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Juraan and Ryan attack into the darkness and no one of them seems to find other than air.
Maxim rolls through the corridor picking up the largest stone he is able to see.
Marigold can't find the duergar with her shovel, and moves from him closer to the light. She is surprised the duergar does not attack her.
JJ turns his pick against what he feels is the duergar. He finds something solid, and definitely the duergar yells in pain.
Kikinnin does something in the darkness.
Hackbus retreats with Maxim. The gnome also picks up a stone "He is like a bull, so brave so dumb"
Bruthwol throws the whip, then moves closer, drawing his warhammer and shouting in Chelish "Good dwarf. I do not care about Brilmara's experiments. Thanks for the reason to kill you!"
He swings the warhammer over Maxim's right shoulder. The dwarf's bones crack under the large hammer. Bruthwol seems to have difficulty to hold on feet due to the abundant burns.
You feel two heavy impacts on your chest and left arm. The first one coming immediately east of you, the largest one from southeast.
You do hear Juraan words of pain in the darkness.
JJ continues through the darkness aiming for the light.
If he bumps into something that doesn't feel like Marigold, he'll take a swing at it.
and miss.
You are surprised the duergar did not try to attack you as you passed near him.
Then you stumble over Marigold, and when you are trying to go through to the light, you are surprised by something big and cold.
Unable to dodge, and without your armor, the large blunt thing crushes your bones with ease.
Some feet later, you are stopped by the feet of a large creature.
Reeling in pain, Juraan moves up into what light there is, behind Maxim.
Then tries to concentrate to see if he can cast a light spell …
… but can do no such thing between the pain and confusion of the moment.
Marigold desperately shuffles forward as best as she can, trying to head towards the light, though she swings at anything she might happen to bump into...
Unsure as to where the creature has went but hearing Juraan's cry, swings towards where he thinks the creature might be.
Maxim affords himself a hard smile at Hackbus' comment before the huge hammer slams into his shoulder.
Desperate, the dwur imbues the rock he holds with an essence of his energy , then bellows as he hefts the rubble at the bearded giant ;
:
:
As he becomes aware of Juraan behind him the dwur calls to his companion;
"Drakblood it is me! Pass me your shovel! I can see them!"
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Marigold bumps into something as she advances. She waves her showel, and finds with joy whatever it was. The joy is complete when the pain grunt comes from a duergar mouth some feets above her head.
You swing with strength to your side but find nothing but air!
Ryan swings with strength around his enemies. The small duergar just to his right, the large duergar 15' to the south.
Hackbus and Maxim throw their stones at the large Bruthwol. The giant duergar profits the moment to swing at them, but both of them jump to the side ensamble dodging the attack!
Both stones hit Bruthwol on the face, breaking another one of his lost teeth! The stones and Maxim's arcane magic, are too much for the slaver that collapses to the floor.
Ryan receives a heavy attack from northeast, his blindness does not allow him to dodge an attack he would have evaded normally.
The large duergar attacks Marigold towering north of her. The halfling does nothing to evade the strike, but nevertheless she shows why 'lucky halfling' meas something, and the hammer ends swinging in the air.
The duergar jailer arrives to the scene shouting "Hvad er alt dette rod? Bruthwol har du brug for noget?"
"What's all this mess? Bruthwol do you need something?"
Grim faced Maxim shifts to where the downed Bruthwol lies, he lifts the stone he used to fell the brutal duergar once again imbuing it with arcane energies
I thought it would be my bror who would end your black life. Guess I was wrong...
He pauses then brings the stone down hard onto the skull of the slaver;
:
:
Relieved to see Bruthwol fall, Juraan moves past Maxim and passes him his shovel.
Then he speaks in Gnome, so Maxim and Hackbus can understand him, but not the other Duergar:
« Goed gedaan! Hier is mijn schop. »
« Laat me kijken of ik deze sleutels kan vinden. »
« We moeten echt uit deze ketens komen! »
"Let me see if I can find this clod's keys."
"We really need to get out of these manacles!"
Having said that, Juraan will start searching Bruthwol's body for keys.
Frustrated at what feels like a perfect swing from the pickaxe, Ryan is suddenly knocked off balance by a strike from his rear. Trying to continue the momentum of the pickaxe swing he only succeeds in comically swinging nearly straight up
"Ugh" coughs JJ as he staggers back from the massive body before him.
