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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 996450" data-attributes="member: 99">TorrentsSpeaks felt the grief well up inside him.  He had been through so much with the boys from Glynden and now they had both been killed in the span of just a few days.  He bellowed back down the mine tunnel, "I curse this mine!  Leave it or you shall all drown!"With that, Raven hefted the limp and invisible body of Rhys and marched back to the safety of the tower.  Speaks followed in eagle form, spotting from overhead to assure they were not followed by the Kobolds.Once Rhys was laid down in what used to be the tower kitchen, Speaks and Raven grabbed a bottle of the Novantae scotch and held a wake for the young Sorcerer.  Speaks talked of the many close scrapes they had had against the Orcs during the Winter War.  He told Raven about the heroics of the two young boys that he would never get to meet.Finally, they bedded down for the night and slept the restless sleep of the vengeful.As morning rose the next day, Speaks and Raven wasted no time marching toward the mine entrance.  They approached cautiously until they were just outside the dark opening.  Then, Raven stood guard while Speaks called upon the powers of nature to weaken the earth and stone just inside the mouth of the mine.  He repeated his chanting until the entire hillside above the mine collapsed and all that remained of the entrance were the old timbers standing before a mass of mud and earth.Speaks then called his feathered friends around him and bade them find any other bolt holes the Kobolds might have nearby.  The birds took flight and scattered.  Speaks and Raven waited.After a while, Speaks grew impatient and decided to do some scouting for himself.  He concentrated and took the form of a dog and began sniffing around for Kobold scent.  He rapidly located the trail of one of the Kobolds and followed it up hill onto the rocky and wooded ridge into which the mines were dug.  Some 200 feet up the ridge, hidden behind a cluster of bushes, he found a hole beneath a large stone.  The hole was only two feet across, the perfect size for one of the Kobold ambushers.Speaks transformed back into human form and began to cast about for a sizable stone.  He and Raven found one that they could lift and brought it next to the hole.  There, Speaks used more of his magic to render the stone soft and malleable.  Speaks began to mold the rock, talking to it in a strange tongue.  Raven sat back and regarded this ritual with a mix of curiosity and awe.  He now understood where the Druid had gotten his name.When Speaks was done, he had molded the stone into a rounded plug just large enough to block up the hole.  In the center, he had left a narrow hole through the stone.  He and Raven lifted the stone into place and it neatly blocked up the tunnel.  Speaks reached into his belt pouch and brought out the Everflowing Bottle which he inserted into the hole in the rock.  He braced his hand on the bottom of the bottle and uttered the word “Geyser” in Draconic and water began to spray from the bottle down into the narrow tunnel.Speaks held the bottle in place and cast another of his spells to mold stone.  He then pushed the back end of the hole in the rock around the bottom of the bottle until it was completely sealed inside the stone.  The muted sound of the gushing water could be heard through the rock and earth around them as gallon after gallon of water poured down into the hole and into the mines.Speaks looked at Raven with grim satisfaction and said, “Now we wait.”And wait they did.  A couple of hours later, one of the birds returned and landed on Speaks’ shoulder.  It soon led him roughly 150 feet further up slope to another small tunnel.  This one was dug at the base of a large oak tree and the roots of the tree framed the entrance.  Realizing that it was possible that the Kobolds could exit the mines through this passage, Speaks sought a way to block it.  But he had already used most of his magic to plug the lower hole and the main mine entrance.Raven trudged back down to the smelting works to get some support timbers to block the hole with.  As he arrived at the building, he saw that water was pouring out from under the doors.  He hurried back to get Speaks and they cautiously entered the building.  Water was flowing out of the sump well at a rapid rate.  Speaks used a spell and molded one of the thickest support timbers into a thin slab of wood that barely covered the five foot wide well.   They wedged the board into place against the axle above the well.  Water still escaped around the edges but it would do until a more permanent solution could be found the following day.  Then they retrieved a pair of the large support timbers there and dragged them up the ridge to the second hole.  Raven and Speaks jammed the timbers as far into the hole as they could.  They then discussed what to do next. Speaks felt that they must guard the entrance where they had positioned the Everflowing Bottle.  If the Kobolds had another exit from the mines they would likely exit there and try to find a way to turn off the torrents of water pouring into the mine.  If they left the Bottle unattended for an extended period, the Kobolds would probably find a way to disarm it.  Besides, if the Kobolds approached that entrance, Speaks wanted them to be around to kill them.Before heading back down slope to where the Bottle was, Speaks attached some of his stone carving tools to the ends of the support timbers that jutted out of the second hole.  They figured that if the Kobolds tried to move the timbers from the inside, the tools would rattle together, serving as a makeshift alarm.  That done, they made their way back to the Bottle-rock and set up camp.NEXT: The Best Laid Plans of Dwarves and Men</blockquote>

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