Rynn took a deep breath, sucking in the crisp mountain air. It was still early enough in the morning and dark enough with the cloud cover that there was a hint of coolness, especially at this higher elevation in the foothills. The first hints of fall were in the air. Just hints, but there they were nonetheless. Rynn took his time, circling the entire building first. Khaska and Jenika seemed to think this prudent, and watched the ranger and his wolf check the area for footprints. The building itself was fairly large, larger than Rynn had been expecting. It was certainly bigger than any of the buildings in Twilight. As far as he could tell, nothing had come in or out for the past few days, though there was a sign that a pack of wolves had entered the monastery and left some time ago.

“I don’t think there’s anything in the monastery at the moment,” he said. “It’s safe to go in.”

They entered on the north side, the collapsed side, gingerly stepping over the rubble and fallen rocks to enter. The room they were at was apparently a chapel of some kind, with a dilapidated altar to the Valorous Knight and a series of dark stains on the ground that were probably from rotting wood-likely benches of some kind, long gone. Rynn stepped through the exit and entered the main courtyard. It was open to the sky, though the large steel doors hung open, one just hanging on by its top hinge, the other rusted into place.

There was a large statue on the other side, opposite the doors. A large Maha’i, probably 20 feet tall. He was dressed in plate armor, and was standing regally, his horns pointing up to the sky, his scimitar in hand but pointed down. Khaska recognized the pose as a “ready for action” pose according to the Maha’i style of swordfighting, one designed to be easily moved from if necessary, but intended to be nonthreatening. It was an exquisite piece of work, one that would have taken a long time and much care to finish, though it was showing some signs of having been out exposed to the weather for some time. At the base, in Elven, Common, and Maha’i, was a name, and an inscription.

> Tawru Khimmak Tova Nem Rujdha, Khatil Tineen, Farsa Ahmud. Knight of the Silver Dragons. Ambassador of the Maha’i. Friend.

Khaska felt a somberness come over him, and felt as if he were standing on holy ground. Immediately he went to the center of the courtyard and knelt, placing his hands palm by his thighs, and tilting his head back. His lips moved in prayer, but neither Rynn nor Jenika could hear. He sat there for some time, sometimes pausing, sometimes speaking for a long time nonstop. After a few minutes, he bent forward at the waist, placed his hands on the ground, and kept his head pointed straight up.

His prayer finished, he stood. “Thank you for letting me pray,” he said to the others. “Truly, Likran Treewind was a good friend to Tawru, and one who felt terrible about his involvement in his death for many decades after the tragedy transpired.” He pointed at the inscription. “Treewind gave him the added name ‘Farsa Ahmud,’ which means ‘honored knight.’”

“This statue would have take a long time to finish,” Jenika noted. “I wonder if Treewind commissioned it?”

“Or did it himself,” said Rynn. “If he were here for several decades, he could have learned stonemasonry from the local dwarves.”

“Either way, I feel to honor Treewind more. Let us continue the search for his tomb.”

The upper levels seemed too rickety to enter, but Rynn managed to get a peek up the stairs here or there. Everything was abandoned or water-logged, the only things really left from the monastery itself were things carved into the stone themselves. Wooden doors had rotten away completely, tapestries had faded into nothingness, and any furniture left by the Knights was long gone. On the first floor there were many signs of goblins inhabiting the building for some time. Discarded rusting weapons, clubs, even some armor and clothing, as well as makeshift tents and shelters in places where the monastery was open to the sky.

“Rynn,” called Jenika, sharply. The ranger bounded around the corner to see what she had found.

There were a series of skeletons in the hallway. They had been picked at and eaten by some animals. The ranger bent close and examined them until he was sure of two things. First, these were goblin skeletons. Despite the fact that they had been broken apart and scattered, he was able to tell pretty readily what they had been. Second, they had been eaten by wolves. That was likely the pack he had seen signs of earlier.

“Looks like that door at the end of the hallway leads down,” said Jenika.

Rynn moved to the end of the hallway and looked down. Indeed, there were stairs. He glanced back. “I think it best to head down the basement,” he said. “Seems like there’s nothing else up here.” Khaska nodded and reached into his pack, bringing out his newly purchased everburning torch, while Rynn similarly pulled his out as well. With Rynn in front, and Khaska behind, they descended into the basement.

