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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Delemental" data-source="post: 2195540" data-attributes="member: 5203">Osborn peered down into the dark shaft, clinging to the narrow ladder.  The armor he’d been given as his gift from the Tlaxan Empire allowed him to sense his surroundings even in complete darkness, but he was still unaccustomed to the feeling, and was more cautious than usual.  The fact that they were descending into a den of thieves that probably knew they were coming didn’t help the feeling.  His nose itched like crazy.            The others waited above until Osborn signaled it was clear, not wanting to crowd into the narrow shaft.  The hin finally reached the bottom of the ladder, and almost immediately found a tripwire across the hallway.  Though he wasn’t able to tell what the wire triggered, he disabled it anyway and moved forward.            The hallway met another at an odd angle about forty feet ahead of the ladder, sloping downward.  As he crept forward, Osborn finally spotted the other end of the tripwire trap; a large bag filled with marbles fastened to the ceiling.  As he moved forward into the intersection, Osborn’s heart leapt into his throat as he felt the ground beneath his feet disappear.  His superior reflexes kicked in, though, and he stepped off the door of the pit trap before dropping.  Osborn considered the setup of the hallway, and he understood.  The marbles were obviously meant to carry anyone in the hallway down toward the intersection and the pit.            Osborn flicked a small boulder back up the hallway toward the ladder, a signal to the others to begin coming down.  Then he went around the corner to the left to check the hallway, but he only got a few feet away from the intersection before the walls on one side exploded outward.  Osborn threw his arms up to shield his eyes from the chips of stone and mortar, and then almost immediately had to duck as three figures in full plate armor stepped out of hidden alcoves and began swinging at the hin with longswords.            Arrie and Kavan, who had just come down the ladder, heard the commotion and rushed forward.  They skidded to a halt at the edge of the pit, but Arrie saw that there was just enough room to get around it, and stepped around the corner, spiked chain whirling.  Her trained warrior’s eye could see that the three armored figures moved stiffly, and she suspected they might be undead.  However, there was very little space for her to maneuver in, which made things complicated.  The narrow hallways also meant that only two or three of them would be able to come to Osborn’s aid.            However, even the minimal amount of help was more than enough.  Osborn was easily able to avoid their attacks, and deal damage back.  Arrie’s chain chipped away at them as well.  Xu was next down the ladder, and was easily able to leap into position to attack the armored opponents, despite the close quarters.  Autumn came next, and realizing she would be of little use, instead stepped to the other side of the pit and kept watch on the corridor, taking advantage of her darkvision to warn everyone if more enemies approached from behind them.            Arrie’s chain finally dispatched one of the attackers, and the empty suit of armor clattered to the floor.  “What kind of undead is this?” Arrie shouted at Kavan.            “They’re not undead,” he shouted back.  “They’re constructs of some sort!”            “As long as they stay down when I hit them,” said Arrie, grinning.  The grin vanished as she stepped back to avoid a swing from one of the armored figures, and almost stumbled down into the pit.  She caught herself in the nick of time, and steadied herself before pressing her counterattack.            Arrie, Xu, Kavan, and Osborn continued to hammer at the animated armor suits.  The others came down the ladder, but hung back, knowing they would do little good pressing in.  The battle only lasted a few more moments, and soon two more suits of armor clattered to the ground.  As they started hauling the suits across the hall to dump them into the pit (figuring the sound of battle had already drawn attention, the added noise of dumping the armor wouldn’t matter much), they heard Autumn yelp and slice at something at her feet.  Arrie turned her lantern in that direction, and saw that the floor in front of her sister was covered by a stone-gray lump of writhing mass, which flailed at Autumn with long pseudopods.  They all recognized the creature from previous experience as a gray ooze.            Autumn sliced at the ooze, turning her shield to deflect its waving pseudopods.  Arrie stepped around the pit to stand next to her sister and give her light to work with, and Kyle also moved forward, stopping a few feet back to be ready to help if needed.  But the sentinel seemed to have matters well in hand, dispensing with finesse in favor of raw power, hacking at the amorphous mass with unrestrained fury.  