"Stay back Marigold!"
He swings his pick again, hoping the creatures large size will count against him.
But again the darkness defeats his first stroke. This time however he is ready and turns the pick quickly...
Maxim crashes the stone on Bruthwol's head opening the skull. The duergar dies with a sudden spasm. The body does not return to its normal size, it seems the lingering magic maintains the corpse enlarged. For now.
Juraan gives Maxim his shovel, then inspects Bruthwol's corpse.
All equipment is currently enlarged:
warhammer
whip
blue potion
green potion
3d6 gp
He is also dressing a mwk chainmail.
No trace of keys.
Hackbus points towards the just arrived jailer "Han. Han har nøglerne! Stop ham!"
"He. He has the keys! Stop him!"
Ryan swings to the side, from where he believes the attack came, but he finds nothing again but darkness.
The duergar does find Ryan though. A hammer scratches the cleric's face from the north!
JJ swings once and again battling against the darkness. He feels sure the duergar is sure, but the uneasy grip of the pick makes things even more difficult.
The large duergar attacks again at JJ, but he seems scared of the wild blond human and almost loses the grip of his large hammer on a really bad attempt.
The jailer looks at fallen Bruthwol's body, he turns and starts running back and shouting "En riot! En riot! De nye overfladeboere dræbte Bruthwol! Alarm! Alle klar! Alarm!"
"A riot! A riot! The new surface dwellers killed Bruthwol! Alarm! Everybody ready! Alarm!"
The vexing hits from the hammer continue to clip the young cleric, frustrating him endlessly. His training beginning to slip, and he begins swinging wildly trying to make room from his hidden attacker.
JJ steps forward, assuming the big creature is trying to back up to give itself space, and then swings his pick axe again.
Juraan will (try to) move double speed to the guard and swing his manacles at the guard.
If Juraan can actually reach the guard, he'll risk the AoO.
Feinting and is probably his best bet under the circumstances.
Juraan's first priority is to slow this guard down.
Even if it does hurt.
Still unable to see and hearing all sorts of cries and yells around her in the dark, Marigold finally bellows,
She continues to shuffle forward as best as she can in her chains, swinging her shovel wildly at this point...
______
Seeing Bruthwol die Maxim waves off the need for Juraan's shovel
The gun-mage eyes the still ogre sized duergar corpse with concern, mulling how long the effect lasts;
:
Maxim hefts the enlarged warhammer, gripping the heavy weapon in both hands;
"Time to crack more Grey Faces old friend!"
He then moves toward the nearest duergar attacking his companions;
"Comin' fer ye Lil' Miss!"
Juraan finds himself with the shovel on his hands when Maxim rejects it upon Bruthwol's death.
You know the enlargement can span anything from 1 minute to several. You also know any item that leaves the enlarged body returns to its normal size.
When Maxim picks up the warhammer, he finds out it shrinks its size, perfectly fitting his hands. He moves suddenly disappearing into the darkness.
Ryan swings once more to the darkness with the only result of frustration.
Maxim says something when he arrives next to Ryan indicating the duergar is just north of the cleric.
JJ is pushed back by a huge hand when he attempts to move forward. The young man's attempt to hit the hand seems to scratch something but without enough strength it is deflected by the duergar armor.
JJ hears Marigold shouting next to him.
Juraan double moves as fast as he can over Bruthwol's corpse. His tied legs seems at the point of making him fall two or three times, but with a great effort he makes it to reach the escaping duergar. He can see the keys tingling on his belt. Juraan moves up the shovel ready to hit the duergar...
Marigold is pushed back by a huge hand when she attempts to move forward. She moves her shovel desperately in the air, but failing to find her enemy.
Hackbus approaches the corpse and starts picking up Bruthwol's belongings.
The duergar tries to hit at Maxim with his warhammer.
A large hammer suddenly cracks on the unprepared JJ. The enemy suddenly steps away to the north.
The jailer looks at Juraan's shovel scared. He retreats into the darkness while drawing his warhammer. The duergar disappears from Juraan's view.
Maxim avoids the warhammer from his foe and counters with a strike of his own, charging the weapon with energy
"We need to take him down fast Taskerhill, then due south and fell the one menacing Surabar an' the Lil' Miss!"
