Adventurers
- Alfredward (Dwarf 4)
- Dulo Chaec (Magic User 1)
- Knuckles (Thief 2)
- Koko (Cleric 4)
- Mandras (Dwarf 2)
- Rarder (Fighter 5)
Trapped in their dead end, the party sent forth Koko as the only individual versed in a language the enemy might understand – Chaotic – to try and talk their way back to safety. He indignantly questioned the welcome he, as replacement to the recently deceased cleric and his retinue, was being given by his supposed allies. Look, he had the mace to prove it. The to and fro with the leader of the hairy one unit down the length of a corridor did serve to sow uncertainty in the minds of the party’s foes, who ordered the adventurers to stay put while a runner sought the counsel of the King Under The Mountain.
Mandras had a quick peek around the corner to see what the state of play was with their ambushers, and though he had to withdraw quickly in the face of several arrows fired his way he did observe that the well-formed ranks remained but with one creature’s space taken up by the cauldron of boiling oil from the torture room, evidently primed to flood the party’s approach.
Rather than wait for the messenger to return, the party risked charging straight into the trap, sending Knuckles ahead of everyone. The thief, with his enchanted armour giving him the ability to breathe forth fire, belched a gout of flames upon on the hairy ones and, more importantly, the cauldron of oil. There was a terrific bang as the container exploded, wiping out the the formation entirely and billowing out through the corridors. Rarder and Alfredward, encased in magically-resistant armour, weathered most of the blast but still the other adventurers suffered a severe singeing, Dulo Chaec left bereft of any facial hair and Mandras suffering flashbacks to his previous brush with fiery death.
With the sound of many voices in response to the explosion, the party fled back towards the surface, nearly reaching the stairway up before finding the way blocked by several large hairy ones and a strangely hairless one, visually similar in every way but for the bare head and fleshy arms. From another corridor charged a column of reinforcements.
Rarder, Mandras and Koko fell upon the group blocking the way out while everyone else launched flaming oil flasks, missiles and themselves into the second unit, hacking and slashing, holding them up long enough for Dulo to envelop most of them in an enchanted sleep and slicing their throats as they pushed the last remnant back into retreat. The trio facing the larger foes likewise kept them at bay, the hairless one scrabbling aggressively but ineffectually at Rarder’s armour, until Koko brought all four down with a paralysing prayer.
As the sound of battle faded, the adventures heard a cry for help in the Common tongue from just down one corridor. Cautiously they entered what looked to be a substantial forge, ingots and tools everywhere, and saw a dwarf chained to an anvil. He introduced himself as Greth Ironhand, a prisoner forced at spearpoint to produce copious amounts of weapons and armour for the hairy ones. The party handed him a hammer to break his chains, and he happily joined their ranks.
The adventurers quickly looted the piles of bodies but dared not risk going any further, and so they headed back into daylight and returned to Redwood Keep, thankful to have emerged with their lives but conscious that their foes would be anticipating their return.