It was a ragged group that emerged from those caves. Fortunately, the centaur prisoners we had saved didn’t have long to wait before their kin responded to the horn’s cry and brought us some relative safety.
Their chief rewarded us with some potions, blessed by his tribe’s loremasters. The vitality and vigour that they grant may help sway the tide of some of our future battles.
Calliope and Helikaon seem angry over the incident in the mines, where they had leapt to the aid of the centaurs before the rest of us, which put their lives at risk. I’ve said before, if we cannot be saviours of those who need aid, what heroes are we? I completely agree that as soon as screams echoed up that corridor, we should move to save those in danger. But we cannot be foolhardy- that only hands victory to our enemies. We must learn from the wisdom of the wolf pack- if we support each other and act as one, we are stronger for it.
Each of them is reacting true to form. Calliope’s rage is hot, emotional and raw. She seems genuinely hurt. Helikaon’s anger is like embers, sullen and silent, but white hot in its intensity under that.
I do my best to bring them together, but it’s still a disparate and divided group that gathers themselves to head back in the mines. I’m sure that in time it’s a wound that will mend, but there’s some trust to earn back. My squirrel friend, disliking the confines of the tunnels has left my pack and stays scampering on the rocks here, waiting for our return.
More of the foul creatures set upon us in the dark of the tunnels, but better prepared this time, we weathered their assault. As we continued exploring the southern portion of the caves, we saw a cave where their young fought and grew. We saw them feasting on the remains of another of their kind, a runt that hadn’t been strong enough to fight off it’s fellows.
We came to the cave of what seemed like their leader. Whilst the rest of this tribe were animalistic and aggressive, this troglodyte seemed intelligent and erudite, challenging us to a game of riddles and taunting us in equal measure about his knowledge of a secret password for a ‘Dwarven contraption’. He wore a simple crown upon his head, clearly not made by the simple creatures under his rule. It clearly must be enchanted.
This seemed born out some moments later, when he was outwitted at his riddles, he dropped pretense of being fair and just ordered us attacked by the rest of his brutes. The battle was short, but hard fought. Unfortunately, he died before he could give us the password, which leaves an extra concern in our immediate future.
We took his crown and in the refuse strewn in another cave we found some old dwarven weapons, made of mithril and adamantine. Treasures indeed.
The tunnel up from the underlands was collapsed and it left us with the dilemma of what to do with the younglings. These creatures may not be intelligent, but no good hearted being wants another to suffer, and abandoning them here either has them starve to death, or grow into another infestation. In the end, I called upon the spirits of moonlight and used magic to make their end swift and brief, with Alke’s magic in shaping the earth keeping them from escaping. Like a nest of wasps, or the griffins that swooped on us in the mountains, unfortunately it simply needed doing, though none should take joy in such matters.
Now that the threat of this cavern seems to have abated, we plan to head out to where the centaur band waits for us to rest before exploring the northern end of the cavern. I wonder though- from smell it’s clear they lived in this southern portion of the mines.
Why wouldn’t they expand into the northern corridors? What dangers lie there?