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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6681832" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 2: THE FARMER'S WIFE</strong></p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 8 August 2015</p><p></p><p>I don't think it's worth listing the PCs/NPCs unless anything changes, especially since each player only has one PC to run in this campaign. I'll list the roster whenever anything changes.</p><p></p><p>We played this adventure on the same day as the first one, which had featured absolutely no combat at all. This one had plenty of combat, but it was an interesting experience for all of us to realign ourselves into the realm of 1st-level characters once again, after only a few weeks ago having run PCs at or near 20th level.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"This looks like it," replied Ingebold, leading the mule-driven wagon to the side of the access road. Just ahead was a weathered farmhouse, complete with a covered porch in front and a personal garden to the side. To the right stood a smaller building, likely a stable. There was also an outhouse and a hand-powered water pump in the general area, and behind the house, the wheat fields. The Vesve Forest, deep and mysterious, loomed off to the east.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert Fung jumped off the back of the wagon. "I go look in stables," he announced.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, Castillan, and Darrien opted to go check out the main house. Peeking through cracks in the shutters of the windows on the front porch, they saw a typical family room, but it seemed abandoned.</p><p></p><p>Castillan banged loudly on the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Henderson?" he called. "We're from the castle - King Galrich asked us to check in on you." After verifying they were all set to go out into the greater world, the king had asked them to swing by the Henderson farm to check on them, since they hadn't been seen in half a week and the wheat they had been growing should have been harvested and brought to the castle by now.</p><p></p><p>There was no answer at the door. Castillan tried the knob; the door was unlocked. Opening it, he entered quietly, the other two behind him. Doing a quick check of the house, they found a kitchen, pantry, and bedroom - but no people. The Hendersons' nightclothes were hanging on hooks on the back of their bedroom door; whatever had befallen them had likely happened before nightfall, then.</p><p></p><p>Finoula rode her pony around to the left side the house, noticing the wheat field was only partially harvested. She returned the way she came, joining up with Ingebold and Gilbert as they were opening the side door to the smaller building. Inside, there was a small stable containing a mule, who snorted and scraped his hooves in irritation. Moving around the corner, Gilbert found a small wagon, apparently capable of being pulled by just the one mule. He called out to the Hendersons, but got no answer. He opened up the two wide doors that allowed the wagon egress from the small building, letting in the sunlight.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, what's this?" asked Finoula, picking up what looked to be a scrap of cloth in the corner. It had a pattern of scales; belatedly, the ranger realized it was a piece of the shed skin of a rather large reptile. Ingebold looked it over, then shrugged. She turned and exited the building; obviously they weren't here. However, upon exiting, a noise caught her ear. Walking over to behind the stable with Finoula in tow, the buzzing grew louder. As they turned the corner, they found a small pile of bloody bones and a veritable cloud of flies making the best of the sudden meal behind the small building.</p><p></p><p>Finoula gave a loud whistle to alert the group in the house just as they were exiting, and they headed over to see what was up. Gilbert, Castillan, and Darrien caught up with the women, but Binkadink slowed down as he approached the small garden.</p><p></p><p>"Do you think that's them?" asked Ingebold. "It looks like there are scraps of clothing in with the bones."</p><p></p><p>"It does," agreed Finoula. "Do you...want to try to sort them?"</p><p></p><p>"Sure, you go ahead, then," offered the dwarven cleric.</p><p></p><p>"I do it!" announced Gilbert, sidling up and stirring the bones around with his staff. Nobody seemed overeager to actually touch the bones, still wet in places with drying blood, but the wizard managed to sort them out into two main piles: it looked like a human and a dog. And a broken pitchfork with another scrap of sloughed-off, reptilian skin on it.</p><p></p><p>"Those clothes, they cut with blade," pointed out Gilbert. "Look: clean cut, no ripping like with claws."</p><p></p><p>Darrien was examining the ground, especially several drag-marks in a patch of dirt. "Looks like a giant snake," he offered.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, there's something over here!" announced Castillan. He pulled up a much larger section of sloughed-off skin, big enough to indicate the snake had what looked to be human-sized arms. The group exchanged looks. "A snake man?" asked Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"They called 'yuan-ti,'" replied Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"And three of them, I'd say," said Darrien, still examining the tracks on the ground. He could see where a dog had approached the area, and the prints of a man; he saw where the scuffle had taken place; he saw evidence of the snake-men hacking their slain victims to pieces, he could see where the yuan-ti had crawled over to the stable - probably to rest up after their meal - and where they had left again, some hours later. He tried tracking them as they headed back into the forest, but their distinctive traces in the dirt went away when they crossed a large section of stone. "They could have gone anywhere from here," he complained aloud.</p><p></p><p>"I don't want to be gory," said Finoula, "but if they went into the stables, why didn't they eat the donkey?"</p><p></p><p>"They probably full!" replied Gilbert. "They already eat grown man and big dog. They want sleep it off and go home!"</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Binkadink had entered the garden and approached a source of movement he had detected: underneath some overhanging foliage huddled a rabbit, munching away at some forbidden vegetables. He could see where the rabbit had dug underneath the small white fence around what he presumed was Mrs. Henderson's garden. Moving slowly, he started speaking the language of burrowing mammals. "Hello. Do not be afraid."</p><p></p><p>The rabbit eyed him warily, but continued to eat its meal.</p><p></p><p>"Did you see any bad monsters last night?" the gnome asked. "Big snakes, maybe?"</p><p></p><p>At that, the rabbit shuddered. Binkadink reached out and started stroking its fur, trying to get it to relax.</p><p></p><p>"Dog. Bark," the rabbit said.</p><p></p><p>"A dog, yes," encouraged Binkadink, still stroking it softly. "And then what happened?"</p><p></p><p>"Snakes. Bad. Snakes. Kill. Snakes. Bad. Bad. Snakes. Man. Fight. Kill. Man. Eat. Man. Hide. Snakes. Snakes. Bad. Bad." The rabbit started shivering again, recalling its fear from the night before, and expressing itself as best it could within the parameters of its limited intelligence.</p><p></p><p>"Was there a woman?" asked the gnome. "Snakes kill man. Woman escape?"</p><p></p><p>"Woman," agreed the rabbit. "Run. Fast."</p><p></p><p>"Where?"</p><p></p><p>"Away," said the rabbit, which Binkadink took to mean away from the garden - over to the left side of the house, then.</p><p></p><p>"Thank you," replied Binkadink. "You're safe now. Eat. Eat. Safe."</p><p></p><p>"Safe," echoed the rabbit, and returned its attention to its illicit meal.</p><p></p><p>Gathering back together as a group, the adventurers pieced together what had apparently happened. Three yuan-ti approached the Henderson farm from the Vesve Forest. The Henderson's dog started barking and raced over to confront them. Mr. Henderson likely grabbed up a pitchfork and went to investigate, but he and his dog were slain, carved up into pieces, and devoured on the spot. After a post-meal nap in the stables, the three yuan-ti went back to the forest the way they had come.