Following that excitement, the next couple of days are pretty lame as we put as much stuff on the raft as possible until it starts sinking, and then take some off and start poling up river. They pretty soon realise that with me poling, they aren’t going anywhere, so I’m on lookout duty most of the time. Faustus does the heavy lifting on this obvs. Or rather the high flying.

After this the days all seem to merge into one, and it feels like weeks until something happens. When it does though, it’s a bloody great hydra coming stomping out of the river straight for us. The two muscle-men show how heroic they are by jumping off the raft and onto the darn thing, cutting off heads left and right. Obviously that means that it pretty soon has twice as many heads as it started with. Saner minds prevail, and flame-girl and me pound it with some spells, including some tasty fire based damage. Turns out that barbecued hydra doesn’t taste so nice though.

Our next stop after that is the swamp. It starts getting pretty fetid and soon we find a small hut on stilts in a pond in the middle of the swamp. The water is foul and all the fish look diseased. We try to pole off but we are stuck – every time we pole out of the pond, we find ourselves poling back in again. We try everything we can think of – burning the hut, all the spells we have in my grimoire, but nothing can get us out of here. Finally, when we are almost on the verge of losing our minds completely (and I think the hippie-chick does go a bit nuts – she’s certainly pretty catatonic), we see a mysterious figure in the reeds at the edge of the pond. By the time we pole over, she has vanished, but we find a scroll tube with a powerful dispel magic spell in it. We cast it, and the curse vanishes; the water is clear and the fish are healthy. We scarper pronto at that point.

After a while we reach our destination – just in time I think because the raft is starting to look a bit ropey. We proceed into the desert proper, and pretty rapidly make contact with a caravan that is going in the right direction, and it seems could use a few more hired hands to protect itself. We spend a couple of days getting used to how they do things – travelling twice a day at dawn and dusk to avoid the worst of the heat. After a couple of days, we get put on point duty, so we are the first people to see the horde of bandits that suddenly appear from behind a dune and start charging towards the caravan. We send the bargeman back to warn the caravan at top speed, and by the time we get back, they are laagered up and pretty much surrounded. We join the north rampart and prepare to do battle. Their initial charge is pretty devastating, and several of them break right through our line of guards and into the merchants and camels beyond before we have a chance to use the heavy artillery spells (and we had some real dozies lined up, flame-girl and me). The barbarian goes rampaging off, and the dwarf sticks to just defending the hippie chick, who summons a bunch of wolves again, so I decide to mess things up a bit. I have a wand I boosted from a place a little while ago that can change people, and decide to use it on the nob guy, just to give him a bit of a shock. I’m nice though, I turn him into a silver dragon rather than a worm or a beetle or something gross. He seems happy as larry though, tromping on bandits, freezing them with his cold breath and when they turn and run to takes to the sky to chase them down as well. I don’t think any of them got away. Unfortunately he’s back before his hour is up, otherwise he would have turned back into a non-flying person at five hundred feet altitude. Uncontrolled flight into terrain 🙂

We may have knocked out all the bandits, but they have ripped a second one in the caravan as well – quite a few dead and wounded. We do what we can for the wounded, and bury the dead, which takes a day. Then onwards through the endless desert. In a couple of days we find the hidden oasis though, which I guess just makes it the oasis. We replenish our water, and the hippie chick starts on some spell to make it produce more food. We are woken up in the night by a foul stench, which apparently often preceeds attacks from the evil ones, but nothing happens.

The next day we are sent out, minus hippie chick, on a deep desert patrol. We are right at the end of our patrol range, when we discover a strange half buried temple in the sand. Normal people would ignore it or run screaming, but we ain’t normal we ain’t. We proceed down the avenue of half-buried columns, ignoring the two human skeletons chained to the last pair. Beyond is a courtyard with a sand-filled pool, and a dark doorway beyond.

The Book of Light says ‘where the darkness is deepest, there the light can shine strongest’. Following my success in Hutarkka where I brought the light of Helim to that benighted backwater and brought peace to their warring factions with the light of my mace, I am not content to rest on my laurels or take pride in my achievements, because I am merely a servant of the eternal light.

Thus I am now here, in the western deserts of the Republic of Darokin, because the light of Helim knows no earthly boundaries, and nor do its servants. Here I am unknown at present, but soon my renown will shine across the land in the service of the Lord of Light. The distance from Karameikos can be the only explanation for why my aid has not been received with more gladness, for I have been treated in many respects as if I was a common soldier. But we are also taught that sometimes it is necessary for the light to be hidden for a while so that it may shine forth suddenly in the midst of its enemies.

