Our heroes can sense life inside the golden sphere, as well as the strong magical pull from a powerful artifact. Trace uses his sword, which isn’t blurry like the rest of his vision, to see if it has any effect on the sphere. As the tip presses into the surface, waves of energy flow from it. They begin to peel back the sphere’s surface, leaving behind a planar gate.
Is this is? Is this where Karzoug has been hiding out? Instead of immediately entering the gate, the party weighs their options. One of their secondary objectives is to destroy or disable the Leng device, per the request of the mysterious Leng spiders. With El-Hadeen as an ally, perhaps now is the time to check that off the list.
El-Hadeen casts Dimensional Lock on the planar gate they created before leading them back through the Pinnacle. She leads them through the room where they fought Moniker, continuing down a side hallway that hadn’t been investigated yet. Twice on the way, an image of Karzoug attacks. Krask’s instincts are too savvy, however, and he instantly dispatches the images with his dominant bow.
Finally, the party arrives at a set of jet-black double doors inscribed with Aklo runes. On the other side, eleven Denizens of Leng are working amidst cables, cylinders, and crates, all of which are feeding into a massive stone ring on the far wall. Through the ring, the party makes out a scene from the height of Xin-Shalast’s glory, complete with neat rows of armored giants.
Fyn goes invisible before casting a Prismatic Spray on the entire room. This inflicts some minor damage thanks to the poison immunity and various resistances, but he does manage to send one of the Denizens to an entirely different plane. The Denizens barely have time to react before their numbers are decimated. Between Fobias and El-Hadeen, three instances of Fire Snake are conjured up, which tear through the Denizens with ease.
With each death, a burst of light erupts from the Leng Device, accompanied by a high-pitched whine. It intensifies as the Denizens are snuffed out, one by one.
Eventually, the image in the ring is nothing more than static, as the decide is mostly disabled. Not wanting to take any chances with this time magic, the party spends some time destroying and dismantling as much of the remaining device as they can. Richard even gets in on the action, using his huge size to crack the stone ring in half.
Satisfied, they make their way back to the golden sphere and begin to prepare themselves for what might be the confrontation with Karzoug!
Is the Runelord waiting inside the demiplane? Can the remains of the Leng Device be salvaged? Is this adventure finally nearing its end?!