After killing the zombies at the end of the last session, the adventurers return to the large mosaic. This time Auidar and Tony notice a secret door.  Upon entering the next room Donaar is attack by a human berserker who misses him while a second berserker runs up to him. A hobgoblin commander comes from around the corner and attacks Render while a blazing skeleton on the other side of the room misses him with a blast of fire. Auidar pushes one of the berserkers into a large fissure in the floor using Chill Wind. Unfortunately a hobgoblin warcaster jumps out from behind a wall and uses Force Lure and Donaar is pushed into the hole also.

Render strikes the hobgoblin commander and as quickly as he entered the battle he exits it falling dead. Tony sends arrows at the hobgoblin warcaster while Donaar and the berserker fight it out in the pit.  Orsik helps deal with the second berserker with the aid of Render and the fight begins to go the adventurer’s way. Render rushes the blazing skeleton and finds it uncomfortably hot next to him. He is flanked by the hobgoblin warcaster but not for long as Tony fills him with arrows.

Down in the pit Donaar makes quick work of the human berserker and climbs out. The group concentrates its ranged attacks on the blazing skeleton as Render moves out of melee and the undead creature falls.

Finally after the fight the party notices a figure past the central column in the room. Upon closer inspection they note that it is Jaryn. He stands by a large glowing gem, the Eye of Naarash. He greets the party and invites them to rest and refresh themselves before the end. He evens offers the group a healing drink which Render quickly takes but some others are slow to follow. Auidar takes one but doesn’t drink it. Jaryn talks while pouring the drinks and tells of his new found beliefs and how humanity is doomed. His plan of death offers mercy for those who have no future anyway. Jaryn is honest though as the drinks refresh those who drank it. The party tries to show Jaryn the error in his thinking, but he is not convinced.

After a short time Jaryn commends the adventurers for their bravery and says. “Now let us end this.”  The party draws their weapons and attack. Jaryn fights well but the sheer number of the party overwhelm him. Even though he is able to trade blows with the heroes, he falls fairly quickly and in the process he deals out a lot of pain.

As he slumps over the torches on the wall begin to flicker and Eye of Naarash begins to flare brighter. It erupts and a large creature appears. It hisses, “Who amoung you accepts the mantle of Voice of Naarash?” Donnar and Auidar think about the proposal but Donaar realizes instantly that it would lead to evil things. Auidar on the other hand approaches the creature trying to figure out what that might mean for him. The rest of the party attacks the beast and it retaliates. Auidar switches to rat form and joins the fray. The horrid beast swings wildly at Donaar as Orsik helps Render attack over and over again. After being hit Auidar withdraws and thinks again about what taking on the mantle Voice of Naarash” might mean. The beast keeps fighting and the longer the fight goes on the harder he seems to hit. But the party continues to whittle him down and eventually he is slain. Upon falling Naarash bursts into flames inflicting a bit more pain on the party and the Eye of Naarash shrieks and shatters into pieces. The party takes Jaryn’s sword and heads back to the frontier. Without a leader the cult disperses and soon the threat posed by the Hand of Naarash is no more.

DM Notes:
All three of these encounters ran pretty well. Jaryn fell quickly, but my PCs rolled well. The Naarash was tough and felt long as noone had any encounter or daily powers left so they had to plink away at the demon with at-wills. It still worked out well and I think the party was challenged yet not totally overwhelmed.