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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 5960848" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>The rest of the day passed so quickly, I scarcely noticed the passage of time. The magic formula I was attempting to write down was difficult and at the absolute limit of my knowledge. It had to do with weapons; it was an idea I had while watching Victor fight so efficiently with that huge sword, or falchion as he called it. Of course, his was now made of wood and I had no idea if my spell would work on it any more but theoretically, it should work on all weapons, including arrows, no matter what they were made of. What I was attempting to do was to make the weapons magically sharper; simultaneously, I was trying to magically enhance the weapon’s capability to strike the most advantageous location for the wielder. </p><p></p><p>I had the formula. I had been thinking about it for days; however, thinking about it and putting it down on paper were two different things. That was what was taking the time. I was using my dagger to test the process. After many hours and several cuts on my thumb, my rough draft seemed to be working and I was finally ready to transfer it to my spell book when I noticed a bowl of food and a mug of something in front of me. The food and drink were cold but I was suddenly starving and realised that I had not eaten since breakfast. </p><p></p><p>John was sitting at a different table and was in the same state as I except that he was still writing; again there was a bowl and mug in front of him; so I waited until an opportune moment and then gently shook him. He looked just as hungry as I did and we sat down. A little spell, and the food and drink were hot again; we sat there companionably, eating and comparing notes; and bliss, there was no one to tell us not to talk with our mouths full. </p><p></p><p>It was just as we were finishing that Simeon arrived. He came in and he looked grimmer than he had that morning. He was also carrying my journal: </p><p></p><p>“Faden, I have only skimmed this but I can already see that it will be invaluable. May I keep it for a little longer?”</p><p></p><p>He grinned: “Some of your spelling is a little unusual but I think I will be able to get past that. As a thank you from Seaquen, I hope you will accept several magical formulae in exchange?”</p><p></p><p>Several magical formulae from the library in Seaquen in exchange? For my scribblings? The inks involved in the scribing of magical formulae were expensive and time consuming to mix and he was offering several vials just to be able to read my journal? I almost leapt up onto the table and shouted in glee but I was learning from Longhelim; decorum and dignity; so I nodded gravely and said: </p><p></p><p>“The journal is as complete as I have been able to make it. Thank you for your generosity. The journal would have been at your disposal magical formulae or not but in this manner, our strength is shared. I am sure that our goals ultimately will be similar if not the same.”</p><p></p><p>Longhelim would have been proud of me. John stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard. </p><p></p><p>Then Simeon cleared his throat: “Gentlemen, we have an emergency!</p><p></p><p>You will not have noticed it here in the library but the temperature outside has dropped; not just dropped but plummeted; so much so that this is obviously not natural. The ambient temperature around Seaquen is directly influenced by the steam vents from the underground caves. The only feasible explanation is that something or someone is interfering with them. We need someone to go down there and find out what has happened.”</p><p></p><p>“When do we need to go?” I asked. “Can we go tomorrow morning? I’ve used up a great deal of my magic today indentifying several of our items.”</p><p></p><p>“If this temperature drop goes on for much longer or much lower, than people in the camps are going to start dying. They have little shelter and very little to keep warm; and it’s raining; which means it may soon begin to snow.”</p><p></p><p>I thought about it: “In other words, we need to go down there as soon as we can. So, can I have at least an hour? I can cram my spells in that time. I will be exhausted but at least I will be useful to a point.”</p><p></p><p>He nodded. </p><p></p><p>Then John said: “Well now that that has been settled, shall we discuss terms? What rewards are being offered for this?”</p><p></p><p>“No rewards,” was the answer. “If you can’t or won’t do this, I will have to find someone else. I won’t be able to find anyone as well qualified for this purpose as your group this quickly; therefore the chance of the success of the expedition will be lesser and the chance of people dying will be greater but so be it. There is nothing else to be done”. </p><p></p><p>“All right, all right”, grumbled John. “If Longhelim ever found out about this, I would never hear the end of it. Faden, stay here. Learn your spells. I will go and find the others.”