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A few minutes later, Bree regains fitful consciousness, but it is as much
as he can do to lie on the ground groaning. Gruff is still down, and
carrying either of them could be dangerous, so the party decide to wait
awhile, 'till Bree is fit to travel, or Gruff comes to.
Sequoia reckons it would have to be a very large group of ogres
for yet more to be ready to come running, and the party rest for 7
hours. Rodion regains his spells, and Gruff and Bree regain
consciousness. The others, on guard for the time, aren't rested enough to
regain health. The party head back towards Reso. Rodion is walking in the
lead with Sequoia, and disappears into the ground. He wakes up somewhere
dark and dank, the others around him in the darkness. He had fallen into a
mineshaft, or hole in the ground, and now the party are down there with
him. It isn't reckoned that this is the place the party were looking
for. The lack of lanterns is due to the fact that Gruff had advised
against it, there being a strange rare fungus in the room that Rodion
crashed into, the spores of which go boom if exposed to flames anytime
after about a half an hour after they are spread, until they are
dispersed. It is at least a half-hour since the spores were spread, so
they are now dangerous, but not long enough has elapsed for them to have
dispersed in the breezeless underground. Gruff says that the mushrooms are
prized for their healing properties, but very rare because of their
tendency spread explosive spores.
The underground area is basically a large 'X', with a room (into
which Rodion fell) at one of the endpoints, a tunnel leading to a room at
the end of another, and two boarded up dead-ends at the others. The party
creep through the darkness to the non-mushroom room. There is a little
more air here, and water seems to be running. The lantern is lit. Nothing
explodes, yet. It is a small earthen room with a dirty stream running
across it, in and out of small holes in opposite walls. The room is
searched. Proziac finds a bar set into the opposite wall. He examines it,
and, in turning it, or pulling it, it shifts with a 'clunk' and seems to
lock into a different position, now with no give.
The party decide to rest to recover health and spells, and to wait 'till
the spore room is definitely safe so as that they can climb out. Sequoia
and Proziac maintain watch. During the night (or day) Sequoia hears
'whoosh' and feels a rush of air, and reports as much in the morning. It
seems likely that the spores have exploded on their own while the party
were resting. The party return to the mushroom room back past charred
walls. It is now safe to have the lantern lit. On the floor of the room is
a charred corpse, and a broken lantern. Looks like some poor fool got rid
of the spores for the party accidentally. It is decided to explore the
dead-ends a bit further, now that it's safe to have illumination.
The two dead-ends are searched, and the wooden boarding ripped
away with crowbar and handaxe. About a foot past the boarded-up dead-ends
are earthen dead-ends. There is a gap at the bottom of one of them, but
poking and prodding with staves and swords reveals nothing. Proziac finds
another lever, but this one doesn't move. Sequoia spots a little black cat
at the centre of the 'X'. The party follow it to the mushroom room, but it
disappears up and out of the hole in the roof as they get there. The party
get back to searching around, trying to figure out the levers and the
'boarded up to keep people in or out?' ends of the corridors.
The cat returns, this time dropping a small wooden stick before scurrying
off. Bree casts 'detect magic' on the stick, as well as the stream, and
lever in the stream room. The stick is definitely magical, the stream and
lever might be. Marcus examines the stick. It pulls apart to grow longer,
and a man's voice greets the party. He is up above outside the hole,
having lost two of his comrades (he supposes) when they fell to their
fiery deaths in the room, still, there's only one corpse. His fighter
friend had bought a map from some guys, and they were out looking for a
magic sword. The party decide to use the opportunity of having a person up
above to get out of there. Proziac's grappling hook is still stuck in the
ground on the outside, the rope having burned off. Rodion ties some string
to an arrow, and Proziac fires it straight up and out of the
hole. Dragagog (up above) lowers the string, rope is tied, pulled up,
looped into the grappling hook, and lowered back down. Sequoia and Gruff
remove their armour, and everyone gets out with relative ease. The party
talk with Dragagog up above. He had offered the party (when they seemed
competent) 20gp to escort him back to Reso. The party head back to Reso
with Dragagog, none too pleased with the guys who had sold them the
map. Reso is reached without incident, and Dragagog offers to book the
party passage to Specularum, a great city to the south, in exchange for
the 20gp. Proziac and Bree want to go to Specularum. Marcus and Sequoia
want to continue the venture, even if it looks like the party have been
ripped off. Rodion agrees that Sequoia should get a chance to kill some
more ogres and find the sword, if it exists. The party take the 20gp.
