We are both very mobile and very much not so. Lightning quickly took us to the cave we wanted to go. It then took us almost as much time to climb the little bit from where we were dropped off to the proper cave entrance. Granted, we spent a large amount of that figuring out in which order who should take what in which direction to get there, but still. Not to mention a stop to investigate the remains of some that came before us.
The actual cavern was large and filled with pools of acid. At the back, there as even what I'd describe as a small waterful of acid. Behind it and below was a small platform of undissolved rock on which the dog patrol we were looking for was trying to survive. I'm afraid I couldn't do much to help, but Dworik managed to close off the waterfall enough for Ellywick to save most of them using our Carpet of Flying and one additional member got across via rope. There were casualties. One of them wasn't fated to return and fell to their death. And our carpet was badly damaged and can no longer exert all of its force. Even magic dies in the end.
One of the surviving members of their group was balancing on the cusp of death and might not have survived the trip back, but I brought him back from the brink. The gnolls hadn't seen much of what was in the cavern before they got stuck, but we had heard noises from something moving.
I'm not sure why I ended up being the one arguing that we should try to deal with what's in there if we can. I suspect Dworik is more scared of the guards coming after us than I thought. And Ellywick is eager to move on. Maybe it's Lavia's voice as a moral compass I hear, but I felt I had to speak up. Leaving is a choice. At least if there's any way for us to handle this. If we moved on and the thing in the mountain killed more people, that is on us. If we continued without interfering, those deaths are on us. I'm already damned, but I would prefer the others aren't as well.
I played a few longing notes while tending to the wounded. That's when I heard Dworik and Ellywick scream that something was coming from inside the cavern. Phennyr and I were on our feen in seconds, running towards their shouting.