Leaping Lycanthropes!

Nuwmont 8-9
 
Before moving on we decided to fully investigate the cells. Dram cautiously checked the first one out, finding nothing and moving to the next one. Durbin went in behind him and started pushing the straw around. Always doing things the slow way, I came up behind him and simply shaped the air and pushed all the straw into a corner. We did the same for the next cell and Dram was onto the third when I smelled something very odd. I heard Dram say he was very tired and I immediately started cleansing the air around me. As I came out of the cell we were searching Holly said she was very tired but Dram was actually lying down sleeping. I drew more mana in and purified the air in a larger area to get rid of whatever toxin this was. Durbin pulled Dram out and tried to wake him up. It took some doing but he was able to finally do so. I moved the straw into the corner and it revealed an obvious tile in the floor attached to some cylinder. From now on I moved the straw out before anyone went into a cell!
 
We saw the deceased Hin in the cell that Holly talked about, we would need to come back for that. The next cell was the human who was actually awake at this point. He explained he was from Kleine and said he had nothing to give us but some boots. Checking them quickly they were definitely enchanted which was odd for him to have in the cell. Dram didn’t recognize the man or his name but he did explain he was from just outside Kleine so that made sense I suppose. We told him to hold tight there and we would return once we dealt with anything else in here. The other cells held nothing much except for the last cell which had a weapon belt with a sword and dagger with silver pummels and a bow. They were hanging on the far wall so we all assumed there was some type of trap but there was nothing, simply the items on the wall that Durbin quietly took down and put in his pack.
 
With this area secured we went back to another hall with two doors that was behind us. The first door had a green glow coming out from under it so we were a bit apprehensive about going in. Upon opening the door there was an oddity of broken glass jars and small cages that were all opened up. There was a crystal ball on a pedestal in the center of the room emitting the green light. Durbin pulled out a large bag and went to cover it up but seemed to trip as he got closer to it. Then we heard laughter and some very quiet arguing about being too loud and they would hear us. I told them we could already hear them. Small fey creatures, likely just tricksters. I pulled out some food and a small cup of wine and placed them in the room but they didn’t seem to care about that. It wasn’t until Dram pulled out a jar of honey he purchased a while back that they seemed to get excited. Well whatever was needed to distract them I suppose.
 
Through this room was another door into a store room. Good that those little rascals didn’t get in here as there were a lot of good glass vials and other such breakables. It’s too bad we had limited time to get through the gate made by the amulet. The next door was barred but was from our side so it was keeping something in. Holly said she could hear snoring on the other side so prepared for a quick fight. Turns out it was yet another group of gnomes trapped and enslaved! So far we had found five total now, four in here and the one who was doing the etching of the ceiling. They said that it wasn’t time to work yet but we assured them they would have to work for “master” anymore. We told them we could get them out and that we had already rescued others of their kind from other caves. They were very happy but wanted to take their forge with them as it was precious. It was definitely enchanted for sure, I couldn’t guarantee we could get it through but at least them. We told them to stay put as well and we would gather up everyone when we were ready to go.
 
With that we went to the other door in this short hall which turned out to be a kitchen. In this kitchen there were four doors - a blue door, red door, yellow door and a plain wooden door. We went to the blue door first and there was a man inside sleeping who had gold shackles on. We woke him up and we immediately saw he had his eyes sewn shut. He was the cook and wanted to make us food. From seeing what was in the kitchen I wasn't too sure I really wanted anything from here but it would be good to take a brief rest. I was worried about staying too long down here as I hated this place, I was underground and I wanted to get Zanzer out of here as soon as possible. He was an odd man, seemingly resigned to his fate. Dram mentioned the minotaur and Gorgo (the blind man) told us he was beyond the yellow door (pointing to it) and said he would not need to cook for us if we disturbed him. He should feed him first before we spoke to him so he would be “more pleasant”. He had already finished the first dish and after watching him picking out the better ingredients since we were actually not goblins or orcs I did taste what he made and it was good. Not really elven food but not horrible.
 
With that we decided to take care of “Dimitri” as Gorgo called the minotaur. He woke up quickly as we entered but between the four of us we were able to slay the beast. Holly actually partially blinded it by shooting it both its eyes and I was able to get in a few lightning strikes. Those were a bit tiring so once it was blinded I moved behind Dram and hit it a few times with lightning through my staff until the beast was down. Gorgo was surprised we were able to take the beast down and said he would continue cooking since we were still alive. He did have to feed the other “beasts” beyond the plain door. He said that was to the mess hall and filthy sleeping quarters for the orcs. We decided to hold off on that until the end or just leave it since the cave was sealed. The red door was a small pantry with an unexpected dwarven artifact in it. Some type of secure chest with dials on it that had to be turned in a certain combination to open it. Durbin wanted to get it but we had more pressing matters at the time so we decided to come back for it later.
 
