Players in Attendance: Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Greg Sallee (Davros), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Jason Alway (Kurock Stonehammer)

Date: After nightfall, Pelsday, the 20th of Rouenne, 617 S.R.

Location: The party is currently engaged in law keeping at Sooties bar.

Barack moved to the roof to find the sleeping form of the assailant, swinging out the second story window and flipping onto the rooftop, he nearly tripped over the sleeping form of the assassin, felled by Kailithe’s well placed sleep charm. He flipped the body over and could see that it was indeed the form of a man, wearing dark and heavily dirtied clothes and shabby gloves. He unceremoniously tugged his shuriken out of the man’s chest, causing a minor splatter of blood to splash onto the tile rooftop. He pried open the snoring man’s eyes and saw that the retina’s still reflected an eerie blue/green light. Searching the body, Barack found nondescript dark clothes and a cloak, a dagger with a dark green substance dripping off it (as well as Jaron’s blood), a darkvision potion, a vial of poison, and a note in his pocket. After frisking the body Barack called for help and lowered the unconscious form into the second story window where Froimos was reaching to help.

Kailithe identified the languages on the note as being in Common, Elvish, Dwarven and an unintelligible final language (Abyssal).

Meanwhile, in the hallway, Penndrynn stabilized Jaron, cleansed the poison from his system and prepared him for the trip to city hall. The party then split up with Froimos and Davros remaining at Sooties taking statements and probing for clues from the onlookers and Wake-goers.

• Davros – Streetwise – The person attacked (Jaron Kerr) was potentially involved in the partial mine collapse
• Froimos – Attempted to scare one of the patrons into divulging information and only succeeded in making him shut his mouth tighter and feign ignorance..
• Davros – Diplomacy – The fight earlier in the evening started when Jaron was approached by several friends of Breann Finst who were on her work crew. These were the same individuals that the Dragonslayers walked home earlier in the evening. Neither of them were identified as the unconscious assailant.
• Froimos – Intimidate – Jaron was seen talking his assailant earlier in the evening, possibly looking nervous
• Davros – Streetwise- The assailant was identified as a member of the Temple of Erathis (as was Jaron) and was assumed to be dead as he went missing several years ago.
• Froimos – Streetwise – Jaron was stabbed by a poisoned dagger.
• Davros - Breann, and the rest of the members of her work crew (including Jaron)  had a connection with Separatists. Everyone on that work crew were known Expansionists and worshipers at the Temple of Erathis.

As the group organized themselves, the attacker woke up and struggled against his manacles. The party noticed that he looked uneasy when he spotted the still living form of Jaron. After being tied up and smacked around a bit by Barack and Kurock, he fell into step as the party hauled their unconscious cargo to Town Hall, moving through the darkened streets swiftly and with purpose. Moving into the dim halls of the town hall, they made their way to the jail cells in the back of the building, waking the grizzled veteran of Aegis company sleeping behind his desk guarding an empty set of cells.

Penndrynn dropped an amazingly detailed and hastily written report on his desk and asked where to deposit his prisoners. The jailer opened the heavy iron bars of the two most separated cells, where the group dumped the assassin, and laid Jaron down on the cell bunk. The dagger and poison were tucked away into the jailer’s drawer as evidence, to be produced the next morning before the Council of Judgment.

Kurock and Barack interrogated the assassin as well as the now healed (and sober) Jaron. The Attacker wouldn’t respond to any questions, clamping his mouth shut and merely observing as the group talked to Jaron. Jaron mumbled through his pain and trauma trying to respond to basic questions, but once the line of questions moved in the direction of the attacker or the note that he was carrying, he started to quiver and shake, mumbling incoherently. This scared Jaron immensely, and he promptly shut his mouth and refused to answer any more questions, even via the simple nod or shake of his head. Davros got the feeling that there was some powerful, yet faint energies at play preventing Jaron from communicating.

Eder Josia Navarro was awoken to deal with the situation. She collected an extensive story from the Dragonslayers, looked at the evidence, and gave the cohort an order to continue investigating the situation with all haste and having the blessings of the Elder Council.

Penndrynn went to the Wayhouse to check on the status of the Hylean Trade Ambassador, the front desk assured him heartily that all was well and the building was indeed very safe.

The group went to the Dig Foreman’s office to get a list of the members of Finst’s Work Crew, then proceeded to visit each of their homes. There they found buildings with open cupboards, partially emptied wardrobes, and broken crockery, sure signs of a speedy departure. More telling was the fact that valuables and fine clothes were very prevalent in the items left behind.

Penndrynn went to the temple of Erathis for clues, the Temple of Erathis and was told that none of the members of the work crew had stopped by. He poked around a bit and didn’t find any clues.

After heading down into the Dig, the group continued to ask for details.

• Breann and her work crew of Jaron +3 were supposedly working in the Giant’s Toe, but several other mine workers indicated that they were often seen heading in a different direction.
• Many people are coming and going in The Dig tonight. They were bringing supplies down into the mine to repair a part of Giant’s Toe where there is flooding due to the collapse.
• The group eventually sent runners back to collect Jaron, bringing him down into the dig. During the trip through town he remained uncommunicative, but proceeded to look even more nervous as an identical copy of the poem possessed by his would-be assassin was found tucked into his pocket.

On the 10 minute elevator descent into the Dig, Kailithe completed a ritual to comprehend languages, allowing him to translate the Abyssal portion of the note. Nearing the bottom of the elevator ride, Jaron began to shake uncontrollably and froth at the mouth.

When they pulled Jaron off the elevator, he stumbled around a bit, and after moving around10 feet off the elevator, gurgled, keeled over and died. The group sent him back up on the elevator, asking the miners there to have his body sent back to Town Hall.