:
:
Marigold yelps as she finds herself suddenly pushed back by a meaty, oversized hand. She's pretty sure that it doesn't belong to any of her friends and so she attempts to shuffle forward and swing her shovel at whatever lurks somewhere ahead of her.
JJ steps forward again, bringing his pick around to try and swing into the giant.
"You'll pay for that!" he groans.
This time to pick is on target again and he feels it hit something.
"Maybe I can slow him down a bit with insults."
« Stop med at løbe væk, du fej! »
Juraan will follow the guard and try hitting him with his shovel.
"Thanks" Ryan pants and adjust his aim a bit more to the left following Maxims spoken direction.
Despite the manacles and the fatigue, Maxim swings the warhammer with the swift technique he learned when he was just a kid at Malachite. As he attacks the warhammer is filled with arcane magic that cracks on the duergar when it impacts on its belly.
Marigold swings her shovel with desperation, but the darkness is no friend and she just finds air.
Blind and manacled, JJ is an easy target for the giant duergar who profits the man's weakness when he advances.
The hammer hit is brutal and almost leaves JJ grogui, but he knows this is his opportunity and swings the pick infallibly over the giant duergar. Despite his fatigue, the pick breaks through the armor.
A loud noise happens in the middle of the cavern, like if something large has fallen to the ground.
You swing once an again to the darkness in front of you, but the duergar is not there to be found. Fortunately you also do not hear him calling for alarm any more.
Some female voice far to your right shouts in Chelish "Ei there! What is going on?!"
Ryan swings his pick and finds something metallic, but it seems the duergar armor deflects his attack this time.
The duergar sees his comrade fall and quickly steps to the side, closer to the exit, while throwing a powerful hammer attack that hits on Maxim's head causing a considerable pain!
"Are you still with me Marigold?" says JJ, as celestial light spills from his wounds.
He slowly advances forward, towards the dim light, which has to be better than the total darkness he finds himself in at the moment.
"Aim for the light Marigold.."
Feeling the ring of something other than stone Ryan swings once more to the north of him.
<sigh>
Though she can't understand the words, Marigold can hear JJ calling her name in the darkness and what she's grown to recognize as Maxim's name for her, Lil' Miss, from somewhere nearby as well. She doggedly shuffles forward, ready to crack some shins with her shovel...
"Damnation! Where is he now?"
Juraan will try and antagonize the guard into doing something rash:
« Du er ikke bange for nogen i kæder, er du? »
Juraan will move to the right, figuring the stairs are where the guard is likely to head to.
He'll then swing with his shovel, hoping to hit the guard, with (a lot of) luck:
He'll also respond to the voice to his right:
"Yes, ma'am! We're exchanging pleasantries with these guards to coax them in to undoing our manacles."
"Any suggestions would be lovely."
To see if Juraan recognizes the voice of one of the other prisoners they talked to earlier.
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"I Bruthwol. I am god to you now."
"Aaaiieee'mmm gettin' up, already, Mor, stop your kickin'. The forge won't go cold... Hey. You're not my Mor. You kick like her, but you're not her. Bruthwol? Alright. Bruthwol. You are Bruthwol to me. For now."
Kikinnin looks down the stairs to the south, while he gets in line for what will likely be slave treatment and sub-par sustenance. He listens to Bruthwol bait him in his family tongue, allowing himself to yawn, as it expresses his fatigued state while also passively-aggressively showing his contempt of the Grey-Face threatening him at present.
His mood only improves slightly when a pick is pressed into his manacled hands. He feels its weight with some familiarity, reminding him of more youthful times, when he sought a profession below ground, before Cauldron... he's distracted long enough to realize too late that Maxim's been dragged off, somewhere else. He pieces together the dwarven conversation held between Maxim and Bruthwol, and nods to himself, as he turns back to the wall, and gives the pick a couple of tired swings.
When the explosions begin, the black-beard spends a moment yanking the pick from the wall. "Gnome barking... can't be good..."
When the nearby slaver begins to enlarge, Kikinnin's eyelid slowly lower to half-mast. "Grey-Face growing... can't be good..."
"Lyset!..."
As the lights go out, Kikinnin's eyelids open wide. "Darkness... can't be good for the others..."