I find myself commanding a rag-tag of drop-outs and misfits that are too rebellious or unbiddable to be included in the main army that moved out against the desert nomads a few days ago. My desire to smite the forces of darkness burns within me unquenched though. I command and am commanded, as is proper, so I shall excel at my duty, whatever my duty may be, even if it is unworthy of me. Do everything as if you do it for Helim.

Last night I was given an opportunity to show my valour indeed. It was the third watch and there was a cry from the wilderness beyond the palisade. Hearing in that cry the voice of a man sorely oppressed, I vaulted heroically from the palisade and ran towards the noise. When I arrived, I beheld a man being attacked by a foul creature which the sight of Helim (all blessings to him) showed to be a fiend from the deepest hells. The man was sorely hurt, but two great blows from my mace, backed with the radiant power of Helim, was enough to dispatch the foul creature back to its infernal lair.

The man could barely speak, but thrust a scroll tube into my hand and whispered something about crossing the great desert, journeying through the great pass, and defeating the Dark Master in his temple of Death. Or something like that – the details are a little hazy. But it matters not – Helim himself, in this stranger, has revealed to me my purpose in this land, and I will fulfill his will.

Fortunately my superiors concur that I am destined to bring doom to this dark master, and have concurred with Helim’s will, as they obviously must, but without struggle, which is always the best route. I shall lead my squad upriver and then into the desert, to find the great pass and the temple of death.

The next day, as my troops are preparing our rafts and supplies, we are attacked by a wizard on a wyvern and several trolls. The wizard uses cowardly tactics, casting spells from a distance, but I am able to catch him on the ground and show him the justice and righteousness of Helim until he submits and acknowledges his majesty in a most final manner.

The trolls are beneath contempt and are slaughtered repeatedly and then burnt until they stop moving.

Well, this seems as good a place to lie low as any, or so I first thought. Volunteer for the army being sent out to the desert border, and then scarper when things look like getting hot. Not that I can’t look after myself these days, since the deal was done, but no sense making trouble for myself. Trouble is this place is buttoned up like a snake’s arse, and there is no where to go anyway, except downstream. And I saw what they did to some guys who tried to run away that way. So kept my head low, and made sure that I was useless enough not to get picked, but not so useless that I get nailed for anything. And I mean nailed up. It was all OK until a few days ago, and then the main force moved out, and we were left to garrison this dump. Opportunity at last I thought, but this complete stick-up-the-arse aristocrat has put himself in charge of our squad. We seem to be all the awkward bastards and misfits and I think a bunch of them are playing the same card as me and appearing a lot more useless than they are. There is one girl who is nice enough, except she keeps playing with fire the whole time, like literally. I think she is a few loaves short of a bakery shop, if you ask me. And this dwarf who is the grumpiest sod I ever met. And a complete meatheat who is so up himself its not true, and his slimy sidekick. Plus the aforementioned nob. And some kind of hippie chick.

Anyway, night before last we were doing duty on the rampart, and suddenly heard a kerfuffle out in the desert. Black as pitch out there, but of course that doesn’t cause me no problems, not with my witchsight. I could see what was going on – some bloke in desert robes fighting with some kind of creature. Unnatural looking thing. Anyway Stephen, the nob, Stephen de Hautville he insists on being called, he shouts a warcry of somekind, and jumps over the frigging rampart. Must be a twelve foot drop to the bottom. Brains of a tadpole that one. Brave, I’ll grant you, but I’m amazed he has lived thsi long. Anyway, he goes pegging off towards the fight. The flight is getting closer, and I think the others can see what is going on now, including Stephen. The thing is definitely unearthly now, but Stephen doesn’t slow down. I think there really is quite a lot of brain missing there. Anyway, he gets in close and starts slugging it with his mace, which is quite impressive – blasts of light as he hits it. He looks like he is having far too much fun though, so I banish it back to wherever it came from. Works like a charm as well. Kill-steal! The nob looks a bit disconsolate but pulls himself back together and tends to the wounded bloke, then carries him back in. They vanish off with the rest of the boss types, so I go back to staring at the desert.

