The Gang Goes to Ground Report

General Summary

After the.... Incident.... with the Abbathor cultists on the top of the mountain, Mantis Bugbattler held a funeral for Guatir, who was lost during the conflict. While seeking a good place to burry the feathers of Guatir, Mantis and Dara discovered a trap door. Dara Riswynn Proudstone decided to bang upon the trapdoor to see if anyone was down there. Hearing no response, Mantis opens the door revealing a magical-fire trap. Dara was unable to dodge the fire stream in time, and took a decent burn. At this point it was decided, perhaps wisely, to take a short rest to recover. Durring this time, Eles Raagha conjured another body for Guatir, and The Raven Queen added the spirit of Guatir, one of her personal servants, to the Dire Raven body. He nibbles upon Eles' ear, reconecting with her spirit in this new body, and takes a treat from Mantis.   Having recovered slightly, The Gang decide to head down the trapdoor. Merrli uses his ghost to look down the tunnel, and finds that the ladder down the hole is in surprisingly good working order. The Gang began to head down with Merrli leading, Mantis, Eles, and Dara taking up the rear. About halfway down the ladder, Eles sliped. She was plumeting towards the bottom of the pit, when Mantis managed to grab her right wrist and saving her from landing 20 feet beleow on the hard stone.   After everyone safely made it down the ladder, The Gang head down the tunnle (with Eles getting more an more claustrophobic). It twists and winds its way downward into the mountain for several hundred meters. There they came across a round-ish room of about 30-foot diameter. The center of the room is a campfire, and there are many dwarf-like sillhouets walking back and forth in front of the fire. Merrli dumped a shatter into the center of the room, killing 4 of these creatures immediately. The other 5 Fraughashar turned and engaged the group. Very quickly Eles and Dara realized these are no dwarves, but rather fey who have been brought to the mortal world against their will as senteries for the Abbathor cultists. After cutting them all down, Eles picked up a bit fo the burning ice they leave behind, and The Gang moved on.   While continueing down the tunnel, The Gang came across another, much larger room. This room is about 70 feet long, and 50 feet wide in an ovoid shape. It is scattered about with makshift stone lean-tos as tent-like structures. There are torches list surrounding the room to light it, and the ceiling arches to about 30 feet upward. There were two Dwarves, two Hobgoblins, one Gnome, and one Yuan-ti in the room. The Gnome was talking to the lead Dwarf, with the other Dwarf seemingly there as a bodyguard. The two hobgoblins were talking to eachother, about 10 feet from the Gnome. The Yuan-ti sat curled up in a ball on the far side of the room near a torch.   Merrli, unsurprisingly to anyone, attacks the Gnome almost instantly, begining the battle. She took a decent hit straight to the chest, and after being smashed by Mantis, wildshaped into a bat to fly away from the scene of the crime. The two hobgoblins attacked Merrli and Dara while the Dwarf bodyguard and the lead Dwarf attacked Mantis. The Yuan-ti attempted to control Mantis' mind, but Merrli counterspelled it. The lead Dwarf jumped up, cast a dimension door, and grabbed the gnome, who was bettered enough to change back into a gnome. They disappeared, and the dimension door slammed shut.   After this, Dara and Merrli scared/killed the hobgoblins, while the Yuan-ti and dwarf bodyguard fought hard against Eles and Mantis. The Yuan-ti managed to overpower Mantis once again, forcing him to attack Eles; however, Eles was able to stand up to the attacks barely, and fought back against both the dwarf and the Yuan-ti. Mantis broke free from the spell, and warned Eles what was happening. The two of them fought back and won against the dwarf body guard, and killed the Yuan-ti before Dara and Merrli were able to come relieve them. In the end, despite it being a long and bloody battle, The Gang was triumphant and lived on to fight another day.   After the battle, Eles cast speak with dead on the dwarf bodyguard asking it five questions:

1. Is the Priest your boss? YES.
2. Why are you contracting the Hobgoblins? IDK.
3. Who is Abbathor working with? ABBATHOR WORKS WITH NO ONE, BUT INSISTS She-Guai IS A GOOD PERSON.
4. Are you attacking the Halflings for a tactical reason? THEY DO NOT DESERVE WHAT THEY HAVE.
5. Where would the Priest and Gnome go down the hall? THE START OF THE MINE.

  After the essence left the body of the dwarf once again, Merrli cast animate dead, keeping the dead body as a thrall (against the wishes of Eles) and took it with them back up the ladder to the original cultist campground on the top of the mountain. There The Gang took a long rest.   Waking up some-time mid morning, The Gang decided to head back into town. Dara Riswynn Proudstone made it known, in no unceartain terms, that Merrli is not allowed to bring the newly acquired thrall into any form od civilization, especially since he is a dwarf and they were heading into a dwarven settlement. After conceding that point, they decended the mountain (with Dara refusing to look down while flying). They reached the entrance to Affgroth from Half-Town and were stunned by the chaos happening around them. There was a constant stream of civilians exiting the city at speed, with dead civilians strewn about the street every so often. After searching for quite some time, Eles Raagha was able to see a dwarf off in the distance, Captain Ohare.   Captain Ohare tells them that there have been a multitude of attacks that all went off within the city at the same time, leaving the city guard in disarray and cutting the city in twain. The southern side of the city was completely cut off from the northern side, and he was looking to Dara, as a Proudstone Clan member, for guidance. Dara settled him down, and asked if they have had any contact with her father, Dorath Proudstone NPC. Captain Ohare assured them that there was no contact with the other side of the city.   Eles cast sending to Dorath asking where he is and what was going on. She recieved "We are stuck in the box. Youthstone has Tiny, LirBith, Yanef, and I. Umstrek is undercover to get Captain Ohare. Is Dara safe?" Eles, not knowing if Captain Ohare is safe or one of the cultists, assured him that they were going to try to find Dorath, and took The Gang some way off. She then relayed the message to the rest of them, and Dara started to lead them through the back-routes of the city.

Rewards Granted

Bring your characters at lvl 10 for next time.