Further into the maze

I have honestly lost my way by now. Yesterday (if it was yesterday; there is no light down here) was alright, but today is seriously difficult. There are shadows and corridors everywhere, with no apparent system to it. It is so easy to lose sight of the others, and I am not convinced we won't in the future. What happens if Kurra runs off and gets attacked by something and we cannot find him?
 
We slept in these dungeons tonight, taking turns in keeping watch. Occationally a loud, clanging noise like a bell ringing would be heard, though I couldn't recognize any apparent system to the sound. We later found out what that was, but in an effort to keep this journal somewhat structured I will endeavour to write events somewhat chronologically. The sound was creepy in any case, like so much of these dark, restrictive tunnels are.
 
We set out after resting. I can't really write "we set out in the morning", since, you know... "Morning" is a word with a very specific definition, and I have no idea if it was really morning. But I digress. We set out. Everything was surprisingly calm for a while, though we could still hear the bell-like sound, and occational drips of water. Dear Caba, I miss a proper ocean. Or just a lake. A pond would do, really. Anything!
 
We found a few coffins after a while, containing skeletons. They seemed old, and I get the impression that these corridors have been used as tombs before. So, we are effectively trespassing on someone's final resting place just to get paid a little (well, a lot of) money. Goddammit, that is not good for my self esteem. Ganoes even lifted the arm of the skeleton of a child and waved at me! Honestly. To be fair I guess we are also down here to stop a corrupt government getting a weapon of mass destruction to do with as they want, but to be honest I am feeling more like a trespasser and mercenary than a hero at the moment. But we are trying to do the right thing... I guess.
 
Eventually we also discovered a room with two statues of kings, a clock, and a riddle written in who knows what language. Ganoes could read it, though. It said something along the lines of "Those seeking the way must first bring the three kings to court. The first king will not go without his sceptre. The second king only comes beyond midday. The third king is mad and hiding from his duties. He must be found and brought to court." I think we are seeking the way? We're looking for a way down, in any case. But who on earth puts a riddle like that in an obscure language on a wall in a tomb? I mean, if you're hiding 'the way', you obviously don't want people to go there. So why would you give out clues? Perhaps whoever built that thing struggled with their memory. A wizard with dementia or something.
 
In any case, we continued on. The bell sounds got louder and louder as we walked, until we saw (well, Kurra and Ganoes saw, I didn't see a thing because they blocked my line of sight) an ant made of brass. It made the bell sounds as it walked into things. And dear Caba, I would not like to be in the way of that thing. It walked straight through walls and stones like they weren't there, leaving whatever it walked thorugh destroyed. And it was bloody huge.
 
So of course Ganoes struck up a conversation with it.
 
I have no idea what they talked about, because they spoke in a language I do not recognize. But they apparently came to a deal: If we killed one of its rivals, it would show us the way to treasure, and not kill us. Personally I liked the 'not kill us'-part best. I am ambivalent towards the 'taking more treasure from demons'-part, and outright sceptical to the 'kill its rival'-part. That last part seems unnecessarily dangerous, and I am not in the habit of trusting that demons do not go back on their word. But it was willing to leave us alone for now.
 
We continued on, and this time we found a good thing! An underground lake! And I know I said anything in the way of water would do, but... I honestly would prefer water with a little less 'will eat you if you swim' in it. I stuck my head in and found a giant eel with a mouth roughly 40 feet wide. Forgive me if you consider this blasphemy, Caba, but I would prefer not to be eaten by a gigantic eel, even if it is in your likeness. So I will satisfy myself with walking on the shore for the time being. But! The presence of a lake at all is promising! Perhaps there are other, unoccupied pools of water further down.
 
Kurra has also apparently learned the new, startling skill of teleporting. Which, I guess, made the task of getting the stone king we spotted on a ledge on the other side of the lake a much less daunting task than it could have been. I am very glad we did not have to disturb that (lovely! but huge) eel.
 
