The adventure

They walked through the main entrance and into a courtyard. Through a very thick transparent door they could see a chamber, with a similar door at the far end into the rest of Marten's Bluff. The first door slipped down into the ground when they approached it, but the second refused to budge. They became concerned about whether the first door would trap them inside, but as they walked back through the chamber they trod on a large platform that sank rapidly into the ground, raking them with it.

This was an elevator that took them to a large underground hall, like the others they had seen under Marten's Bluff, with some T'Rang slithering about. At one end, through a panel in the wall, they met Z'Ant, who seemed happy to see them. When he asked if they would consider working for him for money and healing, they were surprised, but of course willing.
Z'Ant was happy. "I thought you would" he replied. He seemed eminently sensible, and explained that many people were repulsed by their appearance and goals, but that empire-building was all the Umpani did too, and that chasing power of their own was the only way not to be crushed. He seemed quite sore about how misunderstood the T'Rang empire was, and how it treated its civilians as properly as anyone else. Pumping him for information on other matters helped fill in a few more details of Guardia, where the Dark Savant had allied with them because "It seemed we shared mutual interests, and we hoped that an alliance would bring us mutual rewards" but had betrayed that alliance. He was as bitter about betrayal as he was about being misunderstood. He also had little good to say about the Rattkin, who he said were far more worthy of the things that are said about the T'Rang.
The first mission he wanted them to undertake delighted them. An Umpani flag had been seen near Mt. Gigas, but he didn't want to send T'Rang, whose presence, if seen, would give them away. He wanted a flag as proof that the Umpani had a base there. He unsealed a little fountain in the main hall, and said that food and healing supplies would be brought to them when they returned and requested them.
Thinking about the flag that they had stowed away from Sergeant Kunar's commissary they wandered off to see Sadok, from whom Z'Ant had told them they could purchase supplies. Sadok stocked a good selection of spellbooks, mostly support spells, such as for curing paralysis, poison, or for alerting sleeping wizards of approaching danger, and Margreet and Quentin bought those that they did not already know and some more renewal potion ingredients. Sadok looked to be more chemist than magician, and as they left he returned to some advanced equipment they looked like a cross between cell cultures and industrial chemistry.
He was interrupted, however, because they found some more apuses outside his door. He slid away down the hall while the friends killed the insects; they passed him on their way back, letting him know it was safe again.
As they walked they came to a large mural of a man holding a glowing artefact. They got closer to inspect it, and a voice echoed in their heads 'Tell me this, who you be, and then by chance your fortune see...'
They replied:
"Quentin"
"Visitors"
"the Third Messenger"
"important"
but it didn't work. What did work was Shu Ting, ignoring the riddle and examining the picture, saying
"It's Marten!"
At this, the whole section of wall on which the mural was painted slid away, showing them a very long secret corridor. Half-way down it they could see more ghostly forms passing from one room across to another. Shu Ting was explaining more
"I guessed because we saw an old photo of him in the gaol block in Arnika. It was on the pinboard on a 'wanted' poster..."
They prepared for a fight and sneaked down the corridor to the two chamber openings, where they were spotted by a spirit and his 18 chums. The spirits were very good at magically slowing the group down, and sending them to sleep (and making Margreet unconscious; perhaps from fear or perhaps because she sleeps after eating anyway). RFS, however, could not fear nor sleep, and with Quentin, who seemed more resistant to their magic, perhaps because of his growing understanding of how to do it himself, the spirits gradually were forced to vaporise into the air that they really were.
The two chambers were store-rooms of a sort, and contained some interesting items, most exciting of which was a brilliant helm. Margreet claimed to have spotted it, but Quentin was closest and put it on. It looked rather like the bascinets that Karen and Vi typically wore, but it was heavily enchanted; although the metal rather swallowed his voice until he pushed the face cover up, it was clear that he spoke much faster, pausing far less to construct his typically long and meandering sentences.
Margreet was jealous, and Quentin almost hung a blarneystone amulet round her neck when he felt a slight tug at his fingers from the item, and realised that it was not only enchanted to make the wearer more attractive and verbose, but was also cursed such that the wearer could never stop this garrulity. Margreet took it anyway, but kept it in her pocket.
The far end of the corridor turned into a small bedchamber, with a diary, an ebon gem and a potion to turn a person (temporarily) into a superman. Written large amongst the scribbling of the final day of the diary, on which the book was open, were the words 'eternal trust survives the soul'. The pages crumbled to dust when they tried to read more.

Reckoning that still not enough time had passed for a trip to Mt. Gigas, they went topside to continue exploring the outside of Marten's Bluff. They regretted this soon, when 5 more deathsting apuses and some dung beetles attacked them, soon attracting five vicious giant crocodiles from the moat, called mauligators. The apuses and beetles could have been dealt with, but the sudden mauligator attack caught them off guard. Shu Ting was closest, and one chomped her arm to ribbons before ripping her apart at the waist. This unamusing sight caught the focus of Margreet and Quentin, who turned their magic on the crocs as they tried mauling RFS and Vi too. Just in time they blinded, froze and sickened enough of their assailants to block the attack of those further away. Vi, despite her injuries, gamely stabbed them with her spear, and Karen's bloodlust could well have been more than just the effect of the cursed sword. Soon the spatter of Shu Ting's blood was covered with the cooler splashings of croc blood, giving them a pleasantly Jackson-Pollock-esque appearance.
They took pieces of Shu Ting'd body down to Z'Ant, and gave him the flag. He was thrilled, and sent a multitude of healers in. They claimed that death was irreversible, even when Quentin explained the powers of the powder he held. The powder, they said, was just healing powder. When Quentin re-animated ST yet again, they did, however, set to keeping her alive with some skill. The T'Rang showed remarkable dexterity at repairing her body, restoring her leg completely and joining her waist with the faintest of scars around the skin.
The friends explained their new mission to FrankensTing: they were to find and kill a Rapax assassin who had been stalking the fort, killing important T'Rang figures who showed themselves. Z'Ant had explained that there was a trap above; the room with the lift could be squashed shut with giant pistons, and he had tried using a rapax figure to lure the assassin in, but it was no use.