Dwarven Gold

Characters
MC- Human Fighter Sya
Michael- Wild Mage Ryz
Mike- Elf Fighter Negral
Lee- Human Bard Jables
Callum- Half-Elf Ranger KG
Chris- Elf Ranger Billum
NPC Human Cleric Gyles

Summary
Travelling south in Lyonya, the party finds a dead man in the road. A human in his 30's he wears bloody and battered armor and has little besides an empty sword scabbard and a pouch with some coins, half a potion and a 100gp gold ingot. His trail leads off into the woods to the south east. The ingot is stamped with a dwarven clan mark and is the type used for funds transfers. Ryz samples the potion and decides its Invisibility. The priest wants to bury him but Negral suggests a stone cairn. Gyles agrees and the party lays him to rest, then begins to follow his trail. A couple hours later the find an old disused dwarven toll road with the same clan mark on a waystone. Jables remembers that the dwarves used to use this road, but after a series of goblinoid attacks, they made a new road farther away which is what travellers use today. The last attack was on a caravan carrying a money transfer; at least 5,000gp were lost and never recovered. The ingot might be from that treasure. The rangers continue to lead the way, following the trail the dead man left. Unfortunately, this area is still dangerous and a group of eight bugbears attack the party. The battle is going poorly for the party until Gyles drops a Holy Smite spell on the enemy, turning the tide. The remaining bugbears are slain and looted and Gyles tends to the wounded before they move on. The trail moves up into the foothills and leads to a former campsite. There are signs that five people were here and tracks lead up the hills. But the tracks lead them to a pair of giant hunting spiders who attack the party. Following the remaining tracks and web strands, they come to a cave and begin exploring the three passages. They go down one side and find the remains of the other party and the spiders' nest with a bunch of baby spiders. Digging through for treasure, they find a dwarf's skeleton and a broken coffer and manage to hunt up 23 more ingots. Taking one of the other passages, they fight a stegocentipede and move past it to find a small chamber with another dwarf's skeleton and another coffer of ingots. But the dwarf's ghost haunts his body and rises up to threaten them if they disturb his gold. They negotiate with the ghost and he agrees that they can have the gold if they return the remains of the two dwarves to their clan. The party agrees and gathers up the gold and skeletons. On the way out, they debate taking the last passage to see what is down there. Sya argues against it; they have the gold that they came for, time to leave. The rest outvote her and head down the passage and encounter a flock of strange flying monsters (Volts) that latch on with their jaws to draw blood and deliver electrical shocks with their tails. The party kills the volts, but they are sorely wounded and promptly retreat from the cave. They recover their horses and head south to deliver the remains.

Quotes and Smart Remarks
Lee "I have the druid <version> Detect Magic, not illusionist"
Mike "It's organic"
Lee "I use free range components"

Michael "I'm going to turn you into a frog"
Mike "You'll turn yourself into a frog"
Jim "You couldn't turn a tadpole into a frog"

Chris "How long does the potion last?"
Jim "At least an hour"
Lee "Plenty of time; you'll be dead by then"

Mike "I am a man, a man elf" looks like he's thinking about continuing, then stops.
Everyone laughs
Jim "You're awful close to calling yourself something else"

Lee "Ingot? Isn't that a night table from Ikea?"

Lee's bard charms the claustrophobic wild mage
Lee "Relax wizard, don't be sad, caves and passages aren't that bad"

They find a pool of water in the caves
Mike "I go swimming in my elf bikini"

Glowing fungi line the cave walls and since Lee has been joking about his bard analyzing everything by tasting it, Jim asks if he wants to eat some
Lee "I don't want my poop to glow, but that would be cool"

They have recovered the gold and the remains of the lost dwarves and everyone but MC wants to explore more. They run into a flock of Volts and get whupped on
MC "No one ever listens to the woman, just like in marriage"