(Can Sekkar see "dark shadowy things"?)

The memories the creature awoke were not pleasant but useful. Sekkar was particularly happy to summon Dawnbringer into action!

BA: sword activation

1. Attack: 16 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.
2. Attack: 27 Damage: 10
Ambusher: Attack: 17 Damage: 14 + 4

Sneak attack (if Pax in melee or not adjusted to Sekkar's space) 6

All damage is radiant.

INT save: 18

The shadowy demons didn't even see Sekkar coming. The first they knew of the invisible stalker was when Dawnbringer blazed into view, shedding a brilliance they had never before conceived of. Before they even knew what the source of the hated light was, Sekkar had cut down one of the demons, the bright blade slicing through and dissolving the shadowy substance of the demon, and severely damaging the other. Shortly after, Kirin pops his head out of the trapdoor and sends his psychic spike at the remaining demon, which screeches in pain, not used to having its own tactics used against it. Afraid for the first time in its existence, the demon turns to flee, but a couple of quick retaliatory strikes from Pax and Sekkar are too much for it, and it also dissolves out of existence.

Downstairs, Rhayna checks out the skeleton. The anatomy is that of a human female, possibly the owner of the tower. Evidently the structure was insufficient protection against whatever caused her demise. None of her possessions remain, and only flaky scraps of rotted cloth surround the bones. However, hidden under the pelvis is a small slender steel scroll case, inside of which is a half-crumbling-but-still-intact spell scroll. 

(It is a wizard spell scroll containing the sixth-level spell Globe of Invulnerability)

Pax grunts as the shadows are slain. She casts a minor spell, dusting herself off.  "Thanks for the assist," she says to Sekkar and Kirin, as a cloud of dark shadows swirl around the armored girl.  She looks around up here, but finding nothing ends up downstairs with the others. "So, it's a magical tower that we can take with us?  Well, that sounds rather fantastic. I think it's a little early to be stopping for a rest though. Maybe we just double check nothing is up on the roof, then we try to collapse the thing? Kaylyn, will you do the honors and carry this thing?"  

"This seem useful if we are able to gain ownership of this. Make me regard Tiny's Hut inscription but hindsight and all that," Kirin runs his hand across the fortress as he sorts through memories, "Can you remove the body from the fortress? Maybe we can start trying to shrink it as we can't with someone inside, not sure how dead or alive is a condition,"

"Right." Sekkar did not expect the bookish elf to be capable of hauling an obviously heavy skeleton out. The lizardman picked up the bones and brought them outside (or at least tried it, expecting every trap that could assault intruders here to already be sprung). The fortress did look like a useful thing - to rest, to block a passage, to... Well, he was sure the creative ideas will come on the way.  

After Sekkar removes the body of the previous owner, Rhayna checks to make sure that no one else is within the metal tower. With the place clear, she says the command word "brillig".

Sure enough, once the tower is cleared of the bones and debris, and with the group standing outside, the command word is spoken and with a few odd grinding noises, the tower folds in on itself over and over and over until only a dense metal cube lies on the cave floor. Vizeran stands nearby silently watching with great curiosity, and Sekkar notices the drow taking careful note of which party member takes possession of the cube.

(Let me know if anyone wants to do anything else, otherwise I'm going to carry on...)

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With the group still in good health and spirits, the journey resumes. After leaving the cliff-face, the sounds of the hunt resume their echoing chase through the tunnels, gradually growing louder, until they are soon accompanied by different clues... the pungent stench of gnoll, patches of blood, fur or ichor on the ground, scratch marks on the walls... and a horrible sense of dread. Still keeping as much out of the main thoroughfares as possible, the group try a few more narrow passages, finally emerging from a thin tunnel onto a small ledge overlooking a large cavern. The area is partially lit by the unmistakable harsh red glow of lava that remains unseen deep in a narrow chasm that runs through the middle of the cave.

No sooner do they gain sight of the cavern below when the sounds of pursuit grow louder. Suddenly, a huge demon bursts into the chamber - similar in look to the minotaurs so recently slain, but twice the size and more animal-like, with red glowing eyes and cloven feet. This must be the goristro which the modron was leading the group toward! Hot on its heels is a large pack of gnolls and hyenas, who take the opportunity of the wider cavern to surround the goristro, barring its escape. It begins to swing its massive arms at the gnolls, sending them flying against the cavern walls, but although the gnolls and hyenas are so much smaller, still their numbers are so great that it appears they may just triumph.

