The entire dungeon shakes as the train careens into the massive boulder blocking the mountaintop escape. A plume of fire illuminates the darkness in reddish hues, and huge winged shadows and falling kobold silhouettes dance against the height of the mineshaft before fading again, revealing only the rays of the setting sun through the aperture.

Brodd checks Alietra for signs of life and checks her injuries.

The goblin rests her hand on the cleric's shoulder as she peers over him.

"Yep. She still livin'. Whaz goin' on?"

Brodd casts Cure Minor Wounds on her.

"Yagi, what happened? We thought you were turned to stone!"

She wipes some more goop off of her and ponders.

"No...de lizzie bit Mistah Wong an' he turn to stone an 'den...'den...[she taps the bony skull with her crusted fingernails]...'den I wake up on the 'de cart o' 'screamin' kobbles!"

"Uhhh..." 

She raised her head, peered at Yagi a moment, briefly believing there'd been a mistake, that she ended up where goblins go when they die, till realizing they were both alive.

"Thanks," she told the two.  Three, counting Mistah Wong.  After understanding that it was Brother Brodd who'd healed her, Ali regarded him in a different way.   She'd heard about the miraculous power of the gods, but never felt it before.   Religion, like many other things, had been mostly a joke to her.  But, now...

Chomper had pressed into the old man in some instinctive, or perhaps divinely inspired, fashion, keeping the two of them just back from the hurtling metallic centipede as it rushed through the tunnel. A look of horror showed on Regdoc's face when the mad thing struck the cart he'd shared with Sasar, then turning to shock as he watched the old wizard get smashed. He stood numbly for a bit, his mind taking it all in. Then with deliberate steps, the Seeker of the Wandering God plodded haltingly forward to see if he could help any of his less-fortunate companions.

"The Way is perilous Wanderer... Will You Bless these wretches, will You make Your Steps known, Your Path clear from the dangers of this mountain?"

It was a humble prayer, for Regdoc was a humble sort of fellow when it came to his faith.

"You old fool..." was all he could say to Sasar. "This was not your Path. You should have stuck with your books and scrolls and finger-wagglings..."

Commanding Chomper to drag the bodies to a proper resting spot, the old cleric began the laborious task of covering them with stones fallen from the ceiling in all the commotion.

"It'll be me one of these days Chomper... one of these days my Trail will reach a certain juncture and I will embark on that final leg of my Journey... And what will you do then? Probably eat my stringy carcass is what you'll do..."

Regdoc scratched the huge hound affectionately.

While Regdoc begins the funerary rites for the fallen below, Amalrik wondering what was going on with the lever and the gelatin, and Brodd tends to the thief and the restored goblin at the smashed entrance, you make a head count and find that Harald is neither among the living nor the dead.

Amalrik finally realizes that the flying dragon (or whatever it was) has passed him by ... He shakes his head and moves to Brother B's side. He helps Alietra up, nods to Yagi and takes a long drink from his water skin.

Manaku steps out of his niche and surveys the remains of the chaotic situation. He grimly then walks over to the others.

"We are fortunate to have survived that. Some of us were not so lucky. Now, I suppose we should determine what to do next.  Press on down & In?"

After tending to Alietra, he begins heading back down the tunnel where he checks on the kobold who jumped from the train too to see how he is.

"Did anybody happen to notice where the pieces of that contraption fell?"

Creston goes and has a look. Maybe he'll find something useful.

The kobold stumbles to his feet and looks around, seeing the wreckage spread around the entrance and the long-legs running amok in his dungeon, with an elf striding towards him...

He squints at the sunset through the mountaintop entrance and makes a break for it.

"He's running, I guess he's all right." Brodd then continues to escort Alietra back down to the rest of the party.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Mon 20 May 2019.

"At least until he becomes breakfast for the manticore..." Regdoc grunted.

"As much as we'd all like to rest and... recover, I suggest we move onward to a more sensible and secure spot before we do. Who knows what further monstrosities may come forth." He glanced over at the wreckage of the minecart and sighed.

"Sir Knight, lead on if you would."

Do you regroup by the lever or by the train wreckage?

OOC - I'm regrouping by the lever.

Once the train had past, Einhard made his way back toward the lever to check on his horse... oh, and the party. As everyone reconvened, "Lead on to where? I just want to go which ever way gets us to Braunstein to kill that insolent Minotaur and rescue my niece. Seems the cave entrance is open once again, and we know that will get us there. But, I am guessing we will need to deal with that flying lion thing if we go that way."

He slung his shield over his shoulder and bent over to pickup the torch he wedged between the stones earlier. "Going deeper in to the mountain is unclear where it will lead, if anywhere at all. Down likely has more of those dog-men and the other tunnel smells really bad."

Manaku stops. "Wait. I hear Harald calling out from somewhere down in the side tunnel." He moves and points down the tunnel he means.

Einhard starts off in the direction that Manaku pointed. "Well, I guess we will go get him first."

She thanked Amalrik and Brodd for their help.  There was a sleight difference in Alietra;  a somewhat more sober demeanor, a reduction in her sarcasm and insouciance.    From time to time, she glanced to Brodd's or Regdoc's holy symbols.

Though it would be lost on the party, their thief was verging on turning over a new leaf, becoming more of a true member.    Which wasn't to say she'd gone totally serious or become Polly Purebread, exactly.

'Wretches,' she reflected, observing Regdoc's rites for the smished, If I'd popped off, would I have been a wretch, too?  Huh!

"Yes, let's go, we must aid our comrade," she agreed with Einhard, nodding and following.    Even if he was the quietest bard she'd ever known.

Amalrik will stand guard at the lever. Watching the rear can be as dangerous as being in front. He stretches a bit, getting the kinks out. Again.

Manaku prepares to head in right after Einhard.

Brodd follows Einhard, leading his mule to find and retrieve Harald.

Creston also follows Einhard.