Asmund came across the ruined fort in the woods, and started to investigate. He was particularly interested in the remains of the orc.

Orodreth was similarly passing through the forest, looking for a rumoured place where nature has been twisted. He happened to come across the ruin, and after watching Asmund for a bit, he stepped out and introduced himself and asked about Asmund.

Aestas Luceat was heading towards the ruins to make camp when his raven saw smoke, so he sent his raven ahead to check it out. The other two didn’t see the raven flying overhead.

The Monk headed up the stairs to obey the call of nature, leaving Ylva and Kobe on guard over Ragnar and over Horace’s corpse. Coming back, he heard Asmund and Orodreth talking, so went to see who they were. He explained that he was part of the group who had killed the orc and that his friends were below.

At this point Aestas came out of the trees and joined them, and the group started exploring the areas The Monk hadn’t seen before.

Asmund nearly fell down a hole covered by undergrowth; nearby they came across an overgrown staircase winding down, so they followed it. It led to a flooded chamber below, lit by daylight streaming down through the overgrown hole Asmund had nearly fallen down. Orodreth, who was leading, didn’t fancy getting wet, so The Monk led the way, followed by Asmund and Aestas, and Orodreth eventually allowed himself to be persuaded to join them. As they made their way across the room, chest-deep in water, first Asmund and then The Monk slipped in the slime and debris on the floor. Aestas and Asmund felt things brushing against them, but it wasn’t clear what.

Then Asmund spotted a gleam in a heap of rubbish in the far corner, waded towards it and started climbing the pile. it soon became clear what the things brushing against them were, as the snakes who lived there attacked to defend their nest.

A battle ensued, made harder for the group by the treacherous footing. Orodreth called for everyone to get out of the water, and cast Shocking Grasp into the water. The Monk managed to stay out of the water by holding himself up between two walls on a doorway passageway, Aestas and Asmund managed to get out next to Orodreth, and the snakes were shocked out of the water and then dived for their home. It didn’t take much longer to finish them off, however, and Asmund managed to climb the mound and found that the gleam was coming from a diamond embedded in the muck on the top.

They then exited through the door where The Monk had managed to hold himself up out of the water. This brought them near to the place where the others were guarding Ragnar, but The Monk felt like exploring further, so they passed it by and went along the corridor to the opposite end, taking a door on the same side which led into an old set of storage rooms. These had rotted barrels and storage boxes which had obviously at one time held foodstuffs, but equally obviously it had been a very long time ago, and even the wood of the barrels and boxes was completely rotten, leaving only some small animal bones on the floor. However, there was a dim glow from the opposite end of the set of rooms.

Going nearer, they saw the walls and ceiling of the final chamber were covered in mushrooms of different colours, many of them glowing faintly.

There then followed some fun with mushrooms, which involved The Monk going beserk, then getting depressed, getting blissed out and getting ill from too many mushrooms. Others also got involved, but more circumspectly. After harvesting a few for later, the group discovered that passing the mushrooms led them back to the flooded room, so they headed in the other direction and, after an altercation with a giant spider, found some dead bodies and a live one wrapped up. Sergi decided to cut the live body free, and it turned out to be an orc who took advantage of being freed to try to escape. A quick blow by The Monk stopped him again, and they tied him up.

And at that point we stopped for the night.

Special thanks to Heroic Maps for the inspiration and map on which this session was based – the Dungeons of Mydstep Keep (map of the month March 2018).