He studies the events in slow motion, watching the duergar fall, witnessing his friends take a predictable beating. He looks down on his pick, gripping it with new intention. He moves through the darkness, and strikes at Green. They didn't learn from the worm. They may not learn from this brash lashing out, either.
The black-beard watches the duergar move easily out of pick reach, and his doubt grows stronger.
With effort from his shackled feet, JJ finally makes it out of the darkness.
Ryan once again reaches the duergar, but the slaver's armor deflects the cleric's pick.
Marigold advances over what seems a giant humanoid, then swings her shovel into the air.
You swing in the air without any response to your inciting words. Recognizing Shellen, your words produce a new answer from the lady "Well, if that is true, you could come and help us out of this jail"
Kikinnin finally unties his shackles from the stones and moves over the cavern to help Maxim and Ryan. He feels to tired though, and his attacks merely swing in the air of the pits eternal night.
The remaining duergar steps into the light of the explosion scolds and swings his hammer into Maxim without any success "Brilmara vil vide! Din vilje betaler for dette med din hud!"
"Brilmara will know! Your will pay for this with your skin!"
Seeing his foe standing in the dim light JJ grins to himself.
He quickly steps up and smashes the pick into the back of the dwarves head
With a mischievous grin JJ sends the duergar slaver to the ground after a strong delivery of his pick that breaks the pale-one right arm.
Seconds later the giant duergar corpses shrink to normal size and the explosion scolds consume themselves shrouding the cavern into total darkness.
Bruthwol:
1x warhammer
1x whip
1x cure light wounds potion
1x green unidentified potion
1x mwk chainmail
18 gp
No trace of keys.
Slavers
3x warhammer
3x whip
3x chainmails
3x cure light wounds potions
27 gp
"Everyone okay?" calls out JJ to the nearby wall.
"Kikinnin... you with us? Can you break our bindings with one of these picks?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, but we really need the keys to these manacles. Swinging a pick might be good for the chains, but the cuffs are too risky a move. Unless you can pick them?"
Kikinnin looks over the dead duergar, shaking his head. "This was rash. We don't even know their numbers. We brought down a named Grey, but we've already heard another name, and who knows how many more... we've got no armo... hold on..."
The black-beard starts stripping a slaver Grey-Face of his chainmail, as well as his warhammer. He spends time donning the chainmail, hoping to have it on before the next wave of slavers comes to investigate the sounds. He only hopes they're inured to the explosions, as the gnome must have already been performing excavations before this attack.
Kikinnin points Maxim to Bruthwol's body. "You might want to get that off his back and onto yours."
With a bit of effort and time Kikinnin successfully uses his pick to break the chains that hold the manacles and feet shackles of everybody. The group is still fatigued and most of them blinded by the darkness, but they can finally move freely.
Hackbus approaches Maxim giving the dwarf a big fraternal hug "Good to find you in these ill moments Maxim Splintershield!" the gnome picks up some of the remaining tools in the workbench "I have been planning this for long, but lacked the strength to overcome these monsters"
The gnome looks towards Kikinnin "The duergar have been fighting each other recently" he presents a mischievous smile "Their numbers are low. This is our opportunity, let's free everybody and run"
Dewy eyed, Maxim hugs the gnome back with a silent nod.
The gun-mage looks to the others;
"We need to free those who are still shackled or imprisoned... an' find they fae iffen they still live."
He smiles again and claps his mentor's shoulder;
"Darn good to see you again Ol' timer. Darn good."
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"Indeed we will. We just need to make sure there aren't any more guards here first."
After Kikinnin breaks the manacles:
"That's much better! "Maxim, can you pick the lock on the cell door?"
"It would've been a lot easier if that guard with the keys hadn't done a runner!"
Juraan then casts a light cantrip on any old rock lying about and holds it in front of him.
He walks over to the section of the cave opposite the cell to see if there's another way in or out, aside from the staircase near the cells.
And finally Juraan makes the light. The slave pits get light with the familiar tone of the professor's magic.
As you approach the prison cavern, there is no trace of the jailer, although Juraan is sure he disappeared there in the darkness.
The slaves crowd in the bars as the light approaches and the now free group appears in front of them "Are you real?! Do you really come from Cauldron?!" asks Azmi while Rikaldo begs "Free us! Please, free us! I will give you all my money. Hell! I will serve you as your skinner assistant if you free me"
Maxim studies the lock of the prison and determines it will be impossible to unlock it without proper thief tools.
