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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carlo-One" data-source="post: 8017278" data-attributes="member: 7015827">As Shanni’s wounds were seen to and she was revived, Darrow began looting their fallen enemies, observing that they had the same type of equipment as the Astorians encountered in Westgate. Shanni and Dermot told the others that they had been poisoned during the fight, apparently by their enemies’ arrows, but there was little help for it. Darrow counted bodies as Shanni looted some weapons for herself, the dwarf coming up with nine as the total. The adventurers continued to patch themselves up as they examined their foes’ equipment. Aerikoth told Rahnee, who had recognized the weapons as having also been used by Night Masks, that the Masks and Astorians appeared to have an alliance of sorts.As soon as they were as healthy as possible, they decided to move on, recognizing they had lost any element of surprise. Dermot located another snare in front of them and Shanni had a much tougher time disarming it than the others, finally just breaking its activating wire rather than disassembling it as she had previously. The group carefully advanced into a more open area, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Dermot, after a few minutes of careful examination, was able to spot a hidden trap door in the forest floor.With the entrance to the lair now exposed, the company debated the best way to proceed. It was decided that Rahnee would go first, using her invisibility ring, to scout out the dangers. Aerikoth cast a stoneskin spell on her first, as added protection. She then carefully lifted the trap door and descended, returning after five long minutes.Rahnee informed the others that there was a short tunnel immediately below the trap door, which ended in a large oblong room with a huge gas trap; she had been unable to figure out how to disarm it. She thought that they might be able to avoid it by hugging the room’s walls, but was not sure. A single exit led out of the room, from what she could see.Aerikoth finished casting his protection spells and the group descended into the entrance tunnel. Rahnee motioned to Shanni to indicate where the trap was placed and the petite woman, using her small fingers, was able after some experimentation to render it harmless. She then moved stealthily toward the room exit, holding up three fingers as she peered around the corner, then adding a gesture indicating that there might be more enemies. Aerikoth summoned his dire bear, preparing for the worst. As the adventurers carefully moved toward the exit, where they could hear the faint sounds of breathing, a number of Astorians showed themselves and joined in battle, with several enforcers up front and bowmen in their back ranks.The fight was chaotic in the flickering underground light, but despite the savagery of the close-in battle, the adventurers were too much for their opponents. Darrow ended up with a large gash from one of the enforcer’s axes, which was tended to by Rahnee while Shanni dragged a healing potion from her pack and drank it. Aerikoth then passed Darrow his healing ring, which he said would be on loan until Darrow had recovered. The dwarf grimly declared his respect for the fighting prowess of their foes and advised that they use the tunnel bottlenecks to better advantage in the future.The party formed up and moved carefully down the corridor. Shanni encountered and disarmed another trap, then they came upon a chamber to their left that contained a small barracks and living quarters. Darrow counted the beds as six and noted that they had just faced the same number of opponents.Their senses heightened by the expectation of further danger, the party moved down the long, turning corridor. Traps occurred regularly, alternating between projectile triggers that Shanni disarmed and venomous snakes falling into their midst. The adventurers expertly disposed of all obstacles, however, until finally reaching a door at the end of the corridor. Shanni was able to render the trap on it harmless and the five moved into the large room past it.Dermot spotted two more traps inside, including one on a large iron cage in the corner. In the gloom they could see that a girl lay inside, motionless. Shanni carefully disarmed the trap, but could not open the cage, as there was no door. Darrow was puzzled as to how they had got the girl inside, but moved forward to see what he could do. The bars were placed too closely together for bending to be of benefit, so the dwarf decided to simply heave the cage over. After an exploratory push to get a sense of its weight, Darrow coiled his rocklike muscles and then in a single effort upended the cage.</blockquote>

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