</p><p></p><p>With that John left while I put away my work with a sigh; took out my spell book and began to concentrate. My eyes were grainy and I could already feel a headache building. </p><p></p><p>The time seemed to pass blindingly fast again. Although I knew my spells, I knew I wasn’t right. As per the one previous occasion when I had had to learn my spells like this, I felt weak, sluggish, generally out of sorts and had a pounding headache; I wasn’t sure why but the fatigue felt worse this time. </p><p></p><p>While I was waiting for the others I had a few brief questions for Simeon’s assistant. He had sent someone over who would guide us to the entrance of the tunnels. This was a locked manhole near one of the buildings in Seaquen. According to this apprentice, no one had been in the tunnels for years. There had not been any need to send anyone there before. This was the first time that something had gone wrong. He had no idea what to expect down there; again, he didn’t know anyone who had been there. Ultimately, I learned a great many things that this individual didn’t know. </p><p></p><p>Finally, John brought the others. I noticed immediately that Victor had some new armour; it now was the same type as Longhelim’s: full plate I believe they called it. I was about to remark upon it but as I opened my mouth, I was interrupted.</p><p></p><p>Longhelim said: “Faden, Torrent’s gone! We have no idea what has happened, where she is or even if she is still alive. No one has seen her since last night.” </p><p></p><p>I was shocked! Immediately I asked for as many details as could be provided. Big things were often hidden in little details. </p><p></p><p>Felix, Longhelim, Victor and Drudge had spent most of day attending to some personal commerce but as soon as they found out about Torrent, they tried to retrace her steps without success. Their next course of action had been to get a night’s rest and the next morning, Felix planned to learn some powerful magic which could trace her, or at least some conspicuous part of her equipment; her falchion from Erdan Menash to be exact. I had not paid any attention to it at the time, but I did remember something about the hilt looking like a banana or some such detail. </p><p></p><p>The only piece of good news in this sorry mess was that the others had gone to the Wayfarer’s Theatre and had seen and warned Tiljann. It was unlikely, but one could not discount Ragesian agents. This place was probably crawling with them and I suspect they were not happy with us at the moment. The theft of a book written by the second in command of the Inquisitors must reflect badly on a number of powerful individuals in the Empire and they must have been exerting a certain amount of…….pressure for its recovery.</p><p></p><p>Well, that put paid to any further thoughts of research and spell scribing in the Lyceum for the foreseeable future. We had to find Torrent but before we did that, we had to investigate the tunnels. I told the others what I had been able to find out about the tunnels so far, which was very little and then we set out. </p><p></p><p>The trip to the manhole was uneventful except that we noticed that our breath was now steaming. The temperature had obviously dropped dramatically although strangely I felt comfortable. I did not give it much thought; arriving at our destination, we lifted the cover and looked into darkness. I stepped forward and using my night vision, I could see that there was sheer drop quite a way down but there was also a series of rings embedded into the wall, forming a ladder. </p><p></p><p>John stepped forward and said: </p><p></p><p>“Right, chaps, let me go down with a light. I am the lightest here by far and I am also the most likely to find any nasty traps on the ladder. Faden, can you hand me the torch?”</p><p></p><p>With these words, he began to descend down the shaft. As he was doing this, I cast several protective spells on myself.</p><p></p><p>Soon, he called up: </p><p></p><p>“All clear!”</p><p></p><p>Hearing this, we all descended. Below was an opening and I stared curiously around me. If our previous guide was to be believed, we were the first group to set foot in these tunnels for decades; somehow I had my doubts about this. They made such a great hiding place for all sorts of things.</p><p></p><p>The walls around me were black; they were made of some black rock which I did not recognize. They were also covered in pipes of all sizes. I could also see that our breaths no longer steamed so I presumed that the temperature down here must have risen. Most curiously though, there was a narrow tunnel leading off this opening and not too far down, a pair of lit torches was attached to the wall. We were too far away to tell how this was done but they were definitely not decades old; this certainly put paid to the idea that no one had been down here for decades; not that I had believed that anyway. As we took a little longer to examine our surroundings, we also saw that the ceiling was covered with a layer of steam. This was obviously supposed to be going up to the surface to heat the surrounding area but for some reason stayed it was trapped down here. </p><p></p><p>On a more personal note, I was now fully convinced that we had somehow been changed since our time in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. We seemed to be immune to