Session 01

The party awoke to discover that the Ritual of Planar Junction had been completed quicker than expected and that the portal between Cauldron and the prison plane of Carceri was forming in the skies above the city. It was time to act. Camero and Braken now estimated they had only a few hours to get into the Fiery Sanctum and somehow stop the portal from forming. And if what Nidrama told them was true there was a prisoner inside the complex who could possible help them with his knowledge.   Camero set up a magical circle and chanted the mystical phrases necessary to complete a spell and he opened a portal to the edge of the Fiery Sanctum. The portal opened into a room of dressed stone with a passage leading off. No guards could be seen so the group stepped through the portal and into the chamber. Gotrek's dwarven senses told him they were now deep underground and they noted that the land here was stable and not shaking at all. The Tree of Shackled Souls was protecting the Fiery Sanctum from the ravages of the volcano - for now.   The group moved down the only tunnel leading out of the chamber and soon came to a door. This door was covered with arcane and religious runes and a myriad of locks, wheels, cogs and levers. It would take some getting past. On top of that Camero noted a Symbol of Suffering, a powerful evil ritual, inscribed on the lintel of the door. Being the strongest of mind and also the most gifted in arcane knowledge Camero was volunteered to go and disable the evil ritual. He braved a powerful psychic attack to approach the door but soon had the symbol removed. The others approached.   It was clear that the combined knowledge of the party would be needed to get past this door. Harley twiddled some levers and cogs and seemed to have made some tumblers fall into place. Braken then deciphered some of the runes on the door, reading one out loud. This seemed to be wrong though and it undid much of Harley's work. Gotrek gave some advice about these sorts of doors from his great dwarven knowledge and finally Camero moved up and correctly deciphered some arcane runes and the religious words of power Braken had got wrong. The door opened quietly and the group were inside the Fiery Sanctum.   Heading down a corridor with Harley ahead the group passed around a bend. As Harley approached a turning off Camero heard a door opening behind him back in the tunnel they had already passed. Simultaneously a previously unseen door opened just ahead of Harley at the front. Out of each of these two secret doors poured forth large hulking humanoids with bull heads standing some eight feet tall - minotaurs. Harley remembered that the Cagewright head of security was a massive female minotaur called Gau Kleeoch, and indeed a huge female minotaur with a massive axe then stepped through the door ahead. The party had been heard or spotted by the complex guards and the fight was on!   Gotrek and Harley engaged Gau Kleeoch, one of the shaman and a cabalist and the other three heroes held off the other shaman. In the midst of all this two nimble minotaurs pushed the party apart and slipped into the gaps so created harrying both sides of the battle and flanking where possible. The fight wore on but as is always the case with such conflicts eventually enough of the minotaurs were laid low that the end was inevitable. At this stage Gau Kleeoch and the remaining battle shaman retreated back through the secret doors. The party followed, harrying them as they went.   Gotrek moved into the room, which stunk of wet straw and was full of combat training tools, and with a great swing of his axe finally killed Gau Kleeoch. At this the remaining battle shaman surrendered and was knocked unconscious then bound ready for questioning.