Sia attempts to break the grapple of the tentacles.
Eustoma grunts in pain, but let's loose an attack with everything she has. She curses as most of her attacks miss the morlock she was aiming for.
Wulfram stabs the morlock Nik'o is grappling, and Eustoma hits it with an arrow, but the raging creature still manages to stay on its feet!
Iuwlas chants and gestures, and a spectral morlock appears next to Karla, wielding a battleaxe made of force. It slices into the sorceress!
The morlock Nik'o is grappling drops its club to claw and bite at the big cat. The others swing on her with their clubs and bite at her. Nik'o takes two hits, one from a claw and one from a bite!
Nik'o finishes off the wounded morlock and claws at another one.
Rogar takes advantage of his enhanced speed, burrowing through the ground and coming out on the other side of the wall, blasting Iwulas with a spear of metal.
Wulfram continued to stab at the morlocks.
Sia tries to beak out of the tentacles.
Eustoma uses Blessing of Fervor to attack the nearest morlock.
Rogar blasts Iuwlas with a powerful storm of metal, badly wounding the oracle! Eustoma fires a barrage of arrows at one of the other morlocks, and Wulfram finishes it off with two powerful spear thrusts. Sia manages to escape the tentacles.
Iuwlas clambers along the walls, trying to retreat. He pauses long enough to chant a spell to try to paralyze Rogar. The two remaining morlocks attack Nik'o. The second one crushes the cat's skull, dropping her, then whirls and bashes Nik'o about the face!
Rogar moves to start his next blast, when he finds that he is simply unable to command his arms or legs to do anything. He does his best to fight through the block,
and manages to free himself from its grip.
Wulfram cast his previously recalled healing spell on Niko, trying to revive the giant lynx.
The tentacles fail to grab Sia again. Wulfram heals Nik'o, stabilizing her, while Rogar throws off his paralysis. Still invisible, Karla moves next to the morlocks and conjures another wall of stone to prevent Iuwlas from escaping!
Eustoma shoots another morlock with two arrows, and Sia bites it.
The morlocks turn their attention to the big wolf, swinging their clubs and biting at her, but neither one hits!
Unable to escape, Iuwlas howls in frustration. He turns back to Rogar and tries to paralyze him again. Meanwhile, the spiritual morlock flies at the dwarf and attacks from behind.
The tentacles grab a hold of Sia again.
"That's the last of my healing spells!", Wulfram declared, resuming his attack on the morlocks.
Rogar, now canny to the morlock's tricks, manages to cast off the paralysis again before it can lock him in fully. He takes the blows of the spiritual morlock with a grunt and focuses on the caster, and shoots off a spinning blade of metal at him.
Karla blasts the wounded morlock with magic missiles. Eustoma shoots it with two arrows, and Wulfram stabs it twice. Ignoring the tentacles, Sia chomps down on the morlock, scoring a critical hit and bringing it down! Rogar tries to blast Iuwlas again, but the oracle dodges again.
The last morlock barbarian attacks Sia, but still fails to hit. Iuwlas's spiritual ally slashes Rogar again as the oracle calls on the spirits to try to grapple the dwarf. Fortunately, the kineticist breaks away from the telekinetic attack!
The black tentacles loose their grip enough for Sia to slip out.
Rogar, fed up with everything attacking him and the amount of telekinetic attacks he's dealing with, calms and centers himself, "Enough."
He fires off a single, small pellet of metal, putting a ridiculous amount of force behind it, trying to finally end the oracle.
Wulfram stabbed furiously,trying to finish off the remaining morlock. "I've got some healing for you, Sia, when I can reach you!"
Pele poked her head out of Wulfram's backpack and yipped in wolf speech, *Sia, Master can heal you!*
Rogar's blast tears Iuwlas apart. The treacherous oracle falls to the floor, twitching feebly. The rest of you combine your attacks on the last morlock, and it takes all of your efforts, but it finally goes down.
There is much treasure to be had here. Additionally, you find a series of journals written in a combination of Dwarven and Undercommon. Knowledge of both languages is necessary to decipher them.
Wulfram healed Sia, and then fed Niko three potions. He told the others, "It's time to start using potions; my healing wand isn't going to last long at this rate."
"I need to meditate and memorize more healing spells. We should rest for the night very soon."
Wulfram sat down in the vault to meditate with Pele.
Eustoma hands Wulfram her wand of Cure Light Wounds. "This one has 21 charges on it. I have two potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, and can cast some healing as well. I appreciate you being willing to use your spells for that. I can help."
Wulfram finished his meditation, and then cast a healing spell on everyone.
"OK, who needs more healing?", he asked.
Sia and I should be fine. Thank you." Eustoma gives Sia a pat. What's next?" she looks around for a room for a door or a hint of where they should go next.
Wulfram said a couple of defensive prayers and then declared, "OK, let's move on. We'll probably have to fight our way past the morlocks. Rogar, can you scout ahead?"
Rogar nods, and slips underground as he glides around, using his tremorsense to get a lay of the land.
"As much as I dislike being underground. I think we should go deeper into the caverns."
Wulfram said, "There should be tunnels that lead from these caverns, to the dwarven sky citadel of Kraggodan, or so the map shows." He took out the map that they had found (in the stone tower outside Longshadow), and studied it.