Moving on, we were reminded in a rather abrupt way that we should have been checking for traps, as Kurra stepped into a small room where the floor promptly fell out. Thank god he is as quick as he is - there was some sort of cloud or smoke at the bottom of that pit that I do not trust to be entirely innocuous.
 
Having been thus reminded, that was not the last trap we were faced with. In the hopes of keeping this succinct I will write what I remember from the next couple traps as bullet points:
 

• A hallway with pressure plates activating three spinning blades, conveniently designed to cut off your head and feet

• Ganoes cast fly on me so I could carry him and Rei across

• Flying is fun. Not as fun as swimming, but a very nice second

• There was a locked door and too little space on the other side

• Ganoes and Kurra returned to the other side of the hallway

• The door was annoying and asked for a password

• We didn't know the password

• Zarruk suggested we break it down instead

• It didn't like being broken down and spewed fire at us

• I smell like burnt fish when hit with fire

• Ganoes tried to throw a potion of fire resistance to me

• He failed

• The hallway trap activated

• He destroyed the trap (with a little help from a crowbar and the demon ant)

• I used shape water to pick the potion up from the floor, because, well, it's useful

• Also, gross

• I thought my days of eating things off of the floor was over, dammit!

• We eventually broke the door down

 
So, with that all over (I hope I don't still smell like burnt fish... I could probably use a shower) we continued on past the locked door. Ganoes stumbled upon a wall with some weird writing on it, but he still seems to be able to read it all - I wonder how one learns so much? It said something about a quicker way in and out of a vault, and the installation of an elevator. This elevator is activated by pulling back the panel and "saying the words of our forefathers". A quick way to the bottom would be nice, but I think it might be most prudent to stay out of any elevators we don't know the password to, in case it decides to spew fire at us or something.
 
Around then Ganoes decided to inform us that yes, the demon ant had promised us treasure and to not kill us, but also, it kind of wanted to eat Kurra. I mean, what? Not that I trusted its word not to eat us in the first place, but it is kind of creepy to know that it's been following us in the hopes of stealing Kurra as a snack. On the other hand, I think we all entered this deal with the demon ant knowing that none of us were really going to keep to it, including the demon ant. So when Zarruk said that this is not okay, we are killing this demon ant now before Kurra is placed in any more danger, he didn't really meet a lot of resistance. I for one would sleep much more comfortably knowing there was not a shady demon ant lurking about.
 
(I wonder how many times one can write 'demon ant' in one paragraph?)
 
So we killed the demon ant. It tried to lure us into a tunnel it had made first, but it was being a bit creepy about it so none of us really wanted to go there. It exploded in a splatter of acid and everything, just like a proper demon ant should (I think? I've never fought a demon ant before). Dead. Gone. Right?
 
Well, we thought so anyway, so we brought the statue of the king as well as the sceptre (which we also found at some point - the details are fuzzy) back to the room with the riddle and placed them there. Then we settled down to sleep. The riddle stated that the second king wouldn't come until it was beyond midday, after all, and I for one have no concept of time down here. So we might as well wait.
 
And, guess what? There I am, sleeping peacefully and dreaming of dark rituals and sacrificed pregnant women (damn, Ganoes). The next moment I hear shouting and when I wake up what do I see?
 
THE FUCKING DEMON ANT TRYING TO EAT KURRA! Because of course, why should something we killed STAY DEAD? I am starting to think those yellow cultists had the right idea with their runes about keeping the dead dead. I should have taken notes...
 
It disappeared when it noticed us waking up, but dear Caba, that was startling. Fuck. Thank god it didn't manage to bite down before we woke up, or we would be one feathered friend down and one revenge mission richer. And to be honest I would rather have the friend and not have to go hunting for demon ants.
 
Now we are staring at the clock and noticing that it hasn't moved at all, while keeping one eye open for demon ants. Hopefully moving it manually might help, and convince the stubborn king that coming to court might be for the best after all. We'll see.