Next morning, its all go. Seems we now have a top secret mission to go on. Must be related to the bloke we rescued I guess. Anyway, far to top secret for me to know about, except that I am quite good at knowing about stuff that I’m not supposed to know about. Apparently we need to go into the desert, through some sort of great pass, and find the temple of Death. Not sure what we are supposed to do there, but I guess a bit of mindless violence will be called for. Anyway, first step is to travel up the river for a couple of days and through a marsh, then strike out across the desert until we hit the caravan route, and pick up a caravan. They try to but be on raft loading duty, and then realise that its really not what I do, lugging stuff around. So I get to round up the camels instead. Evil bloody creatures, but smart. They rapidly realise who is boss, once you give them a quick mental picture of what true suffering really is. The Stephen nob gives us a speech about how we should be proud to be doing the will of Helim. Utter claptrap. We spend most of the day doing this, and then someone spots something in the sky flying towards us. We take cover and the dragon flies pass with a bloke on it. I send Faustus up to have a look, but he can’t keep up with it and the sunlight hurts his likkle eyes. Couple of hours later, its back again, and this time its heading straight for us. We go to take up a defensive position, but suddenly the bloke on the back gestures and a mote of flame flies over and explodes in the centre of us. We’re not too badly damaged (or at least I’m not), so I blast him back with a fireball of my own – not just him, but the three trolls who have just hopped over the palisade to support him. Stephen goes charging off at him again – the guy seriously only seems to have one tactic. The flight is relatively short – I blast off a few more eldricht blasts, but make sure to keep myself well out of harms way. The hippie-chick summons a pack of wolves, which is quite impressive. They don’t last long against the trolls, but it makes it just too complex to be bothered woring out who I should be blasting. Starts getting pretty boring towards the end – the wizard on the wyvern dies quite quickly and the wyvern buggers off fortunately. It quite funny watching them chop up the trolls, which keep pulling themselves back together. Finally they start hitting them with fire spells – the nutjob with the fire fixation is obviously fairly good at that, and the nob has a neat trick where he gets his mace to burst into flames when it hits, so they all stay down in the end.

The slimeball has had a root through the pockets of the wizard by the time I get there, but my arcane sight shows me that he has a magic ring on, so I get the Brazen Tome out (a sign of especial favour from my infernal lord) and start preparing a spell of identification.

We continue to explore the labyrinthine tunnels. Occasional bellows (not the fire pumping implements!) can be heard. Gradually they get louder and we know we are getting closer to the beast.

We turn a corner and see an open room up ahead. Within is a HUGE figure – half man, half bull, all badass!! It stands 10 feet tall and wields a giant rusting axe like a hatchet. Minerva and Morgan step back and set spears, anticipating a charge. However, no charge comes.. What a let down!

Amber looses an arrow and Varys casts Magic Missile and the battle begins.

It seems that while the Minotaur is great at bellowing, looking imposing and swinging it’s big chopper it is not actually so great at fighting. Minerva and Morgan hack it down and only Morgan suffers any damage in return.

Victory is sweet. Certainly sweeter than the axe, which is definitely not magical. Everyone advances into the room to check for any other treasure and suddenly there is a flash of blue light.

When our sight returns it seems we have been teleported into another room. It contains a small (5 feet high) crystal obelisk and has one exit. Rob examines the obelisk and finds he is unable to touch it. It is clearly magical but we can discern little else about it so leave the room to attempt to find out where we are.

A passage leads around a corner and branches – both branches lead to a door. One is locked the other not.
We open the unlocked door and find that from the other side it is covered by wall hangings – a tapestry maybe. We hear voices but cannot make out what they are saying.

We check the other door – Amber and Rob manage to pick the lock. It contains two sarcophagi. No one is keen to investigate further so we retreat and re-lock the door.

After some debate we enter the first room and attempt to strike up a conversation.

This attempt doesn’t go well – the Rakasta accuse us of defiling their temple and get quite shirty about it. I forget the details, but it ends in a fight. One runs for the door after casting a single magic missile at Morgan. A return volley of a double MM from Varys and a thrown dagger from Amber mean it will never learn the skills of higher level casting.

In order to gain a hostage, Varys casts Web, which entagles the Rakasta as well as Morgan, Minerva and someone else. The Rakasta is tied up but still doesn’t want to be friends.

We exit the room, dragging out the living and dead Rakasta. The plan is that we spike the door shut and try to get some rest before making a break out.