The group searched the perimeter of the dig in the direction of Jaron’s tumble and found a small crawlspace tunnel. After collecting gear at the underground mine office, Penndrynn tied a rope around his waist and proceeded inside. After seeing that it was safe and that the Paladin was coming to the end of his rope, the rest of the party ducked into the claustrophobia inducing tunnel and followed.

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After an hours worth of knee-shredding crawling, the tunnel opened up into a natural cavern with three tunnels heading out of it. Without hesitation, they headed into the larger tunnel entrance to the right. After a half an hour’s journey, they  stumbled across a stinking partially rotten corpse of something vaguely insectlike. Beyond that point the group could see small irregular perforations in the walls of the tunnel, as well as a slight clicking noise coming from somewhere behind the rock facing. Kailithe braced himself and unleashed a violent blast of thunder into the perforated wall, collapsing it into a pile of rubble and twitching insect parts. The sound echoed throughout the cavern, and the Kruthiks leapt forward in attack.

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Our fearless adventurers charged into the Kruthik nest, and proceeded to lay waste to the smaller insects. Davros and Froimos secored their position as rearguards, sending arcane blasts and sweeping axe swipes into the unfortunate Kruthiks who tried to flank the party from the rear. Although they dispatched the beasts efficiently, they soon began to accumulate many small cuts from the flailing bladed arms of the insects that lashed out against any adventurer who tarried too long within the vile insect’s reach.

The others surged into the center of the nest, led by Kurock’s furious battle yell. They were met with a horde of fast moving Kruthiks who were emerging from all manner of holes in the walls/ceilings/floors and the major side caverns that could barely be seen at the distant edge of the dimly lit cavern. Barack continued to weave through the chittering forms of the Kruthiks, flanking and stabbing their weak points with well placed dagger strikes. Penndrynn supported the dwarven fighter in the front, laying hands on the wounded members of the party as well as praying for divine retribution on those Kruthiks attacking his friends. Kailithe continued to send bits of chitin and goo flying as the bugs exploded under his releated waves of thunder and flame.

 During the battle, Davros’ furious cursing of the Kruthiks led to the emergence of a gradually brightening glyph on the back of his right hand and a growing urge to unleash some form of pent-up energies. Despite their many kills, harder and larger waves of enemies continued to rush into the gore filled chamber. Kurock was overrun and brought down by a horder of hulking adult Kruthiks that came crashing in through the walls. On seeing the dwarf fall, Barack leapt into action, laid down a barrage of shuriken, blinding several of the critters. This heroic action bught him enough time to drop a smoke bomb, creating a protective screen of black smoke to cover him as he crammed a healing potion into the unconscious fighter’s throat. The party fell back to the cavern’s entrance under cover of spells and wild weapon swings, buying Kailithe enough time to send multiple thunder into the weakened perforated ceiling. A loud cracking and groaning signaled the start of a mine collapse as the party raced ahead of the rushing dust in a wild retreat. 

 All players earned 180 XP each for defeating (and escaping from) the Kruthik horde.

After a short rest back at the previous intersection the choking dust and sounds of a rumbling collapse slowly faded. After a through inspection of the remaining 2 tunnels, the Dragonslayers discovered that the left tunnel sloped slightly downward, after much contentious discussion, they decided to head “down” the tunnel.

An hours travel through an irregular tunnel led them to a dead ended cavern. The group began to carefully inspect the walls of the room and were happy to discover a secret door! They became less excited as they found a second hidden door, then a third.. Once the fifth secret door was uncovered, they began to scratch their heads on the nature of this room. After realizing the religious significance of “praying to the gods”, Penndrynn kneeling in the middle of the room and casting his face upwards noticed a strange symbol chiseled into the ceiling.

After much analysis of the symbols and the referencing of Penndryn’s “Big Book of Religions”, the group identified the symbols for the god Moradin (a hammer), Ioun (a book with a sacred eye), Melora (A seashell), Evandra (a traveler’s pack) and finally Erathis (A breastplate with a half cog emblazoned on it.) They decided that the path of the Erathite symbol was the most appropriate course of action and headed through that hidden entrance.

All players earned 25 XP for solving the puzzle.

Coming to a T junction, the tunnel widened into a roughly 10′ tall circular cavern that looks to have been hand carved out of the bedrock. The Dragonslayers began to meander down the right path,when after only a few feet, Penndrynn and Barack heard a loud “CLICK” and a rumbling in the distance.

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The party launched themselves down the right tunnel, running with abandon as a large rock appeared heading in their direction from the left approach. The clattering of the group’s gear was drowned out by the ricocheting onslaught of stone that careened wildly down the tunnel in the groups direction. Kailithe fell to the rear of the runners and decided to blast a hiding spot in the side of the tunnel. After releasing a massive Thunder Wave against the hard rock wall, he crammed his body in the very minor indentation caused by the blast. The massive rock bounced and rocked over his hunched form, taking a fortuitous bounce, leaving the Eladrin Wizard with a sprained ankle and a few cracked ribs. The rolling ball was nipping at the heels of the dwarven fighter, who was frantically pumping his arms and churning his short legs as fast as he could. At the last moment the tunnel widened into a squared room, allowing Kurock to recklessly toss himself to the side. The giant ball of rock sailed through the spot his form occupied mere moments ago and crashed into the rear wall of the room, falling into a natural underneath it. The sound of it bouncing and careening into the depths echoed for what seemed an eternity.

The bedraggled party regrouped, and caught their breath before proceeding onward ..

All players earned 50 XP for surviving the boulder trap.

Tags: Boulder Trap, Civic Duty, Cryptic Poem, Gods Puzzle, Kruthik Attack, The Dig