Return to the Dwarven Mines, as told by Glaurung the Golden
Sune's blessings on you all! Pull up your chairs and lean forward, this is a sorry tale of
bad decisions, bad luck and outright robbery. When last we left off our tale about exploring the Dwarven
Vaults we’d just handily defeated a pack of death dogs. As we searched the campsite outside the mine
we heard some loud snoring a short distance away. It proved to be Burglekutt the Diviner. He’d grown bored waiting for us and was
snoozing in some bushes blissfully unaware of the deadly combat taking place
under his nose! In any case, the campsite was littered with dead miners and
the cause of death seemed to be various bites and puncture wounds, certainly
not the work of man. In particular there
was one corpse whose skull was ringed all round with tiny punctures, a mystery
we would sadly soon solve. The search also yielded a fine collection of gold trade bars
which we stowed on our mounts for transport back to hope. Given the sorry wounds suffered by Orax and
Frank we decided a rest was in order.
Fortunately the night passed without incidence, though many a theological
discussion was held about the nature of gods, how many there might be and what
exactly it meant to be omniscient or omnipotent. The morning found us a little more hale, though Orax seemed
to have picked up a nasty disease from a death dog bite. Girding our loins and lighting torches, we ventured inside
the mines with the stealthy Reginald Tealeaf leading the way. Alas we didn’t get far before falling afoul
of a slink of dark mantles. These fearsome
beasts attacked by enveloping their victim’s head and crushing them to death,
all the while blinding their sight. Even
worse, the foul beasts could create areas of darkness that covered entire
sections of the caves with fuligin pools of death. It’s impossible to sensibly recount that chaos that ensued as
we were successively blinded, bitten and in Frank’s case, charmed! It truly looked dismal for our little band
with Frank attacking his companions and Reggie and I laid low by dark mantles
and bleeding our last into the dirt floor of the mines. It was even said that the redoubtable Orax
Thunderfoot turned tail and fled to the exit of the mines, though I can’t verify
that claim. Just as doom appeared certain for most of our band, hope
dawned at the hands of our diviner! Burglekutt
unleashed a mighty flood of magic missiles that slew the leader of the dark
mantles and freed Frank from mental dominion.
I managed to throw off the dark shroud of death to cast two mighty
enchantments that successively dropped two of the beasts into ensorcelled sleep. Larry and Orax ventured back into peril to tend
the mortal wounds of Reggie and I, thus snatching us back from death’s door
while a vengeful frank bludgeoned another dark mantle to death. The battle was won but at the cost of much of our
strength. While poor Larry laboured to
skin and harvest the bodies of our foes, we debated our next move. We wisely decided to return to Hope and
recover our strength but, alas, we decided to rest outside the mines
first. In the middle of the night a dragon passed overhead and though
we stealthily took cover in the mines, Frank sneezed and caught its
attention. It was that notorious road
agent Ragemaw and he swiftly descended to claim his toll. Normally we would have sent the overweening
wrym packing but our strength was at a low ebb, and we were forced to bargain
for our lives with our hard won gold. The gold ingots were lost as was a large store of coins from
Burglekutt and Reggie. To add insult to
injury, the dragon also toasted one of our mounts before taking to the skies. It is past time we dealt with this evil beast. In the morning we compounded our errors of the night before
by deciding to ‘take a quick peak’ inside the caves. Our explorations uncovered a chasm suspended
by two 20’ beams of wood. Reggie again
scouted ahead and managed to alert a pair of fearsome insectoid creatures. We tried to flee but in the process both myself
and Frank were laid low as the creatures spat jets of acid. Fortunately our companions dragged us to safety
and from thence we returned to Hope.
I end this tale with our heroes much poorer in coin but
richer in experience. We are resolved to
return once more to the mines and finally complete the quest, and if Ragemaw
should cross our path, well, it might not go so well for him as last time, if
only because we have no more gold for him to steal.
