"I guess we'll just have to leave it for now." he says as he walks across to Ayas, and starts to lay him straight and check hs body over.  "Does any one kow anything about him?  His family, or where he came from?"  As he asks, he starts to remove anythinng of value, or that might be magical from the body.  "Can't leave anything behind that the Drow can use and, when we are done here, we should take his body back into the world for a proper burial."

None of you, even Yetta who's suggestion it was, has any great desire to behead one corpse, let alone so many.  Hamin joins his daughter to attend to poor fallen Ayas, methodically beginning to strip his body of anything that your foe might make use of, the staff being the most obvious as the one-eyed warrior tries to recall what other items the Elf was able to reclaim from the store above Habmor’Anto prison.

Meanwhile Brugar continues to do much the same, setting aside the items he has recovered from the body of the Drow priestess to be distributed amongst you, including the bone scroll case which, to his disgust, contains only two pieces of parchment covered with the unmistakeable and incomprehensible markings of magic.

As the Dwarf begins to unbuckle the straps on the valuable armour that encases the body, he is interrupted as the dark depths of the well beside him begin to stir, swiftly building before his eyes into a roiling whirlpool ...

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Brugar takes one look at the whirlpool and curses loudly. He quickly scoops up the morningstar, wand and scroll and scurries over to join the others beside Ayas's body.

Sighing, Hamin prepares himself and moves forwards until he is level with Brugar.  However, her keeps some distance away from the Dwarf, hoping to set up a flanking position.

Brugar quickly makes his way over to where Yetta stands poised with her blade over Ayas's body, as Hamin circles around, all eyes fixed upon the violent whirlpool that engulfs the well ...

... a roiling mass of darkness and corruption erupts from the depths, hovering above the well. It is twice the size of the first, and exudes the same chill aura and stench of rot, though whether it is the same one now grown or this is yet another of the creatures, you cannot discern.  As you watch, the constantly shifting cloud resolves, as did the one before, into a vaguely humanoid form that floats menacingly in the upper reaches of the temple.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Brugar curses as he sees the size of the thing that has emerged from the well. He is already seriously injured from the previous battle with its smaller cousin.

"Be it time to be leaving?" he suggests reluctantly, as he stows the morningstar, wand and scroll in his bag of holding.

Hamin hadn't realized that Brugar was so badly injured, and it is, perhaps, the first time he has seen the doughty dwarf suggest a retreat.  ""That looks like a stairwell." he says pointing across the temple, "I assume we still need to go down ..."

Like her father, Yetta was unaware of Brugar's injuries. "I have a wand that should heal you," she tells the dwarf, "but we should put some distance between ourselves and that first."

"Stairs it is," she swiftly agrees, without a backward glance. "Let's go!"

"Come on." he says, setting off after his daughter.

As the immense roiling mass begins to drift towards you, you race for the stairs in the adjoining chamber.  Alasha'an, closer than the rest of you to the black cloud of corruption, looks as if she'd prefer to stand and fight ... but joins her companions as your footfalls echo as you cross the dark marble.

The walls of the second chamber, like the first, are covered with rusted weapons that reflect little of the light from the braziers that blaze away in each corner, and the same pervading stench of decaying flesh fills the air, as you reach the wide stone stairs, steps lit, if poorly, by the light from above, and from somewhere below.

With just a backwards glance to confirm that the roiling mass continues to stalk you, you head downwards, careless of your footing, and unable to rest a hand for support on the weapon-clad walls to either side, though thankfully nobody falls as the stairs prove steep yet in good repair.

You descend perhaps sixty feet before the stairs give way to another chamber, its walls still covered in the rusted tools of war. Smaller braziers burn in the corners, and there is a raised and rune-scribed ring of stone that marks the centre of the floor.  Small side chambers are lined with stone sarcophagi, while in the opposite wall hang two doors, with an all too familar round plug of stone, about five feet in diameter, bound with with graven chains embedded in a seal of plaster at its centre.

The shifting darkness gathers at the top of the stairway behind you, slowly moving forward, as if savouring the moment ...

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

”Yetta lass, if Calanor’s blade be the right one, we must break the seal on yonder portal with it. Or maybe Alasha’an’s blade be the right one? Ah’d steer clear of yon magic circle on the way there though. Dunno if we can ‘old this thing ‘ere on the stairs though. T’other one were onto Ayas inna blink of an eye.”

Hamin reacts, but perhaps not in  the way that Brugar expects.  "Heal him." he calls to his daughter, and he makes a break for the seal, skirting around the circle as he goes.  Dropping his polearm, away from the circle, he pulls Calanor's sword from his back and charges towards the seals as fast as he can.

OOC - Double move this round, if there is a second round action he will charge the doors and strike at the seal as soon as he is able.  I am working on the assumption That this is a Great Sword.

