Session 30: fire, earth, air, and water in the Crater Ridge Mines Report

General Summary

Our heroes watched the unimaginable happen: As Beaufort De Montague tumbled from the bridge he saw the looks of shock and sadness on the faces of his friends. He fell backwards, screaming, before crashing through the ice covering the surface of the crater lake Stalagos. His body immersed in the freezing water drove the air from his lungs; looking up he could see movement on the bridge as the company attacked the giant Duergar.
  Beaufort kicked his legs wildly, trying to stay afloat, but the combined weight of his coin purse and haversack was too much. He fumbled at the straps, trying desperately to free himself of this burden, however, his icy fingers were numb and struggled with the knots. Gasping, he took a final breath and was dragged beneath the surface, his vision fading to nothing.   Two hours earlier: the party had just defeated the massive three-armed giant and were moving cautiously along hallways and into rooms. In one gruesome chamber, covered in dried blood splatters and disarming chains hanging from the ceiling, they encountered a fairly cheerful prisoner, given the situation. Tymaret, a human Paladin of Tymora, had been captured in the Greypeaks while investigating rumours of an evil cult in the mountains (he was right). He had spent the last several days chained in this room using all his mental strength (INT 7, WIS 9 [!]) to resist some evil wolf-like creature's desire for his very soul. Tymaret was happy to join the party.   Quickly, the party noted multiple rooms with guards, both elves and humans, as well as a room with multiple guards, a goblin, and duergar captain. These rooms were scried with Beaufort's Arcane Eye. Orlac, the elven cleric of light, crept down a hallway and cast Silence into one room of guards, and in an instant Emmanuel Woodsmoke rushed into a nearby large chamber to begin the attack. But little did he know that a Chimera also guarded the room. Chimera, ten or more guards, elf and human, were engaged with fireballs, eldritch blasts, divine smites, swordplay and sneak attacks from Midnight Snow. Tymaret proved his worth by almost dying (nat 20 on first death save) in the Chimera's flames. Noodle  lept upon a guard and, thrusting daggers into his neck, scored a critical hit!  The duergar, enraged and enlarged charged into battle with his retinue. These fresh forces tasked the party mightily. The duergar, with an irrational fear of human magic-users, rushed Beaufort driving him out onto the bridge across the Stalagos. The party persued. The grey dwarf lunged at Beaufort and he miraculously forced the creature back. Then, the wizard tried to dance past the great dwarf. Beaufort took one, two, steps around the duergar on the bridge's precipice. His foot just missed the edge and, his arms pinwheeling, Beaufort fell. (?) (alternate version).   Although Orlac dove into the icy waters he could not save the Captain, mighty recipient of The Order of Daggerford, slayer of Meronal and killer of dragons.   The duergar turned invisible and fled towards the island in the middle of the Stalagos.

Rewards Granted

Chimera x 1 = 2300 Guards x 12 = 1200   Monster XP = 3500   Adventure advancement = 1000   Total XP per PC = 750 (Orlac, Emmanuel, Tymaret, Snow, Khusrov, and yes, Beaufort, as we do not know his final disposition).