The renowned group of adventurers that name themselves Local 509 had just dispatched a large and horrible beast that Timber called a Bulette and were searching the room beyond for any treasure. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything of interest at all in the room and so they decided to move on and resume their attempt to find the way to the 3rd level of the infamous Undermountain dungeon.

Pisheo studied her maps and led them out of the room of many doors into a corridor. She mapped as the walked to the south. Soon they had backtracked to the point where they had first seen the Hell Hounds. They mounted a staircase that went up 20' to a corridor going directly to the stairs down (or at least that was what the dubious map they had bought from the one-eyed man showed them). The stone hallway had several openings. They decided to go into the passageway that led to the largest room.

The room was large, but completely empty. After a cursory search, they moved on through the only other opening in the room. This took them to an area that had two very small rooms on either side. They carefully walked into the southern of the rooms. It was a small place; only about 20' square. A 4' high and 3' wide wooden door like object was leaning against the wall and there were two 6" square 3' long beams near it on the floor. On the opposite wall, there were a number of wooden pegs sticking out of the stone at regular intervals. Under them was a pile of sticks.

After much investigation, they also found some depressions in the stone floor near the door less entrance to this room. This was the key to discovering the purpose of this room and it's odd contents. The sticks turned out to be arrows so ancient that the fletching had disintegrated as had the leather quivers that once contained them. The large wooden construction they determined to be a barricade that could be placed in the opening and secured from removal by the beams angled into the floor. This would provide archers with an almost unassailable place of cover to defend the rooms beyond. The thought that there might still be something in a room nearby that might still be worthy of protection spurred them on to further inspection of the area.

They continued through the short walkway between the two archers rooms and into the large room beyond. They barely had time to note that this room had several other passages off of it when their observations were interrupted by piercing, dissonant whistle like shrieks. They were coming from both sides of the room. It appeared to be weird looking mushrooms making all the noise.

"Shriekers!" cried Timber. "Wreck em'!"

This was what Local 509 was best at, so they set to the task with a will. As the fungoid creatures were unable to defend themselves or even move any faster than a snail, the job was quickly completed. In silence they examined the 6 sundered mushrooms for any clues as to how they might have gotten here or why they might be in this place. Although they weren't able to discover the answers to these questions, Stallen was able to take some spore samples in the hopes that he might be able to grow his own shrieking mushrooms sometime.

Knowing that this kind of mushroom was commonly used by dungeon residents to warn them of intruders, Pisheo cautioned them to be particularly vigilante. To Krom, this was preaching to the choir, as he was keeping a very close watch on the southern exit from the room. His vigilance was rewarded when he saw a dog-like head poke around the corner of the passageway.

"Hey, I saw a funny looking head down here" shouted Krom.

Timber and Victorex immediately ran down the passageway trying to catch up to what ever had tried to look at them. Timber ran past an opening and was very surprised when the pointy parts of two halberds missed him by inches. He stopped and saw that the halberds were wielded by two very odd looking creatures. They're bodies were mostly human, but were covered with fur. The heads were those of dogs, or actually more like the pointed heads of hyenas. And also like hyenas, there was a mane of fur that started in the back of the head and passed over a hump on the back of the shoulders. Their furred skin was a pale green color, but the mane was bright red.

Both Timber and Victorex turned to attack the creatures. Victorex struck one with his long sword. Timber swung his sword but missed. The creature that Victorex had injured showed it's heels and ran up the 20' wide corridor behind it. Victorex tried to bring the thing down by a vicious blow in the back, but the attack went wide of the target. The other one stood it's ground and attacked Timber back, wounding him in the arm. Timber didn't really like the look of these half-man, half-dog beings. The ambush attack and his smarting wound spurred his attacks. In another moment Timber and Victorex had joined forces and the dog-man lay at their feet motionless and bleeding from 3 mighty wounds.

Krom, who had been standing just behind them as they fought said, "I don't like it that that one got away. He's going to go back to wherever he calls home and tell his friends about us."

Timber still puffing from his exertions answered "So what do you suggest we do about it Krom?"

"Well I d'know. Follow him maybe?"

"OK, I can do that. Let's get the rest of the folk in here first though."

Timber called the rest of the party to join them at the place were the body lay and told them what had happened. Everyone agreed that they should follow Timber as he followed the faint traces of the fleeing creatures footprints. The prints led off to the north to a 4-way intersection. One way led back to the room with the mushrooms. The other two were 20' wide and led off to the east and north.

Timber said "There are a lot of prints here and they seem to go in every direction, so I guess it doesn't much matter which way we go from here. I think I'll head of this way." and pointed to the east.

He hadn't take 4 steps when everyone heard a metallic "CLICK!" and suddenly, it seemed to be raining glass globes. They broke when they hit the floor and a puddle of liquid instantly spread under Timber's feet. The last globe fell and it ignited. Instantly, Timber was engulfed in a roaring oil fire.

