Adventurers
- Alerich Greyborn (Fighter 3)
- Carbel Sweetleaf (Halfling 2)
- Elixabete (Dwarf 3)
- Jebediah "Grits" Calloway (Ranger 1)
- Kelro Mist (Elf 1)
- Assorted NPCs: Gutxi (C), Negu (H), Ondona (F) as well as Giain (F), Garazi (F) and Boycotthenge (F)
With the former captive Giain actively looking for companions to tackle the ogres’ copper operation, and the villagers’ attention being drawn to the fact that she was heading to where the missing child was thought to be while our brave heroes were gallivanting around with serpent goddesses, the party decided to pause their cult research and help rescue some more slaves. Giain had recruited two more adventurers, and the three of them were expected full shares of treasure discovered, but were happier to be travelling down with more numbers.
As they left, the party observed a representative of the Duke’s tax department was now staying at the tavern to audit trade passing by. A couple of dirty looks were directed at Carbel by various merchants who had insisted he stop asking about ogre copper dealings so loudly over the last few weeks.
With Giain as a guide as well as her roughly-drawn map of the ogres’ mining operation, the party returned to the gatehouse, shooing off a giant hawk on the way, and descended to their allied hairy ones’ level. After pondering using one of the heat vents to strike the slavemasters from above, they opted instead to take the stairs, and scout out the passage at the bottom leading away from the furnace room. Elixabete kept a wary eye on the dodgy-looking ceiling while they passed, until all eyes were drawn towards the web-covered chamber ahead with a faint whimpering coming from further on in the darkness.
They started warily skirting around the edge of the silky area before the dwarf picked up on a rumbling behind them. She chivvied the party forward just in time to avoid part of the tunnel collapsing behind them. As they coughed their way out of the dust, Giain gave a cry and collapsed, clutching her arm. Carbel was just able to avoid the maws of an enormous black spider as it skittered past the fallen fighter, and the more martially-inclined adventurers surrounded the arachnid, hacking it to bits.
The ranger Grits recognised the signs of a poisonous bite, so Elixabete leapt forward with a gleam in her eye and her enchanted severing-and-reattaching cleaver, and lopped off the former captive’s arm. The limb was stowed away for attempted detoxifying later.
With Giain now showing less enthusiasm for being down in the dungeon, the party looked for a way back out. Kelro cut loose a wriggling cocoon to free and ravenous fennec fox with a leather collar decorated with art favoured by halflings. After being fed, the fox trotted along after the elf, its enormous ears pricking up when the adventurers pondered a possible link to the ‘Leggo’ graffiti they’d found scrawled around the place.
They passed by several more collapsed passageways, and then through a torture chamber whose eponymous instruments had in some distant past been smashed to pieces. Their attention focused more upon the lumbering figure of a large humanoid figure composed of many smaller skeletons patrolling around the next chamber. They spotted a hole in the ceiling and guessed it to be one of the heat vents they’d seen up in the hairy ones’ level, but didn’t feel like taking the creature on. They scuttled past behind it, and it appeared undisturbed by their passage.
Elixabete noticed another fragile-looking ceiling ahead, so they had Carbel activate his armour of etherealness to scout ahead. He scampered forward to find a room of the bipedal feline slave-drivers managing a team of slaves and an owlbear powering a grinding device. They spotted him with a start, and he quickly disappeared from view into the rock wall. Deciding to see what was behind one of the collapsed tunnels, he found a collection of skeletons and a bricked wall, behind which he found a skeleton chained to a pillar and engulfed in a blue flame. The latter noticed the ethereal halfling and, in between screams of pain, begged to be freed, saying his captor had bound him with three gems. Carbel hurried back to his companions.
Deciding they’d rather not try and fight their way through the slave-drivers, even though they felt they could point to that area on Giain’s map, the party decided to backtrack to the first caved in tunnel and spent several hours making a hole just big enough to squeeze through, trusting in the marching skeleton creaeture to unwittingly protect their rear. It worked, and they made their way back to Fourtowers Bridge. They dunked Giain’s arm in a barrel of brandy until they could figure out a way to get the poison out so that Elixabete’s cleaver could reattach it, and began planning for their next delve.