Round 3:
The severely hurt mongrelman, blasted twice by Tomas, withdraws from the room and out of sight of the party.
The remaining two mongrelmen (one severely hurt at 3/14 hps) attack Goron and Cao, but both attacks miss!
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The mongrelman is struck by Tomas' missiles but still stands, severely wounded.
Goron's hammer drives through the mongrelman breaking his legs and then its spine, as it collapses in a heap. The second mongrelman has fear on its face, but suddenly, two more mongrelmen burst through the door to the south and he finds courage to move in and attack Goron, bashing the dwarf across the head!
Levelle's blow kills the remaining mongrelman. However, you hear more sounds and it sounds like more mongrelmen may be coming.
Cao's blow injures the mongrelman but he's still standing and looking quite tough.
The mongrelmen stop their howling at the sound of the noise and wait to attack the dwarf or strange creature approaching them. The mongrelmen's attacks go off, when Goron moves into position, one of the blows smashing bone!
Goron's attack drops the wounded one, bashing the side of his skull with a crunching sound.
The bolt strikes the mongrelman, who is bleeding severely but he stands his ground, seeming calling for help with his howls and shrieks.
The northernmost mongrelman screams in pain as Tomas' missiles hurt him but he holds his position. Round 2: With both the dwarf and Cao moving toward them, the mongrelmen remain behind the relative safety of the barricades, their arms raised with clubs to attack the nearest enemy in range!
Round 1:
Goron moves 20' up carefully. He spots a door behind the two mongrelmen, behind which he thinks he hears movement. Sana's Ready action is wasted this round. Cao, Levelle, and Tomas may post their actions to end Round 1.
The Sleep spell goes off, but perhaps due to the hybrid anatomies of the mongrelmen, they both resist Tomas' spell. They notice the party and prepare to attack!
Barricades made of heaped loose rocks and wooden boards bisect this cavern. Beyond the barricades, a wooden screen covers the lower half of a tunnel mouth. Two mongrelmen oblivious to you, stand leaning against the wall, speaking in a weird tongue and guarding the entrance. Whatever they are discussing, you hear snickers of laughter.
Goron and the party bid adieu to the mongrelmen, who are in the process of gathering allies to await the call from Kenabres for aid. The party is escorted out of the southern entrance and told to bash as many traitor skulls as possible. The tunnel winds mostly in a southeast direction for about 2,000 feet (26 minutes of travel), when it narrows down to a 5-foot-wide passageway, the walls carved with picks and chisels. Goron stops the party suddenly and asks Tomas to move back a little to hide the illumination of his Light spell. The dwarf hears sounds of what appear to be a conversation down the tunnel.
Chief Sull's eyes widen, as he sees the brooch. His one good eye gets a bit misty. "May I?" He grabs the brooch and explains, "One of my sons, Drago, left Neathholm after an argument. Funny, I can't remember what we fought about. I didn't expect him to ever return but he loved his brooch. If I may be so bold to keep this, I will reward you with my enchanted morningstar. Only as long as you use the weapon to split at least one traitor’s skull before you reach the surface. Deal?" Chief Sull then takes the brooch and retires for the night.
Horgus is scared as he follows Sana...."Please don't hurt me. I'm just not used to these...conditions. I am no warrior, can cast no spells, cannot heal on a whim. I am just an ordinary merchant, albeit wealthy one. Please try to understand."
Horgus whispers to Sana, "He wants us to rest...here?! In this germ-infested settlement?! Where only the gods know what lurks.." He sees her angry eyes and shuts up, murmuring, "If they want to help the crusade, they should give us the finest rooms..." The blind elf and Anevia are just glad to rest after a long and arduous day. Anevia volunteers the stay with Aravashnial to look after him.
Chief Sull nods sagely at the party's decision. "As I stated earlier, please rest as long as you wish, though I know time is of the essence, given the city's predicament. The nearest route to the surface lies to the south, but this exit is guarded by a tribe of mongrels who do not have the same opinions as those of Neathholm. In fact, I've come to call this smaller tribe of mongrel, “the traitors”. I believe they have consorted and allied themselves with human cultists, most likely the same ones whose corpses you found. I've tended to ignore them but that time has passed. It's time to deal with the threat. If you agree to deal with them, as you make your way back to the surface to bring word of our pledge to aid the crusade, I will promise you aid in the form of a small stash of curative potions. My own soldiers, alas, I cannot spare— I need them to fan out deeper into the tunnels to gather the other mongrel tribes to Neathholm. Once we receive word that the crusaders above will welcome our help, we will be ready to rise up and help take back Kenabres."
