CHALYCHIA :: LEVEL I :: PART 1

8:00 arrive at monastery, discover bodies, blood-ink prophetic writings, books on True Death, map to Crypt.
Find a drawing of the shattered True Death. Six parts:
1. hilt, with skull-head pummel;
2. crossguard, continuing the skull motif;
3. forte;
4. foible, "left" half;
5. foible, "right half;
6. point.
The forte, both foible parts, and the point have a skull motif etched into the blade.

9:00 leave monastery, hike to Crypt.

11:00 arrive at Crypt. It truly does look like a monstrous mouth, with front-of-cavern stalactites and stalagmites only at the surface edge, thus giving the appearance of very pointed teeth, and the narrowing of the cavern behind it looking like a throat. There are torches burning along both sides of the cavern. In front of the "mouth" are dozens of skeletal remains of fighters, most still in their armor. A dingy little man, in tatters, looks at us from inside the cavern and then retreats further inside.
Mia detects that there is a trap, ten feet deep, across the entire entrance to the cavern. Kookie picks up on of the armor-covered sets of bones and tosses it into the trap area. Many sharp spikes shoot up from the floor, and then return below again. Mia determines that the trap resets itself immediately. We decide to just jump over the trap area, Tarva carrying Luken, and all manageing that easily.
Inside we find the walls contain what used to be murals of the rise of Chalychia, but with a large number of tiles (which seem to be bone) missing, and now overlaid with more prophetic writings in a reddish-brown "ink" - which we think is likely blood. Against the far wall are a pair of large copper doors, with skull motifs, and a serpent entwined through the eyeholes of two skulls on either door. Near it are four brazers with smoky black flames. The dingy man is cowering in a far corner, warning us to go back. Tarva tries to talk to him, but all he does is recite cryptic sayings:
<to be added later>

1) suddenly the dingy man attacks Luken for 20; at that close range, Luken thinks dingy man is a vampire, tells us; Mia Spring Attacks V₁ for 31, notices that V₁ appears blurry around the edges; Tarva asks HR for whatever is best against Vampires, HR thinks a straight additional +1 for +3 is best, Tarva hits for 14, 20, miss, then moves to shield Luken; Kookie hits V₁ for 26 + 1elec; Luken casts Heightened Turning, V₁ retreats into corner, Kookie AoO misses, Luken backs up.
2) V₁ cowers - should be helpless for 10 rounds; Mia Spring Attacks but misses; Shadow moves for line of sight, casts Lightning Bolt for 24; Tarva takes 5' step, hits for 20, 14, miss; Kookie hits for miss, 26+1, 29+1, miss; Luken casts Searing Light for 50.
3) V₁ surprisingly stops cowering, hits Tarva for 48; Mia Spring Attacks for 29, kills.
Luken says we need to decapitate V₁, then fill his mouth with holy water. Tarva cuts his head off, Luken provides the holy water.
On his body, we find:
A.1) clear blue jewel on chain on neck;
A.2) blury cloak;
A.3) silver ring;
A.4) surprisingly nice rope belt
A.5) parchment, containing a poem:

The Rhyme of Shards

The shards of True Death are key;
Scattered about on levels three.
Encased in a crystal prison without a door,
But only the first, there are five more.
I hold the next shard of True Death,
But beware my fiery breath.
This shard is as safe as can be,
Hidden behind the reverse of a party.
Stuck fast is this shard,
Removing it is torturously hard.
Beyond the constant crimson drips,
Cloaked in darkness this shard sits.
Lest all hope fades,
Guarded by gold,
Solve the riddle of swords,
The last shard behold.

Shadow puts all of that into her habersack
Tarva uses a wand to bring Luken and herself back to full health.

We examine the copper doors. Bardic Knowledge says that the doors can be opened by channeling Divine Energy at them. Tarva's Decipher Script reading of the runes on the doors says the same thing. Luken's Knowledge::Religion says that channeling Divine Energy will not help at all. Mia finds a trap in the runes on the door, disables it by defacing the runes. Mia listens, and realizes there is nothing behind the doors but more cavern wall. She startes searching the rest of the cavern walls, looking for another way forward.
Meanwhile, Luken and Tarva are examining the black flame braziers. We determine that they are Brazers of Necromatic Guile: they aid undead; among other things, they reduce cowering time. And they stack, so having four of them buring was a lot of help to the vampire. We tip each of them over to put the flames out. Shadow carefully checks where they were standing, to see if anything had been hidden under them.

