Aldric and Samantha were in the thick of it, fighting off the hungry vines that seemed hell-bent of strangling time. Aldric followed Samantha's instructions and hacked away at the thicker looking vines with his knife. After a bit, he had the technique down and was finally able to make some headway.

It was tiring and demanding work, and it took the two of them maybe twenty minutes to beat the vines back halfway and then another ten minutes after that to achieve a victory.

"Good job Officer!" Samantha praised him as she put away his pitchfork, "You look tired, get some water in you."

As he refreshed himself, Flynn and Edos finally entered the chamber and started an inspection. Flynn quickly found a stash of treasure.

"Oh there is a nice big chest over here!" Flynn announced merrily, "I'll pop the lock on it and then let Aldric do the honors."

While Flynn worked on the box, Edos came over to Aldric and rubbed their necks together.

"You found well, how do you feel?"

"A bit tired General," Aldric honestly reported, "But I didn't take any damage."

"Very good," Edos praised him and Aldric felt happy enough to dance a jig.

"Come and look Aldric!" Flynn called out and the two of them went over with Samantha.

Aldric kicked open the chest and looked into expectantly. He was not at all let down.

There was a pile of coins that when counted were about four thousand and there were some magical medallions and a few other enchanted items. 

"The street value of this is probably over forty thousand coins!" Flynn proudly reported, "Refilling of the coffers is going very well!"

Edos had Flynn take note of everything and then he put the magic medallions into Aldric's pack. The rest of the things went into Flynn's pack as usual.

On campaigns it seemed like Samantha carried the food, Edos had the camping equipment and Flynn's packs were left mostly empty to ferry back whatever loot they had. Aldric that not noticed at first, but now on his second trip with this veteran team he was picking up on the more subtle ways they were organized.

"I'll show you how to use these medallions and such when we get back to the surface," Edos promised, "It takes some quiet concentration so the dungeons is not a place to let down your guard that much."

"Thank you, General. I really appreciate it..."

"It's what I should do," Edos responded.

They decided to continue on shortly after, with Edos leading the way. Aldric was right behind him with Flynn and then Samantha bringing up the rear. The hounds and wolf were running ahead, happy to let off some energy after having been denied before. 

The cavern they entered into next was more natural that the room they were in before. This one was very misty and a bit cold. There was no wind but yet it was nippy enough to make one want to shiver. There was a thing strip of land creating a natural bridge with a pretty steep fall away on either side.

The canines waited at the beginning for instructions.

Edos sent then ahead and then proceeded behind them. Shortly after their was a suddenly whispering from the void encouraging them to jump into the ravine.

"This is either a psychic attack or some sort of ghost activity!" Edos shouted back to them, "Increase your speed and don't fall for it."

Luckily all of them had pretty good mental defenses, it was perhaps only Aldric that was vulnerable. Edos turned back as soon as he crossed the danger point and kept his eyes on Aldric, talking him through.

"Come on Aldric, stay focused on me, you're almost there!" Edos encouraged him.

Aldric was actually not that affected by the whispers because he didn't like the feeling of weightlessness that came with falling from a large height. There was no way he could be coaxed into jumping into an unknown crevice. He did however enjoy the sound of Edos' sexy deep voice calling out to him.

When he reached the other side, he got out of the way to give Samantha and Flynn room to cross safely behind him.

Once they were all across, they regrouped into the formation after a slight break and continued on.

There next trail was a very long and winding passage. It was dimly light but it was enough light to get by. They were already travelling along this path for over ten minutes with no end sight. There was also no room to stop and rest comfortably so they could only continue on.