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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Abciximab" data-source="post: 6094963" data-attributes="member: 46017">Kuthona the 1st.We returned to the southern Morlock tribe to meet with Udara. She told us the general location of the Hunters Maze, though the region is greatly feared by her people so they would not be providing a guide. She gave us directions and we set off. On our way, we stopped off to see the Urdefhan Izon to let him know his renegade General had been dealt with. He was pleased and told us we would be able to move freely through his territory. When we told him of the coming resurgence of the Serpent-Folk he seemed rather apathetic, though he said our allies would be given free reign through his territory as well. While continuing our journey north, we discussed adopting an “if you’re not with us you’re against us” attitude in the coming conflict.Upon reaching the region of the maze, we noticed many small structures made of stone slabs. While surveying the ruined huts, we noted a number of Urdefhan hiding among them. Recalling that Izon had mentioned that a portion of his army had been cut off in the northern region of Ilmurea we attempted to parlay, mentioning that we were “allies” of Izon. They answered with arrows, crying out that their allegiance now belonged to another and would not be returning to Izon’s service. As we spread out to confront them, another, even greater threat emerged. Out of a slime filled aqueduct rose a Shoggoth. We focused our attention on the great, slimy beast until it was defeated, then returned our attention to the last few Urdefhan.We noted a fortress upon a high bluff. There were gravel ramps leading up to the northern and southern entrances. We chose to Dimension Door to just outside the northern entrance. There we found a number of Urdefhan and a large pen filled with Morlocks. Once the Urdefhan were dealt with we attempted to free the Morlocks, but once again they rebuffed our attempts to free them. They continued to sit there, even as we walked away leaving the gate wide open.Entering the fortress we encountered a few traps in the long entrance hall, pits and a Symbol of Fear. Once we made it past them we found ourselves in a room with a gold tiled circle in the center and three other exits. The area was defended by a number of Urdefhan and a Meladaemon. The Daemon gave us a little trouble with its spells, including a Horrid Wilting that affected every one of us, but they were all finally defeated. We determined the circle was magical, though we could not figure out exactly what it did. We decided to avoid it and adopted Taraz’s plan of “always go left” to explore the maze. Many of the halls were roughly circular in shape, cut through the natural stone as if by a worm. We noted the walls were etched with runes and mocking words and phrases written in Aklo.As we made our way through, an Urdefhan archer pestered us a bit. Sniping at us from the dark and then running off. We chose not to pursue in case he was trying to lead us into an ambush. Sure enough we came across a small stone room with what appeared to be Serpent-Folk standing at parade rest upon stone altars. It turns out they were illusions and, contained within each was an Urdefhan soldier.Our next encounter was with a group of Urdefhan guarding a glowing magical Gate. Aiding them in their defense was another Meladaemon. Once they were defeated, we turned our attention to the Gate. We quickly determined it was linked to Abaddon, the bleak plane where Daemons reside. We figured that must be where the Urdefhan are getting their Daemon defenders and set upon determining a way to close, or at least disable the Gate.We discovered that once a creature was summoned through the Gate, it would shut down for some time until some dark right was performed to reactivate it. We decided it was the best option and Ace (Our Summoner after all) pulled through a number of Piscodaemons. The Gate closed as they stepped through to our plane and once they were dealt with, we moved on.We soon came across another room that contained a number of small non-magical artifacts and weapons, all obviously quite ancient. They were held in a large display case protected by a Forcecage. As it is not unheard of for even mundane objects to become powerful under the right circumstances, I Disintegrated the Forcecage and we gathered the items.In the next room we found ourselves confronted by the new Urdefhan leader and the rest of his forces. To our dismay, they had an Astrodaemon as an ally. As Max rushed in to deal with the Urdefhan the Astrodaemon ran up to me and grabbed me within its powerful jaws. I was able to escape the creature’s jaws with magic, but even turning Invisible did not turn its attention from me and he soon grabbed me again. I escaped once more with my last Dimension Door only to see it then grab Taraz who was unable to escape it jaws. We all watched in horror as the creature drew out and then consumed Taraz’s soul. With a flourish, the creature threw Taraz’s dead body to the floor. Finding a sense of determination in our anger we brought all our resources toward the defeat of this creature. Gravely wounded by our assault, it soon fled, Teleporting off somewhere safe from our ire.Luckily we still had a scroll of Raise Dead we had found long ago back on the Shiv. Ace was able to use it to return Taraz to life. Thankfully the creature did not consume his soul completely. He was drained from the experience, but his restorative prayers soon had him back to his old self once again. Our resources spent, we returned to the Pathfinder Camp to rest and reequip.</blockquote>

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