A similar scene greeted them. Goblin bones, strewn about the rooms they found. Some of the ones they first encountered had similarly been ravaged by the wolf pack, but others further in were more intact. The rooms themselves were much like the upstairs, showing recent signs of goblin habitation, but nothing else. Treewind’s tomb was nowhere to be found. Finally, at one juncture, far enough in that no daylight at all was with them, they found a bunch of goblins in front of a carved entrance into the ground.

“This must be the entrance to the abandoned mines,” said Rynn.

“Why are these goblins intact, while the others were not?” asked Khaska. Indeed, the goblins here were almost completely whole, if decaying. The stench made Ranna whimper a bit, but it wasn’t overpowering. Rynn examined the bodies.

“Looks to me like they were attacked. They all seem to have been hit with swords. Some of them fled, but were cut down from behind. Those here right by the entrance . . . looks like they were killed in their sleep. As to why they’re intact, the wolf pack probably had its fill upstairs and in the first few rooms here in the basement. The wolves wouldn’t have stayed around to eat rotting meat. I don’t think anything else has been here since.”

Jenika stepped to the edge of the entrance to the catacombs, looking in as far as the light extended and inhaling deeply. Must and dampness were all she could detect. If there was anything further in, it wasn’t apparent from the entrance.

“I think we’ve pretty much exhausted the monastery above ground,” said Rynn. “If there’s anything to find, it’ll be in the abandoned mines.”

“I’m still not sure what’s happened up here,” said Khaska. “I trust your expertise, though Rynn. Can you walk me through this again?”

The ranger glanced around. The entrance to the catacombs was at the end of a long hallway. He checked and double checked.

“It appears to me,” he said, “as if the goblins were attacked down here by something or somethings wielding swords. The attack seems to have come from the mines.” He pointed down at the goblins nearest the carved door that led further into the mountain. “These were killed as they slept. Whatever killed them did so quickly; they couldn’t respond in time. However, the combat awoke others, and they all seemed to flee. They were cut down from behind as they did so. This continued until out of the basement of the monastery, where eventually the wolves ate some of the dead bodies.”

“And how many goblins were here?” asked Jenika.

“It looked to me like a large tribe,” said Rynn. “Probably about three or four hundred. That seems to be about the size of Kagu’s tribe last I heard. His was the biggest of the local tribes, but it’s not like we had them all take a census.”

“So, whatever came after them came from the catacombs? And it used an edged weapon?” Khaska asked.

“That seems to be the case,” the ranger said.

“Then I think we should proceed with caution.”

“I’ll go first,” said Jenika. The monk reached into her pack and pulled out a new torch. Rynn helped her light it with his flint and steel, and then the monk took a deep breath, and entered. Being so far underground already meant they were already relying on their torches, but moving from the straight hallways of the monastery basement to the uneven walls of the abandoned mine made it seem that their torches did not give as much light.

The first part of the mine sloped gently downward, spiraling in on itself until they reached the first major room. The ceiling of this room was about ten feet high, and there were sconces for torches at regular intervals, but all rusted. Small stalactites adorned the ceiling, and there was a faint sound of dripping as water fell from them onto the floor, where a small puddle had formed in the middle of the room. There were four exits from the room aside from the way they had come in. With no good reason to choose one, they investigated each for a little ways. One tunnel had been caved in about fifty yards in. So that left three to choose from.

“Well,” said Rynn, “there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason to pick one way over the other. I say we just pick one at random and see what happens, but proceed carefully and quietly.” The ranger had his sword out now, hoping to not need it, but wary nonetheless. His skill with the bow would probably be of little benefit in the tight quarters of the abandoned mine. He pointed down the middle tunnel. Jenika shrugged, and, torch held high, headed down the tunnel. Their torches collectively only illuminated about 60 yards total, front to back, which would give them some warning should something attack them, but was not all that helpful in illuminating much beyond Jenika. The monk slowly advanced until they came to another fork. Again, arbitrarily, they picked a direction, but after 100 or so yards it dead-ended. There was no cave-in, it just looked like this was the end of the mine tunneled as the ore vein it had followed ran out. They headed back and took the other fork. This tunnel grew to be larger, and descended further into the ground than the other. There were occasionally offshoots, but none went more than just partially away from the main tunnel. Rynn could hear dripping coming from ahead, and as they rounded a corner they saw that the tunnel continued down, but had partially flooded. As it descended they would begin to walk in water, and their lights did not illuminate enough from where they stood to see much further than the beginning of the water.

