Having recovered a little loot, the party spends the week squandering it on performing freaks, a dance competition, eccentric religious research, and the usual mix of drink and drugs. They take one short break from carousing to research the inscription found on a stone door in the dungeon, discovering the cryptic runes translate as "those beyond do not rest easily".
Their funds exhausted, Slim Charles, Pope Leo, and Balian return to Stonehell with their remaining hirelings, Darric, Colwin, Gilgrim, and Narton. The obsequious kobolds greet the the nonplussed party with a gift of meat (species unknown) as a thank you for slaying the "dragon".
Working up their courage, the party returns to the room with the gaming wheel. Each of them takes a turn. Slim Charles wins big when an enormous emerald clatters from a heretofore hidden shoot in the wall. (This was an extraordinarily lucky treasure roll that I thought about scaling down. Ah, well. Let the dice fall where they may!)
They leave the gaming room to find a group of orcs lying in wait. The pig-faced bastards reduce Colwin to 1 HP, but the party prevails, with Pope Leo bludgeoning the final orc into a pulpy mess.
Pushing their good luck, the party decides to make a quick recon trip of the inscribed stone door they researched in town. This proves to be an embarrassing but non-fatal mistake.
The ruckus of chipping open the door attracts a giant beetle. Slim Charles spots it approaching soon enough that they're all able to duck inside and hold the door. And then they realize they should have taken their huge windfall emerald and run. The party spends a tense hour cowering quietly before the beetle finally loses interest. They make a beeline for town.
It wasn't the most heroic of sessions, but everybody leveled-up and no one had to die (for once).
There is no rest beyond the gate? I think I ran across that in cod-Ancient Egyptian once...
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