"I'm on fire!" he shouted, more in surprise than with any objective of informing the others of his situation as his situation was obvious. Doing an excellent imitation of a human torch, he ran out of the pool of oil, but so much of it had splashed all over him that this didn't much lessen the flames. For several moments the much surprised party paused, not knowing what to do. Then they burst into frantic activity.

"Down, cover and roll Timber" shouted Victorex and a moment later he began to pray saying "Oh great and mysterious Bob, grant me the power to produce water from thin air. And hurry it up if it's not too much trouble."

Timber threw himself to the floor and rolled around trying to put out the flames, but without much effect. Stallen quickly pulled his bed clothes out of his back pack and threw them over Timber. He then used them to cover and smother the flames, burning his hands slightly in the process. This helped some, but by that time Bob had caused Victorex's spell to work and water poured from his hands onto the fiery Timber. A moment later, the fire was out. Timber now soaking wet rose from the floor in a fury.

"This place sucks! I hate traps. I wanna know what the hell happened here. Timber, check it out and see if you can find out."

"Whatever you say Timber" said Pisheo with good humor.

As Timber took stock of the damage and used his god-granted ability to heal himself, Pisheo examined the area around the trap closely. It only took a moment to see the tiny trap door in the ceiling where the oil vials and the single vial of Greek Fire had been stored. Several minutes later, she found the sunken flagstone trigger.

She said "Simple, and effective this one is. Step on this section of floor and it pulls a string that opens the latch in the trapdoor on the ceiling and out falls the oil. Nasty."

Timber had found that the only casualties of the fire were his hair, (his 'do was completely shot) his quiver and half his arrows. This could have been much worse, so he soon instructed the group to continue investigating the area.

Even more carefully now, they mapped more of the 20' wide halls to the east and then returned to the place of the fire. They turned to the west and with Timber again in the lead headed north. Again there was the loud "CLICK!" and Timber was again drenched in flaming oil!

Although there is never a good way to be covered in flaming oil, at least they were familiar with the drill now. Timber dropped and rolled as Stallen once more drew his still wet blankets from his pack. In a minuet, the flames were out and Timber was once more examining his possession to see what had been damaged. Again, the loss was light. Only a few more arrows had been burned.

Despite the fact that he had suffered little harm and lost almost nothing of value, Timber was still put out. "Dammit, I don't want to cook anymore! Hasn't anybody got some spell to detect traps? If you don't we're going to have to search every flagstone in this place." he said with some heat.

"I can cast a Find Traps spell." answered Victorex. "It only lasts about a half an hour, but it works great."

"Do it!" shouted Timber and added silently "Why didn't he say something about the spell the last time I burned?"

"Oh wise and infinitely helpful Bob, allow my eyes to see that which is hidden and find those traps that may harm your humble servant and his friends."

The eyes of Victorex flashed bright red for a moment and then returned to their normal appearance. Looking at the pool of still smoking oil and the small cavity in the ceiling he said "Yup. It works just like the other one. I'll be able to see any more we may run across."

" 'Bout freekin' time." said Timber. "Come on, I want to have a little talk with who ever is setting these things."

On a hunch, Timber led them back to the room with the shreakers and through the 20' wide hallway to the north. It led them to a passage to the east and then ended.

"Trap!" shouted Victorex. "There is a trap in the southern section of that passage. Stay to the north wall and you'll be safe."

"That's not good enough." said Timber. "Pisheo, would you do me a favor and disarm that thing?"

"Sure Timber. It'll take me a while though."

"I don't want anyone else to get burned, so we'll take the time."

Pisheo nodded and began to work while the others kept guard. It took her 20 minutes until she was satisfied that the little metal tool she had forced into the crack of the tilting flagstone would prevent it from moving. "Done." she said with satisfaction.

"Right. Let's keep moving" replied Timber.

They still avoided the southern section of the floor (no one could guarantee that the trap was inert) and went to the east mapping as they walked. Ahead of them, they soon saw a 30' wide opening in the south wall. They approached it cautiously. Timber directed them to go south and just as they were turning in that direction, they heard a barking voice say something that sounded like "Kerakach!". An instant later, dogs began baying and ran around both sides of the 30' wide opening. They were not friendly.

As the opening was very wide, the dogs were quickly in amongst the group and attacking everyone. Galranwyn took a chance and cast her quickest spell, hoping to cast it before she was bitten. Stallen shouted "Up, up and away!" and assumed a rather strange stance as he waited for his magical boots to lift him into the air. The rest of the group had drawn their weapons and were laying about them with a will. The dogs were quick and their bites painful, but the blows of the adventurers were heavy and soon dog bodies littered the floor. Galranwyn's spell went off and balls of energy blasted the dogs around her making their fur smolder and smoke. Stallen's boots lifted him up into the air, and he directed them to carry him up over the battle so he could look into the room beyond.

The area around Galranwyn was free of living dogs, so she cast another of the same spell and blasted away again. By this time, most of the dogs were down. The few remaining tried to flee with their tails between their legs. All but one were cut down as they turned to flee. The one that escaped ran through an opening about sixty feet away.