</p><p></p><p>"So where's Mrs. Henderson?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"She went this way," replied Binkadink, leading the others to the far side of the farmhouse.</p><p></p><p>"How you know this?" demanded Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"We had an eyewitness," replied Binkadink mysteriously.</p><p></p><p>Over on the other side of the farmhouse was a pair of slanted doors of the kind that normally led to a root cellar. Sure enough, there was a thick plank of wood on the ground to the side of the doors, no doubt a bar normally kept in place to keep any critters from getting into the root cellar. Castillan pulled open the doors and called down into the dark cellar, "Mrs. Henderson?" There was no answer.</p><p></p><p>Traipsing down the stairs, the group saw the typical contents of a farmhouse root cellar: two large barrels stood in the western corners of the room, while shelves in the back held a variety of canned goods, mostly jams, jellies, pickled vegetables, and fruit preserves. "Check the barrels," suggested Darrien.</p><p></p><p>The barrel in the southwestern corner was suspicious in that it couldn't be moved: it seemed to be bolted to the floor. Lifting off the lid showed the barrel to be empty, but the bottom of the barrel could be pulled up as well, revealing a short tunnel leading down for about five feet. A wooden ladder was propped against one side of the vertical shaft.</p><p></p><p>"I imagine she went this way," offered Darrien wryly.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go," replied Binkadink. "Somebody give me a boost up." The barrel was taller than the little gnome, even on tippy-toes.</p><p></p><p>There was no light in the tunnel beyond, which proved to be only about five feet high and circular in cross-section. It was aimed at more or less true south, and looked to remain on course for as far as the eye could see - even once Castillan activated a sunrod. "You're the shortest, and the slowest," pointed out the bounder to the gnome, handing him the sunrod. "You take lead."</p><p></p><p>"Very well," replied Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>The going was smooth, but monotonous. After what felt like a mile or so of heading in the same direction, the group heard scratching sounds from directly ahead, sounding very much like claws on stone. "Get ready," Binkadink warned. "I think we have a monster ahead." He steadied his grip on his glaive - which, longer than the tunnel was tall, had taken some maneuvering to even get into the tunnel and pointed the right way in the first place - and prepared himself for battle. Behind him, Finoula, Darrien, and Castillan all readied their bows. Gilbert and Ingebold were too far back to be able to see much of anything, and just concentrated on keeping up with the rest of the group.</p><p></p><p>The owner of the scrabbling claws came into view at the edge of the illumination from the sunrod and went scurrying straight at the little gnome. Binkadink tried pulling the glaive over to point it at the beetle, but it was too fast and the weapon skidded off the side of the creature's carapace. Cursing, Binkadink dropped the unwieldy glaive and pulled out his father's sword as the beetle's pincerlike jaws opened wide to bite the gnome in half.</p><p></p><p>Directly behind the gnome, Finoula shot an arrow at the beetle, the arrow flying over Binkadink's head. "Scoot!" called Darrien from behind Finoula, and she leaned over to the left side so the half-elf ranger could get off a shot as well. Then he in turn leaned over to the left, allowing Castillan to shoot likewise.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, it's our first fight as a group and we're already working out combat moves!" enthused Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"What going on?" demanded Gilbert. "I no see nothing from back here!"</p><p></p><p>But there wasn't much to see. Between three archers and a gnomish swordsman, the giant beetle was handily dispatched. After ensuring it was indeed dead, Binkadink picked up his dropped glaive and headed forward again. Before long, he found a spot where another tunnel ran into the one they had been traversing. A spot on the floor was covered in dirt and small rocks, and Finoula was quick to point out what looked like a woman's shoe print in the unearthed soil. Based on the shoe print, it looked like Mrs. Henderson had continued on south. Binkadink looked down the side tunnel anyway, just in case, and saw it sloped downward at a gentle angle and dead-ended after about 25 feet.</p><p></p><p>"Let's check it out, just in case," suggested Finoula. Shrugging, Binkadink backed up and maneuvered his glaive around the corner, then headed down the side passage, leading with his unwieldy weapon. The tip of it hit the back wall - and ripped through it, revealing it to be nothing more than a sheet of a canvas-like material.</p><p></p><p>"Interesting," remarked Darrien. "Let's check it out."</p><p></p><p>"But Mrs. Henderson's trail leads the other way," argued Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but I don't want anything sneaking up behind us as we keep going the way we were going," countered Darrien. That seemed eminently sensible to the group, so they continued on, through a zigzagging passage that eventually led out into a much larger chamber. The sounds of picks hitting stone could be heard echoing from all directions.</p><p></p><p>But the sounds stopped all at once as the kobold miners saw the distinct glow of the sunrod in their lightless cavern. Moving in, their picks went from mining tools to weapons of potential slaughter - especially once they spotted a hated gnome among the intruders!</p><p></p><p>Spreading out into the cavern, the group took aim at the kobold miners. There seemed to be only four of them, which was a small enough force that the group was able to handle them without much trouble. But just as they were finishing off the miners, Binkadink called out that reinforcements were approaching from another tunnel leading into the larger cavern.</p><p></p><p>This pair of kobolds had wicked smiles plastered on their faces, and with good cause: they were armed with spears, and tied by a string dangling from the end of each spear was a little scorpion. Fortunately, Binkadink's glaive was longer than the kobolds' spears, so he was able to keep the closest one at bay long enough for Gilbert to sidle up behind the gnome, lean over, and cast a <em>color spray</em> spell which knocked one of the kobolds and both scorpions into instant unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>Finoula called back to the others, asking if they wanted to keep the remaining kobold alive for questioning. Binkadink had just killed the second spear-wielding kobold with his glaive and was standing over the unconscious one, sword in hand.</p><p></p><p>"What that you say?" asked Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Do we want to leave one alive for questioning?" repeated Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Oops - too late," said Binkadink - and then plunged the tip of his father's sword into the throat of the unconscious kobold. As a gnome, he well knew that the only good kobold was a dead one.</p><p></p><p>Finoula and Gilbert were in the easternmost part of the mine and started exploring in that direction. Seeing an opportunity, Gilbert cast a <em>resistance</em> spell on Finoula, applying it by slapping her on her butt and receiving a well-earned slap in the face in return, just as Ingebold spun around and saw two more spear-and-scorpion kobolds sneaking up from behind down the tunnel they had just come from. She whipped out her mace and prepared to give the full fury of a cleric of Moradin to those who would plunder what the Dwarven All-Father had put into the earth to be mined by dwarves.</p><p></p><p>However, Castillan had discovered a cage along the southern wall of the mine, inside of which was a wolverine, snarling at the scent of the blood that had been spilled nearby. Intrigued, Binkadink ambled over and introduced himself in the language of burrowing mammals.</p><p></p><p>"Hello, there. I'm a friend! Would you like out of the cage?"