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  1. Journals

Attack on the Cinderclaw Mine

As the party woke up at the Kobold camp, things seemed a bit livelier as the Kobolds were in much better shape than they were the day before.


As thanks for their help. The Kobold miners gave the party an additional piece of information.
The leader of the mining operation is one of them, a Kobold named Hezle , who they insist is not a bad person, but is just following instructions. They also tell them that if they use her clan name “Thornscales”, she will know the party helped her people and might help them in return.

 

The heroes bid their farewell to the Kobolds, and made their way towards the direction of the Cinderclaw mine.

After a few hours, they reached a clearing that was obviously the right spot. There was a large hole in the ground with light emanating from it in the center of the clearing. Across from it was a cabin next to a large mound of dirt.
To the north an impressively large wooden cage with an even more impressive occupant. A huge longed necked dinosaur identified by Andromeda as a Mokele-mbembe which had clear signs of abuse.

To the south was a separate shack, with some bedrolls laid out and some sick cultists resting and others standing guard.

As the heroes stood there… clearly in the open discussing the best way forward, they heard a deafening screech. And out of the trees, a large Vulture-like creature, fell upon them. This was a Wrath Demon, also known as a Vrock.

 The party jumped into action against this fearsome creature, but the whole mine was alerted now.
A blue scaled Kobold emerged from the cabin at the eastern side of the mine and started making her way north towards the Mokele-mbembe’s cage. From the Miner's description, this was Hezle, the leader of the encampment.
The group fought fiercely.
Andromeda sent Chorizo to the Mokele-mbembe’s cage to try and stop Hezle, who was likely trying to free it.
Betty entangled the demon with tanglefoot bags to stop it from flying above everyone out of reach, and both Krystoff Spirfierdf and Bjørn attacked in melee.

As they were fighting, three Sabosans flew in from the treetops and joined the fray.
Some Charau-ka and Boggard cultists gathered their weapons and approached, but didn’t join as they were scared of the Vrock.

When the Vrock was overwhelmed by being swarmed by the group, it finally fell after a hit from the Good energies imbued in Krystoff’s Smite Evil attack.
As soon as the Vrock Fell, the cultists rushed forward. Krystoff and Andromeda rushed to meet them. Andromeda using Dinosaur form to transform into a mighty Tyrannosaurus.
Betty stayed back, and the remaining Sabosan flew over the rest to attack her. Bjorn stayed back to defend her while Krystoff and Andromeda held the line.

As Bettyy and Bjørn finished off the remaining Sabosams, Krystoff and Andromeda were struggling. The mighty Charau-ka Butchers were hitting fast and hard. Their raging attacks were causing deep gashes that would bleed profusely.

By the time Betty and Bjorn reached them to aid, Andy had been knocked unconscious, bleeding and near death.

Meanwhile. Hezle managed to open the Mokele-mbembe’s gate and she hid in the Jungle.
The Raging Dinosaur rushed towards the fight, and Chorizo fled into the wilderness to get out of the way of the trampling behemoth.

The battle raged fiercely. Krystoff struggled to keep everyone alive, and things were not looking hopeful.
There was one Butcher left, Krystoff was injured, Betty, Bjørn and Andy were unconscious and bleeding out. The Mokele-mbembe rushed towards them.
Knowing he could not stop the beast, Krystoff prepared to act as soon as it passed.
The dinosaur rushed by, Trampling almost everyone in its path, and killing the Charau-ka while at it. Krystoff acted immediately with an area of effect Heal spell that brought his allies back to their feet and gave everyone a chance to stand up and run while the Mokele-mbembe continued to rage and pound his abuser's corpses on the ground.

Surviving their likely hardest battle to date, the adventurers were wounded and exhausted and spent the greater part of the day resting.
It was decided to return to the mine closer to nightfall to not let the cultists regroup and prepare another defense.

That night. Rested and recovered. The group came up from the north. With Bjørn scouting thanks to a Darkvision Elixir that Betty provided.
There weren’t many guards in sight, and the camp still seemed in disarray after that morning’s attack.
The only guards to be seen were two Boggards stationed in the Western entrance. The party made their way around and rushed towards them.
As they were fighting, Betty splashed one with Acid and Krystoff put it out of its misery.
As they were fighting, Hezle reappeared from the Eastern Cabin, and launched a Fireball at everyone, including the remaining Boggard, from her Staff.

With the Boggards dead, the party decided to withdraw again.

Hours later, and in the middle of the night. The party decided to sneak towards Hezle’s Cabin, and perhaps try to negotiate with her to avoid more unnecessary death.

As they snuck around, Bjørn knocked on the door and called out to Hezle, but received no answer.
As he opened the door, he noticed on time the entire place had been rigged to explode with Alchemical bombs.
Bjørn jumped out of the way of the explosion with incredible skill, but everyone else got hit.

Hezle emerged from the shack to the south, and called out to the cultist that the trap had been sprung.
More Charau-Ka and Boggards spilled out of the shack and rushed the heroes.
The sound of the explosion also rose three Giant Mud Spiders from the dirt pile to attack. Meaning the heroes were being attacked by both the North and the South.

Hezle took some Butchers with her to the Western side of the mine, and Andromeda cast a wall of fire to the south to stop the approaching Boggards.
Everyone else started retreating back to the East while fighting off the spiders.

One of the spiders nearly took down Andromeda, but Krystoff managed to block most of the damage with his Shield Other Spell.
Once the spiders were taken out, Andy moved to the north to cast entanglement and slow the advance of Hezle’s group.
Krystoff rushed towards the Boggards and Betty came to support, Bjørn stayed back to support with arrow shots. Once they were all dead, and as they were going to withdraw, Betty threw a bomb at the center of the mine, hoping to hit the Pilar and do some damage. 
As soon as she did, the light emanating from the hole grew brighter. And the pillar started opening portals, from which spawned forth six Voidworms, tiny snake like proteans from the Maelstrom.


Hezle and her group, who up to them had been watching safely from a distance, started rushing forward. Hezle launching another Fireball at the group.

Everyone started retreating to the trees, Krystoff staying back taking down Voidworms while he retreated, as did Betty.

A few seconds later, two larger portals opened. This time bringing forth two Naunets, powerful proteans resembling large salamanders with odd ever changing appendages, including tentacles.

These new threats proved to be more than the party could handle. One of them casting Dimension door to get behind the group and blocking their retreat.
The other using Solid Fog, which slowed down their escape even more.

As they were being overwhelmed, Andromeda ordered Chorizo to run.
The cultists caught up, but Hezle ordered them to capture the party alive, as “they’re more valuable to Belmazog Alive!”, which made the Cultists attack a Naunet, eventually taking it down.

Krystoff tried to stay back and hold the line to allow his comrades to escape, begging Bjørn to cover their retreat. But the Ulfen man knew it was futile, and decided to save himself. 
Krystoff begged Andromeda and Betty to run, but they refused to leave him behind.
Fighting in all directions, Krystoff was knocked out by the cultists, and both Betty and Andy threw down their weapons in surrender. 

The three of them were taken captive.