02/06/2020 - Looting the Lair, Comrade's Cremation and Dangerous Descending

## **TL;DR**

* Everyone searched the Hag’s caves and found the fighty stick while Tamsin  identified the sword of Orm the Red
* The remains of Gimble  were cremated in the mountains and his ashes were stored
* Traveled back through the mine, this time opting for the climb down a mine shaft, which turned out to be marginally more perilous
* Evaded the guards outside the entrance and returned to Rocksend with some intense discussion en route

## **Finding the Findy Finds**

In the aftermath of their gory encounter, Elyan  strode further into the lair searching for Gimble -sized footprints with little success. Scribbulus  tried in vain to use healing magic on the blackened, partially digested remains from the Hag’s insides. The gristly fibrous lump simply flopped slightly in his arms and he looked on in despair. Meanwhile, Tamsin  ran over to Blagden  and wrapped him up in her cloak. “Are you alright?!”, she asked gently. He calmed his shaking as they spoke and distracted his mind by showing Tamsin  his shiny new magnifying glass. Then, remembering the scarring sequence of events once more, he cast a glance over to Belami who was also huddled on the floor under the stalwart care of Ratty. “Belami, you ok?”. “Yep…” she trailed off, her eyes staring at nothing in particular. Tamsin  brought the girl into the huddle as the others showed her the items they’d retrieved prior to the battle.

The sword of Orm the Red was brought forth to Tamsin  when she declared that she was not moving from her little cluster. "We’re in this mess because you didn’t move the first time…”, Kunai  dropped sassily. "Fuck you lizard!”, she retorted sharply, causing the him to frown. "Give me 10 minutes I’ll find out what it is”, she instructed, while beginning preparations for her simple identify ritual.

At that, the others began to delve deeper into the paraphernalia-filled caverns. Khrom  was immediately drawn towards a small cloth doll that he gently plucked from the ice with a two-finger grip. He presented it to Blagden  who was still over by Tamsin  fiddling with his magnifying glass. “Here is a doll, perhaps you’d like to play with it”. The goblin looked bemused by the suggestion but nonetheless quickly took the toy. The two of them then wandered back towards the main chamber to keep searching, though Blagden  flatly refused to step beyond sight of the exit. There they came upon Ash  looking altogether pleased with himself, admiring a jar of pickled pig snouts in one hand while throwing and catching an enormous ball of thread in the other.

Kunai  stood all but motionless in the centre of the chaos, his sharp eyes specifically scoping out stick-based items. He identified a single large pile of old wood as the most promising lead and declared as such to anyone who was listening, opting to avoid the physical labour himself, before marching off deeper into the cave after Elyan . Khrom  and Ash  made a b-line for the wood, the Bugbear doing the heavy lifting so that the nimble Kalashtar could get in amongst the miscellaneous antiques. Khrom  drew forth an intriguing stick in the form of a horse with 7 legs, while Ash  managed to dig deep enough to find a massive green jelly dotted with highly spurious chunks of meat, eliciting a mighty “eeeugh!". “Well I think I came out on top here”, Khrom  declared drily.

In this time, Tamsin  completed her ritual and discovered that the sword was a ‘hellfire' weapon. It was made from infernal iron, could shed light and the brilliant veins running along its length were of infused hellfire. Noting this information, she began a second ritual, this time to detect any other sources of magical energy in the caves. Beside Tamsin  and the curled up form of Belami, Scribbulus  busied himself with tidying up Gimble’s  remains for burial. First, he took the mass believed to be Gimble’s  former body and placed it by the door. Then he retrieved and cleaned the sword and shield of the gnome. He placed the sword into the bag of holding and was doing the same with the shield when a small engraving caught his eye. Crudely etched into the inside face were the words ‘My name is Gimble  and I am alone’ and, further down and more faintly, ‘Gimble  and Bayul'. At this reminder of Gimble’s  loneliness and his untimely and tragic death, the sensitive halfling sobbed once more. He placed his own shield into the bag and resolved to carry Gimble’s  in his honour.