</p><p></p><p>"Kill!" replied the wolverine.</p><p></p><p>"Kill? Who do you want to kill? You don't want to kill us, do you? We're your friends!"</p><p></p><p>"Pole!" snarled the wolverine. "Hate pole! Kill pole!"</p><p></p><p>Thinking that perhaps "pole" meant the scorpion-spears wielded by the kobolds, the gnome indicated for Castillan to unlock the cage. Whipping out his thieves' tools, the bounder made quick work of the cage's lock. Still, he jumped back as the wolverine practically exploded out of the cage and made a beeline straight for Ingebold. "Incoming!" cried Castillan. Ingebold stepped off to the side, and the wolverine raced past her and leapt up at the kobold she'd been fighting, getting its teeth into its throat and tearing it to shreds. The other kobold, fully eager for combat when it was him and one other sneaking up behind those unaware of their presence, was suddenly no longer quite so eager for battle now that it was him all by himself against a group of adventurers and the wolverine they had kept in a cage until needed as an unwilling weapon. He turned and ran as fast as he could back up the inclined tunnel, the wolverine in fast pursuit. Darrien shot an arrow at the fleeing kobold, but it missed and then the two were gone.</p><p></p><p>Finoula, in the meantime, had managed to get herself into a fair bit of trouble. Exploring a passageway to the north, she encountered a kobold wearing a tattered robe of indeterminate color and holding a wand. She raced up to him, hoping to skewer him on her sword, but he raised his hands and called off the words to a spell. A sheet of flames fanned out from his fingertips, engulfing the ranger in fire. She screamed in surprise and pain, stepped back, and fell over.</p><p></p><p>"Cleric!" called out Gilbert, running as fast as he could to Finoula's side and swatting out the flames with a rolled-up sack from his rope belt. "We need cleric here, fast!" Ingebold came running over and cast a healing spell onto the now-unconscious elf. Finoula's eyelids fluttered and she sat up, surprised to be alive.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, however, had picked up where Finoula had left off in fighting the kobold adept. Realizing his glaive was too unwieldy in the small antechamber the kobold had come from, he dropped it and raced into the room, sword in hand. There was a carved statue of a large kobold with rubies for eyes in the middle of the room, and behind it a door. There were all sorts of carvings on the stone walls of the chamber, but Binkadink had no chance to appreciate them, for climbing up from the kobold's back was a lithe weasel, which leaped off the kobold's shoulder and onto the gnome, biting and snarling. As Binkadink's attention was rightly focused on the weasel, the adept cast an <em>obscuring mist</em> spell and the room filled with foglike clouds.</p><p></p><p>"Get off me or I'll kill you!" warned the gnome, again speaking the language of burrowing mammals. The weasel seemed to consider its odds, then, reaching a decision, gave Binkadink's neck a final, quick chew and dropped to the floor, scurrying away to parts unknown. Binkadink, meanwhile, had heard the sound of a door opening and closing and knew exactly where the adept had gone. Kicking in the door behind the crude statue, he skewered the kobold on the blade of his sword. With a bloodthirsty smile, Binkadink considered his new career: had he known becoming an adventurer meant getting to kill kobolds, he'd have signed up long ago! Nasty creatures, kobolds!</p><p></p><p>Joined by Castillan and Gilbert, Binkadink gave the room beyond a quick search, but it contained merely a cot and a small chest containing a hammer and chisel - the tools, no doubt, with which the kobold adept had carved the runes on the walls in the chamber beyond - and possibly even the crude statue of Kurtulmak, the primary kobold deity, as well. However, closer inspection revealed a slab of stone on the floor underneath the cot that, when lifted away, revealed numerous chunks of silver ore. None of the chunks was too big for the adventurers to carry, but all in all there looked to be about 500 pounds of the stuff. Getting all of this back to the castle was going to take quite some effort!</p><p></p><p>Finally, the team had time to regroup. Binkadink drank down a healing potion from the small chest he wore like a pack on his back, making sure it was one of the "special" ones his uncle had concocted without taking any shortcuts. He offered a healing potion to Finoula, but she'd already been healed to full strength by Ingebold's spells.</p><p></p><p>"I take <em>mage armor</em> potion," suggested Gilbert, realizing gaining the effect from a potion instead of one of the few spells he could retain in his mind at one time only made sense while he was just starting his adventuring career; no doubt, as time went on, he'd be able to hold in his mind many more spells at once and casting a <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself would no longer be a luxury. Binkadink searched through the labels on the remaining potions and handed over one marked "mage armor" in Gnomish script. Gilbert unstoppered it and drank it down. His skin immediately started itching, and within mere moments had turned a bright shade of blue.</p><p></p><p>"What this?" Gilbert demanded. "I look ridiculous!" Binkadink merely shrugged helplessly; he wasn't able to stop his uncle from taking shortcuts, as the ways of magic - and potion-making - were well beyond his ability to comprehend.</p><p></p><p>"Let's move on," suggested Darrien, offering to scout ahead.</p><p></p><p>They found another tunnel sloping down, this one at a much steeper angle, but the ceiling had collapsed some time ago and it was blocked by heavy stones. Deeming it impassable, the group retraced their steps and found themselves at the top of a ledge overlooking a fast-moving, subterranean stream. About five feet across but fifteen feet down was a stone ledge, with a set of natural steps behind it leading up into a cave.</p><p></p><p>"If there are any other kobolds about, they'll be on that side of the stream," advised Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, but shouldn't we be spending our time searching for Mrs. Henderson?" reminded Finoula. "We know she kept on going south at the intersection that led to the mine." After a brief discussion, they decided this area was safe enough for the moment, and retraced their way back to the original tunnel. Now, the dirt and gravel held not only the small footprints of the farmer's wife, but also those of a frightened kobold and an enraged wolverine.</p><p></p><p>The original tunnel continued on a straight course for some time before finally taking a turn to the left and coming to a circular tunnel surrounding a wide, circular column. There were noises coming from ahead; approaching cautiously, the group saw the wolverine they had released from its cage in rugged pursuit of the sole remaining kobold wielding a scorpion-on-a-spear, the two of them running round and round the circular column. Binkadink stabbed out with his glaive as the kobold ran past, nearly decapitating it. The wolverine ensured the kobold didn't live much longer after that.</p><p></p><p>Circling around the structure, the group found two things of interest: a pair of tunnels leading away from the stone column in two different directions, each seemingly as straight as the one they had followed from the Henderson farm; and a door on the far side of the column. Testing it, Castillan found it to be locked. On impulse, he knocked on the door and called out, "Mrs. Henderson?"</p><p></p><p>"Who's there?" asked a terrified voice from inside the column.</p><p></p><p>"We're friends," said the bounder in his most charming voice. "We were sent by King Galrich to see to your safety."</p><p></p><p>"Is <strong>Jonas</strong> there with you?" asked Mrs. Henderson.</p><p></p><p>"Oh dear," said Finoula, guessing who "Jonas" must be.</p><p></p><p>There was the sound of a metal bar being removed, and the door swung open. Inside what could be best described as a bunker, <strong>Frieda Henderson</strong> stood in her peasant's dress and apron, her eyes red from crying and worry. She looked at the assembled group and said, "He's dead, isn't he?"