Tad led the way down the corridor. There were open rooms carved in the stone under the tower on both sides. The doors were all gone, and inside all the rooms, they looked into where piles of debris, wood dust, pottery, and sand. The corridor had several large clawed feet imprints, and Tad had his senses running out as far as he could manage. He felt several creatures of size were in front of them, down the hallway, but nothing was near.

After a dozen openings, they came upon one regular-sized door made from stone and metal. It was closed tightly. Tad could not see or sense any magic from it. Tad touched Galadinidú to the door.

"This door is not magically locked, and I can not open it. " said the staff.

"You can open magically locked doors? " asked Tad.

"No, I can open magically shielded doors. I can feel if they are magically locked," replied Galadinidú.

Tad sighed, " Galadinidú can't open it. Any idea? "

Lamriul moved up into the light, "I might be able to help. " Then the elf cast an earth spell. Tad heard a rasping clunk inside the door.

The elf pushed on the door, and it didn't budge, "I might be stuck in place, but I believe I have unlocked it. "

Tad moved up to help push against the door. With two of them pushing, the door started to slide in, making a loud grating sound as the old hinges gave way to the force. The door swung open to reveal a medium-sized room filled with the dust of age twenty feet across. Tad could see several stone shelves and a couple of racks holding swords that looked rusted and pitted. The group moved into the room, and Tad summoned another light that he sent over to the shelves. Several jars and a few mounds of dry rotted wood and cloth sat on them. Lamruil walked over to the rack of weapons to inspect them.

Tad spoke up, "We should leave these extra bags in here. We can eat here, then take enough for a second meal later. We leave the rest in here and shut the door until we come back for it. "

Tad could sense creatures much farther into the catacombs, but here, the dust has not been disturbed. Unlike the other rooms, this one should be able to keep their supplies safe.

Tad walked over to the door to examine the inside. It was just a simple latch that had held it. It was an up and down bar with a hole drilled near the end. Tad looked around the door and found a small hole in the door that was clogged with sand.

"This door was just latched. If the rope hadn't decayed, we could have just opened it," said Tad.

Tad cut a piece of their rope and threaded it through the door to the latch, tying it off. Good, now they didn't have to carry those double bags all over. That also meant they could sleep in here safely. He was tired, having been up all night and most of the day.

"Let's camp here, get some rest, and then explore deeper after. Try not to stir up any more dust," said Tad. He dropped his bags on the side of the room near the door. Then he lay down, resting his head against the two bags, and closed his eyes.

Tad awoke sometime later in darkness. He had heard scratching and could now sense several of the creatures from earlier beyond the closed and latched door.

He summoned a light to find Lamruil and Zanna sitting against the wall near him, looking at the door. Bubbles had stopped circling and just hovered near Zanna, and Nico was pacing back and forth in his cat form.

Lamruil smiled, "Glad to see your up. Those creatures want in this room. I wonder if they smell the food or us? "

Tad concentrated on the five creatures outside the door, "They feel like animals hunting. How large was the one you saw again? "

Lamruil stood up and grabbed his bow. He had three arrows in his quiver, " The creature I saw had short white hair. He picked the fruits up with five fingers that ended in claws, and it had a bushy tail with rings of color. I'd say fifty or so pounds. "

"I don't think they are going to go away on their own," said Zanna as she walked over to the rack of weapons and pulled out an iron bar with a round ball of metal on the end. She brought it back over, and Tad saw that the end had little rusted nubs where there were once spikes. The handle looked solid enough, and the end was lead. It was so dusty and corroded Tad couldn't see any shine.

Zanna tapped it a few times on the floor as the majority of rusty bits and dust fell off it. The handle was rust-free when she was done. Tad didn't know the metal. There was no magic coming off the weapon, though. The weapon thumped heavily against the stone floor. The creatures outside the door stopped scratching at it.

