The Mothers searched north of the corridor with the destroyed wall encountering only the traces of activity until they came across some guest chambers that still contained two spotted lions. These creatures, frantic with hunger, leapt to attack immediately, but they were no match for the blades of Gaspode and Gamm. Only the stench of trolls and gnolls could be found in the furthest passages, so the Mothers decided to see what lay beneath.
Just east of the chamber where the Countess was held large double doors opened on a ramp of stone sweeping down into the lower levels of the mountain. The Mothers could feel the heat rising as they descended the masonry ramp. When they had reached the foot of it, they opened another set of double doors and the stonework gave way to more natural caverns that must have been carved out by lava floes or water in ages past. It was clear though that some work had gone in to removing stalagmites in particular as the flooring was still relatively smooth. With quite a choice of directions the Mothers followed an echoing musical sound to the south. Here they discovered a pool which had regular droplets of water falling in to it. The echo of these drops reverberated off the walls of the cavern creating a musical effect. Not wanting to be left empty handed the Mothers investigated the pool and disturbed an amorphous grey creature which oozed out of the pool and attacked them with its pseudopods. The Mothers dispatched it.
Coming to their senses the Mothers returned to the foot of the ramp and went left. Here, in a series of winding passages they came across more challenging foes. They were reminded of the opponents that they faced in the stone circles of Tovag Baragu as these creatures were also vaguely conical mounds with long appendages that swept out to strike at them. Luckily these ropers did not possess any mind affecting abilities, or at least they did not display any before the Mothers put the three of them to the sword. Moving on the Mothers encountered some fire beetles in the southerly end of a large cavern before turning to the north. The fire beetles were deemed to be beneath their notice.
Once they rounded a large natural pillar in the rock, the Mothers were slightly concerned to see what looked like two large red drakes in the cavern beyond. Before they could retreat the creatures both opened their mouths to spew gouts of flame towards the party. The Mothers soon realised that these were not real dragons as they were not dead. Feeling emboldened, they stepped up into melee with the creatures and found that they fell just like other normal opponents. Unfortunately, they did not seem to have the treasure hoards that dragons were reputed to collect either.