Previously on Reclaiming Orathos

The party is whole again! Thalia, Fenric, and Valmora creep past the dormant Queen Grabbler and plunge into the flooded chasm to rejoin the others in the under-prison — and to mourn Otto, lost to the Queen's grasp. But the real mystery waits below.

Past a ruined throne-room (where Lash digs a perfect key out of a scrap-tub on a natural 20), they reach the jail: six immortal prisoners behind glowing cell-doors, watched by the crocodilian Grenkh. The friendliest — the "Nice One," now known as Viana — confesses she's a thief who, before the gods died, stole the power to live forever, and has rotted here for four hundred thousand years. Free her, she says, and she'll tell them everything about the Queen.

Then they find the keeper: Malifax, a skinless immortal lich-smith who upgrades Lash's hammer, gifts Thalia hand-hiding gloves, and pledges to cage the Queen at last.

To reach his sleeping-tool, they open the pipe room — and a MILLION bugs pour out, all attacking!

SUMMARY: A reunited party uncovers the prison's six immortal prisoners and its lich-smith keeper Malifax, then unleashes a swarm of bugs on a cliffhanger.