When the last entangled foe fell to Thane's flail and Morgrim's magicks, Arnan lowered his bow -- although he still had an arrow nocked and ready to shoot.

"Well done, everyone." he said. "Does anyone need a moment, or are we ready to push on? Probably the less time we allow our foes to recover and make ready for us, the better."

In reply to Arnan Aldwynne (msg # 154):

Dal looked at Arnan and arched an eyebrow.  "Has anybody ever know to run out of Goblins to slay?  I will need to rest sooner or later, especially if you guys keep forgetting to duck."

Dal kissed her holy symbol and whispered a thank you to Sharindlar.

"I'd need a solid rest before I work up the strength to shift again, but I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve," Morgrim replied. "Lets press the bastards where it hurts."

Sensing they have seized the initiative and have the Auril cultists on their back-heels, the adventurers waste little time and press deeper into the dungeon. The main hall continues westward for about 100 feet, with adjoining rooms spaced equally along the hallway's length, each of these furnished similarly: broken furniture and ruined supplies. Passing each room quickly, the party does not spot any foes or anything else of interest.

At the end of the hallway, the adventurers come upon thrown-open double doors. Beyond the doors, is a dining room adorned with a long table flanked by trestles. The room is lit by whale-oil maps in sconces along the walls. A long tunnel framed with wooden struts runs off to the side, this leading north, deeper into the mountain.

Directly across the thrown open double doors, about 30 feet distant, is another doorway, this too thrown open and leading to what looks like a kitchen. But it isn't pots and pans that grab the party's interest...

Within the kitchen, the party sees a horrific frost worm rearing over the burned body of the cultist that previously fled from the adventurers. The beast resembles a large wolf-sized centipede with jagged, segmented cobald blue scale. The lower segments of the monster's body bear legs, while the uppermost ones have webbed spines which look like a cobra's fan. Protruding from the back, with two on each segment, are big, red, jewel-like lumps, framing a bladed head with four antenna-like growths, two coming from the chin/cheeks and two from the forehead. The frost worm is blue-white in color, but has a reddish glow that seems to sheathe the hideous thing.

Behind the frost worm, an obviously deranged wearing nothing by a leather toga cackles wildly and points at the party at the other side of the dining room.

"Your time has come, my pet! Attack them I say! Take them for Auril!!!" he raves.

The frost worm rears up and bites the man's head off with a solid crunch and then tosses the lifeless body aside. The monster rumbles from within and lurches forward, emerging from the kitchen into the dining room!

OOC: The frost worm is about 30 feet distant from the party.

Frost Worm
AC: 12
HP: ??/??


PC        AC    HP    Insp  Spell Save  Conditions & Notes
Arnan     14   27/28    1      NA       AC 16 w/ shield
Hengar    12   30/30    1      NA
Kira      14   21/21    1      NA
Thane     18   21/31    1      NA
Dalgura   15   24/24    1      13
Morgrim   15   27/27    1      13


PCs are UP!!!

Morgrim stretches out his fingers and cold, blue flames leap from the tips to run across the stone floor in a spreading wave coating everything in their path in vibrant light.

Faerie Fire, DC 13 dex save to resist.

The frost worm evades the tiny motes of light as it darts this way and that.

OOC: Made the save.

"Well we're just goin' to have to do this the old fashioned way then," Morgrim remarked, reaching for the hilt of his scimitar. "Come on and give it a go ye oversized silverfish!"

~Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow,~ Arnan thought to himself when the Frost Worm unexpectedly took off the head of the cultist.

"Ill-tempered brute, isn't it," he remarked under his breath in response to Morgrim's retort after the monster seemingly evaded the Dwarf's magicks.

"But, aye -- 'tis time for us to get to work."

So saying, he put an arrow into the creature, although the shaft did not appear to strike a particularly telling blow.

---

OOC:

Move: As needed to get a clear shot at the Frost Worm.

Action: 20:31, Today: Arnan Aldwynne rolled 22 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 15.  Ranged Attack v. Frost Worm (AC 12). Hit!

20:32, Today: Arnan Aldwynne rolled 6 using 1d8+3 with rolls of 3.  Damage (Longbow).
This message was last edited by the player at 00:52, Tue 17 July 2018.

