Manaku surges forward at the sound of the cry, but holds back at Brodd's words.

Thud stays with the others, holding the torch.

Sasar sits alert in the ore cart next to Regdoc, wondering how the dwarf survived that fall!

The Exemplars slowly spiral further downward. It seems that mineshaft narrows as it descends, giving Dwargar more of a steep fall down a hill than a straight plummet. In fact except for the bump to his thick dwarven skull which suddenly cleared his manticore-obsessed brain, he doesn't feel any other injuries.

The party finally reaches a point where the Dwargar's ledge is about 10 feet below the cart.

"Who has a rope to lower down?"

"I've got some oil and a candle, perhaps we could burn him out?"

It must have been long past the oldster's naptime. Jests weren't usually his thing, and this moment was no exception.

He tapped his hand on the side of the minecart. "Nay, I don't have any rope, nor spikes, nor much of anything useful apart from my bedding and food for that no-good, begging, flea-wagon over there..."

Chomper raised his ears a bit, at what he assumed was a compliment.

"We're here, . . .Dwarghar is it? Just trying to find a rope to lower down for you."

Dwarghar maneuvered to the crevice, trying not to think too hard about what he was stepping on. As he heard Brodd, he reached for the rope in his pack and replied "I have some rope, friend. Simply shine a light so I can see what I'm doing... and where I am."

Einhard kneels down and holds the torch over the edge.

Brodd carefully gets down next to Einhard and reaches his arm down and out to catch the rope when Dwarghar throws up an end. "Toss up an end and I'll catch it! We'll pull you up then or you can climb if you can."

Sasar watches intently with Regdoc from inside the cart. "Young man's work Regdoc, this is young man's work."

"Use it or lose it..." The oldster snorted as he once again clamored out of the cart and helped lend an effort to pulling on the end of the rope. He could not help but wonder at just how much he'd actually already lost... He'd have time enough to relax when the clumsy dwarf was out of the hole and he could climb back into the cart.

Chomper, thinking this was some new game, and certainly being somewhat game-deprived as it were, bit the end of the rope and began tugging violently as well.

Dwarves ... Amalrik stands by to act as an anchor once the rope is caught. Let the spry ones do the catching, then he will assist as needed. Hopefully the dwarf will have a flask of something flavorful to imbibe afterwards.

The dwarf is able to clamber up the secured rope, and pulled up by the rescuing hands of those he himself rescued by his frantic warnings.

"Are you injured?" he asks Dwarghar.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:27, Mon 29 Apr 2019.

"We owe you a debt of gratitude for warning us and guiding us to the cave." Regdoc said when they'd finished hoisting the dwarf to the main tunnel. "It's been a perilous journey for us, made the more so by the rockfall. I trust that perhaps you'll guide us through these depths?"

The old Seeker stepped a bit closer, knelt on one knee with a creaking of bones that would make everyone wince, and touched the dwarf's feet. "May your steps follow the Path that will lead us through this mountain. By the Wandering God I bless it be so..."

Retrieving his torch, Regdoc climbed into the cart next to Sasar for perhaps the fourth time in the last quarter hour. "Let's get going, nothing grows down here but fungus and mildew. I'm for seeing the light at the end of this particular tunnel..."

Einhard stood up and held his torch toward the dwarf to get a better look at him. "Seems we're even now. You saved us, we saved you. Since there is really only one way forward at this point, join us." He moved to his horse and grasped her reigns to continue on, then paused briefly and asked "Any chance you know how to get the hell out of here?"

As Yagi stares down the mineshaft, the lizard crawls closer to her. It starts flicking its forked tongue in the eye socket of the skull known as Mr. Wong.

"HEY! Why you get so heavy!"

Her shining eyes widen in horror as she realizes the skull has turned from bone to rock.

"MISTAH WONG! NO! SPEAK TO ME!"

She tugs on the rod, trying to pull the skull from the lizard's clamped jaws.

"LET GO YOU MONSTA! ME SEND YOU BACK TO ORCUSSSSS...."

Her eyes had locked with those of the small basilisk, and she immediately learns the high price of her error as her body turns to stone.

The rest of the party can only watch in horror as the petrified goblin, who was tugging backwards with all her might, now teeters over the edge and falls backwards with the lizard still latched onto the skull.

There's a loud CLANK as she bounces off the ledge where Dwarghar had just been before she spins forever away into the darkness below.

[DM: Yagi is removed from play]

Dwarghar gets up and starts dusting himself off, while also address his new group of comrades.

"I seem uninjured, lads. 'Cept mayhaps for my pride. I think you for the rescue, and the invitation. I'd be glad to accompany you fine folk down this shaft."

"I told you it was a basilisk, the goblin is dead now along with her 'Mr. Wong.' Should we slay it? Where is the critter? I don't see it now. Did it fall with her?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Mon 29 Apr 2019.

It went over the side with her.

So, there went the nearest thing Alietra had to a gal pal in this company.    All the conversation she'd now miss out on...  she'd been dying to hear about the perils of goblin courtship. And if carrying a decapitated skull on a stick made a girl goblin more or less popular with the guys.    Ah, well...

the goblin is dead now along with her 'Mr. Wong.'


Ali nodded knowingly, "They messed with the wong lizard, that's for certain."

She eyed the dwarf, semi-impressed he'd survived all that.

Why did people mess with pits, reptiles, and gateways to infernal nether realms?    It was a shameful lack of common sense...

[Moving to next scene]

Thud looks at the statue that was the goblin. He kicks it. "That's for charming me. Hope you rest with yer dumb god," he says with mixed emotion in his voice for the goblin's passing. He then goes with the others...

[NOW we move to the next scene! :-)]

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCK: SWEET REVENGE

2 XP FOR THE HALFLING
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:14, Wed 01 May 2019.