Pixli's Logbook - Mouth of Doom

*2 The Fading*

What an amazing day this has been, in both its ups and downs. First, the ups; we were a party of mostly Gnomes today, which I was giddy about. It's so nice to know there's more regular folk here, and not just tall ones, even if none of them were Svirf. Plank was back with me again, and it's a good thing I was here for his love for laying down full of holes. We also had Burglekutt, a very strapping man of a Gnome, intelligent (a blessing) and confident in his abilities. I can tell he's been out here before, as he shrugged off the more minor issues we suffered, not at all like the flimsy casters back home. Then there's Teres, who struck me as the 'money over friends' type. I guess it's understandable out here, I'll just have to be careful not to get in the way of that. Trym the Halfling, someone I very nearly mistook for another Gnome at first, if not for her different proportions closer to a Human, was our navigator. She'd been inside before, while I'd only seen the front door during my trip out to find those Lizardfolk. And lastly was Shane, some kind of angel-like being who joined us with healing powers that had me a little green. I think there was meant to be a seventh, but they never showed up.

The trip was pretty simple, what with the Mouth of Doom actually only being a day's journey away; both good and bad for how close it is. On one hand, we're less at risk of getting jumped on the way. On the other hand, if anything *did* ever decide to come out, Hope is well within the danger zone. And we *still* got jumped on the way, by Bulliwugs no less. Big dumb toads gave us some trouble thanks to their poisoned weapons, but we dealt with them easily enough. Jumpy bastards wouldn't hold still to take their licks, though. Frustrating!

We arrived at the dungeon before it got dark, though, and decided to rest on the stairs where it seemed safe enough. Sitting on stairs like that is a little uncomfortable, but we'll make do. Poxy rats! Just as we were getting settled, one of the pit traps Trym explained about later flooded with the miserable things. They went after us ravenously, a shame it took little more than being stepped on to kill them for the trouble they caused. Couldn't be helped too much, I guess, and we got up to move on with Trym guiding us to the juicy stuff.

At least that was the plan. What we found was a) a desecrated tomb that she claimed belonged to someone of wealth, though I guess she'd already helped herself with whoever had come here before, and b) a bandit ambush. *Who lives in a dungeon?* These weirdos, apparently. We saw the door, which had been trapped before, and Plank took the lead in opening it. And of course, they seemed to know we were here and were, of course, ready for us. He got peppered with bolts, fell back in time to get chased out by an Orc, and the fight went terribly. Four of theirs went down, but it meant nothing when Trym got grabbed, and the guy leading them used her as a bargaining chip to get us to back off. We had to, I wasn't going to risk anyone for trinkets, and so we moved away long enough for them to take back their dead and leave Trym, stable and alive but beaten up, for us to salvage. We settled in the tomb to sleep off our shame, and I felt myself sleeping with an eye open in case they turned on us in the night.

*3 The Fading*

What a disaster. First the bandits, then the Ratfolk. They didn't see us coming, and the *first* creature *we* actually get the jump on turns out to be harmless. Teres made it all the worse by threatening them for information, seeing the situation as unsalvageable after killing off one of them. I had to convince her to let them keep their weapons for the sake of not dooming them entirely in here, and we left them to mourn while we moved on to find a treasure they pointed us to; some kind of device that brought fortune or death to those who used it. I'M certainly not volunteering first. Not that we found it, after beating down some petty undead, then wading through \*more\* rats, only to find meagre pickings left behind in a pair of chests. Plank nearly walked into some kind of fire trap that had expired, then had the gall to blame us for passing wind when we tried to warn him, the cheek!

After that, we collectively decided to go home. I had to be back in Hope for another obligation anyway, and this place is easy enough to reach. Maybe there'll be something good the next time around.