Returning to Muntburg after last session’s visit to Dwimmermount the party are injured, shaken and in need of some rest. When they arrive in town they exchange their various gems and jewellery finds for cold hard cash and sell an entire mule load of scale mail to the local armourer. One of the party gives a large sum to the local town, anonymously, for new cloaks for the guard and the provision of a soup kitchen for the poor.
Erik and Ethil, the Northern Men who are contracted to Li have enough from their share to buy chain mail and seem extremely pleased by this. Li gives all of his share to the church and then avails himself of the soup kitchen that has sprung up.
The party sells the bones of a silver skeleton to a contact in the town, they first hear the word Azoth and are told that a sample of the silvery liquid would be worth a great deal to certain parties in nearby Adamas, along with any spoons they might find……
returning to the mountain they find that one of the Red Doors is wedged open by an iron spike and once they ener the statue room see that one of the great doors leading to the Nephelite central corridor is also wedged open. They decide that someone else must be in the mountain with them and choose to turn left instead. As they enter the next room they are beset upon by a small orc band who are quickly despatched and the party continues to the east. They enter a circular room with strange masks upon the walls and the skeletal body of a man on the floor. There is a further mask next to his body and an obvious space on the wall from where he appears to have taken it. There is some discussion about whether or not the masks are trapped and ultimately Therrim takes one from the wall. A cloud of gas jets forth and although he breathes deeply of it there is no effect on the doughty dwarf. Spears, poles and breath-holding are then employed to remove the remaining masks without incident. Further east they encounter a t junction, turn left and find a locked metal door. Li shoulder barges it a few times before deciding it is too strong to be easily forced. They take the other passage and enter a strange chapel with six columns and an altar to a Termaxian interpretation of Mavors. Six silver skeletons are hidden in niches on the far side of the columns and a short fight ensues, the only surprise being that Emilio’s power to turn these creatures still does not work, despite him being a worshipper of Mavors and this being holy ground. After the battle they discover that the altar can be swung away from the wall and behind it is concealed a treasure room. They recover a few items including a head from one of the statues in the entrance (they think). Therrim handles a scarab brooch and is somewhat surprised when it comes to life and burrows into the flesh of his palm, quickly working its way up his arm. He cuts it out and throws it to the floor where his brother crushes it with his war hammer.
Heading south they come to a strange shaped room where the stone corpses of two dwarves are lying. Balfar recognizes them and the party leaves them in peace. Through a moldy storeroom they once again come upon the wide Nephelite corridor and now seem convinced that it all joins up to make a large cross shape. On the lookout for skeletons they head north into a circular store room where Erik and Ethil are set to collecting coins from amongst the rubbish they find there. The remainder of the party investigate and old pantry room. As they re enter the corridor they notice a light ahead and then a small group of humanoid figures. After a cautious approach the group identify themselves as the five delvers and a tense conversation ends with the delvers backing off saying “Watch out for the ghosts”.
The party enter a nearby door and stumble on a group of ghostly figures engaged in conversation. It soon becomes apparent that the “ghosts” are not interested in the party and so they are disregarded, except that the party skirt the walls of the room in their onward journey. They enter another room where a series of pedestals each has a shiny brass like plate set into the floor in front of it. They seem very reluctant to investigate these and continue to the far end of the room where they find a set of stairs leading down. They proceed down the stairs without pause.
At the foot of the stairs they enter a wide room and waiting with limitless patience there are 8 silver skeletons. A further attempt at turning by Emilio has no effect and he become convinced that they are somehow immune. After a short fight where blunt weapons are rapidly employed the skeletons are shattered. Heading south they come to a large curved chamber with six columns each made of a different material. A weird abstract statue stands in an apse at the far end of the chamber. They show passing interest in the columns (“Why is it always 6?”) and then head east along a wide corridor, notably of different construction to the wide corridors on the first level.
Along the corridor some way they find a door, Durgar opens it and sees a room full of armoured, capable looking humanoids, not orcs this time. He says “Hello” and shuts the door. The party then, unusually for them, wait to see what will happen. They hear shouted commands from behind the door and after a short time a large force of these same humanoids in shield wall advance around a bend in the corridor. They scream a battle cry and at that moment the door opens and the ones from inside the room spill out into the corridor too. The fight goes badly at first as the creatures in shield wall are hard to hit. Therrim goes down and several others are injured before the fight is over. Therrim is only knocked out and soon recovers. Emilio passes round his healing potion and soon the party feel able to continue. The brothers (Durgar and Therrim) take a look around the corner but soon come back having thought better of it.
The party returns to the entrance chamber of this level and head west. They investigate some strange sounds, as if someone was gagged and trying to speak, eventually opening a door to find five large sacks tied at the top and the middle. The sacks are wriggling and making the gagged moans that were heard before. On opening the first Durgar finds a living corpse, eyeball hanging out, bound and gagged inside. He soon kills it and the remainder are slain once a check has been made on each to make sure it is the same. There is some discussion about who might have done this and why but the curiosity doesn’t last long.
They move on to a room with four glass pillars, each representing the four elements and containing rock, fire, water and nothing (air). These get a cursory glance an they move on. The next chamber contains six metal columns, each a different metal. Therrim taps one with his small hammer. Then they move on.
The corridor they follow leads to a door. They hear low voices from beyond and rush in. Therrim and Durgar slay the four humanoids within in a single round as they are still sitting and playing a game. The room contains some pillars of frosted glass like material. Each has a kind of door trimmed with metal and a metal panel studded with weird knobs and dials. They are all somewhat damaged. One of the dead humanoids (now thought to be Hobgoblins) is put into one of the chambers, the door is closed and all manner of dial permutations is tried. Nothing happens but the party are convinced this is how the silver skeletons are made. They head east into a chamber where the walls are lined with shelves. Each shelf has numerous bottles and jars of different colours and shapes. They look into one and find some small pills but no one wants to try them so each party member pockets a couple of jars and they press on. East again they come to another room filled with the frosted glass tubes.
A door to the east is magically locked and since the party have no means to open it Therrim begins to beat it down with his hammer. The door opens but as they are investigating the next room a group of hobgoblins alerted by the noise arrive and attack the party in the rear. After a short fight and with further serious injuries the party decide to leave and trace their way via a circuitous route back to the stairs and to the first level. They decide to test out the theory that the wide Nephelite corridor is a cross shape and use it to return to the statue chamber. As they approach the wedged door back into the statue chamber the Five Delvers hail them from behind. “You look a little beaten up”, “We’re fine”, “What, even the three invalids strapped to the mule?”. After a bit more banter the Delvers disappear into the darkness and the party leave for Muntburg.