Session Sixteen

Waiting until the small fire Grace has lit catches they turn towards the dark passage that beckons behind them, taking a burning brands from the fire, Grace, Thorn & Stunty turn & creep forward into the narrow passage.

In the flickering light the passage winds forward & bearing to the left splits into two, taking the right hand fork Grace, busily peering forward into the gloom, fails to see the corpse sprawled in the dirt before stumbling over its legs, backing off Grace suspiciously watches the body waiting for something to happen,noticing the broken spear in its back she guesses it really must be dead. Pushing forward Thorn eagerly starts to search the body for anything of worth,

"I knows this halfling" said Stunty, "he was a thief in the party I was travelling with, funny little fellow, guess he ain't laughing now though"

"Was he a good friend" asked Thorn

When Stunty shook his head, Thorn turned & carried on searching the halflings pockets,

"Someone's been here before us" said Thorn, "his pockets are empty"

Pushing on, the passage narrows & rapidly begins to climb steeply, soon steps appear, almost near vertical, carefully, fearing to fall, Grace leads Thorn & Stunty up over nearly two hundred steps with only a spluttering brand lighting thier way. Suddenly the steps end & Grace peers over the top step into a small cavern, natural light slowly filters from an opening on the far side, on the floor is a second body.

Warily the three intrepid adventures enter the chamber, Stunty quickly tells Grace & Thorn that, like the halfling below, he recognises the corpse as a warrior called Keen from the party with which he had been travelling, the last time he had seen Keen was in the cave that thier party had rested in before being attacked. With half an eye on the far opening Thorn kneels by the body & strips the buckler from Keen's arm as well removing the heavy broadsword from his death grip & its scabbard from his belt, in his pocket are six copper pennies which Thorn shoves quickly into his own money belt.

Whilst Thorn feverishly strips Keen of anything of use, Grace can't help notice the many tiny wounds which cover the warriors bare arms, face & legs but with Stunty & Thorn pressing her to move on she doesn't get to look as close as she'd like.

Beyond the small cavern the passage opens out & natural light, albeit moonlight, fills the the open side cave from several gaping fissures in the cliff face, Stunty poking his head out moans that its a shear cliff maybe two or three hundred feet above the valley floor.

Thorn hisses a sudden warning & points to a third body huddled against the far wall, Stunty crossing himself moans,

"Dam, its the priest, I thought, hoped, he may of at least survived"

Before Thorn can ransack his body however Grace, in the light from her torch, points to the ceiling where half a dozen or so bat like creatures are roosting, as she waves the torch about her head, several drop & circle in & out of the cave screeching at the disturbance, the floor is covered in poo. Glancing at the priests unmoving body, wounds like those of the fallen warrior are visible however in the pale moonlight it can clearly be seen that the wounds are puss ridden & festering, around his body is a circle of charred & shrivelled creatures.

"Stunty, Thorn, quick, we've got to get out of here, thier wounds are poisonous"

Torn between following Grace's advise & searching the priest Thorn hesitates, however glancing at the ceiling he is sure there are more of the critters than there was a few moments before, reluctantly he backs to wards the stairs & joins the others in descending into the darkness, as they do so, a vast cloud of the swirling creatures descend into the cavern, their screams echoing around the roost, fortunately they do not follow down the steps.

Fifteen minutes later, new brands taken from the beach fire, they enter the right hand passage, circling several large pillars of rock joining floor to ceiling they finally enter a single narrowing passage, the floor of which dips slightly away. Stunty, half expecting to do so, points to the crumpled body lying on the passage floor before them,

"Well, well, well, she didn't make it either then, she was a dark one that one, dabbling in things that should be best left alone, still it didn't help her in the end I suppose. She was a half elf, a witch of sorts, didn't talk much but seemed to be in charge most of the time, Griselda I think her name was, so Keen said anyway"

Inspecting the half elf's body, they can see her head & shoulders are covered in many small wounds like those suffered by Keen & the priest, rolling her body over Thorn adds,

"Well, what's she got in her pockets then"

Several minutes later they inspect what they have liberated from the half elf, there are three scroll cases, although only one contains anything, a pouch with a hundred & twenty seven silver coins, a staff, a ring & a small plain broach.

Splitting the coins between the three of them, Thorn uses his own ring to identify several of the items including the buckler taken from the warrior Keen earlier on, unfortunately the buckler is simply a buckler, albeit well made, the staff however contains a power matrix for a spell of light of which there are eleven unused charges, the broach is identified as being a broach of life, sadly Thorn can tell no more than that,

"Don't know about the other bits, have to wait until tomorrow"

Grace stuffed the scroll cases & silver ring in her pack for later consideration whilst Thorn pinned the broach to his cloak & tied the staff to his pack, Stunty, muttering to himself about bloody unequal shares picked up his axe & said,

"Well ,what about yon gate then"

Gathering their kit they considered the iron gate across the passage that Stunty was looking at,

"Lock looks pretty rusty if you ask me" said Thorn, "I reckon I can smash the lock with a couple of good swings"

Hefting his axe, Thorn took a careful aim & swung his axe at the lock, it burst into pieces & the gate swung ajar,

"Bloody hell" grumbled Thorn, "Would you look at that, its going to take hours to get a decent edge back on the blade"

Pushing the gate aside, Thorn lead the way forward, quickly however the passage narrowed until it was only possible to go forward by dropping their packs & forcing themselves through the gap sideways, Stunty, unable to squeeze further, returned to the dead witch to await news of what lay ahead.

Thorn, forcing himself through the gap suddenly found himself in darkness, stepping hesitantly forward lights spring up before him temporarily blinding him, as his sight returns he can see a rough hewn chamber about twenty feet across, on the floor is white pentagram, with candles at its five points, in the centre is a burning brazier whilst torches adorn the walls. Loading his crossbow Thorn nervously edges forward but stops before he reaches the circle around the pentagram, slowly, white faced he backs away.

Grace, unsure what Thorn is up to moves past him towards the nearest flickering torch, as she does so however overwhelming fear penetrates her very soul, backing away she understands Thorns reluctance, squeezing back through the gap they are plunged back into darkness as the torches, brazier & candles in the chamber go out as quickly as they sprang into life,

"So" muttered Stunty, "anything interesting in there"

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