Deciding to fall back and recoup spells, the party retreats to the king’s chambers, deploys a rope and vanishes. When they descend, it is clear that there has been activity in their absence. The bodies of the fallen are missing, and it seems that there has been an evacuation of the upper levels. The party spends some time investigating the handful of closed doors that still exist and are rewarded by an attack from a crazed chimera. The menace is swiftly defeated, though some damage is taken by the indomitable Mr. T. A bit more searching reinforces the idea that there was a rather hasty retreat during the party’s absence.
Some magical scouting is undertaken and the lower level is also remarkably quiet. The questing magical eye of malchor finds magical traps and so the party proceeds downstairs with great caution. Everywhere they look is either empty, or trapped, or both. The only exceptions to this rule are a long line of prison cells. Here, most of the occupants are dead, or of no strategic value. The party resumes exploration and stumbles across the burial chambers of the fire giant royalty. It seems that thieves have emptied most of the tombs, as there is precious little left for the partry to plunder. Some scrabbling and exploring yields a small tunnel chipped into the lava that winds downwards. Recalling the rat-men seen earlier, the thoughtful Elulyn thinks perhaps this is how the wererats entered the tombs. The druid spins up a windwalk spell and off they go through the twisting tunnels.
They emerge some distance below, in a series of interlocking natural caves. They are clearly below the waterline and the cave walls weep water and stalactites grow towards the floor. They set off exploring at a cautious pace. They find a large cavern and two large red lizards (dragons, perhaps?) dozing within. As they proceed onward, the earth elemental leading the party becomes the target of a barrage of hurled boulders. As the summoned creature disintegrates under the missiles, a cry goes up from the passages ahead. The fire giant refugees from the upper levels know they have been discovered!
A wall of stone is hastily summoned into existence and used to seal the passage. It won’t hold them for long, but it might do. The group changes direction and presses on through the darkness. As Mr. T rounds a corner, he sees a large dragon spread out on a larger mound of coins and treasure. Gaaaah! Dragon! With that, the group springs into action, only to discover that the whole thing is an elaborate image. An illusion of subtle craft…placed here by who and for what? Good questions all, but they will have to wait, as it seems there is a rush of trolls attacking the group, moving swiftly out of the southern end of the cavernous complex. At the same time, it seems clear from the noise that a warband of fire giants and hell hounds is approaching from the northeast. Things are about to get interesting.
Goldpiece deploys the unicorn’s staff with aplomb, using prismatic sprays to eliminate a swath of the attackers, sending a few to alternate planes and turning one to stone. At the same time, Mr. T and Justicar add their weapons to the defense of the southern flank and soon the surviving trolls are fleeing in terror from the scene of the slaughter. Meanwhile, at the northern end of the area, the fire giants have received an Ice Storm and have fared poorly on the suddenly slippery surfaces. As the party starts to pivot to neutralize this threat, a grating noise of grinding rock is heard from somewhere in the darkness to the northwest. The source of the noise is revealed, as a dragon (DRAGON!) spits a stream of white-hot fire across the chamber, slaying Justicar outright, wounding Malchor severely and putting Mr. T at death’s door.
The party splits to try and counter this newest threat. Malchor runs towards the beast, trying to get out of the line of fire so he can climb up the rock walls. Kiko the Thrawb drags Ivan out of immediate danger and stabilizes him in a precarious near-death state. Goldpipece and Cosmic are busy trying to deal with hounds and giants…it is a miserable chaotic mess.
Malchor tries to disintegrate the creature, who merely hisses a draconic expletive at him and tries to squash him. The dragon retreats into his cliffside lair and the uncharacteristically brave Malchor chases him up the laval walls. The dragon’s retreat reveals a long, narrow passage (perfect for breathing fire along) and then a sharp bend, around which the great beast is traveling. In the end, Kiko summons a great swarm of insects into the cave, and although scores perish from the fiery blast, the rest devour the great wyrm, leaving behind scales and bones.
The group retreats to the dragon cave and uses vast magics to restore the party, returning all the items that were destroyed in the furnace breath of the dragon. Justicar is restored to life and the group huddles in silence as Elulyn sends out an arcane eye to scout the area. He finds that the surviving fire giant women and children are being escorted by a rearguard of warriors. The eye trails behind them. Elulyn sees them fleeing through a warren of caves and tunnels, casting nervous glances behind them – unnerved by the sudden silence after the roaring of the dragon – as they travel across a stone bridge that spans a laval river and then pass beyond into another cave.
The following day, the group prepares to follow the fleeing giants – but first some more investigation. The remaining caves are given the once over and it seems that the giants, trolls, and lizards weren’t alone down here. A drow observation post is uncovered, and nearby there is a set of terraces that descend into the darkness. Investigations are undertaken and a great dither springs up. Go back or go on? If onward, whom to follow, giants or drow? How does this tie in with Coburn? Does it tie in to Coburn? What interest do the drow have in all of this? Far more questions than answers it would seem. Some cursory explorations are undertaken and it seems that they can discern the direction that the drow may have traveled but the giants are the ones that they know are involved and so they follow the refugees.
Since they are days behind at this point, they unleash powerful magic to travel with great speed through the network of caves, sinkholes and tunnels to arrive at the headwaters of a great river. By now they are many hundreds perhaps thousands of feet below the surface and the passages are moist with water dripping from above. Fungi and lichens festoon the rocks and it is clear that a large group traveled along the river.
They move on and find a makeshift bazaar. They see grey dwarves, drow, troglodytes and a deep gnome, bartering goods and services. An insect swarm from the druid eliminates all enterprise. The group descends and picks through the remains. Little of value and just more questions than they had before. There are signs that large creatures – perhaps the giants – made camp here not too long ago. The party moves onward until they encounter a patrol of trolls and bugbears, which they eliminate with fireballs and swords. Alas, no one is particularly adept at tracking, so the best they can do is identify where it looks like the giants split into two groups. One veered ‘inland’, the other kept going along the river. They follow the river.
Eventually they arrive at a waterfall and a series of switchbacks descends a great distance to the river bank below. It seems there was some mischief, for a section of the switchback seems to have been melted away and there are bodies strewn about at the base of the cliffs. Investigation shows these are fire giant women and children. Huh? Who killed them and why?
They double back to the point of the split and follow the inland group and eventually find a concealed chamber along one of the tunnels they have traversed. They also find a beholder and a petrified fire giant. Beholder! The battle is brief and the beholder succumbs to a hastily cast disintegrate spell. Whew!
What is this place? An outpost? A guardhouse? A rest stop? In any case, at the rear of which sits an archway to nowhere. The wizards think it resembles teleportation arches seen in another underground complex near the banks of the moonsea…but there is no interest in stepping through, and there are no signs of living creatures, so they make plans to revive the giant and question him.
But not today.
Modular Cavern System
Tabletop & RPG Terrain Game Set for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Castles & Crusades.
