Exploring we will go...

We continued exploring through the door to the south. We found a room full of moldering furniture. We found some valuable old coins, then moved on to the next room to the south. Here we found 3 more doors, one of which was blocked by a divan and nailed shut with pitons. We chose to leave that door for later. Continuing through the southern room we found a large room with a glowing rune etched in the floor and bones strewn all over. As we moved in to investigate the bones rattled and flowed together, turning into a fearsome looking skeleton of giant size! Rosa was able to identify this as a Skeletal Hulk. While seemingly mindless this creature definitely hit hard! We defeated it, but not before it almost dropped Graklak and Mel. After the fight Rosa was able to tell the runes on the floor seemed like some sort of conjuration magic, but nothing more than that. We discussed if we knew of a way to disable this magic, but came up with nothing. We rested and healed a bit, then opened a door in the south wall yet again. This led to stairs down. We chose to explore elsewhere first. One of the 3 doors to the west led to another long hallway. Here we found 3 more doors. The 1st had a bolt on the outside. Opening it, we found a small room that had been used as a cell. The 2nd door was much the same as the 1st, with a similar room. The 3rd door, at the end of the hall also held a small cell. We headed back to the rune circle room. We proceeded to the middle of the 3 doors in the west wall. In here was a mural wrapped around the entire 10'x25' chamber of fleshwarped warriors. Griska was able was able to find a secret door in the west wall. It led to a long, narrow corridor. At the end we found a room filled with more bones. Griska stepped in to smash one of the bones and was rewarded by a blade rising out of the floor & cutting his leg! Before he could react 3 more blades rose up and eviscerated him. Unfortunately, Sprite was on his shoulder as usual. He was also eviscerated. Graklak was able to pull them both back out of the room and use his Lay on Hands on Sprite, who then healed Griska. Mel, now that she was aware of the traps, started attempting to disable them. She disabled one blade before they sunk into the floor. We chose to heal up before she attempted to disable more. However, in this time Mel started feeling very sick. Sprite diagnosed she had contracted Fungal Rot and it had progressed very far already. She could be dead within 2 days if it was not cured. We decided to head back to town ASAP!
We were able to get her disease cured at the Dawnflower Library. Thanks Bandy! We headed back in, deciding to try a different path as we explored the 4th level this time. The 1st door we opened led to a serving room of some sort, with a display case on one wall. Mel found the words "They are watching you" scratched into the side of it and that it would also move, revealing a secret door. Opening it, we continued the passage beyond, with Mel searching for traps this time. In this area we found some sort of transparent walls where we could see through into cells similar to what we had found before. The 1st cell we found had some sort of sludge undulating back and forth on it's own. When we laid our hand on this cell wall we could hear the sludge moving back and forth. These clear walls detected as divination magic, according to Zebott. We continued following the hallway, watching for traps this time! Soon we came to a different entrance into the trap room. We decided to leave it for now and look elsewhere. We returned to the serving room we went through the door to the west. Soon, we found a wide hallway that twisted and turned before we found a very long, wide hallway that formed balconies with railings 20 feet above rooms below. Starting down hallway to the south Griska found a secret door in the wall! Inside they found that it was an empty room with a door that led out onto the trap room yet again. We then turned west and headed past the balconies. Here we found more stairs down. Ignoring them we turned north, finding 3 sets of double doors. The 1st set to the east contained shelves of dusty bottles and surgical equipment lined the walls of this room. An empty push cart stood in the room. We found some treasure amongst the items in this room. Turning across the hallway to the west we opened this set of doors, finding the remnants of a dead Morlock on the table, with chains hanging from the ceiling. It was missing both it's arms and legs. A ghostly creature came screaming towards the heroes! After a fight, where Mel was controlled by the creature and stabbed Graklak hard, the heroes defeated the creature. After the fight Griska recalled this was a Specter. They decided to rest for an hour to shake off the effects the creature had imposed during the fight. During this time we searched the room, finding nothing of much interest. Afterwards, we headed back to Otari to allow the magic users to recall their spells.