discomfort due to temperature, whether it was very cold or very hot. I told the others about this and saw the realization dawning on them. They all remarked that they should uncomfortable in the heat down here, especially the warriors in their heavy armour but they felt no discomfort; like me, they hadn’t felt any for a long time in fact. </p><p></p><p>I don’t know how else we had changed but I did remember that Victor had told me that when I had been struck unconscious in the battle against the Tieflings in the swamp I had burst into flames and did not bleed, as if I was still in the Fire Forest. I was sure the two were connected. It was something else to investigate, if I ever had the time. There may even have been other changes about which I was unaware as yet. </p><p></p><p>Simultaneously, as I was realizing this, I also looked more closely at the pipes. It was immediately obvious to me that they had been built by dwarves. They screamed dwarven workmanship to me. I could also see runes marked on each of the pipes. These said the same phrase: “We built here, we Mazak”. I have to say that it was gibberish to me but then engineering had never been a subject of mine. </p><p></p><p>Drudge had been studying the floor carefully but declared that there were no tracks in this section of the corridor. After that information, with Longhelim leading, we moved down the rough hewn tunnel. As we approached, I could see that there were small wooden braces which cunningly supported the tunnel. They were difficult to see in the darkness. </p><p></p><p>We were not particularly quiet but we were also approached an area which was emitting a steady but loud hissing sound. The curtain of steam on the ceiling seemed to be thickening and finally we came to a pipe which seemed to have a vent. This vent had an obvious valve and was emitting hot steam. Even though my engineering skill was very limited, it did not take a genius to work out that that the hot steam was supposed to be going to the surface, heating the ambient region and that if the vents in the pipes had been opened than the hot steam would stay down here, causing the temperature above to plummet.</p><p></p><p> So, that was the mystery of the freezing surface temperature solved. The new mystery was who had done it and why. </p><p></p><p>Irritatingly, I couldn’t find the valve mechanism to close the valve but John stepped forward, promptly found it and shut it down. At least now we knew what we had to do. Find the valves and shut them; and probably find and defeat the individuals who had opened them in the first place; on second thoughts, they would probably find us. </p><p></p><p>As we progressed down the narrow corridor, it was obvious that Victor had not grown used to his new armour as yet; he kept scraping against the rock. It was quite noisy but thankfully, the escaping steam covered a great deal of the noise. It did not cover it enough unfortunately. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim had come to a large open area with several exits. It was also inhabited. A quartet of large humanoids had leapt up from a table where they had been sitting and were bounding towards Longhelim. They were tall, burly, with small, fierce eyes and light skin. A small pair of tusks jutted from their lower jaws. </p><p></p><p>“Hobgoblins”: a shout from Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>However, we were all behind him and there was little we could do. Victor tried to move forward but there was just no room in the tunnel beside Longhelim. As they approached, we could see that the hobgoblins were armed with shortswords which glistened, obviously coated with something nasty. They were armoured but with metal shirts covering their torsos. Victor had one of those. I had seen him sleeping in it; it was called a chain shirt. It obviously gave them great flexibility. </p><p></p><p>A short vicious fight ensued. Longhelim was more than equal to this enemy tetrarchy although he was struck several times. The poison on the blades, whatever it was, did not seem to affect him and Victor moved out of the way, allowing Felix to move in and heal the paladin from the rear. These tactics allowed him to prevail fairly quickly. The hobgoblins were fierce and they fought with a certain amount of controlled fury and good tactical movement but Longhelim’s greater strength ultimately told. </p><p></p><p>Felix used our newly acquired healing wand to heal Longhelim’s slashes. We piled the hobgoblin corpses to one side and then John silently moved down one of the exits, this one running almost parallel in the direction we had used. He returned quite rapidly, saying that there were two more hobgoblins sleeping in an opening up the corridor. </p><p></p><p>Then Drudge moved into the centre of the opening where we had had our battle to check for tracks. He then motioned for John to come forward. The latter did and moved towards another of the exits. He glanced inside and then rapidly ran back: </p><p></p><p>“We’re about to have company. Get ready!”