</p><p></p><p>Finoula stepped forward and took her by the arm, leading her to a bench. "I'm-- I'm afraid so," she replied sadly. Frieda buried her face in her hands and wept. Ingebold stepped forward and put her hand on the woman's shoulder, silently offering the grief-stricken woman her support. They let her cry herself out, then offered to take her back home.</p><p></p><p>"Is it-- is it safe?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"Well, there's a kobold warren that dug into the tunnel leading to your farmhouse," replied Darrien. "We killed off a bunch of them, but there's likely to be more." Turning to the rest of the group, he asked, "What do you think, guys? Should we maybe take out the rest of the kobolds first, just to be safe?"</p><p></p><p>"That might be for the best," agreed Castillan. "What about you, Mrs. Henderson? Do you want to come with, or stay here until we've dealt with the kobolds?"</p><p></p><p>"I think I'll just stay here, if it's all the same to you," she said.</p><p></p><p>"Will ye be all right?" asked Ingebold. "One of us could stay with ye, if ye like."</p><p></p><p>"No, no, better that you stay together," replied Frieda. "I'll be here when you're finished."</p><p></p><p>"Okay then," said Finoula, patting her hand. Looking around, she saw that the bunker was stocked with plenty of nonperishable food, and there were warm blankets as well. "This is quite the safe haven," she commented.</p><p></p><p>"Jonas said the king had this bunker built shortly after the goblin and orcs started attacking the farmers," Frieda explained, sniffing. "There are tunnels leading to the Mastertons and the old Planker farmstead as well."</p><p></p><p>"Okay, then, we'll be back shortly," promised Binkadink. "Seal yourself back in after we've closed the door."</p><p></p><p>"I will," promised Mrs. Henderson. The group waited until they heard the sound of the bar being replaced in the door, then called out their farewells and made their way back to the cliffside overlooking the underground stream, encountering no other kobolds along the way. Castillan offered to jump across, but Gilbert tied one end of his silk rope around the bounder's waist first and passed him both a hammer and a piton. Castillan leaped gracefully across the span, landing lightly on his feet. Then he turned and started pounding the piton into the stone of the cavern floor with the hammer. By the time he was finished and had the end of the rope tied to the piton, every remaining kobold in the warren was aware of the adventurers' intrusion into their realm.</p><p></p><p>"Behind you!" called Finoula, shooting an arrow at a kobold head poking around the corner at the top of the natural stairs leading down to the solid stone "beach" where Castillan stood. The creature ducked back from the attack, but that was enough for Castillan to decide he liked it better with the rest of the group, up at the top of the farther ledge. He started climbing the rope, but in his haste his hand slipped and he plunged into the cold, clear stream below.</p><p></p><p>Up above, Gilbert's attention was focused on hammering a piton into the wall near the edge of the ledge and securing his end of the rope to it. But Darrien had a rope of his own, and he tossed one end of it down to the careless bounder. Castillan made a grab for it and missed, but he was in luck, for just around a bend the stream widened out and he was able to swim over to the side of a different stone "beach." Pulling himself out of the water, he saw another natural set of steps leading upward, and figured he could possibly flank the remaining kobolds from this direction.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Finoula, meanwhile, had availed themselves of the anchored rope and made it down to the original lower ledge, the gnome doing so by sliding down the rope in one gauntleted hand while holding onto the wolverine under his other arm. Gilbert attempted to follow suit, but lost his grasp and plunged into the cold water. Fortunately, he managed to grab Darrien's rope and used it to pull himself up to the ledge from where Binkadink was now heading up the narrow steps, a few steps behind the wolverine and a few more in front of Finoula. At the top, they were met by a quartet of kobolds holding a wooden battering ram, with dangling belts at the "pounding" end; with a sudden realization, Binkadink recognized the "pole" the wolverine had mentioned - no doubt the poor creature was strapped onto the end of the battering ram and the wicked kobolds went racing toward their enemies with a fear-crazed wolverine attacking everything within reach with its teeth and four sets of claws. The very thought did nothing to endear kobolds to the gnome's heart any further.</p><p></p><p>And the foursome weren't the only kobolds in sight; three others popped up from a depression in the center of the cavern, and over in the back an eighth kobold struggled with a large sack he wore on a strap that crossed over one shoulder.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink didn't give it much thought; he stabbed out with his glaive, impaling one of the ram-luggers through the midsection and causing it to flop to the floor, dead, just as the wolverine ripped the throat out of the kobold across the battering ram from the gnome's initial victim. With the front line taken out, the two kobolds in the back had a hard time keeping the front end of the battering ram elevated against their enemies. Finoula, directly behind Binkadink, sent an arrow into one of the kobolds struggling to keep the ram up. Gilbert popped up behind Finoula, blasting the last of the kobold rammers with a <em>ray of frost</em>. With a clatter, the battering ram fell onto the stone floor of the kobold cavern, one of the last two bearers crashing to the floor immediately thereafter. Binkadink took the opportunity to slide past Finoula and head over to the kobold struggling to pull something out of the sack at his waist. The gnome stabbed his glaive through the kobold's neck just as he pulled free a pair of weasels whose tails had been tied together with a section of braided leather rope. The weasels dropped to the floor and tried running in different directions; calling to them in their own language, Binkadink caused his glaive to fall down between them, slicing through the leather and releasing the living "weasel bola" weapon to escape as best they could. That left only two living kobolds in the room, and the three adventurers - and a blood-crazed wolverine - finished them off without much trouble.</p><p></p><p>The last kobold, however, had ducked off into a side chamber, a natural cave in which grew a wide variety of mushrooms and other fungus. Grabbing up a pole, the little reptile started prodding a large ball of compost towards the far side of the chamber, where his ears told him yet another of these devilish adventurers was even now ascending the natural stone steps leading down to the stream. Castillan got quite a surprise when he was run over by a smelly sphere of decaying matter, causing him to fall backwards back down the steps. He immediately felt significantly weaker from the ordeal; this was no doubt the result of the violet fungus tendrils interwoven into the decomposing mass. But by the time the bounder had returned to his feet, the triumphant kobold had been skewered from behind by one of Castillan's teammates.</p><p></p><p>A quick exploration around the kobold warren found no other members of the tribe, and nothing of value.</p><p></p><p>"How'd these guys even get here?" asked Castillan, puzzled.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink, knowing a bit about the ways of kobolds, explained the collapsed tunnel no doubt led deeper into the Underdark; most likely, the collapse had been on purpose, as a smaller tribe of kobolds split off on their own from a larger, parent tribe. This smaller tribe, in their mining explorations, had accidentally tapped into the underground passage that Mrs. Henderson had taken as she fled from the snake-men attacking her and her husband's farm.</p><p></p><p>"So that it," remarked Gilbert. "Our first adventure a success!"