Athelstan, never one to shirk a dangerous task, took his place and descended the ropes in turn. At the bottom he drew his magical sword which cast it's glow a dozen or so feet around and peered off down the six foot round earthen tunnel.
"So how do you want to do this?" he asked of Brutus.

"There is only one tunnel here, I'd say we have no choice, I saw the gold up ahead in a widened spot, perhaps a chamber. Let's go have a look".

<--- waves tata!

Brutus, Natasha, Athelstan, Prudence and Skrufulus descend the ropes without incident and begin a search of the tunnels. The sides of the tunnels and the larger chambers of the lair are strewn with bits and pieces of wood, rocks of all sizes, scraps of human origin (clothing, pieces of weapons, and other refuse), and the usual traces of ankheg occupancy.
Within minutes, a sizeable collection of silver pieces is found - about four score scattered about amongst the loose dirt. Then, a hint of greater treasure is found - a fine quality eight foot long spear, undamaged by the ankhegs activity and with the metal head engraved with mystical symbols.
Thus far it would seem only a small portion of the total network of tunnels has been sifted through - how far the tunnels actually go is also still unknown, but based on the flames and flying dirt from Brutus' fireball, the network must cover nearly half a square mile.

How long do you intend to search for treasure?

"We don't want to leave the others in that cold sitting for very long, I say we split into two groups, and canvass as much as we can in half an hour, then we leave and get on the journey"

"I will strike out on my own," Natasha volunteered "If I can have the light gem."
Everyone knew she was the fastest person there, and could cover  a lot of ground in a hurry.

While patiently waiting for the others, Fenube pulls out a small basket of knitting, and returns to making that pair of booties with the little blue dragons on them.

As night falls, the young gnome makes a simple but very tasty meal for those who remain on the surface.
It had been several months since the others began exploring the caverns, but Fenube was patient and loyal to a fault.

After what seemed like forever the tunnel explorers return to the surface with their collected loot.
Around 1,000 pieces of silver, two large gems (a ruby and a perhaps the largest black sapphire anyone in the group has ever seen), as well as the 8 foot long spear is the sum total recovered.

Meanwhile, Bregor has completed his dissection of the Ankhegs and reports that the combination of sword, missile and fire which killed them, has rendered their exoskeletons as unsuitable for salvage. If they'd somehow been incapacitated first, then slain with a single carefully aimed thrust between armoured sections...

Further down the trail, just beyond the tree line, the teamsters have completed reorganising the animals following the death and injury inflicted by the gigantic insects.

Without further delay, the caravan moves off down the slope, leaving the mountains behind. All are glad to finally be within the trees of the Charwood and the shelter they provide from the freezing weather. A couple of hours latter and Skrufulus and Prudence have found a suitable camp site for the night.

NPC'd
Bregor moves around the campsite using his magic to create several enchanted snares in the more obvious approach routes. Once done, he returns to the camp fire and cast detect magic on the spear recovered from the tunnels - as expected it glows.

Jer polishes his armour as the peasants do the real work. He whistles a tune.

Natasha encourages Jer's chauvanism by making a stew. She is a lovely person, after all, and barely even implies that Jer ought to be in the stew if not helping make it.

"Brutus, do you think you could identify this spear?"
Knowing something was magical was one thing, but knowing what it was capable of doing was something else entirely and, unfortunately, beyond Bregors ability.

"Skrufulus, come walk the perimeter with me and I'll teach you some tracking skills."
"Don't forget your bow, we might get lucky and shoot some dinner."

Breathing heavily, Prudence burst from the bushes and into the fire light.
"Wolves," she panted, sucking in air in great lungfuls.
"Lots of them!"

Bregor motioned everyone to stillness and cocked his ear in the direction Prudence was waving.
"That's not wolves, that's worgs."

"And they sound like they've just caught something," he added, hand cupped to his ear.
"Or someone..."

"I suppose it's up to me to find out what's going on then..."
Bregors form blurred and morphed into the shape of a large owl. A few moments later and he launched into the evening sky, soundlessly flying towards the sounds of conflict.

"So you're all going to let the beast man fly off by himself then?"
"And you call yourselves Paladins!"
It seemed clear the sword was addressing both Jeremiah and Athelstan directly.

seeing the commotion bregor swoops in on to the nearest tree to see what is going on as he reaches the tree the lands on a  mid level branch and examines the battle field

Jer stirred from a daze as his sword gave him lip...
"Huh, wha..."

Nostrils flared, pupils contracted and a burst of sound came from the Paladin;
"THE STINK OF EVIL!" he shouted in a booming voice, and jerked to his feet almost involuntarily.

Paramel was almost immediately in the air, and the large maniac raced towards the sound of wargs.

"Hold on!" called Natasha, and the monk ran after Jeremiah, easily catching him despite her shorter stature.
"We just going to run at them and destroy?" She inquired in a monotone.

"Indeed, comrade. Join me in glorious battle!" Jeremiah wheezed in between strides.
"V - Victory shall be ours!"

"Hmmm. So it is then." replied Natasha, and she hefted a javelin absent mindedly.

Bregor flies back and lands in front of Jeremiah and Athelstan and transforms back into his own form.
 "About half a mile west there is a cliff with 2 people fighting off goblin worg riders. I do believe as paladins its your job to provide aid to these people and I will come along too."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Thu 05 July 2012.