It's all in a half day's work

That mysterious northern section of level 3 - that's what we'll do!

The triple chained brass doors sealed with soft metal, decorated with ominous runes that generated an alarming number of saves vs spells, stood firmly in your way.

But some other areas of level 3 beckoned.

It would be fair to say that the breakfast meeting called by the Hill Giant, his pet worg, the ogres and the bugbears of area 314, didn't go as well as they'd expected. It went the way of most meetings with top-heavy management, devolving into utter confusion. Well ok, there was a spell involved.

Someone must speak to the caterers about the amount of ice in the water also. Well ok maybe there was an Ice Storm involved.

So that meeting lasted about 2 minutes in total before all attendees had to be listed as "apologies".

Bursting through the rear access to area 302, the Troll watchman was quickly overcome. His 3 cohorts that were waiting outside didn't last long, with Sahrim's fire elemental and Pan's incendiary ball doing large amounts of fire damage early, and Ratso's battle-axe crew keeping the last one down until the fireman arrived.

Pan really needs to work on his aim with that ball though - with two casualties to friendly fire (the glaive wielding bugbears).

Two strange creatures in 307 were swiftly dealt with, and a sense of complacency set in soon after.

This was rudely interrupted by the sight of a dead elf in 326 - and before anyone could recover after a sharp intake of breath, the sight of a hideous banshee turned most of the party away.

Pan and Sahrim held their ground, and braced for the wail of the banshee...

Save versus death magic...

Pan - saves - not dead.

Sahrim...

...rolls a 5...

...and it's a save!

The bear was on hand, after also making the saves, and quickly moved in for a vicious claw, bite and bear-hug - and sent the banshee back to hell.

The revised roster now includes only 2 of Ratso's personal guard, 11/18 and 2/15 for the glaive-guisarme wielders.

Only 4 of his Air Temple battle axe buddies remain: 17/19, 16/16, 14/14, 13/13.

I think the only area remaining on level 3 (apart from the mysterious northern section) is the north-east corner, 321-324, and maybe 328).

You might consider further exploration down to level 4 - will this level reveal some more secrets? A way of overcoming those brass bound doors? For certain you will want to be at maximum strength, and have as much intel as possible. Level 4 will be a challenging level, even for your trusty A-team. You have managed to hit a weakspot of level 3 at full strength, and round up a solid fighting force to take care of the upper levels.

If level 4 are on alert, your task will be much harder.

If you haven't quite got the message yet...level 4 will be HARD. You've already had one save or die moment on level 3, so don't think that there won't be more to come, from traps and monsters alike. You've come this far...don't f*#k it up now!

But rest assured the rewards will be there for the taking...the haul on offer will be Monty with capital M. You just have to find it, and take it!