"Paks delivers a brutal sweeping slash and the Ratman Shaman crumples at her feet. Your foes vanquished, you breath a sigh of relief, and nearly choke on the foul miasma of this gods-forsaken place." "Insects swarm over the corpses of Ratmen, wolfrats, and ghoul stirges that litter the cavern. The flesh is being consumed as you watch. In a corner, 4 bone golems labor tirelessly at a water pump. You can barely hear the grinding of the machinery over the whining of the insects." "But it is the pit that compells your attention. LIke a great unholy maw it dominates the room. It's over 60' across, deeper than you can see, and every inch of exposed earth is covered with crawling insects. An overwhelming stench of disease, corruption, and evil roils from below." "You feel like you stand on the brink of Hell itself." "Chuck picks up a rock and looks as if he's going to drop it in the pit. That's when you notice that the Shaman at Pak's feet is still alive, but barely, and he's weakly mumbling something with his last precious breaths..."
Gross. Bone golems still pumping, pit covered in insects. The shaman at Paks' feet is not quite dead, and mumbles something faintly with his last breath. Chuck picks up a stone and moves to the edge of the pit, looking down.
Miriel suggests hauling the bone golems away, but Chuck says he's just going to break the line of the pump, and they can pump away forever.
Telryn watches to see what's going on. Darmaon moves around the walls back towards the rest of the party. Chuck drops the rock into the pit. Miriel looks at Darmaon and Telryn and casts a Cure Serious Wounds on Darmaon. Paks hears the shaman speaking in rat man language and she can't understand it, but he says Chern a lot. She cuts his throat.
Telryn says let's flood the pit and get out of here, but search the bodies first. Darmaon offers the wand back to Telryn, but Telryn tells him to keep it. Darmaon uses it to clear a swath between Chuck and the pipeline. Chuck uses this to go attack the pipeline, and water spills out. The part not connected to the pump snakes right into the pit. Miriel backs out of the room and watches from the doorway; she REALLY does not like the feel of this room. Goldpetal follows her. Paks searches the shaman's body. She finds a scroll, a red potion, two clay orbs, nail sheaths for clawing, and armor similar to Chuck's (mire worm). He has gold and agate jewelry braided into his fur. She searches for his holy symbol and takes it, for later destruction.
Telryn continues to wait and watch. The insects start to creep towards us. Darmaon starts to burn a path to the other bodies. Chuck says "We need to get out of here." Telryn asks if we can collapse the pit, but Chuck says no, we don't have the power. Telryn says he has a scroll of Earth to Mud. Miriel watches and waits. Paks searches the other body and finds a nice dagger, two scrolls, some sort of amulet, and a pouch of black pearls.
Telryn calculates that the scroll should work to fill the pit. He moves out of the room and calls to clear the room. The insects continue to creep towards us. Darmon asks Paks if she's getting the armor, and she tells him to. He burns his way over to the body and starts to drag it out of the room. Chuck yells "Paks, break that crane thing" and heads out of the room. He pulls out his lighted dagger and looks down the corridor. Miriel checks Chuck for injuries. Paks asks Miriel if we should collapse the pit immediately, and she agrees. She inspects the crane and finds that it is mostly wood, so she tells Darmaon to hit it with the flames. She flies across the room to look down the other corridors. One looks like it ends in a gate, while the other appears to open into another cavern.
The insects keep moving towards us. Telryn asks Paks if there are bugs on the floor of the other corridors, but she says they are clear. Darmaon burns the crane and makes some room for himself. The crane begins to burn. Chuck climbs the wall over to the corridor that goes towards the gate. Miriel says to collapse the ceiling first, then look at the corridors. Paks agrees, though some of the others protest that we might not be able to get through. Paks flies back to Miriel.
