D&D Adventures
Teh Orly playing as El Chingoso Muy Grande, Unaligned Male Tiefling Fighter, Level 1
Miguel playing as Aramil, Good Male Eladrin Cleric, Level 1
Roland playing as Warlord Bananamancake Prime, Good Male Dragonborn Warlord, Level 1
Paul playing as DM, Level ∞.
And hilarity ensued.
Rolled characters from 4:30 - 10 PM. Printed out a 1st Level adventure called “The Burning Plague” and played through the first encounter (until 12:30 AM Monday).
LOG 1 - Sunday, June 8, 2008
Started play off with a zombie attack (single). This was to let the basics of combat sink in (El Chingoso Muy Grande critical failed on initiative, and so started the fight lying prone on the floor). Started the story at the entrance to a silver mine in a valley (called Duvik’s Pass) ravaged by THE BURNING PLAGUE! DM read (in a badly done faux Russian accent) a hearsay account of the townspeople’s history and their current plight of hideous infection and missing miners.
After arguing who would hold the torch (duty fell to the only one requiring a good light, Warlord Bananamancake Prime), the party walked into the mine. Nothing of note in the entrance tunnel aside from the miner’s dropped tools. Aramil wanted to keep the hammers and pickaxes and resell them in town. DM pointed out that the equipment already belonged to the families in town. (“But wouldn’t they want to own the last possessions of their loved one, no matter the price?”) The party proceeded further into the mine, sans mining tools.
The 10 ft x 60 ft tunnel widened into a small foyer in the mine (25 ft x 25 ft) with exits being the entrance tunnel they had just walked in from, a door to the west, and a second tunnel sloping downward to the east. Two overturned mine carts were the only things of note in the room, that and the lower half of a body protruding from beneath one of carts. Warlord Bananamancake Prime rifled through the pocket’s of the body (“I’m looking for clues!”). Although he found nothing in the pockets of the miner, he did pick up two chunks of silver ore that had fallen from the cart. Unfortunately, he did not perceive the trap wire attached to the cart he was disturbing, letting fall the attached Thunderstone hidden in the ceiling. Warlord Bananamancake Prime was able to avoid being deafened by a quick reaction and successful leap, but the loud trap had alerted the Kobold band in all nearby areas of the mine. Aramil checked the second cart and found nothing but additional ore, which he did not disturb.
After quick discussion on what direction to try next, Aramil won trying the west door over Warlord Bananamancake Prime’s desire for the eastern tunnel by agreeing to carry the torch. Upon opening the door, Aramil was immediately shot at by four Kobolds who had readied crossbows from behind an overturned table across the large room which seemed to be the miner’s Galley. No shots were able to pierce Aramil, as the distance was still too much for the crossbows to be very accurate or powerful. El Chingoso Muy Grande dashed into the Galley, granting the Kobolds combat opportunity and bringing him closer into their range. Clearly meaning to be a diversion for the rest of the party to enter the room safely, El Chingoso Muy Grande taunted the Kobolds with a variety of poses. One of the Kobolds was able to hit their mark and El Chingoso Muy Grande took damage with an enduring smirk while he continued to pose. Aramil edged around the north wall of the room, just out of crossbow range. Warlord Bananamancake Prime moved into the Galley last, five feet behind El Chingoso Muy Grande to prevent all but the most guided of crossbolts from striking him.
Having done enough distracting, El Chingoso Muy Grande dashed forward and hefted his spiked maul at the second Kobold peeking above the covering table. He missed. Critically. The Kobold target attempted to take advantage with a crossbolt to the face, but the shot glanced off El Chingoso Muy Grande’s armor. The other Kobolds also fired at him, but being in such close range proved disadvantageous as their ranged shots were not given enough time to aim properly at such a vigorous target. Aramil closed in on the fray and slayed his Kobold target with a one well aimed holy strike. Warlord Bananamancake Prime stepped in, once again using El Chingoso Muy Grande as cover, and used his Dragonborn Lighting Breath ability in an enlarged blast against the remaining Kobolds. The lightning struck all around El Chingoso Muy Grande and precisely pierced the enemy combatants, effectively ending the encounter.
