Surviving the roof collapse with minor scuffs, the Silver Stars collect themselves in an oddly-shaped stone-lined chamber featuring broken-wall exits, an abjured door, and an inscribed fountain/monument. Helena finds a pre-Maelstrom (but post-construction) engraving on the fount:
Lo, as these years march thither
into the past, so too do mine labours and dreams e’er wax.
Naught may halt yon wheel’s advance, so long as thine roads runneth on.
Blessings unto those who walk Verve’s sanctuary paths and plains.
Knowing only that the space dates to the era just before the calamity, and noting strange gravity-defying rivulets of running water on the ceiling, the party contends with a horde of subterranean troglodytes led by their 'alphas' and riding giant lizards. The struggle is fierce and yields no items of value, but it allows the Stars to press on in relative security. It becomes clear that the collapsed floor from earlier was only the roof of a truly massive stone cylinder (with external 'spoke' hallways attached) sunken into the earth; it was twisted and slipped downwards, explaining the high cavity above and the badly-strained glassy strand puncturing the surface. With no access to the spokes and no easy way back through the rubble, the only choice remaining is to explore and go deeper.
Eventually they chance across web-infested halls that host a hostile, defensive colony of two arachnid-humanoid subspecies; the conflict is very one-sided in the Stars' favour and ends with a surrendered peace offering lowered from webbing, though ~ Azurfa noted an unexplained wintry chill from deeper in the cavern. ~ Bladewing immediately clocked the unusualy silver blade as a yklwa, the hybrid sword-spear of his own elusive birdfolk race, and claimed it immediately with the intent to spruce it up for combat use.
Some items of interest were found, notably a cleric-oriented stash in a secret locker which included usable spell scrolls and other bits, plus a ruined cameo/portrait of a mixed-race group titled "The Jolly Quartet". Talox Za'ar scored an immaculately preserved set of cooking implements stashed in a bulkhead, keeping them for his own use. Progress ended as a curious sliding glass door and a magical membrane of cool water, both peering into a serene lounge-type common area. Noting the plaque that reads "Wheel Upon the Road" in the Halfling tongue, it is assumed to be the complex's name. After deliberation, the group breaches the lounge chamber in search of some way to reach the innermost column of the 'Wheel' and find some damn stairs.
Loot:
High-grade copper cooking kit
Silvered ywkla with a retractable rope of spider silk, for retrieval from thrown attacks.
Two vials of holy water
Three masterwork throwing darts (+1 to hit but not to damage)
Cleric spell scrolls:
0: spare the dying, word of radiance
1: bless, bane
2: aid x2
3: create food & water. speak with dead