barely lighting the area around them.

Glowing green runes lit up and arced out beams that Thorn managed to avoid most of them, and cautiously moved further in to see more runes shimmering with fire. He sprinkled a silvery dust, snuffing out the runes, one by one, with great skill. The others watched curiously, not even noticing the tiny runes that the halfling rogue dispelled.

A large round boulder sat in the next hallway past a small pressure plate in the floor. Thorn investigated the pressure plate to find it would take the weight of the boulder to activate it. Posy and Erevin worked together to find that the enormous rock pushed easily, and they managed to roll it into place over the pressure plate until they heard a click. The stone moved along the sphere and 50,000 gold worth of exquisite gems fell out of the boulder. Thorn's hand moved to pick them up until Wren questioned it, "Are you sure those are safe?" "I'm sure they're not cursed at all," Azarius agreed beside her. Looking closer, Erevin found the gems to be covered in some sort of slippery oil and bagging them... he felt good, invincible... he had the best of friends. Everyone watched curiously as he snacked on some jerky that seemed to be extra delicious. Mali helped him, but they seemed to have no effect on her.

Moving along the hall, Thorn found a clever spear trap hidden in the wall and skillfully disarmed it. Erevin smiled with a rather relaxed expression, and nodded toward the halfling, "He's really smart." Wren giggled next to him, keeping an eye on the elven prince as they continued on. Around the next hall they began to feel the temperature getting warmer. Ignoring any sort of danger that that likely represented, Erevin closed his eyes as it washed over him like a summer's breeze, "That feels pretty good. I think I have to pee." "Do it ahead of us to make a path. It looks like we're coming up to fire," Thorn glanced back over his shoulder at the very relaxed elven woodsman. Erevin laughed slowly causing everyone else to laugh with him.

Ahead the stone hall became molten where they could see cracks of red hot lava flowing in the rock. With the wave of heat coming from around the corner, there was no way they were going to be survive walking through. Wren pulled her boots off, trading them with Erevin to allow him to walk over magma like water walking and protect him from fire. She wove an air walk spell over Thorn to allow him to walk on air over the molten stone. She and Azarius wove overland flights on themselves as Mali shapeshifted into a fire elemental. Posy's protection from fire was high enough to walk through. Thorn led them in carefully.

Thorn disabled a set of runes to turn off a wall of fire.and moved beyond it only to find that it came back up as he moved slowly through the hall to see another wall of fire ahead. Doubling back, he disabled the wall again to get everyone up past it. Bunching together in the corridor, they moved to the next wall of fire. Again moving past the wall as he disarmed it to bunch together into another corner of the hall.

 Playing it cautious, Thorn checked for traps in the next section and doubled back to re-open the fire wall again, but before he could make it back several fire elementals swarmed into the area, walking through the fire walls. A large fire elemental pounded his fiery fists into Posy and Wren! The two caught on fire, but warded off the damage with their protections. Scorching rays came from a fiery woman, 2 of the three striking into Thorn and burning his flesh! Erevin pulled his moonblade from his sheath and obliterated a small fire elemental with the sword's icy blast! Wren released a swift empowered bolt of lightning into the large elemental, following it up with an empowered bolt of cold that dimmed the fiery elemental to more like an ember. An icy polar ray shot from Azarius's hand down the corridor, just barely missing the large elemental. Mali began summoning storm clouds overhead to call lightning.

Thorn, badly burned and wounded and surrounded by 3 fire elementals, looked toward the next fire wall to escape and exit... pausing to look back toward the fire door that trapped his companions behind him. With a heavy sigh, he expertly tumbled past the small fire elemental back toward his group of friends. Posy raged furiously and slashed her great axe surrounded in cold to finish off the large fire elemental behind them. The fire elemental woman moved into the corridor, following Thorn and throwing a fireball to flow through the wall of fire. Erevin managed to evade it swiftly. A couple of small fire elementals swung and missed Posy and Azarius. Wren pulled a bolt of lightning from Cirdan through two of the fire elementals, and then wove a heroic invocation on her companions around her. Feeling invincible still, Erevin walked through the wall of fire and swept his blade to release a broad cone of cold in front of him to wash over the two small fire elementals. The fire burned his flesh, the pain sobering him moderately. Steam washed out from the elementals as they dimmed.

Using one of Erevin's licked off newly acquired gems, Azarius wove powerful wishing magic to give his companions protection from fire. Mali called down a bolt of lightning to obliterate a medium fire elemental in front of her. Thorn disabled the fire wall, allowing Posy to charge through and slam her hammer to vaporize another fire elemental. A fire storm erupted in the corridor from the fiery woman, washing over everyone except Erevin and Thorn who managed to avoid it. Wren stepped up and laid her hands on Thorn's back, fully healing all of his wounds. She turned to Erevin, "You're looking awfully heroic on fire... but we should probably put that out." As though noticing the flames around him for the first time, the elven woodsman nodded to her and then held up his moonblade, "My sword is talking to me." Wren laughed, "Is it speaking in drow?" "It IS!" he exclaimed, nodding his head.

Posy charged the fiery woman, bashing her with her axe wrapped in cold, and watched her crumple into ashes on the floor. Finally cleared of elementals, the group moved further through the corridor, noticing a large pile of gold on the floor. Thorn carefully moved to disable the fire wall over the gold while the others put out the fire on themselves. Everyone scooped up the gold, keeping Thorn's hands off of it just in case. They collected 25,000 gold and a sword. Thorn led them through the remaining molten corridor, disabling the final fire walls as he went. Erevin spoke with Shri about healing, but she said she couldn't seem to channel the power of her goddess in this realm. The group slowly followed Thorn as Wren used several wand waves to heal everyone. The young halfling disabled another dissintegrate rune and moved up to unlock a door. Two clicks as he unlocked it, and grinding noises as he was smashed by plates as the door opened!