</p><p></p><p>"We should go get Mrs. Henderson, and see her to safety," reminded Ingebold. That went without any obstacles, and within the hour the group was back in the Henderson farmhouse. Frieda thanked them all for her rescue, and insisted upon rewarding the group with some canned preserves from her pantry. These were accepted with many thanks, and the group finished their time there at the farmhouse by digging two graves in the back yard, one for Jonas Henderson, and one for his faithful dog, <strong>Rufus</strong>.</p><p></p><p>Upon being apprised of the situation, the castle sent over some burly dwarven guards, who had been granted leave from their normal duties to see to the rest of the harvesting of the wheat the Hendersons had grown. While this was an entirely new experience for the guards, their dwarven work ethic saw the job completed in no time flat.</p><p></p><p>And the Kordovian Adventurers Guild had successfully completed their first mission, even though they had yet to leave the confines of their small kingdom.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: solid gray, with no image. No surprise there, as it was the same session as the one in which we ran the first adventure. But the solid gray could also be used to represent the solid stone of the Underdark, from where the kobold tribe had come.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6681832, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 2: THE FARMER'S WIFE[/b] Game Session Date: 8 August 2015 I don't think it's worth listing the PCs/NPCs unless anything changes, especially since each player only has one PC to run in this campaign. I'll list the roster whenever anything changes. We played this adventure on the same day as the first one, which had featured absolutely no combat at all. This one had plenty of combat, but it was an interesting experience for all of us to realign ourselves into the realm of 1st-level characters once again, after only a few weeks ago having run PCs at or near 20th level. - - - "This looks like it," replied Ingebold, leading the mule-driven wagon to the side of the access road. Just ahead was a weathered farmhouse, complete with a covered porch in front and a personal garden to the side. To the right stood a smaller building, likely a stable. There was also an outhouse and a hand-powered water pump in the general area, and behind the house, the wheat fields. The Vesve Forest, deep and mysterious, loomed off to the east. Gilbert Fung jumped off the back of the wagon. "I go look in stables," he announced. Binkadink, Castillan, and Darrien opted to go check out the main house. Peeking through cracks in the shutters of the windows on the front porch, they saw a typical family room, but it seemed abandoned. Castillan banged loudly on the door. "Mr. and Mrs. Henderson?" he called. "We're from the castle - King Galrich asked us to check in on you." After verifying they were all set to go out into the greater world, the king had asked them to swing by the Henderson farm to check on them, since they hadn't been seen in half a week and the wheat they had been growing should have been harvested and brought to the castle by now. There was no answer at the door. Castillan tried the knob; the door was unlocked. Opening it, he entered quietly, the other two behind him. Doing a quick check of the house, they found a kitchen, pantry, and bedroom - but no people. The Hendersons' nightclothes were hanging on hooks on the back of their bedroom door; whatever had befallen them had likely happened before nightfall, then. Finoula rode her pony around to the left side the house, noticing the wheat field was only partially harvested. She returned the way she came, joining up with Ingebold and Gilbert as they were opening the side door to the smaller building. Inside, there was a small stable containing a mule, who snorted and scraped his hooves in irritation. Moving around the corner, Gilbert found a small wagon, apparently capable of being pulled by just the one mule. He called out to the Hendersons, but got no answer. He opened up the two wide doors that allowed the wagon egress from the small building, letting in the sunlight. "Hey, what's this?" asked Finoula, picking up what looked to be a scrap of cloth in the corner. It had a pattern of scales; belatedly, the ranger realized it was a piece of the shed skin of a rather large reptile. Ingebold looked it over, then shrugged. She turned and exited the building; obviously they weren't here. However, upon exiting, a noise caught her ear. Walking over to behind the stable with Finoula in tow, the buzzing grew louder. As they turned the corner, they found a small pile of bloody bones and a veritable cloud of flies making the best of the sudden meal behind the small building. Finoula gave a loud whistle to alert the group in the house just as they were exiting, and they headed over to see what was up. Gilbert, Castillan, and Darrien caught up with the women, but Binkadink slowed down as he approached the small garden. "Do you think that's them?" asked Ingebold. "It looks like there are scraps of clothing in with the bones." "It does," agreed Finoula. "Do you...want to try to sort them?" "Sure, you go ahead, then," offered the dwarven cleric. "I do it!" announced Gilbert, sidling up and stirring the bones around with his staff. Nobody seemed overeager to actually touch the bones, still wet in places with drying blood, but the wizard managed to sort them out into two main piles: it looked like a human and a dog. And a broken pitchfork with another scrap of sloughed-off, reptilian skin on it. "Those clothes, they cut with blade," pointed out Gilbert. "Look: clean cut, no ripping like with claws." Darrien was examining the ground, especially several drag-marks in a patch of dirt. "Looks like a giant snake," he offered. "Hey, there's something over here!" announced Castillan. He pulled up a much larger section of sloughed-off skin, big enough to indicate the snake had what looked to be human-sized arms. The group exchanged looks. "A snake man?" asked Ingebold. "They called 'yuan-ti,'" replied Gilbert. "And three of them, I'd say," said Darrien, still examining the tracks on the ground. He could see where a dog had approached the area, and the prints of a man; he saw where the scuffle had taken place; he saw evidence of the snake-men hacking their slain victims to pieces, he could see where the yuan-ti had crawled over to the stable - probably to rest up after their meal - and where they had left again, some hours later. He tried tracking them as they headed back into the forest, but their distinctive traces in the dirt went away when they crossed a large section of stone. "They could have gone anywhere from here," he complained aloud. "I don't want to be gory," said Finoula, "but if they went into the stables, why didn't they eat the donkey?" "They probably full!" replied Gilbert. "They already eat grown man and big dog. They want sleep it off and go home!" Meanwhile, Binkadink had entered the garden and approached a source of movement he had detected: underneath some overhanging foliage huddled a rabbit, munching away at some forbidden vegetables. He could see where the rabbit had dug underneath the small white fence around what he presumed was Mrs. Henderson's garden. Moving slowly, he started speaking the language of burrowing mammals. "Hello. Do not be afraid." The rabbit eyed him warily, but continued to eat its meal. "Did you see any bad monsters last night?" the gnome asked. "Big snakes, maybe?" At that, the rabbit shuddered. Binkadink reached out and started stroking its fur, trying to get it to relax. "Dog. Bark," the rabbit said. "A dog, yes," encouraged Binkadink, still stroking it softly. "And then what happened?" "Snakes. Bad. Snakes. Kill. Snakes. Bad. Bad. Snakes. Man. Fight. Kill. Man. Eat. Man. Hide. Snakes. Snakes. Bad. Bad." The rabbit started shivering again, recalling its fear from the night before, and expressing itself as best it could within the parameters of its limited intelligence. "Was there a woman?" asked the gnome. "Snakes kill man. Woman escape?" "Woman," agreed the rabbit. "Run. Fast." "Where?" "Away," said the rabbit, which Binkadink took to mean away from the garden - over to the left side of the house, then. "Thank you," replied Binkadink. "You're safe now. Eat. Eat. Safe." "Safe," echoed the rabbit, and returned its attention to its illicit meal. Gathering back together as a group, the adventurers