A huge rotting hand reaches out of the pit, then another. A huge head raises itself over the lip. It looks like a giant zombie covered in bugs. Telryn yells "run" and waits for Chuck and Darmaon to move. The zombie looks about 18 feet tall. Darmaon jumps clumsily to the wall and starts climbing towards the door. Chuck climbs back along the wall towards the exit. Telryn casts Earth to Mud on the ceiling of the room over the pit. With a huge sucking sound, the ceiling starts to fall in. The zombie disappears under the weight, but the pit is not filled. The ceiling looks very very unstable. Telryn backs down the hallway. Miriel follows him. Paks casts Cure Light Wounds on herself and moves out with Miriel and Telryn.
Darmaon makes his way out, and he and Chuck head down the hallway. As Chuck leaves more of the ceiling starts collapsing into the pit. Telryn calls "run" and moves off at speed. When he reaches the end of the corridor he stops to wait for the rest of the party. Miriel follows. Paks flies up and yells "which way?" Telryn points to the right, and she goes that way. Goldpetal turns into a panther and runs for it.
Darmaon hears more collapsing behind him and runs for it, turning right as he goes past Telryn. "It's comin' down!" Chuck runs for it. Telryn, Miriel, Paks, and Goldpetal follow.
As Darmaon gets 10 feet into the corridor, he finds it collapsed in front of him. He turns back and passes us, heading for the three-way intersection. We head down the remaining branch. The sound of falling earth fades out, and it sounds like the cave-in has stopped. Paks suggests going back to the cavern, but Chuck disagrees. Telryn pulls out his maps to show where we are. Chuck gives Darmaon a torch. Paks finally convinces Chuck, and we head back towards the cave-in. When we get back to the cavern, Paks clambers in and sees that the hole is still not filled. She flies over it and sees that it is still at least 20 feet deep, and there are still bugs coming out of it. Chuck asks her about the ceiling; she looks up and sees that it looks very unstable. She flies up to see if there might be an exit in the ceiling.
Paks asks for a shockwave spell, and Miriel says she has a small one. Paks flies out, and Telryn and Darmaon move back down the corridor. Paks prays to Madriel for force to bring the roof down. Miriel says she has to send it along the ground, so we should go back to the collapsed corridor and do it there, where she can direct it into the earth. Chuck and Darmaon decide to go explore the other corridor. Goldpetal follows them. Telryn suggests that he might be able to direct the golems with the amulet to make them refill the pit. Chuck and Darmaon find themselves back in an area of dungeon stone, and Chuck goes to fetch the rest of the party out of the earthworks.
Chuck argues against the cave-in plan, and finally convinces Paks to try it from above. We all head back to the stone part of the dungeon. Darmaon walks on the ceiling because he can. We head back towards the forge. We reach a standard dungeon door. Telryn thinks it looks familiar. We hear banging sounds, metal on metal. Chuck asks Darmaon to check the door for traps. They find that the door is barred from the other side. Darmon clambers up the door and tries a little shiv on it, and says he thinks there's a wire on the other side. He attempts to disable it, with Chuck's help. The others move away, but Miriel stays to watch.
Darmaon rolls out his thief's tool and has Chuck drill a little hole, then take a lever and knock the bar off. Darmon slides a thin sharp piece of metal through the door to cut the wire. We hear a clang as the bar drops on the other side. The sound of the hammering stops, and then we hear a large "boom." Chuck readies his bow and asks someone to open the door. Miriel backs around the corner. Chuck tries to kick open the door.
It kicks open easily, and he sees a large room, lit from a huge fire in the corner, purple flames coming out of a fire pit. There is a large worktable, which the rat men have turned over. The six rat men behind the table are armed with heavy crossbows, except one who has a bellows. We've never seen this kind of rat man before. They have mottled, disheveled fur, with burn marks. One of them has some sort of goggles on.
