Fri Aug 4 17:35:10 EDT 2023 Me, Scott, Ed, and Steve!! Anthony might join.... We last played the main campaign on February 17. Zoozeki, Smudge, Martin, and Krystabelle. We have three ships and sixty-three total apes. We're on Le Petit Chou island. Last session we won the funeral game for the father of Aeneas. We gave Aeneas a letter of introduction to Oothereon. [The dragon (which we believe lairs on island 13) is a mature or old red dragon.] We go to Pelican Island. There are giant pelicans, big enough to ride. There's a rocky shore, but no obvious harbor. Nevertheless, our boats are robust enough that we can land them on a beach at the south-east end. We take five apes with us from each ship. There's heavy jungle and no paths. Smudge flies up his owl familiar to get bird's eye view. The owl sees a terraced pit, almost like a strip mine. There are some kind of built structures at the bottom, old stone and rotten timbers. There's a hole in the ground, like an abandoned mine entrance. For some reason, the vegetation dies off towards the bottom. There's no sign of life at the bottom. [Zoozeki decides he'll summon a blue-footed booby as his familiar.] The apes don't know what's down there. We hear axebeaks in the jungle. Descending into the pit, Zoozeli slips (Athletics roll: 2) and falls for 4 damage. Zoozeki and Smudge all use _Prestidigitation_ to clean themselves. The apes are impresses, and it's _Prestidigitation_ all around. We go into the tunnel. Zoozeki casts _Light_ on some stuff for the apes. Zoozeki casts _Magic Mount_ to remind him before _Light_ needs to be cast again. Smudge and Martin take the lead. Zoozeki's in the middle. There are ruts, probably from mining carts. Martin isn't sure what they were mining. Some material he hasn't heard of. Malibdonom? It can be alloyed with Chromium and other medals to make a very flight and durable alloy. Martin says some of the best swords use this alloy as part of their construction. Martin says Malibdonom often appears along with dangerous rocks that can sicken the body. Oh, we're probably getting irradiated! The ape seagant says that a generation ago there was a trading company from the north traded in Malibdonom. Legends say they extracted arcane minerals and took them back north. We reach a 5-way branch. Martin smells something that he considers very dangerous. Smudge sends his owl to scout. It quickly runs into a crude closed door. Martin casts _Aura of Purity_. We approach and open the door. (We leave six of the apes behind.) There is a terrible smell of death. The passage remains narrow but slopes down dramatically. Martin, with is very long dark vision, sees that the floor drops off after 200 feet. 50 feet after that is the far wall of a pit. Smudge sends his own down the corridor to scout. The pit is about 100 feet deep. There's a pile of bones and debris. Starting 20 ft down, there's a ladder. At the bottom, eight mining tunnels extend out in all directions. A huge centipede with two cyclops heads irrupts from the pile of debris. It snaps at the owl but misses. It retreats to the pile of debris. Zoozeki casts _Fire Bolt_ on the pile of debris, which bursts into flames. The two-headed centipede shoots out of the pile, and flees down the south-west tunnel. Zoozeki's Arcana 19 check tells him that some minerals deep in the earth can be used to bewitch or sicken or kill someone. Kristabell notices that Martin is experiencing some kind of altered emotional state or delusion. We retreat. Martin makes a saving throw and returns to normal. We explore another branch. After several switchbacks going down, we believe lizard men are ahead, perhaps a whole settlement. The end of this session!