Alpha Company pokes around the octagonal room of sundry books and barrels. Some barrels contain provisions, but at least one that Scram opens contains a biting swarm of rats. Nala blenders her greatsword around the barrel grinding up the rats. Tango finishes the swarm and chastises Scram for opening barrels.
Ssatschia listens at the door to the north and hears stone-on-stone dragging and thumping. The party readies violence. Ssatschia bursts through the door into the midst of ambling stone skeletons. Turning undead destroys two of them. Snory follows and destructively turns two more. Scram firebolts out number five and the last skeleton must pay Ssatschia’s death tolls. Snory collects a sample.
The room’s original purpose appears librarian in nature. A tent, a month-extinguished campfire, decomposing food, and the candid “statues” of three campers suggest the recent presence of adventurers meeting basilisks. Carelessly strewn books suggest a non-academic vocation for the petrified adventurers. The abundance of valuables [75 gp, 3 healing potions, 3 brewed basilisk potions of 2 uses each] within a locked chest, picked open by self-compensated [sleight of 5 gp] Tango, attests to a much more lucrative vocation than academia. A single non-petrified corpse, not dissimilar to the petrified others, appears to have dropped a book of healing [15 of 20 charges remaining]. Snory spoons the corpse for a chat and learns he was here attempting to restore his bandit cohorts, petrified by a basilisk from that west door, for gang leaders Big Al and Larry. Larry, being a highly unusual name in this region, most likely identifies the hunter camped along the road with the brothers Darryl.
Despite Scram repeating appeals to explore west for the possibility of a 100 gold piece basilisk head, Moth and Nala take a southward door into some natural caverns ominously decorated with spider webs. While Snory is delayed by a sudden urge to grab some regional bandit maps off a table, the party engages three spiders that unsurprisingly drop from the high ceiling. Nala is momentarily held by webs but breaks away and retorts with some fatal dragonborn firebreathing and greatswording followed by some surged javelin throwing. Birdman Scram unnerves a spider so badly it manages to tangle itself. Moth, a little short to reach the ones on the ceiling, nevertheless gets several hits in. Tango’s uncanny ability to sneak shortsword attacks even in plain sight gets most of the work done, and his deft fingers liberate the gold and potion contents of another chest.
Snory, catching up from the wrong direction, tolls death on a spider fleeing the battle which alerts several more lurking spiders. The nearby party charges to the rescue and exterminates the clutter of spiders. Nala expertly frees Snory from the web.
The delay finally exceeds Scram’s patience. Mimicking the clink-clink of the 100 gold pieces he will soon collect, he dashes away back to the basilisk door. Not entirely certain what just happened, Tango tracks Scram and the party catches up.
Through the door indicated by the deceased bandit, the party threads its way through a passage into a disarrayed altar room. Tango hears the distinct hissing growl of a threatened and alert basilisk in a south tunnel and gazingly runs right at it. Tango gets his sneaky lick in, but predictably begins turning to stone. Ssatschia blesses the melee inclined party members to help ward the basilisk’s gaze. Satisfied with Tango’s deteriorating predicament, the basilisk goes to work on Nala next with bite and tail slap. Nala returns mighty greatsword slashes. But don’t count Tango out; he gets another sneak attack in before falling over on his stone feet. In a process that fantasy epidemiologists still don’t understand, prone Tango’s stone turning goes into remission. Scram’s advanced witchbolt fatally drains away what is left of the basilisk.
Not likely to be disturbed in a known basilisk lair, the party take a much-needed snooze. Medically proficient Snory removes the 100 gold piece head for Scram and the glands and organs needed for brewing basilisk potions.