Session 19 - The Serpent's Shaft
General Summary
After being healed by Lilrie, Brovar decides to find a way to get the two patches made. He can picture them in his mind attached to his armour, "War-Troll Killer", "Golem Slayer". That should put the fear of the Gods into his foes. There should be enough time before Basar comes back so all he has to do is find someone who can sew them for him.
The following evening, he wanders over to the Pick and Shovel hoping to find someone who can help him. As he buys a pint at the bar, he asks the barman if there is anyone around who can sew. The barman looks around and points out a man sitting at a table full of miners, and an older woman sitting with a man about the same age as her." I don't think there is anyone else in town who can sew more than two strips of leather together", he says.
After paying for his beer Brovar walks across to the man the barman indicated and as he approaches, the conversation at the table falters. Trying to look more friendly than intimidating, Brovar tells the man that he is looking to get some patches made and asks if he can help. "Feck off", the man says, "I am a miner now, not a tailor. I gave all that up". His mates at the table grin at him, and Brovar can see that he won't get anywhere with the man so he backs away.
Disappointed, but undeterred, he moves towards the table with the older couple. Again, he explains that he wants some patches sewn. "What pattern do you want?", the woman asks. Brovar describes the patches as he pictures them and looks hopefully at the woman.
"I can do that", she tells him, "but what do I get?", she asks. Brovar tells her that he can pay her, but for some reason she doesn't seem interested. Instead, she looks him up and down before saying, "I haven't had me a young, fresh one for a while". The man sitting beside her cackles with laughter and Brovar looks at the woman more closely. She is bulky, with wrinkles around her eyes, and enough hair on her face to make a pubescent boy proud. How badly did he really want those patches?
Returning to the group he finds Tripp, the person he knows to be the least picky and untroubled by morals, and explains the situation. With a grin Tripp says, “I’ll do it”, standing up and heading out to the bar.
A couple of hours later Tripp returns looking more relaxed than we have seen him in weeks. Seeing Brovar he wanders over to him and says nonchalantly “you’ll have your patches by the end of the week, and you owe me one”. The rest of the group overhear and Baka asks what is going on. “Brovar can explain” Tripp says with an evil laugh and everyone looks expectantly at Brovar whose face suddenly resembles a sunset. As he tells the story Lilrie and Baka exchange a look of equal parts disgust and amusement as Digby hoots with laughter and Sai Kyo just shrugs his shoulders. Brovar has his patches, but will he ever live this down?
Meanwhile Baka’s dreams are starting to make more sense, in fact they're not really dreams, it's apparent that they are in fact an involuntary link to Riele when she takes flight. With practice Baka believes she'll be able to make a conscious link to her and see through her eyes. When she’s done that before it's been very disorientating and has disadvantaged her, making her unable to carry on with spell casting or combat and having to steady herself to prevent falling over. But again, with practice she thinks she may be able to overcome this and act normally whilst having a secondary hawk eye view available to her. She starts practicing every day.
The Serpent’s Shaft
We head back into town wondering what to put in the Forever Flask . Some want to put wine into it, others a healing potion. Eventually we agree that Lilrie should brew up the moss to make a healing potion and then put that in it. We are looking forward to a good meal, and a good night’s sleep. We know that we need to find the broken sword, the other of the Twins, and the Forge of Vaggumir Hopefully Basar will be able to help as well as explaining where he got the inspiration for the mosaics in the Pick and Shovel. Arriving back in town we spend the night in the Pick and Shovel. Digby and Sai Kyo help Brovar into the bar which is packed with miners, some who have been there for a long time, so many in fact that they are overflowing into the street. They are surprised to see us carrying Brovar and make room, even giving us a table to sit him at. Someone looks at Brovar and says he won’t walk again, not what he wants to hear. We notice two dwarven miners sitting at one table and wonder if they know Basar . Sai Kyo goes up to the bar to buy a round, with something extra strong for Brovar. Having bought the drinks, he heads back to the table and notices a group having a great time seemingly ridiculing someone else at the table. After delivering the drinks Sai Kyo edges closer to that group upon which he hears a voice which seems familiar. Sai Kyo can see that the man one eye and one arm – it is Entar, who is well gone as evidenced