A massive, tarnished bronze door blocks passage to the west, but Rogar slips under it to see a long passage descending further into the Darklands. It is likely this tunnel that eventually connects to the dwarven sky citadel of Kraggodan.
To the north is a ragged cavern with a visible chasm leading down into darkness. Under a shabby old cloak, Rogar finds a suit of +1 light fortification stoneplate and a collection of marvelous pigments.
To the east, several walls of an old, massive storehouse have collapsed, and rocks, detritus, and large, chitinous plates litter the floor. The ceiling rises to thirty feet here and has partially collapsed, exposing a large fissure leading up to a faint, green glow. The sound of rushing water echoes from the west. Two colossal centipedes nest here, but they fortunately do not notice Rogar.
Heading west, Rogar discovers the bottom of the waterfall that pours down through the upper floors. A cylindrical torrent of water rushes down from the ceiling into a 40-foot-wide cistern of water, creating a deafening racket. Colorful mineral formations cover the walls both above the water and below. A glint of gold twinkles from the water's depths.
Rogar sinks down through the stone to the lowest level of the morlock warrens. The chasm eventually opens onto a chamber. Fungi cover the walls of this chamber, some of them with an oddly putrescent, violet glow. The light travels up along the walls, where it is eventually swallowed by the darkness of the open ceiling. Narrow tunnels crisscross one another in a tangled web of passages. The ceiling, floors, and walls are caked with thick, brown fungal matter that reeks of rot.
The tunnels eventually lead to a grandiose chamber of roughly hewn stone. It's open to the vast fissure to the north. A half-dozen morlocks mill about, and in a smaller chamber to the south stands a massive morlock with an obsidian bladed broadsword. A pair of smaller morlocks swarm over her. This can only be Chief Grax.
None of the morlocks notice Rogar.
Wulfram walked over to the bronze door. He said a prayer and examined it, looking for signs of any traps.
There are no magic auras on the door, nor does Wulfram find any traps.
Wulfram tried to open the heavy door.
The door refuses to budge.
"This could take some time!", Wulfram declared. He prayed to the battle spirits, growing to 13 ft tall, and set about using all his might to open the door.
Wulfram swells in size and strength and shoves the door with all of his might. Slowly, inexorably, the door grates open. The passage to the Darklands is open!
Rogar returns to his allies as they get the door open from the rest of his scouting, telling them what he found (and carrying the stoneplate and marvelous pigments).
"Is there anythin' tha' we want ta take care o' afore we move on? Ah don' feel entirely righ' leavin these things livin' in ol' Dwarf ruins, bu ah can live wi' it if we just move on."
Wulfram rested for a moment after opening the door. "I think we should try to reach the dwarven city as soon as we can; they may be hard pressed by the Ironfang forces. As long as we close this door behind us, dealing with the morlocks can wait, in my opinion."
As soon as everyone was on the other side of the door, Wulfram again strained mightily to close the dwarven door, preventing entrance by unwanted parties. After a moment's rest, he hoisted his pack and said, "OK, let's go and see this dwarven city!"
Leaving the morlock warrens behind, you begin making your way down the tunnel to the Darklands. According to the maps, Kraggodan is just over 75 miles from the Valley of Aloi, so you have quite the journey ahead of you.
From side to side, the tunnel of the Long Walk narrows to no less than 50 feet, while at its largest points it caps out at almost 200 feet wide. Arched ceilings range from 30 to 50 feet in height. Ancient and immense stone monuments stare down from the ceilings at passersby. Several have eroded over the millennia into broken oddities, leaving the tunnels dotted with the occasional vast, pointing arm, or the arched eyebrow of a long-broken face.
After a few hours, you begin to get tired, the day's grueling battles weighing on you. You set up camp along the side of the highway and rest for the night. In the morning, you feel refreshed and energized. Reflecting on the experiences of the last few days, you feel better prepared to face the challenges to come.
As you camp, Rogar reads through Zanathura's journals. They further detail the journey along the Long Walk through the Darklands and into Kraggodan's lowest levels. They also indicate that the "Stone Road" employed by the Ironfang Legion is somehow tied to Kraggodan. An excerpt of the journals follows:
This Azaersi woman has proven charming and challenging company, and quite the shrewd negotiator. She has agreed to my demands of support and protection in exchange for guiding her to her prize in the bowels of Kraggodan. The dwarves seem to have neglected this precious cornerstone of their heritage regardless, so it will find a far more loving home in my in our coils. Azaersi herself seems cunning but agreeable, and working alongside her seems a safe proposition so long as our goals align. Her lapdog Dendrak seems pliable enough, but I have misgivings of Elacnida. Never trust a serpent with legs, as Mother used to say.
The way south and east is simple enough along the gray dwarf highway that runs below my chasm. Azaersi assures me she has enough coin and muscle to dispel any "tolls" the Droskarites may try to impose. Once we reach the Five-Eyed Matron, cutting west through the secondary tunnels becomes considerably more hazardous, but a small and quiet group should reach Kraggodan's Furnace in only three days' travel once we leave the Long Walk.
Let us hope I don't come to regret allying with these Ironfangs, but even if they do betray me, I would devour a hundred hobgoblins to lay coils on the Onyx Key.