We spent a night resting in town, then headed back to the Gauntlight. Returning to the set of double doors we opened them to find another large room, with more pits in the floor & more chains hanging around the room. Off to the west we saw another of the blue-skinned humanoids with chains all over it. She did not hesitate, simply moving aggressively towards us. As Graklak moved in the hanging chains in the room all started to thrash around! He started out right though, sinking his Greatpick deep into her! The fight went well for us, with Griska also slamming his hammer into the creature, knocking her to the ground. By the time she tried to stand both Orcs whacked her, finishing her off. We rested a bit and then continued on. Opening the door to the east we found it led back to the beginning of the level. We turned back to open the double doors to the north. Along the way though Zebott managed to wander over some grating in the floor, sending them crashing into the pit below, followed by a nearby crane... He managed to catch the edge, but was then almost knocked off by the crane. He managed to barely hang on. We pulled him up, healed him up and continued through the double doors to the north. Here we found 3 cells with rotting flesh. The center one had a copper key clearly laying inside. Graklak bounced off the locked cage door trying to get it open. Luckily, Mel was able to open it with finesse! Graklak strode inside to grab the key, but was taken aback as a rotting fleshy creature rose up to attack him! Griska rushed to help him and the fight was on! As the heroes started to focus on it they were very unhappy to see 2 more rise up from another cell and attack! Rosa identified these creatures as Shangrigol Heaps, a type of Undead. These creatures were very gross, but not that hard to kill. We made quick work of them. We did not find anything further of interest. We healed up and continued on, heading to the south where we found a portcullis barring our way. We did not seem to be able to find a way to get it open. Sprite was about to go through a small broken part of the portcullis when he noticed through an arrow slit to the side that there was a lever in that room. Graklak decided to try to widen the arrow slit. Before too long a woman seemingly made of shadow came through a door on the other side of the portcullis to see what the noise was. The fight was on! She stood behind the portcullis, gaining greater cover from our attacks. Our melee stepped back and allowed our casters to blast away. Sprite ended the battle with a blast of holy might! We took some time and got through the portcullis. Beyond was a double door that we opened and continued in to the room beyond. 3 more choice of doors met us! There were 2 skeletons laying here, but they did not rise to meet us. The side doors led to 2 guard rooms and 2 archer rooms. Zebott found a secret door in one of the guard rooms. We also found a couple of talismans. Opening the secret door we followed the passage around to a door that opened on to a neglected bedchamber. Inside we found a magic hat, that Rosa identified as a Greater Hat of Disguise, a book and a pouch full of gems. Mel took a look at the book. She found it was very fragile. It turned out to be a book of poison recipes.
Continuing on to the door in the far side of the room we opened it to find some stairs leading down. We turned around, heading back to the double doors. Opening them we found a tunnel that quickly became rough hewn. After about 10 minutes we found the cavern had caved in. We made note of this cave in. Graklak felt it may be able to be cleared, but would take the group a day of hard work.
Returning to the room with the nailed shut door behind a divan we opened the other door we had not gone through. Inside we saw swirling runes carved into the stone walls. We recognized this as another teleportation chamber. Next we moved on to the nailed shut door. We pulled the divan aside & began pulling out the spikes holding the door shut. Inside we saw a glowing circle of runes on the floor. There was a splintered bed against one wall and we could see piles of parchment. A creature here that looked like a mummy wrapped in parchment papers. He spoke briefly with us before quickly losing patience and deciding to attack. This was a tough fight. We managed to defeat him but shortly after the fight both Griska & Mel fell ill, taking negative damage that could not be healed. We rushed back to town to seek help. Bandy at the Dawnflower Library was able to identify that they had both contracted Mummy Rot. She told them they needed to remove the curse before she could permanently remove the disease. We borrowed some horses & made haste to Absalom, where we were sure we could find help to get this curse removed. We headed to the Starstone Cathedral. The clerics of Desna there were willing to heal us. We donated 40 gp and they fixed us up!