Faolan looks at the map a long moment. He suggests a change to his plan, "Instead of the siege engines first, I say the wyverns first, then curve south to the siege engines before stopping in Longshadow itself to resupply and report."
"Then we see what lies before us." He's excited at the prospect of taking down wyverns, and is eager to get started.
Bazsil will see to the freed humans, pointing them to a nearer encampment where they might be safe and recover (probably to the yahoos who we cured of that disease).
"Go there and recover. We need you strong so you can fight again," Bazsil encourages. And if they are settled away, he's ready to go, following Faolan's plan.
"Well..." Faolan begins uncertainly, "We were going to check the mines at Radya's Hollow. How long will it take us to travel these distances? Just how fast is our conveyance?" he asks.
"If we spend just two days at each location, and it takes just a day travel between, we could do three things, with a little time to spare before the army comes."
He looks at the map, and at his companions, drawing lines with his fingers, "So Radya's Hollow, then the Wyverns, then the Siege Engines." he stands upright so they can all see the map clearly, "Man we're going to prove our worth this week, huh?" he grins with the thought of it all.
He nods to the gnome, "Best if you make for Longshadow and warn them of what's coming. We'll do our best to be there before the army arrives, but they should be forewarned. We're, ah, counting on you."
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Studying the map with Faolan, Krowe nods at the mercenary's logic. "Radya's Hollow is in the opposite direction from Longshadow, but it may hold valuable insight into the Legion's tactics, and possibly survivors that need refuge. My chariots are fast and we should have time enough for all three."
Bazsil listens to Krowe's wizened input and is willing to be swayed to one plan or another. If Faolan relents, he will follow either plan.
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"These hobgoblins came from Radya's Hollow. They took the town and reopened the old mine, but the mine collapsed and they fled here. That's when they enslaved us and planned on digging here. When we told them we couldn't product as much material as Radya's Hollow he hung us in these cages."
"We're not sure why the mine collapsed this time, originally it collapsed years ago and killed a dozen miners. The mines themselves were large but the town couldn't get anybody to stay long enough to reopen. Any mine that kills so many is cursed, or so the thinking goes."
Nibbitz also offers her opinion. "I was originally at Radya's Hollow, it's not a large town but the gold the Legion could gain from holding it would equip a sizable force. If you've room on your chariot I will escort you to the town and provide what insight I can. After that I'd be obliged if you took me with you to Longshadow. I need walls around me after this adventure."
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"Nibbitz, we should get word to Longshadow immediately so they have as much time to prepare as possible. Though I guess it would probably be just as fast between you walking and all of us riding the chariot back to Radya's Hollow." Bor thinks it through. "Let's do it if we have time. Circle back through Radya's Hollow then hit what we can to Longshadow."
Bazsil shakes his head, all these directions and distances confusing him. He’s trying to put the pieces together but there are so many options. Finally, the throws up his hands and goes to work on his oral history of the battles so far and what the party has done recently, committing details to memory so that he might tell the tales later...possible in Longshadow.
He’ll let others decide where to go next.
"Nibbitz, we plan on a slightly round-about route to Longshadow, but we'll keep you safe, and out of trouble if we can. With that understood, you're welcome to join us!" he claps the woman heartily on the back in camaraderie.
Faolan nods, "Let's get to Radya's Hollow with all haste then. Today if it's so close on our lovely forest chariot. Might be we can free those poor blokes before supper! At least late supper." he adds with a grin and an eye to the position of the sun.
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You mount your chariot, pull Nibbitz up with you, and instruct the miners to head towards the forest and safety. The ride to Radya's Hollow proves uneventful and before long your are observing the mining camp. The community is small: a dozen homes as well as a general store and an assayer’s office. It appears deserted and partially burned down. Moving carefully into the area you see tracks indicating the Legion force you killed earlier today fled this area with some haste.
After a quick search and some direction from Nibbitz, you find Dargg's journal. It is written in Goblin for the most part and details in very brusque terms troop movements, battles, losses, and slaves taken, but upon conquering Radya’s Hollow. It seems he took a gnome slave here (Nibbitz), and after that the entries are written in common.
Campaign Day 52: Seized Radya’s Hollow near the Fangwood border. Acquired a fastidious new slave to take dictation and provide grooming. Existing mines seem to produce low quality iron ore, but Zanathura’s little pets report gold deposits in the older mine complex.