by the number of empty flagons in front of him. He is regaling his listeners with the tale of a giant hawk, but few of them seem to believe him. “It’s true, I saw it with my own eyes”, he says. “I saw this massive hawk pick up a giant and snip off it’s head”. Obviously the worse for wear, a few moments later he falls back to the floor semi-conscious. Sai Kyo picks him up and takes him to our room upstairs so that he can sleep it off. We crash for the night and wake up refreshed. On waking up Lilrie heals Brovar’s right knee and this time she does so with no problem. She will have to do the left knee tomorrow. She then starts brewing with the moss, Reglan, so that she can put it into the Forever Flask. Brovar drinks from the Forever Flask and we can see it is empty and so we decide to wait until the next day to see if it refills automatically. Baka waits for Entar to wake up and when he does, he is delighted to see her asking for new stories. She calms him down and eventually convinces him not to name us when he tells his stories. He is also waiting for a ship to Sunom or across the Pale Sea. Going down to the bar with us he tucks into a hearty breakfast. Just outside the bar we see the dwarves, picks and shovels over their shoulders, wandering off towards the blacksmiths. Sai Kyo and Digby follow them and engage them in conversation, asking about Basar and when he might be back. They introduce themselves as Odbrok and Kodad and say they know him and that he is in the mine with 20 or so others. There are 8 dwarves in total in the town, the other 6 still below, since Basar has a good nose for finding rich seams and he was following a hunch. They will be up in a couple of days as their food and water is running out. The dwarves have been in Yelna for 16 or 17 years since the mines in Dalbrad are either not in use or run by big corporations. They do not know where Basar got the inspiration for the mosaics from, and say that he is an unusual fellow. They are all not typical for dwarves, not so interested in commerce and Basar does not capitalize on his skills, but take the same share as everyone else. Digby asks about ships and they tell him that there is only one ship monthly, the next due in 10 days, which goes only part of the way to Sunom . This is the ship that Entar is planning to get. We ask them about the Forge of Vaggumir but they have not heard of it. Basar might as his father was a smith in the royal court. We rest for the remainder of the day and Lilrie heals Brovar back to maximum. Baka tells Entar the whole story of our travels and asks him to carefully look out for clues on the Oharith and Serpents of Amnos. He looks so eager to help and its perfectly possible that we might drop back in to Calatan to see him one day. The next day Lilrie heals Brovar’s left knee, but it still feels a little sore, so he exercises to strengthen it. We are relieved to see him back on his feet as we thought we might have to push him into battle in a chair. With nothing to do for the rest of the day, we just relax and wait for Basar to return. During the night we are awoken by loud noises outside the inn, as if people are sounding the alarm. There is a crowd outside and some miners seem to be getting ready to go to the mine. We hear that there has been a major collapse and Basar and the other miners are trapped, 800 feet below ground. The main entrance appears to be impassable from the top and people do not think they can survive. Added to this it has started raining and there is a fear that the mines will flood. One old human miner says “the only option is to go in by the First Cut”. We can see that this idea is not popular with some people looking fearful. Asking about it, we hear that it has not been used for 100 years and that it may be cursed. Some call it the Serpents Shaft. Baka shouts out to the crowd “can anyone lead us down the first cut and take us to the miners?”. Her cry is met with looks of stunned surprise, one person saying “there is no way I am going down the Serpent’s Shaft”. Luckily Odbrok and Kodad don’t hesitate and say they can lead us. We start preparing, making sure that we have all our equipment and once ready we head out to the First Cut followed by a crowd. Arriving there they tear off the planks which cover the opening and we start to enter, leaving Riele behind as she does not like being underground. The dwarves believe that they can guide us as long as this mine is not sealed further in. Several of the human miners help us to carry in the equipment down a twisting incline, the roof supported by old timbers, some sagging. Odbrok and Kodad lead the way checking to make sure the route is reasonably safe. After 300 yards it opens in to a room heavily braced by timbers, with a shaft going directly down. There is a treadmill for one or two men, from which is suspended an old lift cage with room for four. The four humans volunteer to let us down and wait for us to come back up. The rope looks in reasonable condition so we think we can trust it. Digby, Brovar, Sai Kyo and Odbrok go down first, slowly descending. For one moment the cage accelerates, as does our heart rates, but then it settles and we find ourselves at the bottom, 450 foot down. The shaft is in good condition and Odbrok says that some of the iron stays are dwarven, which he has not seen before in Yelna. At the bottom there is a passageway descending off to the left. Odbrok takes his shovel and knocks out a rhythm after which the cage rises. After 20 mins the cage returns with rope, oil, food, water and other supplies. 