I have finally sought to hire retainers, after watching my colleagues’ successes with them. I had quite a few applicants, even with my burned pate! I managed to hire Filchpool, a fighter and Collingster, a cleric. But when we mustered next morning to return to the temple estate, there were so many colleagues, that I forebore from taking the retainers for their first outing. But I did buy them armour and such and bought myself a set of plate and a brand new shield.
We sallied forth and found our access to the underground passages blocked again. Rarder and I took the lead and Rarder bashed the planks down with his spear. Once inside, we fell to debating which direction to take. Holy Mithras… we are lucky the entire populace didn’t hear our bickering! In the end we travelled north by northwest. At the end of a 60’ long corridor we discovered a door with a small window in it. Knuckles padded forth to peek through it. He saw a set of quarters with 6 hairy ones, and 5 cultists, one of which was an officer of sorts. Another lengthy and whispered debate ensued. By all that is holy to me, we were lucky there again…
Knuckles agreed to toss in oil flasks and breathe fire into the room. What a lovely whoosh, as 4 cultists and a hairy collapsed to the ground, fried and one of each writhed in agony. I opened the door and stepped aside as I am still leery of being burned some more… Rarder berserkedly charged through the flames to block the door on the other side, and was somewhat burned for his pains. Knuckles then shot the cultist officer dead, while Lynal cast light on a hairy. The rest dropped their weapons and cowered.
Bodily holding the light-struck cultist up as a human torch, Rarder saw through the window that there was a corridor beyond with three doors. In the meantime, Knuckles proceeded to interrogate the 3 hairies before tying them up and turning them over to Koko (I almost shiver at the thought of what my Chaotic colleague has in store for them).
We learned that:
- The 3 holes we had discovered in the surface scrub are at the end of the corridor and provide egress to the surface
- The cultists we killed were Cult or Erkro members here to reinforce the Temple Estate (hmmm, must track where they are sallying from)
- There are roughly 20 hairies and 20 cultists left
- The King under the Mountain (pompous title…), is indeed friendly with a dragon of sorts, which provides the ambient heat down here.
Moving into the long corridor, we checked the three doors and encountered cells, one of which held Cullan, a scout of sorts – and his raiments, which we returned to him.
And now, we await to pursue our endeavours here.