Jenika raised her hand and pointed to the ceiling. There were a number of stalactites that had formed over the years, and that was where the dripping sound had come from as individual drops fell from them into the water. Aside from the ripples on the surface from the drops, nothing else disturbed the surface. But that was not what Jenika was pointing at. Rynn noticed it immediately too. Two of the stalactites were much larger than the others, and they were perched right over where the water began.

“Darkmantles,” the ranger said. “They will drop down on your head when you get too close and try to suffocate you. They’re not that dangerous, and there are only two of them. They might cast a Darkness spell, though, which would be annoying.”

Jenika looked warily forward, craning her neck to see if the water ended anywhere she could see, but the light was too limited, and she didn’t want to get any closer.

“I don’t want to get into a fight with these things just to find out the passageway leads nowhere. I say we go back and try another way,” she said.

Rynn shrugged. “Tracks will be hard to find in this rocky, wet mine, but I’ve been looking. Even so, I'm guessing that whatever killed the goblins didn't come through here. Treewind's grave and Tawru's sword could be down any of these passages. It wouldn't hurt to try a different way first.”

“I concur,” said Khaska. “No reason to get in a superfluous fight just to find out the passage ends in water.”

“If we come back, we can try to shoot them from a distance,” said Rynn. “It’s very likely we could take out one or both before they got to us, if it comes to that.” He turned to leave. He continued to scan the ground for signs that something had come this way, but between the water dripping from the ceiling, the hard rock floor, and the time since the attack on the goblins, he was not optimistic his efforts would yield anything.

Returning to the main chamber, they again picked a different path. At another fork, they decided to go left, again with Jenika leading the way. The floor grew slimier as they advanced upwards, until eventually Jenika held her torch up higher. The walls were covered with mold and growths just up ahead. Something glinted in the light, and she took a step closer to see it.

Just then, one of the growths nearby began to scream at her. The monk jumped back in fear as Rynn and Khaska moved forward, weapons at the ready. The scream was picked up by a few others, and was slightly unnerving. It reminded Rynn of a trapped animal, but he immediately knew what it was. “Shrieking fungi,” he said. “And there’s probably, yes, a violet fungus just there, at the edge of the light. The shriekers can’t harm us, but the big one” he indicated the purple human-sized fungus just ahead “can poison us if we get too close to those tendrils.” He squinted. “Looks like it’s fed recently, though. Maybe a badger?” Indeed, the skeleton of a small animal lay at the base of the violet fungus.

“Can you see that, just beyond the violet one?” said Jenika. Being careful, she crept forward a bit so the light reached further.

Khaska peered into the darkness. “Indeed. It looks like these have grown over a corpse.”

“I would like to get a look at it,” said Rynn. He dropped his backpack and the everburning torch at his feet, then drew and nocked an arrow. “But we have to kill the violet one first. “We can just hack away at the shrieking ones once it’s dead.”

Khaska drew his bow as well, and the two of them sent their arrows across the distance to the violet fungus, which began spilling red ichor when it was hit, its tentacles flailing noiselessly as they continued to fire at it. Khaska missed with both of his shots while Rynn sent four at it in the same amount of time. When Rynn’s last arrow connected, the tentacles stopped flailing and dropped down.

Khaska put his bow away, drawing his scimitar. “Your skill with the bow increases, Rynn.” The cleric stepped forward tentatively, slashing at the shriekers as he advanced, silencing their noise one at a time. The violet fungus was dead, indeed. There were two shriekers past the corpse, and the ranger used his sword to chop one apart as well as Jenika simply reached down and yanked one out of the crevice it had grown from.

“Well, that was easy enough,” she said, as Rynn wiped his sword off and sheathed it.

“Let us hope the rest of the mines are as easy as what we have encountered so far,” intoned Khaska, bending over the corpse.

