Silver pries one of the crystals loose, and rolls it down one of the hallways to set off any floor traps or tripwires. The group then follows him down the hallway, ending up in a small round room with a thin lookout window in the northern section of the wall. The window is well hidden from the outside, but affords a complete view of the river valley to the north, including the path leading up to the ridge.

They next proceed to the next hallway, where they are set upon by a group of bonebats. With some magical healing, the group defeats the bats, and explores the second lookout chamber at the end of the hallway. Finding nothing of interest there, they return to the central chamber, and enter a third hallway. The hallway leads to the outpost's smithy, where the dwarves once forged and crafted the metals and jewels mined from the earth.

Immediately upon entering the smithy, they are attacked by a magical hammer that was lying on the anvil in the center of the room. The hammer gets in a few good blows before Silver manages to snap the hammer's handle with a well-placed swing of his sword. The hammer falls lifeless to the ground, leaving the group to explore the area in peace.

In a hidden cache, they find an army's worth of rusted armor and weapons (worthless), plus a few pieces which have survived the ravages of time. These items turn out to be magical, and the group uses the opportunity to rest and identify their treasure. All told, they find 3 magical axes, 2 dwarf-sized suits of enchanted chain mail, and 4 small magical shields. All the items end up in their handy-dandy Bag of Holding.

They next proceed to the fourth hallway. As they round a corner, they come up on a large, stone-skinned snake creature. It attacks immediately, and the group finds themselves slowly forced back through the hallway, as their attacks fail to penetrate the creature's thick skin. Silver's cooshee is severely injured, and limps from the battle as Silver holds the creature at bay. With few other options, Silver tries out a spell he recently researched, and everyone hastily clears the way.

He casts his spell, and stands nearly motionless as a powerful electric charge builds up around him. The creature attacks, and strikes him hard, but is quickly thrown back from a sudden blast of electric energy that explodes in a ring around him. The creature rears up in pain, and Nataya looses an arrow into the gaping maw of the beast (its only vulnerable spot). The arrow penetrates straight to the creature's brain, killing it instantly.

The party nurses its wounds, and enters the room at the end of the hallway. It turns out to be the chapel area, and scattered on the floor are the remains of eight dwarven warriors. On one of the walls is an inscription written in the dwarven tongue, apparently burnt into the stone. Theranion uses his skill with languages, and reads the passage aloud to the group.

"Children of Earth, for your insults to Belesaria, my beloved, your axes shall be blunted and your crops shall wither. All living things shall flee my unhallowed might. In seven days, I shall tear down your halls, and leave no stone standing.

Signed, Colderan the Mage-Lord"

Silver manages to push the dead creature's body away from the wall, and finds a tunnel barely large enough to crawl through. He comes upon the creature's lair, where he finds a small pile of coins (worth a few hundred gold pieces total), and a nest of stone-textured eggs. As Silver contemplates the eggs' worth, Theranion cleans off a hundred years of dirt and grime from the sword to reveal dwarven runes engraved into the blade. The runes spell out the name "Olar", which roughly translated from the dwarven tongue means "Mage-killer"...