Adventure Log: Session 3 - The chase

General Summary

The party woke in the morning and saddled their horses, following the trail marked on the map. They soon came across a freshly abandoned small campsite in a copse of trees, inferring someone had left the scene shortly before they arrived. Nothing else was found nearby, and so the group continued onwards.   After rising into the hills and mountains all day, in the early evening the group came across a rocky outcrop that overlooked a cave entrance which appeared to be the place marked on the map. Choosing to make camp and take watch over the cave, the party bedded down and darkness settled.   Karl'rok Red Moon Clan eventually spotted a figure entering the cave and went down for a closer look, before waking the rest of the group. Hilda Jekyll Hyde then ran into the cave heedless of danger and tripped a rope trap across the entrance, dumping a load of rocks on her head. Everyone else dug her out in a few minutes, and the group made a more cautious way in, discovering the cave to be an apparently abandoned mine of some kind.   After a few dead ends, the group came across a heavy steel door, which leaked the smell of smoke from beyond. Locke Pickering tried his best to pick the lock but to no avail, and the party moved on. The passage widened and, triggering another trap, everyone fell into a collapsing section of floor. This didn't take Locke long to climb out of, and everyone else followed his lead.   Finally the passages lead to an expansive open cave, with a large set of wooden doors built into a far wall. Murmuring could be heard from beyond. Karl'rok wasted no time opening the doors and marching in to reveal another huge cavern which echoed with his entrance. Torches lit the space dimly, and showed a narrow stone bridge of sorts, bisecting gaping drops to either side as the mining pits fell away. On the opposite side of the cavern, a hooded man gestured to several others and then pointed at the party, before disappearing back into a smaller rear cave.   The three others rushed forward to engage in combat - a small gnome, a huge man with vicious spiked shield and dark sword, and the man who escaped the warehouse fight the previous day!   The fight was vicious and extended. Hilda yelled insults across the room at the gnome, who had rushed to protect what the group assumed was a baby on a small stone ledge in the far corner, while Locke and Karl'rok moved to engaged in melee. Sounds of running feet came from outside the doors, so Kurtwood Grey quickly barred the door with a nearby torch, while Grok Ak'tar unleashed a miniature storm across the room.   Locke nearly died as the huge man brought his sword and shield to bear, while Karl'rok dispatched the escapee from the previous fight with efficient swings of his axe. Soon enough the gnome was left, slinging magical missiles across the room as she was backed into the corner. Hilda tried to barge the gnome off the edge into the pit below but didn't have the strength, then Karl'rok simply walked up behind with a swift kick and smashed the gnome tumbling over the edge! Grok grabbed the baby and began running towards the doors.   In the cave at the rear, the pulsing light and throbbing sound that had been building up over the duration of the fight suddenly cut out with a deep booming thud and massive vibration that shook dust and dirt from the ceiling above.   To be continued...