A couple of weeks after Sylvester first recruited everyone, the trio stood before the old mudslide. A sign had been staked into the ground warning that the opening was dangerous, and the local baron was working on clearing it.

Taking a quick peek down the exposed hallway, it was exactly as Sylvester had expected: a long hallway with two rooms on either side ending in a large barred door.

"Alright gentlemen. Welcome to the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Yesterday was the full moon, so we should have a full month to completely loot it." Sylvester announced.

"How long has this opening been here? Why didn't we get here sooner?" Karrank asked.

"Like I mentioned, we wanted to do this after a full moon, and I was waiting for these." Sylvester explained while holding up two staffs that had crooks at the top, both of which were being used to hold lanterns.

"Why do you have two?" Kurt asked.

"Because this is not just a tomb or ruin. This is a dungeon. Lights will wane, darkness will be encompassing, the doors themselves will fight us. Assume anything down there can see in the dark and will not hesitate to kill you. But, to answer your question, rule two of dungeon diving: always have multiple light sources."

"What's rule one then?" Karrank followed along.

"This will kill you."

Kurt and Karrank shared a look as Sylvester lit the lanterns and handed them the staves. Before them, the long hallway stretched on. Sunlight reached the far end, barely illuminating the large stone door at the end. Small white roots poked down from the ceiling and the crude stonework was heavily cracked. Four openings, two on either side, led into dark rooms.

Sylvester led the way, enjoying the slightly cooler air that caused Kurt and Karrank to shiver. The first room on the left was painted with murals of entwined snakes. It was empty, save for a single wooden coffin painted with scenes of battle standing upright on the far wall.

Sylvester pried its cover off to reveal a clay statue of a Snakeman warrior, fangs bared. Without even blinking, Sylvester set down the lid and returned to his companions in the hall. He took Karrank's light staff and handed him his crossbow.

"Take a shot at that statue." He ordered.

Karrank complied, shooting the statue. The bolt was on target and sank into the statue's chest, shattering it and revealing that the statue was hollow. A small plume of smoke rose as the statue crumbled to the ground. Sylvester held Karrank back from retrieving his bolt.

"That is a small cloud of poison, it will dissipate soon." He explained.

Karrank warily eyed the destroyed statue while Sylvester went into the room opposite it. It was identical to the first room and prying off the cover of the coffin within revealed another clay statue of a Snakeman warrior.

Sylvester directed Karrank to shoot this statue as well, and it was also filled with poison like the first. The trio headed back outside and rested for a little bit while waiting for the poison to finish dissipating.

Soon enough, they made their way back into the rooms and began searching through the bits of shattered clay. There, they discovered two golden amulets with the insignia of a snake upon them. Sylvester quickly placed them into a pouch that he then tucked into his backpack.

While the first two rooms appeared to have been for warriors, the next was clearly for a scholar. There was even a bookcase, but the scrolls and tomes on it had crumbled into dust and scraps already. The statue in this rooms coffin appeared to be a thinner and slyer looking Snakeman. It also held poison and a golden amulet like the others.

Across from the scholar's room was the room of some magic user. Unlike the other statues, this one was wearing a simple silver ring. Like the others though, it also had poison and an amulet.

The amulet went into the same bag as the others, but the ring went into a different bag.

"Why are you separating the gold from the silver?" Karrank asked when he noticed this.

"I am separating the safe from the cursed. This ring would effectively turn your nail into a poisoned dagger, but it would also poison you every day and have a change to remove your finger and turn it into a snake."

"That sounds… unpleasant."

"Rule three: don't trust anything found in a dungeon."

Still, with this room explored, there was nothing more to see in the dungeon without passing through the barred door. Kurt moved to try and lift the bar, but Sylvester stopped him.

"Look at the ceiling," he said while shining his light up to reveal strange stonework there. "A hammer trap. Karrank, take a closer look at the door."

Karrank carefully examined the door and managed to discover the trap's trigger: the pegs the bar rested on were pressure sensitive.

"If that had triggered while we were holding that bar…" Karrank muttered.

"We would be dead." Sylvester finished.

With careful work, they were able to wedge metal stakes into the paths the pegs would take, thus preventing them from raising and triggering the trap.

On the other side of the door was a large room. The walls had crumbling murals of landscapes and small jars were scattered throughout the room. To the left were three wooden coffins, with the middle one being more ornate.

Sylvester had them lay the bar across the lids of two of the coffins. Then, he removed the lanterns from the two staffs and placed them on the ground, illuminating most of the room.

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Kurt and Karrank held their staves at the ready while Sylvester carefully removed the coffin's lid. Laying inside was a simple skeleton clutching a rusty dagger.

"Karrank, take your time aiming, but try to destroy the whole thing in one blow."

