Conclusion+of+Events+of+Zarantyr+12+998YK

=Conclusion of the Events of Zarantyr 12, 998 YK=

Anticlimax
Gingerly, carefully, the party explored down the dark, narrow corridors of the Goblinoid lair. One solid iron-baded door turned out to be arcane locked, which meant Draco had to take a borrowed Goblin axe to the thing. Cutting a hole and sticking a lighted dagger though revealed three things of note: Two small white marble slabs with writing and pictograms on them...and a dozen or so Zombies, including Goblins, Hobgoblins and Humans. Deciding at first to leave them alone, Draco and Noname explored a side corridor, which led to a small room used as sleeping quarters, apparently by the Hobgoblin Bard the party had fought several days earlier. There were signs she had hurriedly left, abandoning some coins, a laquer box containing ivory stringed instrument picks and spare strings, a robe radiating faint necromancy...and a journal page on which was written Draconic runes and her attempt at a translation into Goblinoid. The quarters also had a second door into the Zombie-filled chamber.

Leaving that area, they quickly discovered two other exits from the lair, identical to the one they'd first come down -- a hidden entrance on the hill, a steep shaft down to a hidden pit trap, defensible guard post area, and so on. One had two ladders set up, and many recent footprints leading out. It was presumed that the force of Hobgoblins and the Goblin Blue who had tried to come down behind the group earlier had left the lair here. No live Goblinoids were found. A garbage pit was also located, which held a Rat Swarm. Draco managed to calm the hungry vermin, so no harm was done.

By then, the so-called "Mourning Stone" that had been used earlier sputtered and went dead, allowing them access to the eastern chambers of the lair. In short order they found a small armory, which had already been picked over by the defenders when the alarm was raised, and two more private quarters -- one belonging to a Bugbear and another that held workbenches and tools, possibly for an artificer. A long room containing prison pits was also uncovered; the eight five-by-five-by-eight pits each held a Kobold (two dead, six alive but very very weak). The strongest of them told what he knew (they had been captured in a raid on their home, and eventually force-marched here to work in the dragonshard mine below -- he and the others had objected to not being paid, and had been "made examples of" by someone called Diizina), and volunteered to stay with the party. The others gathered Goblin-sized armor and weapons and fled for the Murnie Homestead. Finally, they found a shrine in an alcove, with a wooden altar, some burnt-out candles and two crude banners depicting a religious symbol Stend could not recognize (but was not the Sovereign Host, Dark Six or Blood of Vol). A trap door in the floor led the group to conclude that everyone had managed to escape, either aboveground on foot (like the Blue and the Hobgoblin fighter Colden had faced), or going down to whatever was beneath the lair.

With nothing else to do, they tackled the Zombies. Stend was able to turn the entire group, which allowed the party to destroy them with relative ease (Corwin took a hit from a Goblin torso with a rusty battleaxe). The Goblins and Hobgoblins each wore crude signs around their necks with the words "PRICE OF FAILURE" on them -- they were some of the ones who had been killed in previous fights with the party. The five Humans -- two males, two females and one girl-child -- were the Murnies, whose bodies had turned up missing when the Brelish force arrived at their homestead a scant couple of hours before.

The Zombie threat gone, the party saw still more clues once the black shrouds were pulled from two everbright lanterns: The two small white slabs were halves of the same stone, opened like two slices of bread...and the Draconic runes and pictograms were on the inside surfaces. Several crumpled and torn butcherblock sheets of paper were strewn around, and there was also a crude drawing table and bucket filled with broken pieces of charcoal. Apparently, someone tried many times to make charcoal rubbings of the two slabs, leaving his or her mistakes lying around. Of special note was that the two surfaces also included a shallow trough nearly the length of the slabs (so that when fitted together they formed a narrow tubular space). Draco and Colden speculated that the space once held the Shaft of Guurgal, the item these Goblinoids seem to have been chasing all along (and finally got several days ago).

The party debated the next step -- take the trapdoor to the next level, or pursue whichever Goblinoids fled aboveground, to make sure whatever intelligence they had (charcoal rubbings, journals, the Shaft itself perhaps) never reached its destination? Draco, impatient, tried the trapdoor, and was hit by a cloud of poison gas. Everyone made their saves, and, thinking that was the only trap, Draco pulled again. This time, once the door cleared the jamb, a needle trap underneath the trapdoor sprayed out in a fan. Draco was hit in the calf, the poison leeching some of his health -- but Stend and Corwin prevented any further effects). This trap, a cleverly-made, portable device stuck to the door with tanglefoot glue, was grabbed by Stend for later study. Deterred by the double trap, and not knowing what else was down there, the party decided to return to the Murnie Homestead to get horses to pursue the ones who'd escaped.