pieced together what had apparently happened. Three yuan-ti approached the Henderson farm from the Vesve Forest. The Henderson's dog started barking and raced over to confront them. Mr. Henderson likely grabbed up a pitchfork and went to investigate, but he and his dog were slain, carved up into pieces, and devoured on the spot. After a post-meal nap in the stables, the three yuan-ti went back to the forest the way they had come. "So where's Mrs. Henderson?" asked Finoula. "She went this way," replied Binkadink, leading the others to the far side of the farmhouse. "How you know this?" demanded Gilbert. "We had an eyewitness," replied Binkadink mysteriously. Over on the other side of the farmhouse was a pair of slanted doors of the kind that normally led to a root cellar. Sure enough, there was a thick plank of wood on the ground to the side of the doors, no doubt a bar normally kept in place to keep any critters from getting into the root cellar. Castillan pulled open the doors and called down into the dark cellar, "Mrs. Henderson?" There was no answer. Traipsing down the stairs, the group saw the typical contents of a farmhouse root cellar: two large barrels stood in the western corners of the room, while shelves in the back held a variety of canned goods, mostly jams, jellies, pickled vegetables, and fruit preserves. "Check the barrels," suggested Darrien. The barrel in the southwestern corner was suspicious in that it couldn't be moved: it seemed to be bolted to the floor. Lifting off the lid showed the barrel to be empty, but the bottom of the barrel could be pulled up as well, revealing a short tunnel leading down for about five feet. A wooden ladder was propped against one side of the vertical shaft. "I imagine she went this way," offered Darrien wryly. "Let's go," replied Binkadink. "Somebody give me a boost up." The barrel was taller than the little gnome, even on tippy-toes. There was no light in the tunnel beyond, which proved to be only about five feet high and circular in cross-section. It was aimed at more or less true south, and looked to remain on course for as far as the eye could see - even once Castillan activated a sunrod. "You're the shortest, and the slowest," pointed out the bounder to the gnome, handing him the sunrod. "You take lead." "Very well," replied Binkadink. The going was smooth, but monotonous. After what felt like a mile or so of heading in the same direction, the group heard scratching sounds from directly ahead, sounding very much like claws on stone. "Get ready," Binkadink warned. "I think we have a monster ahead." He steadied his grip on his glaive - which, longer than the tunnel was tall, had taken some maneuvering to even get into the tunnel and pointed the right way in the first place - and prepared himself for battle. Behind him, Finoula, Darrien, and Castillan all readied their bows. Gilbert and Ingebold were too far back to be able to see much of anything, and just concentrated on keeping up with the rest of the group. The owner of the scrabbling claws came into view at the edge of the illumination from the sunrod and went scurrying straight at the little gnome. Binkadink tried pulling the glaive over to point it at the beetle, but it was too fast and the weapon skidded off the side of the creature's carapace. Cursing, Binkadink dropped the unwieldy glaive and pulled out his father's sword as the beetle's pincerlike jaws opened wide to bite the gnome in half. Directly behind the gnome, Finoula shot an arrow at the beetle, the arrow flying over Binkadink's head. "Scoot!" called Darrien from behind Finoula, and she leaned over to the left side so the half-elf ranger could get off a shot as well. Then he in turn leaned over to the left, allowing Castillan to shoot likewise. "Hey, it's our first fight as a group and we're already working out combat moves!" enthused Finoula. "What going on?" demanded Gilbert. "I no see nothing from back here!" But there wasn't much to see. Between three archers and a gnomish swordsman, the giant beetle was handily dispatched. After ensuring it was indeed dead, Binkadink picked up his dropped glaive and headed forward again. Before long, he found a spot where another tunnel ran into the one they had been traversing. A spot on the floor was covered in dirt and small rocks, and Finoula was quick to point out what looked like a woman's shoe print in the unearthed soil. Based on the shoe print, it looked like Mrs. Henderson had continued on south. Binkadink looked down the side tunnel anyway, just in case, and saw it sloped downward at a gentle angle and dead-ended after about 25 feet. "Let's check it out, just in case," suggested Finoula. Shrugging, Binkadink backed up and maneuvered his glaive around the corner, then headed down the side passage, leading with his unwieldy weapon. The tip of it hit the back wall - and ripped through it, revealing it to be nothing more than a sheet of a canvas-like material. "Interesting," remarked Darrien. "Let's check it out." "But Mrs. Henderson's trail leads the other way," argued Ingebold. "Yeah, but I don't want anything sneaking up behind us as we keep going the way we were going," countered Darrien. That seemed eminently sensible to the group, so they continued on, through a zigzagging passage that eventually led out into a much larger chamber. The sounds of picks hitting stone could be heard echoing from all directions. But the sounds stopped all at once as the kobold miners saw the distinct glow of the sunrod in their lightless cavern. Moving in, their picks went from mining tools to weapons of potential slaughter - especially once they spotted a hated gnome among the intruders! Spreading out into the cavern, the group took aim at the kobold miners. There seemed to be only four of them, which was a small enough force that the group was able to handle them without much trouble. But just as they were finishing off the miners, Binkadink called out that reinforcements were approaching from another tunnel leading into the larger cavern. This pair of kobolds had wicked smiles plastered on their faces, and with good cause: they were armed with spears, and tied by a string dangling from the end of each spear was a little scorpion. Fortunately, Binkadink's glaive was longer than the kobolds' spears, so he was able to keep the closest one at bay long enough for Gilbert to sidle up behind the gnome, lean over, and cast a [i]color spray[/i] spell which knocked one of the kobolds and both scorpions into instant unconsciousness. Finoula called back to the others, asking if they wanted to keep the remaining kobold alive for questioning. Binkadink had just killed the second spear-wielding kobold with his glaive and was standing over the unconscious one, sword in hand. "What that you say?" asked Gilbert. "Do we want to leave one alive for questioning?" repeated Finoula. "Oops - too late," said Binkadink - and then plunged the tip of his father's sword into the throat of the unconscious kobold. As a gnome, he well knew that the only good kobold was a dead one. Finoula and Gilbert were in the easternmost part of the mine and started exploring in that direction. Seeing an opportunity, Gilbert cast a [i]resistance[/i] spell on Finoula, applying it by slapping her on her butt and receiving a well-earned slap in the face in return, just as Ingebold spun around and saw two more spear-and-scorpion kobolds sneaking up from behind down the tunnel they had just come from. She whipped out her mace and prepared to give the full fury of a cleric of Moradin to those who would plunder what the Dwarven All-Father had put into the earth to be mined by dwarves. However, Castillan had discovered a cage along the southern wall of the mine, inside of which was a wolverine, snarling at the scent of the blood that had been spilled nearby. Intrigued, Binkadink ambled over and introduced himself in the language of burrowing mammals. "Hello, there. I'm a friend! Would you like out of the cage?" "Kill!" replied the wolverine. "Kill? Who do you want to kill? You don't want to kill us, do you? We're your friends!" "Pole!" snarled the wolverine. "Hate pole! Kill pole!" Thinking that perhaps "pole" meant the scorpion-spears wielded by the kobolds, the gnome indicated for Castillan to unlock the cage. Whipping out his thieves' tools, the bounder