We notice that the room we're in is close to the bone corridor, And we have a bunch of loot, but no Gnarsh. So we head up, drop our loot, and pick up Gnarsh who has woken up and is feeling fine.

It's warm up there, need to head back down to the cool of the dungeon. We outfit Gnarsh with some found loot - a magic greataxe and magic breastplate. And rest in the late day to regain spells, then head down.

We pass a long sloping hallway heading down, find a couple of ruined armories with little of use. Exploring back to a previous area on the map, we find another heap of trash room. In poking around, we disturb a carrion crawler but it's quickly shot down by our archers who were ready for trouble. (Sean: What was that? Steve: That was your animal companion!) The trash room has nothing of value.

Diren sneaks forward down another hall - to a large pillared room. Gnarsh and Diren step in, there's a click and a grate drops down across the passage. Two harpies start singing, hypnotising everyone but Diren and Elmo. Diren fails to hurt them and Elmo can't get the grate open.

Ghouls come pouring into the room as the harpies stop singing and move to attack. They don't manage to hurt Gnarsh as he slowly comes to his senses. One of the harpies does tear into Gnarsh though. There's some melee going on and Pire drives off a ghoul with turn undead. Moth summons an air elemental to help which does some damage and successfully distracts one harpy letting Diren get his sneak attack. A spiritual cudgel smites one harpy and Diren dashes across the room to finish the other.

The whole combat Elmo and Spit have tried to lift the gate, but it's very heavy. With Gnarsh and Diren's help after the combat, we get it open. Diren and Moth climb up to check the harpy niches, but there's nothing in there. (Diren asks Pire for a Touch of Law) Checking out the room the ghoul's came from Spit finds a mithral chain shirt and puts it on. Moth finds some coins in the ghoul bedding.,

We finish up searching and head to another door off the pillared chamber. Throwing open the door, we see half a dozen ghouls. Elmo charges in and whacks ghoul with his axe, not quite putting it down. Then the ghouls swarm him and he's quickly paralyzed and being chewed on.

Spit looses two arrows and wounds one of the ghouls. Moth ties up the ghouls with a web. Gnarsh charges into the web and decapitates two of the ghouls. We finish the rest off and the web is dismissed - which kept the ghouls off Elmo. Plundering a chest in the corner we find some coin.

Passing through a small antechamber, we find some corroded silver plates and take them. Moving into the next room, we find a couple ghasts. We head in many of the melee combatants are sickened. One ghast is dispatched. The other flees through a secret door and is brought down by Diren and Spit giving chase. Behind a loose block in a section of broken plaster we find a gold cup filled with gold and onyxes.

We head out down new hallways after verifying where a staircase is. We rest on the stairs There's a weird deadend where two hallways come together far from anything else, so we search for secret doors. We find one and pass through into another hallway.

Off the hallway is a library, filled with scraps of manuscripts already destroyed. Diren grabs a few scraps on the Ethos of Chaotic Evil. There are scraps that mention the Trial of Earthly Terror below/elsewhere but no information about it.

We move on - find a mirror of a wide passage we found earlier. It's empty so we move on to a narrow hall. Off the hall we find a ruined alchemists lab with a few intact ingredients. Down the hall from the alchemists chamber we find an ominous triangular chamber to meditate on Earth and Evil.

Moving on we find heavy door with a magic ward and a heavy lock. The others take cover down the hall, Diren moves up to the door. A magical cold ward discharges and nearly freezes Diren to death. We backs off, is healed by Pire, and assured that the trap probably only goes off once. Diren heads back in, takes some time to open the heavy lock, and waves the rest forward.

Opening the door, it's a crypt. We cautiously enter, Pire first. Elmo and Gnarsh head over to check out the bodies and start coughing on spores from the wrapped bodies. Poking around, they have rings of the Earth temple (taken) and we find a cloak of resistance +1. Spit checks out a small niche and finds it to also be a tomb, contracting the same disease and Elmo and Gnarsh. That's all in the crypt, so we head out again.

Down a side hall, we find a small round room with a night sky painting upon it and a broken altar. Beyond the round room is a larger room glowing with phosporessence. A circular depression in the room is surrounded by benches. Diren checks for traps and moves out after finding none - leaving the Augury Chamber to the learned.

Pire heads in but won't ask a question, so Spit moves past, sits on the bench and asks "Where's the orb of gold?" No answer, but he notices a drawer under the bench. His drawer is empty, but others have strange bits of ivory, bone, rock, and wood. He has an overwhelming urge to cast them into the shallow depression.

Taking them out, he casts them into the depression, asking "Where is the Golden Orb?" Spit hears an answer in his head, "Seek the Western Altar." No one else hears this.

A quick consultation with Diren about the note he found about Belstro lying, but he has a life expentency of minutes if we find him probably.

Gnarsh, "Where's the key?" Hears, "Seek the Arcane Stairway."

Moth whispers something and hears the reply, "Always.

Diren, "Where's the most valuable item on this floor?" But gets "Ask again later." Possibly does for the day.

Move back to a missed hallway. A big hexagonal room with a broken stone chair, a stinking smell. We cautiously move in and spread out. Then stirges dive down from the ceiling and attack. They begin to drain our blood and we slowly fend them off - Moth's sleep spells help immensely.

Searching the room we hear the squeaking of baby stirges. Web the ceiling and light it on fire. Terribly wonderful screeching of death. Searching the room, we find a few copper and a stone of good luck. After debate, Diren ends up with it as he makes a lot of skill checks and saves.

In the end, we contend with disease - Pire gets Blinding Sickness, Spit has Filth Fever; Spit, Gnarsh, and Elmo have Athrakitis; Elmo has Ghoul Fever (and some Con drain).