"Uuu-Ugh!" Thane reacted with disgust as the armored-worm-thing beheaded its crazy master.  He was only vaguely aware of the other party members attacking it, for the appearance of the thing was rather shocking.  He'd never seen its like before!

"What the hells is that thing?!?" he exclaimed.  But hearing Arnan agree with whatever Morgrim had said served to spur Thane out of his temporary reverie.

With a whoop! Thane sped down the hallway, skirting the right hand wall, and engaged the worm in melee.  His flail thunked the beast soundly while the warrior raised up his shield in anticipation of a counterstrike...

---

Move: advance 30 down the hallway into melee
Attack: Melee (Flail) vs Frost Worm
16:07, Today: Thane Harkensen rolled 20,11 using 1d20+5,1d8+3 with rolls of 15,8.  Melee vs Frost Worm (AC12).  Hit AC20 for 11 damage

In reply to Thane Harkensen (msg # 162):

Dal saw the beast bob and weave and even eat it's own handler!  Then she saw her valiant comrades decide to go after it themselves.  It was brave of them but she wasn't quite as brave.  She stayed back just far enough for her to be able to cast her Sacred Flame cantrip.

"Oh Mighty Sharindlar, show this wormy thing your radiance and help protect my brave comrades who choose to go up close and personal."

Dal flung out her hand, hoping that she could catch the worm while it was dodging the other attacks.

OOC:

08:29, Today: Dalgura Ironhammer rolled 11 using 1d8+3 with rolls of 8.  radiant dam if miss save DC13.

Kira takes aim with her short bow and releases a clean shot that strikes the frost worm in the side of the head.

OOC: DM post. Hit for 13 points of damage.

Hengar charges forward and takes up arms alongside Thane. Wielding his axe, the tribesman delivers a savage blow that tears into the frost worm's hide.

OOC: Critical hit for 15 points of damage.

The adventurers gang up on the frost worm and deliver a succession of vicious attacks that, were the monster not so young, would be of little consequence. But it is still a young remorhaz and not the dread terror it might one day become...if not for the intervention of the erstwhile band of adventurers.

Those still in the dining room (Arnan, Kira, Dalgura and Morgrim) barrage the frost worm with a volley of missile and spell fire and those in the kitchen (Thane and Hengar) engage the monster in melee.

With a bathing glow of radiant light, Dalgura delivers the coup de grace, scalding the creature where it stands. The creature erupts in a bout of searing heat, singing Thane and Hengar.

The frost worm then collapses in a lifeless heap of steam and gore. A few feet distant, the lunatic cultist of Auril, Davrick Fain, lies headless on the ground, a pool of blood spreading where his head once was.

A long hallway off the dining room disappears around a corner to the north.

A door off the kitchen, to the west, leads a garbage-strewn, drafty room with a narrow ledge that opens to the outside and offers a grand sweeping view of Lac Dinneshere. This room smells of musk and urine.

OOC: Hengar and Thane took 3 points of fire damage.



PC        AC    HP    Insp  Spell Save  Conditions & Notes
Arnan     14   27/28    1      NA       AC 16 w/ shield
Hengar    12   27/30    1      NA
Kira      14   21/21    1      NA
Thane     18   30/31    1      NA
Dalgura   15   24/24    1      13
Morgrim   15   27/27    1      13



This message was last edited by the GM at 00:29, Sat 28 July 2018.

Morgrim spat on the still warm corpse of the cultist. "Ye got better than ye deserved, ye dung-heap of a man."

The dwarf raised his voice louder, shouting down the next corridor.

"Are the rest of ye listening!?!" he demanded angrily. "Auril wont save ye! The towns wont take ye back! The lot of you are dead men walking! Go'n and run! I'll dog yer steps from here to the Spine of the World!"

Thane slumped up against the wall and drew in some deep breaths.  "Damned buggers got me good.  Hold up a moment, will ya?" he asked his companions.  He drew out one of the funny wrapped pouches from his healer's kit and opened it up, then squeezed the gooey contents onto his wounds.  There wasn't time for any fancy bandaging since it seemed more than likely more foes remained in the stony halls.