Stallen from his location above the party said "More trouble on the way! Look at that!" and pointed toward where the dog had run.

The party saw a couple of dozen dog-men (who called themselves Gnolls) marching slowly in a tight formation. There were two groups, one emerging from where the dog fled and the other to the east and south of that place. They marched in step as they slowly moved forward. Both groups had two ranks; the front rank carried halberds and the second rank bore long swords. Local 509 used their slow approach to form themselves into a 5 by 3 formation better suited to put the fighters to a frontal attack. They too moved forward slowly and menacingly. They moved forward through the opening and into an area where hallways stretched out of sight on both sides. Stallen was glad the the ceilings in these 20' wide corridors were 16' high as they allowed him to retreat out of weapon reach.

Tensely, Timber said "Why don't they attack? Maybe they aren't bad after all."

"Didn't they attack you Timber? Didn't they lay all these traps? Forget it and kill them!"

"Well what if they aren't evil? Maybe they just live down here."

As the others waited and watched the slow approach of the dog-men ranks, Galranwyn said to herself "Screw this! These guys need to be dead." and began to encant.

The standoff continued until her spell was complete. This time, she had decided to use the big brother of her Magical Missile spell. Her balls of fiery energy sped off over the heads of the two ranks of Gnolls to strike one she had spotted in the rear. She figured he was the leader as he was larger than any of the others and wore several necklaces of dog teeth around his neck. Her missiles rocked the gnoll back, but he quickly recovered and shouted "Kak!" Stallen said "Oh shit!" and directed his magic shoes to take him into the room beyond where he had seen the ceiling was 40' high.

In that same instant, arrows struck all about the party coming from both hallways. Several people were struck by the arrow. The massed ranks of the Gnolls charged forward, the halberd men in the lead. As the combined ranks had 10 dog-men in the front line, each fighter was attacked by two halberd wielding enemies. At first the length of the halberds prevented the fighters from attacking, but they ducked under the weapons and rushed in to attack. As they struck at the halberd bearers, the swordsmen behind them jabbed between the bodies wounding a couple of the Local 509. But their death dealing skills soon gave them the upper hand and the Gnolls began to die. But the arrows continued to rain down on the party from the hallways and there wasn't much they could do about it as the archers were in the darkness and not visible. Between the arrows, the halberds and the swords there weren't any of the fighters that hadn't suffered wounds. Galranwyn was the exception as she was protected on 3 sides by party members.

The leader in the back of the dog-men's ranks shouted "Hakerbak!" and the halberd men began to retreat, leaving the swordsmen to guard them. Then the swordsmen took a couple of steps backward without turning, and a gap was formed between the party and the Gnolls. The arrows suddenly stopped too. The fighters were surprised when the leader of the Gnolls spoke saying "You fight good. We want live. You no fight, we give coin. You go way, all stay live. You fight we kill all!"

Timber said "Stop fighting for a minute! It doesn't look like they want to fight more. I still wonder if they are evil. Maybe we should just let them go."

"Since when have we EVER let anything like them go. We don't know they're evil, but my considered opinion is that they are. Just kill them and get it over with." said Galranwyn. She began to encant another spell. Pisheo raised an eyebrow at the bloodthirsty speech from one she considered the most pacific of the group. Could it be that Galranwyn was showing her true mind for the first time?

Stallen used the pause to rejoin the party, flying down to hover in the cover of the opening behind them. "I don't know, maybe we can get some money without killing them. See what you can work out Timber."

"I'll try." said Timber then added "Galranwyn, use your magical dagger and see if you can find out what their life's philosophy is." She hadn't finished her spell yet, but she wanted to go along with what the rest were doing so she reluctantly released the magical power she had gathered so far. Grumbling, Galranwyn drew her jewel-studded magical dagger from it's sheath and held it in the palm of her hand facing the Gnoll leader.

Timber turned to the Gnolls and said "We kill you, you no kill us. Maybe we take money."

The Gnoll leader began to walk from the back of the lines, pushing and cuffing his fighters out of his way. He walked forward until he was in front of the ranks. He looked Timber in the eye and said "We no die. Give money you go way." Then he turned to the ranks of his men and said "Barkak roofwoff gerrabak. Tookaroof!" The halbardmen lowered their blades to rest on the floor and the swordsmen sheathed their weapons. They began to quickly untie the small pouches they had tied to their belts. Then he turned to the opening where the dog had fled and shouted "Errrbark gerroof. Gakagar roofibark!" Gnoll women and children ran out of the room beyond and stood by the fighters looking very frightened and exposed. Some of the babies were crying.

Galranwyn was looking down at her dagger. The gems in the pommel were flashing in a circle and beginning to slow down.

Timber said "Shit! Now what are we going to do. I don't want to butcher a bunch of babies!"

In another moment, the gnoll soldiers threw their pouches forward into a pile that grew at Timber's feet. The Gnoll leader watched his men and leapt back to smash one in the face and yell at him. The assaulted one sullenly untied his pouch and threw it into the pile. The leader took off his larger pouch and threw it down. Then he removed his tooth-necklaces and threw them on top of the pile.

