Day 7 - and we're off

After a good nights sleep and a decent breakfast we're off again, this time apparently to 'get rid of' Bhishana Bhaga a magic user whose taken over the Gnomish mine at the foot of the great mountain in GnomeTown.

I double Yuna as she'd not very good with animals - one wonders what she's doing with us..... After about 1 hour we get back to the spot Damir marked - there are STILL two paths though no one else can see the other one except me.... Bertrand was intrigued by our story about the split path - he had never heard of such and thing and can only speculate with us that maybe it leads to the antithesis of the Inn - might be interesting.

Being at the rear of the party - I don't want to loose Yuna off the back of the horse - we fell behind and only caught up at the entrance to a tunnel... There are signs that the wagons have already passed this way. Damir was waiting for us at the tunnels mouth; the others have gone in. Damir said there's metal rail tracks that lead down into the mine and signs that the wagons have gone through already. Yuna and I decide a cuppa is called for and we settle down to have one and wait for the screams of the 'meat shields' as Yuna whimsically calls the rest of the party!

We finished our tea in peace.... then decide we might as well follow the others into the mine. The tunnel continues down into the darkness - there are a lot of echoes down here.... Yuna and I caught up with Damir and Rumbles - Hoo Dung and Norton have continued down the tracks - we follow them.....slowly and catch them up where the trail forks. There are a few mine carts on tracks - the wagon trails vanish ahead behind the carts. From where we are we can't tell which way they went as the carts block our sight. Hoo and Norton - wrapped in one of Norton’s silence spells - approach the carts; I was just thinking it would have been wise to wait for me to check for traps first when....

WHUMPF a huge ball of flame comes speeding up the tunnel and dissipates a few feet in front of us... Yup! Should have waited for the trap-checker!! Damir leaps towards the blazing inferno of flaming carts and bodies of party members... Hoo seems fine; his supernatural dexterity saved him but Norton looks VERY singed (Note to self - Don't burn dwarves indoors.. they smell BAD!) Fortunately Norton is able to heal himself and does so. Now that the others have skilfully found the trap, Damir and Rumbles have a look up the two forks of the tunnel - it appears the wagons have gone up the left fork while there are Gnomish footprints (and fairly recent ones too) in the right fork. Hoo leads the way (Silly boy) up the left fork till he reaches a second parting of the trails where the wagon tracks split with two wagons going off in BOTH directions.

The rails for the mining carts continue ahead only but Hoo follows the fork to left, passes a branch off to his left which seems to continue (but there are no wagon tails this way) and continues to the next turning. Still following the wagon trails we found two of the wagons; empty and abandoned. Tracks of horses and footprints continue up the trail. We follow..... at the rear of the party I hear the slightest sound behind me... I turn.. a Delver - I shout a warning and shift out of range. Rumbles leaps into the fray, gets swatted and takes acid damage; it attacks Norton - Whap!! More acid damage - it swings back to Rumbles - Thwack! More acid damage. Yuna backs up and casts Rainbow Pattern; the Delver is mesmerized... It's a bit of a Mexican standoff though as we can't attack it or it is released from the spell. I pig-a-back Yuna - that way she can concentrate on her spell. Hoo leads off behind the Delver followed by Yuna and I, behind us is Norton then Damir and Rumbles bringing up the rear. I can hear screams of terror from up ahead ..

I've no idea what's actually happening - all I can see is the arse end of Yuna's unimaginatively named Delver, Fred... But it sounds like he's doing what we wanted him to do... . Fred is flailing around ahead - he seems to have been attacked by something/ someone - it sounds horrific!!!! There is rending and shouting and screaming and dying. Fred seems to have finished with whatever he was killing before and is turning on us. I decide Yuna can walk on her own now she's no longer concentrating and put her down. I'm going to put some distance between Fred and I but the rest of the party seems to be feeling feisty and are on the attack. Norton casts a Flame Strike; Yuna, a Wall of Fire. Fred turns to face us - he looks pretty pissed. He moves sideways and vanishes into the wall of the tunnel and Yuna flings a fire ball at him as he melds himself into the rock. He reappears on OUR side of the wall of fire! Yuna's really getting into this...she chucks another fire ball at it! It hits and the Delver seems to vanish (burning) into the wall. And they're off....

What's come over these people? If I didn't know better I'd think Yuna was on drugs (except I have the only supply) I've never known a mage to throw herself into battle with such maniacal enthusiasm. Yuna turns invisible and takes off after Fred.. I think - Norton's right behind her with the others strung out behind them. I stay back, a good 20' away and keep an ear out - this thing can be very, very quite and I don't like being snuck up on! (Have I mentioned that before?) Norton and Yuna are way up ahead, they vanish round a corner where unfortunately the delver was waiting. It sees Norton but not Yuna (as she's invisible) and leaps toward him, trampling her in the process. Luckily she has some sort of 'blink' type thingy and vanishes.

Meanwhile back at the cavern I'm still listening, listening, listening in case the Delver tries to sneak up on us again. Hoo's investigating the cavern. It's fairly awful in there - what with squashed gnomes and horses all over the floor and walls and other squashed stuff I don't even want to look at. With absolutely no warning at all Yuna (who has dropped her invisibility) appears in the cavern where Hoo is scavenging, frightening the living daylights out of us by screaming "Heal me! I'm dead!" and collapsing on the floor.

Next thing Damir and Rumbles spill into the room yelling, race right through and out the other side, running right past me. Luckily Hoo is right there with an extra healing potion - he pours it down Yuna's throat; she leaps to her feet and back into the fray (I think she may have hit her head - she's acting like a wild thing with all this hands-on fighting. Suddenly Norton flings himself into the cavern; turns, casts a Stone Shape and races past where I stand. From trailing the party, I seem to now be at its front again. Everyone is quite..... too quite.

Silently and with stealth, Hoo creeps back down the tunnel to the unexplored offshoot we passed earlier. 50' down is a cavern with a sort of moulded stone floor that looks like the Delvers nest - Hoo leaves to return to the main corridor when without warning the delver is right there. Fortunately Hoo can move pretty fast; unfortunately none of know what is happening, he's so far away. He lets the creature close - and it does, trying to slam him and cover him with acid. Hoo whacks it bare handed - a stunning blow... Fists of Fury be damned!! I wish I could have seen it!

Finally the git yells for help it's a good thing that as a monk he can restore some of his lost points. The party race to his aid... well Norton, Damir and Yuna do.. Rumbles and I amble and arrive to find the situation in hand - Hoo is still alive after consuming many healing potions but Fred is dead (sorry, no pun intended) A rest stop seems in order - the tunnel is blocked at one end by a mass of dead delver - so Yuna setts up her portable bunker - with furniture - and we stay the night.

Damir decides to loot the dead before bed - he gets 25gp off the squashed gnomes and finds 24 silver dinner plates at 30gp each; 24 silver cutlery sets at 35gp each; 4 silver serving platters 60gp each which he stashes in his portable hole - the rest of it was trashed by Fred.

Back to The Inn of the Far Shore.