In the deeper caverns the search slowly became more fruitful. His mind now becoming distanced from the trauma, Blagden  came across a beautifully carved marrow which he gleefully carted about while poking at other nicknacks. Ash  found a small trove of 111 silver pieces, and Kunai  began to systematically shake through a stack of old books. However, he was drawn into one. A hint of gold gilding suggested that the tattered book he held had once been a thing of some beauty. Intrigued, he opened it up. The writing was primarily in old Iysgarthian but from his rudimentary working understanding he gathered that it was the diary of a high-ranking Iysgarthian official from the peak days of the empire. The individual in questions appeared to be obsessed by an artefact that they had retrieved on an island and hoped to bend to their will. He pocketed it for later inspection.

Two more key discoveries occurred. For this entire time Elyan  had traveled deeper than anyone in search of the findy stick. He knocked on parts of the icy walls, listening for hollows, and kept a lookout for any hidden alcoves. Eventually, a small hole caught his attention. He pushed himself through and there came face to face with a giant pile of, you guessed it, sticks. It took several more minutes for the inquisitive bard to perform this needle-in-a-haystack search but he kept his patience. His perseverance was finally rewarded when he layed his hands on a y-shaped stick engraved with several runes, entirely as Dr T had described. He immediately devised an experiment - he grabbed another stick, cast it behind him and held the candidate findy stick ahead. Having not attuned to the magic in the item, it simply spun him about all over the place, though this still confirmed his theory. Satisfied, he left the stick room.

Tamsin  had begun wandering about almost in a trance as Kelda looked on, intrigued by Tamsin’s  abilities and keen to learn more. As the wizard moved forwards her vision was blurred and disorientated but several sources of magical energy appeared in sharp focus. One lay on the Hag’s body itself, a small and beautiful blue bag. Blagden  used his arcane hand to tentatively open the flap, releasing a puff of freezing mist. Grasping the concept immediately, the goblin popped his marrow into this ‘bag of colding’ and found roughly 40 mouse pelts inside.

## **A Firey Funeral**

Having scoured the caves for everything of value, the group reconvened. Elyan , Kunai  and Khrom  all made the case for getting out as soon as they could break out of the locked door. Tamsin  created a bonfire to begin melting it while Elyan  and Khrom  superheated their weapons over the blaze and ploughed them directly into the icy blockade. Scribbulus  pointed out that he’d noticed a storm coming during his pre-fight dump but once they finally emerged the skies were a tranquil crystalline blue. They decided to take advantage of the fortuitous weather and move quickly.

Back at the camp, out of view of the Hag’s horrific hideout, Scribbulus  arranged Gimble's  remains to begin a burial process. However, many members of the group were keen to be on their way while the weather remained friendly. Ash  and Tamsin  proposed a cremation rather than a burial so that the gnome’s ashes and final resting place could be further from the sinister atmosphere that hung over the mountains. Given Tamsin’s  gifts it did not take long to prepare and soon the gruesome scraps of the group’s first casualty were immersed and purged in flames. "Thank you for giving us this time with Gimble , please let him pass on to whatever sort of afterlife he wants to”, Khrom  rumbled respectfully, head bowed. He then lay a hand axe onto the pyre and stepped back as Blagden  placed the blanket that Gimble  had given him just the night before alongside it. Both items were consumed and reduced to ash as Kunai  finished the short funeral. “I just hope wherever it is that he ends up appreciates his talents and gives him the confidence that he so truly deserved.” The ashes were carefully collected by Tamsin  and Scribbulus  and placed in a vial, then they departed in a shared sombre and contemplative silence.

## **Shaft Shenanigans**

Belami led the melancholy gang back down towards the mine. Faint sounds of clinking were detected by Kelda's keen hearing as they entered and in combination with the general lack of chatter this enabled the group to easily pass by unnoticed. Belami shuddered slightly as they passed the pathway to the broken bridge and they continued for another few minutes. Suddenly, the narrow corridor opened out into a broad mine shaft that plummeted into the depths over a hundred feet below.

