Session 11: Deeper into the Cave of the Barge Eater Report

General Summary

Having located the underground temple to Balthusar, the party gathered themselves for several hours before proceeding into this new and unknown area. As a group, they felt stronger, wiser, and had come a long way from a ragtag refugee caravan fleeing Lionsmane some weeks ago.
Cautiously, Harrigan and Earendel creeped along the southernmost edge of the partially-ruined structure, and found nothing initially. A prodigious amount of bioluminescent fungus covered the walls and a trio of stalagmite columns that connected the tall natural ceiling to the wet earther floor of the large cavern. Father Brenan moved to the left, watching for any movement as the rest of the party fell in behind scouts.  Four burning braziers forced orange and yellow to dance along the greens and blues of the fungus lights and created unusual shadows and shapes all around the party.    Several tense minutes passed. Krindle muttered aloud, through he didn't realize it, "ignis spherus ardere... ignis spherus ARD--
"NOT YET!" scream-whispered Glim to his fellow gnome who had quickly surmised that Krindle was practicing the incantation for his most recently-acquired, and destructively-powerful, evocation spell. The wild-haired wizard stopped the recitation immediately, but continued to mouth the words to himself.  Soon thereafter, Earendel noticed something odd along the cavern wall to their right.
Earendel held up her hand to stop them in their steps, and pushed through an illusory wall with her spectral mage hand.  "This is certainly something," she signed to her fellow rogue.  Harrigan signed back, "What?"  Earendel was not sure, but it seemed that the illusion merely concealed the location of a metal door.  Feyd found himself unnecessarily shifting his wait from his left foot to his right, and back again.  Waiting was not in his nature, despite his years of training.  Combined with not being at the front of the party made it all the more strange.  Nevertheless, in the day that he had traveled with this unusual group, he felt relatively safe, and with them, he was certainly better equipped to handle more powerful foes.
As Earendel stepped around the illusory opening and stepped within the area of the temple building, the muddy floor of the cave began to writhe and undulate.  Ashton felt a familiar disquiet within his soul as skeletons began emerging from their resting places beneath the ruins.  Father Brenan uttered a short word of magic, and Rupert seemed to grow two inches taller and his muscles seemed to bulge within his armor.  The big man moved ahead and to the left, slicing one skeleton in half as he moved.  Glim blasted a second with a blot of fire from his newly-built runic wand.  Earendel and Harrigan also made short work of a pair of skeletons.  But before there could be any celebration, four more dug their way out from the depths and began firing arrows at Ashton, several of which struck the paladin.
Krindle flew up to gain a good vantage point.  "Now?" he called out to Glim.
Glim was trying, amidst the din, to read a strange magical inscription above the alter of the temple. It was strange to him, but he was certain he could decipher it with a few moments of careful study.  Glim snapped his attention back to the battle.  "NO!" yelled the artificer suddenly, "You'll hit Rupert and Harrigan for sure!"  In response, Krindle sent a series of shimmering darts at several of the skeletons.  Father Brenan then loosed a sonic explosion on the archers, instantly destroying two of them, and injuring the remaining pair.  The battle seemed all but over, but for a new wave of ghouls that ushered forth and began clawing and biting at the party.  The numbers had switched.  Harrigan stabbed.  Earendel sliced.  Rupert swung.  Feyd parried and countered.  The numbers were moving in the wrong direction.  More and more undead were joining the fight.