Hammer 10, on Lake Harren
As early as possible this morning we gathered Begeth again, purchased rations, and set about finding transportation north across Lake Harren. We soon found a fisherman, Peb, willing to take us in his dhow to the mouth of the Wine River, near the northern end of Lake Harren and close to our objective. Leaving on a sailboat seemed preferable to taking the north road, where Bugdul and his men lay in wait for us. With the late tide, we were away from Harren and our problems, and out on the wintry stillness of the lake.
The day passed peacefully and uneventfully as Peb changed the lateen rigging on his vessel to catch the wind and speed us on our way. Peb was rather poor, gaptoothed and thin, but he went about his task with a meticulousness that I admired, and I found myself missing my days in Cymeria, tagging along with my father whenever he would allow, as he would inspect the new vessels in port. This dhow is tiny compared to some of the galleons that would weigh anchor in Cymeria, or even the ketch that bore us from Val Hor in my youth. But its merry triangular sail caught the wind on a beam reach well enough, and we made good progress in the open water.
Hammer 11, on Lake Harren
The wind picked up this afternoon, and it seems that the slight chop is nearly too much for Kazir. He has taken to meditating on the poop, trying to calm his stomach. Peb thinks we will make landfall by tomorrow if this wind holds.
Hammer 12, Near the Mouth of the Wine River
Midday found us at the mouth of the Wine River. We disembarked and said our farewells to Peb, who offered to pick us up if we lit a signal fire. We let him know it would be some time before we returned, but he agreed to wait a few days and fish before returning to Harren.
To the north of us, the land rose into a pine forest, its boughs dark and foreboding. We grimly hoisted our packs and headed into the woods. Once under their sheltering boughs and out of the wind, they seemed much less evil. The peace and quiet of the forest lifted my spirits, and we made decent time marching up the gentle slope. We made camp shortly thereafter amidst the pine needles.
Hammer 14, in the Depths of Khundrakar
The earthen creature is dead, and we have paused for a moment in this chamber of death to heal our wounds and decide whether to continue. I believe we will rest here for a short time before continuing – it seems that the orcs and ogres have learned their lesson and no longer venture into this chamber.
Yesterday around noon we spotted it, a lone stony peak rising out of the surrounding woods to a height of over a few thousand feet. I thought I could make out smoke rising from the far side of the hill, and Kazir sent Zazu to investigate. Zazu circled the hill and managed to find the source of the smoke, a small fissure in the side of the hill, most of the way up. The clever owl also managed to find a path that zigzagged its way up the hillside to a ledge about one thousand feet up – a path that we likely would not have discovered without the keen-eyed owl.
We decided to make for the fissure instead of the front door, reasoning that whomever was inside would be difficult to take through the main entryway. The climb was arduous as we scorned the trail for the path up the rugged hillside. In places the ground had washed away into a vertical wall of earth, forcing us to track sideways across the hill before climbing further. Eventually we were able to find the fissure, a gap about five feet square hidden amongst thickets and boulders. The hole descended down, down into darkness. A very faint odor of wood burning rose from inside, and our eyes watered as we peered into the blackness.
Fineon decided to try his luck and descend into the hole. He fastened his rope on a boulder, and lowered himself down, never letting the rope go much further below him. Eventually he signaled that all was clear. Begeth was next, and then Kazir inched his way down the rope. Finally I stood alone on the hillside, the evening gloom above me, and the ominous blackness beneath. I have never been the strongest lad, relying more on my wits and my tongue to get me out of trouble – and recently, my faith in the Glyphlord, blessed me His name. The thought of lowering myself by brute force into an unknown depth made my knees shake in terror. I was horribly frightened at the thought, and I did not want to give Begeth another reason to make fun at my expense, so I had not even asked him to carry my heavier belongings down with him. After the climb up, my armor and crossbow felt like lead weights strapped to my neck.
Moments slid by, and I could sense the growing impatience and danger of my friends below. If something should happen to them now, I would be unable to aid them from this height. This final thought gave me renewed strength. I knelt at the lip of the fissure, grasped the rope in both hands, wrapping it around my waist and ankle as Fineon had done, and slowly crawled backwards over the edge. For a heart-pounding moment I hung on the edge of the hole, my arms stubbornly refusing to move back and my chest heaving against the wall of the fissure. At last I pushed back with my legs and began to walk down the hole, lowering myself hand over hand while my feet braced against the wall. Move down on the rope with my hands. Step down the wall with my feet. Repeat.
My pleasure at getting closer to the bottom was tempered with the realization that my arms were beginning to shake under the strain. My palms, already sweaty, were now raw and burning from friction with the coarse hemp rope. My lungs burned from the acrid smoke I could now see came from a large pile of embers smoldering below. I would have cried but for the knowledge that my friends awaited me below, and other, darker creatures as well. Just when I thought I had made it, with perhaps twenty feet left to go, I looked down to check my progress, at the same time adjusting my hold on the rope. My grip failed, and for a horrifying eternity I flailed in space, attempting to grab the rope again as my legs pushed me back from the wall and the rope and my life. I fell, hard, into the embers, seared by their heat, the wind knocked out from me and pain aching in every sinew of my body. I heard scuffling and running around me as I rolled out of the fire, barely able to move, and called upon my Lord’s strength to heal me, using one of the scrolls I had prepared earlier. Though I nearly fainted from the pain and effort of summoning His strength, the power coursed through me and I felt my wounds mend.