Legend tells of a famed elven interrogator by the name of Morkel. Sadly he isn’t here but we try to question the Rakasta anyway. It seems that the two we met before have been executed for being weak and a similar fate is likely for us. It can’t understand how we got in but is deeply offended at our violation of the temple.

We settle down to rest, but within an hour are alerted to sounds coming from the opulent room beyond the door. It doesn’t take long for them to try to open the door we spiked shut and once they start properly hammering on it we call out for a parley, mentioning our hostage.

They are supremely confident of their position (as well they might be) and aren’t that interested in any negotiation. They are interested in our talk of a giant black pearl though – could this be our ticket out of here?

We march to the blue light curtain to undertake our water based experiment.
After we pass through the light Isis casts Create Water and our water bottles fill up and indeed water splashes on the floor as she creates too much. However, within seconds we notice it starting to disappear and within a minute or two it is all gone…

Nevertheless, we continue down the passage to see what we can find.

Eventually we come to a pair of doors. Behind one we hear a rustling sound so we open it. Within are three short humanoids. Bael and Amber try some friendly opening gambits as we would prefer to avoid combat. They seems suspicious. Bael offers to sing a song of greeting. Within the words he weaves the magic of his Charm spell. One of the humanoids falls for it and becomes more friendly. Isis attempts Charm Mammal and one more becomes more friendly.

We chat for a while and gain some key pieces of information:

• the old city lies ahead
• there are ghosts and shades and deadly traps in the old city
• there is a magical artifact within the old city that keeps the old ones in a long slumber.
• only a few remaining evil servants of the old ones seek to remove the artifact, hoping to resurrect the old ones.
• they are called kopru
• the artifact creates the blue light and the associated dryness keeps the kopru out

The humanoids also know of a route out of the tunnels up to the ‘sky grass’, but they say Morgan is too fat to fit through. They take us there, and it is confirmed to be a very narrow tunnel.

Consensus seems to be that we will have to fight our way back out past the kopru. Hopefully forewarned is forearmed. We can focus ranged weapons against it. They are weak to cold and dry, but these are things we are not able to generate!!

We decide to return to some of the other tunnels we have explored, namely a door with a steel bar. We open it and have a mooch around. Varys recalls ancient stories of a place called Knossos and wonders if a Minotaur hangs out around here…

We continue to explore the maze of tunnels and spirals that we have found.

Key discoveries are:

• Some tunnels lead to a ‘curtain’ of blue light. We seem to be unaffected when passing through. The tunnels and chambers beyond the blue light are notable for being incredibly dry. We then notice that our water bottles are empty!
• We have found an old kitchen with a working water tap. So, we figure we can survive
• There are patches of green slime in some areas which do no one any good.

Another abandoned kitchen has a chimney. Rob decides to climb up as it must eventually lead out.. He is gone a long time so Bael attempts to follow. However, bards are not as good at climbing and he falls and knocks himself unconscious! We rest for several hours and then Isis uses the staff of healing on all. Bael regains consciousness.

Isis transforms into a bat and flies off to seek Rob. Within the hour she returns and explains that she found him, resting out in the open. The chimney leads into a fissure, which he followed and it eventually leads out onto the plateau. Rob looked exhausted but alive. Based on Isis’ description we wonder about how to get out…

Bael manages to charm Amber and release her from the power of the hideous frogtopus. She talks of what she felt – a voice was telling her to go deeper, to seek out the giant black pearl from the dry place.

Our priorities have changed!! It seems that down beyond the blue light are the remains of an ancient city and within them is the legendary black pearl. The frogtopus cannot pass the light barrier so attempts to charm passing adventurers into doing it for him/her/it.

First step is to test whether Isis can Create Water after passing through the light curtain.

While this key exposition is occurring Rob returns and everyone agrees they are hungry. We had heard scuttling noises behind some doors earlier – possibly it is rats that we could eat. Varys readies a Sleep spell and we go hunting for food.

We manage to catch 12 rats which we butcher and roast over a fire of burning furniture under the handy chimney. The meat doesn’t taste great, but it fills our empty bellies…

You are standing at the end of a tunnel in a sheer 500 ft cliff face. Jungle stretches out before you with mountains in the background. Exits lead back, and technically down.

Bael instructs Isis to change to bat form and work out where we are, go and find the tiger and try to get back here with it. Still under the effects of his charm she happily does so and flaps off.

Meanwhile the rest decide they need to find a safe way down and return to the room with eight exits. We take the one between the two we’ve already passed through, to finish off that corner!