Soon there was not a single piece of the ooze left that was larger than a dinner roll.            Wasting little time, Osborn began moving down the hallway again, toward a doorway he’d spotted at the far end.  The rest of the group followed a few feet behind.  Osborn rounded the corner and walked into one of the strangest rooms he’d ever seen.            The floor was uneven, with large blocks set higher and lower from the entrance in apparently random fashion.  Osborn could tell the room was large, but had trouble making out the other side.  However, he had no trouble making out the sound of swords being drawn from sheaths, and crossbows being cocked.            “There’s naughty people in here!” Osborn shouted, as he ducked to avoid a crossbow bolt fired toward the door.  The group moved forward quickly and spread out into the room, scrambling up and down the uneven floor to get to the people menacing them.  There turned out to be five guards on duty, two of them wielding crossbows.  The sentries put up a good effort, but their inexperience quickly became evident, as the room’s unusual design seemed to present both an advantage and a hindrance to them.  The party moved to deal with the rogues, though Lanara hung back at the doorway to stay out of trouble.Kyle moved into the room, and hesitated for a moment before launching a trio of magic missiles at the crossbowmen.  Autumn almost immediately moved in front of him.  Kyle watched as his companions began to swarm around the room, and began to pull his crossbow out, but after a moment lowered his hands.  He was positioned in a low spot in the floor, unable to see much of the enemy; though it wasn’t a problem for magic missiles, he doubted he could hit them with anything else.  Scowling with frustration, Kyle moved back into the hallway behind Lanara to keep a lookout.  As he passed the bard, he saw that she was casting spells of her own, and saw one of the rogues attacking Xu freeze in place.  His scowl deepened.Tolly moved to attack one of the rogues, but his target was positioned nearly eight feet above him.  The rogue glanced at Tolly’s warhammer, and grinned mockingly.  In response, Tolly heaved his warhammer at the rogue.  It flew wide by several feet, and the rogue’s grin widened, until the hammer hooked back around and slammed into his back, knocking from his perch and sending him sprawling at Tolly’s feet.  The grin transferred to Tolly’s face.Lanara prepared to hold another one of the rogues, when she saw Autumn come out of the doorway and move to stand in front of Kyle, who was still watching the hallway.  Lanara was a little surprised to see the sentinel leave a battle, but looking into the room she saw the fight was in their control, and Autumn’s absence would not affect the outcome greatly.“You’re blocking my view,” Lanara heard Kyle say.“And what would you do if something did come down the corridor?” Autumn asked him.  “Someone’s got to protect you.”“That’s why I’ve got Lanara here,” he replied.Lanara heard Autumn cough at the suggestion.  She wasn’t offended; she’d made her aversion to combat well known to the group from the beginning, and felt no loss of pride for her attitude.  She was far more useful with a fiddle in her hands than a sword.“What’s wrong with you?” Autumn’s tone wasn’t harsh or accusatory; it was one of genuine concern.  “I saw you hesitate in there before you cast your spell, and then you walk out here.  That’s not like you.”“I’m just nervous about what we’re doing.  I used up most of my power preparing for that ambush in the alley that never happened.  I don’t want to waste what little I’ve got left on sentries, so I figure I’m more helpful being out of the way.”Lanara heard their conversation continue in lower tones, but she didn’t pay attention to what else was said.  She didn’t have time to listen to the wizard and the sentinel argue like an old married couple.  Her focus returned to the battle, and she cast her hold person spell on another rogue, who froze up exactly like his companion.  As this had been the last significant resistance in the room, it was all over a moment later.There were two doors leading out of the room on the far walls.  Osborn chose one of them, and after inspecting it thoroughly opened the lock and went through.  On the other side was a plain corridor, with more doors at the end.Those doors turned out to lead to a whole series of short corridors, small rooms, and dead ends.  Osborn moved through, with the rest of the party trailing behind in single file.  He expressed his theory that these corridors, as well as the uneven floor in the previous room, were designed to slow pursuers like the City Watch.  Rogues familiar with the layout could navigate it easily, while others would become disoriented by the series of identical doors and corridors.  Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, they came to a door that led into a much larger chamber.  The room was filled with columns placed seemingly at random in the room, and there were piles of junk and old clothing everywhere.  Osborn risked using more light to see the extent of the room, using a magical glass globe that Kyle had given him to throw out a bright glow.  He walked into the room a few paces, trying to see past a pillar to get a glimpse of the far corner, when he promptly vanished.The others began to rush forward, skidding to a halt when they saw Osborn’s fingers poking up through the floor, and heard his voice calling out, “Wow.”  Slowly, the hin seemed to emerge out of the floor itself, rising up from the tiles as if he was coming out of a pool of water.“Pit trap,” he said, once he was on solid ground again.  “It’s covered by an illusion.  I’d bet there’s more of them in this room.”Arrie cursed when she heard the news.  She’d had plenty of exposure to magic in her youth, especially when visiting the Coviere family in her home country of Merlion.  Though none of it truly surprised her, she’d always been flummoxed by illusions.  Navigating this room would be especially nerve-wracking for her.  “Shouldn’t we tie ourselves together?” Arrie suggested, but no one seemed to listen.Osborn began walking toward the corner of the room, followed by Xu, who held one end of a rope tied to Osborn’s waist (he had, in fact, been listening to Arrie). Osborn first went to the door to their left, but after establishing the floor in front of the door was real he moved on to another door in the far corner.  He tapped along the floor with his crowbar, and as he expected found a few more spots where the floor wasn’t real.  Once he was fooled, and fell through, but Xu was able to stop his fall and pull him to safety.  They finally made it to the corner, and Osborn started examining the door they found there.  Opening it up, they saw the chamber beyond was filled with a thick fog.  The fog seemed to suppress even Osborn’s magical tactile sense of his surroundings.  He announced his discovery to the group, also pointing out a ladder in the opposite corner that went up through the ceiling, probably to another safe-house on the street.Tolly walked toward the first door Osborn had checked, following his path.  “Are we concerned about noise?” he asked.“Well, since Osborn just shouted across the room to us about the fog…” Lanara pointed out.Tolly slammed his shoulder into the door.  It shuddered, but didn’t budge.“Do you want help?” Autumn asked.  She began walking toward Tolly, but she didn’t walk along the same path that Osborn and Tolly had followed, and only a couple of feet away she let out a cry of surprise as the floor beneath her feet turned out to be an illusion, and she began to plummet.  Kyle’s hands shot up to cast a feather fall, but Tolly was faster.  The cleric turned and grabbed Autumn’s outstretched hand, halting her fall.  He strained for a moment to support Autumn’s armor-clad weight, until she got her feet onto the edge of the pit.  She was being pulled to safety as Kyle ran up behind them, feeling his way with the end of his staff.“Are you all right?” Kyle gasped.“I’m fine,” said Autumn.  She turned to Tolly.  “Thank you,” she said, squeezing the hand that he still held in gratitude.“Of course,” said Tolly.  He spoke unusually softly, and Kyle could swear he saw him blush a little, but he had little time to wonder about it, as Autumn had begun trying to bash down the door herself.  The three of them began discussing the problem.Meanwhile, Osborn and Xu continued to watch the fog-shrouded room to make sure no nasty surprises jumped out.  Out of the corner of her eye, Xu saw a slight shudder of movement from a pile of rags near the door.  Assuming it was a rat, Xu waited, ready to snap the vermin’s neck with her foot when it emerged.  Thus she was somewhat surprised when the pile of rags itself suddenly jumped into the air and swarmed over Osborn, trying to envelop him.  Osborn, reacting quickly, grabbed a flask of oil and dumped it onto the pile, but before he could do anything else it started wrapping around him.  Xu, now unable to light the oil-soaked rags without immolating Osborn, tried instead to pull them free while Osborn slashed with a dagger.  Despite his seriousness in defending himself, Osborn couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the absurdity of being assaulted by refuse.The commotion drew the attention of the others.  “What’s going on?” Arrie asked, still too nervous to attempt to move from her safe spot on the floor.“It looks like Osborn’s being attacked by laundry,” said Lanara.“Do they need help?”  Arrie inched forward slightly, leaning over trying to see what was happening.“I’m… not really sure.  It’s hard to tell who’s winning.”Autumn concentrated for a moment.  “Whatever it is, it’s not evil,” she said.“But it’s trying to eat the hin!” Arrie cried.“Maybe it’s another illusion,” offered Autumn.