Commander Scar had business elsewhere, and he honored me with command of the group to further explore the regions under the butcher shop.
Before leaving, Creeps sent me a curious magic item, a Diplomat’s Pouch, to send messages between us more quickly.
Our sortie into the depths below the shop proved to be challenging and lengthy, including a fight with a Purple Worm, yielding us blood and poison from its corpse. We also encountered an Iron Golem within the Ringwell taking luck and skill to defeat. I was fortunate enough to deal the killing blows to each of these creatures.
We discovered Lady Orozivaar after dealing with the golem. After some convincing, she agreed to help us clear other rooms in the Ringwell area, including exploration of various chambers with horrible contents, like the Autophage, the Cauldron of Xorannon, and others. We also found one of the paladin’s quarry trapped in the psionic prison. We were unable to free her, even with Lurk’s help.
We also found a room past some vampiric mists that housed a magic rod behind a magical seal. Unable to bypass the seal at the time, we left it. We believed it had something to do with the Vampire Lord von Glauer, which we had Worms research in the Chronicles.
After returning to the top with Lady Orozivaar, and collecting on both contracts, I was outvoted for us to take one more trip to look at the rod.
Unfortunately, when we returned, we found that more members of the Black Iron Pact had teleported into the Ringwell. In the ensuing combat, I made sure to strike finishing blows on the monk after he fell. We also think we finished the fighter, but an assassin and mage were able to teleport away.
Beaten and bloodied, we returned to the surface. The monk had a curious magical ring and some magical oil and a potion.
I know that most of my comrades do not see the threats as clearly as I do. They are not prepared.