The team decides to explore the room a little more when they are jumped by 2 orcish half-constructs, which they reasonably quickly dispatch. They continue to explore, finding a room full of black tentacles cast by the cagewright Thifirane Rhiavadi. Elanor gets caught up in the tentacles, and Melgarin casts Benign Transposition to get her out. Immediately after that, Thifirane casts Force Cage.

Forcecage
Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: Barred cage (20-ft. cube) or windowless cell (10-ft. cube)
Duration: 2 hours/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This powerful spell brings into being an immobile, invisible cubical prison composed of either bars of force or solid walls of force (your choice).
Creatures within the area are caught and contained unless they are too big to fit inside, in which case the spell automatically fails. Teleportation and other forms of astral travel provide a means of escape, but the force walls or bars extend into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel.
Like a wall of force spell, a forcecage resists dispel magic, but it is vulnerable to a disintegrate spell, and it can be destroyed by a sphere of annihilation or a rod of cancellation.

Barred Cage
This version of the spell produces a 20-foot cube made of bands of force (similar to a wall of force spell) for bars. The bands are a half-inch wide, with half-inch gaps between them. Any creature capable of passing through such a small space can escape; others are confined. You can’t attack a creature in a barred cage with a weapon unless the weapon can fit between the gaps. Even against such weapons (including arrows and similar ranged attacks), a creature in the barred cage has cover. All spells and breath weapons can pass through the gaps in the bars.

Windowless Cell
This version of the spell produces a 10-foot cube with no way in and no way out. Solid walls of force form its six sides.

Material Component
Ruby dust worth 1,500 gp, which is tossed into the air and disappears when you cast the spell.

Hilde immediately disintigrates it, so Thifirane casts a Wall of Force

A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force. The wall cannot move, it is immune to damage of all kinds, and it is unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually get around the wall by floating under or over it through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force.
The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level. The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, the spell fails.
Wall of force can be made permanent with a permanency spell.

In an attempt to get line of sight on whatever is casting the spells, Hilde comes upon a giant snake. She then makes her way to the room with Melgarin and Loskid, obliterating the Wall of Force. Melgarin puts on his mask and sees Thifirane, walking over to her. She realizes she's been seen and casts Ray of Inflict Moderate Wounds from the beholder eye grafted onto her head, before casting “go ethereal” and disappears. Melgarin explores a little and finds the snake that Hilde had encountered. He attacks it and figures out that it's more the “idea” of a snake. He then heads back to the rotating statue. The group rotates the statue a few different directions, eventually triggering the wall behind it to rise, revealing a giant crystalline snake. The team starts whooping up on the snake, before “Mhad” and a Dread Wraith enter the fray. They finally whittle down the crystalline snake, and it shatters as it dies, then self-destructs significantly hurting the party.

Shackled City Home
Last time: Session 83
Next time: Session 85