Expedition 48f - Koko's Account

We advanced cautiously into a cavern where the rat people retreated, expecting resistance, some considered we should parley our way beyond, much to my dismay, as beings from the cause of chaos are wont to disloyalty, and I should know thee.

As we entered the cavern, three bridges crossed a stream of lava deep below, and five of the rats stood guarding the bridge, one of our dwarven warriors ventured forward, able to understand their tongue and having a semblance of negotiation ability, and even as he offered gold and silver (through gritted dwarven teeth) they refused us passage.

Eventually their leader appeared, and as is the narrow minded of such creatures, quickly resorted to violence, with their number launching spears towards us, we responded with a hail of arrows which brought down their leader, but this was not enough for them to think otherwise, and a huge number of them amassed and began throwing their javelins.

We beat a hasty retreat, I channelled the mystic energies of Mar Nod and managed to cause of one their number to freeze, and we assembled in a narrow part of the corridor launching volley after volley to take down more of their numbers, when, without reason, they disappeared on the other side of the cavern.

A side tunnel gave us access to their food supply, which we needed as ours was running low, as one group gathered their rotten and smelly provisions,  shouts from one of the guards alerted us, a swarm of burning mites had descended and began to burn and bite them, they rushed into the water which abated their wounding, only for the swarm to turn on others, eventually, we remained in the shallow stream and the swarm passed by, hopefully harassing the rat people in our stead.

We had gathered barely enough rations and were badly injured from the spears and mites, so we considered retreating down the river into the gloomily lit cavern for a night's rest and some respite from this wretched dungeon of death.