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"Is there any way to harvest the poison?" Durant inquires casually. "Hopefully, the main hive is gone. I've never been a fan of insects that sting. It takes all the fun out of your day."

Barber speaks up: "We did not think to harvest the toxin. People were too busy trying to stay alive at the time. Feel free to try, if you wish. Our orders are to not touch the platform. The rest of the place is fair game." Barber then proceeds to wind a wet cloth around the lower half of his face and hands the bottle from which he wet the cloth to Boomer, then ducks into the cave opening, a candle-lamp in one hand and a gladius in the other.

Boomer follows suit, then passes the bottle to Durant. The liquid in the bottle smells earthy, spicy and somewhat sweet, strong enough to make the eyes water, but not unpleasant.

Durant follows suit and passes the bottle along. He uses part of his hood as the filter.

Bastian is at first appalled by the suggestion to recover the venom, but a thought occurs to him. "Perhaps we should give some to the medicus? It certainly numbed the entire area where I was stung. It could be useful in the field for surgery."

He directs the glowing coin around the cavern, nudging a few mushrooms with his toe as they walk by.

The first chamber of the cave system is devoid of mushrooms, but does feature a large, dead caterpillar-like creature and a fetid puddle of sludge. A noise comes from the puddle, a dull pop followed by a spash as the surface is disturbed. The adventurers look in time to see a spash on the suface settling back down and ripples spreading across the surface of the sludge. There is no evidence of what made the noise.

"Everybody freeze!" Bastian hisses. "Be on guard and ready to run." Slowly, moving as little as possible, he raises his eyes and angles his coin upward, looking toward the cavern's ceiling.

"I reckon that might work, they-" The dwarf pauses his hand falling on the hilt of the short sword he carries on his left side. "What ya found?" He asks looking up as he takes a short step back.

Durant keeps his weapon out, and he looks upwards to see what the alert is about.

The cave ceiling is dome-shaped, so the ceiling on the puddle end of the chamber is somewhat lower than in the center. Still, Bastian's light reveals nothing out of the ordinary. It does, however, reveal a disturbance in the surface of the pool as small bubbles rise up from something floating just below the surface of the scum on top. The smell of decay grows slightly stronger, emanating from the puddle.
As the men watch, the object begins to sink slowly.

"That I'll be one of the deaduns then." The dwarf chuckles, mostly at himself, before looking down the cave. "Ain't nothing we can do for that one."

"Rotted, bloated and burst," says Barber, yet he still looks at the pool.

There is still movement below the surface.

"Leave it, where is this portal thing?" the dwarf asks, a deep frown crossing his features.

Bastian peers at the foetid pool and asks, "Could there have been something living in it's blood? A parasite, maybe?"

"Anything's possible. Although I'd be curious as to how it got into the pig-sty," says Barber. "Even blind, they could have avoided that thing."

Without opposition, the trip to the back of the twisting cavern is short, although it is necessary to walk carefully and pick a way through the debris and the remains of numerous grotdier.

Durant, having never seen grotdier before, is momentarily fascinated. Big creatures, strong, yet armed with poor, makeshift, or scavenged weapons, and little to no armor. No responsible military commander would send troops out equipped like this.

At the back of the largest chamber of Ullo's home stands a crack in the wall, the floor around it strewn with debris amidst his mushroom beds. Beyond the crack, the chamber lit with an oddly flickering violet light awaits.

As Bastian sees the light his stomach, already unsettled from the several blows to the head he took yesterday, aggravated by the various horrendous smells in the cavern, lurches hard, and is it all he can do to avoid losing his breakfast.

Bastian holds his free hand up to his mouth and looks away sharply. When he looks up again, he appears pale and unsettled. "Apologies. The light does not do much to settle my breakfast."