Alice looks at the bandits with dismay.
Even in death you mock me. Who took your money but left that treasure? Well, I'm not gonna strip you here in a kill zone, that's too much even for me. And dragging you up as mushroom food is too much of a hassle. Or what do you think, Cat? Somehow it would be kind of entertaining! If it wasn't for those beam holes...

Alice keeps discussing the incident with Ashley while being shoved back up by an unusually nervous Cat.

"This all must have happened just before we got to this level. I doubt it would be loud enough to hear from the level up, and I don't think they left the area to get back to the shroomies."

Wait, you think whoever did this did not get out alive either, and perished down there after opening the chest? That would explain why the treasure is still there while the bandits had no money. But it doesn't exactly increase my enthusiasm of going in myself. Can't you send a wasp in there to investigate? But when we're up at the shroom level! A wasp is a cantrip right? There's no excuse not to have a wasp at all time except maybe around those noise-sensitive shrooms!

Following Cat, Alice picks up a severed bandit arm as present for the shrooms.

"As for the rock, maybe one of the bandits took it out with them? I still don't think Nundro would have intentionally lied to us just to hide that there's a weapon of mass destruction in their mine and we were sent here to die. Right? But I'll have some words for them when I see them again.

Alice dismissively waves the bandit arm at Ashley
Nah, The hole was fresh. I looked at it thoroughly. No signs of erosion or oxidation. There are 2 types of beam holes here. Ancient ones an fresh ones. The ancient ones don't fit the fresh rock we found on the road and the fresh ones here were made a day ago. Soo - Sherlock Alice concludes that there must have been 3 separate beaming events. One a long time ago here, one when we went back to Phandalin and one a day ago. Possibly to scare off that bear we encountered.

On top of that, the rock we found didn't look like it was lying out there for ages. Someone would have found it. Eventually people like Daran would have heard about it and wondered what magic caused this. And that dwarf would have recognized a rock from his own mine I'd say, even if drunk to the point of alcohol poisoning. So whoever makes those beams isn't a monster from this mine but someone who's capable of walking around outside in civilization. Probably a wizard unless we have guys with laser weapons here as I said.

But you've got a point. We blocked the elevator. Unless any survivors climbed to another level or flat out teleported - I guess a beam wizard could, they should not have been able to leave this level. Weird.

Alice looks back at the passage, uneasy of leaving the mystery unsolved, and then back at Ashley
Wasp pls!

That description is obviously not copied correctly. Instead of saying "it had three charges" twice, there is a missing line that after the third charge is expended, any additional down will cause instant death or something like that. So you get up 3 times per day but you are cheating death so for the rest of that day if you are downed again you are killed.

I added a note for what was salvagable.

The old stuff was scrap, I believe I inferred that. I didn't see anyone saying they looted the fresh corpses other than taking 7 brooches. I'll look again.

"This all must have happened just before we got to this level. I doubt it would be loud enough to hear from the level up, and I don't think they left the area to get back to the shroomies."

Alice can't reach the ores with her pole.

"I'm not 'pocketing' the rings, look, they're safely on my fingers. Snug! And sorry chief, I'm almost out of Mana, I'll set up these rings to auto-cast summons when there's danger. It feels good not to have to eat or breath, I could fight goblins all day now. As for the rock, maybe one of the bandits took it out with them? I still don't think Nundro would have intentionally lied to us just to hide that there's a weapon of mass destruction in their mine and we were sent here to die. Right? But I'll have some words for them when I see them again.



Alice finds nothing of value among the old skeletons amd most of the bandit armor and equipment is damaged to scrap. Ashley's not arguing to stay and turns back with the rest.

Loot:

5 daggers in sheeths
2 short swords
2 short bows
4 quivers of arrows
2 long swords
2 heavy crossbows
2 quivers of bolts
7 pairs of boots
Various clothing not worth anything in this state given they're soaked in blood. Alice could strip and clean them in an hour to get 5 complete sets of clothing.
All their coin purses are missing.

[Tell me what you're going to do next.]