“I’m pretty sure it’s not!” yelled a struggling Osborn.Kyle, who had not been any more effective than Tolly and Autumn in opening the other door, started to walk across the floor to see what was going on, still probing the call with his staff.  About halfway across, Kyle passed by a stack of old ropes and belt straps, which suddenly flew into the air and enveloped the wizard.  At the same time, another pile of clothing rose into the air near where Kavan and Arrie were standing.  Unlike the piles of loose scraps that were assaulting Osborn, however, this apparition was made from a complete, if mismatched suit of clothing, which took on a human-like form.“What the…?” Kyle stammered, but was cut off as the swirling cloud of straps wrapped tightly around him, wrapping him up like a mummy.  Autumn and Tolly immediately ran to his aid, as did Xu, who saw that Osborn had gotten the strange creature under control.“What is this thing?” Autumn shouted as she ran up to Kyle, drawing her sword.“It’s called a ragamoffyn,” Tolly replied.  “Construct.  They envelop you and then take over your mind.”Autumn’s eyes went wide, and she swung her blade, slicing through a few straps and hunks of rope.  But she also heard an audible groan, and blood began seeping out from the gash she’d left.“Don’t slash at it,” Xu told a white-faced Autumn.  “Try and pull it free.”The three of them grabbed handfuls and began ripping at straps even as Kyle struggled from inside to break free.  Meanwhile, Kavan had gone to confront the third ragamoffyn, but fell into a nearby hidden pit and had to scramble to grab the edge.  Arrie swung at the creature, but her offense was hampered by her unwillingness to move from where she stood.With the advantage of surprise fading, the ragamoffyns began to have trouble sustaining their attack.  Kyle was finally freed from the animated ropes, and backed up to launch a series of magic missiles at it, while Tolly, Autumn, and Xu continued to pull and rip at it.  Kavan managed to pull himself out of the pit, and joined Arrie and Osborn in dealing with the second ragamoffyn.  A few moments later, the air was filled with tiny remnants of cloth and leather.The party gathered themselves together, and made an effort to slowly and carefully explore the room, marking the location of each hidden pit.  When they finished, Osborn looked up at everyone.“I’ve been thinking about this place,” he said.  “Obviously it’s meant to throw off pursuers – that’s why there’s all the confusing corridors, uneven floors, and so forth.  But I think the people moving through the area wouldn’t bother going through all this.  I think we may very well have missed the actual entrance to the lower levels back by where we came in.  Chances are that if we keep going we’ll just run into more of the same as this.”  He gestured around to the pit-covered floor.“Sounds reasonable,” said Arrie.  “What do we do?”“I say we go back that direction and look really carefully,” Osborn said.  “There was a corridor leading off from the other side of that pit.”The party made their way back through the series of corridors and into the room with the uneven floor.  They searched that room on Osborn’s hunch, but all they found was a small hidden nook where a sword and a couple of potions had been stashed.  Kyle suggested they rig up some sort of nasty surprise in the nook for the next person to open it, but Osborn told him it would be impractical.They worked their way into the corridor, moving past the first pit trap and into the hallway beyond.  Osborn, taking the lead, spotted a small chamber to one side blocked off by iron bars closely spaced together.  The hin looked for a way to open the bars, but then realized that the chamber beyond was probably the lair of the gray ooze that had attacked Autumn, which would easily be able to flow through the bars.Osborn rounded a corner, with Kavan a few feet behind, and the remainder of the party trailing single-file behind.  Around the corner he saw a doorway ahead of him, and one more on each side, offset from each other.  Across from each door was a small alcove.  Osborn cautiously crept forward to inspect the first alcove, but jumped back when he saw a figure come toward him out of the alcove.  He’d almost thrown a dagger at the figure when he realized that he and his opponent were the same size and wore the same clothing.  Looking closely, he saw that a large mirror had been hung in the alcove, and he was looking at his own reflection.  Osborn breathed a sigh of relief, then flashed a smile at his image and began to straighten his hair.That was when the crossbow bolt came through the mirror.Osborn twisted away, and the bolt only grazed his forehead.  Kavan, who was the only one who heard the tiny noise of the bolt penetrating the glass, came rushing up behind Osborn as he smashed through the mirror with his crowbar.  