A Near-TPK
With the unconscious Meedill and the Kobold Chok'ma, the group returned to the Homestead. There, they found the well open and the soldiers (with the Brelish captain, Tanar d'Tharashk and Plow) missing. One of the detachments checking out other homesteads had returned with no news to report. The other Kobolds were resting in one of the cabins. A quick Diplomacy session with the soldier charged with guarding the detachment's horses made four of them available for pursuit. Soon, Draco, Corwin, Stend, Colden, and the soldier (who insisted on coming along to watch the horses) were galloping east towards the foothills. In the snow it was easy to find the Goblinoid tracks -- one Goblin, one Hobgoblin and one Bugbear -- and it was hoped they'd catch up before sundown. A short time later, the tracks led to the edge of a wooded area, where the three mounted Wolves and followed a trail east into the hills. Pushing their horses, the party pursued until the Goblinoids veered off the trail and into a valley between two hills. The mountains loomed, promising many possible cave entrances. The Brelish soldier, exhausted, insisted on stopping, and the party left him and three horses behind (Stend, given his pegleg, rode the fourth and the fifth was used to carry equipment) to continue pursuit.

The higher altitude and moderate wind made the going more difficult, and a couple of party members were fatigued when they spied a plume of smoke from a campfire through the trees along a rugged stretch of hillside by a dry streambed. Draco snuck around, making sure he was downwind of the quarry. The sun had dipped behind the hill to the west, throwing the area into deep shadow. Through the trees, he saw a level space where the Goblin Blue and Hobgoblin sat by a fire with two wolves; one Large and dark gray, the other Medium with white fur. The Bugbear, on patrol or perhaps just coming back from nature's call, apparently walked right by the Shifter without seeing or smelling him. Draco recognized him as Aunk, the same one that had chased the Earth Sled a couple days ago. Then Draco got a whiff of the third Wolf, another Large Worg, directly upwind. Deciding that now was his best chance, he charged the Worg, tossing a cracked sunrod into the air like a flare to alert the others.

The resulting fight was nasty and brutal. The Hobgoblin mounted his Worg and engaged Colden. The Goblin got on his white wolf and stayed at the edge of things, using his Mind Thrusts on Corwin and Stend...and the Wolf breathing killing frost, revealing it to be the same breed of Winter Wolf the party had encountered on the trip from Sterngate to New Cyre. The Bugbear and his Worg fought Draco and Corwin. Corwin finally proved his archery chops with a spell-enhanced critical on the Bugbear, but as twilight fell, the party was in serious trouble. Corwin and Colden were unconscious but stable, Stend had fallen to the Winter Wolf's breath weapon (but had previously cast Vigor on himself), and Draco was down to his last hit point (though he too had several rounds of Vigor, courtesy of Stend). One Worg was dead, the second was injured, and both the Hobgoblin and Bugbear had fallen. The Winter Wolf and Goblin were both uninjured, and the Goblin was busy looting Corwin's body...

Then, like a timely miracle, Noname arrived on the scene, breathless from having pursued the horse-mounted party on foot for three-plus hours through the snow and into the foothills. The Goblin Blue, leaving Corwin alive, took the small portable stuff, mounted his Winter Wolf and rode around the carnage back to the trio's campsite, which he also began looting. The remaining Worg went to its mate, howled once, then charged Draco, who had risen and was ready to get back in the fight. The Shifter was nearly eviscerated, left alive only through the combination of his Shifter heritage, the ongoing Vigor spell and his remaining Action Points. Stend, now conscious, used a spontaneous Cure Light and the Lesser Vigor wand on Colden, who was able to get up and finish off the Worg.

Noname approached the Blue, flitting from tree to tree unseen, until finally the Winter Wolf caught her scent and/or heard something, and breathed. Noname avoided most of the cold damage, but delayed long enough for the Goblin to ride off higher into the hills. Soon, spells and Vigor wand shots brought Draco and Corwin back, and together the five party members dispatched the Bugbear and Hobgoblin, looted the campsire and retreated back to where the Brelish soldier was waiting with the horses. Exhausted, the entire group made it back to the Homestead safely.