EvilParty: Puzzles and Constructs.

"Oh, brave dwarves heed the battle call,
And humans guard the castle wall,
But halflings ne'er in battle fall--
They're busy drinking alcohol!"
~Traditional
(Generally sung by Dwarven bards when Halflings are anywhere in hearing.)

 
We proceed to Dimension Door back to the first set of gates, and pass through the to the first platform. Jenny switches the portal and walks through, finding herself face-to-face with another  mechanoid. Hatch and Ramekin follow, and Hatch attacks with an empowered Scorching Ray. The Mechanoid moves in and springs spiked chains, attacking Hatch and missing. Chuck can see what's going on and drops a Fireball inside the far sphere.

The mechanoid is looking pretty battered, so Jenny smacks him with her chain twice, taking him down with the first blow and tangling her chain with his chain on the second. She takes a minute to untangle it.

We do some experimenting with the portals and the levers, using spells to see where they come out. We identify the right position for the lever, and Chuck steps through and throws an Acid Arrow at robot-dude on the far side, bypassing his spell resistance. Durest moves through and casts Dismissal, but fails to get past its spell resistance.

We keep fighting, and the mech-man tags Jenny with Vampiric Touch; Durest strolls by and gets hit with it as well, but is now flanking the enemy across from Jenny. His attempt to hit it with a mace fails miserably. On the other hand, his Chaos-enhancement of Jenny's spiked chain allows her to carve him up a bit. Unfortunately, he tags her with Vampiric Touch again.

Hatch tries Glitterdust on him, but he ducks away from it and is still not blinded. Chuck's Acid Arrow is still doing some additional damage, so he drops another on it. Durest is still flanking across from Jenny and fighting defensively; his mace isn't enough to do any real damage to the guy. Jenny attacks him, but he immediately tags her with the touch attack and sucks it all back. Hatch hammers him with a scorching ray, and Durest calls to him to move back. Durest tries to tag him with Flame Strike, but fails to get through his magic resistance.

Jenny takes him down.

We drop a Fireball and a flame strike onto the next platform, and annihilate the mecha-centaur there.

Figuring that we should move while Jenny's weapon is still Chaos-enhanced, we go ahead and drop two fireballs into the room; Durest makes himself invisible. Hatch adds another fireball, then Durest steps through and drops a Flame Strike on him and takes him down.

We're on a bit of a roll, so we figure out the portal to the last platform and Hatch drops a fireball onto the mecha-centaur on the for side (or fire side). Chuck follows up with another fireball, doing massive damage. Jenny walks through the door and attacks, but misses. Hatch throws another fireball, and finishes it.

We move through to join Jenny, then stop to rest.

Then we move through the next gate, which puts us back on the bridge just before we started platform hopping. Unfortunately, they trigger a trap; fortunately,  it doesn't do much damage.

We switch the gates again, and move forward through a section of the bridge. Durest tries a lever on the side, and we hear clunking sounds but don't see any immediate effect. Chuck flips the other one, with similar results. Durest tries flipping his lever back so they're both pointing north; Hatch tests the portal again, and it's still arriving at the same place. Whatever these levers do, they don't affect.

Hatch and Ramekin move ahead to investigate the area which looks like it should have an orb, but doesn't. Unfortunately, there's really nothing to see.

So... Fine. We go through the portal to the final area, where the big guy is. Chuck leads the way, drifting along in gaseous form along the ceiling.

There's a very large construct at the far end of the bridge. Chuck has positioned himself behind the guy when Jenny charges through and attacks. Hatch and Ramekin move through invisible. Durest rides Bob through and hops off as Bob charges and misses; Durest drops a Flame Strike, but doesn't get through his spell resistance.

Chuck materializes and tries Shocking Grasp on the construct's butt. Jenny takes a shot at him, since he's still flat-footed and her weapon is Chaos-aligned; she hits him three times in a row and tears him up. Hatch follows up with an empowered scorching ray, while Ramekin throws a lever to make them both point north.

The construct creates a sphere of force around itself. Durest uses Dimension Door to get inside the sphere, and says, "Keep it busy."

Jenny: "I'm not stuck in here with you. You're stuck in here with me." She tags him again with her chain, hitting twice. (When it really counts, Jenny is here.)

Hatch Dimension Doors himself, Chuck, and Ramekin into the sphere as well. Ramekin drops Grease to try to screw with the construct's movement, and while he doesn't fall down, he is flat-footed.

The construct casts chain lightning, which rips through us. Durest tries to banish him and fails to get through his spell resistance; Chuck tries Shocking grasp and also fails. Jenny attacks and misses; Hatch attacks with empowered scorching rays, and takes him down.

We have three of the four spheres, and no idea where the fourth one is. There's no particular treasure here, so we need to solve this puzzle and move on.

Jenny: "Jenny does not solve puzzles."