"All right then. Let's see who our visitors are, " said Tad as he walked over to the door to pull up on the latch. He had his staff in his right hand poised over his shoulder. He unlatched the door and backed up, waiting.

The door made the rusty hinge noise again as it moved an inch. Then the room was pandemonium as the door burst open, and five large white furry creatures jumped into the room, eyes reflecting red and sharp yellow teeth showing as they bounded into the room at Tad.

Tad brought down his Galadinidú across one as an arrow took a second. He heard a puff as Nico showed up behind the last one, already slashing his sharp claws across its back. Zanna swung her mace overhand onto the nearest giant Rodent. The weight of the mace crunched into the creature's back. A few moments later, all the creatures were dead and unmoving. They were seeping blood onto the floor. Tad and Lamruil pulled them out across the corridor into an empty room.

Nico had dressed again as the last of rodent bodies were moved, "You know, I think they can grab things with those tails. That first one wrapped it around my leg when I jumped it. "

Lamruil spoke, "That is prehensile then. They are furry and remind me of a forest creature, but their eyes didn't respond well to the light. I don't think they saw us more than just smelled us. They have some very long whiskers. We probably do not want a larger group attacking us in the dark. "

"They don't look like rats. Those orc mounts looked like rats with scales, and these are not rats. There might be a lot of them, though, if the constructs have been giving them food for centuries. " said Tad.

Tad had closed the door again and was opening a pack to get some food, "Was there anything useful on those shelves? "

"Everything is pretty much dust in here, Tad. A few of the weapons might be serviceable for metal, and I sensed no magic items back there. This might have been a guard post or storage for one. " said Lamruil.

Tad knew Lamruil also had magic sight, and he could use soulmancy. Tad would really like to get that haste and open lock spell. Tad decided to ask the elf about them when they were out of this catacomb.

The group ate and drank, then placed the bags on the shelves off the floor.

"Kettle do you know what those large rodents were? " asked Tad projecting energia into his bracer.

"Tad, I do not see a name in your book. It just said Dire Rodent. Perhaps you have to find an identity before it says what the creature was. I doubt it's just Rodent. Dire means bigger though, it is short for a more dangerous version. Any creature could become Dire given enough food to eat while growing up. It's a difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear. More food is almost always more size. Dire also means dangerous, so they tend to put Dire in front of the animal's name if it's much larger and attacks on sight." responded Kettle.

"Ok, then the rodents are hostile. At least the large ones will be. Good to know. " Tad thought about it. Hopefully, those are the largest.

He opened the door, and the group proceeded forward.

The group followed the tunnel, which turned a couple of times as more rooms came and went. They came to an intersection, and Lamruil pointed out the many rodent claw patterns in the dust. Tad could sense creatures to the left. A lot of them. Several hundred more.

Nico sniffed the air. "There is water and fungus that way." He pointed left.

Tad could not sense any creatures the other way.

"I sense many more of them to the left. The creatures are spread out. Let's check that way first." said Tad as he turned left and sent his lancer light ahead down the hall.

Tad could smell the musky smell of fungus now, similar to the dwarven cavern farms. It also smelled of animals, lots of animals.

Tad could hear chittering ahead. He didn't sense anything near them, though, and the creatures felt like they might be below them.

There was light ahead in the tunnel, not much, just a soft glow on a large opening. Tad released his light spell, which flashed out of existence. Tad was in front of the group now, and he was the only one with issues seeing in low light or darkness. He let his eyes adjust then slowly led the party forward, making as little noise as possible.

The group stepped out of the corridor onto a stone ledge that was carved into a balcony. Below stretching off for several hundred yards was a large cavern. Many of the tall mushrooms gave off light under them. Below the large tree-sized mushrooms were hundreds of Dire Rodents—laying, wrestling, and eating. The floor was littered with broken mushroom caps half-eaten and dark muddy earth. The smell was potent now, like a cage that hadn't been cleaned in months.