"That's better," he told his fellows.  "Who knows who, or what, is coming next!"

---

Thane consumes 1 use of his Healer's Kit to heal himself.

20:58, Today: Thane Harkensen rolled 12 using 1d6+7 with rolls of 5.  Thane heal self with healer's kit.

Thane's current hit points should go from 18 to 30 hit points.

"So our choices are to keep following?  Or hold up here for the night and block whatever we can to stop them from coming for us until we recover?"

Dal watched Thane put the healing goo on him and walked over to him.  "You want me to wrap that better for you?"

Arnan breathed a sigh of relief when the Frost Worm was cut down by the adventurers' efforts. He had seen these creatures from a distance, and although he had never before engaged one in battle, he had heard enough about them to be very wary.

After Thane had healed himself, Morgrim looked to be the one who had suffered the most from the attacks of their foes. Arnan had cocked his head to one side and asked the Dwarf, "Should we press on, or do you need a short rest in order to bind your wounds?"

When Dalgura posed her question about stopping for the night, Arnan replied, "My vote would be to press the attack, once we are ready. I feel that we have our foes rocked back on their heels, so to speak, and that we should take advantage of that. I would prefer not to give them too much time to recover -- and mayhaps receive reinforcements."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Thu 26 July 2018.

"I'll live," Morgrim replied, shrugging off any concerns towards his own wellbeing. "Though I'm running short on Marthammor's good will for the day. I can still swing a blade though."

"Well that was nasty," Kira quipped though was glad for a bit of a breather herself.  She gave Thane a little pat of understanding as she walked past, her destination the headless body and unphased by the gore started searching pockets and pouches for anything of interest.  There could potentially be magic things that Dal and Grim could utilize, and sometimes even the oddest item could give clues.  "This is a kitchen area so there might be something edible, spare us from rations a meal or two.  Plenty of room to stretch out and we can probably make it pretty defensible," she commented but would press on if the others felt so inclined.

Morgrim gave the room a sniff. "It smells like... well, I won't say what it smells like but I'd hesitate to eat anything ye find in here," Morgrim replied.

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 173):

Being a sister came with obligations.  One of the obligations was to remind brothers of embarrassing things even if they were the only two who knew WHY it was embarrassing.  Sometimes it could just be inferred and that was fine too.

Dal crouched down so she could rest just a little bit and grinned when Grim couldn't come up with a good name for the smell.  "That smell, dear brother, is what you smelled like when you returned from that 'celebration' outing.  Although with so many goblins here I doubt one dosing of water will clean it up like it did for you."

Dal lifted up her head and everybody could see she had a big grin on her face.  Even with everything they had gone through, a sister had an obligation to pick on her brother, and she wasn't going to ignore her obligations.  She did, however, blow a kiss to Grim.  They both knew that they loved each other and little jabs like this just added to it.

Morgrim looked crosswise at Dal. "Well, I had a lot to celebrate," he replied before his stern expression melted into a grin.

After a complete search of the fallen, Kira turns up a small sum of coins, altogether worth 50 gold pieces. The goblins and cultists also have an assortment of weapons, swords, daggers, maces, axes, and bows...though none of these are especially noteworthy.

The larder in the kitchen is reasonably well-stocked with clean, edible food. It seems the cultists had some thought to spending the winter here in the upper slopes of Kelvin's Cairn, if their larder is any indication.

Save for the spiked door near the entrance of this dungeon complex, the only unexplored portion of the dungeon is the hallway off the barracks, leading away to the north.

In reply to DM Shard (msg # 176):


"Did anybody count the number of bunks in the barracks and then compare that to how many goblins we saw?  If there is a big difference than there might be a lot more waiting to come back.  Just something to think on.  Pack up some of the stuff for rations?"

Dal was still sitting down.  Resting because of her short legs and not wanting to move until she needed to.  Of course her weapons were still at the ready but one should conserve energy when they could.

DM, care to add the coins to the party treasury?

"Didn't think to," Morgrim replied to his sister. "Gather what ye like, but I don't think we give them long. I'd much rather flush them out into the cold and let them die at their Maiden's hands."