Day -?: Skulks Arrive in Black Hill Caves

Day -?: "Orcs and rats and a woman with purple hair" Enter Black Hill Caves and pay Skulks to guard against any others.

Day -8: Torch's namesake goes out and sends the town into disarray, Khonnir Baine discovers tracks leading into The Weeping Pond

Day -7: A group of halfling adventurers enter Black Hill Caves but die in initial caverns.

Day -6: A group of local ruffians including Parda Garr enter Black Hill Caves. They are killed by the Skulks--Parda Garr as she fled.

Day -5: Khonnir Baine leads an expedition into Black Hill Caves. The party defeat the Skulks and kill their leader. They find and enter a metal structure within the caves and recover a 'metal man.'

Day -4: An expedition of Brigh worshipers enter the Black Hill Caves.

Day -2: Khonnir Baine returns to the Black Hill Caves with Gerrol Sonder and Ionaya. They pass through the caves and dark desert without incident, slay a four-armed zombie, clear a russet mold infestation, and fall in battle to robots. Gerrol Sonder flees but dies to brown mold.

---

Day 0: Cain, Brokam, Sesla Lento, Ix Tlacoatl, and Rakkar Aleed gather at the Town Hall to answer a summons for another expedition. Only one of the five councilors are present, Dolga Freddert, and she enlists the adventurers in the task of recovering Khonnir Baine and restoring the Torch. She promises 4,000 Gold for the recovering of Baine as well as a Scroll of Resurrection if Baine is brought back alive. She promises another 4,000 Gold if they can reignite the Torch. She offers the party 20% Discount on any gear they need to purchase as well as castings of Water Breathing from Councilor Joram Kyte to help them access the caves.

The party heads to The Foundry Tavern, Khonnir Baine's home where they have been offered free lodging and where the councilor took the recovered 'metal man.' The party discovered the metal man has come to life an is attacking Baine's adopted daughter Val Baine. They defeat the metal man but not before Rakkar Aleed turns tail and runs.

After proper introductions with Val and seeing to it that the metal man is demolished, the party heads to the Temple of Brigh to receive Water Breather from Councilor Joram Kyte. They then head to the Weeping Pond and dive beneath its waters to find a submerged tunnel. After passing through the water and into the caves they are immediately attacked by fire beetles even while recovering from the rancid water. The beetles are soundly defeated and their glowing guts are used to spread light through the entry caverns.

The party discovers the remains of the halfling expedition covered in questionable moss and choose to take another route.

The party discovers the body of Parda Garr and are soon attacked by a stray Blindheim. They defeat the Blindheim but are forced to rest and wait for Ix Tlacoatl's vision to return. As they press on, they hear the Blindheim--which they never ensured was dead--scurry away.

The party meets the remains of the Skulk tribe, now led by Sef, who now seem willing to bargain. The diminished tribe is threatened by nearby gremlins and Sef promises payment--what the tribe was paid to keep others away--if the party eradicates the gremlins. The party agrees, but only after they've had a chance to rest and acquire cold iron weapons.

As they leave the caves, the party collects the body of Parda Garr. The people are grateful for Parda's return, and Ix Tlacoatl and Brokam depart the group to return the body to the Temple of Bright.

Returning to the Foundry Tavern, Cain and Sesla Lento are met by Kalasha Roadsworn, Morin Matzylford, and Zorden who seek to join in the expedition. For the evening, the party gather supplies and Morin sets out to ask around about the purple-haired woman who paid the skulks.

---

Day 1: The party visits Joram Kyte for another casting of Water Breathing and attempt to ply him for more direct aid, but the councilor explains just how taxed he, is clergy, and most of the town are with the loss of the Torch and the cascading troubles.

The party bridges the underwater tunnel with lengths of rope, making the delve faster and easier, but still emerge sickened with the cave after breathing the polluted water. Morin takes a look at the bypassed halfling corpses and identifies slimes nesting within their chest cavities.

After a contentious exchange with Sef, leader of the skulks, the party heads into nearby caves and fight a drawn-out, guerrilla battle against the entrenched, stealthy, and nimble gremlins and their traps. Returning victorious, the Skulks proceed to execute the gremlins left living by the party but honor their agreement; giving the party a sack of silverdisks and even access cards unfamiliar to the skulks but desired by the purple-haired woman.

The party proceeds through the skulk caves and enter metal ruins. They soon encounter another metal man but in much better condition. It ignored the party until they begin breaking into a closed door. After defeating the robot the party continues on and the metal ruins turn to rock caves once again. Inside the caves they are attacked by a tentacled horror but lure it into tight caves and defeat it.

Through the small cave tunnel the party finds a vast, pitch black, desert world buried beneath the Black Hill. They are soon attacked by four-armed skeletons and flee back to the surface, dragging the defeated metal man and a body half-eaten by the Blindheim with them. They take the metal man to Joram Kyte in hopes of selling it, but the council warns them of the danger that dealing in technology could draw the attention of the Technic League. He directs them to a merchant adept at smuggling technology under the league's nose, Sanvil Trett, instead.

Sanvil Trett examines the metal man and informs the party that something seems to be powering the machine to repair itself; "The amount of power it's getting isn't much, but it's enough that the League would have detected it if it were there before. That and the torch going out don't seem coincidental." Sanvil purchases the robot from the party and takes it to his room at the Evercandle Inn with the aid of Kalasha--the two openly flirting as they do.

Back at the Foundry Tavern the party receive an invitation to Silverdisk Hall sent by Garmen Ulreth, the proprietor of the popular gambling house and employer and likely leader of the local ruffian gang known as the Ropefists. During an evening a gambling and even coming out ahgead, the party meets Vin the Betrayer who seeks to join them as some kind of pilgramage.

---

Day 2:  Come morning, Selsa Lento parted with the group, guided by the stars, to seek out Sanvil Trett with questions. The rest of the party visit Joram Kyte and make another trip through the Weeping Pond, once again all the sicker for breathing the foul water. They finally get around to squashing the slimes in the first caverns and looting the halfling corpses.

Checking a different route towards the Skulk lair, the party discovers the body of Gerrol Sonder resting in cave of Brown Mold, but leave him there for now.

As they pass, the Skulks offer the party another trade--the gear they took from the previous expeditions for enough rope for them to leave the caves. With their leader and much of their tribe lost they seek to return to the Darklands.

They party continues through the metal ruins and stone tunnel and into the pitch black desert to spring an ambush laid by the four-armed skeletons. The ambush is soundly defeated and the party follows a path through the sands which leads to another rock tunnel with an illusory end. On the other side are more metal ruins, but blocked by an occasional electric discharge. After a few attempts, Cain manages to disable the hazard.

In the next metal ruins the party finds an important room and press some interesting buttons, restoring power to much of the ruins and activating a table which displays an illusory map of the desert they didn't explore. In another room they face off with and kill a four-armed zombie.

A pair of adventurers who sought to join the expedition, Cael the Whirlwind and Synn Mescara approach the party from behind and deliver a message: Sanvil Trett had tried to meet the party at the Weeping Pond and needed to see Kalasha immediately. Kalasha, accompanied by Vin, left the party to meet with Sanvil.

...to be continued...
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:32, Fri 18 Aug 2023.