Continuing down the corridor (see KA21. The Forger's Lair, Part I), Arc waited while Elias Minch and Smith made their way past the traps. Elias Minch chose to follow in Arc's footsteps and jump over the pit, while Smith used his shield to protect himself from the fire trap. Elias Minch managed to find a switch to deactivate the poison trap, so they caught up with Arc on the end of the rolling spike trap. Elias Minch took the lead at this point, deftly leaping over it, and jumping beyond the crevice just beyond it with a rope to help the other two across.
Arc and Smith were less successful; due to their slower pace, they weren't able to make the jump as quickly. Smith was felled by the spike trap returning over them, so Arc tied the rope around the downed warforged and Elias Minch pulled him across. The three regrouped in safety beyond the second pit, and took an hour to rest and heal their wounds. They then continued on, until they came across a large cavern. There, they saw a gnome, that they assumed was Sylvander Ezad Zylkroi, trying to gather up some of his paperwork and bags and put them in a boat floating in a river running below. However the gnome was protected by a large brass construct, that the gnome immediately set on them. Smith and Arc attacked the construct, while Elias Minch went past it to go for the gnome. Elias Minch caught Sylvander Ezad Zylkroi immediately, and persuaded him to demonstrate where the off switch for the construct was. He than ran to the wall to turn it off; it immediately withdrew it's arms into its circular shape, and rolled off the uneven floor into the water below.
Meanwhile Sylvander Ezad Zylkroi had leapt into the water to try and escape in the boat, but he was unsuccessful. They interrogated the forger, and found that Tyken Roslof had been here and commissioned the gnome to create two things for him. Firstly, the paperwork that had let him enter the Wroat Exchequer the day before. Secondly, a letter of introduction to Solera Natsu, the high priestess of the Kessian Temple near Vathirond. Relieving the gnome of his gold, and agreeing to spare his life in return for a future favour, the party headed back into Sharn to get the Lightning Rail to Vathirond.
The journey was uneventful, and they reached there late in the following afternoon. After speaking to a local to learn as much as they could, they headed into the woods north of Vathirond to the Kessian Temple. There, they found the temple, a series of islands connected by bridges at the centre of a lake, under siege from strange monstrosities with multiple arms and tentacles. They charged into the fray, with Arc quickly demolishing several of the creatures with well-placed fireballs.
They noticed that the attacks of the creatures had strange effects on them. Smith was the first to be hit; suddenly he saw that the evening turned to night, and the forest around them seemed to catch on fire. Arc noticed her shadow disappeared, and Elias Minch saw his right arm turn to stone.
This did not stop them, and they continued to press on as they saw Solera Natsu, the high priestess, at the centre of the temple being threatened by the largest creature with tentacles on its shoulders.