Sartan charges up the passageway to take on the opponent facing the now gravely injured Cycek. He bashes into the bandit and knocks him to the floor. Cycek makes an ill-advised attempt to chase down the fleeing Skinny Minnie. She turns and deals him another blow with her club, knocking him to the floor where he lies bleeding. Sartan, stabs his bandit combatant with a javelin, killing him, and then rushes to Cyceks aid. He pulls out his medical pack and manages to stop the bleeding and stabilize him.

Minnie runs up the stairs, following Hack, and disappears from sight.

Across the room, Mishok and Davros follow Coriander to the lobby where she has laid Wendella out on a couch. Mishok heads up the eastern passageway to scout, and discovers a metal door in the north wall. They decide to investigate, so Davros picks the lock. they carefully look into the room and find what appears to be a well-stocked safe room, with 2 beds, shelves of supplies, a couple of chairs, and an oil-burning stove. Weakened as they are from a day filled with battles, they decide to lock themselves in and rest for the night.

During their rest period, Wendella awakens. Her emotional state ranges from furious, to defiant, to resigned and passive. She says that she doesn’t hate her parents, but they are always trying to control her, and lead her into a typical mundane life, working in Shadowfurst. She becomes agitated when she begins talking about the power and glory that can be restored to this land, if only she could continue her work here. The party insists that she will be returned to her parents. She finally states that if she must return to the city, she wants to be brought to her room, so she can retrieve some of her personal belongings. The party, suspicious, refuse.

The next morning, Sartan and Mishok decide to go in search of Eve, who they have not seen since the previous night. They find her, still asleep in Ekso’s bed. She seems somewhat moved, as much as a bugbear can be moved, by the fact that these two former adversaries have come back to find her. She goes back to the safe room with them, to strategize their exit plan. Eve remarks that they are going to have to watch out for the wretched hobgoblins. They have their own agenda, and she has no doubt that they will return here in force, perhaps with an army, to establish a strategic stronghold. She wants that stronghold for herself. But she also cautions against the Duergar, a mysterious group of “dark dwarves” who apparently have been working with Ekso. She says they are “even worse” than the hobgoblins.

Curious about the staff taken from Ekso, they ask Coriander if she knows anything about this kind of staff. She inspects it and believes that it is a Staff of Wizardry, a very powerful magic item that should not be used by one not well experienced or strong in their magical practice. Such staves have been known to corrupt the weak with a lust for power. Sartan realizes that this must be what happened to his former colleague who won the staff from the evil mage Klesto-Dirk, years ago. The group also wonders if the staff is affecting Wendella similarly. She does seem less agitated when the staff is farther from her. They decide to see if they can remove the hovering ball.

They try to pull it away several times. It seems to just barely move, but they cannot seem to get enough hands on it, or a good enough grip on it to apply sufficient strength to pull it away. Cycek hits upon an idea to wrap a cloak around it, providing the leverage and good hand-holds for many of them to pull together. They do so. They pull, and the ball separates from the staff with a huge explosion. Everyone in the room flies back, slamming against walls. various objects fall off of shelves and crash to the ground. When the dazed and injured party members look around, they realize that Wendella and Eve are gone, both disappeared in a blink.

Stunned, Coriander cries out, “What happened? Where did they go!?” She is distraught about losing the girl, and in complete disbelief about what has just happened.

Battle continues in the cavern. Cycek and Eve join Sartan on the catwalk. They check Ekso’s body for any additional items of interest, and then carry the corpse to the lip of the platform and prepare to dump it into the water.

Hack and Skinny Minny survive their battle, and head toward the spiral staircase. Catching sight of Sartan and Mishok disposing of Ekso’s body, he bellows, “Damn you, you killed my ticket out of here! He owes me money! I worked long and hard looking for this gem, now I want my payment. Where’s Della!?”

Sartan yells back at him, “What the fuck do you care!? Take your gem and get out of here!” 

Meanwhile, Wendella has awoken and she groggily asks, then demands to know where she is. Mishok and Coriander try to calm and reason with her.

Up in the gem lab, Davros begins firing arrows down the shaft, dealing a series of deadly blows to the dreadful creature below. With a final shot, the creature swells, and then bursts, spraying gunk and maggots everywhere. A towering black misty form emerges, wavering in the dark, and a booming, deep, disturbing voice rings forth, “You! You think you’ve stopped my emergence into your world. You’ve only delayed the inevitable. A minor inconvenience, but one I won’t forget. I have 18 more lives to claim, and yours shall number among them.” With that the looming figure vanishes. This abyssal proclamation resounds through the cavern and the rooms above, and thus is heard by Wendella, Mishok, Davros, Hack and any other bystanders. 

Hack is freaked out by this as one more freakish event on top of his fight with the freakish worm creatures, and he bolts for the spiral staircase.

Mishok and Coriander come to an agreement that they should start moving toward the exit. She thinks she knows the way out. She remembers being brought through a tunnel and then the gate with the riddling creature in glass. The two drag Wendella away through the dining room.

Downstairs, Sartan, Cycek, and Eve run down the catwalk and attempt to leap over the river. Only Cycek makes it safely. The other two land in the water, at the shoreline, and scramble at the wet stone, trying to get out. They soon do, but not before Sartan is bitten by an underwater creature. The ascend the staircase.