Chief Sull grows quite concerned at hearing Goron's tale. "By the gods! Terendelev has fallen?! To the demon horde?! This cannot be!" The Chief pauses, seeing the surprise in your eyes. "I know you may think my kind and I may be outcasts and freaks in the eyes of uplanders like yourselves", nodding at Horgus, "but it was our ancestors who helped drive back the demons in the First Crusade." The passion in the Chief's voice is quite apparent. "I want the demons defeated as much as anyone who lives above. Yes, you may stay and rest in my settlement as long as you like, with one condition: You bring a message to the surface when you return: My people, if they'll have us, will stand with the inhabitants of Kenabres to defend the city! What say ye?"
The Chief looks intrigued. "Trouble? What trouble above?"
The mongrel people urge you to move on, that their home is not far and you may rest there. Goron's words soothe Aravashnial although he is upset the bodies of the Baphomet worshipers are left behind and he remains quiet for the rest of the trip. You continue along the winding tunnel and 45 minutes later, you reach a circular, 20-foot-diameter cavern. Four mongrelmen stand guard here before a large stone door. They greet their fellow companions warmly and eye you with suspicion, but Lann vouches for you all and your efforts to save one of their kind. They let you pass through the door into the cave. "Welcome to Neathholm." A small, dark lake ripples in the center of this two-hundred foot-wide cavern, the walls and ceiling aglow with thick sheets of luminescent fungi. In the center of the lake, over two dozen low stone buildings cluster on a rocky one-hundred-foot-wide island. Lights glow in the windows of the buildings, giving the settlement an almost welcoming look. Rafts made of mismatched planks of timber bob along the length of a crooked pier at the lake’s closest shore. Guards arrive soon enough to escort the you all to the largest building atop the island’s low central peak. There you meet Chief Sull, a bloated and unpleasant-looking but mild-mannered mongrel with one clouded white eye. Pic
Lann introduces you to the Chief and he gives him the report as how his band came along the party and your efforts to save the trapped mongrelman. In a rough yet wise voice, the Chief speaks, "Enough, Lann. Thank you for your efforts warriors in saving one of our kind. It is rare to not see hatred and prejudice from strangers. We are...unaccustomed to it. But pray tell, why are you in these caverns, so far away from the light of your world?"
Anevia is comforted a little by Sana's words. The blind elf meanwhile grows impatient. "Did you grab the bodies already? Are you dragging them along? This will prove to them that I was right. HA!" Horgus seems not to care about this discovery and urges the party to move along.
As Goron strips them, he finds a potion and scroll (both glow with magic) and 129 gp on the bodies. The chain shirts they wear are of Masterwork quality. The scroll contains Cause fear and the potion is Cure light wounds. The unholy symbol takes two good whacks before it breaks and is destroyed.
Anevia gasps at hearing the news. "Baphomet infiltrators? Among the crusaders?! By the gods! Irabeth...my wife is in danger! We must hurry! Please don't let anything happen to her!" Aravashnial has a completely different reaction, completely ignoring Anevia's worry: "YES!!! I knew it! I knew there were infiltrators in their ranks! I had rumors only, of the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth, who were infiltrating mercenary groups in Kenabres. But the crusaders of Iomedae?! Please grab the bodies, we must bring them with us as evidence of the conspiracy." Lann the mongrelman, speaks, "It seems this cult is important, eh? We've seen others like them in the tunnels before. Lately, their presence in the tunnels has increased. Furthermore, the mongrels say that they have some sort of alliance with a different tribe of mongrels down here—a bad tribe."
Within the radius of the light, you also see the two dead men are dressed as crusaders of Iomedae, each wearing fine looking chain shirt. Curiously, Goron, with his religious expertise, notes that worshipers of Iomedae tend to prefer the weapon of their deity: the longsword, while these men wielded glaives and spiked gauntlets. As you begin to search them, you notice one of them clutched something in its dying fist. When you open it, you see a small symbol of a brass bull’s head with tiny red gemstone eyes. DC 15 Knowledge Religion check: You recognize it as an unholy symbol of Baphomet, Abyssal Lord of Minotaurs, whose favored weapon is a glaive.