New slaves insist this mine is “dangerous and collapsed,” but upon initial inspection it seems secure. Ore samples very promising. Suspect these new slaves simply don’t like the smell of their own sweat.
Campaign Day 54: Radya’s Hollow mine producing reasonable gold and quartz turnout. Morlocks insist they smell potent vein somewhere in the mine. Protestations from new slaves have ended. At Kosseruk’s suggestion, I ordered two of them to flog their previous mayor to death. It seems to have broken their spirits admirably while giving the troops a good laugh. Look forward to employing same tactic again soon.
Campaign Day 57: Collapse has killed my lieutenant, six slaves, and all four morlocks. Zanathura will have my hide for losing her little pets. Soldiers report strange sounds from the tunnels afterward and refuse orders to reclaim potential survivors. Relocating to original ridgeline camp 8 miles southeast to await discipline from Kosseruk for this costly error.
Nibbitz shudders at the description of personal grooming. "We will never speak of those days."
It is not long when searching the town that you find yourself at the mine. This rough-hewn tunnel slopes northeast into the hillside. A slide of rock debris has crushed a bulky, pale-skinned humanoid, who lies alongside three dead hobgoblins.
The pale skinned creature is a morlock.
Morlocks do not venture into the Hollow Hills, they are usually found deep below the surface in the Darklands.
One of the hobgoblins was battered and stabbed with a wooden weapon. A trail of blood leads deeper into the mine.
”We will never speak of those days.”
Bazsil suppresses a shudder and deletes the thought from an oral history he had been crafting in his head. He nods slowly, not wanting to think about it anymore. He tries to get the thought out of his mind by examining the mine.
Know (Nature)
He kicks at the body, a frown on his face. ”Morlock. They are Darklands creatures. I’m surprised to see them anywhere near the sunlight. They are disgusting, especially in large numbers.”
”Do we need to explore the mine? Might as well just leave it for now as we have other places to be and it’s not going anywhere?”
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"Bazsil's right. As much as I would like to find and help the dwarf, one life isn't worth the possible hundreds that will die if we get lost down there or spend days searching for him." Bor kicks a rock.
He kneels down near the hobgoblin and flips it over. "This one here was beaten by some sort of wooden weapon and there." He points to a small trail of blood. "That blood leads deeper into the mines."
”We can leave a note. Explain things. I dunno,” Bazsil tries to brainstorm.
"We can't make our next destination today. So I say we investigate the mine now, since we're here. But yes," he nods to Bor, "...we're not going to spend days on it. Just a few hours and see what there is to see. We do have some time."
He stretches and smiles, "Maybe we'll get lucky!"
If the party agrees, he'll shoulder his shield and lead their way into darkness, pulling out a sunrod if he must to see (assuming no one else produces magical light).
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You move north into the mine. Rubble litters the southern entrance of this large chamber, where the ceiling stretches to nearly thirty feet overhead. Wooden pilings, discarded tools, and neglected carts rest alongside several relatively new picks and shovels. An administrative area fills a nook to the northeast, while rockfall partially obscures the tunnels leading north and east. A tapping sound echoes from the east, and the northern tunnel appears clear enough to pass through.
”I guess we’re going in,” Bazsil says, readying his blade, then his bow, then his blade again...then settles on the bow. ”I’ll try to keep us well lit.” He casts Dancing Lights and keeps the motes of light shining around the party as best he can. He will recast as needed.
”Can someone track in here? I know I can’t.” He will follow the party in.
Knowing he's not the best tracker, Faolan never the less glances at the ground before entering - shield at the ready.
Satisfied there are no tracks to speak of, he enters and heads toward the tapping sound from the east and tries to identify the source.
Krowe casts a light spell on Faolan’s shield, mage armor on himself from his wand, then flips through his spellbook for a few moments before following the mercs into the mines.
”Let’s move slow and keep a eye out for any further unstable sections of the mine.”
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The mine appears stable in the same way than an accident is stable. It isn't safe but it isn't actively getting worse either. The tapping noise appears to be coming from the other side of the collapsed tunnel, but without experience in mines or spelunking you don't know if that is 5 feet or 500.
You see tracks from the hobgoblins and morlock killed at the entrance, they were running out of the mine and at least one set of tracks leads to the office in the northeast corner.
”Let’s check out this office,” Bazsil says, moving his lights that way. He follows Faolan in that direction.
