Our very large party flowed back down the corridor like some form of armoured centipede, bristling with weapons. We passed the forge and sought to find our opponents. Arriving at a branch in the tunnels, going South and South West, we took the latter. We soon reached a huge room, with a raised dais, the air was tinged with the smell of decay.
Our elf tiptoed in, in the dark to use her infravision and soon detected two dogs, guarding 4 corpses, their past masters?
We split into three groups to take advantage of our numbers and assaulted the chamber en masse, but there were no opponents. Koko charmed the dogs with handouts of food and they quickly took to him. Examining the four corpses, Lynal, arguing with Consciencia, detected that there were magic items present: a draconic sword and a ring. Slipping on the ring, Lynal turned into a cat, while retaining her ability to talk – she took the ring off and returned to her shape.
We reversed course and took the South passage to guard our flanks. It led past a well-stocked storage room, a dining room and a kitchen. Feeling cocky, Rarder and Alf simply booted down doors – thank goodness there were no lurking slimes! Across the corridor from the dining room was a set of double doors, engraved with a goddess in plate armour wielding a warhammer: the goddess Ferona? We entered the room and beheld a chapel with a large statue of Ferona in the corner. I paid my respects while Knuckles quickly shinned up the statue to extract her gemstone eyes. As he prised out the first stone, the head fell off, revealing a hollowed space and four flying insectoid monsters flew out angrily. Two were quickly killed by shooting, while the remaining two managed to attack the party. Knuckles was almost killed, twice, but the goddess of luck was with him as he hung on to life by a thread each time. We slew the remaining insectoids.
There then ensued a lively debate about trying to force a hobbit retainer down the hollow passage in the statue – he steadfastly refused (good for him!). Lynal tried on the cat ring to slink in, but to no avail, it had no effect. We were lucky the enemy did not surprise us, making so much noise. But we did hear someone run down the corridor.
We pursued for a time but decided it was time to cease our blind rush. As we turned to return up the corridor a flight of arrows struck Rarder and Alf. Dulo retaliated with a sleep spell that put the 4 hairy ones to sleep. We ended the life of three of them and took the wealthiest looking one with us for interrogation. We returned on our steps to take a break near the entrance. Another sally or two and we will cleanse this den of unholiness!