The party of 7 and Neshi rest for a day and determine their course of action. At dawn the following day, the party leaves their makeshift camp and heads back towards the Black Tower of the Inner Fane of the Terrible Cult.
The party avoids Rastor, that den of orcs and ill repute at the base of Mount Stalagos, on its track through the Kron hills.
The party enters the dwarven Temple through the secret passageway and Mount Stalagos without further interference from the cult.
The party passes north out of the dwarven temple through the area that once contained orcs.
Upon arriving in the Fire Bridge guard area that was once guarded by the proven mortal demon D'Gran, the party does not encounter any opposition.
The party passes across the Fire Bridge. A single greenish mutated Humanoid climbs out of the lake and says to the party, "Doom comes, Man-thing". Raner cuts the creature in half with his axe. Lylamwyn thinks the mutated creature is of the type known as "Skum", when a humanoid is mutated by one of the terrible undersea dwellers known as Aboleths. The dark murky waters of Lake Stalagos could hide many types of monsters.
The party continues across the bridge without further incident. High above, are cultists riding upon giant wasp-like creatures, but the cultists do not pursue the party.
The party moves towards the Fire Door. The Great Fire Door opens, perhaps recognizing that the party carries the unholy symbol that once belonged to Naquent.
The Dragon's den remains empty of treasure. But now it appears that someone has drawn a huge magical circle in the middle of the room, traced in glowing red lines and surrounded by sparkling green and silver runes. The circle touches the walls, and there is no way to go around the circle.
Lylamwyn (Knowledge Arcana 6+21=27, Knowlege Planes 2+18=20, Spellcraft 16+) thinks that the circle is a magical trap that will summon a terrible creature from the Abyss if they break the plane of the circle.
Lenya uses her Flee the Scene ability to move the party past the magical circle without disturbing it.
Moving past the Dragon's den, the party hears voices from the great feasting hall ahead.
Kerwyn and Toriah scout ahead and come back to inform the party what they found.
Another vast hall, this time with a vaulted ceiling 30' high, is furnished with a number of long wooden tables flanked by benches. A raised area along the east wall holds another table with four chairs on one side, so that those seated in them would face the rest of the room. Behind the table are six long purple banners with alternating black triangles with inverted Ys and black upside down two step pyramids. The west wall has a shelf about ten feet up, upon which rest gargoyles of grey stone. An archway of carved skulls girds each of the entrances to this hall.
Inside the vast hall is a large crowd of humanoids. Seventy humanoids are sitting at the various tables, eating, drinking, and talking. Kelashein, the High Priestess of the Water Temple, has the center chair on the raised table, seated at her side are a dwarven warrior and another human cultist. Half a dozen gray elves are chained to a wall and being occassionally tormented and called names like "Traitor" and "Thief" -- the gray elves deny they are traitorous thieves. 2 Ogres, 4 gnolls, 49 human warriors, 1 human cultist leader, 4 trolls, 1 troglydyte, 1 dwarf cultist leader, 1 goblin, Kelashein the High Priestess of the Water Temple. 6 gray elves are chained to a wall.
Kelashein, the high priestess of the water temple, appears quite different from when the party saw her previously. She appears to be blind. Her right arm appears no longer human, instead it looks like someone replaced her right arm with the right arm from a Troll or a Demon, it is a massive claw that makes it almost impossible for her to eat or drink using her right arm. She is also drooling a lot, and it looks like she is far more insane now than she once was.