</p><p></p><p>He was quickly followed by two hobgoblins, running into the opening, glistening swords at the ready. Victor and Longhelim both moved forward confidently and Victor swung and almost sliced his opponent in half. Longhelim also struck but his was left standing and was quickly followed by another, who dodged and weaved his way past Victor and positioned himself to flank Longhelim. At this point, I noticed that two more of the enemy had appeared from the tunnel which John had scouted initially. They had moved so quickly, they were almost next to me!</p><p></p><p>I wanted save my magic so I stepped back and Victor moved to block the tunnel, slicing the first opponent as he did so. He was obviously becoming very familiar with the Living Blade of Innenotdar. Drudge was busy shooting at the hobgoblins but Longhelim was again being stabbed by the flanking enemy. Felix had to move forward and use his healing powers. I tried a couple of small cantrips against the enemy facing Victor, but they proved resilient to them; not surprisingly; it was weak magic. </p><p></p><p>Drudge was then confronted by two more hobgoblins running from a new tunnel. He stepped back and Longhelim stepped sideways to give him a chance to shoot. The paladin had just dispatched another of the enemy when one of the new hobgoblins ran forward and positioned himself to flank the paladin again. Foolishly though, he also placed himself next to Victor, who sliced his last enemy and then smoothly struck the newly arrived hobgoblin in the same stroke, felling both at the same time. This left just one last hobgoblin, who quickly fell to Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>Despite our victory, Longhelim had been stabbed several times again and Felix hurried to tend to his wounds, especially as several of them were infused with the stuff that had been coated on the blades. Longhelim did not seem to suffer from it, but Felix cleaned them just in case. One could not be too careful. </p><p></p><p>As Felix was doing this, we kept watch. John said that he had seen a bunch of sleeping pallets in the last opening he had scouted if that was what glancing into it could be called. He said he had counted more than a couple of dozen. That was the amount of enemy we had met so far so there were likely to be several more around. </p><p></p><p>Another thought struck me. Hobgoblins were renowned for their warrior culture and certainly the enemy we had met so far was tactically very aware but they were lightly armed and armoured, scouts and foragers. If they were going to shut off the steam to the surface, they must have known they were going to attract a lot of attention very quickly; so they must have had a plan or if not a plan at least a reasonable force down here; where were the warriors and shamans?</p><p></p><p>I mentioned this to Victor who told me that it was a good thought and one about which to be mindful but there was no point in worrying about something of which we had no knowledge; deal with the here and now. </p><p></p><p>While we discussed this, John had gone inside the cave which had contained the sleeping pallets. He called out that it seemed safe and for us to join him at the entrance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 5960848, member: 6692807"] The rest of the day passed so quickly, I scarcely noticed the passage of time. The magic formula I was attempting to write down was difficult and at the absolute limit of my knowledge. It had to do with weapons; it was an idea I had while watching Victor fight so efficiently with that huge sword, or falchion as he called it. Of course, his was now made of wood and I had no idea if my spell would work on it any more but theoretically, it should work on all weapons, including arrows, no matter what they were made of. What I was attempting to do was to make the weapons magically sharper; simultaneously, I was trying to magically enhance the weapon’s capability to strike the most advantageous location for the wielder. I had the formula. I had been thinking about it for days; however, thinking about it and putting it down on paper were two different things. That was what was taking the time. I was using my dagger to test the process. After many hours and several cuts on my thumb, my rough draft seemed to be working and I was finally ready to transfer it to my spell book when I noticed a bowl of food and a mug of something in front of me. The food and drink were cold but I was suddenly starving and realised that I had not eaten since breakfast. John was sitting at a different table and was in the same state as I except that he was still writing; again there was a bowl and mug in front of him; so I waited until an opportune moment and then gently shook him. He looked just as hungry as I did and we sat down. A little spell, and the food and drink were hot again; we sat there companionably, eating and comparing notes; and bliss, there was no one to tell us not to talk with our mouths full. It was just as we were finishing that Simeon arrived. He came in and he looked grimmer than he had that morning. He was also carrying my journal: “Faden, I have only skimmed this but I can already see that it will be invaluable. May I keep it for a little longer?” He grinned: “Some of your spelling is a little unusual but I think I will be able to get past that. As a thank you from Seaquen, I hope you will