6 Arodus 4719, morning

Breachill

One thing that has stuck with me since handing over Voz to the city yesterday was how impressed Wilford Lavendil, captain of the guard, was with our results. This positive impression is likely to spread to the town council and possibly other worthies of Breachill. Considering how we are planning to make the citadel our home base I can easily imagine how useful it will be to have such a reputation here in town.

Qantrip has returned from her nightly stay with the goblins at the citadel at the same time I was taking down my tent and storing it along with my bedroll in the hollow of a tree. I am reevaluating the best way to save money when in town and I think if I dine more at places like the Pickled Ear I will be able to afford a modest room with a comfy bed without spending any more than I currently am.

It’s time to head back to Guardian’s Way and use the map of the cavern system we obtained from Voz to find the gate and the surviving members of the Cinderclaws.

6 Arodus 4719, afternoon

Caverns of Guardian’s Way

We arrived at the caverns by mid morning and while Liberte spoke with the spider creature (called a tixitog) the rest of us studied Voz’s map. An area was annotated with, “Hell no!” that caught our attention, but it seemed to be in an out of the way cul de sac and so we opted to avoid it for now.

Before we continued on Kyira quietly stated that the tixitog was evil. Hmm. Well it seemed content to leave us alone and hang out near the entrance. It seems like we ought to be able to leave it alone as a sort of “free security” to guard our backs while we go in. Could we trust it, hell no. I suspect we’ll need to consider this and other “Hell nos!” if we take over the citadel and want to secure these caverns in the future.

As we followed Voz’s trail we came upon evidence of her encounters with other denizens of the caverns. Bones from some of her skeletal guards were scattered about a chamber with the corpses of several giant scorpions. Sooner them than us.

I was doing my usual thing of scouting just a little ahead of the main party when I came upon a room draped with heavy spider webs. I dropped back and informed the team that giant spiders were at hand and we prepared for battle. It didn’t take long for the spiders to attack, but we had set up a choke point where only one of them could come at us at a time. They never figured out an alternate strategy other than to wait one at a time while we pounded them to death. The anti-venom we had obtained earlier came in handy here because some of us were bitten.

We moved into the room and checked out the desiccated, silk wrapped bodies hanging from the webs. From here we could see two exits: a northern passage that was relatively clear and a southern way that was blocked by webs. One of the spiders had attempted to escape this way after having several of its limbs lopped off — it was smart enough to try and flee from a losing battle but not quite smart enough to understand the consequences of facing ranged weapons — and so I thought there might be something worth investigating.

And after hacking away the thick ropes of webbing I indeed discovered what looked like a tent of fine spider silk hanging from the wall. It seemed obvious that something or someone was hiding here and so Aemi and I called out a greeting. We were answered by a woman who cautiously came out to meet us. Aemi and then Qantrip spoke with her at length.

Her name was Renali and she had secretly followed the Cinderclaws through the gateway. She was not in league with them but had simply been curious to see most of the world, but now found herself trapped in the caverns. She was able to move about the spiders safely and had used them as a sort of security measure (sounds familiar). She was familiar with tixitogs as well and warned us that the creature we left behind was not to be trusted. Again, this sounded familiar.

More helpfully she knew where the surviving Cinderclaws were and the location of the elf gate (well, it was the same place). But to get to them we first had to pass by a creature known as a barghest who was called Ralldar. Liberte in particular seemed to know what it was and he was concerned about our chances slaying it. Renali’s account of how it had slain the Cinderclaws that tried to pass it led credence to Liberte’s worries.

But the thing was apparently half crazy and styled itself as the “god of all goblin kind.” Well that was interesting and given some of the team’s background we could make use of that to get past it. Indeed Qantrip quickly came up with a cunning plan to present herself as an explorer with the rest of us her hired guards and servants.

This required that our witch come face to face with the potentially violent being that we were not sure would want to just talk. It was decided that I would stealthily go alongside her while invisible.

Things went according to plan, although we had to make a side trek to collect a humanoid head (I fetched a skull from back where Voz’s force had fought the scorpions) which we stitched atop a spider body. Because of course this is the tribute that Ralldar demanded to allow us to pass. And that did the trick! We passed by, noting a side chamber containing some magical and some potentially valuable items in Ralldar’s horde.

So, yeah, add this to the other “Hell nos!” we’ve collected to be sorted out later.

In the subsequent chamber we had to carefully scrape away some dangerous looking mold to access a large hole that dropped down through the rock to where Renali had said the Cinderclaws and the gate were.

Yes, Renali had joined us past Ralldar, but by what means she passed him unnoticed she was reluctant to disclose to us. Interesting.

We knew we would have to fight the surviving Cinderclaws as soon as we dropped down to their level, but the space was constricted which meant only four of us could go down at once. Aemi volunteered the use of a Featherfall spell and so Tarsius, Kyira, Liberte and I jumped down.

As we expected, our foes were waiting for us and they attacked at once. Our immediate focus was clearing enough space for the rest of the team to join us, and so we focused on the Charau-ka and Boggards that pressed in on us. This left their leader, Malarunk, to coordinate the defense from afar and cast spells against us.

That lasted less than a minute before we broke through his defenders and attacked Malarunk himself. He did not last long.

The brevity of the fight was not surprising. Most of Malarunk’s force had been left above or slain down here and he was left with a skeleton staff (well, not literally). He himself may not have been at his best given that he had been trapped here with few provisions.

And the gate is here. I can see different portals facing different directions. It all seems inert for the moment. And this brings up an important point: if Malarunk knew enough of the gateway to use it to get here, why was he unable to use it to escape?

Based upon an initial glance at the structure my guess is that he managed to activate a portal at a gate in his original part of the world, but was unable to activate any of the portals here.

We need to spend some time studying these and taking notes before heading back.

And when we head back how many of our pending “Hell nos!” do we address along the way?