We head down the corridor with Rob in the lead, and notice some holes in the wall about 30 feet down. Rob likes to investigate dark holes and checks them out. Some rats of unusual size squeak at him and leap out. He attempts to fight them and gets bitten. Minerva and Morgan run to his aid and Bael strikes up a tune. The rats are dealt with in fairly short order. And Rob resumes his leadership.
The corridor turns to the east and we find a huge hole in the floor (8 feet across) and a door on the other side. Isis ponders on the depth of the hole and tosses a stone down. After a considerable time we hear a splash and all agree that falling down would not be a good idea. We rope together and Rob hammers a iron spike in to use as a handhold. He edges around the hole first and gets the door open. Everyone is able to follow and we see a short corridor – portcullis on one side, steps down on the other.
Minerva, Morgan and Bael apply their considerable strength to the portcullis and get it lifted – an iron spike holds it up. Beyond is a lever and another door – again closely fitting and small leaks of water give us key clues as to what is on the other side. The lever proves to be connected to the portcullis and lifts it completely.
Rob’s plan is that everyone but him crosses back past the hole, he will rope himself to the portcullis and open the door. No one disagrees so he goes ahead. He gets battered by the combination of water and wall, but survives. Beyond is a square room. After entering, he feels himself trip a wire and feels a blast of heat from behind. His wet clothes take most of the damage and he won’t need to get his haircut at the back for a while.
At the other side of the room is another door – Rob detects that it is bulging under the weight of water on the other side. He drives a spike into the floor to stop the door flying open into his face, then stands by the hinges and flicks the catch…
Despite being ready the door whacks him on the nose. However, the main flow of water passes through the room and he only ends up with wet(ter) ankles.
The door takes us into another long corridor. We spot more holes about 5 feet up that look like the rat holes from earlier. Morgan, Minerva and Bael advance. Bael’s inspiring song is definitely doing it’s work and the rats don’t last long.
The corridor turns again and ends at *another* door (secret this time, but not that well hidden) that we are confident is holding back a lot of water. Rob is feeling a bit too battered to volunteer for door duty this time so Morgan steps up. The rest retreat to the square room down the corridor. Morgan bangs in a couple of spikes to attempt to raise him up above the flow of water. He climbs up and pops the catch…
The water knocks his feet away but he is able to cling to the iron spike handhold while a seemingly endless torrent of water rushes past him. After several minutes, the main body of the party troop back up the corridor and help Morgan down – he seems to be cramped up.
The door opens into a large room with a quadrant shaped dais in our corner. Oddly there is a giant oyster sitting on it. Beyond the dais are steps descending into yet more water. We feel that this might be the other side of the room that had the shark in it – Bael dons the Cloak of Manta Ray and enters the water to find out. After swimming to the bottom and noticing that the pool is about 15 feet deep (that’s pretty deep kids!) he is confronted by a white shark. In attempting to escape he exposes his flank to the shark and suffers a couple of nasty bites.
A shark fighting plan is rapidly formulated. Isis will ‘cast’ the dead rats out into the water like bait and attempt to lure the shark in towards the steps where Minerva and Morgan will attempt to slash it with their swords. Rob will take potshots with his new bow. Bael, as always, will provide an inspiring ballad about roving in summer meadows, and drinking cider.
The plan seems to be working as the rat carcasses result in a fin breaking the surface and aiming straight for the steps. Minerva deals the shark a mighty blow, which it doesn’t seem too pleased with. Everyone else isn’t too pleased to see two more fins bearing down on us. Yikes! This has turned into a proper battle.