accept several magical formulae in exchange?” Several magical formulae from the library in Seaquen in exchange? For my scribblings? The inks involved in the scribing of magical formulae were expensive and time consuming to mix and he was offering several vials just to be able to read my journal? I almost leapt up onto the table and shouted in glee but I was learning from Longhelim; decorum and dignity; so I nodded gravely and said: “The journal is as complete as I have been able to make it. Thank you for your generosity. The journal would have been at your disposal magical formulae or not but in this manner, our strength is shared. I am sure that our goals ultimately will be similar if not the same.” Longhelim would have been proud of me. John stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard. Then Simeon cleared his throat: “Gentlemen, we have an emergency! You will not have noticed it here in the library but the temperature outside has dropped; not just dropped but plummeted; so much so that this is obviously not natural. The ambient temperature around Seaquen is directly influenced by the steam vents from the underground caves. The only feasible explanation is that something or someone is interfering with them. We need someone to go down there and find out what has happened.” “When do we need to go?” I asked. “Can we go tomorrow morning? I’ve used up a great deal of my magic today indentifying several of our items.” “If this temperature drop goes on for much longer or much lower, than people in the camps are going to start dying. They have little shelter and very little to keep warm; and it’s raining; which means it may soon begin to snow.” I thought about it: “In other words, we need to go down there as soon as we can. So, can I have at least an hour? I can cram my spells in that time. I will be exhausted but at least I will be useful to a point.” He nodded. Then John said: “Well now that that has been settled, shall we discuss terms? What rewards are being offered for this?” “No rewards,” was the answer. “If you can’t or won’t do this, I will have to find someone else. I won’t be able to find anyone as well qualified for this purpose as your group this quickly; therefore the chance of the success of the expedition will be lesser and the chance of people dying will be greater but so be it. There is nothing else to be done”. “All right, all right”, grumbled John. “If Longhelim ever found out about this, I would never hear the end of it. Faden, stay here. Learn your spells. I will go and find the others.” With that John left while I put away my work with a sigh; took out my spell book and began to concentrate. My eyes were grainy and I could already feel a headache building. The time seemed to pass blindingly fast again. Although I knew my spells, I knew I wasn’t right. As per the one previous occasion when I had had to learn my spells like this, I felt weak, sluggish, generally out of sorts and had a pounding headache; I wasn’t sure why but the fatigue felt worse this time. While I was waiting for the others I had a few brief questions for Simeon’s assistant. He had sent someone over who would guide us to the entrance of the tunnels. This was a locked manhole near one of the buildings in Seaquen. According to this apprentice, no one had been in the tunnels for years. There had not been any need to send anyone there before. This was the first time that something had gone wrong. He had no idea what to expect down there; again, he didn’t know anyone who had been there. Ultimately, I learned a great many things that this individual didn’t know. Finally, John brought the others. I noticed immediately that Victor had some new armour; it now was the same type as Longhelim’s: full plate I believe they called it. I was about to remark upon it but as I opened my mouth, I was interrupted. Longhelim said: “Faden, Torrent’s gone! We have no idea what has happened, where she is or even if she is still alive. No one has seen her since last night.” I was shocked! Immediately I asked for as many details as could be provided. Big things were often hidden in little details. Felix, Longhelim, Victor and Drudge had spent most of day attending to some personal commerce but as soon as they found out about Torrent, they tried to retrace her steps without success. Their next course of action had been to get a night’s rest and the next morning, Felix planned to learn some powerful magic which could trace her, or at least some conspicuous part of her equipment; her falchion from Erdan Menash to be exact. I had not paid any attention to it at the time, but I did remember something about the hilt looking like a banana or some such detail. The only piece of good news in this sorry mess was that the others had gone to the Wayfarer’s Theatre and had seen and warned Tiljann. It was unlikely, but one could not discount Ragesian agents. This place was probably crawling with them and I suspect they were not happy with us at the moment. The theft of a book written by the second in command of the Inquisitors must reflect badly on a number of powerful individuals in the Empire and they must have been exerting a certain amount of…….pressure for its recovery. Well, that