Eli gets wet
Okay, here’s the situation, The party’s mission was to ‘sneak’ in to the mine system through the chimney, find a place to plant a bomb to try to collapse enough of the mine system to prevent the big dragon, called Sear, from reaching the outside world. They fell down the chimney, had big noisy fight with kobolds (some of whom managed to escape), encountered slaves who wouldn’t revolt, and had to blow up a room behind themselves as they ran deeper into the mines to try to avoid a huge battle they couldn’t hope to win. Now, apparently cut off from the outside world by the pile of rubble they created with their first of three bombs (or, as Pah has always refered to the black poweder, "Science"), they dusted themselves off, getting ready to see what was ahead in the mines.
Still coughing on the dust from the explosion, they began to move down the passage, which sloped down to a lower level. They did their best to move quietly and managed to get close enough to see what was going on in the chamber ahead without being seen.
The passage they had come down had curved back underneath the upper levels they had already been on, and the chamber they were looking at was actually directly beneath the main chamber, where the kobolds had run for help. They had not had time to get a good look at that room, but now they could see that there was a large trap door that connected the main chamber on the upper level and the chamber in front of them. So, despite the bomb which had closed the passage behind them, there was still a clear passage from the depths to the surface.
The room before them was occupied by a handful of lizardfolk, one of whom was having an urgent conversation with someone on the upper level. The other lizardfolk were watching the shadowy passage where the characters were hiding. Eventually one, obviously a leader of sorts, spotted Urk. He stepped into the mouth of the passage, where he could not be seen from the trap door, and motioned for Urk to come over to him.
Urk shrugged his shoulders and came out of his hiding space. Uri followed as well, not wanting to leave Urk out in the open alone. Meanwhile, Pah and Eli -- the two most able to hide, stayed in the shadows.
The Lizardman introduced himself as Brantagh. He signaled for them to follow him, quickly. Urk and Uri complied, signaling for Pah and Eli to stay behind.
"It’s a bad idea to split up the group," said Eli, but no one paid any attention.
Urk and Uri were lead down a mine passage to a place where rough natural passages intersected with the milled dwarven mine walls. They turned down the natural passage and soon found themselves in a guard chamber of sorts -- a half dozen lizardfolk lounged around this room, watching Brantagh lead the dwarf and halfling past, and through a crude bead curtain at the far end of the room.
The room beyond, a huge open chamber, was the home of the lizardfolk tribe that had taken up residence on the second level of the mine. There were a handful of cookfires and sleeping areas, and some sign of the folk working to make this cavern feel a bit more like home. The vast majority of the folk in the room were non-combatants, but there was a core of warriors and leaders waiting as the two player characters approached.
The Chieftess waited for Bangrah to struggle through introductions, then began to explain the situation the Lizardfolk had found themselves in.
*******
Meanwhile, things were getting complicated for Pah and Eli. Especially Eli. Despite some minor efforts by the lizardmen on the second level to slow things down, a crude basket lift lowered a dwarven engineer and a handful of human mercenaries down to the lower level. This group started to look around, and explore the mouth of the passage where Eli and Pah were hiding. The dwarven engineer spotted Eli and shouted an alarm. Eli, spooked, bolted back up the passage, looking for some better cover. Pah, hidden by excellent hiding skills and a cloak of elvenkind, stayed where she was and hoped for the best.
The engineer waited a few more minutes for some more reinforcements, then led a large group into the passage, methodically hunting Eli down. Eli had found himself a boulder to hide behind, and was waiting for them to appear. When the vanguard of the soldiers became visible by the light of their own torches, Eli shot the first one. The rest took cover.
Then the Dwarf shouted up to Eli, recommending that Eli surrender himself -- he couldn’t hold out against all of them, and he would only make it worse for himself. They bantered back and forth a bit, and finally Eli, taking a moment to hide a single dagger someplace he hoped they wouldn’t search (I didn’t ask -- do you want to know, really?) he surrendered to the Dwarf and his men. They disarmed him, but didn’t strip search him, so he was able to keep his dagger. Not that anyone else wanted it.
Pah took the opportunity of the distraction further up the passage to slip off in the direction Urk and Uri had gone, hoping to find them, and tell them what had happened to Eli.
******
The Chieftess, Rarah, explained to Urk and Uri that the Lizardfolk were not happy with the situation they were in. They had lived for years in a nice, comfortable swamp, with tense but mostly peaceful relations with the neighboring folk. Then a dragonpriest had come to them, told them that the dragons were gaining power in the world, that they would reward the faithful and there was a place in the grand plan for the tribe if they were willing to help. The folk were convinced, at first, and joined the human dragonpriest, following him to the mines, where they prepared to help create a passage wide enough for the great wyrm to pass.
