Be careful what you wish for..

..you just might get it!

I’ve worked with the knights and rangers of Silverymoon before, travelling with parties of fighters to clear the surrounding regions of dangerous folk, and I dearly love the city. I have a good life, friends, family (I’d be dumb not to understand how many people wish to be here; I’m lucky to have been born and raised in the place!), but I’d grown curious about the rest of the world. Reading about it, no matter how clever the author, was not the same as seeing new places, myself.

Tymora encourages folk to do more than read and dream - you have to go out and DO! Yet, I’d been wasting time, hanging out with friends, and going to the taverns to hear others talk about their adventurous lives. I knew I had to change, and one morning at the Bright Blade Brandished, I got my chance. Lucky for me, several of my aquaintance from about town were bored at the same time, and someone decided to quiz the barkeeper about what “jobs” might be out there for a party of five. (Perhaps we’d had a bit too much to drink, all things considered, but it got things started!).

He took us seriously enough to point the way to Lord Greycastle’s, a minor noble of Silverymoon. The Lord offered us 100gp each to clear a small copper mine he’d inherited, which his surveyors had reported was overrun with some kind of critter. This sounded like a challenge we could handle, although I think the mage needs to stop buying our fighter ale. And who bought a full-sized mug for a halfling? No wonder he forgot his manners!

Of course, Tassar had a full day of hard travel to sober up. It didn’t put him in a good mood, for which I can’t blame him, but he lost his sense of humor, too! Areon, the ranger, found a hollow in the side of the mountain that made a great place to rest until dawn, so long as we didn’t make a fire to light a beacon in the wilderness. This was barbaric to poor Tassar, I fear, who wanted to cook his trail rations and didn’t think sitting on them to warm them up was at all funny. Thank heavens Antonio was willing to use some fire magic on them instead!

The morning found us rested and prepared for anything, we hoped! Areon ranged the area, deciding that there were a ton of kobold tracks in and out of the mine, so we had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Theona, our artifact hunter, used her sharp eyes to check for traps, instead. Once inside, we found a mystery. Statues of people, so good they appeared to be frozen in stone! And then battered, I fear, but kobolds couldn’t do such a thing.. could they? We debated whether to follow the most-used trails, or to clear the less-used ones first. Despite Tassar’s encouragement to head into unused spaces (imaginary and undescribable elven artifacts), we decided that following the main path might not be the best idea, and headed down a slightly-used passage.

Being a mine, of course, there are few straight roads. The whole place is tunnels and ladders, leading up, down, and around. Theona was hard-put to watch for traps! One of the first rooms with anything in it, unfortunately, was infested with giant spiders who’ve been enjoying a ready source of food. Daring the fire mage to light the webbing was bad, but chucking rocks into it was worse. Theona and Tassar are good shots with their bows, although poor Antonio got in the way of a few. I healed him up and reminded him that, while he IS the tallest in the party by a long shot, he need not be first into battle. Theona found kobold bodies in the cocoons, giving Tassar his first glimpse of what we were here to fight.

A little more travel and we found some living specimens, as well. The odd levels and corners came in handy for both sides as everyone found a niche and began shooting arrows or slinging rocks. I cast a most useful spell to make myself harder to be hit by such things, which did double duty when I found Theona dashing behind me! We were able to see where the kobolds were; up on a ledge above us, and Tassar hollering at the top of his lungs about dragons while clambering up the ladder and wading into a hand-to-hand fight. Several of the kobolds were killed, and the last ran away. I took a sling and bullets from one body, and we set off in pursuit!

Theona was a little embarrassed - right after she said out loud that the way should be clear if a panicky kobold hadn’t set off any traps, Tassar fell right into one! Guess it pays to know the area, even if you’re in full flight from an angry halfing and crew. We followed its footsteps, a little more carefully, but not carefully enough. We were attacked by many kobolds in the next open space, and although I killed one myself, I saw Theona was down, but decided I’d better keep fighting. I usually fight well enough, but my shots went wild - poor Tymora probably trying to remind me that I’m a healer, first! Even Antonio had figured out to stay out of the way by then!

Areon has a very big sword, and was mowing through the kobolds with glee. Tassar can’t seem to fight without a lot of screaming and swearing and talk of dragons. Antonio, I presume, was the cause of several firey spells flying into the battle, but I was hit by one too many sling bullets, and found myself slumping to the floor next to Theona...