Adventurers
- Alfredward (Dwarf 4)
- Dulo Chaec (Magic User 2)
- Mandras (Dwarf 2)
With the hairy ones and hooded figures slowly closing the distance with them, the remnants of the party who had not fallen into the pit trap opted to jump down voluntarily. They too slid down the greased spiral until they dropped into the pool of water below, in an octagonal room with a door in each wall.
Keen to return to safety, and seeing no obvious way back up the chute, the party hoisted up Rarder's corpse over their shoulders and headed east, hoping to find the route up to the statue's mouth which had released the enormous insects upon Knuckles in a previous expedition. Unfortunately the passage way looped up, down and around, and was pocketed with junctions along its length. They chanced upon and bested a trio of bedraggled cat folk. They were unable to garner any useful intel from them, but the adventurers were able to crudely shore up their lair and snatch a few hours of restless sleep, the infravision-capable dwarf sentires dispatching a small group of familiar flying insects which came to investigate the smell of new meat. The rest was not sufficient to start recovering from their wounds, but at least the magic casters' heads were clear enough to relearn their spells.
The party ended up retracing their steps and trying another door, though a similarly winding passage came to a dead end. Alfredward, by now returned to normal size, uncovered a lever which opened a secret door in the wall - from which immediately flew a flock of disturbed blood-sucking beasts. The front few ranks of adventurers batted them away before Duco downed them all in magical slumber. Finding the room beyond to be strangely empty, the party set about investigating the walls and discovered two more secret doors, one leading to another passage and the other to a room with several dusty chests. Flipping the lids revealed a significant haul of coins and treasures, including several vials of liquids, a blade which didn't seem to reflect anything and a suit of armour which had the appearance of broken glass.
Delighted with this discovery and a possible safe, defensible location, the party set forth down the new tunnel but found themselves looping around again to, if their mapping was accurate, the octagonal room. Coming to a junction, the front rank of Alfredward and Hats walked splat bang into a near-invisible gooey obstacle. The party fell upon their gelatinous form with weapons and one of their now-precious oil flasks, destroying it without losing anyone. Shaken, they retreated back to the hidden room to regroup and plan their next course of action.