It was a badly decomposed dwarven corpse, almost none of the flesh left on the skeleton. It was dressed in full plate, a dwarven warhammer at its side. It had on a backpack, which Rynn pulled off. Looking inside, Rynn discovered that it was a magical haversack, like his own. He reached in to pull out what he could.

Most of the items were standard adventuring items. Tent. Sleeping roll. Extra clothes. Flint and Steel. Nothing really worth keeping. There was a bag of gems towards the bottom, with five white pearls and a scattering of lesser gems. He handed those to Jenika, who looked them over and then returned them to the pouch. Finally at the bottom, there was a leather-bound book. Rynn pulled it out and flipped through the pages.

“I think it’s in dwarven. Can anybody else read it?” he asked. “I can’t.” He looked at the front page. “It looks like a journal to me. There are dates, I think, and the front cover has a hand-written title page.”

Jenika shook her head. “I only know common.”

Khaska likewise shook his head after glancing at it. “I know not dwarven, though tomorrow I could prepare a spell that would allow me to read the text.”

“Well, I don’t know for sure what time it is,” said Rynn, “but I don’t think it’s more than 1 or so in the afternoon. We should continue searching in the meantime. Perhaps nothing will come of our explorations, and tomorrow the journal will gives us more worthwhile information to go on.”

“I agree,” said Khaska. “We should eliminate more tunnels if possible. We are still refreshed and ready to go.”

Jenika nodded. Again, she led the way. The tunnel they were in eventually looped around back to the original tunnel, which they continued to explore. One branch reached a dead end shortly beyond the point where it branched off, this time clearly caused by a cave-in. Rynn examined the area, coming to the conclusion that someone had tried to move the rocks from the cave-in, but had given up after some time, likely because of the enormity of the task. This had been a long time ago, decades or even more, based on the condition of the moved stones.

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The other branch led down to a similar situation they had seen with the darkmantles, the path sloping down until eventually reaching a portion that would be underwater. There was nothing to be wary of this time, so they walked right up to the edge of the water. Unfortunately, though they could see that the gradual slope would not have them be fully swimming, the light did not reach any kind of fork or branch or dead end. Wanting to explore other passage before wading into the water, they headed back. Two of the main passages from the front room had dead-ended, for now, in water. So upon returning to the main chamber, they took the third and final route. Jenika still led, but by now her torch had burned out. Khaska was right behind her with his everburning torch, so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience.

As before, there were forks, and they picked and wandered through them. Some dead-ended, but the main tunnel itself gradually sloped downward. As the path they were on continued, the smooth carved floor of the mine eventually gradually began to be more rough and unhewn, eventually to the point where they had to be careful where they stepped, the floor now covered with rocks and unfinished floor. Stalagmites jutted up from the ground. It appeared to Rynn that they had left the mine and entered more of a cave-like area. Jenika still was in front, waiting until Khaska was close by to move on. She was about five yards in front of him when she took a step forward and slipped on a wet rock, hitting the ground sideways and injuring her hand as she tried to catch herself. However, the ground that she fell onto gave way and she fell a few more feet as the rock collapsed into a pocket below ground. It wasn’t far, and she wasn’t injured aside from a few scrapes and bumps.

“Jenika!” Rynn called out from where he was.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I just . . .”

The light wasn’t very good where she had fallen as Khaska approached, but she saw a patch of darkness in front of her begin to move. Khaska reached her then, and the light from his everburning torch shining on the ground.

A mass of tiny creatures was emerging from a pocket in the ground; the collapse had opened a small hole to some other place. Jenika jerked her hand off of the rocks and moved back a few feet, shaking her hand where it had touched the swarming group of creatures. Khaska drew his sword, but knew it would be an ineffective weapon in some ways. It was a centipede swarm, and it was moving towards Jenika.

