02 - Gnomeward Bound
Having finished preparations for the day we begin to move south towards Umbrage Hill, deciding to stop there to help before we head for Gnomengarde.
At midday we arrived at Umbrage Hill, and rather lucky that we did.
Built on the slope of Umbrage Hill is an old stone windmill surrounded by an iron fence. A large winged monster with a spiky tail was trying to knock down the windmill's front door. Adabra appeared in a second-floor window and yelled, "A little help?!"
I was able to identify the creature as a Manticore, and let Peter know that it was able to speak, so once again Peter attempted to talk our way out of the fight.
The Manticore informed us that he was just hungry, as the Dragon had scared off their normal prey. The Manticore said that if we were able to find food for he and his mate he would leave in peace.
Debeid offered to go hunt for Vazazl and Chapru, his mate, after Peter fed him a sandwich. Not sure that going off hunting alone with a Manticore was the best idea ever, but again at least my companions aren't dull, and hey it avoided a needless loss of life so that's good.
Apparently Debeid decided to make a deal with the Manticore that he or someone from the village would deliver rabbits for them to keep the peace. This world is full of surprises.
Adabra thanked us and gave each of us a Potion of Healing, and we continued our journey towards Gnomengarde.
We followed a stream uphill to the base of the mountain, where waterfall erosion had carved out a natural concavity. The roaring waterfall created a cloud of mist as it plungd into a shallow pool of water, within which rose two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms. Several cave openings overlooked the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain bloced any sunlight from reaching this place.
Spotting a path leading up into the hills on the east we decided to head up. Sahar headed straight ahead down the end of the tunnel at the top of the hill before coming face to face with several crossbows mounted around the corner with a female Rock Gnome behind them, who screamed "Haha! There's another!" before firing a crossbow bolt into him.
Tivran moved forwards and poured some healing energy into Sahar, before Sahar ran down the hall, climbed on top of the crossbow platform and dropped the Gnome with a resounding crack from his quarterstaff.
I moved over to stabilize the Gnome, before helping to remove the bolt from Sahar's shoulder.
I picked up the gnome and started to follow Peter and the others through the tunnels. We found a room full of barrels, which Sahar and Debeid were apparently unable to resist the temptation of having a drink from.
Sahar managed to fill his flask, however Debeid did not get so lucky as the barrel came to life and bit at Debeid, managing to injure itself in the process. However, it managed to adhere Debeid to it.
I moved back down the hall away from the Mimic and set the Gnome down, hopefully safe from the combat, before moving back towards the room.
Debeid ripped her hand free from the Mimic before swinging frantically at it, though it managed to dodge out of the way.
The mimic bit into Debeid and dropped her in one vicious bite.
Tivran, seeing that Debeid was bleeding out, rushed over to swing with his Great Axe at the Mimic, missing.
Peter strode into the room and stood over Debeid, swinging his Shovel into it with a loud crack, causing his Shovel to stick to the side of the barrel mimic.
Stepping into the room I tossed both my daggers into the mimic, letting them stick there.
Having been given a potion by Sahar, Debeid came to and began to move away from the creature, drawing her bow and shooting the Mimic as she went, finishing it off.
I was able to discover another set of lockpicks in the mimic, and after hitting them with my dagger to make sure they weren't a baby mimic I claimed a backup set of picks.
As we left the room and began to head down the next hallway a voice called out in Gnomish, followed by a Gnome speaking in common, "Who goes there?"
Peter informed them we were from Phandelin, and that we were looking for something to help with the Dragons. They said we need to speak to Fibblestib and Dabbledob, who may know something. However, they wanted us to prove that we weren't mimics.
After proving that we were not mimics we were advised to cross the rope bridge, and to avoid the spinning blade trap. Luckily I have mage hand and was able to flip the switch to disable the spinning blade trap.
Meeting Fibblestip and Dabbledob we were told they would help us if we helped their kings, Korboz and Gnerkli, who were locked in a room in fear of the Mimic. While they were debating the merits of a straight jacket or a sanity ray we were able to suggest that perhaps just showing that the creature was dead would be enough.
After proving to the Kings that the Mimic was dead they offered us a Wand of Pyrotechnics by way of thanks, which I claimed for the time being.
We followed Gnerkli to the treasury where he provided us with a clockwork amulet and a pole of collapsing, the latter of which had Peter very excited.
We were put up for the night in the Storeroom where we had fought the Mimic.
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