Everyone shook off the recent bloodshed and it was decided that the party
should see what was at the eastern end of the hallway. Aetius' lantern lit
the way ahead of them as they made their way down the finished stone
corridor.

At the eastern end, they came to a normal-sized wooden door that opened
toward the party. Rheanna listened and heard the sounds of several orcs
talking on the other side. The orcs did not sound very busy. After quickly
checking for traps, the party set themselves to deliver an ambush, with
Ragath as the bait. Ragath moved up to the door to open it while the rest of
the party waited a ways down the coridor behind him.

Ragath opened the door. While it was opened he briefly saw barrels, crates,
and sacks of foodstuffs lining the walls of the chamber beyond. Among the
loot, five oversized straw pallets and other simple furnishings showed that
this room now served as a bunkroom. Five bestial humanoids with feral eyes
which ones sat mending gear and cleaning weapons sprang to their feet and
roared in challenge.

Ragath quickly shut the door and ran down the corridor behind him. The door
slammed open and an orc rushed through. That orc was sent reeling back to
its doom by a shot from Nuadu's bow. Aetius pointed his light down the hall
while Shadow chanted and motioned in front of him. In the room and a short
ways down the hallway, long roots seemed to spring forth from the solid
stone. The roots twined around the legs of three of the remaining four orcs,
holding them fast. The three orcs threw their javelins down the corridor at
the party, but badly missed - their aim thrown off by their condition. The
fourth orc rushed out into the corridor, and Buttmunch (Shadow's wolf) leapt
upon it, tearing out its throat with his teeth. The whole time, Aetius stood
with his lamp, watching the rear.

Quickly, the party dealt with the entangled orcs. Ragath swung his sling -
the bullet grazing the forehead of one. Rheanna blasted the dazed orc with
her crossbow, while Nuadu finished off the other two with his bow.

Ragath hurried forward to drag the bodies inside the room while Aetius and
Shadow watched the hall. Rheanna and Nuadu searched the room. Nuadu found a
pouch with a valuable topaz and two onyxes inside it. Rheanna found an old
cauldron hidden underneath a bunk. Ragath took it out and found 210gp
stashed away inside it.

Aetius decided to hand his lantern to Shadow. He hadn't been able to do much
besides pointing the lantern down the hallway during the previous fight, and
Shadow only needed one hand free to use his whip.

The party left the bunkroom and returned to the long narrow cavern to the
west. They investigated the sound of dripping water to the southeast, and
found an area with flat, finished walls and a large well full of murky
water. They thoroughly searched the area and the well, but found nothing of
note.

Directly to the north of the well, crates and boxes obstructed the
passageway. Whether they were meant to keep something in or something out
was debateable - but they were obviously meant to obstruct passage. After
moving the crates and boxes aside, Ragath was sent ahead to scout.

Making as little noise as possible, Ragath moved twenty feet down the dark
tunnel and found an iron gate with a large rusty padlock on it. For some
reason every opening between the bars was stuffed floor to ceiling with
blankets, bedding, rags, and straw pallets. He removed a bit of the detritus
to see what was beyond.

The ceiling soared at least 30 feet high in the center of the chamber
beyond. The walls were carved with images of dwarves at their forges. A
large stone door exited to the north, while the chamber faded into darkness
(to Ragath) to the south. Several old skeletons lay scattered near the
northern door. In the center of the floor, what looked like a natural rift
led downward, but Ragath couldn't tell from his vantage point what lay
below. From somewhere in the direction of the rift, Ragath could hear a
buzzing sound.

Ragath quickly plugged the hole he made in the gate, and moved back to tell
the party what he had found. They decided to put off going that direction
until they had explored the rest of the complex.

They moved back and explored the red glow coming from the southeast corridor
leading from the entry cavern. There, a large smoky fire crackled in the
center of the room. Battered pots and kettles were stacked all over.
Clearly, this room served as some sort of crude kitchen. They noticed a
distinct draft drawing the smoke up through a rough hole in the ceiling of
the chamber - probably the very same smoke they saw coming out of The Stone
Tooth's southern slope.

They searched the crude kitchen thoroughly. Finding nothing interesting,
they went back to the well. From there, they explored a short passage that
appeared to dead end. Ragath though the dead end to be in a strange place,
so he looked over the walls carefully. He found gouges in the floor, and a
half-oval shaped crack in the wall that indicated a secret door carefully
concealed in the rock wall. Pushing on the left side rotated the door in its
center, revealing a narrow passageway beyond.

Down the narrow passageway the party came upon another 'hidden' door, this
one made obvious by crude mystical writings painted upon it in blood. Nuadu
used his divine powers to read the writing upon the door. It was orcish, and
very crude. None of it appeared to be real magic of any kind. It was all
threats and warnings meant to keep simple orcs from coming through the door
without being invited. The adventurers, suspecting an orc shaman on the
other side of the door, decided to invite themselves in.

Ragath gave the door a good shove. It pivoted easily in its center revealing
a chamber of finished stonework about 30 feet deep and 15 feet wide. The
room was cluttered with crude furnishings, and the air was hazy with the
smoke of a small cookfire. Dozens of yellowed skulls were suspended from the
ceiling by fraying ropes strung through holes punched in the bone. An orc in
a black robe looked up from her conversation with a familiar leathery-winged
small creature with her face twisted in an expression of sheer rage. "Kill
them!" she shouted to her three orc minions.

