[G5.1] The heroes begin their quest by finding the labyrinth entrance that will take them to the sacred pool of holy water. The first objective room, which contains the fountain, is called the "Fountain of Light", and holy water collected from this pool can banish the spirit of the Dread King. The fountain will be guarded by many monsters and traps, so the heroes will have to be wary. Once the fountain's holy water has been collected, the adventurers will take passages that will connect back to the Dread King's throne room (from the previous adventure), where they must sprinkle the holy water about, banishing his spirit from entering this realm.
As the adventurers entered the cavern through a ledge into a dark, dank room, they are immediately attacked by a family of 11 giant bats, whom they must have startled out of their slumber. The elven ranger immediately kills one with her Blades of Aenarian spell. The witch hunter kills one with his lightning spell from his crown of sorcery, then proceeds to dispatch 3 more with his obsidian blade. The imperial noble brandishes his Blade of Ensorceled Iron, and in a swift set of attacks, sweeps the room and cleaves the remaining 6 bats. The heroes, making quick work of the foes, search the room and press on. They find a door to the east, and peering through it, find an L-shaped corridor that bends northward (pictured). They enter the corridor with no events.
[G5.2] Moving through the L-shaped corridor, our heroes encounter no resistance. Moving ahead, they peer into the darkness, and see that the corridor continues for a long straight stretch. They continue down this corridor unchallenged. As they near the end of this corridor, they peer into the darkness again and see a large room, which has a small raised section in the northwest corner. The party enters the room cautiously.
As the noble enters the room, his foot depresses what must be some kind of stone button activator switch, and the trap is set off. A bolt of lightning shoots across the room and slams into the nobleman, wounding him slightly. The rest of the party seems unaffected by the lightning trap. After attending to the nobleman's wounds, the party searches around the room.
The heroes see a doorway on the western side of the room, and chose to explore in that direction (pictured). As they peer through the doorway, they can see a passageway that turns into a bridge. The party checks their gear and proceeds into the corridor.
[G5.3] The heroes travel down the corridor, over the bridge, uneventfully. The adventurers peer over the bridge, but cannot see the bottom of what they are crossing, even with the lantern shining brightly over the chasm. The adventurers decide they don't want to wait around to discover that this may be a bottomless pit they are crossing, and hurry over the bridge to the end of the corridor.
As the team makes it to the other side of the corridor, they step down off of the bridge and peer into next section. They can hear the molten sounds of lava bubbling gently, and can feel the heat of the room ahead, as well as see the glimmer of soft blue light from within. As they look more closely, they can see that this must be the first objective room - the Chamber of light. The room is a small square room with a circular dais in the middle of a pool of lava, with a narrow walkway wide enough for 1 hero at a time to approach the cauldron sitting in the middle of the dais, which contains the holy water (pictured).
The adventurers look back and forth at each other and with a smile of accomplishment move carefully forward to cross the lava pit and fill their canteens with the holy waters.
[G5.4] As the party approaches the Chamber of Light, suddenly they are confronted by the chamber's protection mechanisms - they recall that the chamber was rumored to be protected by many monsters and traps, and reality lived up to the rumors. The first trap encountered was a bolt of lightning that sprang from the chamber itself somewhere. It struck the nobleman (2nd lightning strike for the noble), and singed the witch hunter a bit too. The heroes also found and narrowly avoided an unseen pit trap. In addition to the traps, the party saw 5 skeletons shambling towards them, rusty swords raised in attack posture (pictured).
The combat was on. The elven ranger immediately casts her shock wave spell, wounding 4 of the skeletons and killing 1 outright. With the remaining attackers being in a wounded state, the rest of the party makes short work of the enemy. The witch hunter slays the skeleton attacking him, the elven ranger wields her giant killer 2-handed sword to smash the 3rd skeleton, and the nobleman brandishes his pistol and shoots down a 4th skeleton. The remaining skeleton misses with its attack, and in the remaining time the nobleman brandishes his magical sword and smites the final skeleton. The Chamber of Light is now free of defenders and the heroes are able to proceed to the fountain.
[G5.5] The heroes 1 by 1 file into the Chamber of Light and begin to fill their water skins with the clear magical water to be found in the fountain (pictured). As they finish their healing, stowing of gear and treasure, reloading, and filling their water skins, The party spies a door on the south wall of the fountain room, and peer inside. They can see a long passage heading west, which they choose to enter.
As the party enters the corridor, the witch hunter mistakenly leans up against the wall, which triggers a stone to sink into the wall. As the stone button becomes fully depressed, the party feels tiny grains of sand start to sprinkle down upon them. As they look up in horror, they can see a portal in the ceiling opening and a downpour of sand come cascading down!
