AtD 032: The Labyrinth of Horror

With the troglodytes slain, the heroes pushed on, exploring a meandering passageway leading roughly (they thought) north and west. Coming to a three-way junction, Harald sensed the slight smell of death and decay coming from the west.

Intrigued, the party crept westwards, eventually coming into a cavern inhabited by a small pack of ghouls. The ghouls seemed intent on consuming every last scrap of flesh from the remains of two humans and did not notice the heroes until they were almost upon them.

Battle—unsurprisingly—was immediately joined. Although Harald was injured in the fight, the ghouls were quickly despatched. Moving quickly, the heroes scooped what obvious treasures lay about the chamber—a split sack containing many coins—and then retreated the way they had come.

Exploring more passages, they eventually—frustratingly—ended up back in the room into which they had originally fallen. While here, however, they did hear the rhythmic hammering of metal on stone from far above. This, some of them thought, might be Ozloc and Saeldur rigging up some kind of ladder or other climbing aid. Calling up, though, got no response and so they decided to continue their explorations.

More twisted, convoluted passages lay in their future and again, frustratingly, they end up back where they had started.

In desperation, the heroes decided to head south. This almost led to disaster when Thonn blundered into the back of a gelatinous cube. The cube quickly engulfed the redoubtable half-orc along with Gromm and Harald. By the time the cube was destroyed, all three were badly hurt; Thonn had suffered particularly badly, and only his ferocious orc heritage had saved him from death. As it was, the half-orc had lost all his body hair, and his nose had taken on a distinctive droop.

A minor argument broke out about what to do next. As Gromm drank one of the party's precious magic healing potions, the bulk of the heroes continued south, Bodrum eventually coming—reluctantly.

After a short while, they came to another chamber with eight exits. It was similar to the first chamber they had entered but—crucially—had no chute in the ceiling. Gromm's acute hearing picked up the sound of rushing water to the south, and the heroes moved to investigate—Thonn being particularly keen as he believed his long-held belief that the waterfalls over which he fell weeks ago might yet prove their salvation.

In short order, the heroes came to a wide underground stream. To their right rapids—and white water—lay at the bottom of a waterfall, while to their left, the stream flowed placidly away into a faint green light given off by luminescent fungi clinging to the walls.

The party discussed what to do next...