Session 11
General Summary
9th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Druidic Circle
We spoke to the survivors from Jawa. They told us that Quintus' wife and family had been through the village of Jawa and had headed on to the Jawa Silver Mines. There had been no sign of them since. The orcs had been overheard saying that the dwarves of the mines had shut themselves in. Additionally the survivors told us that the orcs had discovered a ghost haunting the place where the dwarves store their silver. We left the ex-prisoners with the druid and set out on our trip to Jawa just after breakfast. Quintus appeared happy to be riding Herecles again. We decided to travel across country, through the northern forests, in order to minimize the chances of meeting orcs. We estimated it would take a whole day to get there, travelling quietly and carefully. Along the way we encountered a couple of small orc patrols. We mercilessly wiped them out, choosing to make a small effort to help reduce the numbers of invaders in our lands. Upon reaching Jawa, Flynn-bird did a reconnaisance of the villager. There were fifty or so orcs still there and hordes of zombies. There were also some skeletons in the village, apparently raised from the graveyard here. At the mine-village, where the dwarves store and process their silver ore, Flynn spotted some zombies wandering around aimlessly. By one of the buildings it looked like a fight had occurred a few days ago. Flynn flew around the mine entrances themselves and found a few more zombies shuffling aimlessly around the entrances. All the mines appeared blocked and caved in. Ferrint told us this was standard practice for securing a mine from the likes of orcs and ogres. It was also likely that there would be spy holes or periscopes (whatever they are) to let the dwarves look out. We consulted the cards and Thorn told us that Flynn's plan to search for periscopes and make ourselves known to the dwarves was a good one. Ferrint told Flynn-hawk what to look for and off he flew to search. Among the zombies, Flynn-hawk spotted was-soon-to-be bride and groom Iker Geubert and Elena Moysant. Also nearby was a zombie-ogre. But Flynn-hawk was able to spot a periscope at the mine by the ogre-zombie. We decided to attack the zombie-ogre, with a view to hopefully being seen by the dwarves looking through their periscopes. [Fight 3/4] The fight was short and brutal. After the combat we went and waved at the periscopes, hoping to be noticed. We then rested up and waited to see what would happen. Some thirty minutes or so later, Flynn spotted a dwarf waving to us from further up in the mountains. We headed up to him. He said, "Come with me if you want to live." So we did. Further up in the mountains he led us to a concealed tunnel entrance. Quintus asked of his family and was told that they had arrived there about a week ago. Dru had been spouting stories of death and destruction which had, unfortunately, turned out to come true. The dwarves had reacted by collapsing their mine. Also here, they told us, was a dwarf who looked like Ferrint. Flynn surprised us by telling us he could talk to animals, and spoke to Herecles to tell him to stay safe here in the mountains, inside the cave entrance. We followed the dwarf down into the mine. He took us deep down underground where we met up with a group of dwarven miners and all of Quintus' extended family. We explained what was going on to the dwarves and suggested they stayed put. Quintus took the opportunity to spend some quiet time with his family. Ferrint was hoping to be reunited with his brother, who had come here on the trail of a gem thief. Sadly it turned out that the dwarves had dug an escape tunnel - and the digging had been led by Ferrint's brother. They opened up into a cave system, which was full of trogs. Unfortunately the trogs appeared to have captured Ferrint's brother. Meanwhile, the gem thief, who Ferrint's brother was chasing, had used the gem to convince the dwarves to move to Jawa as the mines there were more productive. However the gem also appeared to make the bearer greedy and paranoid. In the end the gem thief returned to the silver processing facility, to look after his "precious" silver. This was after the ritual hit the Vale. Perhaps hew was the ghost the people of Jawa had spoken of? Thorn sensed a kindred spirit in Dru, Quintus' mother-in-law. In fact, it turned out, she was carrying a part of a holistic spirit inside her, which was also present in Thorn. She was prepared to transfer her fortune-telling-spirit into Thorn. She would lose her second sight, but knew that the spirit itself wished this to happen, so was happy with it. The two had a private ceremony where Thorn sucked her spirit-essence out of her and absorbed it. He was positively glowing with spirit energy afterwards. Dru was a bit wan afterwards but seemed content. We spent the night with the dwarves and survivors and chatted deep into the night. We discussed options to rescue Ferrint's brother, to go and see about the ghost of the silver store and to head off to Fort Hadrian. It was agreed that the next step was to see if we could rescue Ferrint's brother.10th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Silver Mines
The next day we set off deeper into the mines in search of Ferrint's brother. The dwarves took us to the place he was lost and unplugged the hole. The cavern below was pitch black and stunk. Quintus lit a torch and dropped it into the hole. It illuminated a manky, debris strewn, natural cave area. There were passages leading off in three directions. The dwarves held a rope for us and Quintus climbed down into the muck, followed by the others. Flynn cast about in the mess and was able to tell much of what had happened there. Trog tracks were everywhere and the marks of a dwarf led off in one direction - looking like he was dragged off. We set off down that tunnel. Ahead we could hear jibbering which sounded like the gutteral language of the trogs. We also heard the low groans of a dwarf in pain. So we pushed on quickly. Coming around a corner we found a dwarf, hanging upside down by his feet, being abused by a half a dozen or so trogs. We rushed in to save the dwarf, gagging from the smell. [Fight 4/4]. The fight was smelly, disgusting and full of mucus. Much like the dwarf. But we prevailed.
Report Date
16 Nov 2015
Related Plots