Inside was a mausoleum room with several decomposing bodies and skeletons put into shelves along the wall. Skulls were glowing green over a center fountain and two side walls. Thorn moved carefully inside, spiking the door open with a piton. The others followed in slowly behind him, Azarius and Mali hanging back hesitantly from the doorway.

Five liches got up from their shelves along the walls. Erevin pulled his moonblade, nodding to Thorn with his drugged happiness, "I'm having such a good time! We should have come here a long time ago." He slashed several gashes into one of the awakening skeletal figures, but it seemed unaffected by the cold on the blade. Mali, standing in the doorway, drew a lightning bolt down from her stormy cloud... but the lich seemed fully immune to it's electrical magic. Azarius wove haste over his companions, making them all move a little faster.

The lich Erevin had attacked took a step back and a green beam shot out to strike the elven woodsman disintegrating part of his body! A black ray shot out from another lich to hit Thorn, sucking away part of his hard earned experience! A third wove an iron wall cutting off Posy, Mali, and Azarius from the room. A fourth sent multiple magical missiles into Wren and the 5th lich held his action as he watched the witch carefully, anticipating the magic she would throw.

Posy pulled her hearth hammer and slammed it mightily against the iron wall, ringing out with each impact as she drove multiple dents into it to thin it down! Thorn called his duplicate from Rose and double teamed the lich attacking him, stabbing him multiple times with his daggers. Wren used a witchy hex on one of the liches, but it was immune to her nauseating agony. The lich watching her seemed disappointed when she didn't cast. Erevin continued to use his moonblade, striking the lich again and again!

Mali dispelled the iron wall, dropping it from in front of the raging gnome. Azarius wove a protection from evil around Posy. Two of the liches wove up an acid armor around themselves. A third lich cast another bout of magical missiles into Wren. The fourth lich wove his magic to open up a pit in the floor where Posy quickly plummeted downward, followed by a floating fire elemental Mali with her ring of feather fall. Azarius remained in flight, saved from falling. As the two hit the bottom, 100 feet down, the pit smashed it's walls together mashing the two of them!

Posy tried to climb out of the pit, but the walls were moving swiftly as they prepped to pull back and slam together again making it treacherous to climb. Thorn tumbled past the lich to the mechanism in the center fountain with the glowing green skull. The acid shields fell away from the liches. Wren used a witchy hex to bring luck and fortune to the halfling as he studied the gears, and moved back toward the door.

Erevin struck the lich again, it's shield down, and left more gashes into it. Mali glanced up to see Azarius's tentacles swirling beneath his robes as she shifted back to her normal form and engaged her spider cloak to cling to the wall. She glanced back to Posy, "Hold on to me!" Azarius cast out a green beam into one of the liches, disintegrating it's full ribcage and severing it's spine as it fell, screaming in undead agony!

The lich who had been watching Wren, wove a spell over Azarius, taking his flight and heroism from him! He began plummeting into the pit, his tentacles struggling to grab on to a wall until his feather fall made him float to the bottom. Another shot a beam at Erevin, but missed him. The pit smashed Posy, Mali, and Azarius inside.

Posy quickly latched onto Mali's back. Thorn activated the mechanism in the middle and the lich Erevin was fighting vanished. Another that was dead was reforming in the corner of the room, but it vanished as well. Wren cackled to extende the fortune hex around Thorn and healed herself.

Erevin, surprised to see the one in front of him fall, he strode to the next with great confidence to slash into it with his moonblade. Mali began climbing up the wall of the pit with Posy hanging onto her tightly. Azarius teleported himself out of the pit, up to the edge of the doorway.

The lich who had been watching Wren, grumbled and blasted her with magic missiles as another lich continued his blast of magic missiles on her as well! Erevin felt slightly fatigued as another tried to fully exhaust him. The pit crushed Mali and Posy again as they were halfway up.

Thorn dashed across the room to the glowing skull on one of the walls. Wren wove a protecting warding hex over Thorn and cackled to again extend his fortune. Erevin slashed mightily into the lich again, leaving more gashes. Mali made it out of the pit with Posy, the two of them stepping inside the doorway of the room. Azarius wove another disintegrating ray, but one of the liches launched the same to dispel the sorcerer's magic and then walked to Wren.

A new acid shield wove up around one of the liches while another tried to exhaust Thorn. The luck around the halfling aided his reflexes, allowing him to just feel a little fatigue. Posy slammed her hearth hammer into one of the liches, acid and fire washing over the lich. It's acid shield ate away the flesh over her hands. Thorn activated the mechanism on the wall to again vanish the one in front of Erevin and another. Erevin looked at his moonblade with pride.

Wren moved across the room from the lich, and dispelled the acid shield around the lich fighting Posy. Erevin, encouraged by the liches dropping before him, charged forward to one of the remaining liches. It's strange fiery shield felt cold, and the elven prince's sword protected him from any damage. Mali wove out a massive spell to heal some of the wounds on her very injured companions. Azarius shot out a disintegrating ray into the lich in front of Erevin. The lich fell to ash before Erevin much to his delight, "There must be some kind of lich bane on this thing that I didn't know about!"

One of the liches cast out a mass spell, draining the moisture from everyone's bodies except Azarius who was still in the hallway. With his acid shield down, Posy charged up to smash her hammer into the lich who still managed to stand. Thorn dashed to the last wall, engaging the mechanism to eradicate the final lich and the one remaining in the corner, hidden.

Collapsing to the floor, Wren pulled her wand of healing and took some time to heal up her wounds and those of her companions. Mali wove spells to return the experience to Thorn, and after a small amount of time the spells wore off to return the strength to both Erevin and Thorn. The strange feeling of the gems began to wear off of Erevin as well.