The plant is long dead. The only threat in the room is the severely wounded darkmantle on the ceiling, who considers this "meal" not worth it. There are still 2 dead bodies on the ground. Humans you can tell, now that they are within the light. Hearing the sounds of combat end, the blind elf yells, "What happened in there? Let me know."
As the darkmantle flies up, it takes its 20' radius of darkness with it, so the Light spell works well enough at ground level.
Goron's blow bounces off the aberration's thick hide without causing harm, as it floats up 50' up into the darkness, near the ceiling.
The beetle appears and the light is now dim in the cavern so Tomas targets him with his magic missile spell (damage as before), severely injuring the aberration. The darkmantle tries to grapple Goron again with its tendril but misses. It then tries to flee toward the ceiling.
Goron escapes the creature's grasp, his neck aching from the constriction and moves 5' away.
Unfortunately, the creature does not seem to understand any language so Sana's Intimidate check falls on deaf ears.
Tomas carefully steps away, moving at 1/2 speed and he eventually leaves the area of true darkness and casts light, shifting the darkness to dim illumination. However, he notices that his spell does not penetrate the darkness emanating from the creature. Round 3: Darkmantle
The last darkmantle attacks Goron, lashing out with its tendril, but misses!
Tomas' magic wounds one of the creatures and Goron's hammer bludgeons it to death!
Round 1: Darkmantles
The second darkmantle frees itself from the web and flies down within 5' range of Goron!
With Tomas' light in the dark cavern allowing the party to see colors, when Goron flips one of the corpses over during his examination, you can tell the humans are dressed as Iomedaen crusaders, prevalent in Kenabres, before all hell literally broke loose today. Sana notes that it is odd that the humans wielded glaives instead of the customary longswords preferred by the followers of Iomedae. Goron notices one of the corpses is holding something tightly in his closed fist. However, before he can investigate, Tomas' light spell dims, until it disappears completely, leaving the wizard literally in the dark! The rest of the party's darkvision prevents them from being surprised, as well as Cao's growling at the ceiling, as you spot 2 "flying stalactites" with numerous eyes and tendrils coming down on the party!
You find various wounds on the plant creature, which you surmise came from the two dead humans' glaives lying next to them on the ground. The two humans are lying face down, wearing exquisite chain shirts and orange tabards. Oddly, you find pieces of flesh missing from their back, as if from bite marks.
Anevioa smiles at the compliment and bows her head in gratitude at the dawrf's kind comments. With the mongrel people clearly scared of the spore-beast, they volunteer to protect the NPCs and let the party go forward. Goron leads the party into the cavern, where he sees with his darkvision that the tunnel opens into a circular cavern. Thick sheets of fungus grow in the cave. What appear to be two dead bodies lie on the ground in the middle of the cave, next to a strange heap of ropy green fungus. Weapons are lying close to the bodies and much blood is everywhere.
Horgus pauses, "You make sense Master dwarf. I will trust your instincts...but be wary of them. Aravashnial stays silent and then stammers, "Uh...my specialty is more the arcane and history and the planes. Spore-coughers? Never heard of them, my apologies." The last words slip almost silently from his mouth.
To no one in particular Levelle offers, How far to our next stop? Time and distance are so hard to gauge down here... Lann responds, "Not far now. There is obviously no sun to mark time down here, but soon, very soon."
Horgus: "By the gods, when are we going to reach the city above?? It's dark and scary down here. I did promise you all a great reward if you save me, did I not? And you bring this blind elf along who is doing nothing but spouting history no one cares about and slowing us down?! I am a man of my word, but instead of keeping to ourselves, you went and allied yourselves with the forsaken beasts of the underground! Woe is me!" Traveling at a slow methodical pace so as to not to separate yourselves from the rest of the travelers (), Goron and the rest of the travelers tune out Horgus' complaints and after 18 minutes of traveling, reach the entrance of a cave ahead. As Goron is about to head in, Dyra starts moaning, Crel hissing, and Lann quickly speaks up. "Master dwarf, before you proceed, please know that the cave ahead is one we rarely use, for it has become the den of a particularly dangerous fungal creature we call the “spore-cougher.” That beast has claimed more than a few unsuspecting travelers down here I would imagine. If you must proceed, do so with caution."
Goron continues the lead the party and its motley crew of humans and mongrel people through the dark caverns.
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