12:00 Mia finds a doorway cleverly hidden into the arch formed by a scythe blade in the mural. She checks for and finds a trap - the scythe would swing and try to decapitate whoever was at the door - then disables it. Tarva casts Aid on everyone, including herself, and then Blur on herself. The door opens onto a dark, 10' wide, 50' long corridor ending at a wall with another doorway. Mia checks for traps along the entire hallway and finds none. The door is not trapped, but is locked; Mia unlocks it.
Through it we see a circular room 80' in diameter, with eight doors spaced evenly around it. The walls are black and as shiny as an oil slick. Overhead are a number of glass globes which are shining out different colors of light. Around the walls are drifting shadowy humanoid figures which seem to be trying to find a way out: one tries to grab the handle of a door, but his hand slips right through the metal, and then it looks like his shoulders are slumping in dejection.
Tarva asks Mia something, but Mia doesn't respond. The classic wave hand in front of eyes evokes no response. Tarva tries turning Mia to face away from the eight-door room; Mia moves freely, but is still entranced. The door closes, and Mia recovers, tells us all about these wonderful sounds that she was always on the verge of understanding.
Luken identifies the shadowy things as being Allips. Tells us that they are the insane remainders of grief-stricken dead; constantly bemoaning their losses. Their mad chatter can hypnotically enrance those who hear them; and their touch drains wisdom from their victims. Tarva says that she can attest to that: she encountered an Allip long ago, with a rather embarrassing aftermath. Luken goes on to say that, being incorporal, ordinary weapons cannot hit them. Mia says she has a Ghost Touch rapier. Tarva asks HR if he can provide any such ability, and surprisingly he does know how to make himself into a Ghost Touch weapon. Tarva tells everyone that she can sing Countersong for ten rounds, and that anyone who fails their Will save against the mutterings can try again, based on her (very good) Perform ability - and that should keep everyone safe. However, the plan we come up with is for Tarva to start Countersong, Luken to open the door, Tarva and Mia to step inside and deal with the Allips, and then everyone else come in when it is safe (safer). Tarva begins singing Countersong; and Luken opens the door.