LOG 2 - Saturday, June 14, 2008
Four Kobolds struck down in the Galley. Warlord Bananamancake Prime stood guard elsewhere while Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande investigated a small tunnel offshoot in the north east corner. It ran 20 ft north and ended at a locked wooden door. El Chingoso Muy Grande struck the door dead center with his maul. The door was bashed to the strength of cardboard. It is completely gone after a subsequent blow. El Chingoso Muy Grande lead the way into the narrow room while Aramil followed closely behind with the torchlight.
As soon as they stepped into what appeared to be the mining crew’s Larder, Kobolds hidden behind a set of barrels at the far end of the room pulled a ripcord that tore the bottoms off hanging bags of flour, which release their contents above the heads of the adventurers. The floating flour cloud obscured vision through the first 40 ft of the Larder, the 15 ft width of which already effectively cut down to a 10 ft corridor due to the shelves of foodstuffs along both sides of the room. El Chingoso Muy Grande, weapon readied, marched in the direction of the perceived Kobold voices, Aramil beside him. The Kobolds fired volleys of crossbolts once the two were in range. El Chingoso Muy Grande was unaffected by these missiles and leapt atop the barrels from which the Kobolds hid behind. Though he has come clear out of the cloud of flour, already settling behind him, he was clearly still affected, as the only thing his swinging maul accomplished was slightly intimidating the enemy. This seemed to be effective enough, as the Kobolds misfire and hit sacks of supplies around the Larder but not any of the party. Aramil used a fervent prayer and strikes three Kobolds dead. The remaining two reptilian antagonists fell to El Chingoso Muy Grande’s increasingly accurate cleaving.
Suddenly, from out of the still clearing cloud of flour launched a DIRE WEASEL! A pet brought into the mine by the Kobold band, it attacked Aramil with a vicious Bite and Blood Drain! Aramil’s vitality was draining quickly and he had become infected with THE BURNING PLAGUE! El Chingoso Muy Grande attempted three furious strikes in the blink of an eye, but the weasel was nimble and the closeness of Aramil made it difficult for any attack to hit. Aramil was able to dispatch the creature himself with a cleansing stroke of his longsword and immediately felt some of his vitality returning.
Watchful of any further attacks, Aramil stood behind El Chingoso Muy Grande as the Tiefling Fighter (“Oh, so you’re a Tie-Fighter.”) forced open the third-most of six barrels in the Larder. They found it full of very flammable lamp oil and were careful to keep their torch away. They moved on to the second barrel, which contained jerky, likely infected since it showed much wear and nibbling from RATS WHICH LEAPT OUT TO ATTACK!
After some rounds of clearing out the agile pests, and suffering further infectious bites, both El Chingoso Muy Grande and Aramil both have become afflicted with THE BURNING PLAGUE. Aramil shares his rudimentary knowledge of THE BURNING PLAGUE, knowing that they have but twenty-four hours before the first serious symptoms would begin hampering their efforts. Determined to investigate the remains of the Larder, El Chingoso Muy Grande opened barrel number four. It was half-drained of its ale content, apparently the drink of choice for miners and Kobolds. Moving to barrel five, El Chingoso Muy Grande found the aged and tattered remains of cheese wheels and wax paper, as well as RATS BITING AND CRAWLING OUT OF THE BARREL TO ATTACK! The rats were dispatched with precision and probably more than necessary aggression.
While hunting in the cheese barrel for any furry stragglers, El Chingoso Muy Grande noticed the inside of the barrel volume did not reach the floor properly. He forced open this false bottom and handed a sack Aramil from therein. Inside the sack is a moonstone, a gold brooch inlaid with jade, three pieces of moss agate, twenty-four gold pieces, and a vial of what Aramil determines to be invisibility potion (no doubt one of the tools whatever miner-thief used to obtain the adjacent goods). Aramil kept hold of the sack of semi-precious stones and gave El Chingoso Muy Grande the vial for use in future skirmishes. A thorough search of barrel six revealed nothing more than preserving salt. Barrel one yielded a store of quality wine, likely a gift to the miners from town merchants, one unaffable to their tastes as the cask was quite full. Aramil searched for any available bottles in the area. Finding none, the party decided to carry both the wine and lamp oil barrels with them. El Chingoso Muy Grande devised his own torch by cutting five feet off his hemp rope, dousing it in the lamp oil, and setting it alight once it was securely wrapped around his maul. Aramil put out his own torch.
