Adventure Two, Session Eleven Recap

"Prepare... the sacrifice!"

When we last left our heroes they had just entered the "sacred" halls of the Temple of Death (Ryktuss). Here they met with the young acolyte Velinex. We picked up as Mangy convinced Velinex to give the party directions to his master's, the High Septon Marquand, chambers. Realizing they still had comrades left behind, several of the party (Oltorf, Teffa and Zelna) split off and returned for Fluff, Grumbeth and Lewellyn.
As the remaining party snuck upon the door to Marquand's quarters, they heard several voices coming from the other side of the door. Voices speaking Abyssal. Temerity, speaking the language of demons, put her ear to the door to get a better perspective.
She heard snippets of a conversation between a man (who she assumed to be Marquand) and something definitely unholy. A thing that referred to itself as a "Handmaiden." Perren, who was still with the party, knew that the term referred to the vile demon known as the Yochlol, the servants of both evil gods and greater demons. The conversation between the two seemed to reveal that Marquand "saw in the flames" the arrival of the party, thus removing the advantage of surprise. It further seemed that Marquand "summoned" this demon to help him deal with the party. The Yochlol was clearly angered at being pulled from its realm and basically told Marquand to summon someone (or something) else. And then it was gone.
Marquand then performed a ceremony of summoning, but for whatever reason the focus of his ritual didn't immediately materialize. The party got the idea to disguise the slightly demonic Temerity as a servant of Ryktuss. Further, Guy transformed into the likeness of Velinex to further add to the illusion. The rest of the party hung back as Temerity and the disguised Guy knocked upon Marquand's door.
The high priest answered and immediately mistook Temerity for the demon he summoned. Realizing the play he just handed her, Temerity went with the deception. She ordered Marquand to perform the binding ritual and revealed that she possessed the components of the Rod of Ryktuss (the rod and the eye). But, Marquand protested, they still needed an unwilling sacrifice. The high priest, going off Temerity's suggestion that they "bring someone from outside" here, went to his pigeon coop and flew a carrier pigeon with a message. He said that shortly they'd have a victim.
The moral quandary presented itself again. Could the party kill (or be complicit in the murder of) an innocent person for the greater good? Temerity and Guy withdrew down the hall, leaving Marquand, in order to confer with their comrades. As they conversed, the heard a bucket hit the marbled floor. The real Velinex, who'd been cleaning, rounded the corner only to see a copy of himself. The party quickly jumped him before he could scream or otherwise alert his master to the deception. They bound and gagged him, leaving the acolyte in the broom closet.
Shortly after this, they heard a rapping upon the double doors of the temple. The party positioned themselves to surprise (and jump) the visitor, and Guy answered the door. Beyond stood a teenage delivery boy with several cloth bags of food (assumedly ordered by Marquand). The party detained the boy and dragged him down the hall so they could present him to Marquand. At this point, their plan was to pretend to go along with the sacrifice of the boy until the last minute, when they would turn on Marquand and kill him instead.
As they approached his chambers again, Marquand stepped out. They discussed with him the methods of the ceremony. Apparently, they need to recite an Abyssal passage, then plunge a ceremonial blade into the heart of the offering. They must flay and pull apart his chest cavity and also drink his blood. Finally they must put the Rod (with the eye in the socket) within the gaping chest cavity. Only then would the ritual be complete (along with the Rod of Ryktuss). Temerity, needing a moment, asked to use the high priest's chambers. He agreed, and she returned to the room.
As Temerity looked around Marquand's room for something to help the situation, fresh words echoed from within the chambers. "Who summons me!?"
Temerity slowly turned to see a hulking, nine foot demon, a Glabrezu (with four arms and a canine head) staring her down. Miraculously, she convinced the demon that she was also summoned for the purpose of completing the Rod of Ryktuss. She led the demon into the hall, where the rest of the party was waiting. Here the demon commanded Marquand to gather the necessary elements for the ceremony. Temerity tried her luck and, informing the demon that she outranked him in the armies of the Abyss, commanded him to leave this plane of existence and allow her to deal with these mortals on her own.
Shockingly, the demon agreed. The high priest mentioned that he needed his ceremonial robes and returned to his quarters, with the Glabrezu following (in order to return to the teleportation circle). Just before the demon entered the room, he told Temerity, "see you back on the 434th layer of the Abyss," to which Temerity replied "see you there!" Then the demon and Marquand went into his room and shut the door. A moment later, Marquand exited the room wearing his robes and quickly shut the door.
The party accompanied the high priest to the inner sanctum and the sacrificial altar. They bound the boy to the altar, using clamps built into its four corners. Knowing they could never go through with the sacrifice of this innocent child, the party jumped Marquand and placed him on the altar in lieu of the boy (who quickly fled through the chamber's side exit). The party attempted to question Marquand on how to complete the ritual, but the priest wouldn't talk.
Temerity went to question the tied up Velinex, hoping he'd have the answers, but as she rounded the corner to the broom closet, the Glabrezu revealed itself. It never left. The demon revealed that he tricked Temerity and "there is no 434th layer of the Abyss." As he went in for the kill, suddenly a loud explosion rocked the entire temple.
Xanalanthi Xanaloth had arrived.
Temerity told the Glabrezu a "version" of the truth, that she was an agent of Krytuss sent to complete the rod. She then showed the demon the rod as proof. She informed the creature that Xanalanthi wanted the rod for itself, and that the Glabrezu must destroy it. The demon agreed but as he left to confront the mummified mind flayer, he cast a spell upon Temerity. She was magically bound to the spot she currently stood, unable to move. This way, the demon said, he could deal with her later.
As the Glabrezu repositioned itself to deal with Xanalanthi, the party saw the mind flayer approaching from the great hall beyond the inner sanctum. Mangy slammed the door connecting the two rooms, just as the mummy moved closer, a wall of flame blazing behind it.
At this point, the delivery boy returned through the same door by which he left, white as a sheet. Everyone turned and quickly saw why. Right behind him stood the death knight, Lord Vorliss. Before Vorliss could do anything, Guy threw two of his magic beans at the doorway before Vorliss could cross the threshold. The first bean caused a giant beanstalk to burst from the floor and completely block the exit, while the second formed into a life-sized statue of Guy (in his true form), which began to curse and berate him (though it couldn't otherwise move).
With no other exits, Brill Brall shattered the stained glass window behind them in the inner sanctum. He fled through the hole and went to the window in Marquand's room, only to find Temerity frozen there. Enlisting Guy's help, they carried Temerity back to the inner sanctum. Mangy tricked Marquand, still bound to the altar, to reveal that he had a book (written in Abyssal) in his pocket. This book contained the incantations necessary to the ritual.
Mangy got the book and positioned it so the frozen Temerity (who could still sort of talk) could read it. Vorliss, seeing that she needed to complete the ritual and also needing this to happen, cast a spell and released her from her frozen state.
At this moment, the door to the inner sanctum partially shattered, as the Glabrezu was tossed into it by the mummy. The fight was not going well for the agent of the Abyss. However, he jumped up and threw himself at Xanalanthi, and the two of them flew into the blazing inferno behind them, thus leaving the party to decide how to complete the ritual before the mummy could once again emerge from the flames...