”Anyone know any good mining songs? I, for some reason, don’t know any. Any know the words to that song that sounds like ‘hi-ho, hi hoes, something something to show?’ Or something?”
Faolan knows no good mining songs, and so stays quiet as he approaches the office. He opens the door and bursts in, fully expecting hobgoblins within.
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A quick search of the office reveals that you are not the first to ransack it. Strangely the previous looters, hobgoblins you presume, missed a box labeled emergency supplies. Within you find five potions of cure moderate wounds, five bandages of rapid recovery, and a chime of opening with 8 charges.
"Well, that's a nice find," Bazsil says, putting the healing goods into inventory. "Well, let us continue on then."
Bazsil moves to follow Faolan deeper into the mine. He keeps his lights dancing, as is expected.
Faolan piles the potions with the other potions of cure moderate wounds they've been accumulating. He grins, feeling as though he's got many battles worth of healing in his haversack, and he is glad for it.
He'll hand the chimes to someone else though, being as he's usually charging through the doors, not opening them.
"Yeah, let's see if we can find another way to this tapping. I'm no miner, and would likely make things worse by digging. Unless you lot have some magics that might help?"
If not, he'll lead on, deeper into the mine using the light on his shield, and Bazsil's handy dancing lights, to see the way.
”Let me try something.”
Krowe calls across the prime-planar boundary and summons a wolverine to his side. He then attempts to direct it to dig through the collapsed section of tunnel.
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You finish looting the office and make a brief attempt to dig through the passage. The wolverine makes some progress but it is evident that it would take a lot of time to progress this way.
Moving through the tunnel to the north, enormous blocks of stone have dislodged from the ceiling here, filling the passage with three feet of debris. Several mangled bodies lie amid the debris. A hobgoblin and two humans lie crushed here, nothing interesting on their bodies.
You still hear the tapping from the tunnel behind you, now it seems to be echoing from several directions. You take many false turns through the mine before arriving at a large cavern.
This wide, natural cavern is eighty feet across and nearly as tall. A wooden bridge once spanned the forty-foot drop to the stone floor below, but it has apparently collapsed, leaving no easy connection between the mine tunnels to the northwest and southeast.
You both notice that the bridge was rigged to collapse intentionally.
Faolan makes his way toward the collapsed bridge. Carefully, very carefully. He has no interest in falling to the bottom.
"So. We climb?" Faolan suggests trying to ignore the constant tapping in his mind. "I have enough rope to lower us down on this side, but it'll be a tougher climb up the other."
”Woah,” Bazsil stops Faolan from climbing just yet. ”Lemme check something out.” Bazsil peers closely at the struts, bearings, grooves, and insets. ”See that there? Looks like this bridge was designed to collapse. That’s probably not the work of ghosts. Probably. But whatever happened here, it might not be haunted.”
Bazsil shrugs to Faolan, realizing he probably didn’t need to stop the man from climbing to and fro as it wasn’t that important. Rather than joining Faolan just yet for the climb, he pulls out his bow.
”Let me cover you while you cross. Once you’re safe, I’ll come over and you can watch out for me.” Bazsil dances some lights out to help Faolan see where he is going.
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Bazsil covers Faolan during the climb down. It's trivial with a rope, though the other side may prove more difficult. The ground is rough but Faolan crosses without issue. The far side has enough hand grips to ease the ascent, not as easy without a rope but still doable.
Once across you see the mine continues deeper still, and you can hear again the sound of tapping. It seems as clear now as it was in the entrance room.
Krowe looks at the climb and wonders silently if the mercs could press on without him. Mentally checking his reserves, he decides to forge ahead.
”Hold on Faolan. I’ll fly across and set a rope.”
Taking out his spellbook, Krowe uses more of his magical reservoir to prepare a spell and fly across the gap.
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Bazsil will climb carefully up and down after others are in place and able to cover his traveling.
” While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door,” Bazsil quotheth while trying to pinpoint the tapping. ”That’s just a piece of an old poem. I think it’s named after you, Krowe.”
When others are ready to move on, he does too.
With Krowe flying, Faolan asks him to return his rope and grapple from the climb down for the climb up and he stows it with him in case they need it further.
The tapping is starting to unnerve him a little with its repetition. None the less, he takes out his shield again and proceeds through the fissure.
"Let's see where this leads shall we?" he grins lopsidedly as he forges ahead.
