Into the Drachensgrab Caves
The heroes decided to make an initial foray into the caves with a scouting mission. Kendrick did a little exploring, finding that one of the caves was a dead-end and that the other three met in an interlocking system of natural caverns. Rather than allow him to get lost in the dark, Pale with his cat and Tesrae joined him with lanterns.
As they kept to the left wall, they found as they moved farther in that there were more signs of workmanship and a drying of the caves. Eventually, they found a chamber cut out of the rock. In it, leaning in the corner, were a pair of 10' long, 2' wide strips of thick hide, so thick and tough that Tesrae initially believed it was bark. Pale was able to determine it was a hide from some thick-skinned creature.
Leaving the mystery of the strips behind, they travelled up a corridor with a door at its end, but some space before the door, the floor opened up underneath Kendrick and Tesrae and they fell into a pit. The pit led to a slide whose floor was covered with a granular substance. Kendrick slid away out of sight but Tesrae managed to roll to the side and arrest her slide with the help of Pale's rope.
As Kendrick slid away into darkness, he saw phosphorescent fungus on the walls zoom by. The granular substance, spraying in his face, seemed to be salt. And shortly, he spilled out into a chamber populated by armed gnolls. As he got to his feet, he found that something had happened in the slide and he was unable to move with his customary speed. He was quickly beset with gnolls hewing at him with axes.
Meanwhile, Tesrae tied on Pale's rope and performed a controlled slide down the salt. She came out and went to Kendrick's aid. Pale transformed into a cat and jumped down onto the salt slide with Cat to help out. Tesrae felt some effect but managed to shake off any slowing effect and was able to fight with full effectiveness. When they eventually arrived, Pale and Cat were also showing the same difficulties as Kendrick.
With the gnolls taking the worst of it, particularly from Tesrae, a couple tried to flee. Kendrick, recovering his speed, tackled one and held him for Tesrae to gut. Cat and Pale stopped the other one. A quick looting netted some gold and platinum coins as well as a nice golden amulet.
Exploring more of the tunnels (some of them very long, burrowing into the mountain that hides Suderham), they next came to a natural cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites. A door was visible across the room. They decided to take a peek behind some of the larger stalagmites on the way to the door and found that stalactites could detatch from the ceiling to drop on them. They were attacked by piercers. Both Kendrick and Tesrae were hit before they managed to escape. At first, the heroes ran for the door across the room, but Kendrick soon found it was a false door. Pale noticed that there was another door exiting the room hidden behind a large stalagmite and not in view of the original doorway in. They ran for that one and managed to escape without anybody being killed, though there were serious injuries.
Wary now of false doors, the party soldiered on into the tunnel, following a very long one deeper into the mountain. As the tunnel turned a corner, they heard growling noises. Pale peeked around the corner and saw a few large dire hyenas being fed, apparently, by gnolls with meat buckets. The fight was joined in earnest.
Pale tried to charm one of the hyenas first, but it shook off his control. Kendrick ran forward to attack with Pale on his heels. The hyenas surged forward ahead of the gnolls and proved to be formidable indeed. Tesrae came forward to back up the other two and cat pounced at one of the hyenas. The hyenas seemed, for a brief while, to be unstoppable, using their strength and size and wicked jaws to great effect with bone-crunching bites. Nobody's defenses seemed up to the task of denying their powerful attacks.
Tesrae started putting her all into her attacks, swinging strongly but wildly. The tactic worked and one by one, the hyenas fell, but at tremendous cost. Pale was forced to retreat and heal both himself and Tesrae. Kendrick dashed away to head off the gnolls trying to flee the scene (after the second hyena fell).
The last hyena managed to take Tesrae down, alive though badly hurt. Pale responded with a flaming sphere, burning the hyena and sending it fleeing. Kendrick, in the hyena's way, took another severe bite, nearly being killed in the process, before the flaming sphere followed the hyena and laid it low. Cat and Pale finished off the last two gnolls and saved both Tesrae and Kendrick.