The adventurers traveled back to the Greeting Room with the two overturned carts from before and delved down the sloping eastern tunnel. At the last ten feet, the incline of the tunnel became steeper before opening into a large natural cavern. El Chingoso Muy Grande tramped up to the cave entrance and promptly triggered a pitfall trap. Aramil was able to stop himself at the pit’s edge. El Chingoso Muy Grande took damage in his 20 ft fall, but not enough to hinder his efforts in throw his maul-torch over into the cavern on the other side of the pit. After two failed attempts to do so, his maul-torch went out.
Aramil lowered a rope and braced himself as El Chingoso Muy Grande climbed out of the pit, on the side away from the cave. In the darkness, El Chingoso Muy Grande carefully lit his maul with another 5 ft of rope (40 ft remaining). Now with enough light to move purposefully forward, Aramil used his Fey Step to pass over the pit and step into the cavern proper. El Chingoso Muy Grande carried both barrels tied to his body, and used a running leap to attempt to cross the pit mouth. He lost his footing at the pit’s edge and tumbled once again into the hole, losing the barrel of lamp oil in the process, though thankfully not setting it afire with his makeshift torch, which once again had gone out. Aramil had sight of him by enough to lower his rope and help his companion into the cave.
Spying several glinting veins of silver by the low-light of glowing blue lichen, the cavern is clearly where the miner’s did most of their work. It was an area deep within the bowels of the mountain, a natural cavity with stalagmites wider than any man’s girth. The ceiling loomed more than a 100 ft above, and the cavern floor took up no less than 80 ft x 100 ft itself. On the far side of the cave lay two wellsprings of interest, a ground-level tunnel slanting further down the mountainside, and a hollow dug into the cavern wall about 20 ft up. Climbing cables were pitoned into the wall below the hollow for access.
El Chingoso Muy Grande set down the remaining barrel of wine, deciding it would fare better at the base if the hollow proved dangerous. While barely halfway up, Kobold crossbolts rained down upon him and struck! El Chingoso Muy Grande set forth with a Second Wind and raced to the top amid the hail of Kobold fire. After a moment’s confusion with the climbing cables, Aramil began ascent to give aid to his companion, already at the hollow mouth and beset upon by the remaining plague-sickened reserves of the Kobold band. Upon reaching the top, Aramil hurled mightily upon the boots of El Chingoso Muy Grande. El Chingoso Muy Grande’s fighting spirit redoubled, doubtlessly due to the compassionate purpose of defending his ailing compatriot.
The Kobold band was numbered nine, including their leader M’Dok, who tensely watched from the rear of the hollow. His slitherlings stepped back to fire upon the adventurers with bolt after bolt of crossbow rain, but to no avail. Within a few seconds, only three of the reptilian troops remained standing. M’Dok cried out for the battle to cease and for his lizardfellows to drop their weapons! He pleaded with the Cleric and Fighter to show mercy, and told of how he and his band were merely defending themselves against what they had thought to be bandit agents of the Demon Dwelling in the Deep.
“Vast is his treasure and I more than willingly cede our stake in it to you noble fellows. Please only allow what remains of my band, my blood-sworn brothers and my helpless two children to leave this cursed place!” M’Dok brought forth his young brood from where he had hidden them in a secret room at the end of the hollow.
Though he believed not a word of M’Dok’s claimed innocence, Aramil took pity on the two younglings and allowed the band to leave. To their credit, the Kobolds did not look back. After securing their immediate area, the group took an extended rest. Aramil meditated while on watch, while El Chingoso Muy Grande slept and regained vitality.
