Evidently Brian had forgotten to apply something to Xeeile last time so we started with a save for her.  She missed the Fort save and took a little damage.  But was also Drained 1 which removes your level in hit points off the top which needs a long rest to recover.  And poisoned with another save in an hour or it gets one stage worse.  We started.  Oakwood opened the door to the south that the villain came through, figuring it was safe.  And had to make the same Fort save.  He crit failed and got Drained 2 plus modest damage.  Brisco did Treat Poison on them but that just gives +2 the eventual next save.  For Oakwood, he was starting down a 3^rd, most of which weren’t recoverable.  And we were already down TerStegan and most of our high level spells.  We also heard the screams again.  We did a quick search of the office of the boss from last time.  Amongst his papers were 3 scrolls and plans (i.e. maps) of levels 1-3.  More screams and we found a secret door.  And then another and entered a chamber.

We found a missing dwarf from town (side quest) chained to a stone table in the middle of a round room.  He was inside the blue light we saw a level up.  (Not to be confused with the blue light from the skeletons last time.)  He was unconscious, being harmed and healed over and over.  A skill challenge.  As usual, without initiative order, it was a bit chaotic.  We could not move the table or move him without unlocking him.  We knew the blue light meant significant damage.  Brisco immediately concluded that the copper bath tub in the last room would shield us but a Recall Knowledge from Xeelie said that wouldn’t work since it was already flowing through floors.  Oakwood thought he could unlock him with his Mage Hand if we could find the right key.  He had some keys we found along the way and tried the one that looked closest.  He had just determined it wasn’t the right key when it turned into a severe combat challenge.

A Will o Wisp attacked from invisible surprise.  It crit Xeelie and did 40 points.  Since she was already depleted from the leftover trap, she was at 1 hit point.  (It had an initiative of 33.)  It then thankfully missed Oakwood.  Oakwood then missed (it had an AC of 29!) and missed again.  He retreated/fled.  He’d need a 15 on his first attack and a 20 on his second to hit.  Xeelie also fled, facing the same long odds.  Clarisa pondered her spell choices and used Divine Lance cantrip.  She missed, by rolling a 19, due to partial cover from her line of sight.  Since casters were still only trained in combat magic and didn’t have magic weapons, they were 3 worse than the melee guys.  At least against AC but its saves were likely just as high.  She fled.  It moved to block the door back to the dining room, went invisible and attacked with lightning.  It crit Brisco but only did 25.  Oakwood missed twice and fled.  He ran through its square but it only cost double movement.  Brisco, after some convincing, fled as well.

Xeelie cast her focus heal spell on Brisco as she headed up the stairs.  Clarisa fled to the next level ending her movement next to the creepy reader in the lounge.  It moved at least 35 (60) and got next to Oakwood and Brisco on the stairs.  It attacked Brisco.  Since its to hit was +19, it hit Oakwood on a 3 and crit on a 13.  Others were higher or lower but it wasn’t good.  It did 29 to Brisco with a crit, taking him out.  Oakwood grabbed his body, leaving his dropped steel shield, and double moved onto level 3.  It continued to chase.  Any hopes of it staying on its level were dashed.  Xeelie activated her +10 to speed item and fled. Clarisa fled and jumped into her arms.  Brisco got 6 back.  Reset his initiative and stayed in Oakwood’s arms.  It moved, went invisible and attacked the winged fey and missed.  We continued to flee to level two.  Brian did a monster battle to see how that fight might end.

We had two with minimal hit points, still down high level spells, still two drained and poisoned.  Because the last 3 wouldn’t recover without a long rest, we decided to make for the cabin.  We wanted to make a heroic rescue of the dwarf but it was just a bridge too far.  At least it seemed that way to us.  Maybe at full strength and full numbers, we might have had a chance but we never hit it even once.  Back home, Oakwood and Xeelie saved against the poison.  We did two long rests to get the Drain back.  In that time, we sold what treasure we had accumulated since the last trip to town.  Oakwood and TerStegan bought +1 armor, borrowing money from Clarissa since she got her +1 armor as treasure.  Brian marked the side quest as failed and asked if we were going to tell his mother.  Since the players didn’t actually know he was dead, we did not.  Plus, maybe we could at least retrieve his body.  We then debated where to attack the dungeon next.  Armed with the maps, we could see the areas of level 3 that we’d skipped in our attempt to save the dwarf.  We’d go there.  With that scary looking dread knight thing lurking in that area?

We came in the usual way and took a peek at the fey.  He was still reading so it must have won the fight.  So, in retrospect and free of the panic fleeing of the moment, if we had taken a short rest, we might have been able to go save that dwarf after all.  Or be killed.  It’s so hard to know what’s hard and what’s impossible in this system.  The restricted section was mostly empty.  The next room to the north had been cleaned out as well.  There was a 15-foot statue that looked a lot like Belcora.  It seemed to be stitched together out of pieces of dead bodies.  The stink was even worse in this room.  TerStegan bravely crept in and lit it on fire.  As the room filled with smoke, we left and closed the doors.  Xeelie tried to seal the edges with old rugs with minimal success.  Brian seemed eager to punish us with the “fires in confined space” rules but the room was big, the ceilings high, the walls stone so it didn’t seem that dire.  TBD.

Meanwhile, we went south.  It took a bit to find the secret doors we knew were there from the map/plans.  That led to an underground grotto with our old friend, the Gibbering Mouther.  It was one of those “flee or die” monsters when it killed us at 2^nd.  Is it the same or has it been scaled up to 5^th to be impossible again.  We attacked.  At least we were full up and had TerStegan this time.  Brisco saved versus the confusion but not Clarisa.  She failed and attacked TerStegan and missed.  (Remember the good old D&D days when Confusion meant a random action.  In PE2, it means full attack on a random thing and since there were more of us than of it, our odds were not good.)  It went, firing goo at Ter Stegen, hitting once. At least he made his DC24 Fort save against the blindness.  TerStegan missed his Will save, used a hero point and made that save.  (At least those that save were immune for 10 rounds.)  TerStegan hit but because it was a slashing weapon, a new mouth appeared and attacked him back as a reaction.  That reaction did more damage than his attack.  Plus, TerStegan was taking persistent bleed damage.

Oakwood missed the Will save, used a hero point, missed again, used a hero point and missed again.  Thus confused, he attacked TerStegan, hitting once and putting Stun 3 on him.  Brisco hit it with a claw.  Clarisa missed her save, used a hero point and saved.  She hit it with a full load of magic missiles doing 42.  It attacked TerStegan and missed by his new magical armor bonus.  And flowed onto his square.  He rolled a 20 on his Reflex save and it went on by.  Xeelie attempted to tumble through it to give herself flanking but failed.  And then swung and missed.  And cast Fasting healing on TerStegan.  TerStegan lost all his actions due to the stun but got his fast healing, took his persistent damage and saved against it.  Oakwood missed the Will save again and attacked Brisco this time.  He Stun 1 him and then missed him 3 times.  Brisco cast a Gale Blast but then it was pointed out it had no range.  Clarisa missed with TK, used a hero point and hit.  That moved it to badly damaged.  It attacked Xeelie and hit by 1 on a 7 on the die.  She took 22 plus the persistent.  Then restrained her and then tried to engulf her.  She went, escaped and cast Live Wire for 17.  Some of it was slashing so it did 16 as a reaction.  She then took the persistent damage and didn’t save.  TerStegan finally got to go and crit, of course.  Did 51 and killed it.

So, it was another tough fight but no permanent damage and few spells used.  We searched around and found some coins in the pools.  And followed the tunnels long enough to confirm they linked to those on level 2.  And stopped there.