As they debate what to do, Azrin hears the sound of feet shuffling off from behind the copper door. They also hear footsteps behind them, and are pleased to see Lysander joining them once more. Freed from his additional duties with Alkanar, he arrived at Bellhold earlier today and found out from the Mayor the route they had taken. It hadn’t taken long to work his way into the mine and down to meet them. They bring him up to date with developments in the Bellhold and the mine, then they proceed onwards to the door. Stiff but unlocked, they push open the large copper door and find another large room, with three mining corridors leading out, and no clear indication about the route which the hissy voice took. Once again, small beetles scuttle away from their torchlight.
One of the corridors leads to a partially collapsed room, with a large pile of rubble at the end. While they watch, every so often a pebble or small rock suddenly rolls down from its position on the mound of rock. No matter how carefully they look they can’t find evidence of anything else in the room, but they are a little worried by what is going on. Azrin asks K’tan to “knock some of the rubble away”, and K’tan responds with a concussion – which brings the house down! M’ir and K’tan dance back out the doorway as the remainder of the room collapses in.
They spend some twenty minutes marching along different mine tunnels, and M’ir is getting more and more irritated with the “waste of time” when they suddenly see a tunnel which opens into a chamber, filled with flickering light.
Creeping up to the entrance, the room is surrounded by carvings and bas relief artworks, but it is dominated by a huge stone dragon, rearing up so high that its head brushes the 30 foot high ceiling. It is looking down towards a vast copper bowl on an altar, fully 10 feet in diameter and 8 feet high, with pale dancing flames filling it. Over to the left is a huge pile of random humanoid bones. Stepping into the room, they can see just past the copper altar bowl is a wizened and crooked old troglodyte. He hisses and snarls at them, then waves his hand in their direction.
Suddenly three of the tiny beetles which infest the mine grow until they are the size of horses, two scuttle to attack Trajan, another scuttles towards Azrin. Lysander jumps to Azrin’s aid, while M’ir and K’tan stand ready to support Trajan. Darra and Syl duck back into the entrance. As combat is joined, they are all surprised to hear a sudden tumble of noise from the far corner of the room – and then look in horror as the pile of bones rises up into a single mass, twenty feet tall!
!
