I had my rest.
Someone forgot about Raise Dead. For once, it wasn't me. It was... the whole bloody party.
The dead insects were still glowing after eight hours, which was slightly disconcerting, although considerably less disconcerting than when they were alive. This was probably our toughest battle yet, mainly because I didn’t get to see one half of the battle.
So, we pressed on and continued looking for our Duergar.
Pherios told us that one of the walls did not look natural. He then walked forward and the ground collapsed underneath him.
We heard a distant “Waaaaaa…”
He had fallen sixty feet.
Fortunately, he survived. Unfortunately, our rope was only fifty feet long.
After tying ropes together and getting him back up, Gwindor advised him to look out for holes. Thank you, Gwindor.
At this point it occurred to me that what we really needed was a rogue walking ahead of us checking for traps. We have one of those.
Galen investigated the strange wall. It felt solid and then, somehow, not solid. Beyond it was another passage which looked quite different from the mine. Something had burrowed through here.
Naturally, we all went inside, where it was getting increasingly warm.
Galen hammered pitons into the wall, making enough noise to inform anything within several miles that dinner had arrived (again), while Pherios cast Bless on me, Galen and the Shiny One.
I offered some useful tactical advice:
“Remember: if heat, don't use…”
Gwindor wondered aloud what gas mark the Paladin was on.
We found the remains of a dwarf and an elf. Gwindor acquired a gold chain from the dwarf after the cloak attached to it disintegrated, while I took the elf's boots. They might be useful.
There was also a magical iron box containing three eggs.
One hatched. Galen killed what came out.
The Shiny One then decided that the obvious thing to do was attack the other eggs with his newly discovered sword. One contained another fiery worm creature. The other released a fiery red liquid. Neither occupant survived the investigation.
The sword is called Deep Watch, and appears to be a very fine Dwarven weapon. This means the Shiny One now has a shiny narcissistic sword to admire as well as himself. Galen also found a sealed metal tube. Pherios couldn't open it, but eventually Galen worked out that the top unscrewed. (!).
Inside was a map. It showed Karak Thorval, apparently the Duergar name for a fortress, together with some lower workings which had been sealed. The scale was given in Dwarven feet. Dwarven Feet. I am still wondering whether Dwarven feet are shorter.
We continued. Pherios began checking for traps with Gwindor backing him up. I am not entirely certain why.
Eventually Galen took over. Then triggered a trap.
There was a rockfall. Perhaps we should stop looking for traps.
We passed into older, properly mined tunnels. The Shiny One climbed a ladder, reached the top and then performed a remarkably good impression of Tom and Jerry as every rung collapsed beneath him and deposited him back where he had started. Tom and Jerry I am told were two continually warring entities that broke items like ladders, in exactly the “only two long poles remaining” fashion, just displayed by our paladin.
Eventually we found an old mining shaft glowing pink-purple with Chardalyn.
There were rungs leading down. But were these rungs?
We had already encountered collapsing floors, collapsing tunnels and collapsing ladders, and had found evidence that something very large had burrowed through the mountain.
Obviously we climbed down. Clearly we learn from our mistakes. A bottomless pit – what could possibly go wrong as we climbed down?
I cast Light on Galen and he went first, secured with a rope. The Shiny One followed. I went after him. Gwindor came last.
The rungs were strangely large. Either they weren't originally intended as ladder rungs or something considerably larger than us had once used them.
After an hour of climbing there was still no sign of the bottom. Then Pherios asked:
“Did anyone else feel that?”
No.
Apparently one of the rungs had vibrated.
Oh joy.
We continued. I decided to check my abilities, was Wisdom still one of them?
After two hours we could see lights far below us. Then came a clattering noise.
Then the smell.
Pherios said:
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
I thought, yeah – what was your first clue?
We asked whether we should continue. He pointed out that we had come a long way. This was apparently sufficient reason.
Far below, creatures were crawling around the Chardalyn. They looked like baby versions of the thing we had already fought. One climbed towards Galen. He shot it, and it shrieked and disappeared into the darkness below. All the others immediately vanished into the walls.
Personally I would have felt safer bringing a loud gong and bashing it.
Then we felt vibrations.
“It is coming,” said Pherios.
Joy upon joy. It’s coming. What is coming? I dare say another instant death machine.
So we started climbing back up. Slowly. It was moving faster than we were. We could tell. Of course it was, oh, what a surprise.
I pulled a stone from the wall, cast Light on it and dropped it down the shaft.
Then another.
Then another.
One of the rungs came loose and I only just managed to avoid falling.
Eventually one of my glowing stones showed us what was coming after us. It was a Remorhaz. And it was about twice the size of the one that had previously killed me with a single attack.
Excellent.
I summoned my Guardian of Faith.
It looked like a walrus. If this keeps up we’ll have to rename it a Walrus of Faith.
Gwindor discovered that he did not have Transmute, so he used Chaos Bolt instead. Chaos bolt. The delightfully miniscule attack spell that does tickle damage to something that just might be able to absorb forty such attacks.
I reminded him that he also had Eldritch Blast and Hex, the very thing that Warlocks are famous for. Apparently Gwindor had forgotten that he was a Warlock also. Stress will do that to you.
We continued to climb, the murderpede hot on our trail and gaining. Then, thankfully…
The Walrus hit the Remorhaz. My Spiritual Weapon hit the Remorhaz.
We climbed.
Eventually everyone escaped from the shaft and the creature slowed down. We ran around the old well while it apparently decided that pursuing us was no longer worth the trouble and returned below. The tactic had worked and bought us time to escape. We were in headless chicken mode though, not knowing where we should run next, which was probably more of an amusement value to the murderpede now sticking its head out of the shaft.
Thankfully it did not pursue. Probably concluding that we were too comical to eat or that we lacked sufficient brains to defeat it and therefore it just couldn’t be bothered.
The Shiny One watched it retreat.
“Shall I throw a rock at it?” He said.
Seriously? I mean SESRIOUSLY?
We had one course of action: we left.
As Phineas climbed the next ladder, it broke.
Again.
Eventually we got out of the mine and this comedy of errors. I was very knackered by then and needed more rest. All seemed calm outside.
Phew.
Then we felt a faint tremor beneath our feet.
Even outside.
We found wolf tracks, an enormous skeleton and another large shaft, but by then nobody seemed to know what we were supposed to be doing with any of them.
So we camped. Probably the best decision we could have made. I am glad as the fatigue that I knew would last days, was continuing.
I slept while the Shiny One admired Deep Watch.
The following day we headed north, trying to find our way around the mountain. We eventually realised we had been here before. It was where the wolves attacked us. Naughty wolves.
Then we discovered we appeared to be going in circles.
Fortunately, we had a map. It would have been useful to have used that from the beginning. Eventually we found a well-used trail with sled tracks and adopted our latest sophisticated tactical plan:
Follow it until we hit a dead end.
Clearly we know what we're doing.
Then the trail branched. After considerable thought, we decided to go in the direction that everybody else appeared to be using. We headed left.
Towards Sunblight.
Gwindor began looking for places where we might set an ambush. We stopped for a snack without being attacked by anything, which by our recent standards counts as a significant victory. His idea was a sound one, with surprise we should defeat anything coming up the trail and we might pick up some goodies that will help us live longer.
The snow began to fall. Which meant that the annoying woman was out casting that damned spell of hers.
The mountains rose ahead of us and travelling became increasingly difficult. Then, in the distance, we saw flickering orange lights.
As we got closer, we could make out what looked like street lights. So we stopped. Now we wait? Or we continue. That can be a problem for my next entry.