Mishok and company hear the voices of Hack and his crew as they bang around in Ekso’s room, and shortly seen to hear celebratory shouts.

Sartan, Cycek and Eve emerge into Ekso’s room just in time to see the west door slam shut. They also notice that the desk has been moved, the rug tossed aside, and a lid opened in the floor, revealing a 2x2x2 stone void in the floor, containing an empty burlap sack. They surmise that Hack has left through the west door and they run off in pursuit. Eve, exhausted, lays down on Ekso’s bed.

Cycek manages to catch up to Hack and Skinny Minnie when Hack slips and falls on the persistent grease spell. Hack gets up and keeps running, but Skinny Minnie deals Cycek a nasty knock with her club, before high-tailing it after her leader.

Mishok and Davros are standing guard at the mouth of the other corridor when Wendella starts making a fuss. Davros punches her and knocks her out again. Coriander begins to take her toward the stairs, followed by Mishok, while Davros begins to head toward the opposite side of the room.

Sartan and Cycek descend the spiral staircase to the edge of the subterranean stream, while Mishok stays with Coriander and the still unconscious Wendella. The fighter and ranger find several melees in-progress, along with a truly monstrous, bloated version of the maggot-beasts, appearing to be at least three of them fused together and thrashing around, extruding from and fused to the conjuration platform. Cycek and Sartan leap across the river on to the end of the collapsed catwalk. Sartan investigates Ekso’s body which has tumbled halfway down the ramp. He finds his mechanical spider repeatedly biting Ekso, who appears to be dead. Sartan bids his former adventuring colleague a farewell. Cycek, heads to the scene of the ongoing battle between Eve and one of the monstrous worm-creatures. 

Upstairs, Davros dashes out of the room and towards the pit in the center of Ekso’s lab, intending to rain down arrows upon the giant maggot. Meanwhile, Mishok inquires with Coriander as to her interest in Wendella, finding that there may be some conflict in their interests. She has been hired by Councilman Donnwald, whereas the team, of course, has been hired by Wendella’s parents, Mayor Anton Strongbow and his wife, Mrs. Willa Strongbow. While they talk, Wendella begins to stir, groggily coming out of her unconscious state.

Back in the caverns, Cycek helps Eve slay her opponent, employing the handheld oil-torch that he had taken from Ekso’s workbench. Sartan goes to work, firing arrows at the gigantic worm, which proceeds to vomit up gouts of maggots. Across the stream, Hack’s and his cronies battle another pair of maggot-creatures.

Their foe unexpectedly laid low, Sartan and Mishok are momentarily stunned. A harsh call to their left alerts them to the presence of a small group of figures stepping out from behind a large pillar of rock. The leader of a small band of humanoids shouts “No! Goddammit! He was my ticket out of here!!!” Sartan stops whirling the glow-sphere, but as the light fades he is nearly certain that the yelling figure is none other than Hack. Down below, Eve is struggling to crawl out of the river, as one of the horrid creatures approaches her, and the water froths around her. Sartan and Mishok launch a couple of attacks and are finally able to slay the creature nearest to her. Several of the misshapen worm-creatures sprout wings and begin flapping up toward the pair of adventurers on the spiral staircase. They decide that now is the time to get out of there, and they run up the stairs.

Upstairs, Wendella’s fierce hobgoblin guard shoves the bed aside and bursts into the room. Davros, ready to attack, immediately shoots the armored warrior with his crossbow, and yells at Wendella to return to her room – she doesn’t know what she’s getting into. Coriander, ready with a frost spell, fails to finish off the wounded hobgoblin.

Cycek, hearing the faint sounds of battle yells out to Davros, and gleans that there is trouble happening. He turns and run backs toward the passage from which he had recently emerged, right past the startled hobgoblin who had regained his feet and was making his way into position to attack the crafty Cycek. The elf ranger, in his haste, fails to account for the lingering grease spell, slips, and falls flat on his back, halfway through the corridor. This gives enough time for the hobgoblin to wound him with a thrown javelin. Weakened, Cycek continues running toward Ekso’s quarters, outpacing the relatively slow hobgoblin.

Gaining the top of the stairs, Sartan and Mishok join the fray. The hobgoblin is soon slain, and Mishok deals the crushing blow to the goblin who has pressed into the room, following his hobgoblin commander. Wendella comes into the room insisting that these interlopers leave. In reply, Sartan grabs her, holds her in place, and Mishok knocks her out with a punch in the jaw. Coriander, helps to gently lower the girl to the floor, taking great care not to hurt her, and helps to bind her with rope. 

Meanwhile, Cycek rushes into the room with his hobgoblin pursuer just steps behind him. When it enters the room and sees four additional opponents awaiting him, he turns and runs back into the library. Free from his pursuer, and back in the company of his allies, he asks Mishok for the power of healing prayer, to which the cleric gladly complies.

