The heroes have gained notice from the cult leaders and are assembled at the base of the temple stairs to partake in a ceremony called the Rite of the Eye. Two men give each party member a sunrod and point them toward the entrance of the temple. As the adventurers begin ascending there is a disturbance coming from the crowd behind. Riding into the camp is a figure on a horse screaming “Stop them, kill the heathens!” Upon closer examination the party recognizes the rider as the final doppleganger that got away. (see Heathen – Session 2)

The party rushes up the stairs and slams the temple doors shut as arrows fly by them. Render, aided by the rest of the party, bars the door. As the doors shut there is a bright glow from them and a loud boom as two set of door up on a landing slam shut. 

After catching their breath the adventurers examine their surroundings. The walls are covered in glyphs that none of the heroes can understand. There is a set of stairs up to a landing which has two sets of double doors on it. After searching the room for a way to open the doors and a few attempts at breaking them in, the party finally bashes the doors down. 

The room beyond the doors has a few large sets of plate mail armor. One of the walls is crumbling and it looks as though a few suits of armor have crashed to the ground. Donaar steps into the room and three of the suits of armor begin to move. The party begins to go back through the door hoping to create a bottleneck for the constructs. Auidar casts Wall of Thorns next to two of them pinning them in a far section of the room. Meanwhile Tony unloads on the last one that approaches the party hitting him 3 times. Suddenly a wave of magical energy emits from one of the suits. Donaar and Tony cannot move and are stuck in the room. They continue to hit the armor construct that is not pinned across the room and it falls. The last suit of armor jabs a long large halberd over the wall of thorns and hits Donaar. 

Render grabs Tony and places him out of the armor’s reach. Donaar is able to move again and backs out of range too. With no targets the armor constructs move through the wall of thorns and pursue the attackers. Render and Donaar rush in with ranged support from Tony and Auidar to make quick work of the constructs. Searching the room Auidar notices a secret door and the party proceeds into a large hall. 

The hall is decorated by a large mosaic and the far end has collapsed. The heroes see a few beautiful gems in the mosaic and Tony pries a few loose. There is a set of double doors leaving the hall and with no other exits the adventurers open them.

The doors open to a set of stairs that go into a room with half walls and curtains. As the party reaches the bottom step they are surprised as three walls collapse and they see three huge zombies rushing at them. Orsik and Donaar are able to pummel one zombie who strikes back at Donaar with amazing force. Render comes over to help land a final blow while Auidar and Tony begin knocking another one down to size. As Render, Orsik and Donaar turn their attention to the last zombie they hear something from behind them. The first one they put down has gotten up and again swings at Donaar hitting him and knocking him unconscious. Auidar, in rat form, attempts to bite the second on that goes down hoping to keep him on the ground. Much to his dismay the biting does little and the second huge zombie rises as well.

Shortly after the first one is taken down again the heroes realize the zombies do not continue to get up, but stay dead after they are knocked out a second time. The party finishes off the three zombies then heal up and get ready to continue through the temple.

DM Notes:
The first encounter was fun because of the reach and immobilization aura of the armor. The damage output if the armor seemed too low and the additional damage for being next to the door is rare to come into play.

This second encounter was fun and offered a much bigger challenge to the PCs. I forgot to see if walls that fall hit the PCs for a few rounds (representing the ceiling falling) and only rolled attacks for the walls on the first round. The zombies put out a lot of damage and I think the PCs could tell getting hit a few times could knock most of them out.