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| Courtesy of ROFL Initiative |
The party took a few days to rest and recuperate before going back to the Kobold Cavern to finish cleaning it out. They follow their old pathway to the cave and once more Lucky cuts down a sapling to serve as an improvised 10’ pole. He takes the lead and heads straight into the cave, bypassing the more difficult but cleaner route to the right and instead heads straight in to the cesspool.
A moment later he feels the sharp sting of pain as he steps on some sharpened sticks that have been pushed into the muck and mire. They give some under his weight due to the “mud” and thanks to his boots he isn't hurt too badly. He knows he’ll have to be careful about cleaning out that wound. The rest of the party decides to take their time and work their way through the side passage.
While they are climbing up in order to transverse the passage, Lucky scouts forwards, probing ahead with the stick. He gets to the end of the main entrance cavern as the rest of the party clears the passage. The probe catches on something and two distinct clicks are heard just before two small crossbow bolts launch out to strike Lucky. Evidently he had tripped a line fastened to the triggers of some fixed kobold crossbows. Both bolts hit, but the damage is minimal.
The group reassembles and pushes forward into the next cavern, which is the one where they fought last time. While the pools of blood have been dried, there are no other signs of their earlier combat. The field of battle has been picked clean. The party cautiously moves forward. They toss lit torches ahead of them to illuminate two of the exits they haven’t checked out yet and Anise keeps watch to the side exit behind them, which is the same exit where some kobolds tried to get in behind them last time. Lucky sets up a crude alarms system to help Anise watch that rear tunnel. The party is split up somewhat in this cavern covering both exits when the kobolds attack on both fronts. The battle rages for a bit with the party getting the upper hand.
As the battle comes to the inevitable conclusion, Anise spots two kobolds making a break for it. A fatter kobold practically waddles ahead of a huge brute of a kobold. The come up the back tunnel setting off the alarm before making a bee-line for the forest. Rythax and Myka finish the last kobolds engaged in combat and chase after the pair of fleeing kobolds. Rythax is closer and is able to engage in the large kobold who has taken a defensive position at the natural choke point where Lucky had earlier set off the crossbows. The two trade some terrible blows. Rythax nearly fells the beast with a vicious swing of his longsword. The kobold is knocked back, but he doesn’t go down. It comes back in swinging aggressively and slays Rythax with an equally vicious counter-attack. As his body goes limp Myka is able to move in and finish the brutish kobold.
Most of the group is stunned at this point, but Lucky doesn’t hesitate. Just because the Ranger is down it doesn’t mean he’s out. The fat kobold is moving too slowly and even with the battle buying her some time, she hasn’t made it out of the cave entrance. Lucky sprints after her. At one point the floor collapses underneath him, but because of his momentum he is easily able to keep going after the last kobold. A single backstab fells that remaining kobold and the party emerges victorious.
The victory is bitter-sweet though for Rythax is definitely dead. Once that has been definitively determined the party sets out to check out the rest of the cave system. The fat kobold was actually a very pregnant female that was set to deliver at any moment. She had one her some sort of gnomish ointment that she had been nibbling on. The brutish male was probably her mate. He was large enough to wear some smaller human sized armor and wielded a high-quality short sword. That hole in the floor went down 15’-20’ and ended in some long wooden spikes.
Checking out the rest of the complex the party discovers that the kobolds they had killed earlier were being cannibalized by the survivors, most likely to keep them fed while they shored up the caves defenses. Evidently Lucky had set off every single trap they had made in the two days the party was recovering. There were few kobolds left and half that they just fought were actually females. Down in the back of the cave was a small stream that looked navigable. It wasn’t too deep, but the prospect of slugging up (or down) a small tunnel in a cold underground stream doesn’t seem like much fun. The cavern continues past the stream and curves around to reveal a gold encrusted wall. Small crystals of gold poke out from the wall and a few are scattered about on the ground.
The survivors take a few whacks at the wall collecting some samples which they promptly hide. Everyone is filled with mixed emotions. They’ve just lost a friend, but they’ve found a treasure beyond their dreams. Once they are convinced the cave is free of kobolds they gather up Rythax’s body and take him back to town. They turn in the kobold ears and report their results to the Elder. The Elder sees to Rythax’s body and informs his family. That night is spent drowning their sorrows in Rythax’s favorite watering hole: the Dark Titan Taproom.
After the funeral, and a couple weeks off to train, the party gathers back up at the Taproom to discuss their future plans. Rythax's brother Voskkal, who Anise can vouch for, decides to join them....despite the fact his brother just died with this group. They decide it might be best to see about how to legitimately acquire their new mine. Anise looks into whatever records the town might hold and discovers that there was once a mine claim there and it was called Shane’s Delve. For a paltry sum of 10 Gold (100sp) they can pretty much purchase the cave rights outright. While it is a bit much, if the party sells everything they can and use Rythax’s shares they can scrape up enough to purchase mining rights. They head out the next day to their new mine and toil away to extract some of its riches.
They take a small sample back to town with them after the first day of hard labor and have the town’s only jeweler take a look at it. He immediately dismisses it as pyrite, or Fool’s Gold. He explains the crystalline structure of this sample to be the dead giveaway that it isn't real gold.
The party is understandably upset and makes plans to leave town to find some “proper” adventuring.
Moons:
Bardra'Kar is 2nd Quarter Waxing
Shadara is 2nd Quarter Waxing
Light level: Bright
"Loot":
Healing Salve
Studded Leather
Short Sword +1
OOC: My notes are incomplete for this session
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