As Aelric descended down into the hole, he noticed large amounts of slime were secreted all over the walls of this tunnel by some huge creature. Something big and probably deadly was down here, that was a given. A perfect time to draw his glaive. 

Rushing into the hole after Aelric came Elsie, Ailbe, and Faye, who didn't pay much attention to what was covering the walls. The slope was steep and the three slipped and slid on the slime. Elsie couldn't avoid one rather large patch of slime after slipping just seconds before and wasn't able to steady herself. Instead, she fell into Aelric and they tumbled head over heels down the hole. Partially rolling and partly stumbling. Neither could get a foot or hand hold to stop the inevitable. The pair landed, bruised and sore, at the bottom of a large earthen cavern. 

Aelric immediately jumped to his feet and yelled at her, without even trying to dust himself off. "Why didn't you bother watching your step? If you had then maybe you wouldn't have slipped. Much less, toppled into me!" 

Elsie, who sat where she had landed, remained speechless. She too hadn't dusted herself, but firstly checked her surroundings. And her eyes were wide with fear, staring past Aelric, staring in one direction. Without sound, she lifted her arm with an extended finger in that same direction. 

He slowly turned in the direction Elsie was pointing, to see what had her so terrified. For him, it was face to tail, as he was surprised to see the shiny tip of a poisoned barb, on the tail end of a huge Sting Worm. The Sting Worm was about five metres long and had huge yellow segments - each one big enough for an average-sized human to stand on. But all Aelric and Elsie cared about right now was protecting themselves from the barb. 

"MOVE," Aelric screamed and both he and Elsie dived out of the way but in opposite directions. The seconds in which Aelric moved, he also pulled out his glaive, ready to attack. He then leapt onto the worm's body, and when its tail came for him, he slashed. Its tail was much thicker than expected, however, and only left the smallest of gashes in it. 

Hearing the ruckus, Faye rushed into the cavern. As the barb was about to attack Aelric again, she gripped both blades and ran to its body, attempting to cut into its body's segments. Ailbe crept in after her, examining the scene and giving the worm a wide birth. She crept round its back and withdrew her sword, then plunged it into one of the segments higher up. Once all three had had their turn at attacking the creature, Elsie finally decided that she's been observing for long enough; Faye and Ailbe's plan seemed to be working, so she grasped her sword and ran at it from the other side. 

While the girls were slicing at the worm below, coming at it from all directions, Aelric was climbing up to the worm's head, if that's what you'd call it. Although each segment was big enough for Aelric to stand on, they weren't very firm. More spongy; they seemed to absorb his foot with every step, and it made it more difficult to climb the beast when he had to wedge his feet out every step. Upon almost reaching the head, he stabbed with his blade and twisted. 

The worm thrashed violently, from side to side, and Aelric jumped off and rolled to the ground. Its head-like thing smashed into the wall, clearly thinking that would stop the sudden pain it was feeling. Moving with such ferocity and panic it was now in, the four adventurers had to stay agile to avoid becoming pancaked between worm and wall. Finally, after minutes of thrashing, the worm crashed to the ground; dead. 

Stale air hung around the cavern, accompanied by hefty pants from the four exhausted adventurers. 

"I hope you're pleased with your lone decision to stumble down the hole into this fight, Aelric," Ailbe expressed sarcastically. 

"At least you were able to battle this time," Aelric retorted, not caring that everyone had the hump with him. 

"Let's not argue," Elsie urged. "Be productive, take a look around." 

Without further argument, the four of them got to their feet and walked around the lifeless bulk of the worm to examine the contents of its lair. Spread around were several skeletons, far too many to count and some not in their complete form, perhaps belonging to other unfortunate adventurers. By the side of a ribcage and pelvis of a creature much smaller than her, Elsie found a leather backpack. She picked it up and examined its contents. Inside she found 4 gold pieces and a small corked bottle containing a colourless liquid. Not wanting to keep secrets from her peers, she decided to ask, "Should we take this with us? You never know, it might come in handy later."

"What is it?", Faye asked as she and Ailbe made their way over. 

Ailbe added, "If we don't know what it does, then there's not much point in taking it. Toss it back."

"That's not true. Might have a label or something," Faye suggested. 

Elsie held the top and bottom of the bottle with her thumb and forefinger, then twisted it around with her other hand. "No, nothing here. No label."

Ailbe shrugged. "Throw it back then, no point in keeping it." Then she turned on her heel and left the cavern, carefully heading back up the hole.

Not leaving just yet, Aelric came over to stand beside Elsie to get a better look. "No point taking it with us, but we still should find out what it does. I'll test that." He swiped the bottle out of Elsie's hands, uncorked it, and downed the liquid in one. Waiting several seconds for a reaction when he felt something happen... BURP... and nothing else happened. Or so he thought. As Aelric looked down at his glaive before sheathing it, a surge of confidence ran through his body. Realisation struck that the potion was a temporary liquid skill, although, he wouldn't give that away to the others and just shrugged. "I'm still alive."

"You're a troll," Elsie snarled and followed Faye out of the cavern while pocketing the gold pieces. 

Aelric smirked back at her. "Just don't fall on me on the way out." 

They all scrambled up out of the earthen cave to the path and without much communication, they continued the journey northwards. 

The vines and bush had given them a wider birth, no longer scratching at their clothing. In fact, they could almost walk in pairs for what was about the 15-minute walk from the hole to the next possible hideout of a hammer-stealing goblin. Four sets of feet had stopped in front of the large cave entrance, wondering once again what they should do. The difference this time is that that had learnt from the last. Instead of discussing it amongst each other, all three girls turned to Aelric to wait for his opinion first. 

As Aelric looked to his left, three sets of eyes were staring back at him. With a nod of his head, he told them, "I think I'll take a look, but it's up to the three of you if you want to join me."

"How hospitable," Ailbe stated sarcastically. "You are actually telling us this time."

Unfaltering, not taking the bait for an argument, Aelric merely shrugged. "I'm not the type to be predictable. Have to keep you on your toes."

Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Ailbe held her tongue. Thankfully a distraction came quickly when Faye stated, "We have to find the pieces of the hammer, so it's only logical that we search everywhere." 

"Good that you agree," Aelric replied. "Let's go then." He walked toward the entrance quietly, not waiting to see in anyone was following; Faye was. Both Elsie and Ailbe exchanged looks and nodded in unison, before following behind.

Approaching the cave entrance, careful to not make a sound, they crept in single file with Ailbe at the back this time. From the outside, the entrance was about 19 feet wide, 16 feet tall, and pitch black inside. The darkness continued once inside; along a slanted tunnel that stretched 30 feet inward and dotted with boulders that were half-stuck in the rugged ground. Sure they could have been obstacles for something much large, but for the adventurers, they were perfect hiding spots.  Hiding was necessary the closer they got to the end and saw movement of something rather large.