Leaping through the opening to the hidden chamber beyond, Osborn saw another of the animated armor statues inside, in the process of reloading a crossbow.  Not one to waste an opportunity, Osborn jumped in and slid his daggers into the armored plates, prying them loose and hurling them aside.  The construct, under orders to fire at intruders, couldn’t react to this threat, and before long Osborn had completely dismantled it.He crawled out of the alcove, nodding a greeting to Kavan, and immediately went to examine the other mirror.  This one, however, did not conceal a hidden chamber.  Finally Osborn inspected the doors, finding the side doors opened into small dead-end closets.  After carefully inspecting the door at the end of the hallway, he opened the lock and went through, wedging it open with a stick so the others could follow.The door opened into a long hallway, which extended past Osborn’s tactile senses and even the range of his magical light.  As Kavan stepped through the door, he noticed a discoloration in the wall to their left, and looking closely saw the seam of a secret door.  He and Osborn quickly found the latch, and after a pause to administer some healing to Osborn (who was suffering from a half-dozen old wounds), they opened the hidden door.Kavan was nearly knocked senseless by the wave of nauseating odor that blasted out of the door.  The reek of months-old sewage oozed out of the chamber beyond.  Holding their noses, the party looked inside.  The chamber beyond was a series of stone platforms interspersed throughout the space.  In various places small stone pillars rose to the ceiling, supporting it.  Some rickety planks were placed across a few of the platforms.  About five feet below the platforms, they could see the blackish muck of concentrated offal bubbling.  The party took a depth measurement, using a rope and the helmet scavenged from the construct, and found the sewage was about twenty feet deep.“Are you feeling okay?” Kyle asked Kavan, who was looking green.  The elf shook his head weakly.  “I can’t go in there,” he said.“All I see is a ladder going up in the corner,” Osborn said, holding up his light.  “I think this is just another room to throw off pursuit.  No sense torturing ourselves.”They quickly exited and shut the door.  They kept going down the long corridor, which eventually turned to the left.  Kavan found another hidden door, but it obviously led into the sewage room, so they didn’t even bother opening it.  The party continued down the corridor to another door.  When Osborn opened it, he saw deep, impenetrable fog roiling in the room beyond.“We seem to have made it to the other side of the fog room,” sighed Osborn.“Now what?” asked Arrie.  “Where would you put the ladder down?”“It could be in here,” Osborn said, gesturing into the fog.“Or in the sh** room,” said Lanara sourly.“Well, let’s split up and check both rooms,” suggested Tolly.  “Those of us wearing heavy armor will explore the fog, and the more agile of us can look into the sewage room.”Kyle, who was looking into the fog, turned around.  “I thought it might be an illusion, and tried to see through it, but it’s either real fog or a really good illusion.  But either way, it seems Tolly’s got the best idea, even though it means I’m going back into that other room.”He party split up and began checking their respective rooms.  Xu volunteered to make her way across the platforms, after tying a rope to her waist and giving Kyle the other end.  Lanara and Kavan waited in the hallway beyond.  However, as Xu stepped onto the first platform, the floor beneath her opened up, and she dropped down.  Kyle felt the rope begin to slide through his hands, but heard a sickening splat just as he tightened his grip.“Oops,” he said.As they hauled up and began to clean off the vomiting monk, the others began to move into the fog-shrouded room.  Tolly led the way, moving around to his left to circumnavigate the chamber.  As he stepped around the corner, a figure darted out from behind a corner and slipped the end of a rapier between Tolly’s armored plates.  Growling from pain and surprise, Tolly hefted his hammer.“Rogue!” he shouted.  “Take him alive!”  Tolly swung his hammer, angling the head to glance off his opponent’s skull instead of caving it in.  Nonetheless, it was a solid hit, and the rogue crumpled silently.“Never mind,” said Tolly, as Autumn came rushing to his side.  The priest picked up the limp form of the cutpurse and began dragging him out of the nearby entry.  “Now, let’s find out where that door is.”*          *            *             Drake couldn’t decide what woke him up first; the pain in his head or the stench.  He never really had the time to consider the matter fully.            He came to quickly and took stock of his situation.  He was hanging over a pit of the foulest smelling slime he’d ever experienced, tied by his ankles.  His hands were bound to his waist, probably to keep him from trying to reach up and untie the rope.  