20 minutes after that the others arrive and we light a lantern as we head off, the dwarves leading the way. The walls of the passageway are not smooth, so we have to watch out for rocks sticking out of the wall. We continue descending and soon come across the remains of an old mine car track and after that we can see a mine car which has collapsed and is rusted. In the past these cars might have moved by gravity. We see piles of bones which appear to be of mules, perhaps used to pull the mine cars. After a while there is a large cavern, rectangular and 40 to 50 foot across in which the tracks meet at a T-junction. Water drips from the ceiling forming a pool on the floor. Odbrok and Kodad do not know which direction to head in, and Sai Kyo also is not sure. The other mine is roughly to the south of the entrance to the Serpent’s Shaft so that is probably in the direction of the collapsed passageway. Moving on the tracks twist left and then right, continuing south and disappearing thru a narrow opening. There is another mine car, unserviceable, made of iron, and after that we take a tight right-hand bend, so we are heading WSW. This opens into another large cavern, with piles of ore spoil, and we see another mine car on tracks which moves as we touch it. The tracks continue into the darkness and we can see another narrow tunnel, not wide enough for a mine car. This cavern seems to have been a rich vein of silver and semi-precious stones. We follow the tracks and come to an intersection and off to the right the tracks seem to ascend. The other two tracks seem to head off to the south-west and they seem to be in much better condition. We decide to head south-west and it turns right into a westerly direction merging into a cleanly cut cavern running north to south and to our left the room is much lower. Our tracks go left and cross a trellis bridge and we can see large piles of ore scattered across the floor. Turning to the south we cross the bridge and see the two tracks combining into one, running into a south-easterly passage. Turning to Odbrok and Kadod they say that we are probably 600 foot down, against the 800 foot depth of Basar and the other miners. We continuing going down until Odbrok says he senses water and we find ourselves walking on a bridge over an underground river. The ceiling is much higher as if the river has carved it out. Using a 10-foot pole Digby discerns that the river is about 3-foot deep and he feels something tugging against the pole. Lifting it out he sees a fish drop off it and there are chunks taken out of the pole. That is one river we had best stay out of. Continuing to descend the going gets steeper, twisting left and right, eventually levelling out onto a blockage made of iron bars between which timbers have been placed. We can see beyond that the tracks turn right and get really steep with two crashed mine cars, evidence of the danger. After some time, we come into another hollowed-out chamber with sidings containing several cars of rock spoil. The physical effort of getting these back up the way we came must have been immense. We get the impression of an even larger chamber and are startled to hear humanoid screams and sounds of combat. The humanoid sounds are abruptly cut-off. There is only one way that can happen. We prepare for combat and head towards the sounds, Baka turning to Odbrok and Kadod, telling them “we’ve got this.” As we get closer, we can see a pale glowing light from some kind of fungus and appreciate the size of the cavern, the tracks turning to the right, going down, to the left. There are gold and semi-precious stones in the walls from which the light reflects. We follow the sounds to the right and get the impression of something big moving around. Going further we see a group of troglodytes, five or six of them down, their wounds seemingly smoking from some kind of mucus on their flesh. There is a huge lizard, 15-foot long, a wingless dragon, lying dead on the floor. But that is the only good news. The remaining troglodytes are fighting a monster Cave Drake, obviously the parent. It is 40-foot long, 12 foot high, and has a horn on its head and as we watch it uses to spear one of the troglodytes, puncturing its body, spraying blood and gore in a 20-foot arc. We can also see some kind of mucus dripping from its mouth, falling to the rock below, where it steams as if it is burning. We recognize that this will be no ordinary combat so take