Then another being enters the cavern... a figure of fearful fiendish countenance, twelve feet tall with the head of a snarling, amber-eyed hyena. He wields a massive triple flail, the whirling heads emitting a dreadful discordant drone as the creature begins to swing the weapon rapidly. Then with a powerful roar, the being bounds into the center of the conflict, smashing the flail into the much larger goristro. The gnolls howl their master’s name as he strikes swiftly, again and again: “Yeenoghu! Yeenoghu!”

The goristro roars, slashing with its bull’s horns and flailing with its claws, spraying the demon lord's blood across the cave, but to no avail. Yeenoghu shrugs off its attacks, continuing to slam it with the flail with a violence more vicious than anything the group has ever witnessed. As the goristro begins to falter, the gnolls swarm over it and bring it crashing to the ground. The battle is won. The demon lord Yeenoghu pulls back the goristro’s head by the horns and rips out its throat with his teeth. He throws back his head and his howl of triumph echoes through the chamber, shaking the stones themselves. Several hyenas nipping at Yeenoghu’s heels leap onto the goristro’s corpse and begin feasting on its flesh. As you watch, these hyenas transform into gnolls. With the goristro's gore still hanging from his mouth, Yeenoghu pumps his claws in the air, calling out something to his minions that none in the group understand, save perhaps for one name... 

Tloo! Ha re tsomeng lintja tsa Baphomet!

...and the pack prepares to move out of the cavern, leaving just a handful of gnolls feasting on the corpse.

As the battle is witnesses, the dark shadows around Pax swell as she casts a spell to protect herself, ice flakes sparkling in the air around her. 

(Armor of Agathys at 4th level. 20 temporary hps, 8 ward hps. She also used her 2nd wind previously to heal her wounds.) 

In an urgent whisper, Pax says, "We need the things heart. If those monsters eat it we'll be no closer to getting one, obviously. As soon as Yeenoghu is gone, we need to get down there and get it. Can anyone create some silence near the exit where they're leaving, so that when we attack the demon doesn't simply return?" 

How far down is it to the cavern floor?  How far to the body? Do we have to cross the chasm to get to it? "I can take myself and one other...Sekkar....straight to the body if we need to."

Kirin tries to keep himself hidden as he keep an eye where the hunting party depart from, "Just give a signal if you need some fireworks," Kirin whispers.  

(Perhaps a little Confusion might come in handy? Cast @5th lvl.)

"Do it!" Sekkar stepped closer to Pax to be teleported and spoke in a hissing whisper. "Can cover us  (Pass without Trace or pretend to be a gnoll if needed, but some Confusion sure can come handy to clear the path. I'd still let them get out first. Do not like that "Baphomet" chanting".

"Rhayna, wait for the demon lord to leave.  We can then move in.  I can cast silence so that the leaving forces do not hear anything and return.  We can then take care of the gnolls."

Kaylyn waits for the demon lord and its minions to leave the cavern and then casts the spell in the mouth of the door to prevent the sound of battle from reaching the creatures and drawing them back.

The goristro corpse is just over a hundred feet away, with the 20-foot-wide lava chasm just beyond the corpse. Yeenoghu and the majority of the pack are still in a blood frenzy and race out through the side tunnel in search of more of Baphomet's minions, leaving the way open to harvest the goristro's heart with only a half-dozen gnolls to deal with. While the group are preparing to attack, they notice another large demon crawl out of the chasm (the demonologists identify it as a nalfeshnee), but with the gnolls engrossed in their feast they don't notice it disappear out the side tunnel which the gnolls entered through, seemingly in an attempt to escape the hunters. What it was doing hiding in the chasm isn't clear from this vantage point.

The plan is drawn and put into action. Sekkar casts Pass without Trace on the majority of the group so they can more easily approach the goristo undetected. Kaylyn casts Silence on the tunnel entrance, with Vizeran backing it up with a Wall of Force just to make sure. Rhayna creeps close enough to cast Confusion at the gnolls, who all start either wandering away from their meal or fighting with each other. Pax teleports into the fray with Sekkar, and with the help of Kirin's mind-spiking magic from afar, they make short work of the gnolls. Vizeran shows uncharacteristic excitement at having obtained one of the important components of the spell, and starts giving directions on extracting the goristro's heart, apparently unwilling to get his own hands dirty in the process. He does however send invisible Kleve down the entrance passage (following after the nalfeshnee) to search for and harvest the last few timmasks that should be sprouting in the wake of the goristro's passing.

