Moving forward past the dead ettin, Pancake, deeper into the cavern, a single brown leaf descended from the opening above, triggering a memory deep within Gemma’s subconscious. She recalled walking through the ethereal Golden Thicket near her childhood home soon after her parents’ funeral and being visited by a mysterious, floating, white ball of light. She followed it deeper into the woods to an ancient stone circle, and when she touched it, her body was wracked with pain. She felt the presence of her mother, but her body began to fail her. The last thing she remembered was lying on her back, looking up at the sky and tree branches above, and a single leaf floating towards her in the sunlight.

Shaking off the memory, she kept it to herself, even as Anton and Willa looked on with concern. Attempting to get a better look at the well opening above them, a single body fell from above, slamming against the water and rocks at their feet. Willa quickly moved toward it to help, but it appeared that the human body was dead before it hit the ground – a slash across his throat. It became clear that someone was dumping bodies here for Pancake to consume.

Before returning to the sewers, Anton notched an arrow toward the top of the well, and Gemma – to Willa’s insistence – placed the body within her Bag of Holding until they could turn it into authorities. Climbing back into the grimy, metal pipes, Anton led the group deeper, but he found his foot breaking through the rusted pipe, which caused water to surge into a rocky chamber.

The water forced Gemma into the chamber, but Anton quickly followed while Willa remained stationed above. As water began filling the room, a massive crocodile climbed upon a raised island in the center, hissing a warning before opening its jaws to attack Anton. The reptile sunk its teeth deep into the warrior before he retaliated with fury, killing it with a volley of stabs and slashes through its scaly hide.

With the water continuing to rise, Willa threw down a rope to her companions and pulled them back up into the metal corridors. They emerged on the other side of the sewer system just as the rising tide forced one of the room’s walls to collapse outward, providing another opening. Soaked in smelly sewage, they pressed on.

However, it wasn’t long before Willa noticed a gelatinous cube moved right beside them, previously unnoticed with its nearly-clear oozing form in the dark tunnels. It attempted to envelope and absorb the dragonborn into its body, which held pieces of inorganic material, but Willa avoided it just in time. Another appeared – then another – and another. The Soul Survivors, though, managed to destroy the slow-moving creatures, before continuing to explore the sewer.

They reached what appeared to be a dead end: a rounded stone room with a single torch. Anton searched the room and found a well-hidden secret door, a panel of stone bricks that could open. Gripping the sides, he opened an entrance to an unexpected location: the private, underground archive of the Scribes’ Guild.

With her Empathic Sense, Gemma could feel the presence of someone approaching down the well-lit and maintained hallway that stretched before them. Knowing they’d entered uninvited, the three quickly and quietly entered inside, finding an unlocked storage room just in time to hide from a large, metal construct patrolling the halls.