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This time the Mother's decided that a little extra planning was called for as they did not want to end up covered in burning oil at the bottom of some random pit. Fonesca may not have had another ladder to call upon either. So it was that Fonesca transformed herself into a bird and was made invisible by Jito so that she could fly unseen over the clearing to see which boulders hid the orc sentries. She found that three of the rock out-posts were occupied, each with four orcs. After a quick discussion Fonesca, now back in human form, cast a fly spell on herself and Jito cloaked her with improved invisibility. Jito cast another invisibility on himself and mounted his broom. In quick succession Fonesca and then Jito launched fireballs from their wands at two of the rocks and Fonesca fired again on the third as she had not become visible. The orcs were incinerated. The Mothers then cautiously approached the clearing making sure that they did not fall foul of any pit traps. This time the Mothers decided to investigate the midden that was to the east of the clearing against the wall. There they discovered an alternative route into the rock that would perhaps join up with the carved passageways they had already entered. In the first of the natural caverns the Mothers overcame two carrion crawlers without succumbing to any of their paralysing effects. Moving swiftly through these natural caverns the Mothers came upon a crudely carved stair winding into the rock above them. The stair and much of the floor surrounding it was covered in the slime and detritus of the denizens above. The Mothers braved it anyway. Guthranka, however, did not manage to hold her footing and came crashing down after about twenty steps causing Levi and Fonesca who were behind her to be carried down the stairs as well. After landing in a noisy crumpled heap they dusted themselves down and tried again. At the top of the stairs Gaspode examined the barred wooden door that blocked their way. He got out some sturdy tools and managed to lift the bar. As soon as he opened the door the Mothers were attacked by eight orcs, but these were quickly dispatched. Moving on the Mothers found more natural caverns at this higher level, including a sleeping area for about ten humanoids. Proceeding through the passageways they came across a regular flagged passage leading to a chamber. As soon as they saw it they were set upon by another, larger group of orcs. Fonesca's spells and the battling of the rest soon disposed of this threat as well and the Mothers were cautious not to let any of them escape lest an alarm be raised. The chamber contained a sarcophagus which seemed intact and it had detailed scenes and glyphs carved into each of it's sides. The Mothers realised that they would have to spend some time deciphering these images so they decided to leave it to another time. Gaspode, meanwhile, had discovered a secret door in this chamber to the east of where they had entered. Opposite this another regular passageway extended westwards. Gaspode managed to find the mechanism for opening the door and the Mothers went through it, closing it behind them. It lead to a passageway which decended two flights of stairs to another locked door. This one Gaspode could not open either by technique or brute strength and neither could the others. Jito eventually resorted to a knock spell. It opened into a cubic room, with two other doors on the south and west, and a very angry and prepared troll. Thankfully this one was acting at normal speed, so the Mothers quickly dealt with it. Now the choice lay before them, south or west ? They had heard no alarms as yet either.

They wanted to go left. So they approached the southerly door which was somewhat unusual in that it had a large arch which had a wide depression in it, beyond which were more stairs descending. Gaspode examined this closely and determined that a sliding pair of doors were hidden in this niche which would acsend from the floor and drop from the ceiling to join in the middle. Not liking the look of this Mothers decided to try and spike the opening shut with their iron spikes. With this accomplished and with Gaspode leading the way and checking for traps they went down the stairs. They opened into the north-east corner of a large room with an exit on the far wall in the south-west corner. Worryingly, this room had many holes in its ceiling evenly shaped and distributed. Despite their apprehension the Mothers continued through this room and through the door to a short corridor leading west. This opened out in centre of the easterly wall of a large chamber with another carved sarcophagus. The ornate stone and tilework of this room was obviously disrupted in the north-west corner where a large patch of flags and tiles had been removed to leave bare earth. Where these tiles had gone to, they were not sure as there was no evidence of them and not a speck of the soil and clay seemed to have reached the floor of the room. The Mothers were intrigued by this and they headed straight for it. Unfortunately this path must have lead them over a pressure plate on the floor which caused two disconcerting effects. The doorway to the room slammed shut with a metallic clang and water started pouring from the hundreds of holes in the ceiling. With the room rapidly filling, Gaspode called upon his short sword, Imp, to give him strength and he used this to lever open the first set of metallic shutters. Jito already had to resort to his broom to stay above the flood and he led the way into the corridor to discover that the route into the next room was also shuttered by metal. The water continued to pour in here too. Gaspode's strength was not sufficient to prise these doors apart and Fonesca's knock spell was also ineffectual. Levi and Guthranka resorted to weapons to batter these doors down. The water had now