The jewels on Galranwyn's dagger slowed and stopped. The ruby red gem was glowing. She said "It's red Timber. I told you!" The glowing red gem indicated that these creatures were the worst kind of evil beings. The kind that would never honor an agreement even if it was in their best interest to do so.

"Damn! Well, we are committed now. Jon Keel, Krom, guard me while I pick these up." Timber opened his pack. Then he picked up the tooth necklaces and paused as he was about to throw them into the bag. He looked at the Gnoll leader, then tossed the necklaces back to him. The leader nodded once at Timber, then put them back on.

Stallen, who was still in the back of the room hovering near the ceiling said "Head up everybody. There are a bunch of archers coming into the back of the room."

Timber looked up from the pile and pointed toward them saying to the Gnoll leader "How about them? We want their pouches too. And how about the ones attacking us?"

The leader turned to the archers in the back of the room and said "Barkak roofwoff gerrabak arrabark. Tookaroof!" They began to remove their pouches and hand them to one of their number. The leader turned back to Timber and said "Them same as fight you. No more men. This all tribe."

Timber said "It better be. You trick us, we kill all!"

The leader nodded. The archer leader brought the collected pouches forward and dumped them on the floor at Timber's feet. Timber quickly swept them up and put them into his magical bag along with the rest. Then Timber said "I guess that's it. Let's get out of here. Back up, but don't turn your back on them whatever you do."

As the heros began to back out of the room, Galranwyn said "Timber, I've got a really bad feeling about this. You sure you don't want to kill 'em?"

"I gave them my word Galranwyn. We've gotta live with the situation." Timber said with some regret. When they reached the hall and moved out of sight of the Gnoll tribe, Timber said "Lets move. Double Time, standard formation. Head for the room where the Hell Hounds lived. The passageway there is long and defensable."

The group began to trot down the wide corridors under Pisheo's directions. In a couple of minutes they had reached the room full of debris that had been left by the fire breathing dogs the party had killed the day before. Krom and Kilak kept guard at the opening while the clerics went to work healing the many wounds the group had suffered.

When Timber had finished casting all his healing spells, he turned to Galranwyn and said "That was the last of my healing spells. I think we should rest up and recover our spells before we go anywhere. Would you please cast your Room of Seclusion?" He was being extra nice to Galranwyn as it was clear she was in a foul mood.

Galranwyn sniffed and turned to the wall without a word then began to cast her spell. In a moment she reached forward and pulled a section of the stone wall outward revealing a grey featurless room. They all piled inside as she held the door open. When everyone was in she closed the door and it dissappeared.

Timber took all the pouches out of his bag and threw them on the floor. It took some time to open them and examine the contents. There was a lot of junk inside. They found dried meat, oddly shaped rocks, bits of twisted metal and some pieces of leather straps. But there were also some valuables too. The coins they threw into piles of platinum, gold and silver. When all of the pouches had been plundered they counted the coins and began to hand them out to the members of the party. Pisheo did the honors. They all sat in a circle and Pisheo counted them out.

"That's two for Galranwn, one for Krom, two for Timber, one for Kilak, two for me, one for Ember, two for Victorex .." and so on until all the coins were gone. They had also found a few other valuable items. There were a couple of gems found in the leader's pouch and a metal vial that had the letters "POH" stamped on the bottom. These they put back in Timber's bag to be divided later.

When that was done, they began to discuss things.

"Timber, I can't believe you negotiated with those things." said Galranwyn. "Why did you do it!"

"I don't know really. I guess I .. well, I think... ah, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. What's the big deal?"

"They are evil, that's the big deal. We will never be able to go back that way without worrying about being ambushed by a bunch of humiliated dog-heads." She went on in a patient voice "We are the good guys. We kill the bad guys. It's our job."

"OK, I get the point. But it's over and done with now, so let it rest. Right?"

Galranwyn gave him a withering look that Timber chose to ignore as she didn't say anything else.

This whole time, Jon Keel had been looking around the strangely featureless room with an uneasy expression. Seeing an opportunity to turn the conversation away from the current discussion, he said "Galranwyn, where is this place?"

She walked over to where Jon was sitting and sat beside him. "It's no place really."

"It's gotta be someplace. Otherwise how can we be here?"

"Have you ever heard of a pocket universe Jon?"

"A pocket universe. What, like a pocket knife or a pocket compass?"

"No. It's like a place that a mage creates out of nothingness that becomes nothingness again when the spell ends."

"So this place is nothingness? OK, it's nothingness if you say so, but... where is this nothingness."

"It's like.. hmm. The only answer is that this place is nowhere and made of nothingness."

"And what happens if you die or can't get us out before the spell stops."

This time it was Galranwyn's turn to look uneasy. "I don't really know. I don't think it would be a good thing if that happened. But don't worry, it's never going to happen."