Not that he was going to try.  He thanked Shesh that the bonds on his wrists also kept his hands from dropping into the excrement below.            Hearing a noise, Drake looked up (or was that down?  It was so disorienting) and saw that a few people were looking at him from a stone platform.  A slender but tough-looking woman was holding the other end of his rope.  In the light coming from their direction, Drake saw a spiked chain wrapped around her torso.  A man in shining plate armor glared down at him; Drake barely remembered him as the one that had clocked him back in the Chamber of Mists.  Another plate-clad woman stood next to him, hands on her hips; if not for his situation, he might have been able to appreciate that she was a real looker.            All in all, once he had his bearings, there was only one appropriate reaction.            “Oh… my… god!”            The three people up on the platform grinned at him.            “What won’t get me dropped in this sh**?” Drake cried out.            “We have questions,” said the woman with the chain.  “And if you don’t answer them in a way that makes me happy, what I’ll end up doing to you will make you wish we’d let you drown in this.”            Looking up at her, Drake realized that she was deadly serious.  The taut rope twitched as he began trembling, and he felt something warm begin to dribble down his back.  If there was a shred of Drake that cared about this loss of dignity, it had long since fled his mind along with any scrap of defiance.            “I want to know where the entrance to your guild is,” she continued.  “Not the ladders down from the street, not the fake secret doors – we know about those.  If Tolly here tells me you’re lying, I’m not very patient.”            Drake glanced over and saw the armor-clad mad hold out some sort of holy symbol and mumble strange words at him.            “I don’t know where it is!” he shrieked.  “You have to believe me!”            The woman glanced at the man she’d called Tolly, who frowned.  Drake’s voice came out as a squeal.  “I’m not lying!  I’m not high up enough to know!  We’re just here to guard the area from the Watch and keep everyone else out!  I swear it!”            A moment passed, then the woman jerked on the rope to get his attention.  “How did you get here then?”            “I came in from above!”            “Who showed you how to get here?”            “This guy I know in the guild… Laquana!  He got me started!”            “And where would I find him?” came the question.            “I don’t know!  I haven’t seen him for a long time!”  The fumes from the sewage, combined with the blood rushing to his head, were making him light-headed.            “So,” said the woman, who seemed to be losing her temper a bit, “Are you always stationed in the room with the fog?”            “No,” he said meekly, hoping to clam her down.            “Describe the rooms you know about.”            “Well, there’s the one you found me in, that’s the Chamber of Mists.  Then there’s the Crooked Room, the Endless Corridors, the Maggot-Wolf Lair, and the Junk Room.”  Briefly, Drake wondered where these people had taken him; he didn’t recognize the room, and he was sure he’d remember this.            “Maggot-wolf?  What’s that?”            “I don’t know.  It looks like someone’s insides.”            “That’s pretty repulsive.  Where is that room located?”            “It’s north of the Junk Room, on the other side of the Chamber of Mists.”            “Are there any others like you hiding in the Chamber of Mists?”            “No more than eight or ten,” Drake babbled.  “We’re told to hit and run, hide in the mists if we see strangers.”            The woman sighed, then looked back over her shoulder.  “Does anyone else have any questions?  Otherwise, I’m ready to drop him.”            Panic caused Drake’s body to convulse.  “No!!!”            Looking up at the woman, getting ready to plead for his life, he saw a large man in robes walk up behind her and whisper something in her ear.  Smiling, she turned her attention back to her captive.            “So, you say you’re not important enough to know where the guild entrance is?  Well, surely there must be some people who come through here who are important enough.  Tell me, what room to they go to?”            Drake almost smiled; surely they’d let him go free for answering this question.  “Well, I…”            Suddenly the filth just under him boiled and erupted.  For a split second, Drake saw some sort of tentacled beast rise up around him, and then he felt the sharp ripping pain of hundreds of sharp teeth in his abdomen before his world faded into blackness forever.*          *            *             The party stood in front of the door to the ‘maggot-wolf’, the same door that Autumn, Tolly, and Kyle had tried unsuccessfully to bash down before the ragamoffyns had attacked.  Osborn had unlocked the door, and they prepared to explore the last area in this underground area.            