Hops and Frank, seeking clerical relief for the Kragdigger souls, reach Mithral Hall ahead of the caravan only to find the front door closed. Hops knocks with a cadence and force conveying his disdain for the dwarven inhospitality. A plate slides open so that Hops can announce his business to see Queen Waybeard. The exchange is merely pro forma as Mithral Hall is closed to all visitors, however highly placed.
Hops proposes to enter Mithral Hall through a treacherous, secret entrance known to dwarves. The adventure will probably treacherously kill whichever half of Frank isn’t dwarven; probably best to wait for the rest of Charlie Company to catch up to them before attempting it, otherwise it’s big trouble in little china, as the dwarves say.
Hops and Frank ride back to reunite Charlie Company. Briar briefs the situation to Vesper Othuro who emphasizes that access to Mithral Hall is essential to the caravan’s success and concurs with the plan to leverage Hops’s potential to navigate the treacherous, secret entrance. Master Brand furnishes a diplomatic pouch to grease the wheels of diplomacy just in case Charlie Company succeeds.
Sqyylarr easily leads the party to the stone face where the entrance should be. Hops finds the edges of the door and prayerfully pushes in at the center of mass revealing a treacherously dark passage. Dynamic torches and Ander’s light spells are produced for the visually challenged.
Watc leads the party recursively along the left wall of the treacherous, narrow maze. Dwarven runes at the intersections document warnings and promises to Hops who accordingly makes suggestions to omit certain passages as they navigate deeper. A large mural depicts a famous battle with the drow at Mithral Hall. Spider webs, possibly symbolic of the drow, notes Ander, become ominously more prevalent. Frank’s excellent darkvision allows him to quickly probe ahead where he finds several large spiders who surround and attack him.
The party engages and defeats the spiders with ease except for one especially maternal spider who lassos Sqyylarr and treacherously drags her off into the darkness. The party pursues leaving behind poor Barika, treacherously stuck in webbing.
Briar locates pinned Sqyylarr who has become a feast for swarms of baby spiders. Sqyylarr escapes the webbing. Ander discovers that baby spiders are especially easy to kill. The mother spider escapes. Hops, guided by runes, suggests an alternate route.