Adventurer Insurance Claim Denied After Party 'Voluntarily Entered Room Clearly Labeled CERTAIN DEATH'

Adventurers' Mutual, the realm's largest provider of dungeon-crawling insurance, has denied a claim submitted by the surviving members of the Crimson Blades adventuring company on the grounds that the party 'voluntarily and with apparent enthusiasm entered a chamber explicitly labeled CERTAIN DEATH, thereby voiding all coverage under Section 14 of the Standard Adventurer's Policy.' The claim, filed after two party members were dissolved by acid in a chamber beneath the Ruins of Kol Tharam, sought compensation for the loss of one fighter (partial dissolution), one ranger (complete dissolution), and assorted equipment including two magical swords, a shield of fire resistance, and a bedroll that the filing describes as 'sentimental.' 'The sign was 47 feet tall,' said claims adjuster Penelope Actuary, displaying photographs from the scene. 'It was carved into the wall in letters three feet high. It was written in Common, Elvish, Dwarvish, and Orcish. It had a picture of a skull. Below the skull it said, in case the skull was ambiguous: THIS MEANS YOU WILL DIE. The party walked through it. Both of them. At the same time. One of them was whistling.' The Crimson Blades' leader, a paladin named Sir Aldric Valor, has contested the denial. 'Every dungeon has signs like that,' Valor argued. 'They're decorative. Atmospheric. If we turned around at every CERTAIN DEATH sign, we'd never clear a dungeon. It's dungeon culture. The sign is part of the experience.' Actuary countered that the sign in question was 'not decorative' and was in fact 'an accurate description of the room's contents, which were acid, more acid, and a mechanism that dispensed additional acid.' She noted that the room contained no treasure, no enemies, and no apparent purpose beyond 'being a room full of acid with a sign warning you it was a room full of acid.' 'They walked into a room full of acid because a sign told them not to,' Actuary said. 'Our policy covers unforeseen hazards. This hazard was foreseen. It was foreseen by the person who built it, it was foreseen by the person who wrote the sign, and it should have been foreseen by the people who read the sign and walked in anyway.' Sir Valor has retained a solicitor and intends to appeal. The solicitor has requested a copy of the policy's fine print, which, at 340 pages, is itself longer than most dungeons.