At first the community was great -- an alliance with Kobolds and troglodytes and humans, working together to bring draconian power back to the world. But the tactics employed by the Dragonpriests, not to mention the shiftlessness of the kobolds and the depravity of the Trogs, left the Lizardfolk feeling far from safe. But, sandwiched as they were between the kobolds and humans above, and the trogs and dragonkin below, they had little hope of escape.
The second level, garrisoned by the Lizardfolk, contained, among other things, the holding pens for the children of the slaves. The children were held there to insure the good behavior of the slaves, who drew lots once a day to see who would be allowed to deliver some meager food to the children. The lizardfolk are not great fans of humans in general, but they were aware that, had the children ended up in the care of the Trogs or Kobolds they would suffer much more horribly, and eventually been eaten. The Rarah was unwilling to leave the children behind to that fate, a decision which trapped her and her people in the caverns as much as it did the children. She has been hoping for an escape, and Uri and Urk (and eventually, Pah) might make it possible for them to take the children out of the caves and escape.
The Lizardfolk had been doing some extracurricular digging, and had a small, secret passage to the surface. Rarah promised the party that if they could seal off the lower level, cutting off the dragon’s access, they would show the party the way out, and lead the children out as well.
When Pah arrived, and was brought up to speed, she told the party that Eli had surrendered. Bangrah was sent to find out what would happen to him. The other three took some time to regroup, resting and preparing to head back into the mines, pouring over crude maps of the mine system that the Lizardfolk were able to provide. A little over an hour later, Brantagh returned with Eli’s story.
******
Eli was taken to the third level of the mine system, past the caverns where the troglodyte tribe made its home, through and entry chamber with a few human and a young dragon guard, into a huge vaulted natural chamber, through which an underground stream flowed from a spot on the wall near where Eli and his guards entered, towards the far end of the chamber where there was a huge chasm, more than 50’ across, with no bottom in sight.
Situated near the chasm was a banquet table, laden with an emabarrassment of foods -- great roasted turkeys, hams, sides of beef, with wheels of cheese and a wide variety of fruit. Sitting at the table was Eldgrim, the half-dragon leader of the Dragonpriests, and son of the great wyrm, Sear.
Eldgrim began questioning Eli, and almost immediately it was clear that things were not going to go well. To begin with, he couldn’t be charmed -- he’s an elf, so there was no charming him and trying to make use of him. To make matters worse, the dwarf had discovered the two arrows of dragon slaying in Eli’s quiver -- he didn’t recognize them for what they were, but the half-dragon sure did. Then, as if there were not enough evidence against him, the party's old adversary Anathe turned up, and identified Eli as a member of the party that had killed a couple of smaller dragons already -- and indeed had already killed Anathe once a few weeks before. (the last time the party had seen him they'd left him in a shallow grave along the side of the road).
Of course, when they asked, Eli didn’t lie about it, either.
So Eldgrim walked over to the edge of the chasm, where there was a large brass horn on a stand. He blew a single note towards the chasm, then idly picked at some of the food on the table. While they waited for something to happen, Anathe approached and gave Eli a punch in the ribs for old time’s sake.
These plesantries were interrupted by the arrival of Sear, the great wyrm, flying up from the underdark with a great rush of dust and wind. The Wyrm took her son’s report, examined the arrows herself, and chastised him for not having destroyed them already. The arrows of dragon slaying were tossed onto the fire, where Eli watched them slowly start to burn, along with half of the party's hopes of success in their mission.
Then Sear turned her attention to Eli. As she could see little or no use in keeping him alive, she killed him -- swiftly, efficiently -- impaled him with a long claw, and gave his body to the trogs for their dinner.
Bangrah watched, concealed his dismay, and returned to carry the news of Eli’s death to the rest of the party.
There, the party was upset. They knew they needed to recover Eli’s body in order to raise him -- can you cast raise dead on a collection of Trog droppings? Once Brantagh understood that they hoped to recover his body to have him raised, he was able to offer a glimmer of hope. Troglodyte eating habits are a lot like crocodile eating habits.
This didn’t mean much to the Halflings at first, so the Lizardman explained. Trogs, like crocs, like their meat soggy and decayed. They will kill something, drag it underwater and wedge it into a crevice, under a log, something that will hold lit in place for a few days while the corpse decays and soaks. It was more than likely that Eli wouldn’t be eaten right away, which meant his corpse could still be recovered and raised.
Still, his corpse would be, as his player put it, "Manky." He also spent a lot of time pointing out that he'd said splitting up the party was a bad idea. The short folk in the party tend to act as if this sort of criticism doesn't exist. Ho hum.
Next post: rescuing a dead body and bringing down the house.
