Summary
After fighting the hag and its minions that wiped out a glamredhel village, the party heads south to cross the Teeth of the World mountains and finally return to the Kingdom. But as they journey, they once again hear orc war horns behind them! They pick up the pace, following the directions Raaha's genie patron gives her, leading them to the caverns that go underneath the mountains. Looking back at one point, she sees sunlight glinting off of metal through the trees and warns the the rest of the party. A group of orcs charge around the Most of the orcs stop and begin shooting arrows at the party, but two are spellcasters. One shoots double Firebolt cantrips at them while the other casts spells to help the archers. Flynn charges, throwing javelins. Raaha kills an archer with repeated Eldritch Blast spells. Zinnius fires arrows back and Gala, Jace and Adolphus cast spells. Gala throws a Fireball at the orcs and drops all archers. Flynn finishes the orc cleric and turns on the sorceror, but before Flynn can finish him, he turns invisible. Jace tries Faerie Fire, but the orc has moved. Jace yells to Flynn to follow the orc's footprints and Flynn chases the invisible orc, swinging his axe at where the footprints end and kills the sorceror.
They search the orcs but the only thing of note is a small stone, intricately carved with elvish runes of a communication spell. They take it and flee as more orc horns are heard nearby. As the party approaches the valley that the genie is guiding them towards, they hear a foul screeching noise and look up to see a very large winged creature descending towards them. It is an ogre sized humanoid with a vultures head and wings, covered in black feathers. It swoops down and lets out a stunning screech; Jace reels from the noise and a couple of horses collapse. The party attacks it with all they have; it claws and bites at them. But it's beginning to weaken and it flaps its wings, spreading poisonous black dust across the party. After the creature is killed, Adolphus tends to a poisoned horse. They get moving again and ahead of them they see openings in the mountainside and the remains of old ore cart tracks and tailings piles from mining. The caverns are an old abandoned gnomish mine and the genie can guide them through the caverns and out the other side into the safety of the Kingdom. But he warns them they they will need to abandon their horses. The adventurers are upset, but begin taking supplies and saddles from the horses. War horns blow nearby and they see a group of at least 100 orcs and moredhel below them in the valley. They chase the horses off, hoping they will flee and be safe. The party moves back towards the mine opening to watch the enemy. They see a few ogres in the group of orcs and dark elves and a humanoid figure covered in a hooded grey cloak. It raises a longbow and fires an arrow that just barely lands next to the cave mouth, but it explodes in a Fireball! The party is blown inside, badly wounded. The Fireball sets fire to the ancient mine supports and the timbers burn and begin to buckle. The adventurers throw themselves down into the tunnel, but the opening collapses and Flynn is caught in the rubble. They dig him free and heal him before they head into the empty mines.
Fearful that their followers will find a way into the mines, the party moves deeper into the mountain. Moving through the excavated rooms and passages, they find a cluster of rooms with barracks and a kitchen left over from the miners. They set watches and sleep.
After resting, Raaha's patron begins guiding her deeper into the mines. The passages burrow deeper into the living rock of the mountains and they come to another cluster of rooms where several shafts split off from the main one. As they move forward, they smell a horrible stench like rotten meat. From an open passageway ahead, ghasts rush out and charge the party. Their smell overcomes Raaha and she begins vomiting. Zinnius activates his flame rapier to fight them. Adolphus tries turning them and fails. One savages him and he falls back as Flynn pushes to the front and fights side by side with Zinnius. Raaha is wounded but recovers and moves back to cast spells with Gala at the ghasts. Jace and Adolphus shoot crossbows at the ghasts. Once the ghasts are slain, they search the rooms the monsters came from. They find scattered bits of old bodies, rusted gear and weapons and scattered coins and gems. Zinnius finds a grey metal wand with gold inlay mimicking bricks and windows, it looks like a tall, thin tower.
Raaha leads them further and the party finds a small chamber to rest in. Raaha's patron says even with his guidance it will take them at least three days to move through the mountains to the Kingdom side.
As they travel, carved passages often link with natural caverns. One such cave is very wet, the floor is damp and underwater in places. Some of the puddles conceal deep holes. Stalactites and stalagmites decorate the cavern, some of them join in columns. As they move inside, they hear whooshing noises, like an intermittent breeze blowing through the passages. Zinnius leads them through the stone forest and comes around a column to find two grells! They attack the party and then two more come out of the shadows behind them. Zinnius, Jace and Adolphus kill one grell, Flynn, Raaha and Gala kill another. One grell paralyzes Zinnius and picks him up in its tentacles and tries to fly away. Jace and Adolphus chase and attack the first grell while another picks up Gala and tries to take her. But Gala resists the grell's poison and escapes by casting Fireball above the grell, killing it and dropping her to the ground. They gang up on the last grell and kill it and it drops Zinnius. Gala ties to catch him, but gets smashed to the ground, slightly cushioning his fall. As they heal and recover, they search the chamber and find the grells' lair. Amidst the debris the party finds remains of other adventurers and their treasure. They find an elven long bow, a gold circlet of keshian make and a gold Ring of Protection made of tiny shields.
