They hurried into a central chamber.
On the gnome-made archaeologist's map of the Vault they possessed, the chamber was denoted only with the word "eyes." Indeed, each of the eight stone doors was carved with an ocular design on the inside, facing inward. The PCs hastily worked to bar the door they'd come in through and open other doors, aiming to head toward the northeastern section of the map. All the other doors, however, were held firmly shut and resisted easy breakage.
Their examination of the chamber was also hurried but yielded a few interesting things. Carved into the floor was an even larger eye, and its pupil was formed of dark glass. Cypher even discovered a tenth eye carved into the north wall, where there was no door.
Halbazar's magic, Magnus's strength, Doongul's clerical magic, lots of rope, and more prudent uses of the grease spell kept their enemies from storming easily into the room. Soldiers, ragged skeletons clad in piecemeal armor, and the animated corpse of the ogre they recently killed all attempted to get into the room of eyes. Worse, the soldiers they glimpsed beyond the door were armored in a distinctive half-plate armor and wore the green colors of the Order of the Emerald Claw—an infamous knightly order from Karrnath once known as some of the best soldiers on Khorvaire. Now, they were an outlawed even by Karnnath's king for their terrorism and fanaticism.The Order was known to consort with evil creatures and to do reprehensible things on the commands of their masters. A sprawling organization with hidden cells in cities across the land. Usually they kept their own company or worked with the cults of the Blood of Vol. What they were now doing allied with a cult of the Dragon Below, a Tharashk excoriate (the half-orc Drazul they'd met in the skies), and the wizard called Avashad was anyone's guess.
The ogre zombie finally burst into the room, but the combined efforts of Magnus, Halbazar, Cyzicus, and Rendar brought the creature low. Yet more were coming so they renewed their efforts to keep the southern door shut. In addition to the ragtag skeletons, one skeleton was armored in Karrnathi plate, no doubt brought by the Emerald Claw. In Karrnath, elite soldiers who die in service to the crown are often raised by the Ministry of the Dead. This skeleton was one such, and even bore a Karrnathi scimitar—a masterwork weapon. Both this skeletal warrior and the Emerald Claw soldiers fought with greater skill than those previous, but the combined efforts of the PCs still brought them down.
When one of the northeastern doors finally yielded, Xoma immediately went through it.
Cypher, having been analyzing the magical radiations from the room's many eyes, was the first to see the ghostly figure step out of the north wall and into the room. Clad in ancient Dhakaani armor, it was a hobgoblin who looked substantial but his skin and clothes were all a matching shade of gray. It seemed likely the dar warrior was undead, but he did not attack. In fact, the ghostly hobgoblin, armored like a warlord, beckoned the PCs to follow him through one of the north doors. He pointed in the direction Xoma had gone and said in the Goblin tongue, "That way is death."Xoma, unaware of this, nearly collided with a nearly invisible wall of moving slime when he reached the first junction. He turned and fled back to the "eye" chamber, knowing a thing or two about acid and the generally negative results in total immersion.
More shouting men, barking iron defenders, and the rattle of bones signaled the approach of reinforcements. At last, the PCs decided to follow the hobgoblin shade. He led them into a much larger, rectangular chamber. Unlit, it vanished into darkness, but the map the PCs possessed suggested this was a throne room.
The hobgoblin stood in their path and pointed toward one of the exits on the left-hand side. On the map, that way lay the "armory."
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