There is a door behind them, and also a door halfway along the wall, and the opening to a dirt tunnel. The rat men were waiting for us, and seem distressed that we didn't get hit by the tanglefoot bags and firesand orbs above our heads. The rat man in the back tosses a firesand orb at Darmaon, but he dodges it easily, hanging from the ceiling. It hits the wall and splashes, but too far away to hit any of us. Another rat man tosses a firesand orb at Chuck, but it misses him and hits the wall on the other side, around the corner. The rat man in front of Chuck uses the bellows and shoots a spray of firesand at him, but he fumbles and knocks himself off balance. The other three shoot their crossbows, two at Chuck, one at Darmaon. One hits Chuck, but the others miss. He feels that it is poisoned, but it doesn't affect him. Darmaon grabs the tanglefoot bag and throws it at the rat men, but just misses and hits the table. Telryn moves up and shoots a magic missile at the closest rat man, toasting him. Chuck climbs up the wall to the ceiling and wedges himself against the juncture of the wall and ceiling and fires his bow at one of the rat men, but misses. Miriel moves up to the corner to watch the battle, waiting for someone to need help. Paks flies around the corner at high speed and over the table. One nips her toes as she flies by. She swings at one of the rat men and splatters its brains. She cleaves into the next one, but fumbles.
One of the rat men who tossed the firesand orb grabs a loaded crossbow and shoots at Paks, but misses. Another attacks her with claws and bite, but misses. The one in the corner drops his empty crossbow and throws a firesand orb at Chuck, but it falls short. Darmaon grabs the firesand orb and climbs across the ceiling above the rat men and drops it. Three of the rat men are splashed. Telryn shoots off another magic missile, at the rat man with the bellows. Chuck moves over a bit and shoots twice, hitting both times, killing it. Miriel continues to wait for someone to need healing. The rat man with the bellows drops the bellows and climbs up the table, then tries to grapple Darmaon. He grabs him easily, and Darmaon is too weak to resist, so even though the rat man is small and weakish, he manages to pull Darmaon down. Darmaon falls on top of him, killing him. The nearby rat man bites Darmaon, who is injured and prone on the floor. Paks flies over a bit more and swings at the rat men. She hits one, killing it, and cleaves through, hitting the next and killing it.
Darmaon gets up and starts to search the rat man that grabbed him. He finds three red gems. The heavy crossbow is clearly a masterwork crossbow. There's a big anvil in the center of the room, and tons of weapons around. Very high-quality spears, crossbows, and scimitars. Miriel takes a masterwork short spear. There are crates in one corner, which Paks looks into. They contain steel ingots marked with a crest. Paks doesn't recognize them, but Darmaon immediately recognizes them and takes one of the ingots. Telryn says that the ingots are from Calastia.
Chuck listens at the door down along the wall. He whispers to the rest of us that he thinks there are some rat men on the other side of the door. Darmaon climbs up and checks the door for traps, but doesn't find any. He gestures for Paks to fly over. Chuck readies his bow and asks Darmaon to open the door. Miriel moves into the room, followed by Goldpetal, shuts the door, and re-bars it. Chuck braces himself against the ceiling, with his bow aimed at the door. As the door opens, Chuck sees that it opens into a laboratory, with tables full of instruments and vessels. Mortal & pestel, distillers, etc. In one corner seems to be a reed curtain. It is lit by candles and an urn of firesand. Chuck walks into the room on the ceiling, carefully. The room appears to be empty. Darmaon climbs in with him. Chuck cuts the reed curtain off with Hoarfrost. The room is full of boxes and crates. Against the wall to the right is another reed curtain. Darmaon peeks around the corner and sees that the hallway opens up into a cavern of packed earth, which looks like it might be living quarters. Paks comes into the room a little way. Chuck goes to the curtain along the wall and cuts it down, from the ceiling. He finds a five-foot wide passageway burrowed out. Darmaon opens the boxes to find vials, bolts of cloth, more steel ingots, and other goods. He looks around and finds many orb halves; it looks like they were constructing the firesand orbs here. Chuck checks the vials to see if any are poison. Telryn and Miriel come into the room. Telryn notes that the magic equipment looks to be of very good quality.
Chuck checks down the hall and finds that it goes about 30 feet. Darmaon goes back into the forge and grabs the tanglefoot bag. He searches the second door for traps, and doesn't find traps, but notes that the door is very warped, and stuck closed. Chuck checks out the sleeping quarters and notices that they are even messier than usual with rat men.