1) Tarva steps into the eight-door room and the plan immediately goes south. The door behind her slams shut before Mia can step through. Thinking quickly, Tarva reacts to being all alone by charging A₂, while using Expertise to transfer -5 from ToHit into +5 to AC; plus Fighting Defensively (only one strike per round) to transfer -4 from ToHit into +3 to AC; and swinging HR one-handed so she could use her buckler for another +2 to AC. This drops her base ToHit down from 22 to 13; and raises her AC from 34 to 43 (Touch from 22 to 31). Tarva on A₂ hits for 15; A₁ moves to Tarva but misses; A₂ on Tarva misses. Meanwhile, back in the hallway, the others cannot help but notice that, not only did the door slam shut, but also the eight-door room started rotating, presenting them with only a wall. Mia reserves to go through the next opening; Shadow reserves to cast Open on a door when it appears; Kookie and Luken just reserve.
2) Tarva hits A₂ for 16; A₁ misses Tarva; A₂ misses Tarva; hallway group remain reserved.
3) Tarva (telling HR, "it is very lonely in here") hits A₂ for 17; A₁ misses Tarva; door appears to hallway group; Shadow casts Open, but to no effect; Mia unlocks the door, then opens it; Luken moves 30' into the room, sees Tarva and the two Allips, casts Heightened Turning, causes A₂ to flee, Tarva AoO on A₂ for 16; Kookie reserves (she likes this hallway); door rotates out of hallway.
4) Tarva hits A₁ for 15; A₁ touches Tarva for -2 Wisdom; Shadow casts Passwall on the rotating room's wall, and a 5' wide, 8' tall opening appears; Mia Spring Attacks through the opening onto A₂, killing it, springs away, and gas comes down out of the ceiling: she is now confused; Luken notices that Mia is once again unresponsive, moves to her and slaps her (hits for 12 subdual); Kookie and Shadow notice that the rotation has reversed.
5) Tarva hits A₁ for 13; A₁ misses Tarva; Shadow reserves to see a foe through the opening and then Magic Missile it; Mia turns and attacks Luken for miss, miss, miss; Luken casts Lesser Restoration on Mia, to no effect; Kookie tries to smash through the closed and locked door in front of them, fails, thinks wooden door has been reinforced.
6) Tarva hits A₁ for 15; A₁ misses Tarva; Shadow continues reserve; Mia hits Luken for 6, 7, miss; Luken backs up; Kookie likes hallway.
7) Tarva hits A₁ for 14; A₁ misses Tarva; Shadow reserves; Mia does nothing; Luken reserves for Mia moving; Kookie does nothing.
8) Tarva hits A₁ for 16; A₁ misses Tarva; Shadow reserves; Mia does nothing; Luken reserves; Kookie does nothing;
9) Tarva hits A₁ for 14, kills, moves towards Luken, is gassed from ceiling, saves, tells Luken that she needs a Lesser Restoration for her Wisdom loss; Mia attacks Tarva for miss, miss,10; Luken casts Lesser Restoration on Tarva for +3 Wisdom (only +2 usable); Shadow and Kookie wait.
10) Tarva subdues on Mia but misses; Mia does nothing; Shadow reserves for entering room; Luken studies compass rose in center of room; Kookie reserves to enter room.
11 - ...) Shadow and Kookie wait for the Passwall opening to come around again, step into the room. We catch them up on what has happened. Kookie takes out chalk and will number the hallways as we rotate pass them. Luken will number the doors inside the room. We figure out what is triggering the room to reverse rotation: alternately someone stepping into the center portion of the room, or stepping from the center portion into the outside rim; but before we determine that, we've reversed the rotation so frequently and rapidly that everyone is momentarily disoriented. Eventually the reversals stop for long enough for Kookie to _not_ keep seeing the same hallway all the time, and marks what turns out to be a total of three. #3 is wider and has statues along it. Somewhere in there Mia's confused wanderings trigger yet another gas trap from the ceiling, and she loses -3 Dex. After she comes out of the Confusion Luken casts a Minor Restoration on her for +2 Dex. We all decide to move into the statuary hallway.

12:30 Tarva casts Aid on everyone, Blur on herself. The room revolves around and the Passwall opening is on the statue corridor; we all step through. This corridor is 80' long, 20' wide, and is flanked by seven pairs of statues, with a theme of triumphant demons and evils overlooming cringing peasants and halflings. Tarva casts Detect Evil, but doesn't find any within the first 60', nor, later through the rest of the corridor. Shadow casts Detect Magic for the same purpose, and with the same results. Mia carefully checks for traps in the hallway and on each statue, and does not find any. Each pair of facing each other statues is of the same subject, but only the third pair are exactly identical.
1st: evil-looking fighters with mace & shield;
2nd: cringing halflings;
3rd: Malido Demonsstalk -- Tarva's Bardic Knowledge recognizes him as a famous paladin from about 150 years ago -- much too recent to have been commemorated when this crypt was first built. The exact duplication of the statues makes her wonder if one of them might actually be a turned-to-stone Malido. She asks Shadow and Luken if either of them knows any means by which a turned-to-stone person could be discerned as such, but both of them draw a blank. Shucks. If Tarva had enough stone-to-flesh salves, she would have spent two of them to see if she was rescuing the paladin.
4th: massive winged and taloned demon, towering over the other statues;
5th: frail wizards, one elderly, one young;
6th: evil-looking half-dragons;
7th: peasants, one propserous and rotund, the other starving.

