Silver Town, just after the
battle against the demon infested townsfolk……
Reginald, (the ½ orc
barbarian), Jeffery, (the dragonborn rouge), Ren (the
human monk ) and Lukas Fudderer ( human
archeologist-/ split level mage-cleric) are discussing options when they see
three other figures walking into town. Hands go to weapons as the three approach
the four.
As they get closer the trio can
see their musical elf friend Varis (bard) and a
onetime associate Garik and another ½ orc (fighter).
The third figure is dressed in fairly clean and shiny scale mail and carrying a
shield. This armored human has an air of purity and nobility around him
(paladin). The two parties uneasily greet each other.
There have been doppelganger issues in the past so….. the monk, rouge and
barbarian are a bit skeptical. However, after a few minutes of conversation (and
a bit of scrying) they know they can trust Varis, Garik and take their word
that this human paladin Septimus is a standup guy.
Then the discussion began as to
what to do next. The paladin, bard and fighter were hired to come to Silver
Town to kill a demon in priest clothing. However, that was already
accomplished. Then there was the mine where some creature was living and
terrorizing the town. There was also the trek into the wastelands to find the
warlock lair that Lukas was looking for. They decided to investigate the mine
first since they were here.
The Mine
Twilight was approaching as the
party arrived at the remains of the small mining camp. The mine entrance was
boarded shut. The trio of buildings outside the mine had fallen on hard times.
They looked to be a small office, storage and a third that was possibly a
flophouse. Time, weather and obviously needing boards to close the mine; had
turned the buildings into ruins and rubble. The party split and searched
around the outside of the mine. They found no tracks, other entrances or signs
of anything. The decided to remove the boards and enter the mine.
Down, down, down they walked into
the defunct silver mine. After hundreds and hundreds of feet they found
nothing. No tracks. No monsters. No silver. All they found were tracks, mine
carts, old lanterns, signs of mining and bits of forgotten gear. The only
noticeable bit was that the air was being drawn into the mine. They continued
to follow the cart tracks.
Then the tracks suddenly stopped.
Sure the wooden ties were still there, but the rails
and spikes to hold the rails were just gone. They also found what looked like
the wooden pieces for a mine cart, but the metal was gone. Lukas crouched down
and grabbed what looked like a handful of brown dirt. He ran it through his
fingers and smelled it.
“Damn. Iron oxide.” he says as he
lets the material fall through his fingers and back to the ground. He looks to
the party. “Only something like a rust monster could and would do this to these
tracks. Plus it could explain the loss of silver in the mine. If it got into
the silver veins, then it would have on Hell of a snack. Still they don’t
normally attack and cause physical harm to anyone. Well unless really provoked.
It is doubtful a rust monster was terrorizing the town.”
The party swaps to ranged weapons,
stows their valuables, places the paladin at the rear of the group and moves
deeper into the mine. After a few hundred feet they turned a corner and saw the
rear of a strange propeller tail armored creature. Well they had found the rust
monster. Arrows and crossbow bolts flew…..and punched through the creatures’
armored shell. It promptly sat there. A second volley
and still no movement. The group approached and found that the majority of the
rust monster was gone. The shell was empty and looked to have been “scooped
out.” It appears something got the rust monster first. The party moved
onward.
Soon the mine tunnel ended in a
giant opening in the wall. It looked as if the miners hit a large chamber
underground and this is where the eldritch creature attacking the town may have
come from. They entered this large natural cavern and began to explore. They
first noticed the sheer size of this place. Even with torches and infravision they could not see the opposite walls or
ceiling of this chamber. That would soon prove troublesome for the group.
As they walked through the dark
room the rouge and fighter were suddenly wrapped up in spined
tentacles from the darkness above! The group sprang
to action attacking the tentacles and trying to see what they were attached
too. They soon discovered that as a pair of what appeared to be giant floating
brains with beaks descending down on the party. Steel met beak and tentacle in
combat. The fighter and rouge managed to escape the grasping spined tentacles
of the grell attacking them. Not only that, but they managed to avoided the
paralytic venom from the spines as well. The barbarian landed a vicious blow
that would have removed the head of a grell….if it had an actual head. Instead
he drove his two handed blade deep into the brain-like tissue of its body and
then with a twist and reverse slash, removed the blade. The grell died and
slowly descended to the floor hitting it with a syrupy thud. The second grell
was put down by the monk, rouge and bard with a combination of gunpowder,
fists and daggers. The fighter and paladin tried to help, but there was
little for them to do before the grells were finished.
The party continued down into the cavern
to see if these were the creatures attacking Silver Town or maybe it was
something else (spoiler...the grell were attacking the town. they were able to
remove the boards from the mine entrance and didn't leave any tracks either).
Soon a few people heard what sounded like chirping. Like really large crickets,
but very intermittent and not as constant as crickets. It was a matter of
moments later when they discovered what was making the sound, a trio of
hook horrors rushing through the cavern toward them. Once again the party
sprung to action to battle the chitinous hook beasts.
As they fought off these three
creatures back they heard what sounded like more of the creatures
coming. Three more of these beasts rushed the party. Driven by the sound
of first battle and the scent of dead grell have driven them into a feeding
frenzy behavior. Sadly for them, it was not enough. The party quickly
dispatched the six hook beasts with little effort (yeah a horrid rolling for
these guys from me made for a really weak sauce encounter that could/should
have been a lot lot tougher).
With the hook horrors dead the
party discussed what to do next. Lukas had hired them to find the lair of
Ariahiri Didani, the warlock. The party voted and they decided to stop this
venture into the depths of the Earth. It seems like they had possibly found a
second entrance (the first in the depths of the Forge of Durgeddin
adventure) to the world of the Underdark, or just a really deep cave. Either
way, they made note of the location of this possible series of Underdark caves.
The monk was very interested in continuing on, but was talked into coming back
another time. He has real axe to grind against the underground dark elves.
The group made their way back to the mine entrance and then to Silver
Town. There they stopped to rest for the night. Lukas had told them they needed
another three to four days travel into the wastes to find the lair of the
warlock.
HEY follow or go check out @Regthebarbarian for live tweets from this game!
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