Jzadirune III

15th Patchwall, Starday 586CY

The skulk had just finished delivering a rapier attack to the cleric when the rogue saw an opening and buried his own rapier into the back of the gray humanoid. The cleric whirled and finished the skulk with a wicked blow to it's head gray ichor splashing from his maul.

The elf sorceress moved forward and unleashed an arcane bolt of energy at the remaining skulk and as it turned to flee the wizard's arcane incantion caused it to lose track of it's bearings standing there dazed. The fighter Kahodon quickly finished it off with a slash from his longsword.

The party was now in a large hall, the thirty foot ceiling held up by massive black stone pillars carved in the likeness of various gnome craftsmen and artisans. Several magical globes of light slowly moved through the 80' by 40' hall, and the party spied carved five foot tunnels in both the northern and southern ends of the hall surrounded by excavation detritus. The sounds of splashing water filled the hall coming from a bas-relief gnome head that seemed to spit water into a murking 20' diameter pool. There were four of the gear doors, as well as two hallways with stairs ascending to the east and another short hallway opening into a large chamber to the west besides the hallway the party had entered from.

Kahodon, examing the tunnel carved into the south wall besides the pool spotted something buried in the rubble there. An exquisitely carved box with lapis lazuli inlay turned out to be a cleverly crafted music box with brass gears and a silver key to wind the gears inside.

As the party examined the loot and discussed the best way to proceed a crossbow bolt flew from the darkness of the western chamber and struck Saydi the wild elf square in the back. As the sorceress dropped the rest of the party quickly moved into the chamber to determine the source of the ambush. Their attacker turned out to be another of the gray skulks but this one seemed little more than a disembodied head for its already hard to see body had become translucent and ghost-like. It also wore a black ceramic wolf's mask that almost seemed to float in the air until the party could spot the rest of it's body.

Make short work of the skulk the party took time to examine this new chamber which contained a wooden stage constructed in the southern part of the room with several benches in rows facing it. As the rogue approached the stage an illusion began to play showing several gnome actor's dressed in costume portraying the story of a ranger trying to proctect a dryad's home from the evil predations of a wereboar.

Advancing onto the stage the rogue found a trapdoor built into the center of the stage and quickly opened it and dropped through. In the small crawl space beneath the wooden stage the rogue had but a split second to notice a small humanoid suspended in one corner before its long arms and sucker encrusted tentacle fingers wrapped around his suprised body. The grayish creature known as a choker quickly crushed the resistance from the rogue and pulled his almost lifeless body into it's corner.

Not long after, the rest of the party realized that the rogue hadn't reappeared nor made any sounds after entering the trap door so the fighter and cleric quickly dropped in after him. The choker's meal interruped, it let out a hiss as it's arms shot out at the cleric and fighter. One arm quickly wrapping around the cleric's throat but several blows and spells and the choker fell lifeless to the ground.

Tending to the rogue, Heoldon saw a chest and mandolin in the dusty space beneath the stage. After some healing the rogue examined and opened the chest finding a magical cloak covering a spell book, a magical wand, and a strange metal rod that had a gnomish symbol on one end that was the same as some of the gear doors that the party had found.