It leads off and gradually bends to the right and descends in long, shallow steps. After maybe half a mile we come to a huge fissure in the rock but the path continues down the side of the fissure. We descend…

Eventually we see a blue light in the distance. We approach it and pass through with no apparent ill effect beyond a slight tingling. We are now at the bottom of the fissure and there isn’t too much to see beyond some boulders. It is quite dry down here. This cavern seems unlikely to yield much of interest so we return to the path and ascend. Someone notices that all our water bottles are now empty!! Could it be the effect of the blue light?

We get back to the eight arched room and go for the arch opposite where we first came in – it opens into another circular room with a dais at the other end but nothing else of note.

The arch one to the right of the spiraling upwards path seems to lead us spiraling down, which is a good sign. At the first of the inevitable side passages to the shaft we drop a copper piece, it falls for a while and we hear it hit something but it’s too faint to be sure if it’s rock or water. We descend another circuit and drop another – it hits rock. We also notice that there appear to be huge iron girders across the shaft. No one is too sure what they might be for.

We get to the bottom of the shaft. It is smooth stone with no boulders. Morgan notices that the walls appear to be have been scorched sometime in the past. Again, no one is sure what that might mean.

There are two other entrances/exits here – one smells of very little, the other has an unpleasant, acrid smell. We opt for the dry one. We find a row of cells, still populated with skeletons, what may be a guardroom and a small kitchen. Within the kitchen is a tap, and after running water through for a couple of minutes it seems drinkable. Hurrah!!

We elect to rest up for the night by our water source and continue exploring in the morning.
Bael takes first watch and is alerted by a scuttling sound – a huge tentacled centipede type creature drops from the ceiling. He grabs his sword and kicks Morgan awake. Lucky he did for the tentacles manage to paralyse Bael. Morgan jumps up and draws his sword and lets out a battle cry which awakens Minerva and Varys. Morgan lands a mighty blow and then is promptly paralysed! Minerva manages to land a hit on the beast but strangely fails to cut off any tentacles. She is then paralysed!!

Varys the Nervous girds his loins and casts Magic Missile. What a spell!! The Carrion Crawler collapses and everyone is saved. After a half hour or so the paralysis wears off and everyone has a laugh about how funny it would have been to be killed off in such a way. Then we all go back to sleep.

In the morning(!) we continue to explore south. The passage continues for a while then we see a blue light. Bael has an idea and walks up to it and passes his arm through, holding his full water bottle. It comes back empty. We head back to the bottom of the shaft, pausing while Bael fills his bottle.

We take the acrid smelling passage. The smell gets worse, and suddenly we are attacked in our midst by six troglodytes. No wonder it was so smelly!!

Only Morgan is unaffected by their terrible BO issues. However, he is at the back and currently unable to engage. To summarise – Bael has an absolute nightmare and it unable to land a blow. Minerva does a good job. Amber and Rob are attacked while still tied up (why didn’t Bael Charm them at breakfast time!!). Varys has to attempt some dagger action.

Somehow we survive the battle; Varys is able to swap places with Morgan so he can get involved. Rob’s bonds are severed and he is able to land a blow before being nearly killed. Magic Missile again proves it’s worth.

As the dust settles we realise Rob is missing. Morgan charges after him and is able to catch him before too long, given that he is almost dead and is only running from sheer effort of will…

Bael and Amber are also severely wounded, and questions are asked as to the wisdom of sending off the only person who could use the Staff of Healing on a scouting mission.

We rope up and Rob leads us across the narrow, slippery ledges that make up the only passable parts of this hellish cavern.

We pass several pools of boiling mud when suddenly several things happen at once. A hideous head with a tentacled mouth appears from a pool to our left, Varys starts to chant an incantation and Amber stabs Bael in the back!!

Quick to react, Morgan turns and punches Varys square in the face, knocking him out. Bael yelps while Minerva clonks Amber over the head with the flat of her sword. Rob looses an arrow at the monster, but misses.

Isis suddenly realises that the monster is her master and she must subdue Minerva so that she will recognise it as her master as well. She attacks Minerva, but fails to pierce the fighter’s armour. Rob manages to graze the monster with an arrow but Bael misses.

Now, Rob also realises that the monster is his master and he turns and looses an arrow at Morgan at point blank range. Morgam responds with a tasty left hook and Rob falls over.
Amber too is suffering at the hands of Minerva – she slips over and then takes a boot to the head which knocks her out.