We reach the door at the end, which Mia determines is neither trapped nor locked. Tarva opens it onto a 10' wide corridor which goes 10' and then T-s into a perpendicular 10' corridor running both ways. When (checking for traps) we reach the intersection, we can see that the left-hand door has a bas relief of the Devil-Lich's face; and the right-hand door is blank. We go right. No traps in corridor, on door, and no lock. Tarva opens. We see a library: floor to ceiling shelves built into walls on all four sides, filled with books and scrolls, which even from here look old and fragile. There's a table and four stools in the center of the room, and four 3' diameter evenly spaced stone pillars supporting a ceiling 20' up. Also, a short, hunched-over humanoid in a completely enveloping monk's robe and hood is shuffling slowly across the floor; he doesn't seem to take any notice of us. There is a faint smell of almonds.
Tarva is embarrassed to realize she has not re-buffed everyone, and spends half a minute reapplying Aid and Blur. Then, highly excited about being in a library, Tarva steps in, planning to introduce herself and ask after some books she has been unable to locate in Greyhawk. Only:
0) two wierd-looking arms with huge talons reach down from the ceiling and grab Tarva for 14-10=4 -4=0; successfully grapple, and pull her up above the doorway.
1) Mia tumbles into the room backwards, so she can see what's above the door: Tarva is being choked by something out of a nightmare: it looks to have four legs like a spider's, but then two arms like a Choker's, Mia moves to put the table between herself and the librarian, warns everyone else; Shadow moves into the doorway and casts Lightning Bolt on the mixture of FG₁ and Tarva for 25; Tarva thinks perhaps some sort of Flesh Golem, sheathes HR; FG₁ constricts on Tarva for 28-4=24, also casts Web on Shadow and the doorway; Luken using his flaming axe to burn through the web and enters the library, Shadow takes burn damage from the buring web strands; Kookie jumps up at FG1 and hits it for 20+5elec.
2) Librarian is cowering next to a pillar; the fire from the web spreads, begins to burn the very dry books and scrolls; Mia drops her rapier, draws her bow, shoots for 10, 10, 9; Shadow steps away from the burning shelves, casts Enlarge on Tarva, who is now 50% larger, 240% heavier, +2 in Strength, and has all weapons increased one size for the next 17 minutes; Tarva (inately) casts Magic Missile twice for 16, 14; FG₁ constricts Tarva for 28, moves 10' along ceiling away from flames; Luken casts Create Water and judiciously applies where it appears to put out all of the fire, then moves away from FG1; Kookie jumps up to hit for 23+3.
3) Librarian is on his knees, still next to the pillar; Mia moves 15' to stay out from under FG₁, shoots for 10; Shadow cast Lightning Bolt on both for 33; Tarva Magic Missiles for 16, 14, notices that they don't seem to be having any effect; FG₁ constricts Tarva for 28, moves another 10' along ceiling and is over the table; Luken casts Bless on everyone; Kookie uses the table as a launching pad and hits for 25+1.
4) Librarian is not moving; Mia shoots for 9, 6, 11; Shadow casts Stone Skin on Tarva via Swoop (her bat familiar), it will last 170 minutes or until it has absorbed 150 points of damage. [Editor's note: reading the spell, I think we ran it incorrectly -- it should only have imparted a 10/+5 protection to Tarva; except that we had already determined that her own 10/+1 was ineffective against constricting damage, so I don't think 10/+5 would have helped either; and it certainly would not have absorbed all 28 points each round. However, Tarva still would not have dropped down to zero HP (let alone to the -55 where she would have died); so I think the only actual difference would have been four additional uses of Luken's Cure Moderate wand.] Tarva draws her +3 dagger and strikes for 12, 11, 9, 12. FG1 constricts Tarva's Stoneskin for 28, moves 10' further along ceiling, Kookie AoO for 22+1; Luken casts Spiritual Weapon and hits FG₁ for 8; Kookie jumps and hits for 19+3.
5) Librarian is still not moving; Mia shoots for 11, 10, 10; Shadow yells, "electricity heals it!", casts Melf's Acid Arrow for 4; Tarva strikes for 14, 11, miss, 13; GF₁ constricts Tarva's Stoneskin for 28; Luken's Spiritual Weapon strikes for 4, he moves to the librarian, beneath the robes Luken can see that the librarian is an old man, covered in scablike wounds, he smiles at Luken as Luken asks, "what exactly are you doing here?"; Kookie turns her axe's electricity off, jumps, hits for 22, kills; Tarva falls to floor, but isn't hurt by that.
[The DM is greatly amused that we spent more time healing the Flesh Golem than we did hurting it. Tells the players that each point of electrical damage actually healed three points of real damage.]

