Chapter 2-4: Lost Mine Tunnels
General Summary
Having finally found Gundren's missing brother, the party lay the injured dwarf down and began to check his injuries. Clootie examined the ragged stumps where his arm and leg had been removed. The wounds had obviously not been dressed, and the flesh was inflamed and beginning to smell slightly of gangrene. Aetilius lay his hand on the dwarf's forehead. He was hot and clammy, evidently fighting a severe infection. Miaug pulled out a selection of the herbs she had located in Conyberry, and quickly began to grind some of them into a thick paste. The group applied some of the paste to the stumps, bandaging the wounds up with scraps of the flattened tent. After an couple of hours of work, Tharden seemed to relax slightly. His breathing, once ragged, was now long and deep; and he appeared to be deeply asleep. The party rekindled the fire and relaxed for a moment, waiting for the dwarf to regain consciousness. Looking around the cave, the party noticed that the cavern wall beyond the camp fire had been dug away, and after a short distance, the tunnel broke through into a much older passage.
After a few hours, Tharden coughed and opened his eyes. The dwarf was confused, and still in a great deal of pain, but his eyes were clear and bright. The party explained the situation: that they had been sent by Gundren to rescue him, but that there was something terrible in the mine and they had been tasked with dealing with it. Tharden nodded in understanding. He advised the party that he could wait in the cave entrance until they returned, so as not to slow them down. The party agreed. They fashioned a crude crutch from the destroyed tent poles, and left Tharden with a supply of food and water, plus the ruby from Ramas's Lament dagger to allow them to keep in touch. Tharden wished them well as they headed onward into the mines.
Through the narrow opening, the party found themselves in an ancient dwarven mine tunnel. Petrified wooden supports which were bedded into the walls and ceiling roughly every fifteen feet gave the passage a squat, rectangular appearance. Piles of collapsed rock and rotten, discarded tools lay strewn around; and huge cobwebs stretched between the corners of the supports and the tunnel. Torches mounted in each of the supports illuminated the immediate area, but only the couple immediately adjacent to the breakthrough remained lit. In one direction, the passageway extended straight ahead, plunging into pitch darkness sixty feet ahead; in the other, it narrowed and curved off to the right. A chill breeze whistled down from the larger passageway ahead, bringing with it a stale and musty odour. As she looked into the darkness ahead, Clootie could feel something tugging at the back of her mind, some half-remembered warning or deeply buried emotion. Something felt wrong. She tried to ignore the sensation, pushing it deep down and shaking her head to clear it.
Ramas volunteered to sneak ahead, creeping off down the path to the right. The party moved along after him, followed by one of Clootie's Dancing Lights to illuminate their travel. They made an effort to stay far enough behind Ramas that the floating light wouldn't give away his location. The group painstakingly inched their way through the winding mine tunnels for what felt like an eternity. They found a couple of collapsed sections. Etched into one appeared to be a makeshift tombstone, most likely to memorialize miners killed during the collapse. In another cave in, Aetilius spotted a stone which seemed out of place. Pulling the loose stone out, he found a small carved brass device behind it. Unfortunately, this discovery only served to encourage his belief that the party should explore every inch of the mines, eliciting groans of despair from the rest of the party.
The group decided to double back, convinced that they were moving further away from the mine base. As they passed the initial entryway, they began to make their way up the larger main corridor. Roughly thirty yards along the corridor, just beyond the flickering reach of the torches, the passage split. The larger passage continued forward, but smaller side tunnels curved left and right. The party deliberated for an inordinately long time, then decided to take the left-hand passageway. The group fumbled their way through winding tunnels, occasionally tripping over discarded mining equipment and other tools. After about an hour of stumbling around in the gloom, they heard the low murmuring of voices. Moving quietly forward, the group noticed a faint flickering orange glow spilling around the corner ahead. Ramas took point, creeping up to peer around the bend. He spied a group of four goblins sitting around a crude campfire, arguing,
"I told you we should have gone left back there" one goblin spit angrily at his companions,
"We did go left ye babbling little turd-pile" a second goblin, with a shock of white hair, snapped back,
"I meant my left"
"IT'S THE SAME FECKIN' DIRECTION!" the white haired goblin shrieked angrily,
"Well we're fucking lost now aren't we - we can't find the bloody exit and what are we gonna do if those things catch up to us"
"They won't - we cut down the bridge remember"
"That doesn't mean they won't get us"
"That's exactly what it means you stupid shit-weasel!" the white haired goblin leaped to his feet, stomping over to loom over the smaller goblin. One of the others, an older looking goblin with slightly mottled brown skin, raised his hand and began to speak calmly, "Look - we'll just rest here for a couple of hours, and then we'll find the way out - it's not that complicated"
The white haired goblin sat back down and took a deep breath. The vocal goblin stared into the fire for a moment, then complained quietly, "I'm getting hungry - I'm not sure I can sleep"
"Oh shut up you fish-brained ninny, or I'll fucking eat you" the white haired goblin leaped over and started slapping him in the face.
