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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4538916" data-attributes="member: 386">This Week:  The Long Walk Home(Oh yeah, some stuff I forgot to mention: the PCs saved a bunch of human slaves / sacrifical / torture victims.  Some of them mentioned that Paldemar, Malchior the Warlord's uncle, was seen in the warrens, trading rituals.)The PCs are lost in the Labyrinth, their map useless now - pointing to a path that's blocked with tons of rubble.  A score of slaves travel with them, and they aren't too quiet.  And the PCs are tired and worn down.They explore for a while and come to a T-intersection, with a set of winding stairs leading up.  Armok the Wizard lights some sacred incense of the Raven Queen, and a black, spectral Hand of Fate appears: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"What's the best way back to the Seven-Pillared Hall?"  The hand points up the stairs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Which way is pursuit coming from?"  The hand makes a fist.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Who will be the first to betray us?"  The hand points to Don, one of Bren the Bold's (halfling Rogue) Entourage.  The PCs call Don an idiot and ask him why he would betray them.  "I wouldn't!  Why do you guys treat me like crap?"  Looks like a self-fufilling prophecy.</li> </ul>The PCs head up the stairs, passing by levels of mazes.  Then they come to one landing with a demonic goat's head in a circle carved into the ground and a sheer-black wall.  Armok recognizes the goat's head as the symbol of the demon lord Baphomet, the Horned King, and the black wall as a portal to the Shadowfell.The PCs decide to pass by and head back up, marking this area for later.  Maybe they'll come back when they don't have nearly two-dozen slaves in tow.They find themselves in a wide corridor full of minotaur and demon statues, some toppled.  Malchior identifies it as the Hall of Glory.  They press on towards safety.Suddenly, Bren the Bold is floating and screaming soundlessly!  Oh look, a gelatinous cube.  Malchior rushes up to smack it as Bren slips out, and Armok gets in there to blast it.Then there's a scream of utter terror from behind the PCs.  Oily black wispy things are coming out of the ground, attacking the slaves.  One of them is already dead from its touch - oh crap, there goes another.Jace orders the slaves to run and activates his Armour of Agathas, engaging the wraiths.The cube reaches out with caustic psuedopods and pulls Bren and Armok back into its bulk.Wex the Fighter rushes at the bulky cube, now opaque, and slams into it with his shield.  The cube shudders, enough for Bren to slip out, give it a kick, and then the nimble Rogue is off and running.  Armok is still inside, trying to get out, acid burning at him.  Malchior the Warlord keeps pounding on the cube, cutting swaths in it.Meanwhile, black smoke starts to pour from the mouths of the dead slaves.  Two more wraiths appear.  They slip around and surround Bren, their touch sapping the strength from his arms.  The other three attack Jace, their blackness burned away from the cold flames that surround him, but already the wispy black is starting to reform.  Jace pulls back from the onslaught and launches hellish flames at the cube, burning small pits in it.Then the cube engulfs Malchior and Wexley, and Armok is still on the inside, burning.The fight is on.  Bren and Jace flee and are pursued by one of the wraiths, while the others deal with the rest of the PCs, even entering the cube to get to them.  Bren falls many times, and Jace keeps him on his feet with healing potions.Armok nearly dies in the cube, while Wexley is weakened by the wraith's touch.Finally the cube is pushed away and spends its time holding the wraiths within it.  Jace uses his Beguiling Tongue to order the (barely bloodied) wraith to "leave this place."  It does.  With some room to spare, he and Bren finally kill the cube, revealing three skeletons, one holding a stone tablet.Jace grabs it and threatens to break it.  "No!  Give it back!  It leads to immortality!"Standoff.  The PCs negotiate with the wraiths (as much as they can with the dead, insane shades), and are able to flee once they put the stone tablet back into the hands of the skeleton.  The wraiths, five strong now, swirl around the tablet.The PCs lick their wounds, very tired now.  They head to the Shining Road, where they meet a bunch of humans collecting tolls for a wannabe dwarf king.  Malchior insults the "king", and he's killed in short order; the human mercenaries stop fighting almost immediately.While they're talking to the humans, they hear some howling down the road.  The humans put out the lights and bar the doors.  "Damn hyenas," they say.  Apparently they only stop and try to collect tolls from some of the travellers.The PCs figure this is not a safe spot to rest, so they press on.  They run into the pack of hyenas, who kill more of the slaves, and finally make it back to the Seven-Pillared Hall.While they're resting, the Duergar speak to Jace about a job.  "You know those slaves you brought back?  Bring them to the hobgoblins in the Chamber of Eyes.  Once you do that, we'll take you to the Horned Hold."Orontar gives the PCs a hard time about the Linked Portal scroll and the "botched" job in the Cisterns.  (I'm setting them up as villains.)  When Paldemar's name is brought up, who walks in but... yep, Paldemar.  He says he's been in the Tower of Thunder, trading with the witch who lives there.Malchior, his nephew, is suspicious, and insults Paldemar.  Paldemar storms out.  Orontar is pissed off about this, but when the PCs tell him that they destroyed the Temple of Torog, he relents.  He even agrees to waive the fee for the scroll of Linked Portal!And that was that.</blockquote>

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