Uncertain about what to do next, the party begin to discuss options, but before long one of the winged worms surges into the room from the spiral staircase. It vomits a disgusting spew of writhing maggots, and lashes out at whoever is near. A fierce battle ensues. Mishok calls to his god Divoc for intervention, and sacred flames are sent to burn away this abomination. It takes some time, but the unnatural creature is eventually slain. Returning to their lengthy discussion, the team again is interrupted by an additional maggot-creature emerging from the stairs. Sartan splits the wretched creature’s face open with a mighty axe blow, but somehow, astonishingly, and horrifyingly, the monstrosity continues to attack. Davros delivers the killing blow with his rapier. The two dead creatures begin to dissolves, turning into a sickening goo resembling melted cheese on the floor that still wriggles with maggots, many of them crushed into a disgusting paste after being trodden upon by the battling parties.

Several options are considered for their next course of action. Is seeking an exit in the unknown lair wise? They decide to return to the cavern to Eve’s aid and ready themselves to cautiously head back down the spiral staircase.

The party continues investigating the items displayed on the shelves of Ekso’s private quarters. They discover a rather strange rod which remains motionless and immovable when a button on the end is depressed, only becoming movable again when the button is depressed a second time. There is also a pair of flat stones, approximately 2-inches in diameter and decorated with the stylized profile of a face, one being the negative image of its counterpart on the other stone. There is a lacquered wedge of cheese with several names carved into it. They drag Ekso’s heavy bed to the east door to keep it closed.

Rethinking the “walnut” approach to blocking up the hole, they instead decide to employ the magical leg trap purchased days ago from the Gnome merchant on the road to Duskhaven. Having set the trap, the team decides to carefully proceed down the spiral staircase. They see a faint light from below and hear the deep voice of Ekso chanting an incantation away in the depths. Quietly observing the distracted wizard, the see him standing upon a metal platform across a long metal catwalk. A large gloomy cavern opens around them, faintly illuminated by candles burning at the corners of an elaborate circular platform adorned with a large 8-pointed star. As the wizard continues concentrating on his mysterious ritual, the party notices faintly glowing, grotesque, wormlike creatures writhing on the cavern floor. They send one of the captured clockwork spiders to cross the catwalk and attack him. They soon learn that bugbears are no good at whispering, as Eve speaks a little too loudly, alerting Ekso to their presence. An angry Cycek fires an arrow at Ekso, striking him, breaking his concentration and ruining his ritual spell. nevertheless, he responds with a magic missile, dividing its damage between three of the party members.

Soon, Davros hears a “snap” and runs up the stairs to find the lizard creature caught in the trap. However, he also finds that a hobgoblin guard is pushing its way through the east door. The hobgoblin accompanies Wendella who clearly has found a way to either persuade or force her impromptu captors to release her. Coriander joins Davros back in Ekso’s room. She goes to deal with the captured lizard, placing a bag over it, while leaving it ensnared in the leg trap. Davros tries to intimidate the hobgoblin, while standing ready with his bow. He also has words with Wendella, trying to persuade her to reconsider what she is doing and return with them to her parents. The hobgoblin is unfazed, while Wendella seems to pause to consider what Davros has said.

Cycek, acting boldly, runs up the stairs, hastening through the library and into the passageway that had earlier been coated in magical grease. He sees the goblin guard they had stationed at the end of the pasageway lying dead, and a large hobgoblin coming toward him. Cycek bum-rushes the hobgoblins, slides on the grease, and takes the hobgoblin out at the legs. He proceeds into the lab where he takes the remaining empty glass globe and begins pouring a random concoction into it.

Back in the cavern, Sartan, affixes the light-orb onto the Gooey Grabber and whirls it around his head, revealing more of the cave. Ekso, in his anger and arrogance launches into a monologue, revealing his past connection to Sartan. He was once known as Xodar and had once adventured with Sartan, Ahura-Mazda, Lefto and Krago. Sartan is shocked! What has wrought such a change in his former colleague!? Eve, not one for talking, and stung by insulting words from her former employer, charges out onto the catwalk. Ekso pulls a chain, and the end of the catwalk plummets, dumping the bugbear chief into the river. She tries to climb out onto the slippery rocks, only to fall back in as the water begins to writhe around her, and the bizzare worm-creatures draw near.

Upstairs, Cycek takes his improvised alchemical device and throws it down the central shaft. It smashes onto the circular platform 30 feet below Ekso and erupts into multiple magical missiles. Five glowing arrows of pure arcane energy, each a different color, take flight and double back upon the robed figure. Ekso is bathed in intensely bright light and the missiles pierce him, and he collapses to the floor in a heap. All who see the sight are shocked, but none more so than Sartan who moments ago had learned such an unexpected truth about their foe.

Eve Viscerator, the Bugbear Captain, turns to Sartan and growls, “I don’t like you. But you’re a warrior. I’m a warrior. We were adversaries. Now, we’re allies. I don’t like you, but I respect you. And we have a common enemy, that bastard wizard.”

The quickly discuss what to do next, and decide that as Eve is badly injured, they return to the lab to perhaps find a healing potion. They turn to the gate and a immediately greeted by the grinning face in the glass. The creature readies another riddle when Sartan suggests the just smash the glass. Eve takes a mighty swing with her morning star. Jagged chunks of green glass fly and a greening smoke billows forth. It quickly clears, and there before them is a small green-skinned creature with fluttering wings. It darts past the startled pair and runs, laughing down the corridor. With the “gatekeeper” gone and the glass broken, the gate opens freely. Sartan and Eve pass through and find that they are unable to lift the second gate. They search the lobby for a lever or other mechanism to raise the gate and find none.

