Session 6: The Crater of Murias

The party spent some weeks in Glen Morag, training and inspecting their land grant.  While there they met a shifty-eyed Callovian named Akillian who was traveling Llanvirnesse in search of ancient treasures and had heard the legend of de Danann city of Murias that had been destroyed by a falling star millenia ago, and of the dwarven mining expedition that disappeared from the crater without a trace.  He, too, thought to investigate the crater in search of riches and joined the party who have been tasked by the sinister mage-priest, Frosck, to slay the renegade mage, Sothiss, and recover a sphere in his possession.

The party set out for the crater, two days north of Glen Morag, in a region of the Mac Morne Highlands said to be infested with redcaps.  Upon reaching the crater's rim, they saw that the basin extend three miles across with a sinkhole in the center, and the inner slopes were pocked with cave entrances from which fire-light and smoke could be seen.  They decided to wait until night-fall and see what was living in the caves.  After sunset, redcaps and wargs began to patrol the crater while guards were posted at the entrance of the sinkhole to regulate traffic coming to and from the depths in an old dwarven lift.  At sunrise guards and patrols returned to the caves and the basin was quiet once more.

The party made their way carefully to the sinkhole at the basin's center.  The sinkhole's depths could not be seen, but there were a series of landing platforms on alternating sides of the sinkhole, the first being fifty feet directly below the lift.  The party descended in the cage to the first platform, and as they drew near, two redcap sentries began to shoot at them with shortbows.  The party's archers returned fire, killing one of the sentries, until the cage landed on the platform and everyone piled out.  The remaining sentry bolted out of the tunnel and around a corner.  It took several minutes for the party to get organized and light torches before following after the sentry around the corner and into an empty room with no apparent exits, but large cracks in two of the walls that might permit ingress by a small sized creature. 

As they began to investigate, flasks of oil were thrown into the room from the wall cracks, followed by torches which set the room ablaze.  Bvar, the dwarf, ran for one of the cracks and crawled inside with his dagger drawn and was confronted by a particularly menacing goblin warrior.  The two fought a deadly duel in the narrow confines of a rough-hewn tunnel and both Bvar and the goblin were badly wounded; Bvar retreated back into the room, bleeding profusely, while the goblin similarly retreated down the tunnel, eager to escape with his life.

Shortly thereafter a giant spider with a redcap handler emerged from each of the two cracks and set upon the party.  This proved to be a long and perilous battle, with both Bvar and Akillian losing consciousness from blood-loss before the enemy was finally dispatched.  Since Theon's healing spells were now exhausted and most of the party wounded there was discussion of leaving the sinkhole to rest and recover rather than risk any further redcap ambushes in their current, weakened condition.  On the way out, however, Akillian couldn't resist peaking through a door that they had passed and when he opened it a crack he found himself looking straight at a big, hairy bellybutton.  The door was flung open the rest of the way and he found himself confronted by a large, angry ogre. 

Directly behind the ogre was the redcap warrior who had fought Bvar and apparently had made his way around to this room and was planning to have the ogre flank the party.  He commanded the ogre, Durshrukh to attack and then fled through a doorway to the north.  Akillian, with very few hitpoints remaining, decided that discretion was the better part of valour fled at best speed toward the sinkhole followed by a bellowing ogre, hungry for his blood.  The rest of the party, who had lingered behind now followed the raging ogre and finally caught up with him at the sinkhole's precipice where they were able to finish him off.

They decided to press their luck still further and investigate the room the ogre had been in, and found a chest of treasures hidden beneath Durshrukh's sleeping furs.  While they were looting the treasure, the wounded goblin warrior returned with his brother and swore the vengeance of the sons of Brazarag.  They attacked the worn and wounded party and gave a good account of themselves but were finally slain.

The party decided not to risk investigating any more, being now badly injured and fatigued and decided to camp out in the room for the day and recover.  If the redcaps decide to give them any rest...