Several hours have passed and Wendella has completed her work in transcribing and compiling the incantation that she believes will enable the closure of the randomly-opening portals to the Abyss. She has gathered most of the material components she needs with one notable exception. A large, clear gem, as she had explained to the party previously, is one of the keys to successfully powering this ritual. She and Xodar had sought the largest, clearest Shadowfurst Sapphire, they could obtain. This would be a priceless jewel, prized for its unmatched ability to harness the power of starlight, and the arcane applications such power could enable. This was the item that Hack was meant to deliver into their possession for a sizable sum. As it turned out, he absconded with both the gem and the intended payment. She and Xodar had little choice but to make use of smaller gems. Furthermore, they had no access to starlight, as they had not yet discovered the means to unlock the stone hatch sealing the shaft above the conjuration circle. Now, with the hatch open, and the stars shining, they had satisfied another of the requirements, but they would still have to compromise with a sub-standard gem. The Duergar had been collaborating with Xodar and Wendella, by running a mining operation in the lower cavern, industriously excavating, cutting, sorting, examining, and testing gems. Thus far, their efforts, while potentially profitable had yielded little of value to their arcane aspirations.
She decides that the time has come for them to proceed to the conjuration circle and attempt the ritual. They leave her study in the company of six Duergar guards. As they pass through the corridors of this place that had been the home of her colleague Xodar, and the center of her ambitions, she appears subdued and lost in thought. They pass the scenes of much destruction and death. There are black formations of solidified lava that could only have been spat there by the demon-infested portals they have come to know all too well. They pass through the wrecked armature lab, where the piled bodies of goblins, ghouls, and humans have begun to smell. The room is still festooned with tangled wires. They proceed down the hall, through the dining room, and into Xodar’s private chambers. This room too has been defiled by violence. The floor is stained with blood and other fluids from the horrible creatures that met their end here. Footsteps ring on iron as they descend the spiral staircase into the cavern. Their lantern light glows dimly on distant stone walls and sparkles on the rippling waters below. They cross the catwalk in silence, peering down through the gloom at the barely discernible conjuration platform, thirty feet below. Finally, they descend one more spiral staircase and arrive on the stone floor of the cavern. Candles are lit, and Wendella goes about setting up the ritual. She sprinkles the bone powder, drizzles the blood, and places candles at four corners of the eight-pointed star. She instructs the four party members that they need each of them to stand at one of the cardinal points of the star, holding lit candles. They agree to do so. Cycek has given her one of the gems he had in his keeping. It is a sapphire, but of low quality. Nevertheless, it is the best they have and she places it at the center of the platform.
She climbs back up the platform that overlooks the conjuration circle and commences the ritual. She holds aloft a gilded skull in her right hand, and commences chanting harsh unintelligible words, read from the spell book she holds in her left hand. At that moment, at the center of the circle, an immensely obese Duergar appears from the concealment of magical invisibility. It is Goerth, the imposing Duergar chieftain with whom they had an audience earlier in the day. He wears a leather skullcap with flaps that conceal both of his eyes. He lifts one of the flaps, doubling it back and snapping it in place atop the skullcap. His eye is a glowing, faceted orb of sapphire. He loudly announces that this ritual in not going forward without Duergar participation. He address Wendella, berating her for her and Xodar’s failure to yield a bound demon in their previous conjuration. “You were supposed to supply us with a demon that would be bound to our control, in exchange for our services. That was the arrangement, and you failed. Now, we have this plague of uncontrollable demons running through our stronghold. This ends now! I will supply the jewel you need to ensure success!” He digs his fingers into his eye socket and withdraws the glowing stone, and eerie blue lights washes over the stones and mingles with the flickering candlelight. From beyond the dimly illuminated perimeter comes the shuffling of boots on stone, and the clink of metal. A ring of Duergar guards and miners have formed a rough ring and have moved in closer to observe. Goerth holds the sapphire “eye” aloft and commands, “Start the ritual again, witch, and see to it this is no failure like your last attempt!”
Wendella commences the ritual once again. Here voice reverberates in the stone chamber. Her incomprehensible words rise and fall in the cadence of a chant. A more insistent light is kindled in Goerth’s ocular sapphire, and Wendella’s own eyes emanate a reciprocal glow. As the incantation continues, the light intensifies, as does Wendella’s voice. The candles held by the four adventures seem to blaze with an intensity far beyond what should be expected of a mere candle. Abruptly, Goerth interjects some harsh arcane words of his own. His voice is like the bark of an immense dog, or the croak of bullfrog. It is hard to tell if his exclamations interrupt or augment Wendella’s words, but they seem to correlate with some alarming developments. Orange light blossom in several places throughout the cavern. The party members realize this cannot be a good thing, and to their consternation demonic creatures begin to pour out of them. At that moment, the stone platform on which they stand begins to rotate, counter clockwise, slowly at first but steadily picking up speed.