In less time than it took to draw a breath the swarm surrounded her and began crawling up her legs. A wave of fear washed over the monk, but she managed to steel herself and begin to climb away as she felt them biting and scratching at her skin. Rynn grabbed his rope from the pack and threw it to her to help her clamber out of the depression the collapse had created. “Grab the rope!” he called. She did and with the two of them pulling and Jenika’s nimble feet she was out in a flash . . . but the swarm kept coming at them. Khaska drew his scimitar, but Rynn shouted at him. “Weapons won’t hurt the swarm. Get away!” However, the cleric didn’t have a direct attack in mind. He muttered a prayer, but frowned. The Hold Animal spell had no effect on the swarm.

The three of them backed away quickly, then turned and began to run. The swarm did not move quickly, and once they were a bit ahead of it they could move at a more leisurely pace . . . but still it kept approaching them. Rynn reached into his pack. “If we can light my torches, that will help, and I don’t think we have many other options. There are too many of them for our weapons to work effectively.” Khaska turned once and said a prayer, a beam of holy light lancing from his hand towards the wriggling mass approaching them. Unfortunately, the swarm merely moved around the Searing Light spell, like a river around a stone, and seemed generally unaffected.

Creeped out by this, Jenika kept in front of the others, swiping at her clothes and dislodging the occasional centipede still on her. Rynn and Khaska hurried to keep up with her. “Let us gain some distance to light the torches,” the cleric said.

They jogged, keeping track of the swarm by the light of their everburning torches, trying to keep the skittering black mass just at the edge of their light until they hit a long straight stretch of tunnel and made a break for it to gain some distance. Rynn and Jenika were able to sprint faster than Khaska, outdistancing the armor-laden Maha’i, but eventually Rynn decided they should stop, that they would have enough time to light the torches as the swarm approached.

“They still coming?” he asked, retrieving his flint and steel and the three torches from his pack.

They waited. Nothing happened. The swarm didn’t emerge from the edge of their light.

“Did they lose us?” Khaska asked. “There weren’t a lot of turnoffs.”

“Maybe they lost the trail,” Rynn said, “so to speak. They might be coming, still, but not chasing us if we got too far out in front.”

“What course of action should we then take?” asked Khaska.

“The swarm will probably keep wandering around the tunnels, so there’s a chance it might wander out of that one into another,” said Rynn. “We don’t really have the weapons to damage such a foe, except for the torches, and that would still not be very effective.”

“Perhaps we should head up to the monastery to rest up for the night,” said Jenika. “I don’t know what time it is, but we’ve obviously been down here for a while.”

“That seems the best course,” said Khaska. “I can prepare my spells tomorrow and read the journal. Perhaps it will lend some aid in our task.”

Their course of action decided, the party backtracked to the main entrance and then up the spiral tunnel to the entrance. It was late afternoon, so they found a room in the monastery that was mostly clear of goblin refuse, though they did have to clear out a lean-to, to set up their camp. There was a small hole in the ceiling, perfect for letting smoke out. Rynn and Jenika gathered firewood while Khaska prayed at the statue of Tawru.

They rested easily during the night, and nothing disturbed them. In the morning, while Rynn once again scouted around the area, Khaska said his morning prayers and prepared his spells. Rynn returned before he finished, so the cleric pulled out the journal to read it out loud once he had completed his morning ritual and cast Comprehend Languages on himself.

“The Journal of Dag Bluemaul,” he began.

The first portion of the journal described Dag and his travels with two fellow adventurers. They had come to Twilight some time ago—the last few entries were dated in the year 52DT.917, over sixty years ago. They had explored the dungeon and found some treasure, but Dag wanted to stay further to investigate a voice he had heard calling to him. Eventually his friends abandoned him, and he attempted to find the location of the voice by clearing the rubble from one of the cave-ins.

Khaska read the last few entries out loud.

> February 18

> We found the monastery, though it took some doing. I don’t think Taedar is as good a tracker as he claims to be, or at least he’s having an off-week. The mines underneath were easy enough to find, and tomorrow we will begin exploring them. It’s been too long since I’ve been underground, and my companions are glad to have a dwarf with them for such moments as this.

>

> February 20

> Taedar and Adwen want to move on. They think that we have exhausted this dungeon and have no reason to stay. We have been here for a few days exploring and found some good treasure left by former inhabitants. Luckily I was able to heal Taedar after the goblins found us living in the ruins that first night. It was touch and go, but Taedar seems to be on the mend, but they both want to leave. There’s just something about this place, though. I’m sure we’ve missed something important, and I’ve been able to convince them to stay for a while longer.

