The party gathered wearily above the shaft in the floor. Suddenly Vaunea felt a tug and her consciousness followed her spirit companion spiraling downward until she saw before her a large room with a towering statue of Bahamut facing a dark, swirling portal. Before the portal an arcane circle was inscribed on the floor, and Vaunea saw a robed figure prostrate within the circle. Then a soft rustle of air passed by her and the clay dragon construct landed outside of the circle and chattered something in an unknown language. The figure rose and said in Common, "They have come this far? Then I must prepare."

Vaunea blinked and found herself once again at the top of the shaft, and told her companions what she had seen. They debated on if they should press on in their weakened state, or allow both themselves and Kalarel time to prepare. In the end they decided to set a guard over the shaft and withdraw to the room just before the temple to rest. Several hours passed before the party had recovered, and Pale Noon became worried that a part of Kalarel's plan may be to flank them with some unknown force. He offered to hold the temple door against any threat while the other descended and confronted Kalarel.

The party grabbed the chains and slowly lowered themselves down the shaft. Twenty, thirty, forty feet down and finally the shaft opened up into the room that Vaunea had described from her vision. Below them, the center of the room was filled with a rectangular pool of blood separating the statue of Bahamut from the portal. A few sturdy looking skeletons were scattered about the room, and on a raised platform to one side stood Kalarel. On a platform opposite from Kalarel stood two figures with shriveled skin and a haunted visage.

"Who are you that you have come so far?" called Kalarel. Without waiting for them to reply he began speaking again, "No matter, you will meet your doom here. The Mistress of the Night will not be denied." With a roar Daelius swung from his chain and charged towards Kalarel, taking everyone in the room by surprise. Ruhsbaar was the first to recover from the paladin's sudden movement, and he leaped gracefully after the tiefling.

The rest of the party dropped into what turned out to be a shallow pool of blood. Vaunea felt a cold precision flow through her as she poured a bit of her spirit into the catcher, and loosed arrow after arrow felling skeletons with each one. Rolen shouted for everyone to try and reach Kalarel before he could unleash any unholy magics, the words leaving his voice just as Daelius reached him. The paladin had outdistanced his support, though, and the skeletons nearest Kalarel quickly closed on him and savagely attacked him, nearly killing him before help arrived.

The skeletons and pair of wights from the opposite end of the room began closing on the party from behind and Baelfius turned to face them with Galstaff at his back. Hammer and fire rang out but the pair of heroes found they were out matched and the tiefling's courage snapped as one of the wights unleashed a terrible necrotic blow upon him. As he fled one of the wights descended on the exposed Galstaff while the other moved to nearby skeletons and with a ray of necrotic energy began reanimating them.

The immediate foes assisting Kalarel defeated, the rest of the party began besieging him from all sides, even Rolen rushed forward with his sword to keep Kalarel on the defensive. Finding himself cornered, Kalarel touched the amulet around his neck and a glow began slowly to encompass his entire body. Fizzwig, previously distracted by sampling some scrolls he had found on the altar saw a shiny object becoming even shinier and leaped toward Kalarel, grabbing the amulet. With a sudden flash of light both of them disappeared and then reappeared in the center of the arcane circle by the dark portal. The portal's surface began to writhe and a soft whispher of could be heard by the shocked gnome. He began shuffling towards the portal, ignoring the shouts of his companions.

Baelfius and Galstaff were the closest to the gnome, but the wight continued to subdue the tieflings will and pin Galstaff down with bolts of energy as his own blood joined the pool on the floor. As the rest of the party rushed to reengage Kalarel, Vaunea continued sending arrow after arrow toward the wights, one, two, three hits in a row bringing their attention to her before she destroyed the on reanimating skeletons. Emboldened by this display, Baelfius let out a shuddering breath and brought his hammer high above his head before slaying the remaining wight which had been filling his mind with terror.

All eyes turned towards Kalarel and the portal, and the arcane circle had begun pulsing in time with Kalarel's renewed chanting. The surface of the portal exploded into a blaze of motions as shadowy tentacles shot towards Fizzwig, who finally recognized the danger and dove out of the way. Daelius closed in and knocked Kalarel out of the circle and towards the portal, crying out to Bahamut as he did so. A burst of divine energy came out of the statue of Bahamut's jaws and struck the portal in it center, covering the surface with a weak forcefield. A deep roar sounded from within the portal and the tentacles continued to grasp outwards, finally managing to catch Daelius, Kalarel and Ruhsbaar as the did battle just outside of it.

Prayers from the party mingled with arcane mumblings from Fizzwig and Galstaff as they hovered over the arcane circle, trying to undo its magic. The divine beam continued to grow in strength, and the tentacles, still holding their prey began to retract within the portal. Rolen, Baelfius and Fizzwig lunged for the monk and managed to pull him free, but both Daelius and Kalarel slipped closer and closer to the portal. Daelius, sensing an opportunity to drive Kalarel's evil from the world shouted out to the gods, offering his life as a sacrifice to also destroy Kalarel as he grasped Kalarel's arm. The divine energy covering the surface of the portal began to solidify, and the roar came again though slightly muffled now.

With a last dive everyone grabbed what parts of Daelius they could and with a final heave they managed to wrest him and Kalarel out of the tentacle's grasp just as the portal was sealed. Kalarel found himself surrounded with nowhere to run, but the party was not taking any chances and blade, hammer and magic flew into him from all sides until he ceased moving. Silence descended, broken only by the periodic drips of blood still falling from the temple above.

---

OOC
We are going to have a (short?) wrap-up session this upcoming Sunday, so let me know ahead of time if there is anything specific that you want dealt with before the campaign ends. As I have mentioned before, I am going to be taking a break from DMing so if someone else wants to jump in and run a campaign now is the time to speak!

Experience

• 220xp (1540/7) for the defeat of Kalarel, the skeletons and wights

Loot

• Enchanted amulet, daily ritual to return those in contact to a previously prepared arcane circle

• Magic dagger resting on the altar

  • +2 to attack and damage rolls

  • +1d6 damage on a critical hit

• Two elven cloaks on the deceased wraiths

  • +2 enhancement bonus to Fortitude, Reflex and Will defenses

  • +2 to Stealth checks

For the final disposition of gold/loot, I need to know the following:

• Did anyone want to claim the five red gems from Episode 9? I need to appraise their value.
• Did anyone claim the potion of healing from Episode 9?
• We found two elven cloaks (+2 will/fort/ref, +2 stealth); who claims them?
• Any final objections to disenchanting Kalarel's Warlock rod and splitting the gold from selling the magical components?
• Please confirm if Fizzwig claimed the magic dagger from Kalarel.
• Daelius refuses his share of Ruhsbaar's loot.
• Please confirm if Baelfius received the large dragon shield. I need an appraisal for it.
• I need an appraisal from the silver dragon figurine.
• Remind me who took the hide armor from episode 6.
• Doesn't Daelius need to return the Sword of Aecris?

Daelius received the large Dragon shield.
I think Daelius took a Bahamut dragon statue as a holy symbol.
I will gladly RP some conversation with Sir Keagen about what to do with the sword. Currently Daelius still has it.
One of the cloaks would definitely help Daelius as a defender. However if I do not plan on continuing full time with you guys someone else can take one.

As for gold, just let me know how much Daelius would have received and I will go forward with that. Hopefully it is more than zero

Ruhsbaar would like to claim one of the elven.... nevermind.