Chapter 1, Part II: Cavern of Surprises
Once inside the cavern, the boys called out into the cave to see if anyone would answer them, alerting a group of bandits of their presence.
The boys saw the dark cut by two sources of light: glowing blue and purple stones naturally occurring in the walls of the cave and man-made firepits left alight. In the glow, the party saw multiple crates stacked in the infrequently explored tunnels. The crates had the logos of multiple businesses in Gilding: Lightweights Armory, Monastic Influencer, Warm Wishes, and Brawlmart.
A trap was set up further back from the entrance of the cave, protecting more valuable crates. Teaching Kit to use 'detect magic', Leozumin and Artem assisted the young fairy in discovering a crate with potions and a pair of boots imbued with illusion magic. The boys took 4 potions, 2 of healing, 1 of resistance against necrotic damage and 1 of resistance against poison and the boots as well, though they did not investigate to see what kind of boots they were.
At the other side of the entrance, they discovered a stone staircase leading higher up into the cave. Knowing they had entered the cave loudly, the party was cautious, especially after finding another lit campfire at the top of the stairs. Chief Paws spoke with some very intelligent bats who were able to alert the party of four bandits waiting for them around the corner. With the help of their bat friends, the adventurers avoided a surprise round, and jumped into initiative order as they came into the battle swinging.
Despite the bats' warning, the party only had three bandits attack them. On Kit's turn, after two of the bandits were felled, he cast 'detect magic' again, lighting up the magic axe of a fourth, larger bandit off to the side, who came in swinging. With some great hits by everyone and the finishing blow being dealt by Artem, the last two bandits fell and the battle ended.
Further exploration of this part of the cave revealed a waterfall where three streams broke off into 3 separate rooms. Following the clue in the letter left by Kit's grandfather, Mortimer, the party took the Eastmost stream. Well, the party threw Corky's dummy, Stefano, into the room with a glowing rock, and after seeing it was safe, ventured in after him.
The party then took a long rest inside the empty, glowing cavern, healed, and recharged until they were ready to find the treasure old Mortimer had left behind. During this long rest, all members of the party studied a bit using their Potential Point Trainers.
They tasked Kit with dropping the whiteberry into the tree at the edge of the rocks beside the waterfall. After a few iterations of the instructions from the note, an excited Kit knocked thrice on the tree and dropped the berry inside.
The boys paused, and looked around to ensure no one was hurt by the falling rock, assumedly triggered by the berry being dropped into the tree.
At the sound of the bubbling water, most of the party stayed back, far from the ledge, but Leozumin looked down over the ledge to investigate.