10:07, Today: Hamin Carmine rolled 28 using 1d20+16.  hit seal with Calanor's blade (assumes charge).
10:09, Today: Hamin Carmine rolled 12 using 1d10+6 ((6)).

OOC: Brugar is down 98hp, that's about two-thirds of his total hit points. 8 nights of peaceful sleep and he'll be virtually fully healed. Probably not worth poking him with a wand of CLW if that monster is about to attack. Brugar took 48hp damage in one round (two hits) from its smaller cousin.

OOC: a couple of pokes might keep him up for an extra round, and that might just be enough ...

"Keep moving," Yetta tells Brugar with a small smile that holds little humour, pulling the Dwarf along with her around the markings on the floor as she fishes her wand out and speaks the word of command to activate it and heal him.

Yetta pulls the injured Brugar along with her, healing him as they go, and being careful not to cross the circle inscribed upon the stone floor.  Alasha'an trails along behind them, sword out as she warily watches the roiling mass that slowly descends the stone stairwell. 

Striding ahead of his three companions, Hamin has already reached the doorway, but does not pause there, nor look back, as he swiftly drops his polearm to one side and draws Calanor's blade, his hands fastening tight around the pommel as the one-eyed warrior brings the greatsword down hard upon the plaster seal ...

... a loud noise, like a thousand hammers striking anvils in unison assails your ears as the seal shatters, bursting asunder.  The chain drops away, the noise lost amidst the tumult, as the door swings slowly open.  Upon the stairs, the shifting cloud of darkness and corruption pauses ...

The plaster dust swiftly settles, revealing another steep flight of stone stairs leading down, the stench of death and decay somewhat lessened, though the air beyond is foul and stale.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

"Stairs down." Hamin calls, as he heads into the foul air on the staircase, "Come on ...."

"Can we block the door?" Alasha'an calls out, bringing up the rear, her gaze flicking between Yetta and Brugar and the roiling mass following slowly in their wake.

"Would it do any good?" the elf ponders sourly, answering her own question, albeit with another, as she retreats towards the stairs. "We've opened the final portal after a journey lasting hundreds of years.. and we're but seconds from disaster!"

"Dunno, but be worth tryin'," Brugar mutters as he swings the door closed.

He quickly retrieves some iron spikes from his backpack and hammers them in with the side of his blunt battleaxe to wedge the door closed before he follows the others down the stairs.

Of course, if the approaching monster brushes the door open before he can do that, he will abandon the effort and retreat downstairs immediately, or if it is just a tentacle reaching through the doorway he will take the opportunity to lop it off instead.

Asking the dwarf to hold still seems both futile and contraindicated in the circumstances, so Yetta quickly uses her wand to heal Brugar once more while he grabs the spikes from his pack, then drags him away from the door once his work is done.

Hauling the doors closed, Brugar attempts to seal them once more, hammering in steel spikes to prevent them from moving at all, as Yetta tries to heal him.  For a few long seconds, the Dwarf resists her efforts to pull him away, but eventually allows the young woman to drag him off, down the stairs after Hamin and Alasha'an, the one-eyed warrior perhaps a pace or two ahead of the Elf.   

The foul, stale air is almost choking, the ancient stone steps crumbling and uneven beneath your feet, slowing your descent, and though it seems at first that Brugar's handiwork may have stopped the roiling mass, the gathering, swirling shadows that grow in the darkness at the top, proved that the barrier has only slowed it.

Another sixty feet down, down ... and the stairs give out into a chamber running eastwards away from you, an opening just visible at the far end.  Both north and south walls are lined with sarcophagi with but a narrow passage between them.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

With a pang of regret, for the pole-arm dropped at the top of the stairs, Hamin runs straight down the corridor between the sarcophagi, clasping Calanor's sword with both hands.  With the dark mass closing behind them, he has little choice ...

Brugar glances behind him as he follows Yetta down the stairs. He glares at the dark mass following them but doesn’t hesitate to follow the party down the narrow passage between the sarcophagi. His axe and shield are held ready to greet any foe that seeks to slow the party.

Your footsteps echo on the stone as you race down the long hall towards the far opening, lungs burning in the foul air, the cold, ancient stone uncaring as to your fate.

Hamin leads the way, Calanor's blade held before him, the weapon unfamiliar but his grip sure.  Close behind him come Brugar and Yetta, the Dwarf ready to fight, the young woman frustrated in her efforts to heal him.  Last follows Alasha'an, her own dark pitted blade in hand.

You slow as you reach the opening to the east, allowing Yetta the chance to use her wand once more to heal Brugar.  Beyond lies another chamber, smaller than those before, a tall urn in each corner, an opening onto stone stairs in the north wall and a pool in the centre, perhaps ten feet across.

Behind you, at the far end of the sarcophagus-lined hall the roiling mass of corruption gathers, engulfing the west end of the room in darkness ...

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Brugar eyes the pool of water in the centre of the room suspiciously as he makes his way around the western side of the room toward the next set of stairs.