Thairn rummaged through his pack and rolled a small glass bottle into the opening of the cave. A few seconds later the inside was as bright as day and anybody who happened to be looking directly where the bottle ended up was seeing spots.
He walked in and took a look around. He knew that somewhere in these caverns he'd find a number of very useful ingredients for his potions. Much more importantly, he knew that the dragon that had traditionally plagued the local village hadn't been seen in much longer than a dragon can go without eating, and that there was likely a very large horde of unclaimed treasure somewhere in there.
Of course, anything that could survive life in a cave populated by a dragon is probably almost as bad as one, and everyone knew this cave went on for miles. That's why he didn't raid it himself, and instead got whatever mercenaries who'd believe that the dragon was dead to come with him. He waved those that had shown up on time into the cave -- no doubt others would show up later, but he didn't particularly care.
The first room of the cavern was fairly large and fairly nondescript. There were stalactites and stalagmites in good quantity and the rest of the usual fixings of a cave. A huge number of bats coated the ceiling, looking vaguely pissed about the new light source. Thairn was relieved that none of them were big enough to be dire bats -- big nasty things that'd kill you about as soon as they managed to touch you. Near the back of the cave was a short shaft down. He kicked the lantern potion down it. It was about two meters deep, with what looked like a tunnel leading out of it.
A loud noise like a huge animal being attacked by a predator came from the tunnel. It was silenced a bit more quickly than might be considered comforting and followed by something screeching very loudly at a pitch that was barely audible.
Thairn turned to his companions. "Well, which one of yeh wants to go first? 'cause I sure as 'ell ain't."