At this point Bael feels it might be time to attempt an exit. Morgan feels the call of the monster but manages to resist. The party are all still roped together and luckily the three strongest members are still compos mentis. They are able to slowly drag the prone bodies and the struggling Isis through to the nearest ledge. Unfortunately this is not the exit and so our intrepid heroes must delve deeper into the mountain caverns… We bind the arms and gag our ‘charmed’ companions and wake the unconscious ones so that they can walk.

The path descends and and the first fork we take the passage on the level (the right hand passage). It soon turns back on itself and becomes worryingly steep so we backtrack.

The other path (the left fork) continues to descend and then we come to a three way fork. For want of a better method of choosing we take the left passage. It descends and ends in water… Backtrack.

We take the middle passage. It veers to the right and then ends at the opening of a huge fissure – no way through here. Backtrack.

We take the right passage. It leads to the top of a scree slope so we descend it. It goes a long way down but eventually we get to the bottom and figure it’s time for a rest and some water. Isis is indignant that we attempted to attack her master and curses us. She says she cannot hear his voice any longer but knows that she serves him.

Bael attempts his own Charm. Firstly on Varys and then on Isis. It works!! They smile happily at him. Varys says that it was the little statue that first spoke to him…

After some rest we press on and and come to a lake. Bael wonders if there might be a small pale creature with lamp-like eyes living on an island in the middle. There is no sound of anything however so he decides to don the cloak of manta ray and explore. After 200 yds the water is only up to his shins so the others all join. The water briefly makes it to knee depth and then gets shallower again. At the far shore the ‘beach’ slopes up and we appear to be walking up a dried river bed.

In the cavern wall we spy an archway. Not a natural arch but one carved out of the rock. Morale rises and we pile on through.

After a while we pass through a vaulted chamber with ledges on either side of the passage. At times it seems like the DM is making it up as he goes along…

We eventually reach a circular chamber with 8 exits. The passage 90 degrees to our right appears to smell fresher so we eagerly enter. It rises and turns to the left. A passage heads off to the left – it ends at a huge shaft that both descends and ascends into blackness. We continue to climb the sloping passage. After what may be another turn of the spiral we find another passage to the left. Again it ends at a shaft. Back to the spiral. After a while it strightens out and we see the glimmer of day light!!!

We reach the end of the tunnel and find ourselves about 500 feet up a sheer cliff. Looking out on jungle below and mountains in the distance.

While the evil in the mud pools must be defeated, we need to gather strength and hone our skills before we return.

Before departing for the village and healing, Bael is determined to open up the giant oyster.

Minerva and Morgan get hacking at it, while Bael sings a ditty about scything cornfields. Eventually they crack through the shell enough to be able to have a hack at the muscle. Something blocks their swords and some careful butchery reveals a huge black pearl. The size of a baseball, which means nothing to our Mystaran heroes!!

The sight of the pearl stirs memories, and Isis resolves to check her diary when we get back to the village, and before she flies off to renew her acquaintance with the tiger.

Feeling pretty beat up, we return to the village to rest and recuperate and hopefully restore the sight of Varys and Amber.  Umlat, the priest, confirms that the giant black pearl of legend was the size of a man’s head and allowed the owner to control the weather.

Three days of lounging around sees everyone feeling better (and seeing better) and ready to return to Taboo Island.

We pass through the temple and return to where we originally saw the shark. The water level has dropped (as we thought it would) leaving a muddy wet floor. We are able to just about make out the dais in the gloom and Bael dons the Cloak of Manta Ray to examine further. There are no more sharks and he is able to confirm that this is the same chamber.

There are more steps off in the distance, but when he goes to explore there’s been a huge rockfall that has blocked further progress.

From this point onwards, Vary’s recollection of events seems to become rather hazy.

He remembers returning to the upper level and continuing past the collapsed floor that we fell through into the flooded cell-block.  Beyond this we found a room somewhere with a stone pedestal and a small carved stone box sitting atop it. Amongst the detritus on the floor we found a beautiful bowl with gold inlay and diamonds around the outside. Inside the stone box was a statuette of a hideous half-man half-octopus creature. It glowed under Bael’s detect magic spell and no one fancied picking it up.

After feeling like this level of the under-temple was fully explored, we descended the stairs down which a lot of the water has flowed. The steps got rougher and opened out into a hot cavern with many bubbling mud pools. A precarious ledge seems like our only way forward….

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.