Magus is now back to the land of the moving & in that time also the party notices some mechanism on the north wall, w/ a lever. After examining the lever, giddy & daring w/ his new, shiny shield, Djarel decides to pull it w/o any real discussion w/ the others. A few seconds later they hear a massive crashing on the other side of the door. They decide to leave the room & check it out. Magus tries the door but fails. Amadi steps up, twirls & gives the door a well-placed kick, opening it up... They file into the E-W corridor, noticing a portcullis that is now to their direct east, blocking the dead end. Also, they notice someone running their way from the W, a human, & behind the human, turning the corner, three Orcs. Leif bolts to the northside of the corridor & whistles off an arrow @ one of the orcs, hitting it in the jugular, dropping it... The other orcs approach after the thief nearing the others, swinging their clubs, one misses while the other strikes Gnolan in the ribs; then Magus, bumbling through like a tail back, plants his battle axe through the skull of one. The last orc is now between them all, overwhelmed. Having now composed himself from his flight, Telal the Thief (who the orcs had been chasing), circles around & jabs his dagger through the last orc's midsection. The orc falls. The party rests & Talel tells them of his previous party's demise, in some other twisted part of the dungeon. They were lost & ambushed by orcs. Telal was the only one to survive. He thanks the party & joins them.
Viewing their map, they weigh their options. They decide to head back to the secret door Leif located previously. Leif opens the secret door & they find a relatively empty room save a 2" pile of rubble in the NW corner, chalky, white rubble, compared to the black, smooth obsidian walls. The party spends some time searching the rubble & end up finding, @ the very bottom, a golden ring. They put it in a bag w/ their other finds.
They exit the room & S, coming to an E-W passage. They go W, then S, then E, S, W, until they come upon another S passage & a door on the north wall. Amadi steps up, circling, kicking; but his attempt fails; next thing Magus is barreling forward, crashing into the door, budging it open... They enter the door & find the room quite familiar: an outcropping of cyrstalline rock shining from the NW corner. The door shuts behind them & suddenly, Leif notices the water he had put on the floor previously appears, though not quite as much of it. The party rolls out of the room, & once more disoriented, finds themselves in a N-S passage. They go N, cut W, S, E, S, W, then S... They go for a good while S, then cut E & S, coming to a door, they decide to skip the door & continue W where they pass another door, go S, then E, ultimately coming to a dead end & a door on the north wall of the corridor. Amadi spins & kicks the door open. The party moves into a 20' x 20' room w/ a stack of large, wood logs in the NE corner, a hole in the floor to the SE & a door in the NW wall. Also of note is a large, iron ring protruding from the south wall, near the 3" wide hole. After searching over the pile of wood & finding nothing, Amadi hangs his lantern down the hole a bit, but from what he can see it is just dark space, then, suddenly his lantern burns out. Telal lights a torch & they decide to send Magus down the hole. Using a 50' rope, they lower Magus down & after 40' he hits bottom, seeing that he is in a small room of a rough cavern w/ an opening to his NE. One-by-one, the remainder of the party safely make their descent, leaving the rope hanging, tied to the iron ring in the wall above. They travel NE out of the room, then S, then SW, slow through the cave, much more rugged & rocky than the corridors above. They turn E & come to a junction where to the north they can see the cave open into an ante-chamber, & there is a glowing object on the north wall... As they near, entering the room, they see that the glow is coming from a large, chunk of rock which appears to be mica. It radiates magic strongly. Suddenly, standing in the shadows just out of the glow of the radiating stone, the party notices two Gnomes standing there. They appear to be just as surprised to suddenly find the party standing in the room. Magus greets them in gnomish, "Howdy there, fellas."
9:30 PM
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