put paid to any further thoughts of research and spell scribing in the Lyceum for the foreseeable future. We had to find Torrent but before we did that, we had to investigate the tunnels. I told the others what I had been able to find out about the tunnels so far, which was very little and then we set out. The trip to the manhole was uneventful except that we noticed that our breath was now steaming. The temperature had obviously dropped dramatically although strangely I felt comfortable. I did not give it much thought; arriving at our destination, we lifted the cover and looked into darkness. I stepped forward and using my night vision, I could see that there was sheer drop quite a way down but there was also a series of rings embedded into the wall, forming a ladder. John stepped forward and said: “Right, chaps, let me go down with a light. I am the lightest here by far and I am also the most likely to find any nasty traps on the ladder. Faden, can you hand me the torch?” With these words, he began to descend down the shaft. As he was doing this, I cast several protective spells on myself. Soon, he called up: “All clear!” Hearing this, we all descended. Below was an opening and I stared curiously around me. If our previous guide was to be believed, we were the first group to set foot in these tunnels for decades; somehow I had my doubts about this. They made such a great hiding place for all sorts of things. The walls around me were black; they were made of some black rock which I did not recognize. They were also covered in pipes of all sizes. I could also see that our breaths no longer steamed so I presumed that the temperature down here must have risen. Most curiously though, there was a narrow tunnel leading off this opening and not too far down, a pair of lit torches was attached to the wall. We were too far away to tell how this was done but they were definitely not decades old; this certainly put paid to the idea that no one had been down here for decades; not that I had believed that anyway. As we took a little longer to examine our surroundings, we also saw that the ceiling was covered with a layer of steam. This was obviously supposed to be going up to the surface to heat the surrounding area but for some reason stayed it was trapped down here. On a more personal note, I was now fully convinced that we had somehow been changed since our time in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. We seemed to be immune to discomfort due to temperature, whether it was very cold or very hot. I told the others about this and saw the realization dawning on them. They all remarked that they should uncomfortable in the heat down here, especially the warriors in their heavy armour but they felt no discomfort; like me, they hadn’t felt any for a long time in fact. I don’t know how else we had changed but I did remember that Victor had told me that when I had been struck unconscious in the battle against the Tieflings in the swamp I had burst into flames and did not bleed, as if I was still in the Fire Forest. I was sure the two were connected. It was something else to investigate, if I ever had the time. There may even have been other changes about which I was unaware as yet. Simultaneously, as I was realizing this, I also looked more closely at the pipes. It was immediately obvious to me that they had been built by dwarves. They screamed dwarven workmanship to me. I could also see runes marked on each of the pipes. These said the same phrase: “We built here, we Mazak”. I have to say that it was gibberish to me but then engineering had never been a subject of mine. Drudge had been studying the floor carefully but declared that there were no tracks in this section of the corridor. After that information, with Longhelim leading, we moved down the rough hewn tunnel. As we approached, I could see that there were small wooden braces which cunningly supported the tunnel. They were difficult to see in the darkness. We were not particularly quiet but we were also approached an area which was emitting a steady but loud hissing sound. The curtain of steam on the ceiling seemed to be thickening and finally we came to a pipe which seemed to have a vent. This vent had an obvious valve and was emitting hot steam. Even though my engineering skill was very limited, it did not take a genius to work out that that the hot steam was supposed to be going to the surface, heating the ambient region and that if the vents in the pipes had been opened than the hot steam would stay down here, causing the temperature above to plummet. So, that was the mystery of the freezing surface temperature solved. The new mystery was who had done it and why. Irritatingly, I couldn’t find the valve mechanism to close the valve but John stepped forward, promptly found it and shut it down. At least now we knew what we had to do. Find the valves and shut them; and probably find and defeat the individuals who had opened them in the first place; on second thoughts, they would probably find us. As we progressed down the narrow corridor, it was obvious that Victor had not grown used to his new armour as yet; he kept scraping against the rock. It was quite noisy but thankfully, the escaping