Chapter 16: Mines of Madness
General Summary
Date: 19th to 22th of Kythorn, 1491 DR
After a long march to the Starmetal Hills, the Good Fellas eventually arrived to the entrance of the Corkscrew Mines. The wraith Mormesk who they've encountered in the Wave Echo Caves had told the heroes of a fabled artifact called the Forever Stone residing within the mines and asked the heroes to retrieve it for him. A ramshackle wooden hut stood near the mine entrance that got the attention of some of the adventurers who decided to investigate. The warning sign "KEEP OUT" nailed outside the hut's wall was ignored as Ranvas peeked inside. He found it to be an abandoned outhouse, with something burning inside the dug hole. It was at this moment the ground began to shake and rumble.
The rest of the adventurers were flung to the ground as a massive worm burrowed through the rock, engulfing the outhouse with Ranvas still inside of it. Members stared in shock as a large bulge traveled deeper inside the worm's gullet. They attacked the creature; punching, burning and slashing it, eventually gaining the creature's attention. Instead of attacking the worm spat out a slimy pile of mucus onto the ground and burrowed back where it came from. The Good Fellas found Ranvas sizzling inside this mucus, along with bits and pieces of wood.
After Ranvas was cleaned up the adventurers went to the mine entrance where they saw a Dwarvish word chiseled into a stone slab. As Bene repeated the word out loud, the letters began to glow and the slab started resonating a slow humming sound. The adventurers continued forward. Surrounded by carved rock and rotting crossbeams, the adventurers made their way through the spiraling mine tunnels until Ranvas heard banging and hissing sounds coming from the left passageway.
The tunnel expanded into a larger chamber where the eerie red light was met by two life-like goblin statues brandishing stone spears. Their horrified expressions were an indication of the horrors that resided deeper within. Two massive eight-legged reptiles were hungrily banging an upside down mine cart on the other side of the room. The light hit a pair of glowing pale green eyes that turned towards their next meal. Ranvas turned back and relayed the information to the rest of the party as they began scheming a plan. Surprise and shock was on them as the creature that noticed Ranvas had followed him to the corner of the room where the party was talking.
Ranvas turned, ready to shoot the creature but as he stared into its eyes, he felt his body growing sluggish. He desperately managed to warn the others not to look at the creature before his body tensed up and he was unable to move. The battle was on them! Without looking at the creature, the adventurers managed to slay it, just before the other one joined in. A gut punch from the powerful gauntlets of Virion immobilized the Basilisk and the heroes were able to kill it. Their attention turned towards the upside down mine cart in which the Basilisks were interested in.
Turning it around revealed a scrawny goblin begging mercy. The goblin Hug Hug was a member of a goblin hunting party from Cragmaw Tribe that ventured inside the cavern only to be slaughtered by the Basilisks and the trap in the entrance. The heroes argued whether to take Hug Hug with them or let him go. After the argument the goblin was shooed away. A couple of seconds went by before the adventurers heard a loud rumbling sound. Bene rushed to the entrance only to find it blocked by rock and stone. The goblin had activated the trap once more, and Hug Hug was lost forever.
They continued onwards, spiraling through the twisting mine tunnels. They eventually found the nest of the Basilisk but after a brief back and forth decided to leave it be. The identical tunnels lead them to an enormous square room with smooth brick-lined walls. The room was packed with jolly dwarves mining, carrying ores and singing shanties. When the dwarves noticed the adventurers their jolly-forms twisted, disfiguring them into undead as one of the dwarves began shouting "Finders Keepers!".
The dwarves went on all fours and started skittering towards the adventurers. Ranvas noticed the yelling dwarf standing on top of a red barrel and in the brief seconds decided to take a shot. The bullet pierced the wooden cask, igniting whatever was in it. A loud roar blasted throughout the room as fire engulfed the undead. When the smoke cleared, he shot one of the straggling ghouls and made his way towards the wounded dwarf-wight. A blurry motion passed Ranvas as the large bald man was already upon the helpless dwarf. Virion began throwing wild punches, each finding their mark. Eventually the dwarf went still.
The dwarf was carrying a diamond-tipped pick axe, which the heroes took. The room had three doors leading out of it. The easternmost door revealed a long brick-walled tunnel, the middle an alcove with a spike pounded into the floor and the westernmost door had a dusty tunnel containing two mine shafts. Maescia investigated eastern tunnel, finding two bodies near the center area. A journal revealed that the two adventurers were friends trapped inside the hallway unable to escape. Hunger was on them and a fight ensued where the elf had riddled the dwarf with arrows. With no means of escape the elf committed suicide by his own arrow.
Meanwhile Ranvas was investigated the northern side of the room with a smooth hole carved into the wall. Underneath the hole was a pile of emerald-colored dust. As Ranvas touched it, he breathed in the disturbed fine powder and the others looked in horror as his eyes melted away. Hollow eye sockets were now staring at the other members of the Good Fellas and Ranvas had lost his vision.
