Adelie reluctantly returns to his human form. He sits close to Mone's corpse, which has become stiff and cold, and chews uncomfortably on a rat. Every now and then, he glances suspiciously at Jarvik.
Talathel waits until at least three others have eaten, then moves in to partake of cooked dire rat.
Bedlam eats enough for three!
Tragershen sticks to his mundane rations. But when they are done resting, he'll put some of the jerky into his haversack. If for no other reason than to share the burden.
Unless anyone stops her, Anzath will put the captive rat out of its misery. She then places her bedroll next to Talathel's and tries to catch some Zs.
Talathel nods approvingly at Anzath's executing the rat before resuming his own watch.
Bedlam snores blissfully; after his watch.
Adelie shivers and cries out during his sleep.
Lolygert helps where he can in the preparation of the rat-on-a-stick, offering one and all full cups of mead or ale or wine even with a touch of his flagon to theirs with a grin and a cheerful, "here's to ya!"
He matches Bedlam's appetite and more, smacking his lips and wiping greasy fingers onto his clothes.
He pauses at one moment, noticing the poor body of Mono lying there, raising his flagon to the brave doggy, "Here's to ya."
Settling down he also sleeps until his time at watch, mouth agape, a low buzzing snore emerging.
As you settle in to rest on the far side of the river, the denizens of the dungeon prowl around.
Talathel spots a trio of ghouls that emerge from the staircase area--when they spot the party, they slink back into the depths.
The dwarf snores.
Me no be want'n ta go ta school, ma!
Talathel appraises the ghouls but is content to allow them to withdraw.
With Tragershen rested, we can much more easily slaughter those creatures and their ilk.
He will inform whomever is next on watch of the ghouls' brief appearance.
During the fifth hour of the watch, the ghouls reappear. Now there are twelve. They are trying to sneak, but their sheer numbers mean that Bedlam sees them.
They skulk around the far side of the river before withdrawing into the darkness of the staircase (unless you do something to interact with them, of course).
Bedlam pretends not to see them. He does mention it over breakfast.
Over breakfast, such as it is, Talathel notes Bedlam's observations.
"While we must always be ready to fight undead in such a place, it appears that we would be wise to take more specific precautions should we press on in that direction. Which I believe we should leave until after we clear this level entirely."
Indeed, Tragershen awakens undisturbed. Now, he merely has to study for an hour. Wizards are so time-intensive!
Nobody interrupts spell preparation.
It's probably Augusta 20th, out where days have meaning.
Bedlam mixes some new Extracts; and 5 Antitoxins to pass out.
Once ready to leave, he drinks his Active list.
Could use un day or so ta resupply me goodies next time.
Responding to Talathel, Adelie says, "I agree. We'll have to clear the blocked tunnel in order to do that - I can likely check the other side of the blockage by earth gliding through it, but I can't actually clear it."
He casts decompose corpse on Mone and places her bones in her pack.
Tragershen finishes with his spells, and then checks on Aurora. "How are you this morning?"
Also, "Ghouls down the stairs? That tells me that is certainly the way to delve deeper into the evil of this place. Though it promises less hope to find a route of retreat, should we require it."
"With the ooze dispensed with, we can search the rooms on that side of the level in greater safety."
Bedlam hefts his heavy backpack.
Me and Anzath may be rig up un trap at da steps?
"A fine notion, Bedlam."
Hearing no specific objections, Adelie wild shapes into a small earth elemental and attempts to burrow through the collapse in the last rat tunnel to find out what is beyond it.
Aurora awakens feeling better, but still rather weak. After her morning prayers, she casts even more Lesser Restorations upon herself.
Now feeling considerably better, she stretches her arms above her head and looks to the others, approvingly.
Anzath is ready for whatever terrors they may face this day. She packs up whatever rat jerky she can, accepts the antitoxin, and waits on Aurora to finish her ministrations. She joins Adelie at the collapsed tunnel and as he’s about to head in, tells him, "Don’t do anyding stupid."