Without a word Khrom  whipped out his 300ft hempen rope and lowered it down the sheer face with the top tied to a structural beam nearby. Scribbulus  scampered down the face in sloth form and paused to assist Blagden  as he hesitantly began to rappel down. The two of them reached the base safely as Elyan  made a nimble and elegant descent. Kunai  followed suit, though became complacent and lost his grip about 20ft above the ground. His landing was dignified, though the grimace as pain lanced through his joints was not as hidden as he’d have liked. Kelda and Tamsin  started down simultaneously. While Kelda’s arachnid form scuttled down the face with no trouble at all, Tamsin  had lowered herself only around 40ft before her hands became too sweaty to maintain a grip. She faltered. Her cloak billowed around her as she scrambled frantically for some kind of purchase to stop her free fall, but the ground rose to meet her too swiftly. Those at the bottom saw this happening almost in slow motion and sprung into action. Blagden , Kunai , Kelda, Elyan  and Scribbulus  were all able to cushion her fall sufficiently to prevent the tumble from becoming fatal, though all experienced the shock of the impact. Kelda immediately set about healing her wounds, secretly hoping to gain favour with the wizard and learn from her arcane wisdom.

Following this near-miss Scribbulus  wasted no time in clambering back up the face to assist Belami who’d developed a reputation for poor luck. Even with the added support of a gangly sloth the young halfling’s exertions of the past few days caught up with her and she ran out of strength by the last part of the climb. She crashed down to the floor and sat up looking red-faced and bashful. Khrom  then grabbed onto the rope. With the beam groaning in protest the Bugbear made his descent, allowing the coarse surface to chafe his fingers as he made a rapid but controlled slide to the base, his boots crunching firmly into the rock with a small outburst of dust. Ash  retrieved the rope and tied it around his waist to return it safely, then began to clamber down. Unfortunately, he misjudged a piece of crumbly material for a solid handhold and it came loose, shedding him from its surface like a piece of dry skin. His superhuman monkish reflexes saved him from certain death, as did the expeditious action of some of his comrades who again willingly threw their bodies on the line for the greater good of an ally.

No member of the party had escaped the climb completely unharmed and as a very bruised band they resumed their passage. Kunai  and Blagden  scouted ahead with Ratty and Ellie spearheading, and Scribbulus  paused for a moment to shroud them all with arcane shadow. Noting the halfling's fatigue, Khrom  offered him a buggy-back which was gratefully accepted. At that moment, however, Khrom  noticed the jerking of Terrence had become more restless, almost like he was in the throws of a deep slumber. He raised the point and the troll’s fate was discussed once more. "I personally would like to see a flaming blade through its eyes, I don’t want to take any more risks than necessary having already buried our friend”, Kunai  injected bluntly. "It would only be the same size as Blagden  even if it did come awake”, Scribbulus  retorted, not wishing to see any further violence that day. Blagden  took the pragmatic approach. "If it comes alive, I will put it back to sleep and then we’ll kill it…how’s that?”. It was decided that this could be a problem for later, when there weren’t crazy orcish hybrids who may attack on sight in the proximity.

## **The Banshee Bard**

It was a short walk before daylight began to carve out the remainder of the pathway. Near to the entrance they first entered by, the sounds of brutish laughter and jeering of a group of guards once again permeated the calmness of the mine. The very same leader was there at the table banging in frustration as the game with four other guards presumably went against him. Elyan  turned to the group, said simply “be ready…” and suddenly disappeared. Unbeknownst to all, he strode over to the mine carts at the entrance and gave the first a mighty shove. “What?! Um, it’s movin’…!” one of the guards blurted as he gestured to the careering cart. The others glanced in that direction, utterly bewildered until the leader burst into action just as before. “Alright, come on boys what you doin?! Go on, what you doin’?!”. Two marched to the carts, bemused at having their game interrupted. Elyan  then opened the door to the building by the entrance…”there’s someone in the house!!” they cried as they darted in, weapons drawn. The brazen bard then slammed the door hard behind them and set the heavy cart up against it, triggering the remaining three to drawn their vicious blades. Tamsin  spooked them all further with a phantom bonfire, while Ash  whispered directly into the mind of the leader ’the ghosts are coming to get you...'. One final eruption of flame right next to them was enough to cause them to break and flee in sheer animalistic terror. They dashed across the open ground before any of the guards steeled themselves and returned, and Elyan  joined them on the bridge, reappearing with a click. He accepted Khrom's  applause with a flourish and a bow, then returned Ash’s  crisp high-five.

