The Danger Gang finally finishes Aege
Martialis takes watch as the Danger Gang rests. A few hours in, however, a Nymph named Arborborea sticks her head around the edge of the pit, explaining that she wants to bury her dead friends. Martialis helps her gather up the bodies and explains the wicked nature of the surrounding forrest. She thanks him for the tip and they part as friends, never knowing that Martialis was the one responsible for killing half of her hippie collective.
They rest a little more, then head back to room that formerly held the Stench Cows. On the north wall is a door, surrounded by blood. The give a quick listen and there seems to be nothing on the other side. They open the door and there's a large stone coffin. Martialis's Detect Traps is pinging like crazy on this thing, so they all step out of the room. Arben casts Levitate on the lid, and up it rises. A voice calls out from behind them, "Very clever. But not clever enough." They turn around and behind them stand A Barbed One, A Bearded One, and A Spined One. Everyone skoots out of there right quick and into the room with the tomb. They seal up the door with a Stone Shape, then figure their next move. Even big Xenon is a little intimidated by the prospect of fighting all three of these guys at once. Martialis suggests that they rest for a while, then Gershom can cast Protection From Evil on them and they can all walk out like one big, happy family. But first they want to look in Cassander's coffin. Inside they find a wooden dummy wearing a fancy robe, a beat up old hat, and clutching a fancy looking dagger. Arben grabs the dagger while Can dons Cassander's Robe. They both feel pretty spiffy.
After a while, Gershom is ready to cast. Properly protected, everyone is feeling confident as they waltz out the doors. The only problem is, the spell won't protect them from the Bearded One's halberd or the Spined One's spines. So instead of strolling out at a leasurely pace, they book it out of there. The Devils get a few licks in, but the Gang escapes, not too worse for wear. Arben tacks up a note to the door, "Do Not Enter: Devils - The Danger Gang".
The only thing left to explore is the slide in the room that formerly held the three-headed dog. Martialis slides down and finds a litte room with an old skeleton. He turns into an owl and flies back up. Nothing exciting.
The gang then heads back to visit the Doodya to tell them that they've cleaned out the dungeon for them. The Doodya smile politely, hoping that this will finally be the last time they have to see these meddlesome giants.
The last stop, other than hording together the gold they found, is those damn runes. They all sit and puzzle over them. Arben's short attention span soon gets the better of him, and so he ends up summoning some monsters to try out that dagger he found. He whips up some Pig Men; seven of them. He commands one to hold still, then slices it's arm with the new knife. All the Pig Men freak out. Arben commands them to calm down, but, apparently over estimated the powers of Monster Summoning I. The pig men start attacking him with their long swords. "Little help guys!" he pleas.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up. We've almost got this thing figured out." The pig men have got Arben on the ropes, but luckily his friends leap to his aid just as he falls unconscious. They all shake their heads at the trouble that Arben gets himself into, then go back to puzzling over these runes. Xenon suddenly has the bright idea of turning out the lights. When he does so, another rune appears. They soon figure out the runes, as detailed here. Everyone is very happy as the secret message is revealed.
While unable to identify any of the specifics of the secret message, Arben does point out that it is in the form of a ballad or traditional folk song. Someone copies this down. Before they leave the dungeon, Gershom puts up some Glyphs around the hole that leads to the cup. After this they migrate to the surface and spend the night at the Farmers's house. Tobin seems to be adjusting to the quiet life on the farm nicely.
