Rosia Lightfoot's Journal - Part 14

We questioned the prisoner after the fight with the wolves, and he told us that he had been travelling with a halfling called Bartelby who had betrayed him and somehow sold him into slavery in this cursed place. I felt obliged to help him, if only to show that not all halflings are bad! As I was examining his manacles we were attacked by a band of bugbears and some more wolves. Apparently the wolf who fled had alerted them. We fought them off (mainly thanks to Oren and Curbag), but Isaak was badly injured in the process. Thankfully Quercus was able to heal him, and he seems none the worse for his experience.

We decided to let the prisoner come with us for the time being. His name is Ran, and he has a giant wolf-hound travelling with him. I think he must be a shaman, one of the ones who live in the deep forests. He seems to a have wild nature about him. He has lost all his possessions, so we gave him some few items we could spare. Hopefully we will find more somewhere in this part of the complex. What a pity we cannot return to the armoury we found in the last section...

We then explored the bugbear's den, to the east of the room where we found Ran. They lived in terrible squalor, the stench was worse than Curbag's feet! We did find a chest, and we used the keys we found on one of the bugbears to open it. It was trapped (of course!) but I was able to overcome the simple device, and there was some cash inside (not much use to us) and some more healing potions (of great use!)

Finding no other way, we went back into the mirror room, and explored the exit to the north east. We found a room with the floor covered in ice, and three large rings in the middle, linked together and slowly moving. They radiated magic, and Isaak told us that both illusion and necromancy were at work here. We decided not to risk upsetting the delicate balance of the rings. Perhaps we will come back later when we are armed with greater knowledge.

We ended up taking the last exit out of the mirror room, all other being exhausted. This led us to a room with a deep pit in it, filled with snakes and jagged spikes. How can the snakes live here? What do they eat? It must be more magic that keeps them alive... A narrow ledge went round the west side of the room, where we came in. Even for me it was risky, so I was joined to the others by a rope, in case I slipped. I went along the ledge, to the south wall of the room, and found a hidden switch which extended a narrow bridge partway across to the eastern wall. Along the eastern wall was another ledge, and there seemed to be a door in the south east corner. However, the gap between the end of the bridge and the eastern wall was considerable. For someone of my stature, it seemed like a gaping chasm!

Curbag volunteered to leap across, being easily the best jumper of us all. I waited on the western end of the bridge whilst he was roped to the others, then he ran along the bridge to jump to the eastern ledge. Alas! Before he could even try to jump he slipped off the bridge and fell into the pit. We had misjudged the depth of the pit, and Oren was forced to make a mighty effort to hold on to him. However, the rope slipped through his hands, and Curbag fell into the pit amongst the snakes. He was injured from the fall, but was fortunately able to climb out, with the help of the rope, before the snakes could bite him. Now we must hope he is willing to try again, or we must come up with a different plan to enable us to move onwards.