Session 26: 327 Years and 41 Days
General Summary
As the party awoke from their slumber, the coals in the brazier almost burned out, they planned out their next steps in their exploration of the Lost Mine. Nundro offered them a cut of the profits from the mine should they clear out any further dangers and allow the Rockseekers to reclaim it, but acknowledged that he was in no state to assist in the fight. Xolotl and Zephi offered to escort the wounded delver back to the base camp. The rest of the group journeyed east of the old delver barracks, unbarricading the door. Skulk scouted ahead. In the distance, deep in the darkness of a large cavern, there was a glimmer of green light. There was a sudden streak of red light that seemed to illuminate a section of flagstone between Skulk and the rest of the party before an enormous conflagration erupted. Skulk and Neris both managed to throw themselves to the floor to avoid the worst of the damage, but Tordek bore the brunt of the flames, nearly burned to unconsciousness. We were confronted by the undead guardians of the mines. A Flaming Skull, a Specter, and many Zombies. The group began to fall back into the barracks, as they entreated the Flameskull to show mercy. The Flameskull had told us that it would let us retreat, but it pressed the attack as we withdrew. As the others fell back to the barracks, Skulk lay in wait for it around a corner. Neris cast Faerie Fire on the lurching horde of zombies to help locate them in the dark and moments later was felled by a series of magic missiles. As the Flameskull passed Skulk's hiding spot he launched an offensive that quickly overwhelmed it and shattered it into pieces. But Skulk himself was quickly swarmed by the other Undead defenders. Tordek & Neris rushed to rescue Skulk, and Tordek called on *Aid* from Ilmater to bring Neris to consciousness and bolster the remainder of the party. Together we were able to outlast the onslaught thanks to Neris, whose words of healing and repeated castings of Faerie Fire let us survive and prevail over the waves of Zombies. In the wake of the battle, it was with great concern Neris And Skulk realised that the Flameskull was reforming. Neris held onto a piece and Skulk hid one in his iron lockbox. The others Tordek smashed and spread the remainer of the bone fragments about the room. Exploring deeper into the mines the group headed east, leaving some tunnels to the south unexplored for now. We came across a cave whose gems and crystals appeared like stars in the night in the torchlight. The many ancient corpses scattered throughout the cavern indicated that this was also the site of the final stand of the defenders of the lost mine, led by a mage outside of a free standing building located in the cavern. The building was shining light through a pair of large double-doors left slightly ajar. A strange green light from a flame on a brazier inside an ancient workshop. Neris suggested knocking on the door and we did so. After a moment a voice within our minds called out to us inviting us in. Skulk hid outside while Neris and Tordek boldly entered the room where they would meet the Spectator. The Spectator, a spherical brown being studded with a number of eye stalks, was a guardian that was summoned in ancient times to protect the workshop, and has been defending the workshop for "327 years and 41 days". The Spectator cannot let anyone touch anything in the workshop, as they have a pact with the mine’s masters, the Masters of Phandelver, to protect it. While horrifying in visage, the creature seemed quite friendly. The Spectator provides us with some information about the mines, including a threat; the spirit of the fallen mage, whose body lies outside the workshop. He was a master mage named Mormesk who has risen as an undead spirit and raises many of the dead within the mine; he has been attacking Spectator with his minions and threatens anyone else who has comes to the mines. We thanked Spectator for his time and promised to do our best clearing out the Mines and finding a Master to free them from their pact to return to "the dreaming". We were told Mormesk was to the south of us, but Skulk asked the group if we could look at the Wave Echo cave to the north before we faced what might be our final battle. We found the waves, the source of the thumping sound we had heard and took a short rest there to tend our wounds from the earlier battle. Heading south from the Workshop we discovered another freestanding building inside the star-gem cave. With a shrieking scraping Tordek was able to open the heavy door and the voice of Mormesk came booming out. He threatened us and demanded we leave his mines. Seeing this discussion going nowhere we attacked. The battle was brief but furious, with some narrow misses. Mormesk was defeated and we claimed his treasures. Meanwhile, on the surface, Xolotl, Zephi and Nundro had arrived safely at the basecamp, where they found it mostly untouched, watched over by Donkey, quietly grazing on grass, surrounded by the mysterious trampled corpses of three Bugbears around it. Go donkey!
- Skulk's Journal