>

> February 22

> I know what it is that compels me to stay. There’s a voice here. It calls to me. Taedar and Adwen cannot hear it. We’ve searched every nook and cranny in the mines near as I can tell. Some passages are blocked by cave-ins. I think we could clear them out safely, but the other two don’t want to spend the time, which, admittedly, would probably be a lot. I wish they could hear the voice! Then we would all be in agreement and could find it!

>

> March 17

> I have wandered these tunnels under the abandoned monastery until I have searched them all over and over. Though the voice still calls to me, I cannot find its source. And so I continue to search … My “friends” did not understand the call, and they wanted to move on. And so I am alone. And still the voice calls to me.

>

> April 3

> I know where the voice is, but clearing the rubble myself is difficult, especially when I must take so much time to find food for myself, now that Taedar has left. Also, it must be done carefully to be safe and avoid cave-ins. The voice is excited, and it coaxes me onward! I will find it! It must be freed!

“Intriguing,” said Khaska. “I have prepared a Speak with the Dead spell. Perhaps we should also ask questions of Dag’s remains. There are some questions that remain unanswered.”

“We did find an area that had caved in, and it looked like there had been some of the rubble cleared,” said Rynn. “Perhaps that was where he was looking for this ‘voice.’ I wonder if it’s the same voice that those two halfling brothers heard in the mines.”

“He did mention ‘cave-ins,’ though,” said Jenika. “He might have tried his hand at clearing more than one of them before he found on the right one.”

“It does seem that Dag was quite fixated on this voice, whatever it was.” Khaska stood. “He might have taken any number of actions we might deem unwise.”

“Before we go down,” said Rynn, “I think we should make some more torches, in case we run into that centipede swarm again. We only have two torches that actually generate fire that would damage it.”

Rynn set about making a few torches quickly. There was enough leftover leather and cloth and sticks from goblin lean-tos and discarded clothing that they didn’t lack for materials. As he watched Rynn, it seemed to Khaska that they could have made many many more than the ranger did, but after about five minutes the ranger was satisfied with the number he had made—three for each of them. For light, he did pull out his everburning torch, as did Khaska, but the ranger made sure that everybody had a real torch ready-to-hand, as well as his flint and steel, to light them in a hurry.

They descended back into the abandoned mines and took the tunnel with Dag’s corpse. With the fungi all dead, the area was beginning to smell just a bit, but it was not as bad as even the goblin corpses by the entrance to the mines. While they traveled, they discussed what questions they should ask should the spell be successful.

Khaska knelt by the corpse and began to pray, his holy symbol held in his hands as he communed with his God and implored the divine magic to touch the corpse of the fallen dwarf. The cleric could feel some resistance, but the corpse could not succeed in thwarting the spell, it turned to look at him, jaw moving reflexively, bone grating in the silence of the tunnel. Khaska bowed his head.

“Forgive us for interrupting your rest,” he said. “You spent much time here in the abandoned mine, seeking a voice. What did it say to you?”

The skeleton’s jaw moved slowly, and the voice was dry and sent shivers up their spine, making the very air seem colder.

“Forced. Trapped. Caged. Imprisoned. Hates. Knights. Wanted. Freedom.”

Khaska and the others glanced at each other.

“Where are the tombs under the monastery?”

The skeleton seemed to pause.

“Found. No. Tombs.”

Khaska took a deep breath.

“Every tunnel is now blocked at about the same distance as the cave-in by water. What was farther in your time?”

Again, the skeleton seemed to pause.

“No. Water. In. My. Time.”

The skeleton’s head moved back to its original resting place, the magic having completed.

Rynn rubbed his hands up and down his arms, as if trying to dispel the chill in the air. “So, they didn't find Treewind's tomb. But something was trapped down here by the Knights of the Silver Sword? I wonder if it finally escaped and that's what killed the goblins. Maybe even has something to do with Kagu.”

“It seems unlikely that Treewind’s tomb is down either of the passages that are now flooded,” said Khaska. “He did seem to indicate it was down a passage that had caved in.”

“There were more than one of those,” said Jenika.