Knowing they had only hours left before the full effects of THE BURNING PLAGUE were upon them, the adventurers pressed on through the tunnel under the mountain. The glowing lichen on the walls lent them enough light to travel without becoming bright torchlight targets. Stifling heat emanated from a chamber at the tunnel’s end. Though El Chingoso Muy Grande was unaffected by the heat, he put down the remaining cask of wine, careful to not let whatever heat source affected the room bring it to fiery ruin. Peering into the round chamber, El Chingoso Muy Grande and Aramil were astounded at the sheer number of festering, blistered corpses. The bodies of most of the miners and even some of M’Dok’s Kobold band have been dragged here, their final fate to be nibbled by rats, whom themselves fell in turn into twitching piles of decadent death. The decomposing stacks were adding heat to the room yes, but the smell of dark magic was in the air, and Aramil believed that these desecrated denizens of the mine were merely the ingredients for whatever continuing curse caused THE BURNING PLAGUE.
Once Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande stepped over the threshold to investigate further, eight undead sentries crawled out from between the body piles, ready to snap the intruders’ bones and add their corpses to the sickening scene. The far exit now seemed leagues away as the lurching lurkers shuffle ever closer, half of the group Kobold, half human.
Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande braced themselves for attack at the chamber entrance. El Chingoso Muy Grande’s plan of combusting the zombies with wine and torches was put out of mind when they were all too quickly pressed into close combat. The undead opponents proved scores tougher than the plague-weakened foes the group had culled previously. Proving to be faster and more dexterous than first appraised, Aramil and El Chingoso were flanked from nearly every side, but were able to keep up defenses. Warlord Bananamancake Prime joined the fray from the tunnel behind, lending his wisdom and Dragonborn Lightning Breath to weaken several zombies to shambling, ichored states. Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande were able to make shorter work of them and the sweltering room was cleared of immediate dangers.
All the stronger for the experience, the travelers prepared themselves, determined to use their oft practiced and perfected exploits and sacred prayers to maximum potential for the inevitable confrontation with the Demon Dwelling in the Deep.
Miguel playing as Aramil, Good Male Eladrin Cleric, Level 1
Roland playing as Warlord Bananamancake Prime, Good Male Dragonborn Warlord, Level 1
Paul playing as DM, Level ∞.
And hilarity ensued.
Rolled characters from 4:30 - 10 PM. Printed out a 1st Level adventure called “The Burning Plague” and played through the first encounter (until 12:30 AM Monday).
LOG 1 - Sunday, June 8, 2008
Started play off with a zombie attack (single). This was to let the basics of combat sink in (El Chingoso Muy Grande critical failed on initiative, and so started the fight lying prone on the floor). Started the story at the entrance to a silver mine in a valley (called Duvik’s Pass) ravaged by THE BURNING PLAGUE! DM read (in a badly done faux Russian accent) a hearsay account of the townspeople’s history and their current plight of hideous infection and missing miners.
After arguing who would hold the torch (duty fell to the only one requiring a good light, Warlord Bananamancake Prime), the party walked into the mine. Nothing of note in the entrance tunnel aside from the miner’s dropped tools. Aramil wanted to keep the hammers and pickaxes and resell them in town. DM pointed out that the equipment already belonged to the families in town. (“But wouldn’t they want to own the last possessions of their loved one, no matter the price?”) The party proceeded further into the mine, sans mining tools.
The 10 ft x 60 ft tunnel widened into a small foyer in the mine (25 ft x 25 ft) with exits being the entrance tunnel they had just walked in from, a door to the west, and a second tunnel sloping downward to the east. Two overturned mine carts were the only things of note in the room, that and the lower half of a body protruding from beneath one of carts. Warlord Bananamancake Prime rifled through the pocket’s of the body (“I’m looking for clues!”). Although he found nothing in the pockets of the miner, he did pick up two chunks of silver ore that had fallen from the cart. Unfortunately, he did not perceive the trap wire attached to the cart he was disturbing, letting fall the attached Thunderstone hidden in the ceiling. Warlord Bananamancake Prime was able to avoid being deafened by a quick reaction and successful leap, but the loud trap had alerted the Kobold band in all nearby areas of the mine. Aramil checked the second cart and found nothing but additional ore, which he did not disturb.
