Episode 2: Welcome to the Jungle!

You step through the temple door. In here, the floor is completely covered in a living carpet of filthy, disease-ridden rats which scurry away, but only as far as the edge of Ybus' light. The air is heavy with the stench of decay and rat piss. Down a short entry hall, you find yourselves in a squarish room, about eight paces across. On the wall before you is a mural, faded beyond any hope of recognition. There is nothing else of note here other than the four rough stone pillars that support the ceiling. Through a doorway in the wall to your left you glimpse stairs leading up. On the opposite wall, through an identical doorway, stairs descends into darkness. The thrumming sound seems to be coming from down there.

The rats do indeed shift along with Ybus' every movement.

The ravenous rats swarm over Baracus' offering, and the food is gone in moments. The vermin seem emboldened after that, edging a little closer, regarding you hungrily. A few brave ones nip at Erden's heels before they are kicked away.

You take the south door and descend the stairs deep into the rock. When you reach the bottom, the narrow passage doubles back north and leads to another rat-infested chamber. Broken pottery crunches underfoot here. In the far wall is an archway flanked by glazed jars as tall as Baracus. Similar jars stand in alcoves that line the short passage beyond. The constant thrumming is interrupted by the crash of breaking pottery, followed by an agonized scream like the one you heard earlier, then a strange buzzing that sets your teeth on edge. The sounds come from your right, where another archway offers a glimpse of a well or font of some sort in the room beyond.

Baracus: You turn east toward the sounds. By the light of Ybus' spell you see a circular room with a pit or well in the center. Apart from the one you are standing in, three other passages lead away from here. To the north and south are stairs leading a short distance up. East no doubt leads to the temple's main hall. From that direction flickering, bluish light seems to emanate. You call out, but there is no response. There is only the constant thrumming accompanied by a faint, erratic buzzing.

Ybus: As you move your light about, you note a glint in the gaps between flagstones (where the rats are not obscuring). The floor appears to be inlaid with copper. But not for aesthetic reasons (there is no artistry at all in the patterns), and the inlays appear to be a recent addition to this otherwise ancient structure.

Erden: A spark in the north hall catches your eye, forcing you to give the hall of jars a second look. You notice something rather odd: from the top of each jar stick out two metal rods. As you look, a ghostly spark crawls up a pair of rods before dissipating.

Baracus: Your orcish sight allows you a glimpse of more of this temple's secrets. Evenly spaced along the circumference of the well room are four metal statues depicting horribly disfigured individuals. In addition to two of them having rat heads, all appear to be afflicted with some disease or other, riddled with boils or weeping sores of some unknown pox, or stand on twisted limbs. The stench here is unbelievable, and it's concentrated in the well.

Though you retch and your eyes begin to water, you see that the stairs to north and south only go up half a dozen steps before reaching a landing. More jars line the walls up there.

You glimpse the columned main hall beyond the low east passage. You'll have to get closer to see more.