Go Green

2 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

In spite of learning I that I am a half-orc, the party, my party, was fine with letting me take first shift during the night. I resolved not to let them down. So when I was hit with small, poisoned arrows from two different directions shortly after they all retired for the night, I forced myself to stay conscious and alert them, while returning fire in the direction one arrow had come from. I could tell from the commotion that more arrows were raining down on the group, so I cast a spell to entangle all the branches surrounding our camp, hoping the resulting canopy would keep our assailants busy. Not only did this not work, but the attackers were able to cast the same spell, ensnaring several of us in the process. I forced my way through the clinging vines to where Candal was standing, relieved to see that Kasa had managed to get out as well. I was fairly sure that I could hear Tythe and Rogar outside of the entanglement as well. I intended to go back in for Salma, but before I could, a third arrow hit me and I was knocked out.

When we awoke, for all of us had eventually succumbed except for Tythe, the elf excitedly explained that she found the rest of us in a pile beside the camp, and could see small-bodied creatures with high-pitched voices chanting; a ring of mushrooms surrounded us. She sensed something ominous about to happen, and rushed to where we were, breaking the fairy-ring just as the chanted spell was cast, disrupting it.

We may never know where we were originally destined to be teleported to, but I am certain we arrived someplace entirely different. The landscape is all ice and snow-covered mountains, and it is much colder than Darkmoon Wood. We did see, however, three cave entrances up a mountain that was only about one-half mile away and quickly made our way to it.

It was slightly warmer than the frozen landscape outside, but we had to make sure it wasn’t already occupied before making a new camp. Rogar is, thankfully, knowledgeable about all things rock, and as we examined the passage in the “nose” cave, we determined that the multitude of burns and cracks in the stone were the result of repeated hits by lightning. Now wary of a dragon or some other creature that could blast us with electricity, we continued on, coming to a spot where the “nose” met up with the two “eye” caves above. The mountain caves did resemble a skull somewhat, adding to the unease we were already feeling. We saw flickering lights ahead; I offered to sneak up and look by myself.

I crept forward to a large cavern, at least 40 to 50’ in width and depth lit by two braziers. At first, I thought a large dragon sat behind a 3’ by 6’ stone altar, but I quickly realized it was also made of stone. No one else appeared to be about, so I signaled my companions to come forward. We snuck across the huge cavern, half-expecting the dragon to come to life at any moment, till we were well behind it and could see a set of massive double-doors set into the mountain rock….

Rocky

2 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

Candal knocked on the doors, and then he and Rogar attempted to open them, with no success. As they pondered what to do next, I opened the doors (I’m sure they had loosened them) to find a large, circular chamber. It contained three dwarven statues and a lever on a 30’ disc. The room smelled musty and had no visible exits. As we searched for a way out, both Rogar and Kasa started to mess with the lever (the former recognizing dwarven craftsmanship), and it occurred to me that it looked like the only means of moving on from the room. We all scrambled onto the disc, which turned out to be a platform, and as the dwarf pulled back the lever, the floor shook and rumbled, and we began to descend.

The platform moved for about a minute, and I suspect that we went about 200’ into the depths of the mountains. When it stopped, we stepped down into a larger chamber, with columns along both sides holding up balconies. Figures holding weapons stood along each balcony. I had a weird sense of déjà vu (I’ve been in very few grand halls of any sort). We started to look for a way up to the balconies— attempting to open doors we found between the columns, when I realized that Candal had become impatient, using his holy steed as a sort of ladder to get himself and Rogar up to one balcony. As they examined a statue, it screamed and attacked the human— gargoyles had apparently moved into the abandoned dwarven halls and were not happy to be manhandled by the paladin. As Candal and Rogar tried to fight them off, I clambered up to the balcony railing and began to chip away at the stony creatures, who seemed more interested in attacking the paladin than Rogar or me. We managed to slay two of the three. Salma got up as well, knowing healing would be needed as soon as we fought off our attackers. Tythe stopped working on opening a door long enough to drop the last one with an arrow.

It turned out that the gargoyles were the most exciting thing in the grand hall; we moved on to another set of doors. They opened into a 20’ wide passage that slopped upwards, with a cracked and gouged floor. Looking at the doors behind us, we found them to be damaged as well, as if something very heavy had smashed into them. We made our way up the ramp carefully after checking for any obvious trap triggers, until we found ourselves on a landing….

Block Party

3 Kuthona 4709
Snowy mountains… somewhere

Up ahead of the rest of us and around a corner, Rogar and Candal catch sight of a clear cube sliding towards them, and one of them yells to throw fire. I have a bottle of alchemist’s fire which I manage to throw as soon as I see a bit of the cube myself, but I splash a bit on Rogar as well. I don’t get to hear him complain though, as he’s sucked into the cube almost immediately (and the cube douses the fire). Rogar appears to be unable to move at this point, so I pull out a spear and attempt to drag him out of the gelatinous cube, while Tythe is shooting flaming arrows into the thing. I feel that I am making some headway and it appears that Rogar has grabbed the end of the spear, but the shaft of the spear dissolves as I desperately attempt to pull him free. I see now that Candal is inside the cube as well, and though he appears to be swimming, he’s not going to be getting out on his own either. Salma has cast a spell at the cube, and now the dwarf is really large (the cube grows to accommodate him), and then somehow she ends up inside the cube as well. I move Kasa and Seven out of the way with a word of advice to the mammoth, and Tythe tosses flaming oil on the cube to burn it. The cube containing most of our party is now at the top of the trapped ramp and it’s getting a bit tricky to stay out of its way. I throw some acid at it, and remarkably, it moves back up the ramp to get away from that. I shoot an arrow at it myself, hoping to guide it towards some rocks where I hope to strain out our absorbed companions, and the thing explodes into clumps of inert jelly, disgorging Candal, Rogar, and Salma in the process. I notice that the cube has eaten their clothes, and manage to find two cloaks to give to Salma and Rogar.

They’ve lost a lot of equipment, but they did find a very nice adamantine breastplate and something we are calling a Helm of True Strike. Happily, Rogar can wear both.

We are pretty wiped out by this time, and never did get a proper rest, so we opt to go back to the great hall, into a balcony, to make camp. During the third watch, Tythe hears chanting in draconic, and many footsteps beyond the closed double doors. She wakes us as the doors open, and we see about twenty kobolds marching through the room, chanting praise to their dragon god. We might have let them pass, but Rogar and I could see that two carried a wrapped humanoid-shaped bundle on a pole between them, obviously a sacrifice. I shoot one of the sacrifice carriers with my bow, and then Rogar, Candal and I jump over the balcony, using the element of surprise to take out a few kobolds quickly. Salma and Tythe stay above, with Tythe picking off kobolds with her bow as Salma uses a light spell on rocks to better see the skirmish.

The battle was a lot tougher than anticipated— those kobolds were a lot stronger than any I’ve encountered in the past, and several of them were casting spells as well. After we killed off about 2/3 of them the rest fled. Now to see what is in that bundle that they abandoned.