They’d carefully cleared out the remaining opposition in the Chamber of Mists, using the information they’d gleaned from their captive thief before he was devoured by the otyugh (Xu expressed gratitude that the beast hadn’t emerged when she had fallen in earlier).  In all, nine of the rogues fell to their weapons; while the fog provided the thieves with an element of surprise, when that was eliminated the mists only served to isolate each individual opponent from his allies.  A thorough search of the area only revealed another emergency stash of equipment, but no passageway down.            The door opened into a narrow, circular tunnel that Kyle said looked like it had either been eaten away by acid or formed naturally by underground water.  The smell of carrion wafted out of the opening.            “I think that when we kill this thing,” Osborn said quietly, “I’m going to cut its head off and make a hat out of it.”            Autumn, standing behind him, winced.  “Why?”            The hin shrugged.  “I need a new hat.”            Kavan looked into the narrow opening.  “Maybe you should hold a piece of bacon out on a stick first,” he offered.            Osborn looked offended.  “And waste good bacon?”            The tunnel curved off to the left, and Osborn led the way, followed closely by the rest of the party.  After only traveling a few feet, Osborn began to hear a sound in the distance like something squishing around.  He drew his daggers and began to creep forward slowly, sticking to the wall of the cavern.            He rounded the bend and came to a widening in the tunnel, easily twenty or thirty feet across.  Against the far wall was a creature the size of a large horse.  Most of it looked like a huge wolf covered in sores and boils, but instead of a wolf’s head, a mass of enormous, writhing maggots emerged from its shoulders.  The maggot-heads were buried in the corpse of a man that looked like it had been killed days ago.  The heads rose up, and turned to look at Osborn.            Tolly immediately stepped forward, putting himself between Osborn and the creature.  Osborn ducked down, and threw a pair of daggers between the priest’s legs, one of them skittering off the rocks and the other striking true.  Tolly stepped forward and brought his hammer down on one of the maggot-heads, leaving an ugly purplish-yellow bruise on the glistening flesh.  In response, the heads lashed out at Tolly, and one of the maggots managed to squirm under his armor and began to tear at the flesh at his ribcage.            The rest of the party tried to press forward as best they could, but the tunnels were narrow and moving was difficult.  Xu got a short running start, and ran over the rest of the party, running up the side of the wall and corkscrewing over their heads to land near the hideous creature.  Autumn began to hack at its flanks, but pulled back when one of the heads bent back impossibly far and began to burrow into her hip.  Setting her jaw in grim determination, she charged back in, and with a mighty swing sliced off nine of the dozen or so maggot heads.  The creature staggered, and was unable to react as Xu jumped in and brought her elbow down on its spine, killing it.            The party began to gather in the wider portion of the tunnel, even as Xu, Kavan, and Arrie moved out to explore the other tunnels beyond.  Autumn kicked at one of the twitching maggot heads.            “So, Osborn,” she said, “do you still want that hat?”            The others laughed as Osborn made a face.  “I think that’s the first joke I’ve heard you tell,” Lanara said proudly.            Autumn smiled.  “You must be rubbing off on me.”            Lanara watched as Autumn looked around the chamber at the others, and noticed their looks back.  As the bard watched, a few odd things suddenly clicked into place in her mind as she saw the looks certain people were giving the sentinel.  It was all Lanara could do to keep her jaw from dropping open.  She almost said something, but decided that this would require more watching and waiting.            As the party was cleaning their weapons, they heard Xu call out from a side tunnel.  Heading in that direction, they passed a ladder going up to the street, then found Xu at a dead end, staring down at a broken off stalagmite.  When she saw the others were there, she wordlessly bent down and put her hand through the stalagmite, pulling at something on the floor.  A wooden trapdoor appeared out of the rock, and once opened they could all see a simple steel ladder leading downward.            They stood around the opening for a brief moment before Arrie spoke.  “Are we ready?”            Most of the group nodded.  “No,” said Kyle, the lone voice of dissent.  “But I’m going anyway.”            “Well, hang on tight, then,” said Arrie.  “It’s about to get very sticky from here on in.”</blockquote>

Verification