moi

The Mothers went south along the stone corridor, coming across a plaster covered door in the western wall. The plasterwork seemed undisturbed and although Gaspode searched, he could find no traps. The Mothers were still suspicious and decided to cast a spell to detect any magical emanations from the door. Jito discovered that there was a strong aura of abjuration. The Mothers reasoned that this might be a strong protective spell, one that was powerful enough to keep out the drow and so best left alone.

Twenty feet or so beyond that door, the party descended a flight of stone steps into a cavern below. The walls of the cavern contained many niches in which the dead had been laid. Although this looked as if it had been a natural cavern, it was plain that the builders of this place had carved a wider passage into the next chamber to the west. Kurtalla and Fonesca examined the bones and discovered that they were from humans and that they were very old.

The next chamber was much like the first, except for the twelve foot tall statue standing in the centre. It depicted an insect-like creature that had mandibles and bulbous eyes with arms that drooped almost to the floor. Kurtalla checked the floor to see if the drow had been avoiding this sculpture, but there was no sign of this. Still somewhat suspicious, the Mothers pressed on.

In the narrow passage beyond, with grave niches only along one side as it turned to the south, the Mothers spotted a roper. Before it had a chance to catch any of the party, Kurtalla, Jito and Gaspode had all advanced and laid blows on the beast. It took the opportunity that the ranger presented and used its sticky tentacles to pull Kurtalla towards its mouth and bite him. The tentacles were also covered with a substance that sapped his strength. With the spells and blows of the others, the beast did not survive to try again. Kurtalla gratefully accepted the ministrations of Obrana who restored his strength to normal.

Pressing on the Mothers found a passage leading off to the east, which was to the left for them. They took this and entered a large cavern with no obvious exits. This cavern held none of the burial niches of the previous chamber, but an awful charnel odour of death lingered here which was quite unlike the dusty smell elsewhere. No sign of death was visible, however, rather there were five distinct piles of equipment placed evenly in a semicircle towards the eastern end of the chamber. As the Mothers went over to investigate, four ghouls materialised and leapt to attack. The Mothers dispatched them as they approached, with Obrana destroying the last remaining one utterly with her exclamation of Tyr’s might. The party thought about what to do next.