After Nomime had investigated the western pathway, finding a gelatinous cube lurking in the mine shafts, the party decided to rest for a bit. After an hour had passed the eyeballs popped back into Ranvas and his eyesight was restored. The adventurers sacrificed the bones of the dwarf wight to the gelatinous cube and ventured forward. As they arrived to a curve in the tunnel, they began hearing a soothing melody coming from the other side of the wall. Ranvas used the diamond pickaxe to mine the rock and to their amazement the wall broke in smooth 5 ft. cubes. They found a skull shaped cavern on the other side, rising up from the floor in the middle of the room was a 9-foot-tall rectangular archway of warped black stone filled with a glowing purple haze. As they went closer, a guttural voice emanated from the portal demanding the adventurers to leave. So they did.
They hiked the twisting tunnels that warped and curved, slowly ascending upwards. Ranvas stepped onto something, hearing a click soon to be followed by something massive rolling towards them. They dashed back to where they came from only to find a massive smooth obsidian ball rolling uphill towards them. Spells were bouncing off the ball and the webs of Nomime were ignored entirely. The small teenager was almost crushed by the ball, but Virion grabbed Nomime and the party escaped the ball that disappeared at the end of the tunnel.
Passing through mine shafts named after the kings of old, the tunnels warped into smooth stone once more. The adventurers found themselves in a circular room with carved stone stairs descending even deeper into the mines. A dwarven statue was erected at the entrance of the stairs as if ready to shake their hands. They discovered that the dwarf spat out either treasure or valuable information when its hand was shook. The Good Fellas dusted themselves off and continued to venture even deeper to the Mines of Madness.
Descending the spiral staircase to the depths of the mines, the adventurers came across a stone door with a carved face of a grinning dwarf. As Ranvas passed through the door, it gave him a shocking jolt of electricity. Nomime tried to freeze the frames only to be shocked as well as she went through. It seemed there was no way of disarming the trap, until Ranvas suggested the others should grin like the dwarf while passing through the door. With his guidance, Bene and Virion were unscathed as they walked to the other side.
Beyond the door was a landing with a short flight of stone steps leading down to the floor of a circular room. Smooth stone walls surrounded the colored checker pattern ground where in the middle was a brightly glowing gem as big as a fist. Lying next to it was a humanoid skeleton, its bony hand reaching for the gem.
The heroes suspected that the room was trapped somehow. Bene threw a ball bearing towards the glowing gem only for it to pass through the elaborate illusion. They then curved around the gemstone, hugging the sides of the wall and safely exited the room from the other side.
Traversing through the spiraling tunnels, along the way they found a backpack filled with potions and a spell scroll. The mine tunnels split in two and the heroes decided to investigate the dead end before venturing forth. It was then that Ranvas was ambushed by two orange insectoids. Before getting the change to shoot, Ranvas noticed as his gun was beginning to corrode into rust. Bene slashed one with his chain knife, carving between the chitins. As he pulled it back, he noticed the once smooth blade was now brownish and rusted. Ranvas pulled out the elvish longsword
Talon and started hacking the insectoids. Eventually the two managed to defeat them but the damage the creatures did to their weapons had made them less efficient. Sheeting the rusted knife and holstering the corroded gun, the adventurers pressed on.
They passed through a mine shaft while traversing through the tunnels. Maescia dropped down an illuminated stone that fell to the depths of the hole. As they crossed the wooden beams they heard cries of help echoing from below. Their suspicions only grew stronger as the person became more and more deranged the more they asked it questions from it. They left it begging for them to descend down below to rescue it and came across another pathway that split into two.
To their left was a door with a similar grinning dwarf carved into the rock, only this time the mouth was hollow and big enough for them to crawl. There was also a riddle above it that Bene and Nomime translated. The adventurers decided that the riddle meant turning the doorknob twice for it to be safe to pass. This proved false when Ranvas walked through and the others watched in horror as his upper body twisted around towards them.
The Good Fellas decided not to venture forth the door and took the other way that spiraled downwards. They came across a hall with a small alcove, a winged grotesque gargoyle occupying it. They remembered that the gargoyle would have the answer and as they asked for it, the gargoyle's eyes flashed and it stated "Glitterdark". A secret doorway opened behind the adventurers, leading into a square room.
In the middle of the room rested a bloodstained altar, with an armored corpse splayed on top of it. A ceremonial dagger protruded from its chest and the murals of dead sacrificed adventurers gave heed to the Good Fellas. When Bene grabbed the dagger, the secret door shut behind them, trapping them into the sacrifice chamber. The obsidian block on the other side began whispering to them "
One must die". The adventurers tried several ways of escaping but none of them bare fruit. Then, they remembered the spell scroll they picked up previously. To the fortune of the heroes, Nomime deduced it was a spell that could open any lock or temporarily disable a magical barrier. Nomime spoke the arcane words and the massive obsidian block vanished to give way to the adventurers.