Without clerical healing, most of the party are about one week of rest
away from full health. Gruff two weeks. Sequoia forks out 35gp for a two
week stay for 6 in a fair Inn. The party variously spend their two weeks
about the city. There is no sign of the guys who sold the map. Proziac has
a look around for anyone of a similar philosophy, with no luck. Rodion and
Bree spend some time reading in the mage's guild (house really). Rodion
enquires of them if it would be okay with them if he did his sailor
entertaining 'phantasmal force' spell in an appropriate Inn, but they
don't like the idea. Marcus ensures that all are fully protected by the
'armour' spell. As the two weeks draw to a close, the party restock on
supplies, to head back out into the plains. Sequoia forks out for a new
shortbow for Proziac, and they set out.
The first day into the plains passes. On the morning of the
second, a group of humanoids are seen walking towards the party, and are
hailed and greeted. They too, had bought a map off a group of people, and
the party sigh. Thing is, they found a magic sword in some mines, like the
map said, and not nearly so defended by ogres as was made out. Well, at
least the venture was real. The party leave the other group to their
arguing between themselves about who should get the sword, and decide to
explore the mushroom place again, seeing as it is nearby.
Forewarned, the party lower Gruff carefully into the spore room. The
mushrooms have regrown, and Gruff successfully gathers as many as possible
without disturbing them. Everyone climbs down, and the stream room is
re-explored. Marcus searches the bed of the small (5ft wide by 20ft
long) stream, and finds holes that (with string and weight) seem to plumb
down at least 50ft. Proziac rechecks the lever, and it again clunks into a
set position as he is playing with it. A few minutes later a trickle of
water runs into the room to join the stream. The party follow it back to
the gap at the bottom of one of the earthen dead-ends. The flow seems to
be growing, slowly. At the other dead-end, the rod in the wall is gone. In
digging around the area where the rod was, the party discover that the
earthen dead-end can be hacked away at the bottom. After about ten minutes
it is broken through, and lead to a small (say, dwarf sized) corridor. The
corridor is followed to a four way junction. The walls are carved with
dwarves and stuff, but no distinct meaning can be discerned. To the left,
the corridor ends at a shaft in the ground leading downwards. It goes down
to what seems like a landing, then down onwards into darkness. It is
deemed too risky, and left alone. Straight ahead, the corridor continues
for 180ft before being deemed boring. To the right is a 25' square room,
with a broken statue sitting in an alcove. The room is searched. The walls
contain dwarven writings, and Marcus, a bard of all things, is able to
wrangle some meaning. 'Dig where is broken'. The party dig in the rubble
beneath the broken statue in the alcove. Soon enough, a dwarven warhammer
is uncovered. It looks nice enough, and is in surprisingly good
condition. Marcus casts 'detect magic' upon it, and determines that it is
not magical. It too is carved with writings, and he is able to make out
the words 'death to dwarves', he thinks.
Proziac carries the bulky warhammer, and the party return to
explore the length of the long corridor. After a total of 270' it ends in
a pile of rubble. Sequoia in front, the party start hauling rocks
clear. There is a rumble, and a crash of rocks. Sequoia deftly leaps
clear, but still takes 7 points of damage, Marcus is injured a little
also. The group head back to the spore room to leave. The trickle of water
flowing from the dead-end to the stream is now a flow, but easily stepped
across. In time, everyone is back up on the surface, and it being night,
the party set camp. During his watch, Rodion spots another group of people
arrive nearby, and set camp themselves. Rodion's group are concealed by a
rise from the others, and Rodion decides not to do anything (after waking
Proziac and him agreeing) other than tell the next person on watch of
their presence. In the morning, it is clear the other camp are dwarves,
and one of them wanders over to greet the party. He announces himself as
Clanggonggodin and immediately notices the warhammer behind Proziac's
back. He wanders off and fetches one of the other dwarves. The parties
talk. The dwarves are, in fact, searching for the hammer (at least they
weren't sold a dodgy map), and good number of their number are
miners. Remuneration is discussed. The dwarves don't have any (other than
a couple of individual pieces) gold between them, and their cleric can
only offer a couple of 'cure light wounds' spells.
Rodion mentions Gruff's predicament. The dwarves offer to set Gruff up
with a high level cleric who will be able to sort out his loss of
faith. In a place called Fort Denwarf, about 250 miles to the north-west,
past a place called Illarum, they know a guy who will help him. The party
hand over the hammer, and the lead dwarf writes out a letter for the
cleric in Fort Denwarf and signs and seals it.
The party head back to Reso, with the intention of first heading for
Specularum, the best place to get to Fort Denwarf safely from.
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