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The Professionals awoke to a heavy rainfall and gusts of wind, as they packed up their belongings from their long rest and headed westward towards the river and mountains. After traveling for hours in the cold and muddy rain, the party finally reached the bank of the river. Yakiim scoured the bankside and noticed that the slope of drop off lessened as he followed the eastern bank north. After following the bank, he located a natural ford in the river that had a much less steep decline and seemed shallow enough to walk completely across.
As the river rushed with fast flowing water due to the residual storm’s wind, the party came up with an ingenious plan to mend all of their ropes together, having Yakiim cross, and have Anton lead the horse and cart with Torgarion anchoring the rear. Poor Torgarion.
Though close to losing the horse, cart, and 3 of their party members to the rushing waters, Anton was able to hold the reigns of the horse steadfast, completely inspired by Torgarion‘s ability to act as a counter-weight. The freezing waters bit and nipped at Anton and their horse, but they were able to emerge from the waters on the other side, victorious in conquering the natural obstacle. With a job well done, Anton slapped the horse’s rear quarters in hopes it would help pull Torgarion to the other side, and that it did with gusto. A bit exhausted from the trek through the water caused Anton to frighten the horse quite a bit with his encouraging slap, and the horse began fleeing at full speed, dragging the cart and an unsuspecting Torgarion on a taught 300’ rope through the rapid water.
Thankfully, the horse aimed straight ahead and the quick-on-his feet Torgarion was able to keep upright and safe through the water as he bobbed up and down for breath being lurched forward at an unobtainable self pace.
Forging onward, Ondel spotted some tracks that coincided with Anton’s instincts which lead them right to the mine. The party discovered a horse waiting outside of the mine, as well as Ondel catching a raven circling overhead, high above out of the corner of his eye.
Braving the dark and brooding cavern, our heroes ventured forth in search of Jarad Krey and found little but nasty creatures defending their den in the abandoned mine shaft.
After making quick work of numerous medium and small sized spiders, the party found a web covered mine cart with a bit of copper ore resting on the bottom. Torgarion was able to sift through meticulously and located a gem among the rigid and unrefined ore.
Carefully plodding forth, Ondel snuck around a corner and as Anton followed closely behind with a torch, caught the glimpse of the torchlight just barely reflecting off of eight large and beady eyes, staring directly at his extremely tall companion. Before he had the chance to warn him, a sprawling net of webbing sped towards them from the darkness, encasing Anton in a mass of thick and sticky webs. And then two were upon them quickly…
Immediately, Anton was bitten and poisoned into stasis as the party scrambled to square up against their foes. With lightning quick thinking, Fin grabbed Mostuno and rushed him to the safety of the rear ranks. A tense back and forth battle with a well placed oil flask and a missed opportunity, our heroes were able to take down one of the large and lanky black with red markings spiders, but not without some complications.
Not satisfied with the chance to retreat, Tangle rushed forward and engaged the second large spider, who seemed to be preoccupied with its meal and not concerned with how resourceful its partner’s prey seemingly was. Using lightning quick lassoing, Tangle electrifyingly moved his enemy into position for the mighty Torgarion Spidersmiter to squash it into smithereens. As it clung for dear life, Fin came in and froze its innards for the final chilling blow.
In a sigh of relief, the Professionals found a small bit of reprieve after making their way outside of the abandoned mine. As Yakiim tended to Anton, and Tangle poked and prodded Ondel, Fin and Torg propped up in front of the mine’s entrance to keep watch while resting.
After ensuring that Ondel was alive and recovering, he set up against the edge of the mountain and prepared to settle in for hours, fidgeting with his tools and eventually falling asleep to the sound of Torgarion‘s songbird voice. As Tangle dozed, Anton was able to catch moving footprints out of the corner of his eye, but was unable to communicate this to anyone, having been the victim of the giant spider’s paralytic poison.
After an hour had passed uneventfully, Anton was quick to action in relaying what he had seen… Tangle immediately noticing his loud shooting contraption he calls a pistol was missing from his person and belongings. He scoured the area expertly and noticed the tiny tracks of an intruder that both led to and away from Tangle in the distance of about two horse lengths.
After trying to formulate a plan to locate this mysterious intruder came up with no good leads beyond the tracks, the group headed back into the mine making sure their rear flank was well watched and guarded; as Fin cast an alarm over the entrance and Yakiim laid a trail of loose ash hoping to create some makeshift footprints.
Forging on with Torgarion and Ondel at the help, they made their way back to the mine cart near the two giant spider corpses, the Spidersmiter immediately scouring for spoils. He came up with a few gems and after being taught that weapons could have sharp edges, began searching a small nest in an alcove. After finding some coins and a liquid filled bottle, terror was upon him.
A thicker and bulkier giant spider burst from a trap door in the floor and grabbed Torgarion swiftly with hits massive front legs and chelicerae; scurrying with the dwarf back to its den in what can only be described as a fitting act of revenge. The rest were in hot pursuit and were fast enough despite the difficult navigation required through the narrow tunnel to severely damage the beast, thanks to Ondel and his hail of merciless arrows, causing it to drop the mighty Rockmaul. After poisoning and paralyzing Torgarion and Tangle, the beast retreated out of sight, with the distant sound of shifting earth following shortly after.
After causing a very large ambushing spider to drop its dinner and flee into one of its many tunnels, the party found themselves again in need of a few moments to lick their tainted wounds. Before leaving the cavern to gather their thoughts and breath, Yakiim quickly surveyed the pile of skeletal corpses in the spider’s den and gathered a few things that seemed noteworthy, while Fin gathered as much coinage as he could in one swoop of his arm into his pack.
The party made their way quickly outside the mine and began to take their positions to rest, while Torgarion and Tangle laid rigidly waiting for control of their own limbs. After an hour had passed and the party was briefly visited by a giant elk, the realization there had not been a satisfactory answer for why they had come and despite the danger that lurked in the darkness of that cavern, the decision to head back into the mine was made.
Quickly the group found the remains of Jarad Krey, liquified and partially digested after many hours cocooned. They gathered his belongings, explored a bit more of the mine while making quick work of a few wolf spiders, and eventually made their way to the entrance of the mine where they took inventory of what they had found.
A few letters on Krey, a strange, glowing and humming multi-sided contraption, a torn map, a breastplate with a Hounds‘ emblem on the interior, a smooth stone with a familiar etching, and a two handed sword with the inscription/signing: “To my best friend - Terel“
The adventurers decided to travel as long as they could back towards Crosswinds Post. Shortly after beginning their journey back, the weather became much warmer and the wind died down considerably. This made fording the river much simpler of a task on the return journey. They forged a new path that headed south to avoid the long grass to the north.
As evening approached, a raven was spotted flying directly over head in the exact direction they were heading. Not long later, they came upon a raven sitting on the sign post they encountered on their journey to the mine, delivering a bit more than the rolled up message in its beak.
Yakiim, approaching the Raven, grabbed the message from the beak and was immediately bitten on the hand as the raven flew into the air, cackling an ominous rhyme. The blood red ink on the parchment written in infernal script, simply reads: “Zrivyr.”