Tarva ignores healing for the moment and strides over to the librarian: "Why do you have such a thing in your library?" she demands. The librarian smiles sadly, points at his heavily scarred throat, and shakes his head. The clear implication is that he cannot speak. Looking closer, and using Knowledge::Undead, Tarva thinks this is a Libractus, a zombie-like undead servant to greater undead. (She thinks that, with a name like that, how appropriate it is to assign one to be a librarian.) Luken uses his Cure Moderate wand to heal Tarva, and also Shadow. Shadow asks Tarva if it would be a good idea to use Detect Magic on this room, and Tarva thinks this is an excellent idea. Shadow finds that roughly 10% of the contents detect as very low magic, but only five objects seem to be significant:
C.1) tome "scriptum mallus" is bound in the scabbed skin of its most recent victim (ugh!) -- carried by Kookie;
C.2) an utterly black and featureless tome -- looking at it is like staring into an infinite void -- carried by Tarva;
C.3) divine scroll of Cure Moderate; Speak with Dead; Spell Immunity 7 -- given to Luken to carry or use;
C.4) arcane scroll of Mind Blank (caster level 15) -- given to Shadow to carry or use;
C.5) Tome of Understanding +2 -- takes a total of 48 hours, spread over at least six days, to gain a +2 to Wisdom -- carried by Mia.

Mia looks up at Tarva's nearly 8' in height and says, "My, how you've grown." Then, "HR, how does it feel to be so much bigger?" To which HR replies, "Size isn't everything." By the time the searching of the library is finished, the Enlarge spell has worn off and Tarva is back to normal size.

14:00 We go to the other door, the one with the bas relief, Mia checking for traps along the way. The door is not trapped, nor locked.. Tarva opens the door. We see a 30'x30' room, at the far end is a dias, on it a throne built, exquitly, out of bones, with ruby highlights, and holding a bone stand with a translucent globe on top. There are four 10' tall humanoid things, two on each side of the dias, each holding a large black orb. They are not moving. Mia hears a faint buzzing; checks room for traps, there is one about 10' in front of the door. Tarva casts Detect Evil, and there is evil along the entire back wall. "Trap" says Mia, and "Evil" says Tarva. Once again Tarva only just remembers to cast Aid and Blur; the humanoid figures do nothing to interrupt this.
0) Mia steps into the room; all four humanoids throw their orbs onto the floor, where they break and spread a layer of grease across it, accompanied by a faint oily smell.
1) Mia takes a careful 5' step through the grease, does not fall down, disables a magical glyph; all four humanoids step foreward 10'; Shadow casts Chain Lightning for 67 to HW₄, 28 to HW₃, 28 to HW₂, and 26 to HW₁, all four humanoids crack apart like husks being stripped, and from each comes a Hellwasp Swarm -- extemplar of evil, flight patterns can distract, immune to weapon damage, resistant to fire damage, some damage reduction, somewhat intelligent, want to inhabit helpless or dead creatures to consume and breed; Tarva begins singing Inspire Courage, tumbles across grease to dias, smashes at the globe for 16, globe does not break, but a large piece chips off; Kookie reserves for something to do; Luken tells everyone about Hellwasps, Flame Strikes HW₃ & HW₄ for 49.
2) Mia standing jumps out of grease fire into corridor; HW₃ on Tarva for 12 to her Stone Skin, HW₁, HW₂, HW₄ into hallway, Mia, Shadow, Kookie, and Luken all take 12-8=4; Shadow casts Stone Skin on herself; Tarva hits globe for 15, chips, for 12, breaks apart, inside is the crossguard of a sword, casts Magic Missile on HW₃ for 18; Kookie swings her axe through HW₄ for 0+24elec; Luken casts Searing Light on HW₁ for 17.
3) Mia pulls her blanket out of her bedroll and uses it as a flyswatter on HW₄, captures x%, says, "Kookie, jump on it"; Hellwasps hit Mia, Kookie, and Luken for 12, Tarva's and Shadow's Stone Skin for 12; Shadow gets out her blanket and captures a small % of HW₂; Tarva pulls out the crossguard and Magic Missiles HW₃ for 13, 17; Kookie jumps on Mia's blanket; Luken takes out his blanket and captures y% of HW₁, lies on it.
4) Mia captures more of HW₂; Hellwasps hit Mia, Kookie, and Luken for 12, Tarva's and Shadow's Stone Skin for 12; Tarva Magic Missiles HW₃ for 13, 13; Kookie swings her axe through HW₄ for 0+24elec, dead; Luken gets up and swats again at HW₁.
5) Mia swats at HW₂; Hellwasps hit Mia and Luken for 12, Tarva's and Shadow's Stone Skin for 12; Shadow captures more of HW₂; Tarva Magic Missiles HW₃ for 16, 12; Kookie finishes off HW₁; Luken stomps.
6) Mia swats more of HW₂; HW₃ bites Tarva's Stone Skin for 2, HW₂ bites Shadow's Stone Skin for 4; Tarva Magic Missiles HW₃ for 12, kills, HW₂ for 12; Kookie swipes HW₂ and kills.

