Just before the party falls asleep, the cave opening suddenly collapses! When the rocks stop falling, the party members realize they are sealed in. Barcan and Jarvix, having knowledge of magical lore, believe the collapse to be caused intentionally and not by any natural occurrence. Some evil power must be at work. Perhaps the Wastewalker is behind this?
Everyone except Phye then proceeds to eat and drink some of the food and water that is in such limited supply. Phye is concerned about conserving resources, so she doesn’t share in the meal. She is sickened, though, and is weaker after going the night without food.
After taking a long and well-deserved rest, the party gathers up some scraps of wood from the cave floor to make torches. They also have a few sunrods, which seem to not burn as brightly as they recalled from earlier use. In the back of the dark cave is a small opening, and the party members crawl through one by one.
At the other side of the opening, the party sees a deep ravine with a tattered bridge stretching to the other side. On the far side of the ravine, the adventurers can faintly see corpses strewn about. Shikirr agrees to cross the bridge to test its strength. He is able to cross safely to the other side, but it looks like any additional weight would cause the bridge to snap and break.
As soon as Shikirr reaches the other side of the bridge, a couple of the corpses rise up from the ground and attack! The hideous creatures, known as corruption corpses, pull out parts of their innards and hurl the contents, dealing necrotic damage to the heroes. Combat quickly breaks out and a couple other party members run across the bridge to the far end of the ravine. Barcan and Jarvix stay back, hurling ranged attacks at the wicked creatures. The corruption corpses are foul and being next to them is so disgusting that it is difficult to attack. Fortunately Barcan hurls a powerful arcane attack at one corpse, sending him over a far ledge.
Meanwhile, the party failed to see that the ceiling of the cave had two oozes hanging above. The oozes drop down next to Jarvix and Barcan. Realizing they are in need of help, Castri bounds back toward Jarvix and Barcan, stopping halfway across the bridge to shoot arrows at the oozes. But as he stops, one of the oozes rushes off to meet Castri on the bridge. Seeing this, Yuka yells out “Castri- hold on – the bridge can’t support the weight of you and the ooze!!” Sure enough, the decrepit bridge breaks. The ooze is able to hold onto the ropes and swings to the wall of the ravine. But Castri is not so lucky. He falls to the ravine floor, only to find a hidden pit below the floor that he also falls through. Poor Castri falls so far that he is almost knocked unconscious.
The battle rages on as the heroes attack the corpses and oozes. Then suddenly a black ball of incorporeal matter appears, blasting the party with dark powers. Fortunately, Castri is able to pull himself out of the pit, and from the ravine floor, he draws his bow and unleashes twin arrows at the oozes above. Castri hits the oozes with the precision of a hunter. Phye, Shikirr, and Yuka manage to kill off the corpses after a few more attacks. Then Castri finishes off the remaining ooze already wounded by Barcan and Jarvix with another deadly volley of arrows. Finally, all firepower is focused on the black mass until it, too, is destroyed.
Gathering up after the battle, the party spots some treasure among the corpses. Two potions that enable vision in low light will come in handy in the dark cave. Additionally, a set of magical chainmail armor lies on the cave floor. Phye picks up the armor, wipes the rotted flesh from it, and puts it on. Trapped in the cave, the party begins looking for a route that will take them even deeper into the mountain and the horrors beyond.
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