## **Rockstart and Rocksend**

With the strain of a few days of sneaking and fighting finally easing, they took a leisurely walk back towards Rocksend, keeping an eye out along the way for a cheery Ankylosaurus. Tamsin  stayed close to Belami on the journey, ensuring that the halfling wasn’t too scarred by her ordeal.

“Are you ok?"

"I am ok. It’s not what I was expecting on this trip, but thank you for looking after me"

"I said I would didn’t I?"

"You are all good people, thank you"

“Hopefully your people won’t be troubled by that monster anymore"

“Yep, there’s just our other bothers of them pigs now"

"I think this lot have got plans for that”, Tamsin  mentioned, jerking her thumb towards Khrom  and Kelda.

"I don’t know what to say, I am so excited"

"I wouldn’t hold your breath”, the wizard cautioned.

"I am very good at holding my breath though…"

"I’m sure you are..”, Tamsin  trailed off.

“Count!”, Belami said excitably before sealing her mouth tightly shut. Tamsin  rolled her eyes and began counting with a slight smile.

It wasn’t long before the hulking form of Wilbur could be heard and seen in a copse of trees a few hundred feet from the main pathway. Scribbulus  bounded over to him and jumped up high for a hug as Wilbur’s clubbed tail swung eagerly in what all assumed was a ‘wag'. Together they trotted back to the group and talk became more serious as they reached the final leg of the trip. Khrom  and Kelda suggested that they would strongly consider remaining on the island to fight the blatant injustices there that they simply could not ignore. Feelings from everyone else were more mixed, though all were troubled by what they had seen and resolved as a group to take some form of action when information and power were in greater supply. In any case, all were united in the plan to attempt a diplomatic parley with the ATC presence before resorting to any other action.

At the gates of Rocksend, Belami bade them goodbye. “So we are back, I hope you enjoyed your journey. I didn’t”. “Thanks, kid”, Tamsin  replied. They gave her a brief wave as she scampered back into the slums, rapidly melting into its haphazard streets. Kunai  then turned his attention to some unfinished business. As fortune would have it, the guard he spoke to about making a survey was near the fort entrance and Kunai  approached.

"Hello again friend”, he opened, relatively friendly by his standards.

“Hello”, the guard responded with a frown.

"Do you have the information I asked you for?"

“Yes, but I do not know what you were expecting. I asked around and many people hate Marfire, but what is on the table? If we kill, him then who will replace him?"

By way of response, Kunai  called Khrom  over and made small-talk as the bugbear approached.

“I didn’t catch your name”

"My name is Condu...”

“Well this here is Khrom , Marfire’s replacement”, Kunai  gestured almost vertically.

“So what, we’re going to put him in charge? This is not some tribal system where we hire whoever we want, they have to be hired by the ATC!"

"Do you like working for the ATC?"

"They pay well…the terms are fine…what can I say I work for a pay check"

“Well this humongous giant bugbear will tear your Marfire limb from limb…"

"Ok, I understand! But again, we don’t choose our leader!"

"Yes, but our associates have become rather close with your superiors, perhaps we can suggest a new candidate?"

"The easiest way to replace him would be to get him fired, most of the men here would support you”

The talk continued for some moments and Kunai  began to feel that the guard wanted something more from him.

"Oh god you don’t want papers do you?"

"No! Why the fuck would I want papers?”

"Look, I'm just trying to do you a favour"

"I appreciate your favour..."

“If you cant be bothered to act then I don’t care. It’s up to you, Bugbear, if you want to work with these idiots…”, Kunai  shrugged as he returned to the group.

A few moments passed in which both Khrom  and the guard glanced around, feeling generally uncomfortable, then Khrom  also walked off.

Together again, they discussed the next step. "If we are trying the diplomatic thing then fine, I will come for that, if that fails then you can all leave and I will remain here.”, Khrom  stated. "The point of that rather laboured negotiation was to try and give you a foothold on the ATC ladder of power, but only if you want to work with these complete buffoons”, Kunai  explained. With the discussion open and ongoing, they began to set out a camp for the evening away from both the slums and the town in the hope of an early start the following day.