Session 5: The One with the Mine - aka Way Down in a Hole
General Summary
Notes by Tarric Shal'Munn
Kayladay, Secondden, Frost Moon, 751 AC, Copperstrike Mine
We enter the mine . Klunk slams the door behind us. It is pitch dark. The path before us is about 20 ft wide but narrows, it is littered with mining equipment and other associated detritus. We follow the passageway, winding for 60 ft until it narrows to about 5ft wide (x 7ft high). At 200ft, there is a passage to the right while the main one (with tracks for carts) continues. The side path curves a bit then empties into a 15’x20’ room with no outlet…reddish glints in the walls and floors (copper perhaps?). We continue down the main path another 100’ and there’s a passage to the left (similar to the other but with a larger room). We continue further, the tracks end and it becomes much more windy…after we’ve been down for about an hour, we reach a T. We decide to go left and Fizz thinks we’re descending a bit and sees a white mark (arrow) on the wall at about hip height (for a human)...it appears to be chalk and could show the path that Borin went. We follow it further (~20 min) but come to a collapsed section…we investigate but don’t see any way through. We return to the T and then follow the “right” path, which Ishta seems to think is going uphill. No tracks or bracing on the walls. We proceed another 10 min and the air seems fresher in this direction…almost outside-y sort of smell. Tarric turns a corner, slips on some ice and slides as the passageway opens onto a cliff (600-700’ down to a river). Tarric manages to grab a hold and Fizz helps him up. It’s very cold and snowing heavily. Ish thinks the passageway may have been carved by the water infiltration. It’s possible that Borin Coppervein may have fallen to his death here. We return to the cave-in and Tarric investigates and hears voices in some nasty language…he notifies the others and the voices stop. Fizz starts excavating and clears it relatively quickly with some help from Tarric. As we get through a Goblin shoots an arrow at us that skitters off the wall. We fight! Tarric charges and skewers him…but as he kills him he sees a rope on fire rapidly speed past him and a big badda boom explosion happens and hurts the shit out of Fizz and Ish. It was a Nerrid Boom-Stick!
Thankfully the passage doesn’t collapse and Fizz and Ish are both healthier, just a bit singed. Tarric hears the sound of fading footsteps in the distance. We proceed slowly, actively looking for more boomsticks. We walk for 10 more minutes until it ends in a chasm (20’ across, above and below the pathway) that goes further than the Elynthi can see in the dark. The passage does continue on the other side of the chasm. We see a rope tied to a piton that is taught, Ish cuts it and we hear muffled screams. Tarric jumps the chasm with a rope and then investigates down the passageway a bit where he sees lots of indeterminate claw marks in both directions in the passage. Returning, we palaver about what to do to find Borin…he definitely didn’t jump it and no sign he made some other way across. Tarric climbs down 50’, still deep chasm, then we tie another 50’ and still deep chasm but Tarric does see a smear of blood on the rocks (looks like our goblin bounced on the way down). He throws a torch and still nothing. We all decide to cross the chasm, which we do successfully. We proceed. We come to a small-ish room, maybe 30’x35’ filled with strands of “rope” and we see a Khadra-sized bundle hanging in the middle of the room. Spiders! EEK!
These spiders are rough and drop Fizz, while Tarric gets hung upside down. Crey blasts one with thunderwave but somehow manages not to kill it. Ish however, finishes the job. We do some more spider killing…Fizz twitches and drools but lives poisoned, then Tarric joins him in this after getting bitten again but is dying. Ish and Crey do battle with the remaining spider with Ish “sting”-ing it in the abdomen to finish it off. Tarric stabilizes.
Ish makes a pile of spider corpses under what we presume is Borin up in the webbing and cuts him down. He lives but is unconscious. Ish finds some loot including a bracelet with a symbol of Arimathica, one of the human gods. We rest and Borin awakes…he’s pretty salty. Fizz and Tarric are still disabled but the rest of them carry them and manage to cross the chasm. We return to the mine doors and Klunk eventually lets us out. We’re almost all exhausted and beat up.
Player Characters Present
Crey Ishingnat
Fizzywit Thimbledown
Ishta Shal'Vistani
Tarric Shal'Munn
Crey Ishingnat
Fizzywit Thimbledown
Ishta Shal'Vistani
Tarric Shal'Munn
Report Date
20 Jan 2025
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters