Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID
After their nasty run-in with the umber hulk, the PCs have now healed and rested to regain their spells, before setting off further into the Crowslode. They find another cavern area which is was a last stand site for a group of dwarven and human miners. Within is a slightly preserved journal kept by one of the prospectors, Slott Squatbottom, which has a few entries intact. He has named this top region of the caverns the 'Hazard Shafts'. Apparently the explorers and miners had discovered a number of antagonistic races within the depths. Deep gnomes have rigged specific areas with some truly deadly traps, while bands of troglodytes have been harassing and killing them, recently massing to repel the decades old expedition. Slott himself appears to have died from the infection of wounds sustained in such a battle. And it looks like a lot more of the old remains in the cavern belong to the dwarves than trogs. The PCs decide to press further, finding a pit to the next lower level, which is unfortunately guarded by a stone golem that activates once they try to use it. Although the construct proves impervious to many forms of attack, and renders the melee fighters' attacks weaker, the group eventually manages to bring it down through teamwork, though Wendel hangs back for safety.
Once lowering themselves to the second level, they find a corridor oddly guarded on both ends by a low wall of placed stones...with a few shreds of cloth swirling around inside. They sense that there is strong illusion magic in the area, but Wendel can't figure out if it's trapped, so they decide to check out another cavern and discover several hidden caches of small-sized weapons, in mine carts that were tucked into alcoves in the wall. The PCs return to the strange corridor that bars their progress through the 2nd level, and dispel a chunk of the corridor, revealing a complex system of churning, completely silent spiked columns of death that will grind anyone up moving through the area. Wendel can't disarm it, so they decide to send Gruulsh through in gaseous form just to scout out the other area, where they get a peak at the next room. She returns and becomes corporeal again, and they attempt a number of other bypasses like using one of the mining carts to jam some of the columns, but it fails because the cart is too big. They decide to return to the first level to see if there is anything they might have missed...rather than send someone to an almost certain death.
The only place above they hadn't examined further was the chamber mostly submerged in water, so Gruulsh and Wendel head out to the little island and examine the small hooded skeleton. They find an everburning torch inside the lantern, a silver fishing rod and a gorgeous goblet, and bring over Baro to examine their magical radiations. When he raises the fishing rod, the skeleton also raises, and begins to follow the evoker. He also notes that divination radiates from the lantern, and conjuration and necromancy from the goblet. After further exploration of this cavern, including some diving, the PCs return to the second level, where they keep banging up against the obstacle of the trap corridor, until finally Mistlethroe identifies the lantern to possess proprietary detection and negation properties, which not only give a full reveal of the 60' hallway of grinding columns, but they also neutralize it. The party squeezes through, while Baro goes last, backwards, making sure the lantern is keeping the trap from restarting. Once through, the columns begin to spin, silently, eternally, again...
In the next chamber that had been scouted, there is a massive six-armed statue to a troglodyte god with emeralds in its headdress. The deity is so obscure or ancient that even a well reasoned Religion knowledge check can't place it. There are offering bowls surrounding the thing, some filled with the charred remains of reptilian humanoid offspring. Badger decides to remove some of the emeralds while standing on Gruulsh's shoulder, and he picks out too, but is cursed after each. Luckily for him, Ballyhoo has an ability to counteract the effects of said curses. They decide to leave the rest of the emeralds be, and then head south into the next area. a larger cavern full of rubbery, steel-colored webbing that also serves as the floor...deep below there is a red, bubbling glow of what is most likely magma. Ballyhoo uses his tongues spell to shake the webs and hopefully communicate something to whatever has made the webs, but the only response he gets is an overwhelming emotion of...
'HUNGER'.
PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig
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