Chuck suggests that Telryn grab some vials. Paks agrees to stay to protect Telryn, who searches the vials for useful potions. He finds many things, including more tanglefoot bags and firesand orbs, and four blue potions that we know will restore spell points. Chuck goes down the winding corridor and finds another sleeping area. Darmaon and Chuck try to open the stuck door, but just keep bruising themselves on it. Telryn keeps cataloging the laboratory. Miriel rests in the forge. On the fourth try, Darmaon and Chuck finally succeed in opening the warped door. They go down a five-foot flight of stairs, then find a big stone cistern, with a pool of scummy water. There is a groove leading into the room, and a slot in the floor. Chuck asks Darmaon to look at the groove. There's a niche in the wall and some sort of mechanical device. Darmaon inspects it and sees that there might have been a lever before. There's a trickle of water coming in. He goes back to the other room and gets a bar and wedges it in place of the missing bar. Paks and Telryn follow him back. Telryn thinks it might fill the room with water. Darmaon suggests we rest in here. Chuck tests the depth of the pool with his climbing rope; it's about 30 feet deep.
We go back to the forge room to rest. Darmaon takes some firesand orbs and traps the doors. We put the large table across the entrance to the tunnel and spike it to the wall. Miriel mixes some starter with flour and sets it in the corner to rise. Chuck takes the first watch. Three hours pass peacefully. Miriel casts Bread of Life on the bread and hands out the pieces. Chuck and Telryn eat pieces right away. She keeps two pieces. We settle down to rest for another five hours, but before he rests, Telryn takes out the scrolls Paks found on the shaman and moves off to study them. Chuck eats another piece of bread, so Miriel has just one left. Darmaon collects the orbs and tanglefoot bag. While we slept, Paks destroyed all the weapons in the fire. Darmaon goes and pulls the lever, and water pours in and starts filling the cistern, pretty fast. He moves the lever back and the flow stops. Telryn and Paks suggest flooding the place. Darmaon pulls the lever and runs out.
Miriel asks Telryn what's under the cistern, and after thinking a bit, he thinks that it's above the cavern next to the pit. After a lot of discussion, we decide to go down and look at that cavern. Telryn offers to cast Fly and Invisibility on Chuck, and tells him not to get in trouble. He turns the lever off again. Darmaon stands guard by the spiked pit while Paks guards Telryn and Miriel. Chuck goes down and feels very uncomfortable with the weight of mud and dirt. He looks into the room under the cistern, which is partly blocked by fallen earth, and finds it full of rotting corpses, some of which look like the were-rats. The ceiling is very wet, there is water dripping down, and it's started to pool in this room because of the dirt blocking the door. He flies out of the room and back towards the forge. Darmaon sees a lighted area flying towards him, and tells it to get some piping.
We turn the water flow back on and jam the mechanism, then head up out of the dungeon. Chuck heads back to the alchemists' lab to see if he can find anything, but it's been pretty well cleared out by Telryn. Chuck flies off and explores some more, checking the curvy passage. It winds about 40 feet and opens up to a small cavern. He follows it out the other side, and finds it ending in a woven reed wall, with slats on either side. He tries to cut through the wall, from ceiling height, and realizes that it's hinged, with a bunch of tanglefoot bags attached to trap it, but he's on the good side. He grabs the tanglefoot bags and pushes the gate open and finds himself outside.
The rest of us head back; we open the door and find a corridor to the left. We get to a T and turn left. We go around the pit and up the staircase. We find ourselves back in the great hall, and observe that there are eight cell-like doors we still haven't opened. Darmaon searches for traps at the doors, and we look into the rooms. They look like they were nests for giant rats, maybe even kennels. We decide to leave.
