Our session begins with Melgarin walking over to the portcullis and spotting a Farastu Demodand.

Following Hilde's disintegration of the portcullis, the demodand emerges only to be hit with a flame strike from Loskid. It then immediately casts a fog spell, and Loskid shoots another flame strike at the last place. Melgarin stands back seemingly powerless. Hilde summons a Avoral which then casts gust of wind to clear the fog. Another demodand emerges, sees Melgarin, and casts Ray of Enfeeblement, making Melgarin a weak POS. Elanor runs in and kills the first Demodand, while Loskid restores Melgarin's strength damage before Melgarin runs up and hits the guy weakly. Hilde's Avoral then casts magic missile and Hilde throws an orb of fire, further denying Melgarin the chance at a kill this day.

Elanor notices two enemies past the portcullis that the Demodand emerged from, and writes on the wall that there's bad guys that-a-way. Melgarin heads that way and notices two baddies waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The first casts a sheet of ice (isolating Melgarin) and steps aside while the other shoots 5 arrows at Melgarin (one of which actually hits). Melgarin charges the one he can see and takes an attack from the one who stepped aside. The second guy steps back and hits Melgarin with a crippling black ray.

You point your finger and utter the incantation, releasing a black ray of crackling negative energy that suppresses the life force of any living creature it strikes. You must make a ranged touch attack to hit. If the attack succeeds, the subject gains 1d4 negative levels.
If the subject has at least as many negative levels as HD, it dies. Each negative level gives a creature a -1 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, ability checks, and effective level (for determining the power, duration, DC, and other details of spells or special abilities).
Additionally, a spellcaster loses one spell or spell slot from his or her highest available level. Negative levels stack.
Assuming the subject survives, it regains lost levels after a number of hours equal to your caster level (maximum 15 hours). Usually, negative levels have a chance of permanently draining the victim’s levels, but the negative levels from enervation don’t last long enough to do so.
An undead creature struck by the ray gains 1d4×5 temporary hit points for 1 hour.

This really makes Melgarin mad. He sees the archer chick () tracing a rune on the egg shaped thing in the room but decides since the other guy hit him with a bolt of energy he's the harder target. He smacks the guy (Viirdran) pretty hard, but doesn't seem to do as much damage as he hoped. His next attack is slightly less successful, but he ends Viirdran's life, turning his focus on the archer, but Hilde quickly dispatches her with an orb of electricity.

Hilde then deciphers the script of the runes in the room. They then loot the guys and find that Viirdran had:

2 rapiers
hand crossbow
silver cage pendant
gloves
ring
bead in pocket
scroll
scroll
scroll
flask of alchemist fire 2
tanglefoot
spell component pouch
spellbook

and the archer chick had:

mythril chain shirt
longsword
longbow
4 quivers (25 arrows each)
silver cage pendant
cloak
bracers
ring
2 potions
spellbook
silver headress

They find a secret passageway up to a balcony and find one baddie (spellweaver) hovering over a prone woman (passed out) laying on a slab apparently casting an invocation. The spellweaver casts a wall of force, and 3 shadows start attacking Melgarin and Loskid. Melgarin dispatches 2 (yay!) and Elanor dispatches 1 but not before they sap a bunch of Melgarin's strength. Hilde floats up to see what's going on. Hilde disintegrates the wall and dispels 2 of the 3 spells from the spellweaver. Then Loskid casts anti-magic field and the group wails on him hard, eliminating him. Hilde enters the anti-magic field and proceeds check on if the chick on the slab is alive. She is, and they decide to drag her out of the dungeon to interrogate her (removing any environmental effects). As they move her, they discover a big ruby under her body. Elanor loots a flask with oil out of one of the urns, and a bead (mica?) from another urn. Hilde glances through the archer's spellbook to find that it's a pretty low-level book. She then glances through Viirdran's spellbook, but by opening it it explodes in her face (like a firecracker). Viirdran was apparently a lower caster than Hilde, and doesn't discover anything really useful in it. They all backtrack to the shatterhorn. Loskid moves away from her body (still in his anti-magic field), holding the ruby, while Hilde, Melgarin, and Elanor surround her. Elanor gives her a potions of cure light wounds and not much happens other than a very slow heartbeat and shallow breathing. Hilde figures out that the ruby has some necromancy going on with it…

Shackled City Home
Last time: Session 86
Next time: Session 88