Karrank nodded and sized up his target. He hefted his staff and swung down. The blow was expertly placed, and with a loud crack, most of the skeleton was pulverized. Karrank looked toward Sylvester for an explanation when thumping became audible from the other two coffins.

"These skeletons! They're undead!" he gasped.

"They are, which is why fighting them one at a time is significantly better than all at once."

Carefully, the trio slid the bar off the center coffin, leaving its full weight on the third which creaked worryingly.

The middle skeleton, now freed, lurched out of its coffin to attack. Sylvester and Karrank both swung at it, but the skeleton contorted itself unnaturally to launch itself at Sylvester. Luckily, his shield was able to hold off the skeleton while Kurt lined up an attack. His attack shattered the skeleton's ribs and cracked its spine. Sylvester was too preoccupied with blocking the skeleton to effectively attack it and Karrank struggled to land a solid blow.

Kurt struck once again, smashing more bones, but the skeleton refused to die again. Kurt tried to continue pulverizing the thing but struggled to hit it as Sylvester jerked it around, trying to get it off his shield.

Suddenly, the skeleton leapt off the shield toward Kurt, tearing into the surprised fighter. Karrank tried to help but tripped over one of the lanterns in his haste, instantly snuffing it. He was quickly back on his feet again, but he struggled to get his bearings completely and didn't manage to hit the skeleton. Still, Kurt wasn't helpless and managed to quickly pry the thing off himself, allowing Sylvester to come in for a finishing blow with his mace.

Without waiting for their adrenaline to drop, the group quickly pulled the bar off the last coffin, to face the last skeleton. They didn't wait for it to attack this time and tried to bury it under a flurry of blows. One of Karrank's blows had a decent crunch, which caught the skeleton's attention, but he was able to easily dodge away.

Sylvester took the opportunity to smash one of the skeleton's arms off with his mace, which caught its attention. It quickly leapt at him and the two of them both managed to strike each other at the same time, with both of them immediately collapsing, Sylvester bleeding heavily.

Kurt and Karrank quickly began trying to save him, pulling medical supplies out of their bag. They managed to staunch the bleeding, bringing Sylvester back from the brink of death.

"Sorry Kurt," Sylvester gasped out. "I was intending this for you, but this is a little more pressing. Cure Light Wounds."

There was a gentle glow over Sylvester as his internal energy quickly repaired all the damage that had been done to him. Unfortunately, it also exhausted his internal energy and he wouldn't be able to use it until tomorrow.

The trio decided that they had had enough adventure for the day and went back to town. They spent the next day resting, Sylvester making sure to heal Kurt as well, and the day after that they were back at the dungeon.

The trio quickly made their way down to the door, disabled the trap again, and made their way back into the tomb where they had faced the skeletons. Sylvester led them to the right side of the room, which held a short passage that led to a room decorated like a temple. It was dominated by a hideous statue that appeared like a partially melted toad made of intestine.

Instead of letting Kurt or Karrank gawk at it, Sylvester had them shove it toward the wall. Doing so fully revealed a secret passage under the statue. Water damage to the floor would have made it obvious had Kurt or Karrank looked, but now the gap was big enough for them to fit through.

The narrow passage smelled of mildew, and the neater stonework was wet and slimy. There were even puddles as the water slowly flowed down the passage.

After about 30 feet, the passage drastically widened into a long hallway flanked by loomed statues of armed Snakeman warriors. Despite their intimidating appearance, Sylvester was unfazed. He stepped to the first statue on the left.

The flickering lantern light provided by Kurt and Karrank's lanterns casted shadows on the statue that made it appear to glare down at the trio.

"This one is out of alignment with the others. There must be something behind it." Sylvester announced.

They quickly got to work, moving the statue to reveal a passage hidden behind it. At the end was a room willed with rotting rags and wood. It looked like it used to be a guardroom of some kind. Taking time to search the room revealed two salvageable hooked polearms and a silver icon of a snake man king with a scowl on his face. It went into the safe treasure bag.

"This will function as our base while we are here in the dungeon. For now, let us take a break. This next part will be dangerous again."

They rested for a little while, all worried about what was to come. Eventually, they began to move on. The end of the statue hall opened into an enormous octagonal room ringed with doors and more states, though only some of these held weapons. Others held tools or implements of torture. The center of the room held a large pool of dark, oily water.

Sylvester directed Kurt and Karrank to set their lanterns on the floor and ready their weapons. Sylvester prepared a large net, and cautiously stepped toward the water. Suddenly, to rotting and blacked hands flopped out of the water and began to crawl toward him.

