(I wasn't sure how eager the group was to fight, or if you had a ready way to take down the Wall of Ice. There won't be another fight.)

You have the former prisoners (and the shackled priest and acolyte) go a little south of the intersection, closer to the exit to the surface. After the Wall of Ice spell ends, you do some scouting, ready to retreat if the situation looks bad.

The passageway west goes on for hundreds of feet, and angles down. The air gets more humid, and far ahead you can hear the rush of water. You have traveled far enough that you expect the river that passes through the city to be ahead. You are also far enough down that the tunnel could go under the city wall. (Why the tunnel isn't filling up with river water would require you to continue ahead, but maybe that isn't as important as reporting what you've found to the Iron Gate guild and the city guards.) With 5-10 minutes head start, whatever beings were in this area have probably escaped to outside the city.

There is a cavern dug into the side of this passageway. The room is significantly colder than the rest of this complex. It also smells of rotting meat.

Inside you see one part of the room has table and several buckets of body parts, all covered with blood. This is probably where the Bheur Hag was feeding. This may be what happened to the other prisoners who were not made into slaadi or zombies.

The other part of the room has a cot with dirty linen. There are multiple drawings on the floors and walls, what used to be magic circles, but they have been (recently) scratched out and damaged.

In the center of the room is a large open metal barrel. There is a fire still burning brightly inside of it, although it isn't helping much with the cold of the room. Besides firewood and coals, there were papers and books tossed on top. Most of those are already consumed.

(OOC: it seems like most of us are up for a short rest. I'm good for short rest or continuing the pursuit.)

"We should take a quick look through these burned up papers to see if there is anything we can get from them, these magic circles too, then head back to the guild to report our findings."

(Isk has a solid +0 to arcana and investigation, so he will help others try to figure out what the magic circles were for and/or sift through the burnt up paperwork)

(I'll allow two people to try Sleight of Hand to pull out a few papers from the fire before they burn up completely. Or if you can think of something else that might help, speak up.
After that is done, again two people can try Arcana checks.)

(Let see if Reverie can do this... Sleight of Hand.)

Sleight of Hand - 22

(Edit: Oh dear!)

Brin is not the arcana, or sleight of hand, person. He will cast guideance on those doing the arcana check, so one of them can add a d4 to their check.

Ana will cast guidance on the other person making those arcana checks.

(OOC: I'll give the sleight of hand, unless the party needs me to do the arcana check. im equally good in both skills.)

Reverie quickly snatches a few papers out of the fire, and is putting out the burning edges. Everything else in the barrel is too blackened and burnt to be useful.

While she is working on that, Brin and Ana give Guidance (+d4) to Iskander and Trimyrai, if they want to check the Arcane traits of the magic circles that were damaged before the former occupants fled.

Isk looks closely at the magic circles.  Arcana: 10 + 1

Arcana: 12

Guidance: 3

Iskander notices that the the circles aid in teleportation. No surprise that one goes to Limbo (home of the Slaadi). Another to the Abyss (rather than the Nine Hells where Bane resides), and another to the Astral Plane. The other three circles are for places in the Prime Material plane, but the damage done makes it impossible to tell where.

Trimyrai notices that within those circles, there are glyphs newer than the circle drawings, which are still magically active. They appear to be counting down, and will become active in less than 30 seconds.

(I have survived for a long week, but hello everyone!)

Reverie would look deeply about the paper she snatched or is it too burnt to read?

Investigation - 21

Quote from Elliethedream >>

Reverie would look deeply about the paper she snatched or is it too burnt to read?

Investigation - 11

Reverie will need better lighting.
The important thing is, the fire at the edges of these few papers are out. She can take them with her, and look at them more carefully later.

(Ana cast Light one her staff I believe and that lasts 1 hour. Or she could just cast another.)

(There is nothing that requires immediately reading the notes that Reverie saved. She can take them, and use more time to read them at the surface.

I should put more emphasis that the multiple glyphs that Trimyrai noticed around the room are now at "18" and counting down.)

(I think we are about to get some extra planar company...)

Quote from ikarbino >>

(I think we are about to get some extra planar company...)

(Ah... I meant to imply that these are different magic than the teleport/transit circles.

I'm trying to be subtle, but that doesn't always work over PbP.
Anyone can do an INT check versus DC 15, to get a better hint of what I'm aiming for.
If you succeed, look inside the "spoiler". If not, then please don't look until it plays out.)

"I vote we head out." Brin says, eyeing the others. "Whatever those circles are doing, we don't wish to be here when they go off."

(OOC: im not very intelligent, so perhaps someone else can give it a try.)

Trimyrai: "I think brin is right, and we should be safe rather than sorry."