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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 68165" data-attributes="member: 114">As Lysander finishes off the ghast, and he and an apologetic Juma move into the chamber at the end of the corridor a puff of smoke behind them reveals a giant fiendish rat which upon being summoned starts chewing at the paralysed Crail. M'ir and Azrin both move in to attack it, while K'tan hangs back keeping watch.Within the chamber Lysander and Juma find two more priests in ochre robes - one human and one reptilian. The human cleric dies quickly to the skill of Lysander and the power of Juma. Bracing themselves against the strength-sapping stench of the reptilian, Lysander and Juma circle both ways around a pit with the sound of running water in, in order to flank the creature. After only a couple of rounds and sensing imminent defeat, the strange priest leaps past them into the pit - and floats rather than falls down out of their view.The dire rat is defeated and vanishes, and the party gather together in the room with the pit, and a large stone circle some 8ft in diameter standing on one wall. They can't see anything down the pit, but there is a rope, pulley and platform device which clearly allows people to lower themselves down into the darkness. As they look around, they hear a piercing nonhuman scream from below, which cuts off suddenly.The company decide that they need to investigate, and so Juma, Lysander, Crail and Azrin will ride down on the platform, K'tan will keep watch at the top and M'ir uses one of his mage powers to enable himself to clamber down the side of the pit, adhering to the wall.After 15ft they find the shaft intersects a stream, with a narrower 8ft hole directly below them. Water from the stream tumbles down into the hole, and a chill mist rises up from within. They continue downwards, tugging their cloaks more tightly around themselves. After a further 40ft, and as they are coming to the end of their rope, they can see a surface below them. A floor of shiny black marble, shot through with thick pulsing violet threads, lies beneath them. Off to the side, they can just make out the edge of the chamber, some 15ft further away than the edge of the black marble surface, which is a circle some 30ft in diameter. In the west, there is another platform and pulley arrangement for going deeper into the cavern. It would be a very difficult jump to move from one platform to the other, but nobody fancies setting foot near the writhing violet veins on the surface.They decide to look for a third way. They winch their own platform higher up, and pass a robe to M'ir who clambers upside down like a spider across the roof of the chamber and makes the rope fast to the other platforms fixture. Lysander and Juma make their way across but Azrin is nervous. He doesn't have much of a head for heights and his arms are weak. Crail decides to make a loop of rope around him so that he can slide down to the other platform. That should work.Midway through the slide, Azrin panics - he's going too fast! He careers straight into the platform, the security rope fails and as he flails his arms to grab onto the platform, Lysanders hand lashes out - just too late. With a despairing cry, Azrin falls into the misty darkness below them.The company is stunned.What happens next? Is this the end for Azrin? Keep reading for the next exciting(?) installment!</blockquote>

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