Within the room, Cycek and Coriander stand guard near the bottom of the stairs. Cycek goes up the stairs to try and find a way to open the gate, also to no avail.

Across the room, Mishok and Davros become aware of voices coming from the lobby at the top of the stairs. A rough, hobgoblinesque voice shouts down, “Oy! Who’s down there!? Intruders! We’re gonna get you!” They hear the clanging of metal and then arguing among the voices, “Get this gate open!” Davros yells, threatens, and taunts them. Then the rogue and his cleric companion make their way across the room, where they join the search for a way to open the gate. Mishok realizes that he has the ratcheting contraption and they use it to bend the bars wide enough for Sartan and Eve to pass through. In an attempt to gather their gear and make a run for it, they form a “bucket brigade” and begin passing as much as they can grab from the work bench and up the stairs. The hobgoblin guards, along with Longdick McGee, make it down into the room and begin firing arrows. Eve, their captain, orders them to stand down, but the hobgoblins are defiant. One fires an arrow at Eve and she loses her temper, throwing javelins at her disobedient soldiers. The wires, of course, present quite an obstacle to ranged weapons, and the javelins twang uselessly amid the steel webbing.

Sartan, however, grabs one of the fire arrows from the pile of gear and fires a perfect shot. The arrow catches the hobgoblin right in the neck, and bursts into flame, blasting a gaping wound that kills the armor-clad soldier. Davros seriously wounds another one, while Mishok brings down the sacred flame on one as well.

Sartan Finally kills one of the wounded hobgoblins with a precision arrow shot to the eye. With that, Longdick and the remaining hobgoblin turn and flee. Meanwhile, Cycek hastily pours three random liquids and some bone powder into a glass vessel, intending to throw it at the opponents across the room. However, seeing the opponents instead fleeing, he rolls the glass sphere down the nearby corridor. The glass shatters and there is a flash, and a splash, and a coating of grease appears on all surfaces at the center of the hallway.

The room temporarily free of combatants, the team re-outfits itself with its gear. But, before long, another contingent of guards emerges from atop the western stairs. Eve successfully gains control of this bunch, and they guard the room while the party rests. After a bit of healing, they also set about looting and damaging the room. All the mechanical spiders are captured. Wires are cut with bolt cutters. Gems and liquid-filled spheres are taken. The large central gem is taken. And the glowing orb is taken. It is wrapped in a cloak, so a single shaft of light shines forth like a flashlight beam.

There is a discussion regarding what the next steps are, and what their goals are. Coriander remarks that she fears for Wendella’s safety. She believes that Della is in too deep, and may have made a pact with an evil being. She may have become a warlock. Eve is friendly toward Wendella and does not want to see her get hurt. She agrees to help the party get her home. But, her goal is to exact revenge on Ekso, and maybe even make this stronghold her own.

The group proceeds up the east stairs and are led by Eve to a door up the corridor.

She pounds several times, calling out for Wendella, who does eventually answer the door. Eve tries to talk to her, encouraging her to go home. But Wendella slams the door in her face. They post guards at the doors to her room, and they go looking for Ekso.

They enter Ekso’s private suite through the dining room, and then begin looking around his room. They notice several curious items, including a spell book, and a catalog of contraptions from Frandlehoobin and Son. Sartan tries to block up a “mousehole” opening with walnuts.  The scene ends as they investigate a strange levitating rod.

Two ghouls, released from their cell by the clockwork spiders, make their move toward any living thing they can hope to get their claws into. Ekso, injured and disengaging from combat with a parting magic missile strike at Sartan, Cycek, and Mishok, moves toward one of the approaching ghouls. A thick mist suddenly envelopes the wizard and ghoul, obscuring both from view. Ekso emerges beyond the baffled ghoul, and then hustles out of the room and down the corridor.

Sartan helps himself to the scimitar and shortbow held by the hypnotized goblin, Longdick McGee. Mishok frees himself using the keys which his commandeered spider has lifted from Ekso. He slides them across to Sartan’s cell, who releases himself and then in turn slides them down to Cycek. Sartan releases Longdick from his hypnosis and advises that he run for it – which he does.

Cycek opens the gate to Coriander’s cell and cuts her free from the magical webs, using the dagger she had used to stab Ekso. He gathers up the tangled webs and lunges for the nearest ghoul. He slaps an armload of webbing over the ghoul’s head, and then stabs it in the side with the dagger. It flails at the webs, tangling its claws, enabling Cycek to deliver another vicious cut to its neck. Coriander casts a mage armor spell on Cycek, enhancing his protection from harm. She then sends a frost ray into the face of the ghoul. It immediately goes rigid and drops.

Across the room, Davros and the goblin, Greaseball, are engaged with the second ghoul. Davros climbs into the rigging to gain advantage over the ghoul, and puts a couple of arrows in the creature. Greaseball, attacking with his scimitar, fares less well and falls before the ghoul’s furious claws. Davros then, having returned to the ground, fells the beast with another arrow, and takes the scimitar from the fallen goblin. He also captures and deactivates a spider.