By the look on Jon's face he didn't find this assurance at all comforting. He began to think to himself in an effort to arrange his rapidly changing view of life. "It's all so strange here! There isn't one thing that's like it was at home. There's no sand, no slaves, no tharks or mellikots. No Mage Kings or Templars and no stadiums. And magic that everyone and his brother seems to cast. And spells that don't suck life! And all the gods people worship! It's the most rank kind of superstition, but their spells seem to work. Most of it's much nicer than home, but I wonder if I'll ever get used to it." He sighed and took out his wet stone, spit on it (a luxury he was still getting used to) and began to hone his sword as he mulled over the world he had chosen to make his new home. He would never have admitted it, but in his heart of hearts he was homesick.

Victorex said "So Timber; should I cast my nap spell so we can re-memorize our spells?"

"Yah, that's a good idea. We aren't done looking around down here and I don't like the thought of being without any way to heal ourselves. This place is rough!"

"OK. So anyone that wants to get their spells back, come over here by me and we'll all take and hour to sleep."

All of the spell casters in the party went over to where Victorex was sitting. Victorex cast his spell and they all stretched out on the floor of the room and instantly fell asleep.

Krom rummaged around in his backpack and came out with something in his hand. "Hey Kilak!" he said and shook his hand. Kilak heard dice rattling around and grinned.

"Any time Krom. At least we have some gold to play for." replied Kilak. They went to the corner farthest away from the sleeping spell casters and began to play their favorite game; Liar's Dice. They played away, even ignoring the spell casters as they rose from their hour long slumber and began studying and praying for the spells they would cast that day.

As soon as the last of them had finished, Stallen said "Time to go out again. Timber, how about if I take charge for a while?"
Timber glanced toward Galranwyn and noticed she was glaring at him. He winced and said "Sure if you want to Stallen."

Stallen looked at Galranwyn and grinned. "Great! Then we are going down. It's time we got the the 3rd level. That's why we came here isn't it? Everybody up!"

"Just a minute. We're almost done here." said Krom. A large pile of silver pieces had grown between him and Kilak.

"One last hand for the whole pot, OK Kilak."

"If you say so, but you're gonna lose ya know."

Kilak was right; he won the hand and the pot. At least Krom was a good looser. He smiled as he put the dice back into his pack and said "Lucky call Kilak. You won't be that lucky next time."

By that time the rest of the group were standing by Galranwyn. She reached out and opened a door that no-one else could see and opened it. They stepped back out into the lair of the Hell Hounds and when Galranwyn closed the door, the stone once more looked as solid as it was.

Stallen said briskly "Pisheo, would you lead us to where the map we bought says the stairs to the 3rd level should be?"

"Sure Stallen. It's only a short walk from here."

They went back to the nearby stairs that went up and climbed them. Stallen warned them "We are going back near where the entrance to the Gnoll's area is, so be on guard." Everyone nodded and the slowly and silently approached the opening. They looked down the opening where the Gnolls were and didn't see anything. Stallen tapped Pisheo on the shoulder and pointed to the opening opposite. She nodded, and they went that way and began to map it. The area was a series of small connected rooms that wound around and came back out on the same corridor a short distance from where they had gone in. There was another opening opposite and silently, Stallen indicated that Pisheo should map that area too. This only took a couple of minutes.

The room had an area that was hidden from the rooms entry, and once everyone was behind it Stallen said, "The stairs down are really close right Pisheo?"

"Yup. About 50' that way."

"Let's do it. But we do it QUIETLY." cautioned Stallen.

They went back out to the corridor and turned north. At the end they saw a very long stairway going down. "The map was right." whispered Pisheo with satisfaction. They turned and began to go down the long stairs. The stairs made a turn and switched back on itself and continued down, but it wasn't long before they could see the stairs end below them.

Stallen said "Stop here." When they had all gathered around him he continued "I want to try a new system I've been working on. First, I want to rearrange the marching order. My idea is that we keep a diamond shape of fighters to guard Galranwyn who will always be in the middle. That way we can send two of the front line forward and keep the point of the diamond behind to guard her. And if there's an attack from any other direction, there is someone there to keep her from being hit until her spells go off."

There was some disagreement about how the order should be arraigned, but they were soon put to rest and the party re-arraigned them selves according to Stallen's plan.

"Next, I want you guys to always do the same thing when you enter a room. The point man of the diamond will open the door. Then the other two in the front line quickly take a couple of steps into the room, turn slightly outward and guard. The point man then steps quickly in and falls on his back with his feet to the door. He will be able to see the entire ceiling and the upper part of the door that was just opened."

Victorex (who was the point man) said "That's ridiculous Stallen! I'm not going to fall on my back. What if something jumps on me while I'm down? What if my armor keeps me from turning over again. I'll be like a high centered turtle with my arms and legs waving in the air!"

After a moments thought Stallen said "OK, forget about the falling on the back thing. Just rush in and look at the ceiling and at the top of the door."

Victorex rolled his eyes, but nodded.

They walked down the remainder of the stairs. There was a small landing at the foot of the stairs and beyond it, was a 20' wide perpendicular passage.