The other two goblins quickly grabbed their companions, dragging them apart. The previously silent goblin slapped both combatants around the back of the head and snarled, "Sit down you two - save your fucking energy or I'll feed you to those creatures and run while they're ripping you apart. Now lie down and fucking go to sleep"
The goblins grumbled, but reluctantly lay down beside the fire, pulling crude woolen blankets over themselves.
Unintimidated by a small band of goblins, the party brazenly strode around the corner into the firelight. The goblins spotted them and jumped to their feet, cowering back against the wall of the cave,
"Oh no. Please - just leave us alone. We just want to get out of here!" the brown mottled goblin pleaded. Ramas stepped forward, holding one of his wicked looking curved daggers, gently stroking the blade as he eyed the goblin leader,
"Well. If you tell us what we want to know, maybe I won't stick this through your balls" he said, dangerously softly. The goblin swallowed anxiously,
"How many of you are there? And where are the rest of you?" Ramas asked. As he spoke he absently waved his dagger in front of the terrified goblin.
The goblin hurriedly explained that he and his fellows were Nezzar's expedition, exploring the mine. Nezzar, a group of ten bugbears, plus another twenty goblins, had found their way to the old mine base and had started to investigate. The goblins had managed to fairly quickly map out the base, but Nezzar was evidently looking for something and was getting frustrated. The goblins had no idea what though. A couple of days in, the goblins were searching through the old buildings at Nezzar's request. They had found a big fancy brass door, which was locked. Nezzar was convinced whatever he needed was behind it, so the goblins had been put to work searching the old mess hall for clues. Some of the bugbears had gotten bored searching and had tried to break the door down. They didn't make a dent, and they started getting extra angry. Suddenly, without warning, a couple of the bugbears at the door went berserk. They turned on the others, and started biting and tearing at them. This group saw at least one of the bugbears killed. A few of the goblins who were too close were grabbed and torn apart. The dead bugbear got back up, and started grabbing goblins. At this point, this group of goblins just bolted. They ran back through the tunnels, and cut down a rope bridge somewhere ahead, so they couldn't be followed. They've been wandering lost in the tunnels since then.
Clootie told the goblins to explain the layout of the mine base. The white haired goblin asked for some drawing supplies, and quickly sketched out the arrangement for the party. Reasonably satisfied, the party agreed to let the goblins go. The terrified creatures ran past the party back into the mine tunnels. On the way past, Ramas flicked the mottled brown goblin in the testicles, so hard that the creature doubled over and threw up on the cave floor. His fellows grabbed him and helped him limp away before the heroes changed their mind.
The party gave the goblins a five minute head start, then headed back off into the tunnels. After about an hour of wandering around in the gloom, the tunnel they were walking through opened out into a wide chamber. The ground ahead plunged into a huge black chasm. Peering down into the darkness, the party reckoned the pit was around twenty foot deep. Thick wooden posts were driven into ground on either side of the chasm. Across the chasm the party could just make out the remains of an old rope bridge dangling against the far wall. The group pondered the situation for a moment, then Miaug reached into her quiver and pulled out her rope arrow. Taking a moment to line up the shot, she breathed out and loosed the arrow. It sailed across the abyss, sinking deep into the wooden post. Serrated teeth in the arrow head sprung out, biting into the wood and wedging the arrowhead tightly. Miaug slipped the steel rod reel mechanism out of her quiver, looping the line around one of the nearby wooden posts, and pulling it taut.
Aetilius flew across first to help the rest of the party dismount. Clootie went first, gripping the line with her legs and pulling herself along underneath with her arms. Around halfway across, Clootie heard a faint giggle, the faint tinkling of silver bells. Suddenly she felt a weight on her back, and something snaked over her shoulder. Before she could get a good look, it belched a cloud of pale yellow gas in her face. Abruptly, her limbs stopped responding and she let go; falling into the ravine.
