The band headed back into the Dyskund caverns last night, with the arcane blessings of Tison's Pavic magics protecting Caernak and Dorgon. You went down the deep shaft on top of Buck Mesa and found the climb easier than before, but Pachala sensed evil when he got to the bottom and had to fight off 2 small, fast gorp with a fireblade. BVoN used his dragon magics to grow wings and fly down to help. A walktapus revealed its poisonous gas in the pool below Pachala's ledge, so Pachala and Arcus killed it (with some trouble). A second walktapus was spotted in the pool, and it grabbed Arcus's weapon hand, dragging him underwater. A few people ran to help but slipped and fell into the pool. Luckily, Caernak (and Pachala?) killed it before it mangled Arcus too badly. A tense battle nonetheless.
You explored the eastern tunnels of Dyskund, avoiding the submerged passages for the time being. You found one passage that led to a giant cavern that was once a hornet's nest, filled with scores of giant hornet husks. BVoN flew in to investigate and spotted furtive movement, which you tracked (boots!) and followed around a long, wide tunnel. At an intersection, Arcus heard voices (chanting?) and Tarranyr smelled burning oil or something. You passed a squeeze-and-slope down which you heard slithering slimy things, and went down a tunnel into a brightly lit cave, scintillating with oil lamp lights bouncing off crystalline rock formations.
That's where the ambush sprung, and it was a mean one. Hidden foes from the far end of the cavern shot crossbow bolts that had little effect on BVoN and Pachala, but there were 4 big dragonsnails waiting inside, and worst of all a terrifying demon (SIZ 35, POW 40) that engaged 4 people at once and almost beat them! It had up to 6 attacks/rnd and any blows that harmed it magically bounced back on the attacker too. Luckily Tison's magical protection saved Dorgon and Caernak's lives, and probably the party. Well executed dodges and aimed head blows brought it down (Dorgon's impale-to-the-head spear shot was classic!), and then it exploded once Caernak split its head open. Caernak and Pachala had already killed 2 dragonsnails quite easily. The explosion ironically knocked out a third dragonsnail, and then Arcus did a devastating critical spear hit to a 2-headed crystalline dragonsnail that shattered it. You were low on magic but pressed onward because you knew more foes were ahead, and some of your magic was still running.
The cavern had a large natural stone throne; interesting. Another passage led into a huge cavern flooded with grey-green-brown bubbling chaos muck that sent the Storm Bulls' senses reeling. You explored it and found many gorp hiding in the muck. BVoN flew Dorgon over to investigate a crawlspace to the west, and they were attacked by 2 big gorp (one could leap, or bounce). You retreated because there seemed to be too many gorp, too little time.
You rested a little after exploring some more tunnels. The big bouncing gorp attacked your camp, but Pachala's fireblade destroyed it. Tarranyr's map started to link up some of the unexplored passages, so you began to feel like you knew most of the dry tunnels in Dyskund. Arcus explored a meter-wide, 40m deep, long crack and found a walktapus there, which the group slew after a few mishaps. You investigated the squeeze-slope where you heard slithering before, and found it blocked by boulders (apparently intentionally) and Pachala could tell that there were many walktapi in the tunnels behind the boulders.
More or less, that's where we stopped.