Sartan releases Mishok from his bonds and the two cross to the west side of the room. Mishok manages to grab another spider along the way, leaving only four of the mechanical arachnids to handle the work of calibrating the web of wires and spheres so carefully arranged in this room. Sartan complicates their job by hacking one of the cables and then strumming all the ones within reach as he moves through the room. This distracts the spiders from attacking, as they turn their attention to damage control.

Mishok and Coriander investigate the workbench and discover their gear and weapons are piled up there, having been rifled through. Coriander tosses a bow and a quiver of arrows to Cycek who prepares to pursue Ekso. Sartan, seeing movement on the western stairway, goes up the stairs to investigate. He realizes that the bugbear captain, Eve Viscerator, just barely clinging to life, is struggling to open the gate at the tops of the stairs. He takes a shot with a goblin bow, and misses pathetically. Sartan then heads up the stairs, close to the bugbear, only to have a gate fall from above behind him, trapping him in a small space with the wretched creature. A greenish glass hemisphere is set in an iron ring in the center of the wrought iron gate at the top of the stairs. A wicked little face looks out from it and in a thin, whiny voice, acknowledges Sartan as a stranger, and suggests a game of riddles. As punishment for an incorrect answer, Sartan is torched with a flame shooting out of a nozzle in the wall. Cycek offers another solution. He conjures a goodberry, and throws it up to Sartan. Sartan gives it to Eve to revive her, in an attempt to gain an ally. It seems to work. As an authorized individual, she reaches for the handle and opens the gate. The two emerge into a lobby-like room.

Across the gem lab, Longdick McGee has fled up the opposite stairway. Davros pursues him. He opens the gate and steps into a lit room decorated like a lobby. There are comfortable chairs and end tables, a rug on the floor. He catches sight of the goblin headed up a passageway, and he stealthily follows. After a couple of turns, he sees that Longdick has entered a larger room, from whence he hears the harsh voices of at least three creatures speaking. Having seen enough, he returns to the gate, only to find it locked. He calls down to his team to let him in. Mishok, climbs the stairs and lets Davros back into, but the commotion seems to have drawn attention. As the pair reach the bottom of the stairs, they hear rough shouts coming from the room Davros had just left.

As the session ends, Sartan and Eve are in the “lobby” at the top of the west stairs, with a gate locked behind them, and an evil face leering at them from a glass globe welded into the door. Cycek and Coriander are standing guard at the foot of the west stairs. Mishok and Davros are at the foot of the east stairs, as unidentified voices approach from above. The remaining spiders scurry around, trying to adjust an array that is quite out of whack. Ekso is nowhere to be seen.

The scene opens with Davros descending the shaft, not yet having reached the room itself. It has begun to rain, and the rope is becoming wet. The sound of voices from above necessitates haste. Mishok is engaged in combat with the goblin guards and, wounded, is beset by mechanical spiders. Sartan stands amid the severed cable and the shattered pieces of the spider he dispatched with an axe blow. Ekso accompanies Cycek up the hallway, back towards to lab, praising his resourcefulness while surreptitiously uttering the words of a Charm spell. Cycek succumbs to the spell and views Ekso as a friend and ally. He urges Ekso to come meet his colleagues. 

Davros, continuing his descent, has some trouble with the rain-slicked cables, and takes a minor fall, but successfully reaches the floor. Meanwhile Sartan and Mishok slay two of the goblin guards but not before Mishok is taken down by goblin and spider attacks. He drops to the floor unconscious and Sartan and Davros move to rescue their fallen comrade. The remaining panicked goblin guard heads back into the hallway, frantically reporting the battle to his boss, Ekso.

Cycek and Ekso emerge into the lab. Ekso bellows “desist!” and all the mechanical spiders stop moving. The howling ghouls even quiet somewhat at the sound of his voice. Cycek administers life-saving first aid to Mishok while Ekso surveys the scene. He is clearly pleased at the sight of the daylight shining from above, but he is also distracted by the damage and disarray of his carefully calibrated structure. He instructs his remaining goblin guard to be rid of the bodies of his dead coworkers. Sartan approaches the central gem in its cradle, and threatens to smash it with his axe. Ekso assures him that his forces will stand down and suggests that there can be a peaceful resolution to the situation. Ekso seems to recognize Sartan, although Sartan does not recall ever having met him before.

While Mishok is brought back from the verge of death, Ekso launches into a monologue about his efforts to bring this ancient part of the world back to its former glory. He is astonished at the party’s success at opening the portal that had thwarted his efforts for so long. He heaps praise upon them, suggesting that there may be an opportunity for them to join his team. Working to repair the damage, he takes hold of the severed cable, hold the ends together, utters indiscernible words, and the cables re-knit into one continuous piece. The mechanical spiders return to him, and one by one he depresses their buttons, closes them up, holds them to his forehead, and recites new commands. The spiders disperse and begin to re-tension the wires.