"Let's see you do it the way I described" he whispered to the front line. They did their best, but there was nothing in sight to surprise. All they saw was a long corridor with several openings off of it. When they signaled it was safe, the rest of the party filed into the hall and Pisheo began mapping. The closest opening was to the south, so they went that way. The passage was a short stairway leading about 10' up. Just below that was a 4-way intersection of 20' wide corridors. Two of them were also short stairs that went about 10' up.

"That way." said Stallen pointing to the 20' stairway going south. They climbed the stairs and found that it led to a passage that went out of sight into the darkness. They went back down those stairs and up the other wide stairs next to it. This also was a 20' wide passage that led off into darkness. Stallen's musically trained ear detected a distinct echo. He listened carefully and thought that this was probably a very long hallway. Then he shrugged and said "This way looks as good as any other."

They walked, and walked and walked. Stallen was right; the corridor went almost 500' east straight as an arrow's flight. Then it turned and went a long way north, turned again and went east, again to the north and then narrowed as it turned to the west. So far they had seen nothing, heard nothing and were all wondering when they were going to get to some sort of room. They were a very long way away from the stairs up when the finally reached a room.

The room was empty, but there were 3 other exits from it. Stallen directed them to go through the smaller entrance just south of them as the larger passage to the north seemed to be more of the wide, interminable hallways. They went to the south and soon found themselves in a maze of twisting passageways that were all the same. A smile came to Pisheo's lips and she licked her quill as she patiently stepped off all the distances and twisting and turnings.

Pisheo loved mapping. Sometimes when the party was trying to decide what to do, she would silently admire the map she was creating. The precision, the accuracy, the resultant picture of the places they had been were all pleasing to her sense of satisfaction at a job well done. This maze was a challenge. It had been a long time since she had seen it's like. The twisting maze of passages all alike was like a high mountain to her; crying out to be conquered.

After a half and hour of mapping and walking they came to a small dead end section of the passageway. It was the first dead end they had seen. Stallen looked at it considering. "That looks suspicious to me. Would you elves take a look at it and see if there is a secret door hidden there?"

As Galranwyn and Timber walked forward to examine it, the floor suddenly fell out from under them and they were falling! The pit was 30' deep and they hit hard enough to give both some bruises that would give them pain for quite a while. But they almost forgot about their pain, because a very loud noise distracted them. It sounded like a hundred windmills all going at once. To Galranwyn, it reminded her of the metal spiders they had once fought in the dire full lands of Ravenloft. As the lay on their backs they could see several dozen 4" round holes open up in the sides of the pit and gauntleted hands and arms poked through them. They lay and watched this strange sight with curiosity until they noticed that some of the gauntlet hand held axes. They jumped to their feet just in time to begin fighting for their lives as the gauntleted arms began to attack them. Both Timber and Galranwyn were hit before they could understand what was going on.

Up above the rest of the party were shining their light rocks down into the hole and trying to figure out what they could do to help. Even after their friends were attacked, they couldn't think of anything to do. Finally, Pisheo snapped her fingers and said "I've got a grappling hook. I can lower them a rope." She pulled the hook and rope from her pack, held the hook secure to the floor with one hand then dropped the rope. She swore when one of the gauntleted hand caught the rope as it fell.

Down in the hole, Timber was swinging madly at any ax wielding arm that came close to him. Galranwyn was cowering on the floor dodging the attacks of the mechanical arms as best she could and shouting "Get me the fuck out of here damnit. Somebody do something!"

"What do you suggest Galranwyn?" said Stallen reasonably from the floor above.

"I don't know, just do something!" she shouted back.

Stallen looked down the hole at the waving arms. The section of floor that had fallen away covered the wall of the pit and he didn't see any arms there. He also noticed that the hands near the top didn't have any weapons. The ax wielding arms started about 10' down the hole near where the edge of the fallen floor stopped. Although it looked like someone might be able to pass through the weaponless hands reach without being caught, the axes extended the reach of the arms to cover the entire pit area.

Pisheo said "I wonder if I can use my magical rope. It might be able to slither itself down the sides of the pit." Just as she finished her sentence, the guantleted arm that had caught her rope lowered itself down and one of the ax arms sliced the rope off. "So much for that idea." she muttered.

Timber hit one of the gauntleted arms a mighty blow and it bent at an impossible angle. It's movement stopped. "all right! Take that you noisy bastard." He struck another one and it stopped moving. He turned to attack another, and the one he had just hit started working again and almost decapitated him. "Didn't get enough the first time huh?" he said and turned back to the other one. "How 'bout a little of this!" He hit it again and shouted wordlessly as it fell out of it's hole and lay motionless on the ground. He spun, putting all his weight into the blow and hit another. It shattered and showered he and Galranwyn with metal gears and rods.

Stallen said "Up, up and away!" and soon his magical boots began to fly. He carefully lowered himself down the side of the pit covered by the fallen section of floor. When he came within weapon reach of a ax wielding arm, he began to swing at it. As he deftly wielded his sword he said "Timber! Smash the ones on this side first. If we can clear a spot we might be able to lift you up that way."

