As the session begins, the party are standing to one side of an open pit trap, with Zedlyn and Flossaria just having been rescued from it and healed of their injuries. The statues cannot pass the trap, but Adokas slips by to inspect the room beyond. It turns out to be a mid-sized room with no exits and no occupants, filled with alcoves like so many other rooms in the catacombs. Adokas gives the alcoves a cursory inspection but finds nothing obviously amiss. The group discuss performing a more thorough search of the room, but Arik points out that their time is running short, so they should focus on more important exploration.
The characters head back to the wide north-south passage that they passed by shortly before, and head to the south. The bottom of the passage has openings leading to the east and west, along with another pit trap that is spotted by Iriellis (which fortunately doesn't block either of the openings). The group pick the western opening, which leads to a passage the turns south then opens into another room full of alcoves.
A small side area of this room leads to a single, slightly larger alcove, which Iriellis steps forward to investigate. A clicking noise sounds out, and a dart shoots out of the wall at her, penetrating her armour and striking her shoulder. Iriellis collapses and the rest of the party rush forward to help her. Flossaria is unable to determine what's wrong with her, but Adokas takes a look at the dart and recognizes the substance that it's coated it. It's a poison distilled from a type of local spider, slow acting and not particularly powerful, but in rare cases, potentially fatal. Since Iriellis has a fairly weak constitution, everyone agrees that she needs immediate attention.
Unable to care for Iriellis here, the party decide to take her back to Asuna to get help from the healer. Arik points out that they don't all need to go; half of the party can stay behind to investigate areas that they skimmed over earlier. Flossaria lifts Iriellis's unconscious body to go and Zedlyn joins her, leaving Arik, Adokas, and Sharla behind.
As Flossaria and Zedlyn head out, the remaining group decides to head to the room full of inscriptions in the upper catacombs, so that Sharla can attempt to translate them. Arik and Adokas stand guard while Sharla works, a process that takes about an hour and a half. She identifies the runes as an archaic script used to write the Common tongue; the inscriptions themselves seem to be nothing more than a list of names. Sharla notes a few of the most recent names, to ask about back in town.
Meanwhile, Flossaria and Zedlyn have made it to the healer with Iriellis. He gets to work immediately, with Flossaria aiding him. After an hour or so of applying poultices, tonics, and remedies, he announces that the poison seems to be defeated and Iriellis should be fine, although she will not awaken for another few hours and definitely shouldn't adventure for the rest of the day.
Back at the monastary, the remaining trio head nearby to loot the chest of coins near the Eater of the Dead's apparent prison. While they're there, Sharla takes the opportunity to investigate the area of magical darkness some more. As she steps in, she hears something new: the faint, clicking sound of metal footsteps pacing. As she steps towards them, they stop, but she doesn't venture the courage to reach out and touch the source of the noise; instead, she attempts to address it.
At first, Sharla's attempts are completely unanswered, but after a dozen or so questions, the thing finally responds, telling her that she's wasting her time, and that it is merely a guardian against the Eater of the Dead. Questioning it along this line of inquiry finally gets it to respond more freely. When Sharla points out that there's actually a room between the darkness and the prison, where the Eater of the Dead could easily escape to the rest of the temple, the guardian responds that it knows the creature will come this way, because the Iron God lies beyond the darkness.
Sharla asks how they can pass through the darkness, and the guardian responds that they must merely "step forward with faith". She steps back and relays this information to Arik and Adokas, and they decide to try the guardian's suggestion. Stepping boldly forward into the darkness, the quickly pass through to the other side into a passage they've never seen before. There are a few short branches, but the main passageway leads forward to a smooth, solid iron wall, containing a featureless iron door with no obvious handle or other means of opening.
Sharla steps forward and announces that they wish to speak with the Iron God. This causes the door to smoothly slide upwards into the ceiling, and they step into the room beyond. It is a massive, circular iron chamber, lit by the glow of machinery placed all along the perimeter of the room. The chamber is dominated by a massive iron pedestal topped by a huge glass cylinder containing a near-opaque, greyish fluid. Tubes and wires run everywhere, connecting everything together.
The voice of the Iron God rings out from all around, questioning the characters as to why they have come. Sharla and Adokas question the Iron God, trying to get any information they can out of it, but it is reluctant to speak on most topics. It tells them that it can still sense the presence of many undead creatures in the catacombs, although not their exact locations. They request that it reverse the curse that turned the books in the library and the hidden chests to iron, but it refuses.
The Iron God rapidly grows tired of the conversation, requesting that the characters leave and continue their appointed task. Before they go, Arik steps forward and explains his predicament, asking if the Iron God would be willing to leave and accompany him to his homeland. The Iron God refuses, saying that it is bound to this place, and despite the trio's efforts, it apparently cannot be dissuaded. Arik dejectedly leaves the chamber, with Sharla and Adokas following.
Arik is upset that all of this effort is apparently wasted, since the Iron God will not leave this place, but Sharla points out that they have at least made some progress - at least Arik knows now that there are gods out there that can be directly met and spoken to. This one was unwilling to join him, but perhaps others in the future will be different. Furthermore, they have not yet accomplished the Iron God's task, so perhaps it will be more amenable to suggestions once they have finished clearing out the catacombs.
It is now evening, so the three adventurers decide to return to Asuna to rest up. When the rejoin the rest of the group, they divvy up the treasure and head to the inn to rest. The next morning, they'll need to meet with the merchant in charge of the caravan and convince him to stay in Asuna for another day.
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