Adventurers
- Alfredward (Dwarf 4) and Horace (Knight 1)
- Asher (Fighter 3)
- Jinx (Magic User 1)
- Koko (Cleric 3)
- Mandras (Dwarf 1)
- Moonbeam (Fighter 1)
- Rarder (Fighter 5)
Not content to sit on their laurels after dealing with the minotaur, and hoping to use intel from Whiskers to tackle the source of evil in the valley's caves, the party set forth again with a larger expeditionary force of adventurers and retainers.
Outside the cave were staked a number of corpses with faces contorted into different caricatured impressions of human emotions. Warily the party entered, leaving a few outside to guard the horses. The interior was seemed far grander than other caves, and an feeling of unease washed over everyone except Koko. Opting to head away from this foul sense and towards the sound of water, the group walked down some large, finely crafted and dusty corridors lined with columns meeting in arches overhead.
Too fixated upon looking ahead and behind, though, the party didn't think to check the walls - too late did they become alert to danger as one of the columns peeled itself away from the wall and engulfed the unfortunate Horace. The party hacked the oozing creature to bits but all that remained of the knight was a bubbling goo.
All the more wary now, the adventurers continued and found themselves in a room with a gem-studded throne flanked by skeletons. These sprung into action when the gems were pried out, but Koko turned most of them and they were all dispatched quickly. Another room, its occupants grotesquely warped corpses, proved tougher, and the brave but perennially hit-able Moonbeam was clouted to death.
As the party headed back to the entrance to regroup and resupply, they crossed paths with some cowled figures carrying buckets of water. Not giving these water bearers a chance to react, the party leapt upon them, cutting two down quickly. The last two, however, split their robes as their forms contorted and expanded, and the adventurers found themselves confronted by a pair of caricaturedly angry enemies. The brought the unarmed duo down, but not before Asher had taken a hefty beating.
Restocked with supplies and fighting bodies, the party headed towards the foul vibes. Unobserved, they spied a room of more cowled figures while a vanguard spotted some patrolling figures further on into the cave network, accompanied by forms shrouded in glowing embers. Waiting for these sentries to pass on, the group lobbed flaming oil flasks into the room and cut down the panicking occupants.
The noise attracted the sentries. The party tried to pivot to face them as they charged down the corridor but the ember-shrouded canine forms burst into flame and shot ahead to catch the formation half-formed. Overwhelmed, the adventurers started retreating as a gout of fire engulfed Mandras completely, leaving him struggling weakly in the jaws of death, and powerful jaws crushed one of Koko's retainers.
Jinx reached inside his robes and pulled out a scroll. He read out the enchantment and an earthy fist emerged from the ground beneath the fiery hounds. The summoned earth elemental pulverised the pack of canines, and their two handlers turned to flee. The quicker of the pair escaped into the darkness but the party were able to leap upon and restrain the larger. Hearing the sound of a great bell tolling throughout the corridors, they tied the man up and dragged him to the cave entrance. There they quickly mounted and retreated back to the fort with their captive.
They questioned him, learning that he was part of a group "looking to unleash wild magics upon the world, looking to warp minds and unleash the True Human within" and that "the ordered slavery of civilisation will give way to disordered freedom and chaos"!
And they 'encouraged' him to draw them a map.