The party moves deeper into the heart of the mountains, passing from the gnomish mines into more natural caves and caverns. A few spots have been widened and smoothed by the miners and occasional side passages break off, following veins of ore. They come to a large cavern which is partly a dried up cave lake, littered with desiccated blind crab shells and cave fish skeletons. As they walk along the shore of the barren lake, a night hag appears and attacks Gala with a Magic Missile spell. Zinnius activates his rapier and casts Hunter's Mark on the hag. Raaha is taken off guard and surprised and the rest of the party turns to fight. Jace casts Beacon of Hope to bolster the party's defenses. A second and third hag appear, one casts at Adolphus, but he shrugs it off, another lets fly with a Ray of Sickness that misses. Adolphus casts a Sacred Flame that misses, Gala hits with a Chaos Bolt. Flynn rages and charges into battle, swinging Gardrengi. A hag polymorphs him into a giant centipede, but Gala kills the centipede with Poison Spray, returning Flynn to normal with a little poison damage. Raaha hexes one of the hags and slams her with an empowered Eldritch Blast. The hag lets loose a Lightning Bolt, hitting Flynn, Gala and Raaha, knocking the warlock out. Gala heals Raaha, but then another hag casts another Lightning Bolt, knocking Raaha out again and hitting Jace, but he blocks it with his shield and the bolt destroys his shield. Jace does a healing word getting Raaha back up, the two clerics both cast Spiritual Weapon. Zinnius drops the first hag with arrows, Flynn slaughters a second, sending her head and an arm flying. Adolphus finishes the last with a sword/Spiritual Weapon double attack.
The party pulls together for some healing and to search the hags. One of them is the hag that escaped them in the glamredhel village.
They take gold and gems, a cloak, potion, scroll of Teleport, and a bracelet from the hags and continue onward.
Another night and rest in the bowels of the earth and they are much closer. The genie speaks to Raaha almost constantly, guiding them through a maze of caves. they come to another cavern which is mostly filled by an underground river, flowing with decent but not dangerous speed. On the other side is a circular passage, almost like a pipe, leading upward at a slight angle. The treasure is in a chamber beyond. They decide to have Flynn swim across and secure a rope in the mouth of the passage. Flynn does so easily and most of the party crosses, but Raaha loses her grip and the stream starts to carry her away. She swims vigorously for the opening and is able to climb the wall to the passage. Moving up the tunnel, they come into another cave, but the floor is level, the walls smooth. There are three stone pedestals, each holding an item. There is a black short sword, a jewelled harp and a shield. Two passages lead out, one at a sharp upward angle. Glints of gems and coins come from two walls, they are some kind of inlaid mural. Gala tries to figure it out, but can't make sense of it. Zinnius moves to the steep passage and smells fresh mountain air, it must lead to the outside.
From the other passage floats a large scaly sphere with multiple eye bearing tentacles. A Beholder! It says "Who disturbs my rest?!" Adolphus and Raaha are taken by surprise. Gala hits it with a Chaos Bolt and Flynn throws a javelin straight and true and buries it to the haft in the beholder's main eye. Zinnius tags it with Hunter's Mark and shoots arrows. The beholder tries a sleep ray on Gala, which has no effect. It bites Flynn, then hits him with a petrification ray and he begins to turn to stone. It shoots Zinnius with a disintegrate ray. He tries to shoot off the disintegrate eye, but loses track of the eye and hits another. Jace casts Beacon of Hope again to protect the party from the Beholder's spells. It bites Flynn again and he jumps on the beholder and climbs on top of it and cuts off two more eyes, then he hardens into stone and slides off. Raaha hits it with Hex and Eldritch Blast. Gala hits the beholder with a Lightning Bolt and the beholder replies with Disintegrate and uses telekinesis to fling Raaha into a wall. More arrows and spells fly and the beholder misses with a few eye beams, but slams Gala into a wall and she passes out. Adolphus hits it with a spell and Raaha casts Witch Bolt but misses. As the beholder comes at them, Raaha swings the lightning from Witch Bolt into the beholder and rips it in half! Zinnius, Raaha, Jace and Adolphus are wounded but awake, Gala is unconscious and Flynn is a statue. Raaha bitches at her patron, "A beholder? You couldn't have told us that?" They heal and begin to search. The last passage is the beholder's lair, there is some treasure in there. The coin murals are crude pictures of the beholder itself. The shield, sword, and harp are magic, but the harp is the item the genie wants. Zinnius explores the fresh smelling passage and comes out on a mountain side on the Kingdom side of the mountains! Once everyone is rested, they drag Flynn's body up the passage and try to decide what to do next. they should be near a road leading from Eldpoint to Tyr-Sog, a major city. There they can find someone to restore Flynn. They may decide to use the hag's Teleport scroll to take them to a city.
Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
Discussing the orc's Sending Stone
Stacy "This phone rocks"
The abandoned mines are gnomish
Stacy "There's gnome mistake about that"
Someone said Flynn was killed by the avalanche, but he was only at zero
Jim "He's only mostly dead"
Stacy "Mostly dead is still partly alive"
Jace is from the town of Loriel
Brittany "The hair shop?"
Jim "That's why Jace is so pretty"
A group of hags is a coven, or…
Jack "A haggle of hags"
Stacy "A gaggle of hags? A gaggle of gags?"
Brittany "No. Denied"
Raaha is hit with two Lightning Bolts
Brittany "She is shocked"
Stacy "The battle came to an electrifying conclusion"
Raaha's genie quest item is a harp
Chmiel, stealing Brittany's microphone "A medieval band playing harps are Harpies…"
Jack "Brittany, lose a chip for letting Mike say that"
Stacy "Call the harpy band 'Wings' "
Jim "We're just stringing it along, I'll make a note"
Stacy "All jokes fall flat"
Discussing beholder biology and that they are asexual
Stacy "If a beholder was bisexual, would it be a Bi-holder?"
Jim "Stacy, lose a chip"
