The Rescue: Battling the elements

While we were taking a breather in the owlbear cave, Baric asked if anyone remembered where we parked the mule. Kind of an odd thing to misplace, right? Threw me for a loop--I'm not really sure where we left the damn animal. This question eventually lead to an argument about where the chest we found in Axeholm had been left. Things started to get pretty heated until Oz revealed he'd been lugging the damn thing about all this time. Somehow none of us geniuses noticed that.
 
For safe keeping, we buried the chest in one of the owlbear nests. Let's hope we don't forget it.
 
We spread back out into the forest, and investigated the cliff face from the shade of the trees, where we would hopefully not be seen. Tuath can't be seen in the woods---that elf just disappears everytime he's anywhere near something green. The rest of us just tried really hard to blend.
 
After poking our heads in a hole at the far end of the canyon, we determined that it was too small to fight in, and likely the lair of something with far too many legs. After that, we found a door near the middle of the cliff. It was near the icy overhang, and the door was iced up. Tuath fiddled with the lock, but was unable to open it. Rather than have the dwarves smash it to kindling, we decided on a more subtle approach.
 
There was a window nearby about 20 feet above us. Oz climbed up and peeked in. After a bit he came down and reported that there was a female dwarf up in a room with some caged birds. A plan was made to send Oz and Dash back up: Oz would enter the room and talk to the woman, and Dash would drop a rope for everyone to climb up. Simple, right? What could go wrong?
 
Things went wrong almost immediately. There was some delay in getting the rope down, so everyone just climbed up. I shrugged and followed. Dash was standing by the window with a rope when I climbed in, looking confused.
 
Inside the room, Oz had the female dwarf on the ground and was wrestling with her. She was putting up a bit of a struggle. I didn't know if we should be embarrased to be witnessing dwarvish affection, or if this was a real fight. One of the cages was open, and birds were flying about, some exiting through the window. I went over to see if I could help, and somehow ended up getting them tangled up in my rope.
 
Dash came over, said a few words to her in Dwarvish, and we tried to get some sense out of her. She told us her name was Ermangard, and that this was Emric's Hall. She also told us that she took care of the birds. Oh, and some warning about how our time here was short, and we should leave. She was either in a state of shock, or possibly mentally enfeebled in some way. Oz knocked her out and we tied her up.
 
In retrospect, entering through the window might be construed as breaking and entering. Can't help thinking Elspeth could've handled this with a wee bit more discretion.
 
Out the door, a hallway extended back into the mountain. Directly across from the door, a staircase led up. We went up, into a room that was only partially roofed. At the open end of the room, a telescope peered out at the sky.
 
Baric headed over to the telescope to investigate, and black tentacles sprouted from the floor and seized him. The air near the telescope became a whirling tornado. Oz rushed straight towards the cyclone, and tentacles sprouted and seized him as well. The cyclone started slamming people around. I hurled a flaming orb at it, but it missed. I tried again, and flubbed it, leaving just an odor of ozone. Having recently expanded my magical capacity, I knew I had one more shot in me, but for some reason the power was blocked. Very odd---that's never happened before. Unfortunately, the middle of a melee is not the time to be wondering about the mechanics of magic, so I was reduced to plinking at the elemental with my firebolt cantrip.
 
Dash and Oz and Baric took some damage, but managed to beat the cyclone into..well, non-existence. Staying well away from the telescope, we searched the room. The desk contained some papers with records of astronomical events, including some interesting information about meteors falling to earth. Knowing how to read has its benefits. Interesting---I wonder if that chest of metallic power we found in the owlbear nests is from a meteor? But what would it be doing out there in a cave with owlbears?
 
From the dust and other clues, this room looked to have been untouched for at least several months, and possibly longer.
 
We moved Ermengard to the corner of the observatory room by the desk. Hopefully we won't lose her like we did the mule.
 
Down the stairs and to the left we found the kitchen. Things looked normal. There was a pot bubbling away in the fireplace. Tuath went to investigate the pot, and a spout of flame surged into the room and attacked us. Since I still hadn't figured out what was blocking my magic, I had nothing to contribute other than throwing my waterskin at the flame creature, and then falling back to my crossbow. Tuath apparently took advantage of the melee to settle a score with Oz, but I'm not really sure what that was about. We beat the fire elemental into, well, ash.
 
Something odd about this place. It has a feeling of abandonment, but the elementals were surely put here to do work by someone with magical skill. Could that be this Emric? Or has the master of this place left? The dusty observatory would seem to indicate that he has at least found a new hobby.
 
 
Found some empty rooms. Oz found a stuffed owl. And then...
 
Another stinking troll! This one with tentacles on its face, which it used to squeeze the heads of Oz and Dash. And damn, it was a hard to put down, even though we knew what to do this time. Tuath disappeared during the fight for a bit. This would have been the time to use a flaming chromatic orb, but I still hadn't had time to resolve whatever issue was preventing my magic from flowing. Fortunately I could still plink away with firebolt. Unfortunately, I kept missing. Probably worrying about the other problem screwed up my aim. Tuath reappeared carrying a blanket or something, and hurled it on the troll. Eventually we got it lit and put the creature down. Tuath also attacked it with puns. Not sure how much damage that did, but they did get annoying after awhile.
 
I really wish I'd picked up more than two vials of oil before we left Phanlyn. Definately going to be carrying more in the future. Some Alchemist's fire would be useful as well.
 
So: a strangely empty hall, possibly belonging to one Emric. Or maybe taken over by Emric? That abandoned observatory seems odd.
 
And as yet, no sign of my friends Solomon, Elspeth and Dergal.