Khaska was strangely silent at this point, staring at the skeleton. “I had not thought to find something so . . . intense.” He stood. “There is much unknown. I suggest we go back and finish exploring the last tunnel, the one we found the centipedes in, before we begin clearing away the rocks or wading through the flooded tunnels.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Rynn.

Jenika held up her torch. “And we’re more prepared this time.”

“Rynn,” said Khaska, “I believe that you wanted to take Dag’s armor and weapon with us. We should treat the armor with care, and treat the body itself with the reverence due all living creatures. When you are done, I will say a prayer for Dag’s soul.”

Rynn and Jenika both stripped the body of the armor. Rynn was pretty sure it and the weapon were both magic, and well worth their while to take. When they were done, Khaska put the skeleton into a resting position on the floor, again knelt by while it holding out his symbol of Teresh, and said a prayer. When he was done, he stood. “Let us proceed,” he said.

Again, Jenika went first. This time they explored a branch they had not previously, slowly making their way down to where they had encountered the centipede swarm. It was nowhere to be seen once they approached the area where Jenika had stumbled on a cave-in spot. It was apparent, upon closer inspection, that she had merely caved in an air pocket. There were no additional tunnels to go down underneath the one they were in. So they proceeded.

The terrain continued to get more and more rough, resembling a cave more than dwarven tunnels. The ground was more wet than before, puddles collecting at the bases of some stalagmites, though others had been broken, carving a clear, if rough, path before them. Eventually the path led to an opening up ahead. They moved toward it, and discovered that an entrance had been carved, opening to a room below, even though the floor was a good 20 feet down from the carved opening. Rynn’s sharp eyes managed to catch that a rope had previously been attached to a stalactite nearby, years of wear carving a small niche in its limestone. It was a simple matter to attach his rope and then slowly climb down into the room. Khaska, with his plate armor, and Ranna, stayed above while the other two descended to get a better look.

The room was completely carved out of the surrounding rock, square angles and lines everywhere. It was also fairly large, and its roof was a full 30 feet above the ground. The floor was gradually curved, so that any water that collected ran down to the sides. There wasn’t much of it. The ceiling looked to their untrained eyes that it had been carved recently. No stalactites had formed, and no water dripped down. In one corner of the room was a chest. The top had been smashed off and discarded to the side. Inside were some papers, pushed around and disorganized, the writing on them barely visible, and again in dwarven.

But it was Rynn that first spotted the large torn sheet of paper in the middle of the room. The ranger walked over. It looked like an old scroll had been unraveled and had fallen apart, then pieced back together. The writing was also faded, and part of it was burned off, but he and Jenika, after a few moments, were able to determine what it was.

A map of the mines.

“Khaska!” Rynn called out. “We’ve found a map!”

“A map!” the Maha’i’s voice rang out. “Praised be the gods!”

“And it looks like,” Jenika paused to look at the map, then walked a ways away, her torch illuminating further than they had seen before. “Yes, there’s another exit here.”

Jenika and Rynn were able to get a good sense of the map, though the writing on it was badly faded, and in Dwarven to boot. It looked to them like the abandoned mines extended past the areas that were now flooded. They shared this information with Khaska, who still thought it prudent that they explore the new passageway, but carefully. So they did explore the new passage, but when they found that it, too, was flooded down the line, they came back. Everybody agreed that, all things being equal, they’d rather not have to deal with the 20-foot drop if they had to beat a hasty retreat for some reason.

Getting back up was simple enough with Khaska’s help, and soon they were on their way to loop around back to the other passages off of the main entryway. Trying to avoid the darkmantles, they took the leftmost passage, past where Dag’s corpse lay in rest, and down towards where the passage had flooded.

They were almost there when Rynn suddenly came to a halt. “Stop!” He hissed, his words echoing through the cave. Jenika, who was in front, froze. It took her a moment, but then she saw the shining black, writhing mass of the centipede swarm. It hadn’t noticed them yet, and she backed up until it was just beyond their light.

“Well?” she asked. “It hasn’t noticed us.”

Rynn was already getting the other torches out and lighting them. Khaska glanced at him, then nodded, sheathing his scimitar. One torch went to Jenika, one to Khaska, and the ranger held one in each hand after motioning Ranna to retreat, which the wolf did, though her demeanor showed she was not happy about it.