With the baying of the gnolls silenced, as well as Kaylyn's spell eliminating further noise from the tunnels, a quiet calm descends on the cavern, punctured only by the squelching sounds of the heart being harvested, and one other new noise: a whirring and ticking coming from the chasm that scars the floor of the cavern. Rhayna wanders over and peers down into the cavern, and sees something that she recognises from her visions of the future: a large spherical device is lodged partway down the chasm, suspended above the bubbling magma far below. It's a 20-foot-diameter sphere built of 1-foot-wide bands of bronze-coloured metal, engraved with arcane symbols. Gaps in the bands show various gears and articulation arms within the sphere, which rotate and shift to represent the relationships between the various known planes of existence. Seeing the mechanical device also reminds Rhayna of something the modrons mentioned, and she thinks back on what they said...

After the situation is expertly handled by the group, Rhayna approaches the dead Goristro, excited for the prospect of examining another specimen, a great demon no least. With the quietness descending upon the cavern, the Cleric hears something that sounds familiar. She wanders to the source of the whirring and ticking, and gasps as she sights it. She was foretold of the device in Gravenhollow. The mechanical device referred to as "The Maze Engine", and from what she understood, this device could alter reality. However, Modron Cosine-5978-Beta-12 referred to it as an "Orderer" and that it is malfunctioning. She wonders now if the Tridone was warning her of this device instead of the Goristro.

"Friends, please give me a moment." Rhayna sits down by the cliff, near the mechanical device, and crosses her legs. She takes out the Stonespeaker Crystal, placing it in front of her, then she starts to meditate. Rhayna casts Legend Lore in search for information regarding this "Maze Engine", specifically the one in front of the group.

Rhayna scribbles down the arcane symbols, and sketches as much of the mechanism as she can from her vantage point. But with most of the light coming from below the apparatus, it is largely cast in shadow. If only she could get closer. And it looks from here like those gears there would activate if only that spindle there were inserted into... yes, that shaft on the side would need to move laterally first, but that would take... hmmm, probably would need to rotate that gyro and then drop that lever... Rhayna thinks perhaps if she could climb down to the machine she might be able to activate it. What did the modrons call it? Orderer? If it truly was a product of Mechanus, then it could be immensely powerful indeed. But by the same token it could be immensely dangerous...

Rhayna is so engrossed with studding this extraordinary mechanical device, that she forgets about everything else around her. The dead Goristro, and even her companions. As she notes the latest entry into her Journal, she starts to talk out loud to herself. "Maybe if I could get to that spot, over there, I should be able to..." She double checks her notes, and confirms the plan of action in her head. She puts away her Journal, and she dons on a new pair of climbing gloves she purchased from Gravenhollow's souvenir shop. (Just kidding on the last part) She makes sure that her haversack is securely fastened, cracks her knuckles, fixes her spectacles, and starts to descend to the machine...

Pax walks over to the edge and looks down, then glances at Rhayna putting on her climbing gloves. "Um, that's dangerous. Let me do it. I'll bring it back up."

She casts Fly on herself and then hovers over the edge and descends towards the thing. The thing looks...complex, and...likely dangerous. Pax takes a deep breath before attempting to grab the thing with her gloves and haul it back up.  

(I didn't get a good idea of how large it is, but If it's much too large for her to carry, then instead she'll cast Fly on Rhayna, but first.... 

"But, Rhayna, before we go further. What is this thing? What does it do? Are you planning on activating it?"  )

Sekkar did not mind getting his hands dirty (they could be licked clean afterwards easily) so the heart was extracted easily enough even if the draw presence more irritated than helped. Sekkar did not forget to warn anyone who hold the folded Fortress to keep a close eye on it, since the draw and his pet were definitely wanting the thing, and he watched the man himself too. Once the interesting distraction in form of autopsy ended, he joined others studying the mechanism. But only to glance - even if that machine could change reality (like what? Send all demons back to hell?) he would not be the one operating it (that's the word, right?), so, he was watching more understandable and dangerous object - the draw.

Indeed a cursory glance is sufficient to see that the mechanism is much too large to lift. It probably weighs in excess of two tons.

If Rhayna accepts Pax's Fly spell, then she can reach the machine without a check, otherwise, please make a DC 12 Athletics check.

Rhayna looks at Pax with a “What do you mean?” Face. “Ohh that?? Well, I believe it is called The Maze Engine, and it was mentioned by the Modrons that this device would be here. I just communed with the Goddess, and I believe that I can fix it. It’s quite simple, actually, as long as you know what needs to fixed, of course. My understanding is that this mechanical device is supposed to alters reality, very powerful stuff, and the Modrons also mentioned that it is malfunctioning. Perhaps, we can fix it, and let it do what is supposed to do…” She looks down at the device, and points to Pax where she needs to go. “Over there, do you see that spindle? It needs to go… If only there was an easy way for me to get down there…” (Rhayna will gladly take on Pax’s offer.)