Solving puzzles and Surviving Traps

General Summary

The first obstacle of the vault was really more of a passageway. At the entrance to the vault stood a 50' well down to the vault proper. Before checking the depth of the well properly, Lincoln jumped down and fractured and ankle. Felix leapt down after her, though was able to slow his decent and landed gracefully. The rest of the party followed, dropping 10' at a time on invisible discs of force conjured by Somnis' mind. A bit of magical healing fixed Lincoln up and they proceeded onwards.
The first room they encountered was illuminated by seven glowing orbs in a circle in the center of the room. As the party were making their way inside Felix reached out and touched one of the orbs. It's light and the two adjacent lights turned off. The doorway through which they entered the room sealed off, almost leaving Gao trapped on the other side. A timer appear above the door on the opposite side of the room, reading 20 min and the sound of sand pouring onto metal could be heard throughout the room (though the source of the sound could not be seen).
It took the party only half the time that was on the clock to figure out the puzzle, turning off all the lights. As soon as this happened, the timer stopped, the sound of sand stopped and both the exit and the door leading forwards opened.
The next room was, at first glance, completely bare. The walls, instead of solid metal, were made of stone blocks and the room was unsymmetrical, extending 50' to the left but only 20' to the right. The only other thing of note was a intricate lock on the door leading forwards. It was less of a lock and more an indentation of a pattern made of various complex interlocking circles. With some further investigation, some celestial runes were found on the right hand wall. Those who read celestial determined that the runes read NHGKIT which reassembled to KNIGHT. Somnis tapped the bricks in this order and the wall folded away.
Behind it stood a 15' Iron Golum. It's eyes ignited with flame and combat began. On the golum's chest was a embossed version of the intricate indentation in the wall. Part of the combat was spent trying to pry the emblem off the golum's chest, though some weird magic meant it couldn't move far, and the rest was spent restraining it so it couldn't attack. Once defeated the emblem came away easily, and was used to unlock the door.
Alda hastily and imperceptively continued forwards, and regretted doing so as her foot sank slightly further than expected with a click and the pressure plate she'd stood on triggered a trap. Immediately the walls of the room slid inward at a rapid rate, turning the 120' wide room into a 10' wide corridor. A portal appeared in front of the party, and as they later discovered another 55' behind (out of which a 10' diameter, 1,000,000 lb steel ball rolled and begun to build up speed down the gently slopped corridor). Alda and Somnis stepped through the portal, coming face to face with the back of this steel ball as it rolled away from them, and it careened toward the rest of the party. It knocked most to the ground and everyone came away with substantial injuries, including Alda and Somnis, for once the ball reached the end of the corridor, it passed through the portal and emerged again through the portal at the top of the corridor. Each time it did this lap, it knocked people down injuring them, and built up speed. The party threw up barriers to impede the ball, but they only served to maintain its speed, stopping it speeding up but not slowing it down. Alda, Somnis and Kail were, between the three of them able to disable two thirds of the runes that kept the portals open, but then the unceasing ball became too much. Party members started going down and not getting back up. Healing magic was the only thing staving off permanent death, and eventually that began to run out too. Gao and Lincoln's bodies eventually became too battered and their spirits left their bodies. The situation looked hopeless. Alda poured almost her last magical healing into Somnis. Weak and battered, and with the steel ball fast approaching, Somnis reached out and disabled the last of the arcane runes and the portals vanished, the metal ball crumbled into millions of pieces, and the torment was over. Somnis used the last of his psionic energy to reach out into the astral plane and drag Gao and Lincoln's spirits back into their bodies before they could drift too far.
The battered and bruised party limped into the final room. Before them stood four statues holding delicate glass orbs, four chests, and on a table four scraps of parchment with dates written upon them. Each statue had a plaque with a name on it: Fredrik, Henrih, Aarohn, and Kriss; they were an orc, an elf, a gnome and a human respectively. In each chest was a weapon: a wand, a hammer, a sword, and a spear. Finally, on the scraps of parchment were the dates YR350, YR550, YR750, and YR950. There was also a final piece of parchment with a longer chunk of text on it. It read:

Fredrik a hero with locks of blonde, defeated his foes with only his wand
400 years before Kriss' birth, a hero found through a spear his worth
Henrih a hero whose combat was nifty, was born either either three or seven hundred and fifty
In 550 a hero did smite down his foes, with hundreds and thousands of mighty hammer blows

The party had to discover which weapon belonged to which hero and use said weapon to destroy the door. After much deliberation they used
It succeeded and they were allowed to proceed. There was one final obstacle between them and the treasure, a sentient door. All it required was to know the parties intentions. Deeming them trustworthy and honest folk it allowed them through. They collected the items and as they were about to leave, the mansion side door to the vault had a dent suddenly appear in it. They turned tail and ran back to their boat as fast as their legs could carry them.

Rewards Granted

The Omnishackles The Magic Ball of the 8 The Slippers of Comfort

Missions/Quests Completed

Breaking into Kano Jiro's vault and attaining the Omnishackles.