After resting in Grubbycheek’s mine for more than a week, four adventurers went back into the tunnel beneath Doukreg: Aderian, Ferris, Nate and Ollie. They went past where the iron robot was destroyed on the first level, going north to find themselves on the other side of the room with the skeleton and the bolts of purple lightning. A large tunnel sloped down from there. Ferris explored a bit and then they all headed downward for more than a mile.
They arrived a new area (Level 2) where a chamber opened up. Inside were eleven figures, vaguely humanoid but also looking like the robots they’d fought before. These were made of rock rather than metal, though. As the party began to enter the chamber, the figured advance. The party retreated, and the figured returned to their rigid formation in the chamber.
A careful plan was made to try to destroy the automatons at a distance by throwing boulders. Because the entire complex was of sandstone with few loose rocks, Ollie spent half an hour carving out three chunks from the wall for Aderian to throw. The first smashed into the side of the tunnel and fell apart. The robots advanced out of the chamber in response to the attack. They stood six wide. Over a few minutes, they bashed at the robots and eventually defeated them. Nate missed often and attributed it to his need to prove himself worthy to the Anointed One.
The robots were in pieces, and the party pondered putting them together again. This proved impossible. The parts were broken, not just disassembled. Ollie did his best to stick two of the detached arms in his pack. Aderian put all of the heads in his net and prepared to drag the pile behind him.
Meanwhile, a rumbling was heard coming down the tunnel. The adventurers rushed into the chamber and then into another room to the northwest. Ferris slipped into the shadows and watched the first chamber. A bright light shown down from the tunnel as the rumbling stopped. After about ten minutes the light dimmed into darkness. The rumbling resumed but also faded away, likely due to the source moving back up the tunnel.
The chamber to the northwest featured giant fire beetles moving around a pile of burnt drill bits and five boxes of irregular chunks of silver. The bugs did their best to avoid the intruders, and the adventures chose not to attack them. The bits of silver were of odd shapes, not coins, perhaps ruined parts of a machine. They took the time to slowly stuff handfuls of the silver into Aderian’s bag. It groaned with the great volume, equivalent to 50,000 silver coins.
Presently, they returned to the first room. A strong metallic smell came from the passage to the east, a foreboding sign. A four-foot tunnel and floor level sloped downward, and they all headed down. Eventually, they found themselves in another new area (Level 7). Ollie poked his head up through the floor of a large chamber. A mummified body lay next to a cauldron and more branding irons that ended in the manat symbol (₼). A hole in the ceiling was spied. They chose to export a passage to the north.
Coming to tee, they went west and entered a chamber where a sack lay on the floor next to a hoop of red fire. Ferris examined the bag and found it only contained a small pouch of black power. Ollie stuffed it in his pack. Ferris also studied a fist-size box with a small button. He could tell it wasn’t trapped but dared not press the button. He place the box down again.
A six-foot metal door opened to a glass-smooth tunnel that sloped upwards. Ferris carefully climbed some distance up the tube as only a thief could. He turned around when the tunnel leveled off and then began to slope downward.
Aderian and Ollie were curious about the hoop of fire. One of the robot heads, still being dragged in a net, was thrown into the fire. It disappeared. Ollie extended his pinkie finger to touch the fire. He felt a slight tingle, then found he could not withdraw it. He pushed his spear into the fire in an attempt to dislodge his finger, but it only resulted in the spear being caught as well. Aderian attempted to push one of the robot arms from the opposite side. It did not touch Ollie’s finger but it did become stuck, too.
Ollie greatly feared what would happen if the rest of him entered the first. Consensus was the fire was a portal to somewhere worse than Haderax. Ollie resigned himself to having Aderian cut off the first digit of his pinkie finger. He gritted his teeth as he was violently loosed from the fire. As with the spear and robot arm, once the piece ceased being held, they passed into the fire and were gone. A torch was lit and applied to Ollies finger to staunch the bleeding.
Then, they turned from this chamber and went east from the tee to find a chamber holding only a chalice. It held a liquid that Ollie bent over to sniff. It smelled salty. He dipped his injured finger into the chalice, felt a sting then tasted it. It tasted salty. Aderian also tasted it and confirmed the saltiness. Ollie wanted to keep the cut, which bore a word none could read. Aderian poured out a bottle of holy water, and they filled it again with the salty liquid. Ollie stowed the chalice in his pack.
Moving south, they came upon giant red ants gathering bits of copper wire. The ants did not respond aggressively at first, but when food was thrown at them, they turned to attack. Fortunately, the passage into the room was narrow. Ollie and Aderian stood side by side to face the onslaught of ants. Ollie suffered several bites and midway through the battle stepped back to allow Nate to take his place. Before long, the ants were all dead.
They seared the room and stumbled on an invisible box. Ferris was fairly sure it was not trapped by passing his hands over it. When he lifted the top, the invisibility effect was removed and they could see the metal box. Inside were coins of copper, silver and gold. Also, a small paper envelope contains a silver ring. Aderian slid it on his finger and experienced a sense of being extraordinarily lucky.
They took stock of the expedition. Ollie was hurt. They had defeated two groups of adversaries, and they had recovered good loot. They retraced their path back up to level 2 and then level 1, not meeting any more dangers before returning to the mine.
End Notes
- Days
- 9/20-9/28 Downtime in the mine
- 9/29 – Exploring Doukreg tunnels
- Treasure
- Irregular chunks of silver, the equivalent of 50,000 sp
- 600sp
- 400gp
- Lucky ring (worn by Aderian)
- Combat 3,755 xp
- 11 Crystal Living Statues 145 xp each
- 9 Giant Red Ants 240 xp each
- Characters 939 xp each
- Aderian (fight) 1,042 xp
- Ferris (surprise attack) 1,042 xp
- Nate (fight) 1,042 xp
- Ollie (suspicious, underground, fight, lead) 977 xp