She lay on her back in the chasm, the wind knocked out of her, looking up into the gloom. Ryoko shouted down from above,
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah" she grunted back, levering herself up on her arms. She heard a curious chirping sound. A tiny creature materialized in in front of her. Deep blue scales shimmered in the faint light spilling down the chasm, and two delicate iridescent wings protruded from it's back. It cocked it's narrow lizard-like head on the end of it's long sinuous neck, regarding her with curious eyes. Clootie could feel an odd pressure in her mind, and she suddenly saw an image of herself, winged and hovering over the chasm,
"Why don't you fly, little fairy?" the creature asked, it's voice bright and sparkling, like water trickling down a stream,
"I dinnae have wings, ya daft snake" Clootie muttered grumpily, getting to her feet. The creature cocked it's head to the other side, and Clootie heard another soft tinkling laugh. The little creature leaped into the air, swooping around her and grabbing the end of the rope from her backpack. It disappeared up the far side of the chasm, returning a few moments later. The rope trailed up the side of the gorge, looped around one of the far side posts. As Clootie began to climb up, the little dragon flitted around her head, chatting away at her as he swooped over her head,
"So who are you? I'm Jinx. Where did you come from? What happened to your wings? I like your hair by the way. Are you with those goblins? They're no fun - can't take a joke. What's in the bag?"
As she climbed, she explained to the little creature who she was, and what the party was doing in the mines, and that apparently there was something evil in here that they needed to stop. Jinx's opalescent eyes widened slightly at that, and he stopped swooping, clinging to the wall above her and looking at her earnestly for a long moment. The intensity of it's gaze caused Clootie to stop climbing for a moment. After a long pause, the creature spoke again, quieter and more serious this time,
"I've felt something waking up, deep inside the old mine. Whatever it is, it scares me."
Suppressing a shiver, the dragon looked intently at Clootie for a moment, and then disappeared suddenly. Clootie got back to the task at hand, straining and pulling herself up the last few feet of the rope. Aetilius's hand reached down, grabbing hers and he hauled her up onto the ledge.
Ramas and Ryoko make their way across the wire without incident. Once they were across, Miaug picked up the rope arrow mechanism, pressing a button to collapse the serrations in the arrow head and tugging it out of the wood. then she pressed another button, and the mechanism whirred to life, quickly winding the wire up and pulling the arrow back to her. She slipped everything back into her quiver, then pulled out her blink arrow. With a deep breath, she loosed the arrow. It soared across the ravine and struck the far wall - disappearing in a pulse of bright blue light. As the light dimmed, it coalesced into a slender figure, and suddenly Miaug stood with the rest of the party.
Clootie felt a sudden weight on her shoulders, and the blue dragon creature reappeared around her neck,
"I can help you. Come with me and you can rest"
Just ahead, the tunnel forked. Jinx led them along the left hand passageway. After a few minutes, the passage opened out into a small cave. Tendrils of green ivy ran along the walls, dotted with tiny cave flowers which glittered like tiny stars against the mossy cavern walls. Bright shafts of moonlight streamed in through a number of narrow holes leading out to the surface, bathing the cave in a delicate lambent glow. In the centre of the cavern, a small pool of crystal clear sparkled in the moonlight. Jinx chirped happily in Clootie's ear. This is his home.
Through the narrow opening, the party found themselves in an ancient dwarven mine tunnel. Petrified wooden supports which were bedded into the walls and ceiling roughly every fifteen feet gave the passage a squat, rectangular appearance. Piles of collapsed rock and rotten, discarded tools lay strewn around; and huge cobwebs stretched between the corners of the supports and the tunnel. Torches mounted in each of the supports illuminated the immediate area, but only the couple immediately adjacent to the breakthrough remained lit. In one direction, the passageway extended straight ahead, plunging into pitch darkness sixty feet ahead; in the other, it narrowed and curved off to the right. A chill breeze whistled down from the larger passageway ahead, bringing with it a stale and musty odour. As she looked into the darkness ahead, Clootie could feel something tugging at the back of her mind, some half-remembered warning or deeply buried emotion. Something felt wrong. She tried to ignore the sensation, pushing it deep down and shaking her head to clear it.
Ramas volunteered to sneak ahead, creeping off down the path to the right. The party moved along after him, followed by one of Clootie's Dancing Lights to illuminate their travel. They made an effort to stay far enough behind Ramas that the floating light wouldn't give away his location. The group painstakingly inched their way through the winding mine tunnels for what felt like an eternity. They found a couple of collapsed sections. Etched into one appeared to be a makeshift tombstone, most likely to memorialize miners killed during the collapse. In another cave in, Aetilius spotted a stone which seemed out of place. Pulling the loose stone out, he found a small carved brass device behind it. Unfortunately, this discovery only served to encourage his belief that the party should explore every inch of the mines, eliciting groans of despair from the rest of the party.
