Adventurers
- Groucho (Fighter 1)
- Mandras (Thief 5)
- Rafin Falskax (Cleric 2)
Rather than risk the retainers getting caught up in some other trap, the party lowered a rope down the trapdoor for Hats and Bittori to clamber out from their watery plunge. Carefully hopping over the drop through the tower's front door, they found it to still be completely bare inside, lacking any sign that it had ever been more than a shell. They tried the hatch and found it led down to just above where the retainers had fallen. Securing their rope, everyone descended. The strong smell grew stronger, although there was a breeze wafting into their faces from the depths.
Mandras snuck ahead and found a corridor stretching off into the distance with a faint glow at the end. Warily the party edged towards it, but before they reached it they came to an octagonal room furnished with benches and a curious jenga-like construction of wolf fangs, and a door to each side. The glow came from a large chamber a little further on - some 80' below they could see some light-emitting object being circled by a great cone of wind, which seemed to be causing the breeze they could feel more strongly. Several walkways across to other doorways seemed to have broken, and rather than take one which spiralled down along the wall, the party opted to double back and try another door.
This led them to a series of bedrooms. While exploring one a great shuffling mushroom emerged from the corridor and, seeing it inflate its cap, the party hacked at it. The creature tried to scurry away, spitting a globule upon Groucho's foot and sticking him to the floor, but it was slow enough for the others to catch up and slice it to bits. Groucho's boot appeared irretrievably glued to the floor, so he wiggled his way out of it and wrapped some torn bedding around his foot, reasoning that, as awkward as it was, it wasn't worth a trip all the way back to Ximes for the sake of one piece of footwear. The smell from the drying glob seemed to match that permeating the air throughout the corridors.
Battering through into another bedroom revealed a bedgraggled youth who had apparently been abandoned in these halls by his master, Herent, as punishment. The lad, Filp, claimed Herent was a ruthless seeker of Puruglese's artefacts who had set up a headquarters further down in the depths, who created walking beings of mud. Filp hadn't found any way out, and was terrified of the wandering 'butlers'. Reasoning that they were still his best bet of escape, the adventurers convinced him to join them as they adventured a little bit further.
After pausing briefly to investigate a privy with a long chute disappearing down into the darkness, they found the third bedroom to be bare of furniture, Filp having dragged it to help barricade his room. The party hung around to search the room anyway, and were finally rewarded with the discovery of a secret door. They followed a passage round into a grander bedroom, though rotted with age. There was a chest, though, which, although Mandras couldn't thieve his way in, submitted to Groucho's boot and spilled lots of coins and gems onto the floor. Eyes lighting up, the adventurers started reorganising their packs to carry it all out with them. Filp volunteered to carry some, but got lumbered with lots of rope and rations instead.
Reckoning that they would have to drop valuable items if they were to find anything else in this dungeon, the party decided to return to Ximes and bank their finds. They ventured back into the fresh air and down the mountain towards civilisation. They opted against retaining Filp's services, and the lad disappeared into the crowd with a few coins as a gift. Groucho started looking for a new pair of boots.