The next battle report from our ongoing campaign....
Battle Report 5: The Lost MinersAfter battling through the spider den to rescue their captured comrades, the party returned to the town of Ostgate to heal their wounds and to bury their three fallen comrades.
While in town they replenished their numbers by adding new members to their party: a travelling wizard known at Catherine the Shunned, a somewhat unbalanced flagellant named Tuval, and Menk Blackthorne, a self-described “Adventuring Specialist”. However, the rumors among the locals described him less flatteringly as a cunning and dangerous rogue.
After gathering their strength and resupplying, the group decided to return to the now-empty spider den to investigate the mysterious set of stairs they had discovered deep within the web covered caverns.
The party now consisted of:
Dargor Ironhelm – Dwarf Noble
Erol Otis – Wizard at Large
Erasmus Voltoc – Warrior Priest
Menk Blackthorne – Rogue
Hazkal Okri – Dwarf Engineer
Maximus – Pit Fighter
Elrond – Elf Shadow Warrior
Tuval – Flagellant
Jade the Bitter – Amazon Champion
Gabby the Wraith – Amazon Scout
Hagar the Merciless – Norse Berserker
Catherine “Cat” the Shunned - Wizard
The party advances on the stairs and enters an unexplored portion of the caverns.
Advancing cautiously down the darkened passageway they discover more spider webs. However, beyond a few small lurking arachnids they thankfully aren’t set upon by their larger cousins.
Dargor hears faint conversation in the dwarven language echoing from the passageway ahead. He quietly motions for the party to follow him to its source.
The group emerges into a larger cavern and sees what appears to be the remnants of a dormant mining operation.
On the far side of the cavern the party spots the source of the conversation which Dargor heard earlier: a group of dwarf miners has barricaded themselves behind a makeshift defensive wall.
A brief conversation with the dwarves reveals that they are what remains of a mining expedition sent into these abandoned mines to determine whether enough mineral value remains to successfully reopen them. The dwarves hadn’t been working at their task very long before they were attacked by unseen beasts from the shadows. They lost a number of their companions already and now their expedition leader has also been killed, leaving the expedition log book lost somewhere out in the mine. They implore the adventurers to help find the lost log book and to drive off the mysterious attackers.
Accepting this mission, the party splits up to continue searching through the mine.
Only a few moments pass before they are set upon by fast-moving creatures out of the darkness – vile ratmen and several giant rats!
Erasmus the warrior priest loudly recites a prayer of battle as he engages the foul beasts.
In a blur of fur and teeth, the ratmen quickly scurry over the terrain, attacking the party from all sides.
Maximus, Tuval, and Dargor hold off a large wave of foes…
…while Jade is busy fending off a giant rat that is desperately trying to gnaw her legs off.
Elrond leaps dramatically onto an ore cart with the intention of riding it straight into the teeth of the enemy. However, its rusty wheels refuse to move and he has to quickly reconsider his plan of attack.
Hoping to outflank the enemy by running through a side chamber, Hagar and Menk are caught up in their own fight in the neighboring passageway.
More ratmen swarm from the darkness and begin peppering the adventurers with arrows.
Striking down the enemies in front of them, part of the group pushes further down the passageway.
Around the next corner Hazkal the engineer spots a rat feasting on the body of the fallen mining expedition leader. He rushes up to dispatch the creature and retrieve the log book.
Meanwhile, as she scouts down a nearby tunnel Gabby hears strange noises emanating out from a dim tunnel. To her horror she suddenly discovers the source of the noise when an enormous rat ogre emerges from around the corner.
The rat ogre smashes Gabby aside without breaking stride and she slumps to the ground, out of action. Catherine the wizard summons forth an ethereal sword and charges into the rat ogre and its handler. However, the creature’s pace does not slow and it barges past her into the large cavern and heads straight towards the dwarven mining expedition.
Having eliminated most of the other attackers, the rest of the adventurers all begin sprinting back to save the mining expedition from almost certain destruction at the claws of the vile rat ogre.
Erol Otis summons forth a fireball from the ether and sends it screaming across the cavern to explode into the back of the charging rat ogre.
However, this is not enough to stop the creature and it crashes into the dwarven miners.
Catherine the wizard rushes in and slashes at the rat ogre from behind. Her attack hits home, but she is then quickly smashed to the ground. Undeterred, the monster rushes around the barricade while more ratmen charge forth from nearby corridors.
Elrond leads the charge of the remaining adventurers as they come to the rescue and bring their blades to bear on the creature.
After wounding the creature Elrond is knocked to the ground and nearly meets his doom beneath the abomination’s claws. Only a quirk of fate (expending his Fate points) allows him to avoid a sudden end to his adventuring career.
At last their weight of numbers allows the determined warriors to push back the foul beast, and Hagar slays him with a final mighty blow from his sword.
Gabby was the only adventurer to not remain standing at the end of the fight. She appeared for a time to be on the brink of death but was able to pull through, although suffering from multiple injuries (expended her Might points to reroll a “dead” result and instead got “multiple injuries”).
After catching their breath the party returned the log book to the very grateful members of the mining expedition. To show their thanks the miners rewarded the adventurers with what loot they could spare as well as several pieces of gold ore. They also agreed to share their map of the mine and point out the safest route back to the surface.
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April 19, 2024, 05:39:32 AM
May 19, 2010, 02:03:58 PM
