Durek nods amiably as Paxton moves up beside him. "Greetings," he says, in a low voice, "Another strong arm never goes amiss when dealing with Goblins in the dark!"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:07, Sat 06 Feb 2021.

Manaku finds his way to the top, gives a quick thumbs up for the party behind, and carefully starts to sneak down the spiral staircase, alert for smallest sign of trouble or ambush.

Vision shifting from normal sight to infra-vision is as fascinating as always. Slight sense of unease comes with it because its rather close range. The area beyond its range is just gray noise, like permanent wall of fog or snow blizzard. That means listening becomes more important. For every ten steps the elf stops completely, listening what noises can be heard from the shaft.

Durek follows after the Moon Elf, descending far enough that he can watch the receding figure with his infra-vision. He waits patiently for a signal from Manaku.

Paxton nodded to Durek.  "Well met," he said.  "I just hope someone lights a lantern before the fighting starts, I'd hate to get hit upside the head by an ally."

When the elf catches up, Dwarghar will magnanimously let him pass.

In reply to Dwarghar Stoneblood (msg # 36):

Brodd lights a torch.

"Thanks for the light, Brother," Alietra says, as the re-enter the shadowy corridors.

In reply to Dwarghar Stoneblood (msg # 36):

Manaku touches the dwarf at the shoulder, acknowledging his gesture, and passes him quietly.

The party takes the spiral steps downward until it empties into the 30x30 square chamber from its northwest corner.

Facing south, there is a door on the right end of the wall. That, as you recall, led to a second chamber and then the treasure room.

Facing east, there is a passageway on the left side of the wall leading towards unexplored territory.

Not having been down here before, Paxton asked, "Which way?"

"The room with the silver had no other exits, best as I can recall. We could go double check, but I suspect out time would be better spent exploring new ground to the east."

In reply to Alietra (msg # 42):

Brodd follows, Warhammer at the ready. He seems to be distracted by something, but it is hard to tell what. He stays by Pock and Alietra.

Durek nods in agreement with Alietra. "East it is then, lass," he says in a low voice. "I shall be right behind you."

Dwarghar continues along with the others.

Creston follows, near the party's rear, and keeps an ear open for anything suspicious behind them.

Immediately the party notices there's light in the passageway ahead. Several torches' worth.

Having been in the lead previously, Alietra was curious to see how the new point-guard would handle the situation.

It seemed unlikely she would be in a position to use a bow, what with so many people in front of her, but she gets out an arrow just in case.

The freshman point-guard handles it so that he sneaks closer to the lights, all the way up to the torchlight edge while remaining in the shadows, unless he notices something alarming before that.

Stretched in grotesque shadows across the left wall you see the silhouettes of two huge insectoid creatures, The flickering light keeps shaking the images but one seems upright and one seems slumped over. Their jointed limbs writhe incessantly and their antennae stretch in shadow to curve across the ceiling.

Eek!

Biting his lip as not to curse aloud, Manaku backpedals as quietly as possible to the main party. He whispers to them: "Two huge insectoid creatures ahead by the torches. No idea what they are. I've never seen anything like them before. Didn't stay to check if we can communicate with each other - Somehow I doubt it..."

"You never know with shadows.  They're liable to be two feet tall," Paxton commented.  "Should we get a better look, and try to reason with them if they're halfway decent?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:10, Tue 09 Feb 2021.

Giant bugs!
Dwarghar says drawing his sword.
I’ll “reason” with em. Let’s go

"Reason with them?" hisses Durek, at the same as Dwarghar. He flashes a grin at the other Dwarf.

"I agree with my friend here...there is no reasoning with insects in my experience. We either find another route or convince these creatures to leave..." he says, patting his battle-axe.

Glad to have relinquished point, the young not-a-thief looked to Brother Brodd for comfort.

"Dwarves," Paxton groused, shaking his head.  "I've never met a giant bug.  If the thing can talk, we can reason with it.  But, by all means, charge ahead and try chopping it to bits, first."

He readied his mace, though.  It was clear if they went in, he was going with them.