Adventurers
- Carbel Sweetleaf (Halfling 3)
- Elixabete (Dwarf 3)
- Firstleaf (Elf 2)
- Jebediah "Grits" Calloway (Ranger 2)
- Kelro Mist (Elf 1)
- Maistlyn Rajare (Magic User 1)
- Mike (Cleric 1)
- Major Ursa (Magic User 1)
- Assorted NPCs: Negu (H1)
Hoping to install their friendly hairy ones of the Tiger Beetle clan as the new overseers of the ogres’ copper mining operation, the party returned to the gatehouse after a week’s rest and descended into the depths. They were horrified when their allies explained that the liberated hairy ones had been from different clans and were clearly plotting to overthrow the Tiger Beetles, and so they had eaten them. A little less confidently, the party still offered them the mining gig, and the clan chief seemed game to give it a go, dreaming of the renown it could bring the clan.
Descending further to the copper mine, the adventurers started exploring the passages they’d neglected on their previous excursions, observing that a number of the bodies they’d left last time had been either partially or wholly eaten. One empty, long-unused room housed a copper figure stood still along one wall. Warily, they approached it, ready to back away at the slightest sign of movement, but this meant they didn’t notice another monster until it barrelled into their rear ranks.
Carbel was bowled over and nearly disembowelled by a hideous one-eyed beast with savage claws and a thick woollen covering. The halfling desperately scrambled away while his companions charged the creature and hacked at it, failing to blind it with Firstleaf’s Darkness spell but managing to get through its substantial protective layer enough times before it could do any serious damage to anyone.
Panting, they gathered round Carbel and debated if now was a good time to use their one healing potion or whether it would be unnecessary with this level cleared out, anticipating that the beast they’d cut down was the slave-eating monster noted on Giain’s map. Carbel decided it was worth using now and started gulping it down. He lost most of it in a very wasteful spit take as he saw the cyclopean fiend rise up in the doorway and charge into the milling adventurers, its mortal wounds seemingly vanished.
Ursa was the unfortunate first target, and the monster tore into him with its claws and maw before tossing the magic user’s broken body aside and rounding on the rest of the party. They surrounded it and struck again and again, but it was a hardy opponent, withstanding blows and lashing out aggressively.
Kelro was pummelled into the ground and forced to crawl away, bleeding heavily, while his comrades covered his retreat and eventually brought the creature down a second time. They started mangling the corpse with maces to make sure, noting that there were still wounds that appeared to be disappearing before their eyes, before pulling out an oil flask and setting the whole thing alight. That appeared to finish the job.
Respectfully divvying out Ursa’s belongs amongst themselves, they examined the copper figure, finding a recess which would fit the metal sphere - discovered by a prior adventuring party - that Negu had been carrying around for months on Elixabete’s instructions. They convinced the halfling to clamber on the metal humanoid’s shoulders and insert the sphere while they all took a good few steps back. He flicked the switch and the figure juddered into life, gently setting the retainer down and obeying his instructions.
It was slow and ungraceful, and couldn’t follow any complicated orders, but looked like it would make a sturdy worker and intimidating guard, so the party had it follow them back to the stairs up, checking and noting that the slave-eating monster’s lair did indeed stand empty, and bargaining with Negu to expand the copper figure’s order-taking to encompass the whole party. The canny halfling did so, wrangling four hundred gold from them for the privelege. They returned to the village to bury Ursa’s body.