Anton leads them through the caves at a brisk pace. They travel back through the winding caves the way the came, and across the rivers in the large cavern, and into the oddly-shaped tunnels.

They're about halfway through the tunneled stone to the maze ladder when Tencednil's familiar becomes alarmed.

Buzz buzz buzz! Flick! Buzz buzz! Another flick.

...good, not a swarm this time. They can handle a limited number of things. "Eyes up! Five incoming, three ahead two behind."

Two of the giant rats behind them lunge for Mika. Their teeth fail to penetrate his leather armor.

Mika plunges his sword down through one of the rats. It goes still.

Anton shoots a glob of acid at one of the rats. It misses and bubbles on the floor.

Julio also misses with his acid splash.

"Doesn't one of you have a spell for this sort of scenario? I can't catch them with you all in my way!" Was Julio just lying about preparing Sleep today? Sigh.

There are three rats about to close in. She will wait and drop a Splash on one of them on their way, to avoid shooting around Mika. (The blob wiggles in the air, but there's nowhere which needs bonus marbles.)

The rat runs toward Julio—

Tencednil's acid burns deep through its chest. It makes a horrible noise and keeps running. It tries to bite Julio, but it's distracted and misses.

Two more rats lunge forward. One of them bites Julio's foot.

The last rat on Mika tries to bite him but can't penetrate his armor.

Mika slices the rat that attacked him. It's not quite dead yet.

Anton's acid splash misses. Aiming at something so close to the ground is hard.

Julio casts a different spell this time. Two of the rats fall asleep.

Oh good he wasn't lying. (Wouldn't have been lying? Whatever.) How does the awake rat feel about acid to the head? Not particularly positively, it seems! It keels over on the floor, appearing quite dead.

(The blob charges for the rat Mika is dancing around. The rat, alas, avoids it.)

Two rats are snoozing.

One rat is attacking Mika. It can't get through his armor.

Mika slices the pesky rat open. It dies.

Mika walks over to the sleeping rats and plunges his sword through their hearts.

The tunnels are quiet once more.

"Somehow I doubt the rats will have much for us to take. Julio, get that bite checked for disease, and be careful for the next few days. Make sure you can fight it off. Or use part of your own share on buying a Remove, it's all the same to me. Onwards?"

Onwards. They climb up the ladder into the old stone maze, through the tangled tunnels, up the ladder in the cylindrical room, and into the sewers.

After a long slog through that terrible place, they walk up a steep tunnel and exit at 44 Stone's End. It's early in the evening.

Much better than the vision. It really is impressive how much knowing what you're dealing with can help.

"I know someone who will buy the ring for somewhere in the nineteen to twenty thousand shield range. Let's go to the bank, set up four accounts, and write up a contract so proceeds are deposited into each of them equally. Then I'll sell the ring, you two can sell the onyx and the unguent, and if we're efficient the money can hit our accounts by the Breaching and we can all splurge a little. Shall we?"

She sets off towards the bank.