Rosia Lightfoot's Journal - Part 13

A week has gone by since I last wrote. We have been resting after the fight with Longtail, allowing Quercus time to recover. The lizardfolk came to visit us for a while, and helped to fashion a wooden leg for the cleric. He has been practicing with it, and seems almost as good as new. I offered him my magic cloak, to help offset the loss of his leg, but he refused it. His faith in Pelor is remarkable!

While we were recovering, Curbag grew restless. He was still furious about the orcs deserting us during the battle. I tried to calm him down, but each day of inactivity just made him more determined to hunt them down and punish them. In the end Oren and I agreed to go with him to look for the orcs, leaving Isaak to stay with Quercus. Curbag and Oren can both see well in the darkness, and I wore the magical lenses which we took from Longtail. We found that the doors to the east had become unsealed. I wanted to investigate, but Curbag wouldn't be swayed from his quest.

We traveled on to the south, down the long corridor, and found that one of the doors had been opened. I wondered if the orcs might have tried to escape this way, so I went ahead and looked into the room beyond. They had indeed passed this way, and perished in the room beyond! The large chamber was clearly riddled with traps, as all the orcs had died in a range of horrific ways. Thus is the fate of those who travel without the specialist services offered by my profession...

We returned to the others, Curbag seeming somewhat put-out that he hadn't been able to bring death to the orcs personally. Once we were satisfied that Quercus was fit to travel, we moved on. We tried to go north, via passage in the northwest corner of our map, but it had caved in. The dungeon seems to be getting more and more unstable. We tried going through the area with the Trogolodyte stench, but it was just to unpleasant. Even with a wet rag tied around my nose, I was unable to stop retching. In the end we went east, despite misgivings about the chamber of traps.

Sure enough our fears proved well founded... This new area of the complex seems to be even more riddled with traps than the last. At least not all of these are magical, so I have a much better chance of detecting and disarming them. We explored several rooms, including one with a golden statue which crumbled to dust when we finally got it out of the room (after Quercus was nearly killed by a trap which shot shards of crystal at him), before finding a large chamber completely lined with mirrors. As we entered a trap was set off, causing a large block to start moving down the corridor. At the same time a stone door descended, threatening to seal us in the corridor and have us crushed by the block. We could see no way out of the mirror room, but we chose the lesser of two evils and ended up trapped inside it.

On searching I found a secret panel in one of the mirrors, and behind it was a lock. I got out my tools and began to work on it, but it was fiendishly complicated and I must have set something off, as the panel snapped shut and seemed to disappear. We search again and found another panel, and behind it was a lock. I thought at first that it was a new lock, but then I recognised the marks of my pick on the metal! It was the same lock, somehow moving around the room. I tried again, and failed and the lock moved again. We found it in yet another part of the room. I failed to open it for a third time, and expected it to move, but instead the mirrored tiles on the floor fell away to reveal a huge drop into a chasm filled with rocky spikes. There was just enough floor left for us to perch on. I tried the lock once more, and yet again I failed. This time the floor we were on moved to the centre of the room! Having no other option I searched the floor and found the panel and the lock, and this time I defeated the mechanism and the lock opened. The floor was magically restored and doors opened to the north and south.

We went north and found a room with a man chained to a wall. Before we had time to investigate this prisoner, we were set upon by a pair of huge wolves. The battle was hard fought, but we killed one, and the other fled. Now we need to question this strange man and see why he is here, and find out what he knows about this place...