[G5.6] The party can see that the sand trap is quickly sealing the passage back, and in no time will seal the entire corridor and dungeon full. They must escape or die! The party runs forward to escape the piling sand, and start frantically looking around to find the mechanism that will stop the sand trap. They know that they only have a finite amount of time before the sands trap them forever, killing them.
As the party moves forward, they peer into the distance and through the falling sand, and see the next room, which appears to be a large room with a checkerboard pattern on the floor. The nobleman looks around as he enters the room, and to his great relief, he sees a large lever. He pulls the lever, and the party's astonishment the sand trap's relentless falling of sand ceases. They are saved!
[G5.7] As the rusty doors finally close and seal off the torrential pouring of sand, the party looks about nervously, as the loud grating of gears and metal must surely have alerted any wandering foes. Sure enough, the party looks into the gloom and hears the clattering of bones, and a group of 5 skeletons attack the party (pictured).
The party steels themselves against the frightful monsters, and the elf finds herself afraid of them. The remainder of the party finds that they are unafraid and press the attack. In the magic phase, the witch hunter uses his Helm of Sorcery and fires a lightning bolt, killing one. The elf misses with her swing of her giant killer sword. The hunter moves in to support the elf, cleaving a skeleton. The nobleman smashes another 2 skeletons with his Sword of Ensorceled Iron. The remaining skeleton attacks the elf, doling out only a minor wound. The hunter then steps forward and smashes the remaining skeleton with his obsidian blade. The party rests for a moment, does some minor healing, and moves on.
[G5.8] The party moves to the north, where a door awaits them to move further into the dungeon and towards the Dread King's throne room. As they peer through the door on the north side of the room, they see a short corridor heading north. They head through the corridor unchallenged.
The corridor then heads north a bit more before turning right (east) in an L-shaped fashion (pictured). The party looks around, and seeing no immediate dangers, heads down the corridor and turn to the east, hugging the side of the corridor, preparing for anything that might jump out of the darkness at them.
As the party moves east down the L-shaped corridor, a crackle of energy startles them, and from out of nowhere a bolt of lighting sails down the corridor and hits the nobleman again in the chest. No one else was injured in what must have been a trap set off by one of the party members being clumsy. The party looks around amazed at how unfortunate the nobleman is for being hit by lightning multiple times. The elf and the witch hunter heal him up, and the team proceeds down the corridor with a chuckle in appreciation that their noble comrade is still with them. The nobleman, being of good humor, withstands the snickers of his colleagues, but is not entirely amused!
[G5.9] The party finish walking down the L-shaped corridor and see before them a room with a small stair going up to a raised section. Being uninterrupted by any wandering foes in the L-shaped corridor, they proceed up the stair to the raised room.
As they begin moving into the raised room, out of the gloom jump a large band of a dozen bloodthirsty ghouls (pictured). The battle is on! The witch hunters wounds a ghoul with his obsidian blade. The elven ranger swings her giant killing 2-handed sword and decapitates one ghoul, and savagely wounds another. The nobleman hefts his Sword of Ensorceled Iron and in a whirling frenzy of mighty chops, slays 3 ghouls, and looks around for more. The ghouls retaliate by attacking the elf, wounding her only slightly. One ghoul in proximity of the nobleman attacks him, and manages only a scratch. The ghoul wounded by the witch hunter strikes back with minor rake across his arm, leaving only a small wound. The remaining ghouls, seeing the carnage assailed upon them by the heroes, take a quick look at each other and decide discretion is the better half of valor and scurry back into the darkness. The party loot the room and find a Dragon Helm, which they agree to put into the loot pile and sell when they get back to town. Minor healing and resting complete the stay in this room.
[G5.10] The band of heroes, having dispatched the large marauding party of ghouls, traverse the raised room and find a door on the east side leading out. As the witch hunter leads the party through the room and into the next room, he finds that the room is a large stone room with small tributaries of lava running through it. Not dangerous in its own right, but to be respected, he enters the large room and take stock of its contents. No sooner had he peered around with his lantern is the party set upon by another group of ghouls (probably some of the same members that had so cowardly run off just moments before)!
The party hefts their weapons and engages in battle. The 5 ghouls attacking them square off on the heroes, 2 against the witch hunter in the lava room, two against the nobleman back in the L-shaped corridor, and 1 against the elf ranger, back in the raised room (pictured). The fight crosses 3 sections of the dungeon, but does not last long. The witch hunter wounds 1 with his lightning bolt spell, and cleaves the 2nd one attacking him, killing it. The elf impales the ghoul attacking her, killing it with a sickening gurgle of fetid blood. The nobleman hews one ghoul down with a mighty swing of his magic sword, and misses the other attacking him. The elf casts shock wave, killing the wounded ghoul on the witch hunter. The witch hunter then whirls, stretches out his hand, and casts lightning bolt down through the raised room and into the L-shaped corridor, at the last remaining ghoul attacking the nobleman, frying it instantly. The party checks its gear, and moves up to join the witch hunter in the lava room.