After quick discussion on what direction to try next, Aramil won trying the west door over Warlord Bananamancake Prime’s desire for the eastern tunnel by agreeing to carry the torch. Upon opening the door, Aramil was immediately shot at by four Kobolds who had readied crossbows from behind an overturned table across the large room which seemed to be the miner’s Galley. No shots were able to pierce Aramil, as the distance was still too much for the crossbows to be very accurate or powerful. El Chingoso Muy Grande dashed into the Galley, granting the Kobolds combat opportunity and bringing him closer into their range. Clearly meaning to be a diversion for the rest of the party to enter the room safely, El Chingoso Muy Grande taunted the Kobolds with a variety of poses. One of the Kobolds was able to hit their mark and El Chingoso Muy Grande took damage with an enduring smirk while he continued to pose. Aramil edged around the north wall of the room, just out of crossbow range. Warlord Bananamancake Prime moved into the Galley last, five feet behind El Chingoso Muy Grande to prevent all but the most guided of crossbolts from striking him.
Having done enough distracting, El Chingoso Muy Grande dashed forward and hefted his spiked maul at the second Kobold peeking above the covering table. He missed. Critically. The Kobold target attempted to take advantage with a crossbolt to the face, but the shot glanced off El Chingoso Muy Grande’s armor. The other Kobolds also fired at him, but being in such close range proved disadvantageous as their ranged shots were not given enough time to aim properly at such a vigorous target. Aramil closed in on the fray and slayed his Kobold target with a one well aimed holy strike. Warlord Bananamancake Prime stepped in, once again using El Chingoso Muy Grande as cover, and used his Dragonborn Lighting Breath ability in an enlarged blast against the remaining Kobolds. The lightning struck all around El Chingoso Muy Grande and precisely pierced the enemy combatants, effectively ending the encounter.
LOG 2 - Saturday, June 14, 2008
Four Kobolds struck down in the Galley. Warlord Bananamancake Prime stood guard elsewhere while Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande investigated a small tunnel offshoot in the north east corner. It ran 20 ft north and ended at a locked wooden door. El Chingoso Muy Grande struck the door dead center with his maul. The door was bashed to the strength of cardboard. It is completely gone after a subsequent blow. El Chingoso Muy Grande lead the way into the narrow room while Aramil followed closely behind with the torchlight.
As soon as they stepped into what appeared to be the mining crew’s Larder, Kobolds hidden behind a set of barrels at the far end of the room pulled a ripcord that tore the bottoms off hanging bags of flour, which release their contents above the heads of the adventurers. The floating flour cloud obscured vision through the first 40 ft of the Larder, the 15 ft width of which already effectively cut down to a 10 ft corridor due to the shelves of foodstuffs along both sides of the room. El Chingoso Muy Grande, weapon readied, marched in the direction of the perceived Kobold voices, Aramil beside him. The Kobolds fired volleys of crossbolts once the two were in range. El Chingoso Muy Grande was unaffected by these missiles and leapt atop the barrels from which the Kobolds hid behind. Though he has come clear out of the cloud of flour, already settling behind him, he was clearly still affected, as the only thing his swinging maul accomplished was slightly intimidating the enemy. This seemed to be effective enough, as the Kobolds misfire and hit sacks of supplies around the Larder but not any of the party. Aramil used a fervent prayer and strikes three Kobolds dead. The remaining two reptilian antagonists fell to El Chingoso Muy Grande’s increasingly accurate cleaving.
Suddenly, from out of the still clearing cloud of flour launched a DIRE WEASEL! A pet brought into the mine by the Kobold band, it attacked Aramil with a vicious Bite and Blood Drain! Aramil’s vitality was draining quickly and he had become infected with THE BURNING PLAGUE! El Chingoso Muy Grande attempted three furious strikes in the blink of an eye, but the weasel was nimble and the closeness of Aramil made it difficult for any attack to hit. Aramil was able to dispatch the creature himself with a cleansing stroke of his longsword and immediately felt some of his vitality returning.
