Stalfor and Marina dragged Everett’s limp body back up the stairs they had fallen down, followed by Viper, Kage and Gandalph. As they had been swept down the hall, they had noticed a door that was near the portcullis, on the other side of the hall from the lever. They found the door to be stuck, but Stalfor fixed this by charging head first into the door. The door didn’t open, but the rotted wood was no match for the dwarf’s head. Going right through the door, Stalfor then plowed headlong into a well sitting in the middle of the hall. With a grunt he fell over, holding his head.

“Are you ok?”, asked Billard, helping Stalfor up.

“‘Course I am! Notin’ can break me rock head! ‘Special not some dumb ass well.”, he ranted as he rubbed his head.

“There’s just something about doors that make them susceptible to dwarf heads.”, said Gandalph, as he climbed in through the hole.

The party continued down the hall until they came to a room that was blocked by another portcullis. Stalfor and Viper got on each side and successfully lifted it up while the others ducked and ran beneath it. They came into a room filled with many worn away statues, some of natives, others of monsters. As Stalfor came in to take a closer look at the stone masonry, he turned to see something slithering to his side. A snake slithering on the other statue spit a line of poison in Stalfor’s eye. The dwarf dropped his torch and cried out. Viper told the dwarf to keep quiet and then took two steps to the statue and chopped the snake in half. Marina took a look at the eye and then placed her hand over it casting a spell. Her hand glowed momentarily and the dwarf’s vision was restored.

Viper pulled out a pole that was wedged between the ceiling and a dais on the floor, and a trap door above them swung open. As they climbed out in the priest quarters, three armed natives entered into the room, investigating the noise Stalfor had made. They began yelling and a general alarm went out into the temple area again.

Viper and Billard clashed swords with the first three that entered the room. Stalfor then came up, helping Marina pull Everett up out of the trapdoor.

As Marina pulled herself out, she said, “Wait! This must be where Kage and Greegan disappeared to! We have to go back for them!”

“No way now.”, said Stalfor, “They couldna be comin’ this way ‘cuz the door I busted down wuz jammed.”

Viper’s sword found flesh, but Billard was having trouble fighting his opponent. The third brought then stabbed Billard in the waist with a dagger made out of animal horn. Stalfor charged head long into that native, throwing the native to the ground. The dagger slid across the floor and the native could only raise his hands up in defense. Stalfor, kneeling directly on top of him, brought his axe down again and again, chopping directly through the native’s hands and into his face and chest. After three slashes, the native’s arms went limp. But the injury to his side had slowed Billard down, and as he fought the second native, he took another slash to the shoulder. Viper came up behind Billard’s opponent, and stabbed him through his back, and out of his chest.

The party then made a run for the exit. The natives had already begun piling down the staircases from the temple’s second level and charging at them. Viper and Billard were in the front of the line, but they stopped at the staircase to stop the tide of natives from getting down the stairs where they could easily block their only exit. Viper cut a spear in half with his saber before kicking its owner in the groin. Billard blocked an axe that was coming for his head and then slid his sword down the axe’s shaft to cut into wielder’s fingers. Meanwhile, Stalfor and Marina dragged Everett through the temple as fast as they could. But before Gandalph could get to the exit, a native charging from them from the other side of the temple reached him and clubbed the child in the head. Gandalph blacked out and fell to the floor. Handing Everett’s dead weight over to Marina, Stalfor charged after him, and cut down the native just as he was about to make the finishing blow to Gandalph. He then picked the mage up and threw him over his shoulder.

Viper and Billard had slain two natives each by the time Marina and Stalfor got through the exit and out of the temple. Now it was their turn.

“On the count of three, we run, all right?”, said Viper.

“Right.”, replied Billard.

Though he didn’t understand the language, one of the natives on the staircase figured out what they were going to do, and went on the defensive until they reached three. When Viper and Billard turned to run, he lunged with his spear in hand, impaling Billard in the back.

“Billard!”, yelled Viper. He stopped for a second, thinking to run back and help, but he could already tell that death was instantaneous. The native had gotten pierced his heart, and just to make sure, the one Viper had been fighting ran up and sliced open Billard’s next with his sword.

Viper turned back and ran for the exit.

Meanwhile, Stalfor had been loading Everett and Gandalph into the canoes when Gandalph woke up. He got out of the canoe and started running back to the entrance.

“What the hell- come back!”, yelled Stalfor as he went after him.

Several feet from the entrance, Gandalph plopped down into a sitting position and took off his boot. He reached in and pulled out a false bottom and then pulled out a magical brown stone he had hidden beneath it. The stone was diamond shaped and, kneeling before the entrance, he began to concentrate. Stalfor and Marina ran up next to him, but hesitated to grab him. Viper ran through the door, motioning for them to run, and yelling “Go! Go! Billard is dead! Go!”

Just as Viper cleared the temple’s entrance, a great stone column rose out from the ground and blocked it, closing the natives inside.