Now that analysis paralysis is back on the table, the mage defaults to deploying his ocular drone to scout ahead. The range is limited by closed doors and collapsed passages, but the decision is made to press on.
The passage is not well made and the dwarf cringes at the obvious safety violations and terrible mining habits of whomever carved this tunnel through the soil and rock – mostly soil…damp and drippy, with rivulets of water leaking everywhere. Curse the Ptolus rains!
A room with some dead bodies and a door that consumes Bayga’s memories of his first contact with Balhazor. Luckily, it does not consume his memory of being balls-deep in a hoor, so he rolls with it. Beyond the door lie tunnels and the party relies on the journal fragments they found in the basement – presumably the same ones used by whomever decided to start excavating in the first place.
The group expects an encounter with invisible long biting foxes, but after entering a room with a fountain, they meet a lounging stone giant and his band of wererat sycophants. The party kills them and moves on to encounter some strange wasp-fetish knights in armor, chilling in their sarcophagi while they guard their queen. Some internal debate about the proper course of action has the party moving elsewhere.
It is clear that some changes have occurred since the party map was made, so someone has been busy and the party mulls this over as they continue to try and follow the map fragments. Their next foray brings them to a room wherein a group of mutants are dining, drinking, and dicing. While there is a brief moment where peace might be attempted, Kael doesn’t like the look of the three-eyed fella and attacks, dragging the rest of the party into a melee. For his troubles, Kael picks up a handful of poisoned puncture wounds and is nearly turned into a paraplegic, all the while being strangled by a smiling man with see-through skin.