Having finished investigating the monastery's library / archive, the party exit through the eastern door of the room. Beyond is a short passageway that leads to a t-intersection, heading north and south. To the north is a room containing an archway mounted with an iron plaque, which bears the same warning as before - that those who pass must be "draped in respect" and "speak [their] name for the scribe of the dead". There are three more rust-colored hoods hanging next to archway on pegs. The party decide to leave the area alone for now and head to the south.
To the south is a door, while the passage continues onward in a winding and twisting manner. The party continue down the passage, but they are wary of goblins, as their map indicates that the first group of goblins that they heard are somewhere nearby. Indeed, after they follow several bends, they hear the sound of goblins in the distance, and they decide to back off and investigate the door near the intersection.
Through the door is a room whose only feature appears to be a series of concentric iron rings inlaid into the floor. The innermost circle is two feet in diameter, while each successive circle is a foot larger, until the largest circle is twenty feet across. The party are unsure what to make of this; Zedlyn walks in and throws a book fetched from the library into the inner circle, but nothing unusual happens. The party decide to leave this room alone.
Evaluating their options, the group next decide to investigate the pressure plate that they had backed off from before. Zedlyn attempts to trigger it by pressing down on it with his trident from a distance. It works - the plate is a pit trap that opens up, and Zedlyn manages to keep his balance and not fall in. Peering across, the party can distinguish the glittering form of another iron statue. Adokas tosses his rope across with a grappling hook and snags it on one of the statue's legs. The entire party give the rope a pull, and it seems quite secure. Adokas fastens the other end to a nearby door handle, making a line across the open pit, which he uses to shimmy over to the other side.
The room across the pit contains, apart from the aforementioned statue, a large iron cage occupied by a decomposing skeleton attired in elaborate robes. Lorcan tosses a scalpel (earlier salvaged from the embalming supplies) across to Adokas to use as a makeshift lockpick, and after a minute or so of work, he manages to get the cage open. Investigating the skeleton more closely, it appears to have been gnawed on by animals. It doesn't have any valuables or anything else of interest upon it. Untying the rope from the statue, Adokas leaps back across the pit, catching the edge. The rest of the party help him up.
With their remaining options the rats, the goblins, and the catacombs, the party decide to go after the rats, despite their earlier assumption that they probably don't have anything of value. The arrange themselves at the door where they heard the chittering sounds. Zedlyn flings it open and Sharla throws the torch into the room, hoping to surprise and frighten the rats. The rats, eight of them in total, have the opposite reaction, and flood out of the room to attack the intruders!
As the rats swarm around them, Zedlyn attacks with his trident, Lorcan with his daggers, Iriellis with her flail, and Adokas with his fists. Sharla, standing safely to the side, summons up tendrils of darkness which appear from her hands to strike at the rats. The creatures are defeated in fairly short order, with only Zedlyn sustaining any injury from the rats' bites. Iriellis heals the damage with a healing prayer, and the party move in to investigate the room. Unfortunately, their earlier assessment seems to be correct - there is nothing of value in the room, only garbage, fragments of smashing furniture, the rotting carcasses of half-eaten animals, and rat droppings.
The party decide that they will finally brave the catacombs. They move to the room containing the offering bowl and ceremonial instruments, and they attire themselves in the rust-brown hoods. They take the instruments with them, with Sharla replacing their torch with the ceremonial lantern as their light source. As they pass through the door, they each state their name and their purpose, as the plaque warns that they should.
Past the door, the character of the walls changes, more resembling a worked cavern than the fully man-made cellars of before. Additionally, each character can feel a strong supernatural presence as they step into the passage. The walk forward until the passage ends in a t-intersection; to the north the cave continues onward, but to the south there appears to be complete, impenetrable blackness. None of their light sources seem able to pierce it, including the ceremonial lantern. The rest of the party back away, leaving the gnomes Sharla and Zedlyn waiting in the darkness for their darkvision to return, but when it does, it is equally incapable of seeing through the darkness. Unable to see to the south, the group decide to head through the north passage instead.
To the north is a cavern containing an open treasure chest flanked by three iron statues; there is a passageway leading further north with an inscription above it. Sharla moves forward to read it; it is a warning that beyond is the "Eater of the Dead, imprisoned eternally". Lorcan goes to check out the chest, but as he approaches, a giant tick drops down from the ceiling and lands on him, trying to bite him.
The group erupt into chaos; Zedlyn charges forward and tries to help Lorcan pull the tick off and Sharla tries to scare it away by waving the lantern at it, while Adokas tries to attack and Iriellis fires her sling at it. Unfortunately, in the confusion, Iriellis accidentally hits Lorcan instead, and everyone else's actions are ineffectual. The tick gets to Lorcan's throat and takes a bite; he goes down, severely injured. With Lorcan down, Zedlyn switches to his trident and attacks, striking a powerful blow that badly injures the creature. It tries to skitter away, but he and Adokas pursue it. It is slower than they are, so they easily catch up, and Zedlyn strikes it with a second, killing, blow.
Lorcan is down and quickly bleeding out; Iriellis casts what healing magic she has left, but it isn't strong enough to close the wound, only to delay the inevitable - at this rate, Lorcan has under two hours left. Repurposing one of the large wicker baskets from the embalming room as a stretcher, the group head out back towards town, hoping to make it to the healer in time.
Adokas, the fastest party member due to his monk training, is sent out ahead to warn the healer of their arrival, while Zedlyn and Sharla take the basket and Iriellis follows along. Adokas makes it to Asuna without difficulty and the healer begins preparing; Zedlyn and Sharla are much more taxed by the trip but manage to keep up a good pace. Iriellis can't keep up with them and is forced to drop behind.
When Zedlyn and Sharla arrive with the litter, the healer is waiting for them and he immediately gets to work. But the wound is too severe, and it is beyond his skill to fix; within the hour, Lorcan dies of his wound.
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