Luken and Tarva use their wands to heal everyone.
Mia finds a second trap,disables it, extrapolates from its location where a third trap might be, finds it there, disables it. Does not find any hidden doors or anything else in the room. During all that time Shadow manages to detach three rubies from the throne and take them.

We decide that we need to go back to the eight-door room and then go down the corridor Kookie marked as II.
We go back down the statuary corridor. Mia checks that the door is still untrapped, not locked. We open it to see the familiar eight-door room, which is not spinning. We go inside, find we're at the door Luken marked as "4". Kookie thinks we should start the room spinning, then wait by the Passwall opening until Corridor II comes around. Tarva would prefer to carefully avoid the center of the room, thus not start the room spinning, and try each actual door until we find the one to Corridor II. We move down to door "5", but as soon as Mia starts searching it for traps the room starts spinning. Oh. Tarva admits she was wrong, that Kookie had the better idea, and we walk around the exterior to the opening. Wait for Corridor II to come around, and step into it. 50' down is a door in a wall, which Mia recognizes as being the way we came out of the first cavern. Meaning that in the confusion of spinnings reversing, Kookie had marked our original corridor as II instead of I.
So we go back to the other end of the corridor, wait for the Passwall opening, all step through, wait for Corridor I to come around, and step through again.

14:30 Corridor "I" is 10' wide and runs 10' before turning at a 45° angle to the right, then another 5' to a door. Mia checks for traps along the way, on the door, finds none. Door is not locked. Tarva casts Aid, Blur; opens door.
The room inside feels dismal, probably because of the dim light cast by a glowing globe on the 50' ceiling. What we can see of the room is 50' wide, and runs 15' forward to a wall-to-wall 40' high barrier. To our left is a decrepit ladder leaning against the barrier; in the center is a knotted rope attached to a grappling hook on top of the barrier; and on the right are pitons driven into the wall to form a sort of ladder. Mia begins searching the entire room - this section anyway, for traps and secret doors. Shadow discusses using a Passwall spell to just go through the barrier; sends Swoop up to the top of the barrier to reconnoiter, Swoop tells her that the room runs on for another 70', and is barren. Kookie and Luken examine the knotted rope and tell us that the rope used is of superior quality. Tarva examines the pitons, and finds that they are also of superior quality (will add +8 to any Climb attempts). Mia thinks she has found something in the, from the door, right-hand nearby corner. She is going to take 20 to investigate further. Tarva climbs the pitons, in part thus proving that they are not boobytrapped to drop someone 40', and looks over the top of the wall herself - sees what Shadow reported via Swoop, plus that there is a 10' wide, 10' tall corridor - open, no doors - in the center of the far wall. She walks out along the barrier top, 1' wide, retrieves the grapple hook and rope, goes back to where the pitons are, and lowers the rope on the far side, anchoring the grappling hook into the top of the barrier. Shadow watches all of this through Swoop's eyes.
Mia announces that she has found a secret door. Tarva comes back down, declares that we'll explore that way first. With the continued intent of giving Mia an opportunity for Quick Reconniter, Tarva wants to open the door for her (us), but cannot see where it is hidden behind an illusionary wall. Mia places Tarva's hand on the door and Tarva opens it.

10' wide corridor, turning left 10' in. We go in, and somehow Mia misses a trap which delivers 150 points of damage to her. Luken heals her with his wand while Shadow determines that this was a highly non-standard Symbol of Death which _does_ affect those with more than150 HP, always dealing 150 points of damage. Mia determines that it will not reset.

