Date: 04/29/20
Location: Virtual 06:30 PM EST 11:00 PM
Club: WARP – Established 1976
Guild: VARP – Established 7.04.78 Vermont Association of Role Players
GARP – Estab hilished 3.15.18 GaryCon Association of Role Players
Summary: Waking up.. Some feel ill, awake, some only have lumps and bruises; captured and tied up in a strange earthen cavernous room. Non-mabdens can see; bound and gagged, musty, stagnant. Ropes untied by Eliadel who broke bonds with strength; a mabden stands before us. We are in a pit in the room 2- x 30’ well done; Cyrus gets a sense that it’s freshly mined. All in rags – no equipment; perilous height – well mined cavern. By making a rope from our bindings and a humanoid ladder, with effort our party of 8 escaped the pit. We now stood in a large cavern excavated for mining. Ore carts of silver and copper suggested recent activity confirmed by the discovery of dwarven bootprints. Three exits from the cave were apparent – one along the rail path of the mining carts, another tunnel suggesting some movement of air, and the path of the footprints.
Choosing the path of the bootprints, 3 scouts (Eli, Marric, & Ertimei) advanced along the tunnel ahead of our main group and discovered a ventilation shaft along the wall from which a buzzing sound was heard. Beyond the shaft and around a bend, they encountered a strange and sleepy dwarf sharpening a weapon with a whetstone. After the weird dwarf appeared to fall asleep, Marric bravely advanced down the hall and relieved the dwarf of the mace. Then Marric advanced upon the sleeping dwarf and rudely awoke him with a poke in the belly by a pick axe which revealed the dwarf had pupilless eyes which gleemed a bright light and blue dust emerged from his wound. As Marric ran around the corner to entice his new friend to follow him into the rope trap set by Brazz, a bolt of electricity revealed the strange dwarf was even stranger than he appeared. The Derro complied with our plans and ran straight into the rope trip line. As he stumbled, a chaotic melee ensued resulting in the demise of the Derro. Subsequent attempts to interrogate the dead proved fruitless.
After stripping the dead Derro of his belongings including a portion of an arm, our group proceeded through the door beyond to find an apparent barracks. Asleep on the lower pads of 3 bunks were 3 more of the strange dwarfs. Careful advancing by several characters gained new weapons and guaranteed the evil dwarfs would not wake-up again. Searching the lockers and chests in the room revealed our missing equipment and other useful items. An astute investigation discovered a secret and trapped panel in a weapons rack providing more loot.
Returning to the initial large cavern, our force recon trio then advanced along the rail tunnel. Progressing towards a faint steady light, past 2 side branches at ~120’, the scouts found another large cavern with 5 other passageways leading into it filled with surprises, notably a caged raven, 4 ore carts, a beautiful axe near a table, and a huge derro bludgeoning a prone dwarf with shone hair.
Where in Multei is this mine? What do the eight of us have in common and why were we captured? Who are these peculiar dwarves and what do they want? We do not yet know but we will find out.