Thankful to finally be free of the manacles and the darkness, Marigold rubs at her sore wrists as they all congregate in front of the rest of the caged prisoners.
"We need our g-gear if we're g-gonna make a r-run for it," she says in a low voice. "Otherwise I d-don't think we'll g-get far."
She turns to look at Azmi and Rikaldo. "D-do you know where they m-might have our g-gear?"
"And the little fairies too. While we are here we need to find them." adds in JJ.
"And yes, we really are from Cauldron, and yes, stick with us. We may be going further in before we have to head out though." warns the young man.
With the light spell on, he searches around for the flint and steel that duegar used to light the candles, and then uses it to provide a little non magical illumination.
Azmi and Rikaldo shrug but then Hackbus intervenes "The storeroom I tell you. The storeroom. But..." the gnome points towards the small slope to the west of the cavern "No new stuff there. Inside. Somewhere inside the structure they have moved your things"
JJ looks around but only finds used or broken candles around. He is offered a flint and steel by Hacbus with a smile "At the storeroom I say. Those things you can find at the storeroom. The slope. It is just past the slope"
"Fairies... faeries you say... Brilmara. Brilmara has them I say. Questions she has asked. Plenty of questions Brilmara has asked. About fey. About technology. About Jzadirune fey technology. Plenty of questions all the time" comments the gnome, then he points to the stairs South "But you clever and run. You run with Hackbus now. We are out of here in one minute! We are free"
"We are badly wounded... well some of us anyway.,.," adds in JJ to the excited gnome.
"Ryan, are you able to help us all out a bit?"
Marigold frowns. She's not keen to leave their gear or the faeries at the mercy of the duergar but on the other hand she knows that the longer they tarry, the more likely it is that they'll all be caught again. But...
"Sh-she asked about J-Jzadirune's technology?" Marigold repeats, looking worried. "That's n-not good. N-not good at all. I know we should r-run, b-but I d-don't like l-leaving this B-Brilmara to her d-devices. Or the f-faeries in her c-clutches, either."
Once the manacles are off, Ryan searches around using his own light cantrip, searching for a twig, knowing it might be difficult in the subterranean prison the find themselves in.
"With a bit of luck, and if we find a forked twig down; here I can find our missing gear. Everyone look around please."
"Sorry JJ tapped at the moment except certain spells, they're not interchangeble."
"Yes. I think she wants solution to slave shortage" Hackbus insist to run "They have been fighting recently. Just few duergars now"
"A twig? Perhaps we should look at the remains of the workbench" proposes Hackbus. Effectively, Ryan is able to find some material similar to Darkland's wood, and small enough to pass for a piece of branch. That is surely the most similar to a twig you have seen in days.
"Well JJ it appears this would have done you good yesterday" Ryan says looking a a green vial they've found as he searches for a piece of wood to use as a diviners rod.
Finding a suitable piece among the scraps of the destroyed table, Ryan ask those around. "I'll need your cover as I concentrate on the spell"
setting the image of his mace firm in his head, Ryan lays the twig lightly in the palm of his hands; speaking the words needed to complete the spell. "Obiectum locus magister Clavis" Walking towards the sometimes imperceptible pull.
As soon as Ryan completes his spell the small twig-like focus starts pointing southwest, in the direction of the slope tunnel.
Climbing the slope takes a bit of an effort, but eventually the group makes it past the place.
Shovels, picks and other mining tools lie here. The walls have been carved by those same kind of tools large time ago. This is arguably the oldest area of the mines.
"You sure you don't want to run now?" Hackbus sighs, then looks Maxim and smiles "Ok, I will stay here looking for things that can help us free those Cauldronites"
Among the stuff lying here JJ finds a flint and a candle.
The group has a moment to properly split the slavers items.
Boxes with stored stones lie all over the place. The boxes read in dwarven things like ‘salt’, ‘fluorspar’, ‘coal’, etc.
"Hang on a moment. Maxim and Hackbus: about that explosive stuff you make and use."
"Would a pinch of it, if you have any left here, be able to break the lock on the prisoners' cell?"
"Without hurting the prisoners inside, of course!"
"Since we can't find proper tools for Maxim."
"Well, be back to get you out." says JJ, frustrated at leaving the girls locked up.