made quick work of the cage's lock. Still, he jumped back as the wolverine practically exploded out of the cage and made a beeline straight for Ingebold. "Incoming!" cried Castillan. Ingebold stepped off to the side, and the wolverine raced past her and leapt up at the kobold she'd been fighting, getting its teeth into its throat and tearing it to shreds. The other kobold, fully eager for combat when it was him and one other sneaking up behind those unaware of their presence, was suddenly no longer quite so eager for battle now that it was him all by himself against a group of adventurers and the wolverine they had kept in a cage until needed as an unwilling weapon. He turned and ran as fast as he could back up the inclined tunnel, the wolverine in fast pursuit. Darrien shot an arrow at the fleeing kobold, but it missed and then the two were gone. Finoula, in the meantime, had managed to get herself into a fair bit of trouble. Exploring a passageway to the north, she encountered a kobold wearing a tattered robe of indeterminate color and holding a wand. She raced up to him, hoping to skewer him on her sword, but he raised his hands and called off the words to a spell. A sheet of flames fanned out from his fingertips, engulfing the ranger in fire. She screamed in surprise and pain, stepped back, and fell over. "Cleric!" called out Gilbert, running as fast as he could to Finoula's side and swatting out the flames with a rolled-up sack from his rope belt. "We need cleric here, fast!" Ingebold came running over and cast a healing spell onto the now-unconscious elf. Finoula's eyelids fluttered and she sat up, surprised to be alive. Binkadink, however, had picked up where Finoula had left off in fighting the kobold adept. Realizing his glaive was too unwieldy in the small antechamber the kobold had come from, he dropped it and raced into the room, sword in hand. There was a carved statue of a large kobold with rubies for eyes in the middle of the room, and behind it a door. There were all sorts of carvings on the stone walls of the chamber, but Binkadink had no chance to appreciate them, for climbing up from the kobold's back was a lithe weasel, which leaped off the kobold's shoulder and onto the gnome, biting and snarling. As Binkadink's attention was rightly focused on the weasel, the adept cast an [i]obscuring mist[/i] spell and the room filled with foglike clouds. "Get off me or I'll kill you!" warned the gnome, again speaking the language of burrowing mammals. The weasel seemed to consider its odds, then, reaching a decision, gave Binkadink's neck a final, quick chew and dropped to the floor, scurrying away to parts unknown. Binkadink, meanwhile, had heard the sound of a door opening and closing and knew exactly where the adept had gone. Kicking in the door behind the crude statue, he skewered the kobold on the blade of his sword. With a bloodthirsty smile, Binkadink considered his new career: had he known becoming an adventurer meant getting to kill kobolds, he'd have signed up long ago! Nasty creatures, kobolds! Joined by Castillan and Gilbert, Binkadink gave the room beyond a quick search, but it contained merely a cot and a small chest containing a hammer and chisel - the tools, no doubt, with which the kobold adept had carved the runes on the walls in the chamber beyond - and possibly even the crude statue of Kurtulmak, the primary kobold deity, as well. However, closer inspection revealed a slab of stone on the floor underneath the cot that, when lifted away, revealed numerous chunks of silver ore. None of the chunks was too big for the adventurers to carry, but all in all there looked to be about 500 pounds of the stuff. Getting all of this back to the castle was going to take quite some effort! Finally, the team had time to regroup. Binkadink drank down a healing potion from the small chest he wore like a pack on his back, making sure it was one of the "special" ones his uncle had concocted without taking any shortcuts. He offered a healing potion to Finoula, but she'd already been healed to full strength by Ingebold's spells. "I take [i]mage armor[/i] potion," suggested Gilbert, realizing gaining the effect from a potion instead of one of the few spells he could retain in his mind at one time only made sense while he was just starting his adventuring career; no doubt, as time went on, he'd be able to hold in his mind many more spells at once and casting a [i]mage armor[/i] spell on himself would no longer be a luxury. Binkadink searched through the labels on the remaining potions and handed over one marked "mage armor" in Gnomish script. Gilbert unstoppered it and drank it down. His skin immediately started itching, and within mere moments had turned a bright shade of blue. "What this?" Gilbert demanded. "I look ridiculous!" Binkadink merely shrugged helplessly; he wasn't able to stop his uncle from taking shortcuts, as the ways of magic - and potion-making - were well beyond his ability to comprehend. "Let's move on," suggested Darrien, offering to scout ahead. They found another tunnel sloping down, this one at a much steeper angle, but the ceiling had collapsed some time ago and it was blocked by heavy stones. Deeming it impassable, the group retraced their steps and found themselves at the top of a ledge overlooking a fast-moving, subterranean stream. About five feet across but fifteen feet down was a stone ledge, with a set of natural steps behind it leading up into a cave. "If there are any other kobolds about, they'll be on that side of the stream," advised Darrien. "Yeah, but shouldn't we be spending our time searching for Mrs. Henderson?" reminded Finoula. "We know she kept on going south at the intersection that led to the mine." After a brief discussion, they decided this area was safe enough for the moment, and retraced their way back to the original tunnel. Now, the dirt and gravel held not only the small footprints of the farmer's wife, but also those of a frightened kobold and an enraged wolverine. The original tunnel continued on a straight course for some time before finally taking a turn to the left and coming to a circular tunnel surrounding a wide, circular column. There were noises coming from ahead; approaching cautiously, the group saw the wolverine they had released from its cage in rugged pursuit of the sole remaining kobold wielding a scorpion-on-a-spear, the two of them running round and round the circular column. Binkadink stabbed out with his glaive as the kobold ran past, nearly decapitating it. The wolverine ensured the kobold didn't live much longer after that. Circling around the structure, the group found two things of interest: a pair of tunnels leading away from the stone column in two different directions, each seemingly as straight as the one they had followed from the Henderson farm; and a door on the far side of the column. Testing it, Castillan found it to be locked. On impulse, he knocked on the door and called out, "Mrs. Henderson?" "Who's there?" asked a terrified voice from inside the column. "We're friends," said the bounder in his most charming voice. "We were sent by King Galrich to see to your safety." "Is [b]Jonas[/b] there with you?" asked Mrs. Henderson. "Oh dear," said Finoula, guessing who "Jonas" must be. There was the sound of a metal bar being removed, and the door swung open. Inside what could be best described as a bunker, [b]Frieda Henderson[/b] stood in her peasant's dress and apron, her eyes red from crying and worry. She looked at the assembled group and said, "He's dead, isn't he?" Finoula stepped forward and took her by the arm, leading her to a bench. "I'm-- I'm afraid so," she replied sadly. Frieda buried her face in her hands and wept. Ingebold stepped forward and put her hand on the woman's shoulder, silently offering the grief-stricken woman her support. They let her cry herself out, then offered to take her back home. "Is it-- is it safe?" she asked. "Well, there's a kobold warren that dug into the tunnel leading to your farmhouse," replied Darrien. "We killed off a bunch of them, but there's likely to be more." Turning to the rest of the group, he asked, "What do you think, guys? Should we maybe take out the rest of the kobolds first, just to be safe?" "That might be for the best," agreed Castillan. "What about you, Mrs. Henderson? Do