A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy! Oh, one more thing: it anyone interested in writing a Spyro/Sailor Moon Crossover, check this stories reviews. (It's against rules to post 'stories' consisting of challenges/non-story content, and I don't want to get my account banned)

Disclaimer: I don't own Dungeons and Dragons. I only own my original ideas.

Chapter 15: Continuing Down

We made your way deeper into the Sunless Citadel, passing through the areas we'd previously explored arriving back outside the stockade. We checked the chamber just south of there, arriving in a storeroom full of food… most of which smelled rather unpleasant. The next hall was filled with haze from the torches on the walls, but luckily it wasn't hazardous. As we reached the end of the hall, we could hear voices coming from behind the door. Erky, who'd been quietly tagging along with our group, spoke up.

"Sounds like goblins," said Erky, "I remember this is their main camp. Most of those in here aren't warriors. If we can, it might be best we avoid conflict in there".

"It looks like there's another way around," said Charles, "let's go that way".

We made our way down the side hall (A tight squeeze for me), and soon arrived in front of a more ornate door. We went inside, and found ourselves in a larger circular room with a domed ceiling. The center of the chamber was pierced by a circular shaft. Dim violet light shone from the shaft, revealing sickly white and grey vines along the walls. Along the northwestern wall, there was a crudely fashioned stone throne occupied by a heavily armored hobgoblin, and flanked by guards.

"Well, what have we here?" said the hobgoblin on the throne, "Surrender, and you'll live longer".

"You think we'd do that?" said Krisyra, "we've come to deal with the threat of the Gulthias Tree".

"In that case, you won't leave this place alive!" said the Hobgoblin.

The hobgoblin stood from his throne, and his guards stepped up. The battle was joined. Lydratir's eyes narrowed as he swiftly drew his bow, aiming at the sapling in the pot near the throne. As the arrow struck, the disguised twig blight fell.

I spotted a goblin clutching a staff closer to the throne, attempting to stay out of the conflict. The hobgoblin leader stood from his throne, and strode towards Narcrath. He made a mighty swing with his longsword, but Narcrath dodged easily. One of the other hobgoblins followed in his leader's wake, taking a swing at Krisyra. It struck true, sending her reeling a bit. I stepped around and attempted to claws the lead hobgoblin, but my claws just glanced off his armor. Another of the hobgoblins pulled out a longbow, and fired at Lydratir, but missed. The third of the hobgoblin guards also pulled out a bow and fired upon me, but the arrow simply bounced off my scales.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Krisyra looking at our foes with a strange look in her eyes. She let out a feral snarl, and I watched as she suddenly morphed into a large wolf. She then leapt at the hobgoblin who'd previously attacked her, savagely tearing into it and taking it down. Narcrath reached for the hobgoblin in front of him, his hand sparking with power, but it dodged. Charles joined Narcrath and I in surrounding the hobgoblin leader, and struck him a fierce blow, but our foe remained standing.

Lydratir took aim at one of the hobgoblins with bows, but his shot went wide. The hobgoblin leader looked at three of us surrounding him, and then backed off defensively. I turned my focus towards one of the archers, tearing into it with my claws and taking it down. The remaining hobgoblin archer rolled away from me, took aim at Lydratir once more, but the shot went wide. Krisyra-wolf turned and charged at the Hobgoblin archer, but it rolled out of the way. Narcrath pulled out a small diamond, which glittered in every color before firing out an orb of lightning at the hobgoblin leader. As the spell flew through the air, it seemed to arc brighter as it redoubled in power. The hobgoblin leader tired to dodge, but the spell was faster, and took him down.

Charles stepped up and slashed the hobgoblin archer, but then adjusted his stance and swung again, taking out the last enemy. I saw as the Goblin who was avoiding battle slip through a side door, followed by the sound of the door locking. With the area clear, we searched the room, coming up with some coins and jewels, as well as a signet ring and the armor the Hobgoblin leader was wearing. Around this time, Krisyra transformed back to her normal Elven self.

We started making our way down, carefully climbing down the vines. As we reached the bottom, a pair of skeletons looked up from their work and came at us with shovels, as did two twig blights. Krisyra reacted first, throwing fire at one of the blights. It swiftly fell as the flames consumed it. The other Blight leapt at Krisyra, raking her with its claws. I stepped in, and swung my tail at one of the skeletons, sending its bones scattering. Narcrath moved up to the remaining skeleton, blasting it with shocking grasp, but it remained standing. The skeleton struck him right back, bashing him with its shovel hard. Lydratir drew his short sword, and attempted the strike the Blight, but it dodged out of the way. Charles stepped over to the skeleton engaged with Narcrath, taking it down. Krisyra whipped her staff around and bashed the remaining Blight into the ground.

A moment later, the door to the north burst open. A bugbear stepped through flanked by a pair of large rats. The bugbear pointed as us and shouted something I couldn't understand. The bugbear immediately charged at me, swinging a crude morningstar. Its attack glanced off my scales. One of the rats leapt at Charles, its teeth finding a gap is his armor. Charles swiftly retaliated, cutting it clean in half. Lydratir came over to the bugbear, stabbing it with his sword. Narcrath whipped out a charred twig and pointed it at the bugbear. It suddenly arced with lightning, which blasted into the bugbear in a sustained stream. I attempted to bite at the bugbear but it dodged. Krisyra blasted the other rat with fire, severely damaging it. The rat leapt at its attacker, biting Krisyra fiercely. The bugbear roared, and swing its morningstar at me again, hitting me hard. Charles stepped over to the remaining rat, missing his first swing, but then bringing his greatsword down upon it to finish it off. Lydratir stabbed at the bugbear once more. By this point, it was looking rather weakened. Narcrath focused on his spell once more, and the bugbear crumpled to the ground.

After checking the chamber the bugbear had come from and collecting some scattered coins we continued further into the depths. The door to the east seemed to be barred from the other side, so we made our way to the south. As we made our way, a sadden breeze drifted down the corridor, carrying with it the scent of charred earth. We soon reached an odd break in the corridor, when the land had shifted, and a rift had opened up. I noticed that the burnt odor was stronger to the southwest. I also noticed a series of holes in the floor… like something had been burrowing through the ground. I thought for a moment, and remembered something I'd read in Quoros' library.

"We should be careful… it smell like there might be a Salamander in here," I said.

"Yes… it does look that way," said Narcrath, "If it's still around here, we might want to focus on ranged attacks so we don't get burned".

We continued down the rift, arriving at a larger pocket at the end. As we entered, the Fire Snake emerged from one of the holes in the floor with a sizzling hit. Krisyra reacted first, pulling out a shortbow and firing on our foe. The arrow struck true, but quickly burned away after impact. Narcrath pulled out the diamond again, which shined with blue-white light, and then fired out an orb of icy magic. The orb struck true, and the Fire Snake suddenly started icing over, and then crumbled away as its essence returned to the Plane of Fire. As we checked though the chamber, we discovered a pair of small sapphires.

We returned to the rift in the ruins, and checked the other passage to the south. The corridor ended at a heavy stone door, which Charles managed to push open with a bit of effort. Beyond the door, we found a chamber that looked like it hadn't seen any use in many years. It appeared the be the remains of a shrine with faded a cracked mosaics on the walls and an rusty iron offering tray shaped like a dragon. We closed the door behind us, and decided to make camp here to rest up and ready for the next push into the depths

A/N: And there we go! Next time, our heroes continue through the Sunless Citadel, coming to the chambers were the Red Dragon Ashardalon was once worshiped. See you then!