steam covered a great deal of the noise. It did not cover it enough unfortunately. Longhelim had come to a large open area with several exits. It was also inhabited. A quartet of large humanoids had leapt up from a table where they had been sitting and were bounding towards Longhelim. They were tall, burly, with small, fierce eyes and light skin. A small pair of tusks jutted from their lower jaws. “Hobgoblins”: a shout from Longhelim. However, we were all behind him and there was little we could do. Victor tried to move forward but there was just no room in the tunnel beside Longhelim. As they approached, we could see that the hobgoblins were armed with shortswords which glistened, obviously coated with something nasty. They were armoured but with metal shirts covering their torsos. Victor had one of those. I had seen him sleeping in it; it was called a chain shirt. It obviously gave them great flexibility. A short vicious fight ensued. Longhelim was more than equal to this enemy tetrarchy although he was struck several times. The poison on the blades, whatever it was, did not seem to affect him and Victor moved out of the way, allowing Felix to move in and heal the paladin from the rear. These tactics allowed him to prevail fairly quickly. The hobgoblins were fierce and they fought with a certain amount of controlled fury and good tactical movement but Longhelim’s greater strength ultimately told. Felix used our newly acquired healing wand to heal Longhelim’s slashes. We piled the hobgoblin corpses to one side and then John silently moved down one of the exits, this one running almost parallel in the direction we had used. He returned quite rapidly, saying that there were two more hobgoblins sleeping in an opening up the corridor. Then Drudge moved into the centre of the opening where we had had our battle to check for tracks. He then motioned for John to come forward. The latter did and moved towards another of the exits. He glanced inside and then rapidly ran back: “We’re about to have company. Get ready!” He was quickly followed by two hobgoblins, running into the opening, glistening swords at the ready. Victor and Longhelim both moved forward confidently and Victor swung and almost sliced his opponent in half. Longhelim also struck but his was left standing and was quickly followed by another, who dodged and weaved his way past Victor and positioned himself to flank Longhelim. At this point, I noticed that two more of the enemy had appeared from the tunnel which John had scouted initially. They had moved so quickly, they were almost next to me! I wanted save my magic so I stepped back and Victor moved to block the tunnel, slicing the first opponent as he did so. He was obviously becoming very familiar with the Living Blade of Innenotdar. Drudge was busy shooting at the hobgoblins but Longhelim was again being stabbed by the flanking enemy. Felix had to move forward and use his healing powers. I tried a couple of small cantrips against the enemy facing Victor, but they proved resilient to them; not surprisingly; it was weak magic. Drudge was then confronted by two more hobgoblins running from a new tunnel. He stepped back and Longhelim stepped sideways to give him a chance to shoot. The paladin had just dispatched another of the enemy when one of the new hobgoblins ran forward and positioned himself to flank the paladin again. Foolishly though, he also placed himself next to Victor, who sliced his last enemy and then smoothly struck the newly arrived hobgoblin in the same stroke, felling both at the same time. This left just one last hobgoblin, who quickly fell to Longhelim. Despite our victory, Longhelim had been stabbed several times again and Felix hurried to tend to his wounds, especially as several of them were infused with the stuff that had been coated on the blades. Longhelim did not seem to suffer from it, but Felix cleaned them just in case. One could not be too careful. As Felix was doing this, we kept watch. John said that he had seen a bunch of sleeping pallets in the last opening he had scouted if that was what glancing into it could be called. He said he had counted more than a couple of dozen. That was the amount of enemy we had met so far so there were likely to be several more around. Another thought struck me. Hobgoblins were renowned for their warrior culture and certainly the enemy we had met so far was tactically very aware but they were lightly armed and armoured, scouts and foragers. If they were going to shut off the steam to the surface, they must have known they were going to attract a lot of attention very quickly; so they must have had a plan or if not a plan at least a reasonable force down here; where were the warriors and shamans? I mentioned this to Victor who told me that it was a good thought and one about which to be mindful but there was no point in worrying about something of which we had no knowledge; deal with the here and now. While we discussed this, John had gone inside the cave which had contained the sleeping pallets. He called out that it seemed safe and for us to join him at the entrance. [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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