Light beings to flood the chamber. It pours out of the sapphire orb and out of Wendella’s eyes. Cackling demons lash out with barbed chains, and vile winged heads swoop and bite at Duergar soldiers swinging picks and hammers. The flying heads unleash horrifying screams, and the Duergar bellow curses. Sartan and Davros are stricken by fear and stand rooted to their spots and the platform picks up speed. A plume of black smoke rises from the center of the platform, alongside Goerth. Soon a writhing column of inky smoke looms over him and begins to take on a terrifyingly familiar shape. Long black arms unfurl, ending in clawed hands that immediately begin to grasp at the Duergar chieftain. Black wings flap and a leering fanged face emerges. Goerth’s voice booms forth, “Unhand me creature! You are mine to command! You will do as I say!” The creature retorts in a voice that cuts like glass, “You are in no position to command! I will destroy you for your arrogance first, and then kill the rest!” The black demon claws at the Duergar, leaving gashes across his corpulent form. Goerth expands in size, nearly matching the demon in height, but eclipsing the fiend in bulk. He swings his massive mace, landing a crushing blow that rings out like a thunderclap.
This clash of titans rages as the platform begins to whirl more and more rapidly. Sartan and Cycek are flung from the platform into the moat. The water has begun to whirl with the movement of the platform, and to the horror of the swimmers, there are creatures in the water. Sartan is bitten, and Cycek is stung by unseen swimming assailants. The sting proves to be the more grievous injury, for Cycek immediately loses the ability to move. His body goes limp and he is swept away with the current.
Mishok at first is able to keep his footing, but soon the situation takes a turn for the worse. The spinning stone platform begins to crack. A chunk of it tilts inward, and he topples toward the center of the circle, tumbling directly into the legs of the giant embattled Duergar chief. He flings himself back outward and catches the lip of the stone. The centrifugal force spins his body around and deposits him in the water as well.
While the platform spins, more frightening demonic manifestations take place. Horrible giant larvae bearing grotesque human faces extrude from the surface of the spinning stone. These too are flung outward by centrifugal force. One of these lands close to Davros as he too has been propelled from the platform, and combat immediately ensues. Darvos whips out his rapier and impales the creature, but it continues to wriggle with hellish vigor.
Mishok climbs from the water, and takes a position on the stone retaining wall. He lowers a spear handle into the water and manages to hold Cycek’s inert body in position as it gets swept along. He tries to reach out and draw him in, to no avail. Meanwhile, Sartan has managed to grab the framework of the spiral staircase. He climbs up to the platform from which Wendella still chants, almost hysterically now, despite the fact that the ritual appears to have taken on a life of its own, and events are unspooling now with no regard to any of her carefully laid plans. He knocks the spellbook from her hand, and she starts to scream, as she goes down to one knee, still clutching the golden skull in her right hand. The activity atop the platform seems to have attracted the attention of one of the flying horrors. It swoops down to attack Sartan, but he swings a killing blow with Demonsbane. He hurls the slain head into the swirling water below.
Atop the platform, the furious combatants tear and beat at each other, and a column of undulating light climbs up through the hole in the ceiling, perhaps all the way out into the night sky where the stars gaze down upon a scene of horror. All around the cavern, fierce battle has claimed the lived of numerous Duergar soldiers, but reinforcements arrive. Out of the darkness, a trio of additional Duergar arrive in the company of the ogre their workshop ogre. The aggressive ogre, egged on by his handlers to attack a hated dwarf, shoves Mishok off the wall and into the water. The timing could not be worse. The cracking, buckling platform, has begun to collapse inward. With a BOOM the remnants of the stone disk collapse inward and fall into a pit. Goerth and his demonic foe plummet downward and out of sight. The water begins to plunge over the shattered lip of the broken platform, turning the moat into a swirling vortex, inexorably drawing everything inward toward oblivion.
Mishok hangs on to the paralyzed Cycek, but is being carried away by the water himself. Sartan hustles back down the structure of the staircase and into the water. He hangs onto the shaking iron supports and readies himself to grab his two companions as they float past him.
The whole cavern is shaking and stones are beginning to fall. Davros is surrounded by numerous Duergar along with the towering ogre. He yells at the stupid creature. “Why did you do that!? Pull them out of the water right now!” The ogre is not intimidated, nor persuaded, and so Davros prepares to do battle with a truly imposing foe. More demons are appearing and Duergar are running and screaming at the sight of their leader’s disappearance. Mishok, from his vantage point in the rushing waters of the moat, peers down into the pit and far below sees a blasted hellscape filled with hordes of heaving, wretched bodies that move like rivers of tortured flesh. They are herded by larger, frightful creatures, but there is one that looms above all. It walks on two feet but it appears as a massive misshapen dog with patchy hair, enormous fangs, and wild bloodthirsty eyes. It turns its head, sees Mishok, and lets out a howl that makes his blood run cold.
Mishok mutters a quiet prayer to Divoc, asking for assistance in this time of dire need.