The heroes decided it was time to stop and rest, hopefully bringing in more strength to continue the exploration of the tunnels.
Next: More Riddles in the Drachensgrab Caves
As they kept to the left wall, they found as they moved farther in that there were more signs of workmanship and a drying of the caves. Eventually, they found a chamber cut out of the rock. In it, leaning in the corner, were a pair of 10' long, 2' wide strips of thick hide, so thick and tough that Tesrae initially believed it was bark. Pale was able to determine it was a hide from some thick-skinned creature.
Leaving the mystery of the strips behind, they travelled up a corridor with a door at its end, but some space before the door, the floor opened up underneath Kendrick and Tesrae and they fell into a pit. The pit led to a slide whose floor was covered with a granular substance. Kendrick slid away out of sight but Tesrae managed to roll to the side and arrest her slide with the help of Pale's rope.
As Kendrick slid away into darkness, he saw phosphorescent fungus on the walls zoom by. The granular substance, spraying in his face, seemed to be salt. And shortly, he spilled out into a chamber populated by armed gnolls. As he got to his feet, he found that something had happened in the slide and he was unable to move with his customary speed. He was quickly beset with gnolls hewing at him with axes.
Meanwhile, Tesrae tied on Pale's rope and performed a controlled slide down the salt. She came out and went to Kendrick's aid. Pale transformed into a cat and jumped down onto the salt slide with Cat to help out. Tesrae felt some effect but managed to shake off any slowing effect and was able to fight with full effectiveness. When they eventually arrived, Pale and Cat were also showing the same difficulties as Kendrick.
With the gnolls taking the worst of it, particularly from Tesrae, a couple tried to flee. Kendrick, recovering his speed, tackled one and held him for Tesrae to gut. Cat and Pale stopped the other one. A quick looting netted some gold and platinum coins as well as a nice golden amulet.
Exploring more of the tunnels (some of them very long, burrowing into the mountain that hides Suderham), they next came to a natural cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites. A door was visible across the room. They decided to take a peek behind some of the larger stalagmites on the way to the door and found that stalactites could detatch from the ceiling to drop on them. They were attacked by piercers. Both Kendrick and Tesrae were hit before they managed to escape. At first, the heroes ran for the door across the room, but Kendrick soon found it was a false door. Pale noticed that there was another door exiting the room hidden behind a large stalagmite and not in view of the original doorway in. They ran for that one and managed to escape without anybody being killed, though there were serious injuries.
Wary now of false doors, the party soldiered on into the tunnel, following a very long one deeper into the mountain. As the tunnel turned a corner, they heard growling noises. Pale peeked around the corner and saw a few large dire hyenas being fed, apparently, by gnolls with meat buckets. The fight was joined in earnest.
Pale tried to charm one of the hyenas first, but it shook off his control. Kendrick ran forward to attack with Pale on his heels. The hyenas surged forward ahead of the gnolls and proved to be formidable indeed. Tesrae came forward to back up the other two and cat pounced at one of the hyenas. The hyenas seemed, for a brief while, to be unstoppable, using their strength and size and wicked jaws to great effect with bone-crunching bites. Nobody's defenses seemed up to the task of denying their powerful attacks.
Tesrae started putting her all into her attacks, swinging strongly but wildly. The tactic worked and one by one, the hyenas fell, but at tremendous cost. Pale was forced to retreat and heal both himself and Tesrae. Kendrick dashed away to head off the gnolls trying to flee the scene (after the second hyena fell).
The last hyena managed to take Tesrae down, alive though badly hurt. Pale responded with a flaming sphere, burning the hyena and sending it fleeing. Kendrick, in the hyena's way, took another severe bite, nearly being killed in the process, before the flaming sphere followed the hyena and laid it low. Cat and Pale finished off the last two gnolls and saved both Tesrae and Kendrick.
The heroes decided it was time to stop and rest, hopefully bringing in more strength to continue the exploration of the tunnels.
Next: More Riddles in the Drachensgrab Caves
posted by Bill D91 at 9:12 AM
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