Tad could sense many more of the Dire Rodents down below than he could see in the dim yellow light of the mushrooms.

One of the dwarves from Hold had told Tad that mushrooms need sun or light, and this was why the dwarves always planted these light-giving mushroom trees through their food plots.

Tad didn't see a stair down from here, just a broken wall where one might have existed.

He nodded to back up, and the group went back into the corridor a few hundred feet to discuss a plan.

They stopped and stepped into one of the many rooms dotting the sides of the passage. Tad had summoned another light when he couldn't see the way.

"Ok, any ideas? Do you think we should try to go through there? " asked Tad.

Lamruil spoke first, " This might have been some garden or grotto for the artificers that lived in the tower. I don't see how we can handle so many of those creatures if they all started to attack at once. I didn't see any passages on the other side. "

"I second that thought, " said Nico. "I also don't see a reason to go down there. And it smells. The whole place smells of old feces. "

Tad nodded, then looked at Zanna.

"We could probably burn them out. I bet there are many tunnels down there we can't see that lead up to the surface somewhere. If these are the same ones taking the food the statues are harvesting, then there must be more tunnels leading up somewhere. This corridor is stone, and that room might have places that are not all stone." She said.

"You know, don't rats in the stories always grab shiny things? " said Nico starting to smile.

"Yea, but I'm not going to go digging through that room looking. Perhaps later. Let's try the other passage, " said Tad.

Tad led the way back to the crossroads. Then stood there looking for anything that might be the other direction. He didn't sense anything, so they continued ahead. They watched the floor for tracks.

Nico heard clanging and thuds ahead. They stopped, and Tad could sense statues. Lots and lots of statues.

He took a deep breath and continued forward.

They found a sizeable half-closed stone door that was the height of the hallway. The pounding was coming from behind that doorway. The dusty tracks didn't lead to the door. They led along the far wall across from the door and continued.

Tad was curious now. He could sense hundreds of the statues inside. He summoned and sent a lancer light into the room. He could only see the far side of the one corner, but what he saw had stunned him. Laying on the floor or leaning against the wall were statues. They were all broken. Some didn't move, and others aimlessly swung a leg or arm. Tad took a risk, stuck his head inside the doorway, and sent his other light into the room. Tad just stood there trying to take in what he was seeing. It was a large room of broken statues. He pushed the door open a bit more so the group could slip in. Tad looked out across hundreds of broken torsos and piles of broken statue heads.

To the right of the door was a single standing construct that had parts of a statue on a stone table. It was trying to push legs onto the broken torso over and over. They didn't attach, but the attendant statue just continued trying to connect them. Tad didn't think the legs matched the one on the table, and they were much larger at the waist .

Nico whistled softly, then said, "Well, you don't see that every day. "

The statue at the table turned to look at the group for a few moments, then went back to attaching the legs.

Tad wasn't worried about the statues coming to get the group. None of these could move more than a few inches at a time, and none seemed to pay them any attention. He looked around the room. Other than the table, the whole place was just broken statues. His light moved around the room, lighting up the far corners looking for a door or anything that might clue them in on how these things worked.

That was a lot of spirits to free, thought Tad.

Tad and his friends moved on, leaving the statues pounding away in the dark.

The group came to another sharp turn. The nature of the wall and floor changed. This looked more natural than carved. There were no more rooms in this corridor.

Tad scanned for any presence down the long tunnel. He briefly felt several creatures then a massive wave of energia assaulted him. He pulled back immediately and shielded his mind with soulmancy.

"Zanna, do you feel anything? " Tad asked this because the assault he just felt was very much like the one he had felt back before his capture.

Zanna nodded, "Devil. "

Tad knew that most demons didn't have soulmancy, and they were purely chaos magic. But they have a natural defense against it, which is a headache-causing attack against anyone using it around them, and a devil could cast more magic.

Tad took a deep breath, "Lamruil, I think you might get your chance to hunt demons soon. " said Tad as he started forward again.

***