He was ready for this and quickly tossed his net onto them. The hands were soon tangled up in the net, allowing Kurt and Karrank to easily take swings at them. Kurt nearly pulverized one hand with one of his blows, but they both continued trying to move. They still focused on Sylvester, but the net kept them from making any progress. Instead, he took the opportunity to finish off the weaker hand with his mace.

The remaining hand continued to struggle, but only managed to get itself completely stuck in the net. From there, the trio were able to easily beat it back to death. They took a moment to breathe and rest after the fight before continuing.

Sylvester led them completely across the room, but then went one door to the left of that. It took some effort, but they eventually managed to force open the heavy stone door. It opened to a short hallway leading to a room with no other exits.

This room was a sparse burial chamber with clay famisciles of burial goods. It smelled of tar and rot, and bits of tar could be seen leaking out of the coffin inside.

Sylvester and the group quickly emptied 6 flasks of oil to coat the room and hallway with it. All three of them waited outside with lit torches. Karrank aimed his crossbow at the coffin and fired. The bolt shattered on the stone structure, and for a few tense moments nothing seemed to happen.

Then, they noticed that the tar leaking out of the coffin had increased until it had turned into a large black blob sliding toward the trio.

It was soon halfway toward the group when Karrank finally acted and lit the oil with his torch. The entire room instantly lit with dancing flames that licked at the oily creature. Everyone took a few steps back, both from the heat and to put space between the ad the black blob.

The blob, fleeing the fire, charged forward, burning all the way. All three of them were ready to burn it further with their torches, but only Kurt was able to adapt to the strange weaponry well. They all quickly spread out again, watching for the thing to make a move.

Seeing it struggle to move, they all shared a look before moving in to finish it off. Kurt managed to stick his torch into it completely, causing it to completely ignite. They all watched as everything burned away, until all that was left were a few rings that Sylvester tossed into the safe treasure bag.

"Ok, what was that thing?" Karrank asked as he worked to pat down his raised hackles.

"Someone who wasn't properly mummified, effectively turning them into what is known as a black pudding." Sylvester explained.

"You know, maybe I should be cremated instead of buried when I die." Karrank decided.

Before the trio continued to explore the dungeon, Sylvester had them dredge through the water in the middle of the room. They managed to rig up something workable by affixed the net they had to the end of the polearms they had found. They found several things in the water pit. There was a silver ring that got marked with twine and put into the safe treasure bag. A heavy gold chain that got dredged up also went into the safe treasure bag. The chattering mummy head they fished up was smashed and cremated and the other jewelry they fished up went into the safe treasure bag.

Once they were fairly sure there wasn't anything else in the pool, they disassembled their construction and went back to exploring. The next door they opened was two to the right of the last one with the black pudding. This room was also in poor condition, but also had many bedframes and shelves indicating this was some sort of dorm. Inside, they found several scrolls with unknown writing and a large silver icon of a Snakeman god inset with several emerald shards. Unfortunately, that was all they found.

Still, the trio made their way back to town satisfied with their haul.

While Kurt and Karrank spent the next day relaxing, Sylvester was busy with more preparations. First, he tracked down a farmer and bought several goats. He had these sent to his home before he made his way to the town's wizard tower. They were lucky to have one, but it was still a place people generally avoided. An apprentice greeted Sylvester when he knocked on the door.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"I was hoping to have a spell cast."

"Oh?" The apprentice perked up. "That can be an expensive service depending on the spell."

"I need a spell to allow me to understand these scrolls. They are non-magical." Sylvester explained, while holding up the scrolls that he had recovered from the dungeon.

"Ok. Neil normally has that prepared. It will cost 50 silver. Follow me."

The apprentice led Sylvester into the tower and up a floor. There, they found a particularly short boy on a tall stool poring over some books. He was one of the smallfolk, a Gnome.

"Neil! This one needs a casting of Comprehend Languages."

"Oh boy! What sorts of documents do you have?"

"Some scrolls I have recovered from some ruins."

"More ruins? That is pretty dangerous."

"We haven't lost anyone yet."

"Really? You will have to tell me more about it later! For now, let’s get you ready for this."

Neil quickly explained the limitations of the spell; it would only provide literal translations and would only last for 10 minutes. Sylvester accepted this and began to get ready.

After a few seconds of concentration, Neil cast the spell upon Sylvester who immediately began to skim through the scrolls. They were mostly mad ravings of a priest, filled with random nonsense. Still, Sylvester quickly found what he was looking for. He was checking these scrolls for an extremely specific name, and it seems that it hadn't been changed from what his memories claimed it would be: Baltoplat.

Neil asked for a way to write to Sylvester so he could find out more about the dive into the dungeon, which Sylvester eventually gave in to. After paying a sizeable portion of his remaining funds, Sylvester quickly left the tower and returned home.