His initial repair work done and introductions made, Ekso invites the reluctant party to join him for lunch. Cycek, still under the effects of the Charm spell, encourages his wary colleagues to accept this invitation. He leads them to another passageway. Davros, Sartan, and Mishok very cautiously follow at a distance. Passing one of the empty cells, they see a pile of gear, weapons, and outerwear. Davros, being a rogue at heart, reaches through the bars and grabs a quiver of 6 crossbow bolts. Once Ekso has proceeded out of sight down the hallway, Coriander calls out to Davros from her cell. The gear in the other cell is hers. She encourages Sartan to grab her dagger, which he does. He runs halfway across the room and slides it across the floor and into her cell. Meanwhile, Ekso is patiently coaxing his guests into the dining room. The room is dwarven stone construction with a stone table in the center, surrounded by 8 chairs. There are a series of ancient tapestries hanging on the walls depicting creatures with wings and horns and bearing similar indecipherable dwarvish runes to those on the lid of the Star Portal.

Sartan insists upon a need to relieve himself. There is a facility for such bodily functions in a curtained-off corner of the adjacent room. Ekso assigns a goblin guard to keep Sartan company. Casually looking around the room, Sartan sees a bed, book shelves, a desk, chairs, and the top of a spiral stairway leading down. The spiral stairway encircles a sculpture of a winged, horned figure.

Back in the dining hall, all are seated, and shortly the east door opens. A young woman clad in black, grey, and red enters with a small two-headed dog on a leash. Ekso rises and introduces her as Wendella. She has black, spiky hair and a red 8-pointed star either tattooed or painted on her forehead. He tells the party that she is no longer a child in need of her foolish parents, but rather a grown woman with a mind of her own. He says she is referred to by some as the “Princess of the Undead” but he dislikes the name. He regards the “undead” as more alive than the living. They have twice the life, and thus she should be called “Princess of the Double-Live.” Expounding on this theme, she asserts that she has made a pledge to a being of great power and it is her obligation to help bring him into this world.

The conversation goes on in this vein until suddenly the party awake in a different place. As they observe their new environment from behind bars, they come to realize that they have been drugged. The seem to have slept for some time, and are now in individual cells along the perimeter of the Gem Lab. They also seem to have been relieved of their weapons and gear. They see Ekso about his work at a stone workbench at the west end of the room. Cycek finds a jagged edge on the iron frame of the cell door and begins working at cutting the bonds that secure his hands behind his back. He is in a cell immediately adjacent to that of Coriander. They speak to each other in Elvish, and begin hatching a plan. She is unsure, but suggests that she can cast an illusion to draw their captor close to the cell door, and then stab him with the dagger. It seems unlikely to work, but worth a try. Meanwhile, Davros, Mishok, and Sartan all seek ways to cut their bonds as well. Mishok, his hands behind his back, realizes that he still as the mechanical spider in his back pocket. He is able to remove the device, and then with great effort, step his feet through his linked hands and bring them to his front side. Having watched Ekso reprogram such a device, he holds it to his forehead and commands it to steal the keys from Ekso’s belt. He releases it and it sets off on its way.

During this time, a tall charred figure enters from the west side of the room. It is Eve Viscerator and she is in bad shape. She reports to Ekso that there has been fighting on the perimeter with guards from the city. The guards have been routed, but her forces have taken losses. She begins to tell of four assholes who climbed the cliff and did THIS to her. Ekso turns an eye toward the cells and she follows his gaze. Realizing that the captives are the ones who wounded her, she flies into a rage a lurches toward Cycek’s cell. Ekso commands her to stand down, but she continues. He puts a hand to her shoulder, speaks some words, and the bugbear captain goes rigid, trembling and smoking, and finally collapses to the ground. He commands the aghast goblins to haul her out of here.

This commotion spurs Coriander to act. She casts an illusion of a huge gem on the floor just outside her cell, as if, perhaps the dying bugbear had dropped it. Ekso’s eyes go wide and he turns and reaches for it, but he suddenly realizes that it’s an illusion. Coriander casts a ray of frost that envelopes Ekso, to no avail. He resists the spell, and enraged begins to verbally assault Coriander. Cycek momentarily distracts him and she uses that moment to stick the dagger in his side.

The goblins, who have begun dragging away the blackened carcass of Eve Viscerator, stop in their tracks at the sound of their boss’s bellow. Before they can act on his behalf, Sartan and Davros begin taunting them. They come close to Davros, who tries to convince them to release him. One refuses, but the other is nearly swayed. One goblin, by the name of Longdick McGee crosses the room to confront Sartan, who has during this time, managed to escape his bonds. Sartan finds that he still has his hypnotic fidget spinner and he puts the unlucky goblin into a trance.

Mishok calls upon the sacred flame and brings flash after flash of fire upon the bleeding wizard, who is no longer cool or collected. He is shouting and raging now. Ekso wounds Coriander with a magic missile and then binds her to the bars of the cell with a web. He also exhales a poison gas into Cyceks face. While Ekso struggles in front of Cycek’s cell, Mishok’s spider appropriates the keys and begins to bring them back to his new master. One more blast of fire causes Ekso to retreat. Cycek, also having cut his bonds, removes a boot and hurls it at Ekso, striking him in the ass.

Across the room, the goblin named Greaseball has been persuaded by Davros, that he is better off releasing the party because otherwise he’s going to end up dead, just like his bugbear captain. Greaseball unlocks Davros’s cage, just as two mechanical spiders unlock and open the cell containing two enraged ghouls.