Watchful of any further attacks, Aramil stood behind El Chingoso Muy Grande as the Tiefling Fighter (“Oh, so you’re a Tie-Fighter.”) forced open the third-most of six barrels in the Larder. They found it full of very flammable lamp oil and were careful to keep their torch away. They moved on to the second barrel, which contained jerky, likely infected since it showed much wear and nibbling from RATS WHICH LEAPT OUT TO ATTACK!
After some rounds of clearing out the agile pests, and suffering further infectious bites, both El Chingoso Muy Grande and Aramil both have become afflicted with THE BURNING PLAGUE. Aramil shares his rudimentary knowledge of THE BURNING PLAGUE, knowing that they have but twenty-four hours before the first serious symptoms would begin hampering their efforts. Determined to investigate the remains of the Larder, El Chingoso Muy Grande opened barrel number four. It was half-drained of its ale content, apparently the drink of choice for miners and Kobolds. Moving to barrel five, El Chingoso Muy Grande found the aged and tattered remains of cheese wheels and wax paper, as well as RATS BITING AND CRAWLING OUT OF THE BARREL TO ATTACK! The rats were dispatched with precision and probably more than necessary aggression.
While hunting in the cheese barrel for any furry stragglers, El Chingoso Muy Grande noticed the inside of the barrel volume did not reach the floor properly. He forced open this false bottom and handed a sack Aramil from therein. Inside the sack is a moonstone, a gold brooch inlaid with jade, three pieces of moss agate, twenty-four gold pieces, and a vial of what Aramil determines to be invisibility potion (no doubt one of the tools whatever miner-thief used to obtain the adjacent goods). Aramil kept hold of the sack of semi-precious stones and gave El Chingoso Muy Grande the vial for use in future skirmishes. A thorough search of barrel six revealed nothing more than preserving salt. Barrel one yielded a store of quality wine, likely a gift to the miners from town merchants, one unaffable to their tastes as the cask was quite full. Aramil searched for any available bottles in the area. Finding none, the party decided to carry both the wine and lamp oil barrels with them. El Chingoso Muy Grande devised his own torch by cutting five feet off his hemp rope, dousing it in the lamp oil, and setting it alight once it was securely wrapped around his maul. Aramil put out his own torch.
The adventurers traveled back to the Greeting Room with the two overturned carts from before and delved down the sloping eastern tunnel. At the last ten feet, the incline of the tunnel became steeper before opening into a large natural cavern. El Chingoso Muy Grande tramped up to the cave entrance and promptly triggered a pitfall trap. Aramil was able to stop himself at the pit’s edge. El Chingoso Muy Grande took damage in his 20 ft fall, but not enough to hinder his efforts in throw his maul-torch over into the cavern on the other side of the pit. After two failed attempts to do so, his maul-torch went out.
Aramil lowered a rope and braced himself as El Chingoso Muy Grande climbed out of the pit, on the side away from the cave. In the darkness, El Chingoso Muy Grande carefully lit his maul with another 5 ft of rope (40 ft remaining). Now with enough light to move purposefully forward, Aramil used his Fey Step to pass over the pit and step into the cavern proper. El Chingoso Muy Grande carried both barrels tied to his body, and used a running leap to attempt to cross the pit mouth. He lost his footing at the pit’s edge and tumbled once again into the hole, losing the barrel of lamp oil in the process, though thankfully not setting it afire with his makeshift torch, which once again had gone out. Aramil had sight of him by enough to lower his rope and help his companion into the cave.
Spying several glinting veins of silver by the low-light of glowing blue lichen, the cavern is clearly where the miner’s did most of their work. It was an area deep within the bowels of the mountain, a natural cavity with stalagmites wider than any man’s girth. The ceiling loomed more than a 100 ft above, and the cavern floor took up no less than 80 ft x 100 ft itself. On the far side of the cave lay two wellsprings of interest, a ground-level tunnel slanting further down the mountainside, and a hollow dug into the cavern wall about 20 ft up. Climbing cables were pitoned into the wall below the hollow for access.
