Deciding against leaping through a portal to elsewhere, there is a bit of poking about left to accomplish. A door here, a ruined room there…an invisible frog-critter that removes the top of Malchor’s head after shrugging off the effects of a potent lightning bolt…another few days up the rope. After the mage’s second death in as many weeks, there is talk of teleporting out of the area, since Goldpiece’s loincloth has burst a strap and cannot be worn. He would like to fetch a different set of armor to continue the quest. When the mage tries, it is only through luck and sheer power that he avoids being disassociated and spread around the cosmos as a fine mist. Looks like teleporting isn’t going to work...

As they investigate the organ room and muse about the possibility of this being a magical gateway, the aforementioned druergar bid them farewell. They are convinced that the kling in question is not nearby, so they decide to retreat and depart the area.

The group lingers and begins an earnest exploration of the many closed doors and unmapped passages. They find acolyte’s quarters – ransacked. They find donkeys made of beer barrels and brooms – interesting. They find a room full of frescos that detail the life and times of the king in question – also ransacked. They find many more such places, most of them ransacked by the now-departed druergar. A few areas are undisturbed. In one they find a small army of terracotta dwarves and an armory’s worth of high quality weapons...

Drifting along on the waterway, the group navigates a small set of rapids before entering an enormous cavern that is heavily enchanted to resemble the outdoors. A breeze blows, carrying with it the scent of the forests that stretch into the distance. Though the sky seems real enough, the discerning eyes of the wizards reveal that the ceiling is only 50 to 60 feet overhead. Most puissant magics indeed!

The boat passes along a heavily wooded shore, where elvish archers stand on guard stop towers that run parallel to the river’s passage. The party’s boat slides under a bridge atop which sits a green dragon – with a sword protruding from its skull. Despite the sword, the dragon seems to be quite alive...

Returning to the scene of the slaughter, it seems clear that their actions have been detected, for the bodies of the slain are missing and there is a palpable sense of emptiness, as though the area has been vacated.

They pass beyond the last remaining door into an area that must be a sort of prison, judging by the barred cells and the fact that there are prisoners still imprisoned within the cells. One of the prisoners was kidnapped from the streets of HIllsfar while working as a lamplighter, one is a hobgoblin, one is a dead tentacled brain, and three are male drow that appear to have been lashed to within an inch of their lives…perhaps guards that should have stopped the party? *shrug* Moving on...

Emerging from the place of security, the intrepid band resumes adventuring in this seemingly endless maze of tunnels, doors and rooms full of either nothing or attempted murder.

They begin by examining the scene of the recent battle, scooping up all loot that seems to be worth scoping and investigating the locale. They run across a pair of rust monsters and slay them before examining a long hallway of increasingly dense spider webs. Eventually the occupants are found and set afire. They also engage and slay a set of animated stone column-golems and poke around in a dead end. Following up on the contact made earlier, they use the drow’s intel to prepare for and destroy a beholder in the service of one of the warring factions...