mines | Dungeon DuTchess

Two days after their return from the mind flayer tower, Phaedra is summoned to the Matron Mother’s chambers. With a clipped

What are you still doing here? Didn’t I make myself clear enough? Was there anything you didn’t understand perhaps?

Lady Thandysha expresses her displeasure.

My apologies, Matron Mother, I will leave immediately!

Phaedra rushes off, in search of her siblings. She orders Jharrath and Alvra to meet her at the front door, fully packed, while she waits for Lilith to finish her reverie. Together they walk towards the gate.

The Council, convened by archmage Velifane, is trying to work on the prophecy through scrying. The Matron Mother has a another, very good idea though. On the prophecy scroll were traces of darklight ore, and it must have been a significant amount. There used to be an old darklight ore mine, west of the city. Lady Thandysha wants us to search for clues there. It is an inactive, collapsed and unstable mine. A long while ago, close to a century, a deep dragon named Vaterian tried to expand the mine, which resulted in a cave-in. a real setback, since we used to be on good terms with Vaterian.

Soon they pass the gates of Erelhei-Cinlu and turn right towards the west. As soon as they are out of sight of the wall, Alvra puts on a mask. The dark green material covers the upper half of his face, and it is adorned with decorations. Phaedra asks her brother what the mask is for.

It should help me against mental attacks. I survived hitting our sister once in confusion, but I don’t think I will make it a second time.

Though the Xaniqos travel through an area they haven’t been to before, the scout really knows how to find her way. After a couple of hours, they pass a big stone in the middle of the path. It has deep gouges on eye level – fresh, by the looks of it. The scratches seem to be made by the claws of animals. Phaedra scans her whereabouts wearily.

Finally they arrive at a cave complex. Most are filled up with sand, but one looks like a mine entrance, sixty feet up. Phaedra eyes the unstable surface, and decides to climb with speed. The stones start to slide, but the nimble drow succeeds without any problems. By the pieces of rotten wood, rusted pickaxes, gravel and stones, she knows she’s in the right spot. At the top of the slope is a small opening, and in the dust she sees tracks of two-footed humanoids.

Cave

After signalling to her brothers and sister to come up, Phaedra cautiously enters the cave. After a few steps, the ground suddenly gives way and only her excellent reflexes prevent her from falling into a fifty feet deep gap.

Catching her bearings, Phaedra walks back towards the entrance. She notices that the others are struggling to reach the top. She takes out her rope, digs herself in and throws the other end towards the cleric. With her sister’s help, Lilith manages to climb up the hill. The males arrive soon after, Alvra’s gnashing armor somewhat dented, while the wizard’s robe is torn.

The drow make their way into the dark entrance. Where Phaedra easily passes the pitfall, the fighter takes his time. Slowly but surely he makes it across the gap. This is not an option for the cleric in her heavy armor. She takes it off, hands the pieces to Jharrath and jumps the ten feet after a run-up. After activating his boots, the wizard and the cleric’s armor appear on the other side as well, and, aided by her sister, Lilith is soon back to her full-plated self.

After a night at the inn – spent in prayer by most – the Xaniqos have a light breakfast. Lilith admonishes her Wizard brother to use his spells wisely and with care; the same goes for the use of his wands. No more holding back on possible solutions to the Delver problem! The inn keeper smirks at the foursome. Alvra tells his siblings that a delver can be bribed, but the best thing would be to just kill it. Attack with anything but acid. The fighter is dressed in a shaggy leather outfit and has an ample supply of javelins. The others have also obtained extra weapons and simple armor.

When they meet with Murgol, the miner does nothing to conceal his doubt about the party’s abilities. When he laughs in their faces, Lilith turns on her heels and tells him they are going back into town, leaving the dwarf behind. The fighter assures the Cleric there are other merchants who sell lizards at the market… but apparently no fighting lizards! The only lizards for sale are pack lizards and a group of six meek lizards that won’t fight, even if someone is standing on their tail. The only sensible thing to do is to go back to Murgol and fulfill their contract.

They head back to the mine, but Murgol is not available. As far as the Duergar miners know, no other group has been hired to clean the mines yet. The Xaniqos return to the inn, but their access is denied. We won’t lodge oath breakers, Ivar tells them, surrounded by armed dwarves. The Drow take their gear and once again find their way to the mine, where they will wait for the dwarf. When they arrive, Murgol is just closing the mine with a long, magically imbued chain. About sixty dwarves are busy laying spells of warding and explosions. Lilith steps up to Murgol, using her diplomatic skills on him, and tells him that they are ready to finish the deal now. Murgol nods. It has to be done tonight, for I have found another group of adventurers who want to help me out with this delver.

The Drow enter the mine and make their way towards to the place where they first encountered the beast. With the help of her deity, the Cleric shields her sister and brothers, while the Wizard summons an earth elemental. Jharrath orders the creaure to start stamping on the floor. And the calling seems to work: soon the delver appears, breaking through a wall, and attacks the summoned creature. Alvra nimbly steps aside and throws a bottle at the monster’s head, which is still scorched by yesterday’s fire ball. The bottle explodes. After two more elemental attacks, damage from a deific vengeance attack by Lilith, plus more fire damage by Alvra, the delver starts to disappear into the stone again. Jharrath casts a zone of black rubbery tentacles and tries to grapple the delver, but it is too huge. He manages to slow the creature down though.

Suddenly the Cleric’s appearance changes: she grows eight tentacles, resembling a yochlol, handmaiden of the Spider Queen Lolth. And though she looks a lot less appealing, her resistance to acid is a big bonus.

Lilith throws a dark flame of fire towards the delver and an almost human cry of pain echoes through the tunnels. The monster advances on the Drow, and the Wizard hurls a fire ball at it. The delver burns, and with it, Jharrath’s brother Alvra. The fighter cries out mad to Jharrath and takes a step back, surrounding himself with faerie fire to mislead their attacker. The delver goes for the Cleric and scores a hit, but luckily this time her armor survives. She counterattacks with her eight tentacles and hits the beast four times. Phaedra steps forward and whips her spare spike chain… which dissolves. Jharrath warns his siblings to stay clear and calls down great magical hail stones. The delver is looking worse and worse. Maddened it goes for Alvra and Lilith, and both get hit and lose their armor. The Cleric tells the beast to retreat, but it won’t. The Scout takes out her crossbow and steps back.

With a bit of ashes, the Wizard creates a Kellgore’s firebolt and sends it towards the monster. I can’t keep this up, Jharrath hears it say, must go back to the master! When he asks it who its master is, there is no reply. Alvra pulls back, while Lilith attacks with two tentacles and a spell that inflicts moderate wounds. When both hit, the delver tries to get away. Phaedra chases after it, but her bolts won’t penetrate the hide of the delver. A fire ball does though. The delver is no more.