They traversed through a natural cavern descending even deeper below. Eventually the cavern ended into a smooth carved out tunnel with clean ridges decorating the pathway. Faint rumbling began to emanate, only to grow stronger and stronger. The adventurers quickly hid and watched as the massive purple worm passed through its tunnel paying no mind to the adventurers. They continued by following it through the tunnels at a safe distance, until the tunnel passed through a small cavern on the side.
On the other side of the cavern they found a massive stone wall, with bronze plates neatly placed in six rows. Bene and Nomime translated the dwarven runes on the bronze plates and figured out each row was a name of a dwarven king of old. The plates could be depressed so Ranvas began pressing them. As the final plate was pressed, the wall hissed and forced out a necrotic wave that washed over the nearest heroes. They took some time to recuperate and tried to solve the puzzle door, only for Ranvas to find out the passphrase
U-N-L-O-C-K. Pressing each respected letter the wall hissed once more, but this time it opened a secret entrance.
Beyond was a dusty square stone room, with a dwarven-made stone throne. On it sat a skeletal figure that excitedly greeted the Good Fellas. It asked them to participate in its game and asked the first question
"Why have you come?". When they answered they were looking for the Forever Stone, the lich wasn't convinced they were worthy of it. It pointed its finger to the wall and a secret door opened, revealing massive piles of treasure. The adventurers declined to take them and the door was shut.
The crypt thing asked whether the heroes were willing to make one final sacrifice. They did not want to and so the lich bid his farewell and clapped his hands, teleporting the adventurers to the entrance of Corkscrew Mines. They would have to traverse the entire mine once more. Using this opportunity, the heroes decided to venture the other passageways previously not explored; the door with the grinning dwarf. They tried different approaches such as walking backwards through the doorway but this led to Bene and Maescia suffering the same grotesque change as Ranvas did.
Nomime stood and watched while investigating the grinning dwarfs face. The mouth was carved out, leaving a hole big enough to crawl through. She tried it and was unscathed. When Bene tried the same from the other side however, his flesh transformed into ooze. At this point the heroes had suffered tremendously, both physically and mentally yet they had no way to seek the Forever Stone since the obsidian block had blocked the path once more. They ventured outside, ready to cut their losses and leave before noticing that in the place of the outhouse was a hole carved by the massive worm. This gave them passage to try one more time to get the artifact.
Traversing through the spiraling tunnel down 150 feet, Bene came across an elvish short sword alongside a dead halfling rogue. Avoiding the purple worm they once more arrived to the stone wall with bronze plates and pushed the right ones for the secret door to open. The crypt thing greeted them once more.
This time Bene volunteered to be sacrificed. He was certain it was a test of humility and by volunteering to be sacrificed, the crypt thing would gain insight on their determination and give out the Forever Stone. Bene had no time to regret this decision as the crypt thing disintegrated the smooth-talking rogue into a pile of dust. The others stared in horror as their friend destroyed in an instance.
Uninterested, the crypt thing asked for its final question:
"Which is faster, a griffon hunting its prey or a hippogriff with its tail on fire?". The adventurers thought for a moment and Maescia answered that one is fast as the other, so both. The crypt thing pondered for a moment, but wasn't satisfied with the answer. It told them that they had failed to consider the likely third option - a dragon that hasn't eaten in a hundred of years. As it screamed the answer another door opened in the room and a large green dragon stepped outside, hunger in its eyes.
Battle was upon them and the heroes fought the beast. The lich wasn't interested in fighting the adventurers but tried to make it more interesting, casting subtle spells towards some of the members. The loss of their friend and the resolve that rushed inside was enough to resist the effects of the lich's spells. Virion roared as he threw a flurry of devastating blows towards the dragon. It breathed out a massive cone of poison, that dropped down Maescia. Nomime dragged her to safety and pointed her finger at the room; a massive blast of fire exploded in the room. The fires danced around her friends as she controlled the flames only to hit the enemies. Ranvas shot the beast in the head, and Nomime casted another Fire ball, also damaging the lich. This gave Virion the change to discombobulate the dragon, stunning it for a brief moment of time.
Nomime lashed a psionic whip towards the weakened crypt thing, destroying it instantly. The dragon was also slain, and it vanished off like an illusion. At this point a secret door next to the throne opened up, revealing Bene holding out his empty hands. He told the others he had something in his grasp a second ago, but it vanished as soon as the lich was killed. The encounter tested altruism, humility and bravery, which the heroes passed, but as the lich vanished, so did their price. They grabbed some treasure from the first door and made their way back up to the entrance of the mines. Beaten, bruised and some deformed, the Good Fellas accepted this loss and began their long march towards the town of Triboar. After the events that unfolded inside the Mines of Madness, they sure could use some rest.