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Bor looks down the cavernous gap. He takes his time, though the armor on him is far heavier than he imagined as the tiny rope holds all of his weight. He slides down several feet, burning his hands on the fibers. "Gods Damnit!" he catches himself before falling the entire length.
Bor ends up behind Faolan his heart beating out of his chest as he tries not to vomit. "Didn't like that... Not at all."
It takes him some time to calm down again before following in towards the tapping sound.
Krowe glances at Bazsil, his eyes seeming almost to glow. The light spell overhead throwing his shadow on the floor. ”Any more?”
Looking back to the fissure, studying the area for dangers.
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You cross the chasm, some more gracefully than others, and convene on the far side. You move through the fissure and emerge into yet another mining room. Long-dead lanterns hang on the walls of this rectangular room, and a large wooden table occupies a corner. A thick layer of dust covers the floor and table, except in several places where objects seemingly once rested but are now absent. A bloodied hobgoblin corpse sits slumped against the wall in the southeast corner of the room, its face a rictus of horror. A natural stone fissure exits the room to the north, while the tunnels leading northeast and southwest have collapsed.
A dwarf and a human look at you in exhaustion as the light blinds them. They look malnourished and the human appears to have been badly beaten. The dwarf is lying on the floor with several hundred pounds of rock from an overturned mine cart resting on his foot. The human is holding a rock over a dented patch of mine track, no doubt the source of the tapping you've been hearing.
The human licks his dried, cracked lips and stares at you in hope. "Are you here to rescue us?"
The dwarf gives him a look of relief. "They're pretty short for hobgoblins don't you think Meslin?"
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Bor looks down at the rock crushing the dwarf's foot and grimaces. " Of course, we will do what we can." He bends down to take a look at the pile. "How long has it been on your foot now? I will try to do what I can without hurting you more, but not going to lie, this is going to hurt like hell." Bor tries to grab some of the smaller stones and shift them out of the way.
Bazsil moves in to help, but not without pausing for a moment to look at the pair his a resonating stare.
Sense Motive
”I’m sure we can help, and yes, even try to rescue you,” he replies. ”Bor here is a master of crazed healing, and Faolan is as strong as an ox, maybe even two.” He will help move/lift rocks as needed, but only after offering food and water if that is preferred first.
While the mercs work to free the dwarf, Krowe examines their surroundings.
”What’s your name, and how long have you been down here? And are there any morlocks, hobgoblins, or other dangers still lurking about that we should know of?”
"We'll get you out of there in no time, just stop the tapping!"
Faolan puts his back into it, but carefully lest the others fall upon him. He takes the top rocks off first, careful not to let any fall or cascade on the poor man.
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The dwarf gasps in relief as the cart is removed from his foot. You can see the damage is not as bad as you feared, you should be able to repair it with simple curative magic.
While this is happening the human answers Krowe's questions. "I'm Meslin Mordecai and this is my husband Voldan. The hobgoblins and, uh, morlocks I guess, showed up several weeks ago and started opening this old mine. We told them the place was haunted but they just killed a few of us and opened it anyway. Not sure how long we've been here now but the whole mine just up and collapsed again. I tried to make my way out to get help, but something beat the hell out of me in the next room. I can't see in the dark so I don't know what, it didn't chase me in here so I've been tapping on the mine rail to get help."
This seems to have tired Meslin out, and Voldan takes over. "The hobgoblins talked about taking over resources for Lieutenant Kosseruk's assault on Longshadow. Sounds like they were using the entire Hollow Hills to supply their troops with gold, metal, and loot."
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"Not as bad as we feared. They aren't using the mining tunnels to travel unseen underground." Bor works on healing the dwarf, laying a hand on the injury.
"That should at least get you walking. We are headed to Longshadow ourselves. We came in through the chasm, you say something attacked you down there?"
HP 81/81
AC 26 (29; 31 vs Goblinoids; 32 vs Hobgoblin DR/2- Hobgoblin)
Spells Used:
(1st) Shield of Faith
(2nd) Mirror Image; Mirror Image (Align Weapon)
(3rd) Blindness; Bestow Curse;
(4th) Communal Protection from Energy; Blessing of Fervor
Vision of Madness 9/9
Aura of Madness 8/8
Sudden Shift 8/8
Master's Illusion 8/8
CPE 0/2 (4d6)
Ironfang Survivor (free, roll twice vs goblinoid (intimidate, sense motive, stealth): 1/1