reached four feet in depth and the next room also had water coming through the ceiling. The Mothers had to make it to the stairs. Fonesca and Levi were finding the weight of the water difficult and were making slow progress across the room. Guthranka hardly noticed it thanks to her ring and Gaspode was powering through. Jito flew above the torrent and had an idea. He took Guthranka's ring once she had made it to the stairs and ferried it back to Levi. Levi fumbled it in the downpour and it was lost in the currents. Fonesca started swimming and Levi trudged on having to hold his breath for some time until he reached the stairs. Breathing heavily they looked up to see that their spikes had not held. A final door lay sealed above them and the water had now reached the ceiling of the room below them and was advancing ominously up the stairs. Levi stepped forward with his staff of striking and used up as many charges as he could to batter the door down in as few blows as possible in conjunction with all of the other weapons that they could bring to bear. Beyond the door eight hasted trolls lay in wait. Gaspode was about to leap in to take the fight to them when Levi called him and the others back as he called down a column of roaring flame into the room. Four of the trolls died immediately. Gaspode called upon Imp to dispel the magical speed that the trolls enjoyed and battle was fully joined. After a few minutes of combat the Mothers had managed to best the trolls and to set the remaining corpses alight with lamp oil. Knowing that they had been discovered they decided to go back up the stairs to the secret door by the sarcophagus. When they opened it they found another twenty orcs arranged with military precision on and around the tomb. They were all armed with bows or spears. Gaspode was saved from skewering by Levi's Defensive Harmony spell and his own quick reflexes as he ducked back down the corridor and slammed the door. As they were discussing strategy they heard the lumbering sound of some large creatures coming up the stairwells. Fonesca then cast a wall of ice to block the ascent. More hasty planned ensued but the Mothers started to hear the sound of chunks of ice being chipped away, so Fonesca decided to double the defence and cast another wall of ice to lengthen the first one. With no other choice left to them the Mothers decided to face the hail of orc weapons. Guthranka, Jito and Gaspode charged the orcs while Levi held two of them. Within a few moments eleven of the orcs lay dead and the rest that could move started to flee. This rout was abruptly halted when the orcs encountered three trolls and four ogres advancing down the corridor backed by a mysterious figure. As the orcs started to turn, Fonesca thought it best to block their re-advance with a wall of fire. She killed another two of them with this instantly. Their momentary respite was shattered when they found themselves engulfed in a Stinking Cloud. Fonesca, Jito and Guthranka were overcome with nausea so Gaspode and Levi had to drag them out into the orc tunnels above the slimy waste stair. When the cloud dissipated and the Mothers had recovered, Fonesca cast a Cone of Cold through her wall of fire to see what enemies remained. When the steam blew away they saw only the two charred orcs.

Stepping casually over the fallen orcs the Mothers investigated the further reaches of the corridor hoping to find where their attackers had fled to. Not far ahead they found that the main corridor turned sharply left and widened, but more of interest to them were the two flights of stairs leading down to their right as well as the strange levers they could see in the wall next to the nearest stairway. Directly ahead of them lay another crudely cut passageway into the rock, perhaps another orc den. The three levers were at their highest position in each of three slots in the wall. It looked as though they could be slid down horizontally in these slots to two other positions at the centre and at the bottom. Gaspode didn't like the look of these at all and so the Mothers left well alone and moved on to the turn in the corridor. Looking to the left they determined to their own satisfaction that they were looking at the corridor through which they had first entered the complex, so they ignored everything in that direction and pressed on into the natural rough caverns ahead through the crude opening. Strangely, the orcs, if it was they who cut this path, had left no debris from the operation at all. This rough cavern seemed to have been another guard room of sorts for the orcs with space for about twenty of them to camp around several fire pits which were currently unlit. To the south of the irregular cave the Mothers discovered a hole in the floor. Further investigation revealed a ladder leading down into another chamber beneath. Swiftly, the Mothers descended and found themselves in another rough cavern similar to the one above. This room had one exit to the east and peering out of this the Mothers could see one more sarcophagus directly in front of them. It lay in a small chamber with a corridor leading away to the north. Bright light spilled into the room with the casket from two glowing glass forms crafted into the walls of the corridor. Just beyond the glowing stained glass creations the Mothers could make out ogres and trolls in a larger room. Fonesca took out her small bag of Dust of Disappearance and covered herself in it. Jito cast Improved Invisibility on Gaspode and then an Invisibility ten foot radius spell on himself with Guthranka and Levi in tow. Guthranka snuck up the western side of the corridor to approach the trolls from that side. Jito went towards the other side with Levi and Guthranka close behind. Fonesca hung back to cast her spells from relative safety near one of the crystal forms. When Fonesca, Levi and Jito loosed magic battle was joined and Gaspode attacked.