Takar fed Devin a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds to get him back on his feet. Just then, Thord and Phillipe arrived, and joined the fight. Khalib reacted by summoning a reptilian/insect creature, though Devin and Zacartas were able to kill it quickly, before it did anything particularly nasty to us.

Phillipe cast Greater Dispell Magic on Khalib, which successfully removed four of his protections. Khalib put up a Wall of Force to protect himself from us, but Zacartas removed it with Disintegrate, quickly following it up with an Acid Pit, which Khalib deftly avoided falling into.

Phillipe then attacked the rune giant, after getting a Fly spell cast on him by Roy. Unfortunately, the giant hit him hard, reducing his dexterity. The giant got a few more strong hits on Phillipe, killing him, and then tossed his body right into the pit of acid. Not long after, Gulnyr killed Khalib, Takar finished off the last of the cloud giants, and Thord killed the rune giant.

With this epic battle concluded, we regrouped and pressed on. Zacartas cast Temporary Resurrection to bring back Phillipe, while Ash scouted ahead, deeper into the great hall. She found Khalib’s quarters, which we searched and looted. At the end of the hall was a giant golden statue of Karzoug, missing its weapon. A set of golden doors stood on the far wall, blocked by an energy curtain. A burning brazier stood nearby, as well as a large stone pagoda.

Takar cautiously approached the pagoda, and activated his Tremorsense to see if anyone was inside it. A Shemhazian Demon, who had been waiting invisibly nearby, turned visible and bit Takar, reducing his strength. Before Takar could get away, it attacked him several more times, draining more of his strength. Meanwhile, Ash was paralyzed by its gaze. Gulnyr and Phillipe fought the creature, while Devin channeled energy at it, and they brought it down. Devin then restored Takar’s strength.

We searched the pagoda. Inside was Karzoug’s sarcophagus, flanked by two statues of him. The sarcophagus was empty, and we found nothing else of interest.

Zacartas cast Disintegrate on the curtain of force in front of the golden doors, but it failed to remove it, and the curtain instead reflected a blast of force back at him. Phillipe tried to put out the brazier by pouring water on it, but it remained lit. He then threw the brazier at the force curtain, but it once again sent a blast of force back at him. Thord then broke through the force curtain by punching it repeatedly with runeforge-enhanced attacks.

We opened the door. In the room beyond were Lucretia, another lamia called Most High Ceoptra, and three cloud giants. At the back of the room was a giant rotating sphere, which Ceoptra referred to as the “Anima Focus“. As we entered the room, the cloud giants created fog clouds, and Ceoptra cast Blade Barrier around herself. Lucretia surrounded Ash with a miasma of wailing faces.

Gulnyr killed one of the cloud giants, and Zacartas summoned a fire elemental to assist us. Then he dispelled one of the fog clouds. After we killed a second cloud giant, Devin cast Greater Dispell Magic on Ceoptra, removing some of her protections. Meanwhile, Ceoptra telekinetically flung Roy into her blade barrier.

We killed the last cloud giant. Lucretia used Dimension Door to get next to Takar, and drained some of his wisdom with an attack. Zacartas meanwhile dispelled Ceoptra’s Blade Barrier. Devin cast Greater Dispell Magic on Lucretia, but it had no effect on her, because she had Mythic power. Ceoptra became ethereal, but we killed her. With only Lucretia left, we concentrated our attacks on her. When she was almost dead, she teleported away. Right before doing so, she said that this would be our last time encountering her, and urged us to kill Karzoug, because he would be angry with her.