The party takes some time to recover from their battle with the ogre. They spend some time resting and tending to their wounds, while the ogre rampages outside, hurling rocks at random, hoping for a lucky hit. Once they resume their explorations, they notice old footsteps in the crust of snow remaining in the shadowed passage way. They wend their way into the center of the structure. Using their rope, they haul Cycek to the top of the wall, so that he can survey the scene. He sees the overview of the concentric circles comprising the structure. He sees the frustrated ogre still stalking about on the plateau. And he gets a good view of the object at the center of this structure. It is a carved, circular platform about 2 feet high. It’s stone surface is engraved with an 8-pointed star, set amid a series of concentric and tangential rings of various sizes. Returning to the ground, he and the rest of the party inspect this artifact more closely. They recognize the geometric patterns and runes as resembling the demon-head carving on the head of the key they retrieved from the narrow passageway at the back of Ursula’s cave. Mishok recognizes the runes as being dwarvish of origin, but they seem strange and are unreadable. They attempt to lift the stone. They insert the key into a slot in the center of the slab and turn it. This releases a handle at each point of the star, which flips up from underneath the lip of the slab. Again, they try and fail to lift what they assume to be a lid of some kind. Next, they try to rotate the slab. It takes some effort, but it does begin to move. As they rotate the object, fissures open in its surface and the lid divides into 8 panels which open iris-style, revealing a six-foot-wide shaft leading straight down. A bright point of light pierces the dark roughly 100 feet down the shaft.

As the party contemplates their next move, the ogre renews its attempt to connect with a rock, and they hear the grunting of the beast and the crack or stone as his hurled missiles smash against the walls of the stone structure. They decide to lower Mishok down the shaft to investigate. About 90 feet down, the shaft opens into a large room. An bright glowing orb hangs about 10 feet below the opening, and the room is filled with a complex web of rods and wires. Mishok, with his short statures, feels that although he might be able to release himself from the rope and alight on the wire structure, he could not do so without being disruptive to the structure. This is of particular concern because he detects movement among the cables. Mishok returns to the surface and reports his findings. Cycek, being taller and more nimble descends next. He sees that the movement Mishok reported are a number of spider-like creatures that seem to be attending to various adjustments and tensioners on the wires. He carefully climbs into the upper rigging, and lets go of the rope. He sees below him, and directly below the glowing orb, another circular pit in the floor. The light strikes a gem that is suspended in a cradle between the light source and the pit. Shafts of light emanate from the gem, striking other smaller orbs set among the cables throughout the room. A brighter beam shoots straight down the shaft. He manages to reach the floor without attracting undue attention from the spiders. However, as he gets his bearing, two goblins step out from a passageway to the east, and shout “Who the hell are you!?” They are shocked at the presence of this unexpected visitor. They order him to lay down his weapons and they will take him to their boss. He expresses a willingness to go see his boss, but will not relinquish his weapons. A moment later, two other goblins, equally shocked, emerge, from another passage at the opposite end of the room. They reassert the demands of the other goblins, and Cycek complies. He lays down his weapons, which ones of the goblins collects, and they take him into custody. Although they are unpleasant little creatures, and somewhat rough with him, they lead him without episode through the web of cables, toward the southwest corner of the room. In passing, he notices a couple of barred cells in the south wall of the room. One of them contains a creature resembling those that they had fought in the tunnels beneath Avita Ploughman’s barn back in Duskhaven.

Meanwhile Mishok descends into the web again. As he originally guessed, he has a more difficult time climbing from the shaft into the rigging. He falls, hitting several taught cables before he is able to catch himself. He takes injury and also sets the whole web to vibrating and shaking. As he regains his grip on the cables, he sees the spider-like creatures scurry about, attending to tensioners, but several move swiftly toward him. One one draws near, he is able to discern that these are mechanical devices modeled after spiders. He sees Cycek disappear into a passageway, in the custody of four goblins. He gets to the floor as quickly as he can, but is soon beset by mechanical spiders, attempting to bite him.

During this time, Sartan is moving down the shaft, and Davros is becoming aware of raised, hoarse voices outside the structure, and rocks continue to fly over the wall, sometimes smashing nearby and raining shards down upon him.

Mishok reaches the floor and begins moving toward the place he last saw Cycek. He is bitten by a spider and suffers not only piercing damage, but also poison damage from its venomous fangs. He manages to grab one of the creatures, and with his mechanical acumen, notices buttons on the top and bottom of its carapace. Depressing both at once, the legs and head retract into the body, and it becomes a motionless brass disk. He pockets this item.

Sartan, upon reaching the floor moves toward the northwest of the room. Here, he sees another cell with a screaming, haggard creature. One of what Mishok was able to identify as a ghoul. A woman’s voice cries out from another cell.

Davros is able to begin his descent after Sartan is off the rope. But not before he is hit in the head by a shard of rock. He hears more angry voices approaching as he climbs over the edge of the pit, and starts rappelling down.

The goblins have taken Cycek down a hallway into a room lit by oil lamps and set up as a library. There are tapestries on the walls, several chairs and tables, and about eight sturdy wooden book cases. Moving through this room, they take him into the private chambers of a tall, thin man who stands before them. The goblins tell him they caught this intruder in the “Gem Lab” and don’t know how he got there. He dismisses them, and engages Cycek in dialogue.