The other areas we had not been to yet were the alchemy lab area which was totally destroyed. This had a door and passage leading back to the main mining area. Then the library which was destroyed, all knowledge gone. There was a room off this as well but it was empty aside from some chests which Durbin examined thoroughly. With that there wasn’t much else. I said we should just leave whatever was left to their fate but Dram did make a good point that there could be other good races down here locked up or working. I didn’t think so at this point and it was a difficult dilemma. In the end I thought it best to get out with what we had before Zanzer melted or something happened. But both Durbin and Dram wanted to fully cleanse the place so I relented. I suggested we gather everyone together in the kitchen so if we needed to make a hasty retreat I could seal us in and we could use the amulet to get out. That they agreed to. During our time checking out the other areas Gorgo had made some more food. A meat pie to be precise. Dram seemed to notice parts of the minotaur were missing and Gorgo said he did use some of the cheek in the meat pie. I tried it a bit but I am not a fan of these meat pies. Dram would not eat any.
 
We brought the gnomes first to the room first with their forge and tools. Then we went to get the human, which was easily done. Once inside the room Gorgo wanted to make them all some food so he went and “smelled” each one to figure out what they were. When he got to the human though he was taken aback and brandished some holy symbol and told the thing to back off. It retreated into a corner and transformed into a wolfman. I had heard of these creatures before and this was not good. It went after the gnomes first leaping around the room in a frenzy. I’ve felt fairly confident in most of our battles but this one actually scared me. I tried to stay calm and hit it with lightning hoping it would hurt the beast. I don’t remember much but I believe it takes a special metal to hurt them. After it hurt three of the gnomes and Gorgo we finally got the beast down but it wasn’t done yet. In fact I think it was healing itself. I came up behind the last gnome who was furiously smashing it and brought lightning through my staff. Dram asked for silver coins which Holly got out and Durbin reached in and pulled out a dagger made of silver and together they finished the thing. Afterwards we tried to patch up the gnomes and Gorgo even gave them some of the healing potions we had to stabilize them. Finally everything settled down.
 
Dram was insistent the body be destroyed and wanted to burn it right there. After thinking we decided that would be a bad idea as it would fill the area with horrible smoke. So instead they decided to chop the thing up and burn it in the small cooking oven since it wouldn’t likely be used again. That battle had really shaken me and I wanted even more to leave this place right now but Dram and Durbin were insistent on continuing on so we did.
 
There wasn’t much left and what was left was fairly weak, I didn’t even really need to help much. We did find a “counting” room that was full of coins. I have never seen so many coins, they were just everywhere. We did not find anything other than evil race creatures down here. We were discussing how to get this all out and of course they asked if we could get everyone and everything out of the dungeon. I wasn’t sure, this was powerful magic. I sat down to meditate and try to pull from Barrick’s memory and it all flooded back in almost immediately! The gem in the amulet powered the spell which essentially opened a door from our location back to Mage Island. We would have about a minute to get through. We decided to put the coins in sacks and load everyone that could carry something so we could try and get as much out as possible. Once everyone was finally ready and we had all we could take, I activated the amulet, the door appeared and we were brought back to the same room we had left some hours ago.
 
His apprentices and some other things were in the room waiting for us. We handed over Zanzer to him and they took him away. Then Geoffrey asked for his amulet back plus the one on Zanzer. I held them out but pulled them back as he reached. I told him that we wanted answers. We had been dealing with a lot of this insanity and we needed to know what was going on and I held out the amulets to him. He took them and went out with Zanzer. We stood there for a few minutes in silence and Dram even asked what we should do. Finally an acolyte took their hood off and it was Adrianna! She told us she would guide us out which she did. Back down and out to the boat which she seemed to talk to. She said it was ready and we could go. After all this I was ready to get back.
 
The ship moved on its own back to Melinir. We went through the mist again and pulled up to an empty dock. Some dock hands asked if we needed help unloading and Dram paid them some silver to cart everything to the store. With that under control we took the gnomes and Gorgo to the Church. Apparently Gorgo was a priest of an Immortal called Nyx and Dram was worried about some conflict. He assured them there would be no conflict and he would respect the ruling of the church. This man was very dispirited, almost as if he had given up on life but wasn’t able to end it himself. We took them to the church and they explained the curse of lycanthropy to us. They assured us everyone could be healed in that time which was great news. Once that was taken care of I stole away to the Sarcastic Goat.
 
Rhiannon was happy I was back and got us drink and food. I didn’t tell her much about our encounter with Geoffrey, only that I had gained access to his library which she seemed excited about. I then told her a bit about the trip but only really that it wasn’t much of an issue and we even rescued a few more gnomes. She actually seemed to accept it and move on but she kept my glass full and would just ask more questions about it here and there. Finally I just relented and told her about the danger. The minotaur and the werewolf being the most obvious threats. Of course she was…i don’t want to say mad but concerned for me with a small touch of anger? I think that may best describe it.
 
The next day I sat down with Dram and Durbin and told them no more letters to Geoffrey, no more trips around to investigate stuff, none of this until after the wedding. I was getting weary of having to leave so much and I was putting my foot down. Of course Dram asked about me getting kidnapped. I shuddered. I sure hope that does not happy again but then again Thom and Maybrush are out there. It may be worthwhile to track them down once we open up the valley.