15:00 Searching for traps continuously, we move on. 60' down the corridor turns to the left. 20' later it ends in a blank wall. Mia, highly suspicious, searches and finds another illusionary wall with another door behind it. Not trapped, not locked. Once again Mia guides Tarva's hand to the handle. Tarva opens the door. We're in the wall of a 10' corridor running to our left and right. To the left there is a light source. Just to confirm what we think, we go left first and verify that we are now on the other end of the barrier room, looking 70' away to the 40' high barrier, with a knotted rope hanging down from the this-side right hand. We go the other way -- if we need to, we'll come back here and search this side of the barrier for secret doors. 10' past our secret door, the corridor takes a 45° turn to the left. Kookie and Mia now hear distant chanting. 20' later we can all hear the chanting, although nobody can make out any words. We reach a double-wide door, not trapped, not locked, and the chanting is almost at the level of a roar.
Tarva casts Aid and Blur, asks Luken to open this door so Tarva, as well as Mia, can be prepared to react. Luken does.

The door opens onto a scene from Dante's Hell. [Editor's note: Tarva's vocarious reading habit means that several bookstore owners save out exotic books for her, some of which she needs to use Decipher Script on, and some of which clearly did not originate on Oerth.] The giant-scale cathedrial-like cavern is 100' high, 500' wide, and several thousand feet long. High overhead is a large, translucent hourglass, which has just now tipped over and started spilling sand into its lower compartment. Along the floor of the cavern are thousands of beings, some of species that none of us recognize, all chained to the floor and using an incredible variety of divination techniques to predict the future, all the while each reciting a different <something>. Each is chained so as to not be able to reach any neighbors; in fact, far enough away that one could walk between them safely. Looking over those in the first few dozen yards, Tarva recognizes three or four of the more humanoid prisoners: famous oracular people from recent years and from centuries ago. It makes zero sense that they would be here, alive. Along the walls are spaced doors, easily a thousand along each wall (although that's just a guess given how far back the cavern goes). In front of each door is a separately chained oracle, again of varying species and descriptions. On each door, in as many differing languages, is the word, symbol, or icon for "Fate".
Between the size, the absurdity of the entire idea, and the people from different time periods, Tarva tries to think of this as an illusion, and disbelieve it. Unfortunately, her high Will save merely confirms that this is real. She asks HR what he thinks of this, and he responds that he thinks someone is trying to control Fate.

70' on the right, is a 12' tall giant, holding a barbed spear, totally wrapped in bandages, and bleeding, which for some reason catches Tarva's eye. She moves towards him, hoping to engage him in a rational conversation - perhaps offer some healing. Mia notices that every time a drop of his blood falls, he utters a prophetic-sounding sentence, and remarks that this matches one of the clues in the poem. The giant totally ignores all of Tarva's overtures, so we go to the door behind him. It isn't trapped or locked. Luken opens it for us, and it leads into total blackness.
Tarva wonders if there might be some sort of synergy between this blackness, and that of the tome from the library; pulls it out of her habersack and holds it up to the doorway. Nothing. Tosses it in. Nothing. Shadow's Swoop cannot hear into the blackness. Luken offers to cast Daylight onto some object, which we could toss in. Tarva pulls a spear out of her Quiver of Ehlonna, ask Luken to cast Daylight on that, which he does. Tarva then tries to use the spear as a tapping stick. As soon as the end goes into the darkness, the Daylight stops, and there is a extremely strong tug on the spear from within the blackness. Tarva lets go instead of being pulled in. Tarva is going to try exploring in person, asks Mia to tie a rope so that gravity won't drop her down a long pit immediately. Mia does, and also to herself. Tarva tries reaching around the left edge of the doorway ["Find the lightswitch," says Meggie], and as soon as her hand enters the blackness she is in a grappling check which she loses. Mia is being pulled towards the doorway; Kookie grabs her to try and hold her back, but Mia says, "we might as well go", and they do. Shadow looks at Luken, shrugs, and steps through; and then Luken does also, just as the last of the overhead hourglass's sand tips into the bottom half.