The group decided to double back, convinced that they were moving further away from the mine base. As they passed the initial entryway, they began to make their way up the larger main corridor. Roughly thirty yards along the corridor, just beyond the flickering reach of the torches, the passage split. The larger passage continued forward, but smaller side tunnels curved left and right. The party deliberated for an inordinately long time, then decided to take the left-hand passageway. The group fumbled their way through winding tunnels, occasionally tripping over discarded mining equipment and other tools. After about an hour of stumbling around in the gloom, they heard the low murmuring of voices. Moving quietly forward, the group noticed a faint flickering orange glow spilling around the corner ahead. Ramas took point, creeping up to peer around the bend. He spied a group of four goblins sitting around a crude campfire, arguing,
"I told you we should have gone left back there" one goblin spit angrily at his companions,
"We did go left ye babbling little turd-pile" a second goblin, with a shock of white hair, snapped back,
"I meant my left"
"IT'S THE SAME FECKIN' DIRECTION!" the white haired goblin shrieked angrily,
"Well we're fucking lost now aren't we - we can't find the bloody exit and what are we gonna do if those things catch up to us"
"They won't - we cut down the bridge remember"
"That doesn't mean they won't get us"
"That's exactly what it means you stupid shit-weasel!" the white haired goblin leaped to his feet, stomping over to loom over the smaller goblin. One of the others, an older looking goblin with slightly mottled brown skin, raised his hand and began to speak calmly, "Look - we'll just rest here for a couple of hours, and then we'll find the way out - it's not that complicated"
The white haired goblin sat back down and took a deep breath. The vocal goblin stared into the fire for a moment, then complained quietly, "I'm getting hungry - I'm not sure I can sleep"
"Oh shut up you fish-brained ninny, or I'll fucking eat you" the white haired goblin leaped over and started slapping him in the face.
The other two goblins quickly grabbed their companions, dragging them apart. The previously silent goblin slapped both combatants around the back of the head and snarled, "Sit down you two - save your fucking energy or I'll feed you to those creatures and run while they're ripping you apart. Now lie down and fucking go to sleep"
The goblins grumbled, but reluctantly lay down beside the fire, pulling crude woolen blankets over themselves.
Unintimidated by a small band of goblins, the party brazenly strode around the corner into the firelight. The goblins spotted them and jumped to their feet, cowering back against the wall of the cave,
"Oh no. Please - just leave us alone. We just want to get out of here!" the brown mottled goblin pleaded. Ramas stepped forward, holding one of his wicked looking curved daggers, gently stroking the blade as he eyed the goblin leader,
"Well. If you tell us what we want to know, maybe I won't stick this through your balls" he said, dangerously softly. The goblin swallowed anxiously,
"How many of you are there? And where are the rest of you?" Ramas asked. As he spoke he absently waved his dagger in front of the terrified goblin.
The goblin hurriedly explained that he and his fellows were Nezzar's expedition, exploring the mine. Nezzar, a group of ten bugbears, plus another twenty goblins, had found their way to the old mine base and had started to investigate. The goblins had managed to fairly quickly map out the base, but Nezzar was evidently looking for something and was getting frustrated. The goblins had no idea what though. A couple of days in, the goblins were searching through the old buildings at Nezzar's request. They had found a big fancy brass door, which was locked. Nezzar was convinced whatever he needed was behind it, so the goblins had been put to work searching the old mess hall for clues. Some of the bugbears had gotten bored searching and had tried to break the door down. They didn't make a dent, and they started getting extra angry. Suddenly, without warning, a couple of the bugbears at the door went berserk. They turned on the others, and started biting and tearing at them. This group saw at least one of the bugbears killed. A few of the goblins who were too close were grabbed and torn apart. The dead bugbear got back up, and started grabbing goblins. At this point, this group of goblins just bolted. They ran back through the tunnels, and cut down a rope bridge somewhere ahead, so they couldn't be followed. They've been wandering lost in the tunnels since then.
Clootie told the goblins to explain the layout of the mine base. The white haired goblin asked for some drawing supplies, and quickly sketched out the arrangement for the party. Reasonably satisfied, the party agreed to let the goblins go. The terrified creatures ran past the party back into the mine tunnels. On the way past, Ramas flicked the mottled brown goblin in the testicles, so hard that the creature doubled over and threw up on the cave floor. His fellows grabbed him and helped him limp away before the heroes changed their mind.
