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[howandwhy99]

[DAY 42 –Feastday, Jinto 3rd, CY 81]

As the darkness dulled into murky grey skies above, Dalin, Darius, Kayla, Brother Ben, Igor, Mirel, and Dram stood at the entrance of Quesquaton just at the bottom of the well. Rogg and Ormand were charged with watching the top until called. Darius explained that Elion believed a large treasure was still within Quesquaton and he hoped to explore for hidden doors within in hopes to find where it might be. Before leading them in though he asked everyone to carefully watch over the items they had taken originally from Quesquaton. He also requested the ceremonial sword from Igor for safekeeping. When he touched it, Darius felt a strange surge. Handing around to the others only Brother Ben felt something odd about the item. To him it looked like a flamberge blade made to appear as shining silver flame. Dagger-sized it was proportioned as a sword, but its weak silver metal and dull edge made it useless for battle. “Perhaps it is a key”, Ben said. “We might want to look around for a keyhole. Where else would you keep a treasure?”

Dram called his men down into the well while Darius looked again at the door and stones of its frame. The portal looked like it would never open or close by itself again. The stone was greatly aged and covered in a soft dust. The group spread out down the entrance corridor and searched for secret compartments and doors. They retraced their steps through the poolroom and the upper, stonework chambers examining every wall for clues. Upon coming to the horn-headed, stone idol, which was smashed upon their first foray into the dungeon Igor pointed to the dried stains within its proffered bowl. A hole in the bottom of the bowl was meant to feed water or wine into the basin from somewhere within, or so it seemed. Igor said he believed the stain was blood. Taking out his sword he cut himself slightly and slowly poured a little of his own blood into the bowl. The blood was quickly sucked up into the hole.

Igor tried sticking his hand up the hole and the tube behind, but did not get very far. Mirel tried and managed to stick almost her whole arm inside. The stone pipe behind curved up and towards the ceiling above. It was still slick with Igor’s blood. Climbing up the statue, Darius began smashing into the ceiling stone with his hammer. He was having trouble reaching, when Dram stopped him. Examining the ceiling the large man began to pound out the stone tiles affixed to it. The others backed away. After several minutes of smashing Dram burst through. He ducked aside as a black liquid splattered to the floor’s flagstones. The ooze bubbled and hissed as it began slowly melting into the floor. The group started shouting different directions when Dalin ran up and stuck his lit torch into the blob. It hissed and shrank away from the flame. It took a few minutes, but the torchbearers managed to destroy ooze. No trace was left behind, but the misshapen floorstones.

Dram noticed the stone he had pierced above looked valuable. Climbing up onto Igor’s shoulders he saw a 1-foot cube of the same black stone encasing the compartment above. Darius examined the piece, which had fallen and identified it as “Onyx”. “It’s worth quite a bit if we can collect it all”. Dram pounded away for over two hours making small chips of the stone. In all they had about 50 pieces when he was done. Divvying them up, it was decided Dram would need to pay his hirelings out of his own share. Everyone was proud to uncover another secret of Quesquaton, but it was not the ‘BIG’ treasure they were looking for. Darius decided to break through one the poolroom’s walls. It cracked easily and the team could see into where the storage room used to be. Now only chasm separated them from the tunnel behind Zelligar’s throne. Darius noticed the floor around the poolroom’s cracked wall looked very weak. Not willing to take the same chance as he had in the supply room, he backed the others away and refused to let anyone near it. A quality plan was needed to find a way to safely reach the other side.

Darius could feel the tension building in his teammates. They wanted a good fight. He decided a foray against the caves was best. Dram explained about the ‘gnolls’ Captain Radcliffe had taught he, Dram, and Dalin about. He suspected the gnolls would be spoiling for another fight. The others thought they would do better to find and fight the orcs instead as the gnolls were so hard to kill. On the way out, Brother Ben noticed a smattering of bone-bats had again gathered in the batcave and channeled his Gods’ power into them. As Ben wiped out the last of the undead threat, the others asked about what secrets Darius and Kayla had discovered. It seemed they spent a lot time with Elion the Elf, but little was ever shared of what was discussed. “Yeah! What’s been going on around here? I want to know what I am about to get Igor here killed for.” Dram slapped the chef squarely in the back.