After an uneventful night in the castle keep, the party wakes refreshed and ready for action. They make their way to the portal room, and despite some brief confusion as to how Borngray died, are soon standing ready in the portal circle. Shazz'm speaks the activation word... The outside world fades away as the portal effect takes hold. The blackness seems to last forever, until eventually you feel a sense of fundamental wrongness as a hellish red landscape begins to slowly come into view. Devils of all shapes and sizes caper around just outside the portal circle, shouting insults and dire promises of pain, and you begin to feel an oppressive heat. Just as it begins to feel completely real, there comes a mighty beam of light from above, scattering the devils and blinding you. You hear the rush of mighty wings, a cool breeze blows away the heat, and you once again feel the portal take hold. When your vision clears, you stand in a familiar place...just outside the mouth of a cave, looking out over grain fields. A path leads away from the cave, meeting a road in the distance. You all hear a voice, as if coming from far away: “The servant of my servant awaits your assistance within the earth. Save him, and be rewarded.” Everyone is suspicious after their first experience in this location! But the cleric's insight reveals no mental coercion this time, so they decide to investigate the cave and look for this "servant of my servant." They enter and Induris quickly spots a group of deep gnomes standing guard. The gnomes challenge the party in the name of their lord Domborcojh, so Induris tries to convince them that he serves the same master...a deception that the gnomes immediately see through. In the subsequent battle, most of the gnomes are quickly dispatched, but one survives long enough to call an earth elemental! This quickly hammers the Kenku into the floor, but the cleric is able to revive him and eventually the elemental is chipped apart. Pressing forward into the cave, the adventurers encounter several strange beasts who stand immobile near the cave walls. But as Varcus approaches, who is carrying the most wealth in gold and jewels, they stir and begin to approach him. Thinking quickly, the others tell the mage to toss his jewels in the far corner of the cave. The beasts go after the jewels and the party is able to pass safely. Through a short tunnel, the cave widens into a large area which is covered in spider webs. There is a narrow clear pathway down the middle, and most of the party carefully makes their way through without disturbing the webs. Varcus brings up the rear and accidentally trips halfway through, disturbing three spiders who come down off their webs and attack! The mage is slightly injured but the rest of the party is able to quickly defeat the spiders, allowing him to finish making his way through...and he trips again, bringing down three more spiders. These also are quickly defeated, but there is some grumbling from the others about the mage's inability to walk straight. A long, narrow passageway leads further into the cave. Induris scouts ahead and spots a trap on the floor, easily disarming it before it could drop rocks from above. At the end of the passage, he sees a cage with four prisoners, and a group of guards. The party decides that there is no opportunity here for diplomacy, and moves forward to the attack! Surprise initially carries the battle in favor of the adventurers and the nearest guards are easily overcome. But several more come from the back of the cave, overwhelming the monk and leaving the others hard-pressed. One guard looks familiar...it's Coboj, the same who led them against Demast, now returned to guard his master's prisoners. Coboj has a particular dislike for Shazz'm and singles him out for attacks, but most are ineffective and the others are able to contain him long enough for the cleric to once again revive the monk. Suddenly there is a roar from one of the other guards, as he recognizes Brin! Shouting vile insults about Brin's family and manhood, he throws caution to the wind and recklessly attacks. Brin recognizes his weapon as the Blood Axe which had been stolen from his family, and meets the challenge head-on. This breakdown in the enemy ranks works to the advantage of the adventurers as they are able to pick off the disorganized guards one after another. The barbarian guard falls, gasping a curse on Brin with his last breath. Finally, the last to fall is Coboj, and the chamber is clear. Brin takes his Blood Axe off the corpse of the barbarian guard, taking a moment to kick the body and spit on it. A quick search finds the cage key on Coboj's belt, and the prisoners are released. Three are simple farmers from the surrounding villages, but the fourth is Jardef, who introduces himself as "an armorer, servant of Chelnadatilar." Having found the servant spoken of by the mysterious voice, the party heads back to the entrance. Varcus uses 100 gold pieces to distract the wealth-hungry beasts again, and they exit the cave without further incident.