It leads about sixty feet down and opens up into a very large room, about 40’ x 40’, which has been carved carefully from the bedrock.  Directly across from us, the wall has several carvings that appear to be written partially in Abyssal and partially in some sort of magical language.  We send Finn to get the Chapeau.  As we are looking at the wall, a beam of blackness flies forth from the wall and strikes Briggette in the chest.  In the blink of an eye, it is gone.  Rather than wait for Finn to get back with the Chapeau, Briggette pulls out a scroll and begins to cast break enchantment.  The wall in that area begins to develop cracks, and the magical symbols begin to glow.  After a few moments, the wall literally breaks apart and crumbles.  Behind it, we see an open black hallway that is forty feet wide.

            We notice that the room is noticeably colder, and we can hear a slight wind moving through the area.  Ulric feels what seems like a freezing cold hand on his shoulder, and Briggette begins to concentrate on the area behind him.  “I think you should all go upstairs now,” she says.

            About that time, an inky blackness begins to coalesce around her feet and form into a shape in front of her.  Ulric slices at it just as it forms red glowing eyes.  His blows land solid, but the thing has reached through Briggette’s armor and into her chest.  With Ulric’s final hit, the creature dissipates, but two more are forming in the side of the room.

            Briggette raises her symbol and cries, “Begone you minions of darkness by Cuthbert’s holy light!”  A light pours forth from the symbol on her armor and strikes at each of them.  They are destroyed.

            Ulric suddenly screams, “Briggette, move!” and strikes at two tentacles or blackness that are snaking their way from the floor around and over her.  He hits, as do I, but Briggette does the final damage, again by turning the creature.  The room begins to warm back up slightly, and about fifteen minutes later, we see Finn coming down the stairwell.  He has the chapeau with him.  After discussing the situation with her, we decide to return to the surface and spend the night regrouping and recuperating. 

            After much discussion, Ulric decides to appoint Finn as the interim mayor to ensure the town is properly cleaned up and that their gruesome customs are discontinued.  He pulls all the remaining patriarchs of the town’s most notable families into the town square.  For those whose patriarch is dead, he pulls in the oldest male child.  “You have been conquered.  This is Sir Finn.  He will be your mayor until such time as I come to retrieve him or elevate him.  He is a good man, and fair.  He will decide your fates.  I expect that from this point forward, all of you will follow the traditional Groznian laws.  They’re pretty simple:  no raping children, no having sex with your sister—all that ends here.  There is no more dragon.  If you feel it necessary to continue to live in this depraved fashion, Sir Finn and his men will find you, and you will be killed.”

            The next morning, we return to the room, and as we cross the line left behind when the wall fell, we notice an immediate temperature change.  This area is much warmer than the main chamber, even though it is back to its original temperature.  We come to a door that is locked with a silver lock that appears to have not been used in quite some time.  It leads to a long and winding hallway.  Eventually we come to a door on the left that turns out to be not actually a door at all, but instead is a portcullis made of bones!  There appears to be a large black mass of some sort heaped up behind it. I jam it closed and we continue down the winding hallway.  We eventually come to another section of hallway with eleven pillars lining each side of the hallway.  Each pillar has three nooks, and in each nook contains a human-like skull.  After we make it through this hallway, we come to what appears to be a dead end.

            I search the area and find a secret door which is both hidden and trapped.  I disable the trap and unlock the door.  Behind it lies a room filled with a deep darkness that is not natural.  As we enter the room to investigate, Ulric is attacked by a large form that seems to swoop down on him and try to dig in with teeth and claws.  Briggette casts a spell on Helga to get her ready for the battle, and when she enters, we can see that there is a large winged black vulture looking thing on Ulric just as two more drop from the ceiling.  Once we defeat them, we move on down the hallway, finding additional doors and some furnishings.

            Eventually, we come to a large room with a raised platform similar to an altar.  A strange giant creature is lying on top of it with his head back and mouth open, allowing a red-colored drip from the ceiling to fall into his mouth.  Near him, we see an extremely gorgeous woman standing there completely nude.  She greets us, “Who are you?”

            Ulric replies, “Who are you?  A servant of Grazzt?”

            Briggette jumps in to talk to her, “What is this place?”

            “My home,” she replies simply.

            “Who are you?”

            “The person who lives here.  Who are you?” she replies.

            “The person who’s going to evict you,” Briggette threatens.

            “You are a very beautiful woman.  How’d you get stuck with vine boy?”

            “He wasn’t always so thorny.”  It occurs to Briggette that both she and Ulric are fully armored; this lady shouldn’t know what either of them look like.  Again she asks, “So, who are you?”

            “You couldn’t possibly say my name,” she answers.

            “I might be able to!” I pop out and say.

            She sighs, “Why are you with her?”  She tilts her head in Briggette’s direction.

            Nonplussed, I state, “She’s my friend.”

            She looks at me, and says, “you are of a noble bloodline.  You have no business hanging around with her.”

            “Wait a minute,” Briggette seems offended.  “I’m of a noble bloodline, and so is he.”

            “Yes, but you are on the other side.”

            “So, am I to understand that you are responsible for all the . . . um, stuff, that is going on here?” Briggette asks her.

            “Me? No, not personally.  I had help from my sister, and of course,” she indicates the large thing on the altar, “my master.”

            “What do you know of the Vara’shan?” Briggette changes tack.

            “My master will be very upset…. technically if you’re down here, it means you’ve conquered up there.”  She begins to unfold bat wings from her back.

            Ulric looks over at Briggette, “I wonder what Chancellor would think of all of this?”

            “Let’s find out,” she replies. “Oh, Chancellor!”  At her call, he comes running from out of nowhere next to the altar.

            “You’ll forgive me if I leave,” the succubus says.  “I’ll leave you with my friend.”  She drops a bell to the ground, and then she steps into the flames in an old forge near the side of the altar and disappears.  Her master stands up and starts to offer Ulric three counties if he will only comply, and I fire at him.  The fighting starts in earnest then, and I fire at him. Briggette and Ulric charge and begin to tear at his defenses.  Another demon, standing nearly twenty feet tall, appears in the room, but we quickly dispatch him, ending with Finn literally cutting him in half.