Card this morning was the hierophant, my favorite card because it's associated with prophecy. Follow the rules, but turn a blind eye to the ones that don't make sense. Mazzah's spell found the two swords were not magical, so not much of a treasure for days of torture in the Black Forest. Anister stuck his finger in the potion we found in the dungeon, and tasted honeysuckle, which he said was used to assuage pain. It might be a healing potion. We convinced Shacknub to join us, since Clarisse was still convalescing.

We headed out to the main dungeon entrance, sneaking past an insect swarm over a bloated corpse of … something. We didn't look closely. I secured a rope around a pillar so we had a second rope in case we need an expedient exit. I had to catch Shacknub when he fell, and we both took minor injuries, but he's not dead like he would have been. The guys wanted to go south, despite the fact that Morrigan and Vrak said they were going to try to bait the black ooze that way, and never came back. They promptly opened the door to the rat room. Which, of course, had many, many rats in it. Apparently they forgot the rats were there.

Anister killed one. I killed another. Shucknub cast sleep and the remaining rats fell asleep. Anister snuck in to grab a pouch he saw. The pouch had about a hundred silver pieces. Searching the room with the boot tracks, which Anister determined that the person took off the boots, we heard footsteps, which resolved to two sapphire skeletons. Shacknub hit one with magic missile. Bancroft tried to turn them, dissolving one. The gem tinkled to the ground. I wanted to run, but Bancroft was determined to try to turn the second one again. He picked up the gem and gave it to Shacknub to throw in the rat room, so it regenerated in with the rats. The skeleton knicked me. Before we could do anything, the other skeleton regenerated right off and attacked at the same time. I ran. We don't have magic weapons, we can't kill these things.

The guys had all sorts of complicated plans involving opening the rat door so the rats (hopefully) attacked the skeletons and not us, having Shacknub hit the gem with magic missile, and Bancroft turning again. But Bancroft dropped his sword, and the gem was going to reconstitute before anyone could pick it up. I couldn't talk sense into them. One got turned and ran, and with a sigh, I engaged to help try to hit and destroy the gem. Anister gave Bancroft his sword. I hit the dissolving blow, and Shacknub hit the gem with magic missile, destroying it. I picked up some shards of the gem. Bancroft went after his sword, saw a new body in the stinky room, and ran back to help pick up gem shards.

I still wanted to run, but Bancroft insisted on picking up all the gem shards. By the time we finished that, the second skeleton came back and Bancroft's sacred flames on the sword were out. Out of desperation, I whaled on it and dissolved it. Shacknub hit it with magic missile, but didn't break the gem. Anister shot the gem, but still didn't break it. Bancroft missed. I missed. Shacknub missed. Anister hit it with another arrow and shattered it. We picked up the other gem pieces, figuring all the shards were worth 30 gp.

Finally, we could go. But I was so anxious to leave that I slipped on the rope and fell. Bancroft caught me. Anister healed me a little, and I managed to climb up. Anister fell twice before he climbed up. I tried to pull Shacknub up, but the rope slipped out of my hands. I finally pulled him up. Bancroft tied the second rope around him, and pulled himself up with the block and tackle, but he fell. Anister dropped down the mystery honeysuckle potion while Bancroft started taking off his plate mail. The potion was indeed a healing potion. Bancroft climbed up and put his armor back on.

We made it safely back to town. We sold the gem shards and the elven shortswords. Headed to bed to heal up.