El Chingoso Muy Grande set down the remaining barrel of wine, deciding it would fare better at the base if the hollow proved dangerous. While barely halfway up, Kobold crossbolts rained down upon him and struck! El Chingoso Muy Grande set forth with a Second Wind and raced to the top amid the hail of Kobold fire. After a moment’s confusion with the climbing cables, Aramil began ascent to give aid to his companion, already at the hollow mouth and beset upon by the remaining plague-sickened reserves of the Kobold band. Upon reaching the top, Aramil hurled mightily upon the boots of El Chingoso Muy Grande. El Chingoso Muy Grande’s fighting spirit redoubled, doubtlessly due to the compassionate purpose of defending his ailing compatriot.
The Kobold band was numbered nine, including their leader M’Dok, who tensely watched from the rear of the hollow. His slitherlings stepped back to fire upon the adventurers with bolt after bolt of crossbow rain, but to no avail. Within a few seconds, only three of the reptilian troops remained standing. M’Dok cried out for the battle to cease and for his lizardfellows to drop their weapons! He pleaded with the Cleric and Fighter to show mercy, and told of how he and his band were merely defending themselves against what they had thought to be bandit agents of the Demon Dwelling in the Deep.
“Vast is his treasure and I more than willingly cede our stake in it to you noble fellows. Please only allow what remains of my band, my blood-sworn brothers and my helpless two children to leave this cursed place!” M’Dok brought forth his young brood from where he had hidden them in a secret room at the end of the hollow.
Though he believed not a word of M’Dok’s claimed innocence, Aramil took pity on the two younglings and allowed the band to leave. To their credit, the Kobolds did not look back. After securing their immediate area, the group took an extended rest. Aramil meditated while on watch, while El Chingoso Muy Grande slept and regained vitality.
Knowing they had only hours left before the full effects of THE BURNING PLAGUE were upon them, the adventurers pressed on through the tunnel under the mountain. The glowing lichen on the walls lent them enough light to travel without becoming bright torchlight targets. Stifling heat emanated from a chamber at the tunnel’s end. Though El Chingoso Muy Grande was unaffected by the heat, he put down the remaining cask of wine, careful to not let whatever heat source affected the room bring it to fiery ruin. Peering into the round chamber, El Chingoso Muy Grande and Aramil were astounded at the sheer number of festering, blistered corpses. The bodies of most of the miners and even some of M’Dok’s Kobold band have been dragged here, their final fate to be nibbled by rats, whom themselves fell in turn into twitching piles of decadent death. The decomposing stacks were adding heat to the room yes, but the smell of dark magic was in the air, and Aramil believed that these desecrated denizens of the mine were merely the ingredients for whatever continuing curse caused THE BURNING PLAGUE.
Once Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande stepped over the threshold to investigate further, eight undead sentries crawled out from between the body piles, ready to snap the intruders’ bones and add their corpses to the sickening scene. The far exit now seemed leagues away as the lurching lurkers shuffle ever closer, half of the group Kobold, half human.
Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande braced themselves for attack at the chamber entrance. El Chingoso Muy Grande’s plan of combusting the zombies with wine and torches was put out of mind when they were all too quickly pressed into close combat. The undead opponents proved scores tougher than the plague-weakened foes the group had culled previously. Proving to be faster and more dexterous than first appraised, Aramil and El Chingoso were flanked from nearly every side, but were able to keep up defenses. Warlord Bananamancake Prime joined the fray from the tunnel behind, lending his wisdom and Dragonborn Lightning Breath to weaken several zombies to shambling, ichored states. Aramil and El Chingoso Muy Grande were able to make shorter work of them and the sweltering room was cleared of immediate dangers.
All the stronger for the experience, the travelers prepared themselves, determined to use their oft practiced and perfected exploits and sacred prayers to maximum potential for the inevitable confrontation with the Demon Dwelling in the Deep.