Our much set upon party considered its options. Most of our colleagues had fallen into the trap that had opened as we withdrew, some form of slide leading down… to where?! Fortunately, we could hear them calling, but from afar. Behind us, the victorious enemy were pressing us, we had little chance of success, injured, outnumbered and without our Captain, who had fallen in combat.
We took the only option and jumped into the slide, even Alfred in his giant form. We rushed down a few hundred feet and were unceremoniously dumped in a pool of water, within a hexagonal room that sported six doors… We picked ourselves up and took stock. Rarder’s body was with us and we determined to bear him out of here in an attempt to resurrect him. I borrowed his Cloak +1. Remembering a room with a goddess statue that seemed to be hollowed out with a downward leading shaft, we reasoned that the NE or E doors would be best as a first option.
With Alf mapping as we went along, we opened the NW door. Mandras and his fellow dwarves took the lead using their infra-vision in the hopes of avoiding enemies. We reached a 4-way cross point and heard feline type voices to our left. We debated the way forwards and, in an effort, to bear E we decided to take on the cats. We charged along the corridor and were held up by a row of weekly embedded stakes made of bone. Beyond these was a smelly room with 3 cat-people looking worse for wear. We surprised them and Mandras sought to engage them to bring them onboard, as they seemed to be clearly trapped, as we are, while Alfred bashed the stakes aside. Mandras failed due to poor linguistic skills. We took no chances and rushed them, killing two and purposely beating the third unconscious. He was not of much help when he came to, muttering that there was no way out. We took him with us anyways, bound like a sausage. But first we rested so Dulo could recover his spells.
Koko and his retainers were in a form of meditative retreat, perhaps communing with their chaos lord. They followed along, but in no position to participate. We did retain the two dogs, who helped us keep watch.
During the unrestful rest, we were interrupted by 3 flying insects, of the type we had seen by the statue. Hope! Alfred and Mandras wiped them out. By morning, Alf was back to human size and Dulo was refreshed.
We backtracked and took the N passage, it soon wound NW. We found a hole in the passage wall and explored it, but it was simply a large rough-hewn room. Back into the corridor, we continued NW and came upon a 3-way split leading W, SW and SE. Heavy shuffling noise came from the SE, as in weight rather than numbers. We opted to retrace our steps to the hexagonal room and took the E door.
We dwarves continued in the lead. The first 120’ led up and we became hopeful. Alas, we hit a corner that led down and as we followed the next long passage, we realised that we were passing beneath our initial eastward tunnel and going deeper underground.
Eventually we hit a dead end of unexcavated rock. In desperation we searched for hidden doors and Alf found a large conical stone that rotated. A secret door opened to the N. We entered a 20x50 foot room, only to be assailed by a colony of 8 stirges sallying from cracks in the wall. Alf and I killed one each and Dulo magnificently slept the other 6, which we proceed to kill underfoot. Another dead end. At this point, having used 50% of our rations and some torches, we dallied for an hour to check the walls again. We found secret doors leading N and W. We took the N door and found a round room with 3 chests in alcoves. Debating what to do, Alf took the leading saying that they were unlikely to be trapped in such a doubly hidden location. He opened a chest and found silver, gold and gems therein. Emboldened, I opened the 2nd chest and found platinum, gold, electrum and copper galore. We pocketed all but the copper pieces. I then opened the last chest and lo and behold found a Plate +1 armor that seemed to be sharply cutting on its exterior. I donned it and left my own behind. I also took an ebony black shorts word with 2 pronged teeth extending past the guard – the blade reflected no light and must be magical. Dulo took a ring and we split 5 vials that were also therein. Maybe our luck had improved a bit!
We then returned to the Stirge room and took the W door. It led a long way south. As we came to an intersection that went S and E, Alf and Hats bumped into a gelatinous cube, literally. Neither was fortunately paralysed. Mandras threw burning oil at it and harmed it. We then decided to finish it off with weapons (to save my last oil). I stabbed it with the short sword and did significant damage, real and magical, but it remains a mystery what the sword does.
We retreated back to the Stirge room for a break. I will remember to suggest that one of the other retainer/characters take my old plate, if it fits, while we are there. We feel a bit heartened that we will forge a way out!!
