030: The Dead, the hole and the Wall

The fight raged on. As the remaining zombies battered at Caiden--yet warded by Horsa's protective magics--the two other fell creatures attacked the party from the north. Although two more shambling corpses also joined the fray, the momentum had swung in the party's favour and the undead were slain with no casualties among the heroes.

Of course, the heroes' minds now turned to loot and exploration. They wisely decided not to split up...before immediately heading off in three different directions.

To the north, Ciaden and Horsa found a partially collapsed chamber, and a slope of clearly unsafe rubble leading down to a partially sunken cave. Horsa, casting himself into his familiar's body, investigated the watery passage and discover that to the east it linked up with the Murkwater while to the west it seemed to end in a solid rock wall.

To the west, Artur and Grandsilver Tongue discovered another partially collapsed chamber. A cave beyond was notable for a small hole low down on one wall. A pair of decomposing legs--probably belonging to someone trying to crawl through the hole--stuck out into the room. The two heroes suspected a trap, but Grandsilver Tongue fancied the look of the corpse's boots. Happy to oblige, Artur strode over to the corpse and gave the legs a yank--to find they were attached to only a portion of gnawed torso. As he pulled the remains free, both legs came loose  with a sickening squelching sound. Carefully, Grandsilrver Tongue used magic to extract the decomposing feet from the foul, be-slimed boots.

Meanwhile, Luther and Hell'en had searched some of the other rooms, and found nothing of interest except for a small sack of coins and gems.

When the party regrouped to rest Horsa identified the boots as magical boots of striding and springing. Luther--keen to do more scouting--quickly claimed them as his own. The heroes returned to the hole which until recently had been blocked up with part of a decomposing corpse. Clearly, adventure lay this way! Horsa again, sent his consciousness into his bat and cautiously fluttered inside. The bat's superlative senses quickly spotted a man-sized creature hanging on the wall above the narrow passage's exit into another small cavern. After extensive conversation, and after several "harebrained" schemes were discussed and abandoned the heroes decided to try their luck elsewhere.

Talk turned to the party's next steps. A narrow set of downward steps turned out to be flooded after they descended about 20-feet. No one seemed keen to explore the dark, watery depths of whatever lay beyond.

There was but one way forward: a wide hallway leading north. A quick investigation revealed it terminated in a blocked-up archway decorated with carvings showing a dock at which strange galley-like ships were being unloaded by human slaves watched over by troglodyte overseers.

Artur smote the mortared stones blocking the archway with his axe. A resounding clang sounded through the complex, but a piece of mortar did fall away from the obstruction. It looked like with an hour or so of work, the archway could be cleared and an investigation of what lay beyond could be made...