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The Alchemist takes a minute to mix an Extract (Crafters Fortune).
Bedlam uses three Blasting Jelly on the rocks around the steps, adjacent to each other. He then pours some alchemical grease onto the top two steps; with a trip wire on the third. He rigs an Alchemists Fire above the blasting jelly; a string ran down to the trip wire.
Bedlam takes a step back to look at Anzath and back at their trap.
The dwarf smiles; giving a thumbs up!
Be da best trap dere! Let's 'plore!
Anzath gives Bedlam a quick, unsure nod. "You are expert. I vill take your vord for it."
Adelie swims through the rubble left by Bedlam's last experiment with high explosives. After pushing through the dirt, he finds the rat tunnel again. Tunnels branch off in several directions, but I doubt that he's going to turn back at this point.
After a few false starts, he follows a generally upward-tracking path. Eventually, Adelie sees light ahead.
If the light looks like it might be daylight, Adelie will cautiously approach it. If it's flickering or if it's an odd color, he will turn around instead.
Talathel looks at the stone which Adelie moved through.
"We have a companion not yet returned.", he notes.
"I suggest that we explore rooms near this one first, so as to minimise Adelie's time of return while still not sitting idle."
Adelie pokes his head into a shattered tomb--coffins are tumbled all around. Light leaks in through gaps in the walls.
Adelie rushes back the way he came to inform his allies of his discovery.
Of kourse.
"Vell dwarf, you kan dig, yez?"
"I still have the scroll that the wizard gave me, but I would only want to use that as a last resort."
"Wait, I think I hear movement towards us from the direction Adelie went. Hopefully it is Adelie.", Talathel says as he remains ready to jab his spear at anything that charges out in a hostile fashion.
Bedlam shoulders his heavy pack, takes a bite out of some rat jerky and he investigate the Poo room.
Lolygert watches as Bedlam and Az work on their traps, offering a helpful bit of advice..."Eh, a bit higher mayber....um, is that dangerous?....oh, you want me to be quiet? "
He accompanies Bedlam to the Poo repository...
Hands folded together in front of her, Aurora remains near Tragershen. She glances between the rest of the group as they speak; as Adelie returns, she dips her head to the druid in acknowledgement.
"We could likely begin excavating the tunnel manually, so long as the site remains secure from threats."
"I prepared riversight this morning. I can check the river to see if it offers another way out. If it doesn't, though... we should dig through this. Mone doesn't have a lot of time, and I don't have a diamond for her, and..." He trails off, looking upset.
Bedlam seems to have ignored her, so Anzath begins removing rubble from the tunnel by hand. "Kould have left uz wid toolz, at least," she mumbles.
Bedlam and Lolly toddle off to the poo room. Of course, this involved crawling on their hands and knees through the rat tunnel that connects the camp side of the river with the poo side, as I imagine Tragershen isn't going to hand you a Fly just because you ask nicely.
Instead, the dirty duo find themselves in a latrine. As before, there are holes in the ground. As before, there is stink.
Meanwhile, back at camp, Adelie ponders whether or not to use Riversight.
Adelie does use Riversight! He looks as far as he can in both directions.
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Adelie pushes the sensor downstream first. He rides the rapids and realizes that the whirlpool effect that pulled down the dung monster is really more of a rough stretch of rapids than an impassible drain. The river rages, but there's some clearance for a very brave and foolish boating party.
Naturally (pun intended) he's a bit distracted by the various stygofauna floating around in the river--blind fish and newts and the like. There's nothing terrifying, for once.
Bobbing downriver, Adelie eventually sees a few interesting things: a bridge over the river, and then, shortly afterwards, the river enters an ornately carved artificial channel.
Nobody notices anyone.
Adelie keeps pushing forward until he has seen all of the ornate chamber, which seems to be about 100 feet long.
At this point, Addie has used half of his duration and flips the switch to head upstream.
The river seems to be formed out of myriad small rivulets that come together not too too far upstream from the party's current position. The main channel dwindles quickly, then disappears into the rocks.