you want to come with, or stay here until we've dealt with the kobolds?" "I think I'll just stay here, if it's all the same to you," she said. "Will ye be all right?" asked Ingebold. "One of us could stay with ye, if ye like." "No, no, better that you stay together," replied Frieda. "I'll be here when you're finished." "Okay then," said Finoula, patting her hand. Looking around, she saw that the bunker was stocked with plenty of nonperishable food, and there were warm blankets as well. "This is quite the safe haven," she commented. "Jonas said the king had this bunker built shortly after the goblin and orcs started attacking the farmers," Frieda explained, sniffing. "There are tunnels leading to the Mastertons and the old Planker farmstead as well." "Okay, then, we'll be back shortly," promised Binkadink. "Seal yourself back in after we've closed the door." "I will," promised Mrs. Henderson. The group waited until they heard the sound of the bar being replaced in the door, then called out their farewells and made their way back to the cliffside overlooking the underground stream, encountering no other kobolds along the way. Castillan offered to jump across, but Gilbert tied one end of his silk rope around the bounder's waist first and passed him both a hammer and a piton. Castillan leaped gracefully across the span, landing lightly on his feet. Then he turned and started pounding the piton into the stone of the cavern floor with the hammer. By the time he was finished and had the end of the rope tied to the piton, every remaining kobold in the warren was aware of the adventurers' intrusion into their realm. "Behind you!" called Finoula, shooting an arrow at a kobold head poking around the corner at the top of the natural stairs leading down to the solid stone "beach" where Castillan stood. The creature ducked back from the attack, but that was enough for Castillan to decide he liked it better with the rest of the group, up at the top of the farther ledge. He started climbing the rope, but in his haste his hand slipped and he plunged into the cold, clear stream below. Up above, Gilbert's attention was focused on hammering a piton into the wall near the edge of the ledge and securing his end of the rope to it. But Darrien had a rope of his own, and he tossed one end of it down to the careless bounder. Castillan made a grab for it and missed, but he was in luck, for just around a bend the stream widened out and he was able to swim over to the side of a different stone "beach." Pulling himself out of the water, he saw another natural set of steps leading upward, and figured he could possibly flank the remaining kobolds from this direction. Binkadink and Finoula, meanwhile, had availed themselves of the anchored rope and made it down to the original lower ledge, the gnome doing so by sliding down the rope in one gauntleted hand while holding onto the wolverine under his other arm. Gilbert attempted to follow suit, but lost his grasp and plunged into the cold water. Fortunately, he managed to grab Darrien's rope and used it to pull himself up to the ledge from where Binkadink was now heading up the narrow steps, a few steps behind the wolverine and a few more in front of Finoula. At the top, they were met by a quartet of kobolds holding a wooden battering ram, with dangling belts at the "pounding" end; with a sudden realization, Binkadink recognized the "pole" the wolverine had mentioned - no doubt the poor creature was strapped onto the end of the battering ram and the wicked kobolds went racing toward their enemies with a fear-crazed wolverine attacking everything within reach with its teeth and four sets of claws. The very thought did nothing to endear kobolds to the gnome's heart any further. And the foursome weren't the only kobolds in sight; three others popped up from a depression in the center of the cavern, and over in the back an eighth kobold struggled with a large sack he wore on a strap that crossed over one shoulder. Binkadink didn't give it much thought; he stabbed out with his glaive, impaling one of the ram-luggers through the midsection and causing it to flop to the floor, dead, just as the wolverine ripped the throat out of the kobold across the battering ram from the gnome's initial victim. With the front line taken out, the two kobolds in the back had a hard time keeping the front end of the battering ram elevated against their enemies. Finoula, directly behind Binkadink, sent an arrow into one of the kobolds struggling to keep the ram up. Gilbert popped up behind Finoula, blasting the last of the kobold rammers with a [i]ray of frost[/i]. With a clatter, the battering ram fell onto the stone floor of the kobold cavern, one of the last two bearers crashing to the floor immediately thereafter. Binkadink took the opportunity to slide past Finoula and head over to the kobold struggling to pull something out of the sack at his waist. The gnome stabbed his glaive through the kobold's neck just as he pulled free a pair of weasels whose tails had been tied together with a section of braided leather rope. The weasels dropped to the floor and tried running in different directions; calling to them in their own language, Binkadink caused his glaive to fall down between them, slicing through the leather and releasing the living "weasel bola" weapon to escape as best they could. That left only two living kobolds in the room, and the three adventurers - and a blood-crazed wolverine - finished them off without much trouble. The last kobold, however, had ducked off into a side chamber, a natural cave in which grew a wide variety of mushrooms and other fungus. Grabbing up a pole, the little reptile started prodding a large ball of compost towards the far side of the chamber, where his ears told him yet another of these devilish adventurers was even now ascending the natural stone steps leading down to the stream. Castillan got quite a surprise when he was run over by a smelly sphere of decaying matter, causing him to fall backwards back down the steps. He immediately felt significantly weaker from the ordeal; this was no doubt the result of the violet fungus tendrils interwoven into the decomposing mass. But by the time the bounder had returned to his feet, the triumphant kobold had been skewered from behind by one of Castillan's teammates. A quick exploration around the kobold warren found no other members of the tribe, and nothing of value. "How'd these guys even get here?" asked Castillan, puzzled. Binkadink, knowing a bit about the ways of kobolds, explained the collapsed tunnel no doubt led deeper into the Underdark; most likely, the collapse had been on purpose, as a smaller tribe of kobolds split off on their own from a larger, parent tribe. This smaller tribe, in their mining explorations, had accidentally tapped into the underground passage that Mrs. Henderson had taken as she fled from the snake-men attacking her and her husband's farm. "So that it," remarked Gilbert. "Our first adventure a success!" "We should go get Mrs. Henderson, and see her to safety," reminded Ingebold. That went without any obstacles, and within the hour the group was back in the Henderson farmhouse. Frieda thanked them all for her rescue, and insisted upon rewarding the group with some canned preserves from her pantry. These were accepted with many thanks, and the group finished their time there at the farmhouse by digging two graves in the back yard, one for Jonas Henderson, and one for his faithful dog, [b]Rufus[/b]. Upon being apprised of the situation, the castle sent over some burly dwarven guards, who had been granted leave from their normal duties to see to the rest of the harvesting of the wheat the Hendersons had grown. While this was an entirely new experience for the guards, their dwarven work ethic saw the job completed in no time flat. And the Kordovian Adventurers Guild had successfully completed their first mission, even though they had yet to leave the confines of their small kingdom. - - - T-Shirt Worn: solid gray, with no image. No surprise there, as it was the same session as the one in which we ran the first adventure. But the solid gray could also be used to represent the solid stone of the Underdark, from where the kobold tribe had come. [/QUOTE]
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