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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 2023500" data-attributes="member: 3192">The left cave was irregularly shaped and rather short with a very large boulder pressed up against the far end. Three other red wax statues were here too, all unfinished and partially melted. One was missing its top torso, while another had a block head that reminded them of the good man Charlie Brown. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> It wore an old, decrepit form of scale armor. The third figure was missing its arms completely. Some of the party members looked over the statues again and most were tense with weapons raised in case they came to life. They had learned from prior experience fighting the wrapped corpse in the pool room that appearances were not to be trusted. The barker tracks led underneath and around the base of the boulder and an opening was seen to be beyond.  Several attempts were needed before the group found a means to move the large boulder back away from the far wall. The space was just wide enough to let Darius slip through. He explored beyond into an enormous cave wider and deeper than his eyes could see. Smelly animal dropping covered the floor with the tracks leading through them forward and to the right. Darius checked upwards and sure enough the ceiling was completed covered by thousands and thousands of sleeping bats. He moved forward a little into the guano and still saw no far wall. Moving along the tracks on the right he managed to spot another opening like the one he originally entered: a cave with the rear of a boulder blocking it from the far side. Returning to the statue cavern the group decided to head back rather than risk combat in the bat cave. The archway entrance was as they remembered it and no evidence was found of new barker tracks. The spider web over the spider lair was still burned away. The group decided to explore the second half of the caverns. Footprints of the spider and the barkers covered the ground now down the right passageway too. The path curved around to the right and some rooms opened to each side. They party saw what looked to be a large nest with several spider webs around it to their left. Over 50 rubbery eggs stuck together sat in the center of nest. Webs and twigs propped it up. "Perhaps the spider eggs are what the barkers eat?" inquired Dalin. One was cut open and a small baby spider jumped out. "Torch them!" the call went up. A large spider moved out of the shadows and webbed Darius sticking him to the wall. Sling bullets, arrows, and bolts are shot while others using sword and flail to destroy the spider remaining spider eggs. Dram cut Darius free.  Following the tunnel farther it opened to a large room perhaps 30’ in depth. Apparently a dead end it looked like the main living quarters for the barkers. Along the right wall a small throne-like structure was built of bones. Brother Ben was reminded of Zelligar’s throne in his Hall of Statues. Offerings at the chair included a few coins and what might have been food. Dram lifted the chair and revealed a small opening in the wall beyond. The others nodded at the correlation. Looking down the small dug out tunnel a pulsing red light could be made out. As Darius was the shortest he ducked within to scout.  Inside was another dead-end room about 20’ in circumference. An outcropping of rock on one side contained a strange red rock smoothed on its outerface. To Darius it looked like an oversized fingernail attached to the rock. It pulsed a deep red menacing glow and suddenly flared brightly. "Aaaaauurrrghh!!" screamed Brother Ben back out in the throne room. He could feel something in his mind, a presence of great evil that threatened to overwhelm him. The pain was excruciating, so Ben screamed on and on. Darius took action and swung his hammer at the glowing rock smashing off a large piece. "There’s a rock in here making the glow!" shouted Darius. "Make it stop!" screamed Ben already feeling a lessening of the effect. Pieces of red, chalky powder fell from the stone as Darius hammered at it. "It tried to tear me apart from the inside!" yell Ben. "It crawled into my head!" Darius kept hammering until every bit of the rock was destroyed. It went deep into the stone filling the space behind like an orb. The pulsing light slowed as he neared completion. With the last hammer blow it stopped. Darius did not say anything afterwards and no sound came from the room. The rest of the group called out to him for what was going on and began to worry when no word came back.</blockquote>

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