Elaryan's dimension door lands him and his comrades in a completely flooded chamber. The heroes are submerged in a cold, brackish water, forced to hold their breaths as they beat uselessly on the chamber's ceiling. Not even a tiny pocket of air is found. Moments later, a couple of gillmen swim into the room and attack with tridents! They do not detect as evil, but nonetheless fight ferociously, ignoring arthas's pantomimed attempts at sub-aquatic diplomacy. Unprepared and over powered, the party grabs onto one another and dimension doors back to the dungeon's second level. Lor, Nor, Xhotl, and Asteris are syill there in the sewage treatment facility. Oddly, as the heroes materialize, they find Nor and Asteris huddled in a corner, having a quiet converstation. Lor sits listless on Xhotl, while his twin welcomed the wet, bedraggled explorers back. Asteris seems upset that they have wasted time fighting gillmen, rather than searching for the golden skull. The party decides to return to the submerged chamber. They each take a deep breath and once again dimension door straight down. The gillmen sentries are still in the room, and a furious underwater battle ensues, in which Eovan is slain. After defeating several of the sentries, Malak attmepts to explore another chamber in the submarine complex, but this one contains the gillmen's master: a large, floating eye of the deep. The eye uses stun blasts and eye rays to incapacitate Malak and dominate both Arthas and Elaryan. It looks like the heroes may have met their end. Fortunately, the panic of drowning brings clarity to Elaryan's mind in his final moments, allowing him to throw off the effects of the eye's domination. He teleports Arthas back to the treatment facility, where Asteris uses her own domination powers to return the paladin to his right mind. Elaryan then return to the room and rescue Malak, who lies paralyzed on the chamber's ruble-strewn floor. Although Asteris and Nor are both eager for the heroes to return to their search, the other companions convince them that a respite is in order. They retreat to the facility's filing room, and after a night of recuperation and planning, decide to try for a more surgical strike. Although the death of Eovan has opened up a slot in the exploration team, neither Nor nor Asteris seems eager to join them. Malak, Arthas, and Elaryan join hands and dimension door. Fortune smiles upon them. Having lost so many of its sentries, the eye of the deep has retreated to a deeper part of the complex, and the initial chamber is uninhabiited. Using the skull compass, the heroes quickly locate the golden skull and return to the second floor. Having found the golden key, the party hurries back to Portal Island. Malak locks the skull into its niche, and the stone ring tranforms into a glowing portal, showing a sunlight-dappled forest floor on the other side. Arthas, Elaryan, and Nor all immediately dive through. Malak pauses at the edge of the portal and turns to Asteris. "What about you?" he asks. Asteris replies that she will wait here for a few hours, then cross through. The party does not have to wait for her; she will find her own way. Malak nods in understanding, then dives through the portal himself. As he picks himself off the forest floor, he sees Nor a few yards away. The halfling is holding up the fruiting body from the fungoid jungle in both hands. It has exploded, sending spores in all directions. "Be free, my pretties," Nor says. "Be freeeeee..." Everyone who played gains 15,000 XP. Everyone who did not gains 10,000 XP