"I'm gonna wreck 'em all." Shouted Timber, but turned in Stallen's direction.

From her position in the corner, Galranwyn was continuing to dodge the axes successfully. But then she thought "What the hell am I doing down here? I've still got my staff. This things are trying to hurt me!" Then she stood up and attacked the one that had just hit her. Together now, she and Timber began to do some serious damage to the ax wielding arms.

Stallen was still hacking at one of the arms. Although he had hit one, it had hit him back and he was finding the arm a difficult target to hit from his precarious position suspended in mid air.

Victorex had been observing all this and his mind was racing. Finally he said to himself "I gotta do something! Maybe I can use my mountain climbing harness and Pisheo's grappling hook." He dragged a leather and hemp rope construction from his pack and drew it up around his legs. A rope was attached to a pulley and cleat system. She tied the rope to the hook and told Pisheo to hold on to it. He lowered himself over the same side of the pit that Stallen was on and fed rope out until his legs were just within range of the flailing arms. Their blows rained futilely against his magical plate armor. Then Victorex pulled his sword and began to destroy arms with almost every blow.

By this time the combined efforts of Timber and Galranwyn had succeeded in clearing all of the threatening arms from the bottom of the pit. They were out of danger for the moment. Stallen hit the arm he had been batteling again and this time it bent and made a horrible screeching, gear stripping sound and stopped moving. Victorex continued to lower himself a little, whack at an arm, destroy it and lower himself a little further down. In a few more minutes Stallen and Victorex had cleared a path along one side. Jon Keel lowered a rope down the clear side and a couple of minutes later, Timber and Galranwyn had joined the rest of the party. They were back up on the floor again breathing heavily.

Stallen still wanted to check the walls over the pit for secret doors, but he was talked out of further efforts by the rest of the group. As they were still in the middle of the maze, they decided to continue investigating until they found their way out. And so slowly and methodically, they wound their way through the passageways all alike that twisted and turned and dead ended and split and rejoined and wound around and finally came out of the other door in the room they had left.

As the rest of the party discussed where to go next, Pisheo looked at the complicated map and whispered to herself "Perfect!" and smiled broadly.

Stallen ended the discussion by saying "I don't want to go through any more empty hallways, but the only way left is up there. I hope this 20' wide passage leads somewhere interesting."

After they had walked 50 paces up this corridor Timber groaned "It's not going anywhere. It's just another damn empty passageway. Where the hell is everything on this level?" But the heros continued on. Finally they came to a rather strange intersection. A wide passage led off to the west and a narrow passage went north-east and a small opening led to the south-east. They went to the wide passage and looked down it. It continued out of sight into the darkness.

"Not that one please." pleaded Timber.

They went to the opening in the south-east and looked through. Beyond the 10' opening, the cut stone walls and unmortered slate floors changed to natural rock. The rock was of a type very different from any they had seen in the dungeon so far. It looked like a paler grey rock. A breath of damp air came from the opening.

"What do you think?" Stallen asked the group.

"Let's take a look at the one up there" said Pisheo pointing the the north-eastern corridor "and then come back here if it doesn't look interesting."

"Fine." said Stallen. "I don't like the looks of this area anyway."

So they turned north and looked up the other passage. They could see it went for quite a ways. Pisheo with her superior eyes could see another strange looking intersection up that direction and smiled. She walked forward toward the intersection as if drawn by a magnet. The other followed her. They passed a couple of intersecting passages, that seemed like they would probably meet, but Pisheo ignored them and continued until the came to the main intersection.

It was shaped like an "X". 3 of the passages were 10' wide and the last was 20' wide. They all stretched out as far as they could see down them without a single door or opening.

"Let's go back to those other openings" said Timber. "I think they may actually lead us to something other than more long halls."

As there were no objections, the party turned around and went back to one of the passages they had just passed. They went south until they came to a 4-way intersection. One way led back to the passage they had just left and one continued south and opened into a room. But the one that caught their eye went west and had a door. The door looked different from the others they had seen in Undermountain, so they went that way to investigate.

The door was VERY different than the rest. Instead of the crude, unfinished beams bound with iron straps as the other had been made, they found a thing of beauty. It was large enough to admit two people at a time. The wood was a close grained black variety that had been fancily carved with an abstract pattern consisting of bold parallel swirls that swept around clusters of round dots. The jet wood had been thickly lacquered then polished to a gleaming sheen. It had 3 enormous brightly buffed brass hinges secured to the door with square headed brass bolts an inch and a half wide. The other side of the door had a foot square brass plate with an door knob twice the normal size (it would take two hands to open it). Just under the knob was a small keyhole.

"Yah, now this is what I've been looking for!" said Timber excitedly.

"That's one hell of a door all right." said Stallen. "Pisheo, feel like picking the lock?"

"I'll try the knob first, but I doubt it's open" she replied. Soon she was hard at work with her lock picks.

As she worked, the others looked around. Galranwyn moved a little further down the passage and said "There are two more doors at the end of this hall. They look like the same kind."