15:30 (Note: the Stone Skin on Tarva has timed out.) We've all been teleported into the intersection of a 30' long corridor, the top of a "T" with an 80' long corridor running down from the center of the 30'. Everything is 10' wide and 10' tall. At the far end is a slightly raised platform, kneeling on which is a statue-ish figure holding a bright shard. The last 40' of the 80' corridor towards the statue is covered with some kind of sludge, which seems to be seeping in from cracks in the walls. Immediately in front of the 30' cross corridor is the word "Ternur" -- which Tarva and Luken can read as being Infernal for "return". [Editor's note: it's also an anagram of "return", which might explain the etymology of the Infernal language;-).]
Mia unties Tarva and herself and takes the rope back. Tarva finds the spear is here, and still glowing with Daylight.
Mia begins searching for traps along the 80' corridor. The first 10' has a pressure plate; Mia disables it. 10'-20' clean. 20'-30' has a pit trap, but with a narrow ledge on the left; nevertheless Mia decides to disable it, and does. 30'-40' clean. At this point we've reached the edge of the sludge, which is quite runny and not at all viscous. From here we can see that the statue is in the exact shape of the Devil-Lich herself. Mia is concerned that she wouldn't be able to detect a trap hidden by the sludge. Tarva gives her the Daylight spear to use as a prod, and possibly to help with vision. But before letting Mia go forward, Tarva - whose own Mage Hand doesn't have the needed range - asks Shadow if she has that spell; and upon a "yes" asks her to use it to grab the shard and bring it to us. Shadow's spell succeeds, but the Mage Hand is unable to budge the shard from where the statue holds it. (Ah, well, it almost certainly wasn't going to be that easy; but it was worth trying.) Tarva casts Aid, Blur. Mia ties her rope to herself and Kookie, for Kookie to be Mia's anchor, then searchs the hallway through the sludge. She does not find any traps, but when she reaches the base of the platform:
0) The (we later decide) Flint Golum stands up, rubs the shard along the wall, sparks fly, and the hall breaks into flames for the 40' nearest FG₂, along with the sludge on the floor; Mia takes 17-8=9.
1) Mia runs back, takes 14 on the way, runs past the group, then drop&rolls to put out the flames; Shadow casts Cone of Cold for 54; Tarva casts Protection from Elements::Fire on herself, "HR, any suggestions?" "I don't know enough yet", then moves to 10' away from FG₂; Kookie tries to undo the knot tying the rope to her, but fails, throws a javelin for 16 ("Mia, come untie me" "in a moment, after I'm not burning"); Luken casts Bless; then casts Greater Magic Weapon on his Axe -- raising it to a +5, and a huge number of other advantages, for the next 17 hours; FG₂ hits Tarva for 40-8=32; Mia hears grinding noises overhead.
2) Mia unties herself, Kookie; Shadow thinks; Tarva, to HR, "Is this better?" "I think enhanced is the way to go", hits for 15, 16, miss, 17; Kookie, out of the rope, charges for 31 + 5elec; Luken casts Greater Magic Weapon on Kookie's Axe, also for 17 hours; FG₂ hits Tarva for 20 and Kookie for 20-8=12.
3) Mia shoots for 10, miss, miss; Shadow casts Mordenkaimen's Sword and sends it at FG₂ for 20; Tarva hits for 14, miss, miss, 15; Kookie takes 10 fire damage, hits for miss, 20 +3, miss, miss; Luken reserves for FG₂ breaking past the front line; FG₂ on Tarva for 20, on Kookie miss.
4) Mia shoots for 9, 11, miss; Shadow's Sword hits for 20; Tarva hits for 15, 15, miss, 16; Kookie takes 7 fire damage, hits for 27+4, miss, 27+2, miss; Luken reserves; FG₂ misses both Tarva and Kookie.
5) Mia shoots for 7, 6, miss; Shadow's Sword hits for 23; Tarva hits for miss, 16, miss, miss; Kookie takes 5 fire damage, hits for 24+3, kills.

Fire dies down. Tarva takes shard. HR says, "I think it is some kind of golem. What kind of stone causes sparks when struck against steel?" Everyone is mostly healed up: Tarva is 2 points down; Shadow is 4 points down.

Next on the agenda: find a way out of here. Also, wonder about the noise Mia heard.