Khaska muttered a prayer and light lanced forth from his hand. This time the Searing Light spell burned through the swarm, and small writing bursts of light sparked in the darkness as individual centipedes succumbed to the divine magic. However, the remainder of the swarm rushed towards the party.

It was difficult work. The swarm seemed to anticipate their moves sometimes, avoiding the fire of the torches while crawling up and onto each of them. Jenika and Rynn were both nauseated momentarily, but continued to strike with their torches. Each of them felt the scratches and the bites of the insects all over their bodies, but it wasn’t but a few moments later when Jenika finally swiped her torch across the last of the black mass. Individual centipedes still were alive, but the swarm itself had been dissipated. They were in no further danger.

Jenika dropped her torch to the ground and finished swiping a few remaining centipedes off of her arms and legs, half shivering as she did so. Khaska bore his wounds stoically, as did Rynn, though the ranger was still scratching at his clothes for some minutes afterwards.

“One less monster to deal with in these caves,” Rynn said.

The ranger reached into his pack and pulled out the healing wand. The magic mended their wounds and healed their sore skin, the bites and rashes vanishing. After a few minutes, they felt mostly back to normal. Jenika and Rynn were both still feeling a little sluggish . . . even the magic of the wand could not affect the centipede poison that was slowing their reflexes ever so much. Still, they decided to press on.

Just a short ways away from where they had destroyed the centipede swarm they came upon the flooding in this passageway. Rynn opted to go first, holding his everburning torch in hand. Just to test, he put it under water. It made the light above the water’s surface dim just a bit, but had the opposite affect of lighting the water up so he could see where he was going. Jenika went next, carrying a normal torch, and Khaska came after. Ranna was forced to leap and swim just a bit, but the water never got much above their thighs. Their boots were soaked, and their pants dripping when they emerged, but based on their understanding of the map they thought that they had discovered that all three flooded passageways met together. A short jaunt to explore by Rynn showed this to be true-the flooding connected each passageway, or at least connected to three other new passages. As this was a low point in the mines, water had come in over time, but it was not impassible. After about fifty yards, they were on dry ground again.

The passageway immediately became sticky with spider webs, but it was apparent that the webs had also been recently cleared by goblins. The webs were burned and singed, and though there were a few decomposing goblin corpses, the passageway was clear.

Rynn edged forward, carefully. He glanced at one of the goblin corpses. “It doesn’t look like any of these were killed with an edged weapon, like the ones at the entrance,” he said. “It would make sense that they were killed by some kind of monstrous spider. Those wouldn’t leave a mark.”

“Monstrous spider?” Khaska’s voice wavered just a bit.

“The goblins cleared this path out,” Rynn said. “They might have killed the spiders, but we should be careful.” He edged forward, holding his torch up, eyes scanning. The ranger knew that the spiders might very well be smaller ones, more nuisance than real threat, but still he didn’t want to be caught unawares. He moved through the tunnel until he came to a fork. To the left the spider webs continued to look burned and singed for about 10 yards, but then they stopped being singed and burned and continued as he expected “normal” webs would look. To the right the webs continued to be burned, but then stopped. The way past the hanging, dilapidated threads looked clear.

“Let’s see what the goblins were up to,” said Rynn, indicating the right path. Khaska nodded. Jenika led the way again, her torch illuminating the burned webs. She glanced over at the left passageway, trying to assess the webbing and to determine what kind of spiders might come at them from behind. Unfortunately, she didn’t know much about such things, but she pointed it out to Rynn, and the ranger simply glanced at it.

“I bet whatever made those are relatively small spiders,” he said. “They’ve probably just been here for a while, picking off straggling animals that wander this far in, like the goblins.”

“I thought you said they were monstrous spiders?”

“That just means they’re bigger than just your average everday spider,” he said. “They can be from a few feet to gigantic ones that can be many times bigger than we are.”

He turned to move back down the other passageway, to see Khaska frozen.

Up ahead was rough terrain, but a quick glance indicated why the carved smooth floor was so rocky. There was a cave-in up ahead.

And someone had cleared it away.