As the night began, our adventurers stood at a crossroads, literally. Having following the map in the dead explorer's backpack to its conclusion, the party found a panel with holes that seemed to match the key they found. After some discussion of various interpretations of the riddle, a consensus was reached and the key inserted into the correct hole.
With a rumbling sound, the panel slid back into the cavern wall, and an entire portion of the wall rose up, revealing a short passage beyond. Entering the passageway, the group saw a large chamber, obviously man-made with dressed walls and a cobblestone floor. A glass case with something inside it stood at the far end of the room.
As they crossed the room, Areli was alerted by a faint rumbling that the floor itself seemed to be rising up behind them The party turned to face an odd construct that was made of the very flagstones of the floor! The creature attacked without a word, and the party was stymied for a while, as spells and weapons seemed to have no effect on the beast!
Finally, Lauryl slipped up to the giant rock monster and used the power of the runestaff she bore to disrupt the monster, temporarily dazing it and dropping its resistance. Without the magical protection, the party made swift work of the golem. Areli shattered it with a final blow from his javelin, sending pieces of rock flying across the room.
Investigating the only occupant of the room, the party discovered that the item in the case was an ancient dwarven axe made of adamantite and crafted by both dwarven and elven masters working in concert centuries ago.
After some deliberation, Tau remembered that his father had become famous for finding this same axe, and was on his way to the east when his caravan was waylaid by dwarven raiders who took the axe and left only Tau alive.
After searching the vault, the party retraced their steps until they saw the same fishman figure they had spotted tailing them during the last session. The fishman waved a dirty cloth in imitation of a peace flag, and motioned for the party to follow. Curious, the party followed him to a makeshift but substantial barricade that blocked a corridor the party had not explored.
After a bit of negotiating, the party agreed to kill a monster that had been threatening the settlement. The party was much more agreeable once they realized that they had already killed the creature in question, and merely needed to retrieve the head and find the daughter of the clan's warchief.
After some searching, and Areli's use of some summoned wind elementals to search for the girl, they located her hiding in a small cubbyhole. Despite some pleading and enticements, it took the presence of Graklah's father to convince her to come out. The clan rejoiced at the rescue of the girl and the destruction of the beast, and rewarded the group with some healing salves and the warchief's magical javelin.
The fishmen, who called themselves Skum (skoom), inivtied the dventurers to spend the night and the clan partied well into the evening, treating the party to a surprisingly good basilisk stew.
The following morning, the warchief and two of his warriors led the group to a passageway where other adventurers had been seen in the past. Choosing a direction, the party following the passageway to an opening into a large, dark cavern. It was here that the party decided to stop for the night.
