Snorri's Clan Pt 2

Decide which tunnel to explore. While discussing and preparing, attacked by a mob of spiders. About 2 ft in size. During the fight, I hear Orcish from down the tunnel, “Begone foul invaders, the swarm will defeat you! We have the two dwarves. Their deaths will be slow and painful.” Spiders die fast. Elwin bit but not hurt. Proceed slowly down the tunnel. Elwin hears footsteps receding. Keep going. Near where the dwarves fought, Elwin sees two giant preying mantises eating on dead spiders. Debate and decide to attack them. Rest wait while Elwin and I sneak down to shot them, then lead them back to the waiting party. One starts to attack after we shoot it, but runs away after we get a couple of good hits in. Aerrion, Dubious and I move in and kill the second one. Elwin and I check out the passages. Rocks fall down but miss. Elwin climbs up. Low tunnel at top. Elwin tosses rope down. Finds cobwebs and signs that someone was there to push the rocks. Go back rather then down the short tunnel.

Decide to move toward Orc lair noted on map provided by dwarves. A valley is between us and the cave. Open sky above. Elwin spots Orc and large clawed tracks. Check the cave across the valley. Orc and clawed tracks. Slowly move in, I lead with Elwin covering. Rest follow. Big room with pillar. Keep going. Room with a fire pit and seven alcoves. Foot and paw prints. Paws go to #3. I spot a dead manticore in #3. Probably not the one I saw, been dead too long. Full of arrows. Pull one out. Have an allergic reaction to the stuff on it. Nice looking arrow, malachite tip. Looks to be worth 100Au. Brak casts a Cure Disease on me which cures the allergy. Party checks the other alcoves. Elwin wakes up the Stirges in #5. Brief fight. Elwin gets sucked on. Find a secret door in #6. Also an empty vial with “Invisibility” written in Dwarvish. Debate using the 3x5 tunnel behind the door. Gracie and Dubious go.

They hear a crunching sound. Lilth wants to check out the noise. He and Dubious go. Gracie comes back to tell us. By the time we get there, they have killed the two mountain lions. Dubious finds clues about his clan. Head toward the mine. Find a poem written in blood. A taunt about dwarves getting beaten in battle. Close to the mine. See earth moving like something moving underground. Elementals? No tracks. Leave the critters alone. Head back to the new battle site. Find tracks in tunnel we bypassed earlier. Figures. As we travel down, encounter and kill more spiders. Make it to the iron mine. Fresh tracks. Most recent ones lead out. Single shaft leads in. Crude smithy outside. Many mining tools. Most dwarven made. Scout around. Don’t think this is where dwarves are. Move on to Orc Leap. Rope net bridge across a 120ft deep, 50ft wide chasm. See a small spider crawling along underneath bridge. Jian magic missiles it. Leave the mules here. Cross the bridge carefully. See some bloodstains. Everyone at cave mouth. See tracks. Find no traps. A wooden wall with a small hole. I hear spider chittering from other side. One pops out. I shoot it. Hear in Orcish “Come quick!” So much for surprise. Sky breathes thru hole. Elwin dives in followed by Aerrion. They work on opening the gate. It opens and we move in. Charge down the tunnels. Narrow. We cover each other as we go. I spot an untracked area of sand in middle of tunnel, probably a trap. Warn folks. Aerrion tries to jump the trap but the low ceiling causes him to fall short. Fire trap. Dubious and I get burned. More spiders. These squeak as the die. Hear Orcish divine chanting. “Thank you Father.” Bless? Cloudy darkness in Orc chamber. Light spell fails to help. Dubious and Aerrion charge into the darkness. Sounds of fighting. Sky moves up and breathes again. I tumble in blindly and cast Obscuring Mist. Instead of a cloud, it cancels the darkness. Aerrion tumbles after the Orc cleric but gets Feared by the him. Aerrion runs around the far corner. Several Orcs attack me in route to Dubious. Ouch! I tumble clear and shoot the Cleric. The dwarves hack thru the Orcs. As Brak charges the cleric, the Orc steps forward, strikes a tinderstick and jabs himself. He blows up. Damn explosions! Fight over. Find the two dwarves back where Aerrion was hiding. He prevented two Orcs from finishing the dwarves. Find a spider queen in another chamber. She bargins her freedom. Dwarves blinded by torture. Make it back to the Dwarven compound. Snorri’s clan has a repository of books which they let me read. The Dwarves reward us with gifts and we stay for a few weeks while they prepare them.

Oosana

XP Kills: 1500, Story: 200, RP: 300
+1 reputation point, +2 action points

Loot:
Wine bottle with strap - Ever Smoking bottle
Shield
Pick Axe

Everyone receives a gift from the Dwarves. Have to be careful not to offend if gift not very useful.