He speaks in a deep, deliberate cadence. He introduces himself as Ekso. Cycek is forthright in telling who he his, why he is there, and how he got there. Ekso expresses surprise that Cycek and his friends have arrived via the “Star Portal.” He also assures him that Wendella is safe and is where she should be, although he seems disdainful of Anton and Willa Strongbow’s concern for their daughter. Ekso feels there may be a place for Cycek on his staff. An operation such as this could use talented individuals like Cycek, and he offers to pay much better rates than anything the mayor and his wife could. Cycek wants to check on the safety of his friends. Ekso agrees to accompany him back to the “Gem Lab” and see if they can locate his companions. He puts a  hand on his shoulder and leads him back through the library, the way he had come. One goblin remains in the library, holding Cycek’s swords. 

Sartan has investigated the woman’s voice. He discovers that she is Coriander, the half-elf investigator that had preceded them out of Duskhaven. She tells Sartan that she was hired by Councilman Donnwald to find Wendella. She had interviewed Carver’s mother, and was sent on a similar trajectory, seeking Carver in the blufflands, but she was captured by Hobgoblins and imprisoned here. She has been here a day and is unable to use her magic because her hands are bound. She turns her back to the bars, so that Sartan can reach her rope-bound hands. He cuts them with a dagger. Immediately after this, he is attacked by a mechanical spider. Another spider is approaching the ghoul cell. Sartan hacks at that one with his axe, shattering it, and also cleaving through one of the wires. It parts with a sharp twang, and a small glass orb attached to it shatters. The entire web-structure shudders.

The other three goblins emerge from the hallway back into the lab. They see Mishok and are again shocked. Mishok is badly injured at this point, but he pulls out his crossbow and puts a bolt into a surprised goblin’s chest.

Ghouls are howling and raging. The light from the glowing orb is pitching and flashing wildly as the wire structure recoils from the axe blow. Goblin are yelling, and a bloodied dwarf is readying an appeal to his god for assistance. Cycek and Ekso proceed up the hallway and are about to emerge onto this scene of chaos as the session comes to a close.

After an hour of rest at the top of the stairs, the party decides to move cautiously up the trail. They come upon a series of old stone arches jutting out from the cliff wall on their left. Some of them are partly crumbled, with fallen keystones and chunks of stone wall laying about. One arch is intact, and upon examination, they discover a tripwire at shin-height, running up a series of eyelets to some type of unidentified device nestled into a crevice near the top of the arch. With rough terrain around the arch, and 4 horses to lead across, they decide to ditch the horses so they can proceed more carefully on foot. They return the horses to the foot of the stairs and come back to carefully pass under the arch. Cycek and Davros scout ahead and soon discover a goblin attempting to hide in the rocks just off the trail. They confront him and and persuade him to come out of hiding to talk. He is reluctant to talk, but seeing an opportunity to profit, he warns them of trouble ahead, and sells them a length of rope and spikes to help them climb the wall. He mentions his boss “Eve” as well as someone he refers to as “Zoey.” Their business concluded, he quickly scrambles back into hiding near the edge of the cliff. When Davros investigates, he sees the goblin scaling the cliff down to the lower plain.

Deciding to climb, they set up their climbing rig at one of the damaged arches. After a bit of trial and errors, including some injurious falls, three of the party make it to the top. As the three pull up Cycek using their rope, a band of goblins and hobgoblins led by a huge bugbear come down the trail and launch arrows at them. The bugbear “Eve Viscerator” is huge and aggressive. She shouts at the figures atop the cliff and throws her javelin, to no effect. The party returns fire, beginning with Sartan throwing one of the glass vials they had taken from their would-be assassin a couple days earlier. The vial shatters and a cloud of black smoke billows out, immediately killing two goblin archers. One of the hobgoblins drops to his knees while the other three are wracked by coughing. The bugbear boss is unaffected and defiant.

The party, having the high ground, launches a barrage of arrows, and Mishok brings down the sacred flame, quickly decimating the attackers below. Eve and the remaining two hobgoblins run off and take cover. Eve is riddled with a arrows and smoking from the severe burns she suffered.

Their opponents routed, the party moves on through a landscape of trees and rocks, catching sight of a black structure in a clearing ahead. The tree cover diminishes as they approach the structure, which appears to be a low, cylindrical shape (like a massive hockey puck). They split up, one pair moving clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise around the perimeter. Mishok and Cycek discover an opening in the north side of the stone, while Sartan and Davros discover a massive ogre and a pair of goblins rushing them from the woods to the southwest. Sartan moves to engage the foes, while the others go into the opening in the stone. They discover a roofless passageway following an interior perimeter of the stone. Davros receives a grave arrow wound, but also fells one of the goblins. Deciding that flight may be a better option than combat, Sartan and Davros move toward to north, with the fast-moving enemy in pursuit. Blows are exchanged, and Sartan and Davros are both brought to the brink of death. But, they manage to get into the relative safety of the stone structure. The ogre hurls one of the goblins up over the wall, but to little effect as that goblin is soon slain. 

The session closes with all party members inside the interior passage, and a bellowing ogre just outside an opening that is happily too narrow for it to enter.