Still in the Frozen Medusa Halls, at the beginning of the game the party was talking and Bardman heard enemies coming. Due to Alaise’ sword, the enemies did not surprise them (anyone in 30 feet of Alaise is immune to surprise). The two Orc assassins were surprised that the party wasn’t surprised, cast darkness and went to attack. Bardman cast Conjure woodland creatures, summoning 8 wolves who proceeded to beat up on the two assassins pretty quickly. One attempted to flee, but was chased down by wolves. The wolves proceeded to the next room where they were assaulted by a thunder wave. They attacked nearby orcs, but were quickly cut down. A darkness was thrown in the room, where the party began fighting unseeable attackers. Helios went into the darkness, tossing a fireball into the mix. At this point, both the party, and the remaining assassins seemed to break off for a minute, with healing happening on the party’s end. The assassins then came back, taking another room, the spellcaster getting a grease spell off, and then pushing the party back into the cavern area. During this time, the party was getting trounced, with Alaise and Asher both getting drug out of the greased/dark area. Helios tossed another fireball (only hitting the spellcaster) before retreating himself by way of falling on his butt as well. Another darkness was cast on the party in the cavern, with the spellcaster now to the north giving up the grease spell and using a flaming sphere on the party. Asher (I think it was) killed one of the assassins and moved as far as he could to the south to engage the enemy, with Helios coming after him. Asher ran into another creature in the darkness wielding a greataxe, some kind of arrogant warchief. Asher and Helios began to duke it out with the warchief, who yelled to the assassins “Take out the healer, I’ve got these two.” While Alaise and Thokoli took on the spellcaster and the remaining assassins. After Asher was downed, Helios went toe to toe with the warchief for two rounds while Thokoli and Alaise took down the spellcaster and distracted one of the assassins so Bardman could make it southward. The whole time Asher and Helios had been fighting the Warchief, they had been hearing and feeling booms from the next room, along with sounds of fighting and panic from that room. After healing Thokoli from losing 2 death saves (previously Asher had also been down that low), Bardman made his way south to follow Helios and Asher. Helios, roaring at the Warchief, heard a goblin voice from the room to west say, “Helios? Is that you?” He recognized the voice as Nuggle. When he called back, he could hear the voice of both Reeta and Gillia outside as well. The next turn, one of them yelled, “Let down the firewall, Helios”, which had been covering the room to his south (he used it to burn the warchief). By this point, Asher had gone down a couple more times, but Helios and Asher had managed to do around 100 points of damage to him. Gillia and Reeta came into the darkness, hitting 3 times each and doing around 30 damage total thanks to sneak attack. As Alaise finished off the next to last assassin and bardman healed Asher, the darkness surrounding the warchief, Asher, Bardman, Helios, Reeta, and Gillia dropped and Helios could see a beaten and battered Nuggle off to the south, waiting for his chance. With the darkness dropped, he released a 1st level magic missile, felling the warchief. Alaise and Thokoli chased down the remaining assassin. Healing up and entering the next room, they could see a single surviving Shuror Guide, and two surviving escaped slaves from Corrive, all of whom had apparently traveled with Reeta, Gillia, and Nuggle to come find the party. In their number, standing by the giant statue of a goddess, was a dwarf in heavy furs hands bound but held aloft, with stormclouds in the high vaulted ceilings and lightning come from her milky white eyes and also arcing around her hands. In the giant hall were scorched and dead bodies of orcs and two ogres killed by a mixture of lightning and daggers. Asher was aggressive at first, but Reeta said, “Bardman, Alaise, Helios, we suggest you tell your red friend to lower his axe.” The dwarf turned to them, and Helios approached, enamored by this elemental master, and offered to cut her hands that were still bound. She offered her bindings to him while the storm dissipated and her eyes turned normal. She proceeded to touch Helios on the cheek and heal him. After looking at him with a fascinating look, she proceeded towards Asher, also looking at him curiously. While walking past Helios, she was repeating under her breath, “Tiefling. Tiefling. Tiefling” as if trying to figure out the pronunciation. She then healed Asher. Between her and Bardman, they began to heal up the entire group of them, still alive but wounded and exhausted. After Bardman healed the dwarf, Thokoli went off to the southeast to investigate the vault door, that he finally got open. Alaise and Bardman joined him in the room. Asher and Helios remained out in the hall of frozen/broken medusa statues with the corpses of orcs, ogres, and some escaped slaves and Shuror guides who didn't make it, along with those who did, Reeta, Gillia, Nuggle, and the dwarf healer/lightning summoner.
