We march to the blue light curtain to undertake our water based experiment.
After we pass through the light Isis casts Create Water and our water bottles fill up and indeed water splashes on the floor as she creates too much. However, within seconds we notice it starting to disappear and within a minute or two it is all gone…

Nevertheless, we continue down the passage to see what we can find.

Eventually we come to a pair of doors. Behind one we hear a rustling sound so we open it. Within are three short humanoids. Bael and Amber try some friendly opening gambits as we would prefer to avoid combat. They seems suspicious. Bael offers to sing a song of greeting. Within the words he weaves the magic of his Charm spell. One of the humanoids falls for it and becomes more friendly. Isis attempts Charm Mammal and one more becomes more friendly.

We chat for a while and gain some key pieces of information:

• the old city lies ahead
• there are ghosts and shades and deadly traps in the old city
• there is a magical artifact within the old city that keeps the old ones in a long slumber.
• only a few remaining evil servants of the old ones seek to remove the artifact, hoping to resurrect the old ones.
• they are called kopru
• the artifact creates the blue light and the associated dryness keeps the kopru out

The humanoids also know of a route out of the tunnels up to the ‘sky grass’, but they say Morgan is too fat to fit through. They take us there, and it is confirmed to be a very narrow tunnel.

Consensus seems to be that we will have to fight our way back out past the kopru. Hopefully forewarned is forearmed. We can focus ranged weapons against it. They are weak to cold and dry, but these are things we are not able to generate!!

We decide to return to some of the other tunnels we have explored, namely a door with a steel bar. We open it and have a mooch around. Varys recalls ancient stories of a place called Knossos and wonders if a Minotaur hangs out around here…

We continue to explore the maze of tunnels and spirals that we have found.

Key discoveries are:

• Some tunnels lead to a ‘curtain’ of blue light. We seem to be unaffected when passing through. The tunnels and chambers beyond the blue light are notable for being incredibly dry. We then notice that our water bottles are empty!
• We have found an old kitchen with a working water tap. So, we figure we can survive
• There are patches of green slime in some areas which do no one any good.

Another abandoned kitchen has a chimney. Rob decides to climb up as it must eventually lead out.. He is gone a long time so Bael attempts to follow. However, bards are not as good at climbing and he falls and knocks himself unconscious! We rest for several hours and then Isis uses the staff of healing on all. Bael regains consciousness.

Isis transforms into a bat and flies off to seek Rob. Within the hour she returns and explains that she found him, resting out in the open. The chimney leads into a fissure, which he followed and it eventually leads out onto the plateau. Rob looked exhausted but alive. Based on Isis’ description we wonder about how to get out…

Bael manages to charm Amber and release her from the power of the hideous frogtopus. She talks of what she felt – a voice was telling her to go deeper, to seek out the giant black pearl from the dry place.

Our priorities have changed!! It seems that down beyond the blue light are the remains of an ancient city and within them is the legendary black pearl. The frogtopus cannot pass the light barrier so attempts to charm passing adventurers into doing it for him/her/it.

First step is to test whether Isis can Create Water after passing through the light curtain.

While this key exposition is occurring Rob returns and everyone agrees they are hungry. We had heard scuttling noises behind some doors earlier – possibly it is rats that we could eat. Varys readies a Sleep spell and we go hunting for food.

We manage to catch 12 rats which we butcher and roast over a fire of burning furniture under the handy chimney. The meat doesn’t taste great, but it fills our empty bellies…