[G5.11] The ghouls dispatched, the party explored the lava room and found a door on the east side, opposite the entry door. The witch hunter lifted the lantern to peer through the door and saw that the passage before them was a T-intersection, with passages leading east and north. The party agreed to enter the T-intersection in hopes that they would soon find the objective room (pictured).
As the party started to sense they were close, the chose to explore the corridor heading north off of the T-intersection. Sure enough, as they looked down the short northbound passageway, they could see that they had arrived at a familiar location - the Dread King's great red Throne room. They could see in the distance the great stone chair where the Dread Liche King once sat and ruled, and upon it, the Orb of Chalsidar, now turbulent inside with the spirit of the Dread King seeking a way out of his spherical prison.
The party began heading in the direction of the throne room, but before they could set foot inside, they could tell they were not alone. The enemy was waiting for them.
The Dread King's throne room had been a rally point for the Liche King's trusted servants in this realm, and many of them had congregated there in hopes to protect the orb for his return. The throne room contained 15 skeletons with rusted swords, 3 tomb guardians, and an vile female necromancer, whose name the party did not know but could tell by her look that she was not to be trifled with.
[G5.12] The battle for the throne room was on. Immediately the party is set upon by the host of evil, filling the throne room and spilling into the corridor. The witch hunter starts by slaying 1 skeleton, followed by the elven ranger dispatching two herself. The noble strikes one down himself. The skeletons close ranks and fill ranks and attack. The skeletons attack with their pitted weapons and do a little damage to each hero. The necromancer summons a single skeleton, who joins the fray behind the tomb guardians. In the next round, the combat continues, each party member taking down a few skeletons. The skeletons fail to wound in the 2nd turn and the necromancer fails to get off a spell.
In the next turn, the tomb guardians begin to fill in for the fallen skeletons. The elf begins the turn by casting shock wave, which mops up several wounded skeletons and does minimal damage to a few others. The witch hunter strikes a tomb guardian for some damage. The rest of the party attacks skeletons, further reducing their numbers. The skeletons dole out minimal damage, and the tomb guard thankfully misses the witch hunter. Tomb guardians now fill in ranks to be adjacent to all of the heroes (pictured). To complete the 3rd turn of combat, the necromancer casts soul drain on the witch hunter, and brings that hero down to 4 total hits!
In the next turn, the witch hunter heals himself with his crown of sorcery, as well as getting some healing from the elven ranger as well. This brings him back up to 8 hits. The rest of the party is somewhat wounded but in pretty good shape. The witch hunter starts by attacking his tomb guard again, and deals a respectable amount of damage, and destroys it's armor. The elf dispatches two more skeletons, and the noble attacks his tomb guard for a very respectable hit. The undead go on the offensive, and again the tomb guard hits the witch hunter hard, bringing him back down to 4 hits. The noble spends one of his magical jewel points to heal the hunter again, much to his relief! The rest of the party are wounded by the tomb guardian's heavy-hitting attacks. In the next turn, the witch hunter hits again, bringing his foe to 5 hits left, then uses his magical amulets to destroy the tomb guard. With his remaining attack he hits and wounds the tomb guard attacking the elf. As the battle rages, the necromancer summons a zombie, then a skeleton, as the party continues to battle. The elf battles heroically destroys the tomb guardian in front of her, as well as the remaining skeletons next to her. The noble, not to be outdone, in a flurry of attacks, dispatches his wounded tomb guard and a skeleton and zombie next to him. The servants of the necromancer have all been slain!
The battle with the necromancer's minions was hard-fought, and all of the adventurers are fairly wounded - the witch hunter gravely so. The party now enters the great red throne room, where the necromancer is all alone. She begins backing into the corner, trying her best to conjure a spell. The witch hunter wastes no time. He runs in, and pulls his pistol, and fires. He scores a strong hit of 7 damage. The noble follows suit, and fires his dueling pistol - another excellent hit, doing 7 damage. The elf moves into the room but is not close enough for a hand-to-hand attack. The necromancer casts soul drain on the nobleman, seriously wounding him. Both the witch hunter and the noble are now knocking on death's door. In the next round, the witch hunter attacks with his sword and mortally wounds the fell necromancer, leaving her with 1 hit left. The nobleman attacks with his magical sword, but misses. The elf steps in, swings her giant-killing magical sword, and decapitates the decrepit necromancer. The body of the she-demon crumples to the floor, spurting blood from the bloody stump between her shoulders.
The party breathes a deep sigh of relief. With all the enemies destroyed, and the party all wounded, two of which drastically so, they steel themselves to complete their mission. They stand around the throne room, and sprinkle the holy water around. The ground sizzles and steams as the drops fall, consecrating the ground around the evil throne. The activity inside the orb fades as there is no longer anywhere for the Dread King to appear. The battle and the objective has been won!