Session 39: Kobold Kapital

The party continued their exploration of the mines under the Tower of Bells. While resting Marcus the warlock comes through (or kicked out) of a portal he claims was from the Land of Faeries to rejoin the party, cheerfully asking what they have been up to, and if they speak blink dog yet. The party immediately sees a use for the sometimes slow (but not mentally handicapped) warlock and have him go back to the frightening looking black device in the other room inscribed with runes. Casting comprehend language Marcus is able to tell them is says that "he who opens this will be damned as is the demon trapped inside." The group decide to leave the demon trapped and move forward in the mines.

They quickly come across a kobold and an evil looking imp creature, Marcus thinks it is a quasit, meaning the kobold has a demon familiar. This is quickly confirmed when the kobold himself transforms into a demon. The party begins an attack, Flint is grabbed by the demon, but quickly drinks a potion of enlargement to break free. Marcus attempts to slow the demon, but it resists the spell and goes on pummeling members of the party, the next to get grabbed is the rogue, Tywill who had been backstabbing him. The party further their attack until the demon is slain, saving Tywill and collecting a map that the demon had on him. The map leads to the kobold headquarters.

The party quickly patch themselves up and go on their way to the kobold stronghold. Outside they see rows of Viking heads put on spikes. Undeterred they walk up to the guard kobolds and ask to see their master. The kobolds are pretty skeptical of the party and despite the amazing charisma tell them to stay put while they inform their master of the groups arrival. Despite trying to talk their way in, the group quickly abandons peaceful solutions and sleeps some of the kobolds and slays the rest as to not ruin their surprise on the other kobolds.

The party moved inside, with Tywill scouting ahead, he finds a trap in the hallway, disabling it for everyone else and moves into a large cave with a guard tower in the middle. Immediately he is set upon by a band of kobolds. The rest of the group runs ahead to catch up, with Flint falling into a pitfall trap that had been undetected. After pulling him out the party engage the kobolds and after a bit of effort chasing down stragglers, they defeat the kobolds and begin to look around to get their bearings.

Session 38: Kwaint Kobold Kennels

After emerging from the underground lake, the party walked up one of the side paths to a room dominated by a large pool. Flint's sharp eyes noticed a shimmering in the water, which on closer observation turned out to be a gelatinous cube. Several rounds from his wand of magic missiles took care of that creature, and he dove into the water to see if it led anywhere. The silvery walls of the tunnel led to a new room, and so he went to bring the rest of the party along. Goblin in his heavy armor had some difficulty traversing the waterway, but was able to hold his breath long enough to make it to the other side.

In this room, 6 dwarves and 22 kobolds were mining a wall at the far end of the chamber. Their attention was focused on a strange black mineral deposit, but as the Abolitionists filed into the room, their attention turned to the party. But they were quickly turned to ashes. The zombies, meanwhile, had continued to mine, but were quickly put to rest. Upon examination, the black mineral deposit turned out to be the same material they had seen earlier, where it was in a cylindrical shape with a hatch -- this appeared to possibly be one end of the object. But, not having anything useful to do with it at the moment, the party explored the caves further. They eventually came across the entrance to a warren, with side passages leading to three obviously trapped rooms.

The main passageway led them to a guard chamber, where some elite kobolds awaited them. As always, they were no threat to the party. After wiping them out, the party decided to retreat back to an easily defensible room to recover their resources for what must be the central chamber of this complex.

Session 37: The Kobold Gem Mines

Making our way into a cave, we came upon a great hall that appeared to be of Dwarven craftsmanship, wherein lay a number of piles of rubble, most likely leavings from whatever mining operation the Dwarves had undertaken before they had been beset. In the distance, we could hear the faint scrape of metal against metal. Flint suggested it may be the sound of mining carts on metal track. After a quick examination of the rubble, we discovered a trap door in the floor with a steep slope leading downward.

Following the shaft, we found ourselves in a large, perfectly octagonal room hewn from the rock. There, at the eastern end of the room, a great forge lay. Flint explained that forges of this nature were typically used by Dwarven smiths to infuse their crafts with magic, normally through empowered elemental gems set into the sides of the forge. In this case, however, it appeared that some thief had pried the gems loose. The thieves didn’t seem to get far however as there were two scorched skeletons lying near the forge with six rubies strewn about them.

Striding forward to investigate, Flint was suddenly engulfed in the fury of a fire elemental, presumably freed from the rubies when the thieves pried them loose. If not for his Ring of Fire Resistance, the dwarf would surely have perished under the elemental’s anger. Nonplussed, the dwarf summoned a hammer of faith and called upon a spiritual guardian to aid him. As flashes of holy light burst from the ethereal hammer, the rest of us lashed out with arrows, bolts, and spells to send the creature back to its fiery plane. The elemental was clever, however, and surrounded Flint, hoping to prevent us attacking for fear of harming the dwarf. Luckily, the creature found one of my spells particularly amusing, allowing Flint to maneuver outside the elemental’s corona. With another flash of holy light, the creature was banished to its plane.

Having dispatched the elemental, we gathered the gems and explored the two passages leading from the octagonal room. We discovered they led to either side of a large subterranean lake. One led to a room containing a cylindrical object, with a wheel that looked like it would open up the tube. A rickety raft lay nearby in the other room but, looking at it dubiously, the goliath called upon his god to grant us the ability to traverse the lake as if it were solid ground. As we crossed, a black mass of goo rose up from the lake ominously. The amorphous creature, no doubt attracted by our footsteps, hungrily attacked us. The rogue, Tywill, struck the thing with his straight sword and caused it to rift, splitting it in two. Much to our horror, the two halves surged forward independent of one another. The rogue had only managed to double our enemies. One of them then surged forward, trying to envelope the rogue in its acidic touch. While Lynnya and Tywill, fearful of increasing our foes, ran to shore, the two clerics and I combined our magic to burn away and disrupt the ooze. We quickly joined Lynnya and Tywill on shore in case our battle stirred more of the creatures.

On shore, found several tunnels that had been hidden by the darkness of the cavern. Following one shaft inside, were all at once beset by three kobolds with their hunting dog. We managed to get the drop on them. Though it pained me to do so, I was forced to injure the poor canine in my efforts to destroy the kobolds. Weakened by my thunderous spell, the kobolds were quickly dispatched. Luckily, Flint was able to heal the dog. The dog, who he has named Petey, has taken a liking to him. I’m certain little Petya will enjoy living with us a great deal more than the kobolds.