all the precautions we can. Baka casts Shield, Digby casts Attack +20 and Shield, Sai Kyo prepares Adrenal Speed. Brovar and Sai Kyo take drugs for double damage and +10 OB. Tripp prepares his bow and Lilrie checks the Forever Flask which unfortunately is not yet full, with just drops of moisture on the walls. We attack together and as we approach the last of the troglodytes is dispatched. The Cave Drake turns as it sees us coming, but not soon enough to prevent our attack. It lets off an unearthly scream of defiance and more than one of us feels a chill down our spine. Brovar attacks first with sword and mace, his first attack doing 18A crush and 28B crush criticals and he feels like he is hitting something in plate armour. The criticals give another 17 hits but Brovar drops his long sword as the shock of the impact runs up his arm. His hasted second attack with the mace does a 28E crush critical for 20 more hits. Sai Kyo does 12 damage with his first attack, and 16 with his second. Next Digby hits for a 21E crush critical doing 15 more damage. Tripp fires his first arrow for 6 piercing damage and 5 more hits, his second missing. Lilrie does 7 damage with her morning star and Baka attacks for 3 damage. The Cave Drake bites Sai Kyo doing 11 damage, 4 more hits from the acid, so that he is bleeding at 1 hit per round, and loses initiative for next turn (57). Its claw aims at Baka, but misses, and then it tries to body check Brovar just missing him. Last it aims the huge horn at Digby doing 12 damage. Next round the Cave Drake attacks first, biting Brovar for 21 damage, stunning him for 2 rounds and doing 10 more damage from the acid. Its claw aims for Sai Kyo doing 13 damage (44, so minus 10 to the OB). The bash against Brovar misses as does the horn attack on Digby. We were lucky. Baka misses badly, and Digby fumbles dropping his weapon (2 rounds to draw a new one). Lilrie is up next doing 6 damage and Tripp fires into the melee missing with his first arrow and doing 3 damage with his second. Sai Kyo does 2 damage. This is all dangerously disappointing. Sai Kyo attacks first again hitting it for 12 damage and a critical for 3 more hits. Tripp fires immediately after, his first arrow doing 5 damage, the second hitting for 5 more. Digby draws his spear after which the Drake attacks, going for Baka with its bite doing 15 damage, and 10 more acid damage. (29, so minus 10 to the OB). The acid is burning into her armour and she has to spend one round to tear it off before it gets on to her flesh. The Drake’s bash does 4 damage to Brovar, and it misses Baka with its horn. Baka hits it for 1 damage and Lilrie for 4. Sai Kyo gets initiative again, doing 10 damage, followed by Brovar whose long sword does 5 damage while his mace does 4 damage, at last taking the bloody thing out. Thank goodness for that. Brovar starts thinking about a “Drake-killer” badge. Boy scout. We look around the big cavern – the tracks end within 20 foot of a rock wall where there is evidence of people starting to break into it. Odbrok tells everyone to be quiet and after a few moments he says that he can hear the others. They seem tired and there is urgency in their strokes but they cannot be far off. Using his shovel he starts hitting out a pattern onto the stone, stopping to confirm that they have heard us. Odbrok and Kadod set to the rock with their pick axes and Lilrie tries helping them by pouring water into the cracks and freezing it. From the other side we can hear the others doing the same, and after about 30 mins we make a gap big enough to pull people thru. In a couple of hours, we have rescued all the miners, and head back to Yelna . From Basar we learn that he is the son of a renowned dwarven smith Baldar who used to be the smith to the current king, Sazmok IV . Basar said that he has not seen the mosaics in Gulumi , but saw some in the Iron Palace in Gorn Tharum the dwarven capital. These showed a dwarven smith creating two weapons, a mace and a long sword. He is not sure where the Forge of Vaggumir may be, but his father might know. He believes there might be more mosaics but only through legends that refer to the mines under Mt. Hildar There are other legends about Giants but he and the others don't really know much about them other than there's supposed to be Storm Giants in Tharum's Teeth He is grateful for the rescue and says that he and his compatriots will aid us if we need it. We ask him about the Hexagonal Encoded Container , but he has never seen anything like it. Entar listens to all this and makes a grab for it but we warn them what happened to the guy we saw underground. The miners and townsfolk are very grateful for the rescue. They give Baka some new armour and the barman won’t take our money for drinks. We could get used to this! Conversation with Basar Kitty- Session start – 1132 gold, 187 silver
- Income – none
- Expenses – none
- Session end – 1132 gold, 187 silver
Report Date
14 May 2021
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