The creature motioned toward the stone door to the north. The door opened
and the creature darted through it. Meanwhile the shaman reached underneath
her robes and withdrew a vial. She hurled it at Ragath and it hit, drenching
his clothing with a liquid that caught fire as soon as the air touched it!

Ragath rolled into the room, but was unable to put out the fire. Meanwhile
Shadow cast a globe of fire that singed the Shaman, making her utter a
gutteral cry of pain. Nuadu uttered a prayer and pointed at the Shaman,
hoping she wouldn't be able to resist his silence spell. Her posessions
appeared to be nasty enough... not dealing with her magic as well would help
a great deal. <an orc dies here, but for some reason I don't have it>

Buttmunch barreled into the room trying to protect Ragath. Sadly, the brave
wolf took two massive axe swings from the orcs nearest to Ragath, and was
obliterated.

The shaman tried to speak and appeared surprised. Nuadu's silence spell was
successful! She then threw another vial of the fiery liquid at Ragath and
missed, the vial shattering on the stone floor and spreading fire near where
the party entered. Shadow gazed at the shaman, enraged at the loss of his
wolf companion. He directed the ball of fire he had summoned atop the shaman
and it burned her badly as he cast a spell on Ragath to help him deal with
his own fire problem.

Even with Shadow's help, Ragath was injured by the flames. He stoically took
the pain and dealt death to one of the shaman's minions. Nuadu summoned
water atop his dwarf companion, but as soon as the water stopped pouring,
the flames exploded back to life. This situation was getting more serious by
the moment.

Rheanna quickly moved into the room and shot one of the shaman's minions in
the gut. It rolled around on the floor in agony, obviously dying. The shaman
flung another vial which hit Ragath. He was now in a ton of trouble.
Realizing this, Shadow concentrated on his ball of fire and burnt the shaman
to a crisp. She would not be a threat to anyone ever again.

Given the chance to exercise his skills without enemies present, Ragath was
able to roll and pat out the flames. He was still seriously hurt. A buzzing
sound came from outside the stone door to the north, and the party quickly
closed it and barricaded it the best they could. Rheanna searched around and
found two leather pouches with 160gp each (320gp total) inside them, but
found nothing else interesting.

Everyone headed back to the room they had rested in before. They had no
choice... they had sustained a lot of injuries and used up many of their
magical resources in the previous two battles. They barricaded the door like
before, and spent time resting and healing their wounds.

They emerged feeling a lot better, but knew what they would have to handle
next. They went back to the gate they had left before.

After many tries picking the lock, Rheanna gave up. There was simply too
much rust in its inner workings. Ragath was able to break the lock by
forcing it open since the rust had weakened it. They swung the gate open and
emerged into the room beyond.

The rift was actually a set of stairs leading far down into darkness. The
party heard the familiar buzzing sound coming faintly from below. They
checked out the north door, and Rheanna immediately noticed a mechanism that
would activate once the door was opened. She was able to jam the mechanism
so the door could open safely.

Ragath opened the door, and saw a small room with two large metal vats on
one end with pipes coming out of each that joined and went across the
ceiling into the wall above the door. Within a few seconds, the door began
to swing shut on its own. Ragath quickly jammed it open.

The party inspected the vats and pipes and decided it must be some sort of
trap. The very same trap that killed the orcs whose old skeletons lay
outside the door. The skeletons were old enough to be a part of the original
invading force that killed off Durgeddin's clan.

Suddenly, the buzzing from the rift grew louder. Aetius took a position on
the other side of the rift while the rest of the party tried to take up
strategic positions to fight off a potential threat.

Five small flying creatures, their wings buzzing, arrowed out of the rift
and split up. "STIRGES!" Ragath cried out, "DON'T LET THEM TOUCH YOU!"

One of the stirges darted for Shadow and landed upon him. Its claws burrowed
into his flesh as its proboscis literally sucked some of the life from him.
Shadow ignored the stirge attached to him and turned, his whip whistling
through the air, and struck one of the flying menaces out of the air with a
crack - killing it instantly. Rheanna reacted just as fast, a bolt flying
from her crossbow and pinning a stirge to the wall. Aetius shot twice, his
arrows each hitting a different stirge, but only nicking them.

Nuadu gasped as he felt a stirge attach itself to his back - his life's
blood being sucked away rapidly. Shadow's whip flew once more, killing the
stirge on Mojo's back, while Ragath hit the stirge attached to Shadow with
his quarterstaff... bruising Shadow but possibly saving his life as the
stirge died. Rheanna's crossbow clicked once more... the bolt flying true
and hitting another stirge center mass. Its small dead body slid across the
floor of the chamber.

All was silent. The party could hear no more stirges. Two of them were
seriously drained by the stirges, but they were still alive.

Are they out of danger, or is this just the beginning of a swarm? Will they
delve deeper into the heart of the dwarven stronghold to follow their foe?
We'll find out next time.