The party gave the goblins a five minute head start, then headed back off into the tunnels. After about an hour of wandering around in the gloom, the tunnel they were walking through opened out into a wide chamber. The ground ahead plunged into a huge black chasm. Peering down into the darkness, the party reckoned the pit was around twenty foot deep. Thick wooden posts were driven into ground on either side of the chasm. Across the chasm the party could just make out the remains of an old rope bridge dangling against the far wall. The group pondered the situation for a moment, then Miaug reached into her quiver and pulled out her rope arrow. Taking a moment to line up the shot, she breathed out and loosed the arrow. It sailed across the abyss, sinking deep into the wooden post. Serrated teeth in the arrow head sprung out, biting into the wood and wedging the arrowhead tightly. Miaug slipped the steel rod reel mechanism out of her quiver, looping the line around one of the nearby wooden posts, and pulling it taut.
Aetilius flew across first to help the rest of the party dismount. Clootie went first, gripping the line with her legs and pulling herself along underneath with her arms. Around halfway across, Clootie heard a faint giggle, the faint tinkling of silver bells. Suddenly she felt a weight on her back, and something snaked over her shoulder. Before she could get a good look, it belched a cloud of pale yellow gas in her face. Abruptly, her limbs stopped responding and she let go; falling into the ravine.
She lay on her back in the chasm, the wind knocked out of her, looking up into the gloom. Ryoko shouted down from above,
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah" she grunted back, levering herself up on her arms. She heard a curious chirping sound. A tiny creature materialized in in front of her. Deep blue scales shimmered in the faint light spilling down the chasm, and two delicate iridescent wings protruded from it's back. It cocked it's narrow lizard-like head on the end of it's long sinuous neck, regarding her with curious eyes. Clootie could feel an odd pressure in her mind, and she suddenly saw an image of herself, winged and hovering over the chasm,
"Why don't you fly, little fairy?" the creature asked, it's voice bright and sparkling, like water trickling down a stream,
"I dinnae have wings, ya daft snake" Clootie muttered grumpily, getting to her feet. The creature cocked it's head to the other side, and Clootie heard another soft tinkling laugh. The little creature leaped into the air, swooping around her and grabbing the end of the rope from her backpack. It disappeared up the far side of the chasm, returning a few moments later. The rope trailed up the side of the gorge, looped around one of the far side posts. As Clootie began to climb up, the little dragon flitted around her head, chatting away at her as he swooped over her head,
"So who are you? I'm Jinx. Where did you come from? What happened to your wings? I like your hair by the way. Are you with those goblins? They're no fun - can't take a joke. What's in the bag?"
As she climbed, she explained to the little creature who she was, and what the party was doing in the mines, and that apparently there was something evil in here that they needed to stop. Jinx's opalescent eyes widened slightly at that, and he stopped swooping, clinging to the wall above her and looking at her earnestly for a long moment. The intensity of it's gaze caused Clootie to stop climbing for a moment. After a long pause, the creature spoke again, quieter and more serious this time,
"I've felt something waking up, deep inside the old mine. Whatever it is, it scares me."
Suppressing a shiver, the dragon looked intently at Clootie for a moment, and then disappeared suddenly. Clootie got back to the task at hand, straining and pulling herself up the last few feet of the rope. Aetilius's hand reached down, grabbing hers and he hauled her up onto the ledge.
Ramas and Ryoko make their way across the wire without incident. Once they were across, Miaug picked up the rope arrow mechanism, pressing a button to collapse the serrations in the arrow head and tugging it out of the wood. then she pressed another button, and the mechanism whirred to life, quickly winding the wire up and pulling the arrow back to her. She slipped everything back into her quiver, then pulled out her blink arrow. With a deep breath, she loosed the arrow. It soared across the ravine and struck the far wall - disappearing in a pulse of bright blue light. As the light dimmed, it coalesced into a slender figure, and suddenly Miaug stood with the rest of the party.
Clootie felt a sudden weight on her shoulders, and the blue dragon creature reappeared around her neck,
"I can help you. Come with me and you can rest"
Just ahead, the tunnel forked. Jinx led them along the left hand passageway. After a few minutes, the passage opened out into a small cave. Tendrils of green ivy ran along the walls, dotted with tiny cave flowers which glittered like tiny stars against the mossy cavern walls. Bright shafts of moonlight streamed in through a number of narrow holes leading out to the surface, bathing the cave in a delicate lambent glow. In the centre of the cavern, a small pool of crystal clear sparkled in the moonlight. Jinx chirped happily in Clootie's ear. This is his home.
Report Date
12 Jan 2020
Comments