We rested for the night, and those of us who died were resurrected. We returned to the saucer-shaped platform at the Pinnacle of Avarice, stronger than ever. We headed back to the lamia lair, and Ash peeked through the door using her gloves, and saw the gaping maw of a hungerer waiting to devour whoever opened it. We all took positions far back from the door, and Zacartas cast Open on it. We attacked the creature from a distance, but it charged at Takar, who was hovering near the ceiling. Fortunately, we managed to kill it fairly quickly.

We then spent the next hour searching the compound for Lucretia, but did not find her. So we retreated back to the outer curving corridor, and continued following it, until we came to a door. Ash looked through it, and saw a storeroom filled with broken crates. The far wall had a large hole, revealing the sky outside. Ash then opened the door and snuck inside, and saw a Planetar Angel, a winged celestial woman standing nine feet tall. The angel did not see Ash, so Ash retreated, but a moment later, the angel moved into view of the door. Upon seeing the rest of us, she began to weep.

She could not speak, so we asked her yes/no questions. We determined that she was tasked with guarding the opening in the wall, and was kept here by a Greater Plane Binding spell. We learned that killing her would free her, but she was likely too powerful for us to attack without sustaining heavy damage ourselves, since she would be compelled to fight back. Zacartas released her to her home plane by casting Greater Dispell Magic, but it took him three tries to succeed.

We continued along the corridor, and encountered another image of Karzoug. Devin cast Holy Aura to protect us, while Zacartas tried to dispell the image, but failed. Karzoug attacked us with a Fireball spell, and Takar created a wall of roiling earth in front of the image. Karzoug then cast Sign of Wrath on Ash and Gulnyr, but Ash resisted it due to the Holy Aura. Karzoug continued his attack, casting another Fireball, and then Black Tentacles. By the time Takar’s wall went away, Karzoug’s image was gone, so we continued on.

The corridor ended at a door. Beyond was a room with a set of double doors on the right-hand wall, and those doors were covered with runes that appeared to move when not looked at directly. Ash stepped forward to examine them, and suddenly vanished due to a Maze spell. Roy attempted to cast a spell at the door, which caused him to vanish as well, along with Zacartas and Gulnyr. A few moments later, they all returned, and reported having been to Leng.

Ash skillfully disabled the Maze trap on the doors, and then peeked through them using her gloves. However, the view she saw was of Leng, rather than what actually lay behind the doors, so we opened them. Beyond them was a long room, occupied by a dozen alien creatures who were tending to a device embedded in the walls of the room. At the far end was a curtain of energy, showing an image of Xin-Shalast as it existed in the distant past. We realized that this device could bring Karzoug’s ancient army through to the present, and that this was the “Leng device” that the talking spiders on Mharmassif told us to destroy.

We attacked and killed the creatures without much difficulty. As they died, the device gradually lost power, and shut down completely once all enemies were dead. We then tried destroying the device, but were unable to damage it. Suddenly, a giant quadruped with soulless eyes, known as a Hound of Tindalos, emerged from the device and attacked us. It was able to slash our skin with its mere gaze, but we eventually put it down.

We returned to the outer corridor, and went back in the direction we had come from. It took us to a set of doors, behind which lay a cavernous chamber. Two huge doors within the chamber led to a set of rune-giant-sized cubicles, each of which had a giant-shaped indentation. We entered the chamber, and saw that a corridor on the left side curved off into the distance, and was lined with more rune giant cubicles. Gulnyr and Ash ventured forwards, and encountered another image of Karzoug, who put Gulnyr in a Force Cage. We were then attacked by a devil armed with a spiked chain. The battle was later joined by a rune giant, an air elemental, and three cloud giants. Zacartas also spotted an invisible stalker going after Takar. A short while later, Khalib arrived. Zacartas defeated the invisible stalker with a Disintegrate spell. He then tried to stop Khalib by using Black Tentacles, but Khalib was protected by Freedom of Movement. During the fight, Roy killed the elemental, Gulnyr killed the devil, and Devin was knocked out. The battle continues…