Alagon dived into the pool, using his ability to breathe underwater that he had acquired in the Tomb of the Holy Avenger. Alurax joined him and they investigated the silver disc. Gullhar checked the room for secret doors but found nothing. Then Larsh the polar bear joined the swim party.
Gullhar called Elysia into the pool to see if casting a Reduce spell would help. She did just that and together with the water, the entire party (sans Lydia) fell a hundred feet down a shaft into another room, forty feet high. Just below the ceiling of that room was a passageway, but they could not (initially) reach it. Elysia used a Fly spell to take Gullhar up to the opening. Unfortunately there were two large iron doors blocking the way, leaving only a five-foot ledge on which to stand. Alurax was flown up next and together with Gullhar, took hold of the rings on the doors and pulled hard. The doors fell forward and both characters leapt out of the way to avoid being crushed – only to fall over the edge and back into the water again.
Elysia then flew the party back up to the passageway again, taking Gullhar a little way beyond the doors. Larsh was turned back into a figurine so that he could more easily be carried. Some way down the passage, there was a pit, fifteen feet across. From it came a dull red glow and – so Alagon sensed – a strong feeling of evil.
Lydia suggested using both of the iron doors to narrow the gap so that they could leap across. This they did and moved ever onward, finding two alcoves that at first they thought were side passages. Through a process of experimentation, they discovered that the alcoves were zones of complete silence. There did not seem to be much point to the alcoves, so the team ignored them and moved onwards. Meanwhile Alurax seemed to come over all weird but nobody else noticed.
At the end of the passageway, they came to a large octagonal room, with one other exit. In the middle of the room was a large pillar at its centre. The pillar was attached to the floor and ceiling and had pieces of jet and sapphire embedded all over it. Alagon sensed evil again but it was unfocused and he couldn’t tell exactly where it was coming from. Using triangulation, he managed to locate its source somewhere beyond the wall of the chamber. How to get to it was another matter.
They took the exit passage and slowly moved along it. They came to what appeared to be a curtain of bronze fabric hanging from the ceiling and gingerly edged past it. Beyond that was another curtain, this time of silver fabric. Again, the party carefully slipped past, concerned about a trap. Finally, ahead Alagon saw a gold curtain hanging down and took out his ten-foot pole to probe it in case it was a danger to the party. Unfortunately for him, it was – a curtain of yellow mould which sprayed its spores straight at him as he poked it with his pole. His reaction was too slow to avoid the spores, which flooded into his lungs, killing him in a choking agony of sickly yellow sputum.
The party was horrified but had little time to react before Gullhar took out his time egg and used it to wind back time to the point at which Alagon was just examining the bronze curtain. He explained what had/was about to happen. Realising that they faced a grave danger, Elysia proposed that they retreat to the pillar room to consider their options.