We go look for Stone, but all we find is a masscre of dead eaters and rat men. Stone has left a message in their entrails which says "Sorry guys, had to go, see you soon." He has left all of our belongings from the bag of holding. It appears to be late afternoon. We start to gather our belongings. Chuck sheathes his dagger, and flies up until he can get a bird's-eye view. He sees the tracks of rat men leaving. He flies back to the rest of the group.
Miriel asks if we should leave now, or wait here. It's cold and rainy. Chuck says "Hey, there was a secret entrance around there." We can't see. "I saw fresh rat tracks." Paks says we don't want to chase the rats, just make sure the place collapses. Darmaon says he has to get back to Vesh. Chuck suggest we rest near the rat tracks, so we can see them if they come back. Miriel asks Goldpetal to make us a little treehouse again, and we climb into it to rest. We all eat our bread, and rest for 14 hours, until the sun comes up.
Miriel casts a restoration on herself, Darmaon, and Paks, and two on Telryn. She also does various bits of healing on everyone, as they all look like they're about to come down with various diseases (except Paks). Darmaon says he has to make a confession to us, now that he's decided we can be trusted - he's been investigating the house of Asoras, and he's been trying to track where this high-quality steel is going. He hasn't figured out what the ultimate goal is, but he was chasing down an agent when he was overcome. We tell him what we know about it. He says he needs to get back to Vesh to make a report. Telryn is very excited when he hears Darmaon is from Shelzar. Paks wants to go back in to see if the dungeon has collapsed. She finds that it seems to have flooded the lower levels, drowning the bugs.
We head back to Strongbow's camp to find a boat to take us downriver. We reach it in midafternoon. Telryn can't stop saying how much he hates the swamp. We look around to see if we see anyone or anything. It looks abandoned, but we do find several small rafts and punts. The supplies we brought are still there, and there are weapons and armor around. Chuck looks around for medicines, with Miriel's help, and he finds some of the punks to drive off stirges. We do find some of the red potions, and we take those with us as evidence. Everyone with bows pick up some arrows. We hop into a flat-bottom boat and man the poles. The current is quite strong and we make good time. We travel downstream until it gets dark, about four hours. We anchor in the middle of the stream, set a watch, and eat dinner.
Miriel puts a restoration into Telryn's ring. Miriel checks everyone over, administers potions against swamp fever, and generally makes sure everyone is doing well in this unhealthy environment. We rest the night uneventfully. As soon as it is sufficiently light, we start down the river again. We get to the cove where we were going to signal to the ship, but when we can see, we find the burned husk of the ship sunk in the shallows, and a bunch of black rat men dive off the ship into the water when they see us.
Paks looks around to see if she can see signs of Jonas or the boat he had, but she can't see anything. We discuss how we might get out of here. We go to check out the burned hulk of the ship. It looks like the black rat men made a lair in here. They have strung up half-eaten bodies. We find Jonas. Telryn looks sick. Miriel suggests we look for a life raft. Paks suggests we try to take the little ship we're in along the shore of the ocean. We suddenly notice that Jonas' boat is capsized nearby and can probably be used. We pull it out and invert it to dry. We all get in and Telryn casts Bull's Strength on the four rowers; he and Miriel rest. As we reach the ocean, there are a lot of waves and rocks. It's the day before the full moon, so the rowers can see pretty well, and Goldpetal of course can see in the dark. We row through the night, and dawn breaks on actually a very nice day. Darmaon plays a happy song on his sitar. Chuck uses Steal Sleep to avoid needing sleep, and casts it into the ring to let the Paks use it. Miriel heals them of the damage from working so hard.
We row all day, pasisng marshes and sometimes areas with stunted trees covered in webs. We reach an area where we can see a rocky spire, about 15 miles in from shore. When he sees it, Telryn tells us a story of a myth he remembers reading, that 40 years ago, in Hedrad, one of the wives of the councilors betrayed the city somehow, and she and her friends were cursed by Hedrada himself, and turned into spider women. The myth says that they were driven from Hedrad and settled somewhere in the Mourning Marshes. We're interested, but we want to get back to town. We keep rowing. Miriel tells the rowers to look out for ships to signal.