Darion leveled up and rolled a 1… so he gained only 2 HP. Shit happens.

Silence descended upon the dungeon. But Aretain remembered how stealthy the Troglodytes could be, and she ushered us all into the former spider lair. We closed the door and blocked it, and went around looking into its adjacent cubicles.

We found tools and materials from old days, but all was safe. Darion took a handful of iron spikes and a historical padlock and fitting key.

For a while we rested, Apo gave himself and Maetrius a few hit points, but still, Apo was only at 7 hit points, and we had only 2 health potions left. We couldn’t go out like that. But at the same time we had to collect intel.

Go West!

Darion talked Aretain into scouting for us because with her elf eyes she needed no torch. Apo supported her with a silent spell on a coin, and Thippet came with her just in case, while Darion held the door open so they could flee back fast if necessary.

Aretain moved out west and found a huge smithy on a half-level lower, and a long corridor with a Troglodyte moving in it.

She fled back, we discussed, and the silence spell petered out, so no further expeditions were possible.

We finally accepted that we could not move on in our state. We would not survive another fight right now, so despite all the pressure from not knowing what the hell Azequia was up to, we were forced to rest a full cycle. Even though it was technically still too early for that. Apo reminded us that we still had a map case, but we were all too distracted to really listen. Instead, we went through the lore we knew once more: Xugrod the Great Demon, Vigil of the honorable Dwarves, the Forces of Chaos.

The First Seal

Then we dozed off and woke up again – because of a rumbling Earthquake!!

That didn’t bode well! It had to be Azequia. “Maybe she has woken him up! Or she is breaking the first seal?” Darion hazarded.
“Or anything, really!” Aretain tried to calm him down.

The very walls were shaking, but only for a moment, then it was quiet again. Darion threw open the doors to the pitch dark dungeon and listened. He heard lots of activity: The Troglodytes were as stunned and nervous as we were, they also threw open doors, padded around and called out to each other, wondering what was going on.

Go East! No, West!

Apoqulis reloaded his spellcraft while the hubbub died down, then we set out — to the East this time. No silence spell this time, and we went together, with light. Aretain went farther afield than the rest and heard weird insect noises somewhere east, so she returned.

We turned around, disregarding insects, and went back west. So we checked out the (empty) smithy and discovered a long corridor with many doors.

Most of those we left as they were, but there was one lever at a wall, and one door hid sleepers who snored. Darion suspected humans or dwarves, so he asked Thippet to open the door, and we found three snoring Trogs. Now Darion egged Thippet on to murder them in their sleep, and the Halfling agreed.

Master Killer

Thippet snuck in like a knife in a night and stabbed two of the sleepers to death. But then the third one woke up. Thippet didn’t miss a beat and shanked him, rolling a critical hit. A master assassin if ever there was one. Plus, 500 gold pieces in ruby.

Completing the circle we got back into “our” corridor and followed it back East again. There Aretain met an enemy: she stirred up a big beetle. She ducked behind a wall, and Darion struck the creature down.

He wondered: Why is it alone? But this was a study hall with wall paintings of devilish creatures and dwarven heroes, lots of decaying, brittle scriptures in dwarven runes, …. And a dead end.

Until Apo brought up that map case again.

Remember the map case?

The secret spaces

Thippet twiddled with it and got it open, and so we found a map of this very place, complete with all that we had discovered so far, and with markings and a hint to find a shifting wall. How silly of us not to open this map case much sooner.

We found the spot for the shifting wall, and it shifted open to reveal a corridor that snaked off, seemingly all around outside of the known rooms. Back rooms! Darion immediately envisioned secret observation holes through which we might espy who was in that blocked room with the smashed statues. But mostly he was sure that Azequia must be somewhere in there.

Aretain dashed his hopes: The dust cover on the floor was too thick and undisturbed. No anti-cleric had walked these secret halls… at least not from this side. Maybe from the other marking on the wall. She led us in and found a button on the wall, which she promptly pushed, and it was a temporary safety for a trap.

Creeping forward through the back rooms, we came to a sharp turn left of the corridors, moving on and on to circle to the other end and the other marking — and a stairwell leading down into an unknown darkness. The decision was easy: The stairs. If there is a basement, then Azequia will likely already have a different entrance for that.

We went down and down and down, and then discovered an underground deep room with even more beetles! But bigger and meaner beetles now, striped yellow on their bulky body and looking up at us menacingly, all hungry, dangerous, fast, and tough, with mandibles that clicked like giant scissors.
Swarm on!
“Retreat!”
“Fight!”
“Throw fire bombs!”

Chaos is upon us: Down with the Tiger Beetles, or down with us.

More Morgansfort: The whole story.