Fortunately for me, my companions had not waited for me to get myself out of the fire. As I pulled myself shakily to my feat, I looked around with smoke-blurred vision to see Begeth charging into combat with some goblinoid creature that was entering our room from a dark passageway. The light from the fire, its embers now exposed from my fall, lit the room, apparently some sort of kitchen, in a hellish light. The battle unfolded as more of the goblins raced to the attack. One was even a spellcaster who summoned a ball of fire to attack Kazir. I’m afraid I added little to the combat other than a distraction. Before I even realized, the fight was over and the goblins lay dead. Their spellcaster had fled invisibly, and we warily pursued the sounds of his retreat into the next room, a large cavern with many exits. Kazir cleverly used his wand to make the invisible adept fall into a slumber, whereupon Fineon was able to find and slay him.
The combat over with no escapees, we felt safe, for the moment at least, to recover and explore our surroundings. The goblin adept was carrying a number of interesting items, including a ring with several keys. Exploring further, we followed a dwarven-made passage to a locked door, easily opened with the key. Through the door, a yawning chasm split the cavern, its depths too far for our light to reach. The dwarves had left a rickety bridge spanning the chasm, and following it, we soon found another exit to the complex, the front door indicated on Lord Macon’s map. I breathed a sigh of relief to again be in the open air and out of the closeness of the mine. Knowing that we had another way out besides the rope had something to do with my relief as well.
Finding the exit gave us a renewed sense of confidence and we turned our backs on the open air, moving further into the tunnels. We took one of the unexplored exits from the first cavern outside of the kitchen, the one that the adept had tried to flee down. The passage branched, and again took on the look of worked stone. Another door ended the tunnel in one direction, and we decided to go through. Begeth opened the door, only to face a number of huge ogres standing up from around a table and drawing weapons! The ensuing fight was fierce and close. I was knocked unconscious and close to death by one of the beasts’ massive greatclubs, and missed most of the fighting. I awoke to find Kazir kneeling over me, a tense smile on his face. Apparently he alone had come out of the fighting on his feet, but Tymora had smiled on us, and we all lived to fight again. Deneir received many prayers from me, as I did my best to heal up my other companions.
Drained of spells and having nearly died, we decided to exit the compound and find a secure place to rest out the night. We found a small depression on the far side of Khundrakar, and I fell asleep nearly instantly, exhausted from the long day of hiking, my harrowing fall, and my near-death experience. My sleep was fitful and filled with dark dreams that I am glad to not remember. Fin told me that I was moaning in my sleep; I like to think it was from the wounds and not from any ominous visions of the night.
Lathander rose in the morning though, banishing Shar and her nightmares, and raising my hopes for the new day as well. Healed and ready to go, I steeled myself for another day inside of the caves and tunnels of the dwarves. This time we decided to not explore the area where we had fought the ogres any more for the time being. We took instead another exit out of the main cavern. This one led us to a large set of stone doors, wreathed in dwarven runes that I could not decipher. When Fin approached, the doors swung open silently, revealing a large rectangular chamber beyond. Fin called upon his god to show him the magic of the portal, and detected that the doors had magically detected him and thereby opened. Now I was beginning to get scared.
We entered the room with some nervousness. As we approached the far end, we could make out a number of skeletons, both dwarven and more obviously goblinoid. The goblinoid ones had been smashed, as if on a colossal anvil. When I began to ruminate on how none of us were dwarves, we passed the entryway to the room, and the massive stone doors swung shut behind us. Another set of doors on the far side of the chamber, nearer to the skeletons, looked promising, so we decided to press on. Fin detected further magic around the doors on the far side, and we expected them to open on our approach. As Fineon reached the far set of doors, a low rumbling shook the chamber, quiet at first but rapidly building as the floor itself began to shake! I whirled around to see the stone floor in the center of the room erupting upwards! The stone and earth took the form of a huge humanoid, with a large blocky head and boulder-sized fists. It lumbered towards us with ponderous movements, each step a groan of stone on stone, small pebbles falling from its stride.
The crushed bones of the goblins in the room made sudden sense, as did the large amount of dust in the room. Our only chance to live, so I thought, would be to convince this guardian of the dwarves that we were here to rid its realm of these goblinoid invaders, nothing more. As I opened my mouth to speak, Kazir spoke the command words of one of his spells, the arc of eldritch power speeding from his gesturing hand to the elemental approaching us. My hope for parley died.
As did we all, nearly. The fight was difficult, the elemental’s long reach pummeling us again and again. I was forced to fight in close combat with my rapier, to no avail. My best strikes did nothing, my rapier glancing off of the creature’s stony hide. Finally one of Kazir’s spells blasted a large enough portion of dirt free to kill the beast.
Battered and bruised, we have decided to rest for the time being where we are. The skeletons indicate that the goblins have learned their lesson and are unlikely to venture here.
