Ambushed the ambushes

One player did not show up for the last session, that's okay.  The characters joined up with the Orcish ranger and they rested on the eaves of the village of Nulb.  It rained through the night and the skies cleared as morning dawned.  The  Ranger Korin inquired about the progress of the Orc through the woods the previous day and it was then that they heard about the pathway that he found, that was made by a giant and the bandits.  The ranger was intrigued and passed the information back to the rest of the party.  They set out to find these tracks and soon found them not far off, less than a mile from where they were.

The tracks contained the footprints of two humans and one troll, the survivors of the fight on the road.  They elected to follow the tracks back to the creatures' lair.  As they closed in on the temple, the two rangers found a tunnel into the earth and called a halt while the rest of the party caught up with them.  The tunnel led into the ground on a path towards the temple.  Part way through there was a branch that headed up but after that the tunnel continued for another 1200 feet and down some 150 feet.  The way turned a few times and when it ended they were below the second level.  There was a room at the end and the ranger who was first peered into e room and he saw a frightfully presence, a Basilisk!  The mere sight of the beast turned his bowels to water and he hightailed it past the party crying basilisk!  The paladin trusted his mount to guide his blow and he closed his eyes and charged into the fray.  The Druid decided to block off the menace with a wall of stone, but turned the corner and saw the threat for what it was; a clever illusion!  The ranger was in effect the victim of an illusion and a spell, explosive rune, not an explosion but Phantasmal Force, a spell that made his fears real.  The loud reactions of the characters alerted the people that lived in the area, the assassin and the Wizard that had attacked them in the ambush.

The ranger used special powers that his artifact gave him to discern what was beyond one of the doors.  He learned it was a beautiful Elven woman armed to the teeth with a very impressive collection of assassin weapons  mounted on the wall.  The paladin announced that they knew she was there and she should surrender.  She had other ideas and when they tried to open the door they found it locked and also unlocked.  What they did not know was that the wizard had arcane locked the door; it would open freely only for the two.  The Gnome, Moolite the Door Opener, charged the door and broke it down with his giant goat mount, "Meeeeeeehhh". They charged in and found the room empty.  Confused they looked around and it was then that their confusion ended, crouched in the rafters, the assassin materialized attacking with surprise from invisibility, her crossbow with a mighty poison bounced off the Paladin's armoured hide.  She was ensconced fifteen feet above the ground and out of reach of all without ranged weapons, or so she thought.  The rangers fired on her, and the paladin with his lance stabbed at her, and the Dwarf rose up to her position with the Sword's levitating power.  

Hard pressed, as she was she was not done.  The wizard across the hall poked his head out and fired a lightning bolt that struck the two armoured foes, the dwarf and the paladin before ducking away and trying to make his escape.  The assassin quaffed a potion and activated her ring as she gave up he perch and tumbled to the the ground, she never hit the ground as she disappeared before impacting and she made tot a sound as she landed.  Curious.  The characters tried many ways to try to target her position and she realized that she did not have many options, she hoped that she might distract the party members by killing one of them; she materialized beside the Druid and stabbed her in the gut.  

The characters surrounded her and cut her down.  

Once the arcane lock on the door had been broken, the characters piled into the mage's room. There was a door and to one of them, an obvious secret door.  With a detailed map of the current level they were on.  The ranger entered the room to remove the map, when it exploded in fire scorching the other characters.  Behind the secret door was a narrow passage that led to another secret door.  The warriors shared through and attacked the Mage as he was packing supplies away and attempting to flee.  The battle ended quickly with his death.  In his treasures the fighters of the group discovered an artifact of supreme evil and the paladin decided that even though it matched the description of the quest item of the warlock, he decided that it must be destroyed.  He raised his Mace and brought it down with all his might using his holy smite ability: the strike was blindingly bright and the sound was deafening.  In the end, his magic mace was destroyed utterly and the three inch golden skull  was not scratched at all.  The loot in the three rooms was substantial.  There was magic and there was gold.  And there was an exit that led to a part of the temple not yet seen.  They decided to head back and rest a while.