The blood moon overhead shone through a hole in the cavern. They were not as deep below as they thought, and yet they could not reach the surface. They could see the skull from afar; it was kind of hard to miss the giant, glowing, golden skull halfway across the cavern.

They conspired to bait it so that Percy and Lujayn could attack on the ground, and Mathis from above; he made short work of separating a stone from the pile of slag in the middle of the chamber, and as the harvest moon rose to its highest point, the skull attacked. His phantasmal hand floated above the skull, ready to drop the vial of corrosive liquid as it approached.