Derro-pocolypse

General Summary

Marpenoth 18, Year of Rogue Dragons

While the noise at the derro feast was intense, the sound of heavily-armored adventurers coming up the passage finally registered with the insane dwarves. By the time Iluminus reached the dining hall, the derros' conversations had slowed or halted, and the party found themselves stared at by a dozen crazed derro.   The first couple of derro clan warriors ran up to Nicolas, took a few swings with their handaxes, and retreated back to the crowd, giving their companions high fives and encouragements in the derro dialect of dwarven. Soon spells were going off, savants were blasting the invaders, the clan leader was encouraging carnage, and the chaos warriors were weaving in and out of combat slashing anything that moved with their axes.   Halorin back out of the passage, telling Tybalt to follow him, but the brash young warrior chose to step in to fill the breech left when Pagu charged into the room. A few blasts later and Halorin and Tybalt lay on the ground. When a crazed derro charged the two bodies and slashed at the dying Tybalt, Halorin, who was playing dead, dimension doored the two to a side passage.   Halorin didn't stay by the dying warrior, but was needed supporting and reinforcing his companions while chaos warriors ran around the room like madmen (or mad-dwarves). Soon Reed finally got a chance to engage a savant, who fell in short order. Then the clan leader, engaged by both Reed and Pagu fell. The other savant had disappeared, but reappeared as it blasted the party. Nicolas charged the savant and soon only the chaos warriors were left standing. And then there were none. Unfortunately, Tybalt lay dead as well.   On their last leg, Iluminus grabbed Tybalt's body and again took refuge in the crystal cave the derro used as an outpost. Conjuring a tiny hut, the party mended some wounds recovered a bit. While resting, some of the heroes saw dark figures at the cave mouths. The derro may have found them.   After a brief rest, the party headed back to the main cave. The triggered a glyph which exploded around the lead characters, nearly engulfing the whole party. In the main cave, they encountered a creature stitched together from body parts of Virdin's missing residents. Alchemical fluids pumped through the body, which had a blue cast to the skin. As they engaged the golem, more derro savants popped out of an unexplored cave and began blasting the party with spells. When Reed went into the cave to engage, another glyph exploded around him.   After the golem fell twice, but was reinvigorated and healed by a savant's lightning bolts, the savants lay dead and the golem was incapacitated. Nicolas chose to start cutting the golem to pieces to avoid the chance that another savant could re-energize it.   In the cave, the party came on a large alchemical lab, with a cage full of captives hanging from the ceiling. They were told that the leader of this cave complex was a derro known as Gravvik. The captives said that Gravvik has two "pets" a captain of the Virdin Guard and a rageborn. Both are almost as blue as the derro. One of the captives, who seemed to have some familiarity with alchemy, called the fungus cytillesh. Freeing the captives, the group, along with the captives, destroyed the lab equipment and began the trek back to the Hammerfall Mines.   At the mines, the infected captives were manacled and directions were given about their condition. The rest of the captives were hoisted up, and Iluminus settled down for the night.