Mandras entered the following E side room, looking for encounters and treasure. The party waited outside. There was a burial slab, with a vertical black shroud above it and a silver circlet above it. Mandras cautiously poked at the shroud, which disintegrated to reveal a skeleton. Two chitinous plops sounded from his helmet and shoulder pad. Sensitive to anything coming near his green tinged hair stubble… Mandras acted quickly. Rarder and colleagues also reacted and the two large spiders were quickly dispatched.
Proceeding to the south, the party ignored a room that contained two sarcophagi. Reaching an E-W corridor, they turned E and encountered a hexagonal room with doors in 4 of the walls and a continuation of the corridor on the other side. There were 4 pillars, each containing statues of gargoyles in assorted poses and green glowing moss. Everyone’s alarm bells went off, doubly so when the party’s hurried discussion led to a throaty chuckle from within the room. Cautiously, the adventurers engaged with what turned out to be a four-armed gargiggle. It offered plunder and directions to powerful undead if the party would kill a gargoyle, Sixtral, in the next room. Between mistrust of this fellow, and the unknown number of gargiggles that might be live rather than stone, the party declined the offer and backtracked.
Taking the W arm of the corridor, Mandras reached a S turn with a dead end. Asking Rarder to tie a rope around his waist, Mandras proceed to tap the ground – it was solid. He then searched for secret doors and found two, one to the W and one S. Taking the S door they entered a room with mosaics of the goat headed god, dancing, on the floor. Mandras crossed the room and tried the next S door. A thin slab of stone came down, blocking his egress and the mosaics suddenly arose, coming together to create a tessellated 10-foot-tall version of the goat god. The party was not surprised, but it was annoyed to discover that edged weapons had limited impact on the construct and destroyed it after resorting the flats of their weapons. Mandras then borrowed a sledgehammer and destroyed the slab that blocked the S door. The latter opened onto an E-W corridor with doors leaning to the N and NE nearby. While Koko was mapping 20 large rats raced through the E-W corridor without noticing the members. Mandras then proceed to open the nearest N door and found a 20x20 room with 10 huge golden scarabs attached to the walls. Although tempted, he did not take one as he was getting weighed down, but other adventurers did.
They continued E a short way and then S. Mandras noticed a discoloration on the floor – a telltale sign of trouble. Again, roping himself to Rarder, he struck the floor in front of him and fell into a bottomless pit. Rarder hauled him out and the party edged around it, encountering a new W-E corridor. Chaotic voices came from the W.
Moving towards the sound the party entered a plaza where 6 naked and misshapen creatures were slaughtering a large rat. Mandras and Arnd threw oil flasks and charged in with Rarder. A door SE of the creatures opened and Mandras could glimpse what would later turn out to be 10 more of the creatures and two larger ones, one horned leader and a magic user. Mandras hewed mightily and slew many, including finishing off the boss. But in doing so, he was struck by Magic Missile and took 5 points of injury. Arnd and Zuhaitz were badly mauled and fell back while Rarder and Mandras cleaned up the rest to Rarder’s grunted complaint of: “Mandras and I always have to do the hard work”. It turned out to be the three-room lair of these creatures, full of filth, rotting meat, skeletal remains torn out of their places of rest and some headless bodies, strung up to cure. For all the effort, the adventurers only recovered one item, the magic user’s staff. It was now time to catch their breath.