"Cool." said Timber, but didn't stop watching Pisheo's progress eagerly.

Soon, a mist of perspiration appeared on Pisheo's brow and she muttered "Hum. Dual triple tumbler catches at oblique angles and a pick stop. Tough." Even so, it wasn't long before Timber heard a click and Pisheo stood up and wiped her brow. She nodded to Stallen.

"Remember the new drill guys. Victorex, would open it up?" Victorex nodded and moved back to smash it open.

Pisheo hurriedly said "You probably won't have to break it down Victorex. This door looks like you can just open it the normal way."

Victorex looked at Pisheo with surprise. "A dungeon door I don't have to break down? What is this world coming to?" He grasped the knob with both hands and turned. It opened inward easily.

The instant the front line moved into the dark room, all their light rocks went dark, and they felt a very strange sensation come over them.

"Yikes!" said Victorex and he jumped backwards into the corridor. The other followed suit.

Neither Victorex's or Timber's light rock came on again.

Timber said "Oh-oh" and drew his magical long sword. It wasn't glowing. He said "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness!" and unlike every other time he had said the magical phrase, his sword remained dark.

Victorex noticed that his armor seemed to weigh a ton and Krom took a couple of practice swings in the air and said "there's something wrong with my magical sword. It feels like a piece of junk when I swing it."

Timber said "Pisheo, hit me with you're sword."

"What?"

"Hit me. I want to see if my magic armor is working."

Pisheo grinned wickedly and said "If you say so Timber." and swung her sword at him. Timber jumped out of the way in spite of himself.

"Sorry Pisheo, force of habit. Hit me again, but this time use the flat of your blade."

She turned the blade in her hand and presented the flat edge toward Timber. She swung and hit him easily.

"Oh, my wonderful magic armor; it's useless. Just mundane junk!" mourned Timber. "I'm gonna die soon."

After some hurried testing they discovered that every magical item and every spell that the front line had had when entering the room was suddenly gone!

"My wonderful sword! My armor! My amulets and charms. All useless now. I'm screwed!" cried Victorex. Timber joined in the lament over their now worthless magical equipment. Krom seathed silently.

Stallen said "There's got to be a reason for this. There is probably some really great treasure hidden in that room and I mean to get it." He began to strip himself of everything magical he had on him. "I'm going in; who else want to go?"

Ember sighed and said "What the hell. I'll go with you Stallen" and started to divest herself of here few magical items.

Soon they were ready to go, armed with mundane weapons and not a single magic item with them. Stallen lit a torch and side by side he and Ember slowly walked through the doorway. They felt a strange stillness as the went through, but it only lasted a fraction of a second and was gone. They had gone most of the way across the room when the dim torch lit the back of the room. It narrowed at an odd angle and an opening became visible at the apex. Taking one last look back at their party waiting at the door, they went through the passage.

It only went about 15' and then opened into another room. The angle of the passage hid the northern part of the room. As they entered the room and turned to look north, they saw something that froze them in their tracks. There, standing not 10' away was - themselves! They saw another Stallen and another Ember wearing the same clothes and holding the same weapons. Stallen's double was even holding a torch although they had not seen the light from the torch until that moment. They were so surprised that they didn't even react when their doubles stepped forward and began to attack them. Even then, the heros tried to deny the reality of what they were seeing. They thought the things attacking them might be illusions, but their disbelief had no effect on their doubles.

Their frozen state only lasted a moment. If something attacked them, they attacked back. But the strangeness of attacking themselves unnerved them and both of their attacks missed. During the exchange of blows, Ember noticed something odd standing along the north part of the room behind their doubles. There were 2 creatures there passively observing the battle with dull expressionless eyes. They were thin, angular bony things with scalloped ears and dull grey skin.

"I'll bet those creatures are making the illusions." thought Ember. "If I kill them, the illusions will go away."

With that thought, Ember made a faint toward her double, then ran past it toward the 2 creatures along the wall. Her double aimed a vicious attack at Ember's back, but it missed. As Ember closed on the strange looking creatures, he saw them change in an instant. As Ember raised his sword to attack them, he now saw that he was fighting 2 more Embers! Now there were 4 Embers in the room. This was far to many Embers for the real thing to deal with. Ember screamed, turned around and fled from the room. Stallen had been trading blows with his double and not having much success. As Ember ran past him screaming, Stallen fled too.

They both ran across the other room and out the door.

"Shut the door! Shut the door!" screamed Ember and Krom slammed the door shut.

"What did you see Ember?" asked Victorex.

It took a few moments for Ember and Stallen to regain their breath sufficiently to tell the others what had happened. They told them about seeing themselves and Ember told them with a trembling voice his horror at seeing himself duplicated 3 times over.

Timber thought "So this is the 3rd level. Lots of nothing and then the weirdest thing we've seen in a long, long time. I don't like it so far".

And with that thought, it was time for the fantasy world to fade away. The players of Local 509 packed up their cars and returned to their lives in the real world.