The morning breaks and my head feels groggy. last night’s ale has a habit of staying too long with me, but it never has hampered me too much.
The first thing we do is arrange transport to the mine. The cart owner tells us it’ll be a while until its ready, so we decide to do a bit more sight-seeing.
The next order of the day was to see what we could garner from the mysterious caravan. Ulalume decides to boldly walk in, whilst I take a strategic location in case it all hits the fan.
Not long after she is in there, a bright flash comes from the van. The others don’t seem to have noticed but I bound over to find a gypsy man peering into a crystal ball as it seems to be going crazy. My usual luck around portent readers holds, and the ball explodes, sending Ulalume flying and me careening back out the door. The gypsy is also knocked back.
After we all dust ourselves off (I’m sure we’ll be picking shards out for days though) the gypsy tells us he came here to warn the town, but the local mage, Marvin the Magnificent, rubbished his claims. He also advises that the curse is somehow draconic in nature. We thank the gypsy for his information and head on our way.
We decide to meet this Marvin, see what he has to say for himself. His shop front seems to be quite a wonder, impressive enough to stand out even in one of the main cities, let alone this quiet town. Albertus seemed less than impressed however, maybe he felt threatened, but I keep this to myself. Inside is an emporium of fine items. My eyes immediately fix on a quiver of a quality I hadn’t seen since I was at Master Nathan’s academy. I touch it and feel the wonderous crackle of some kind of enchantment. Everyone but Albertus seems to have found something that cried out to them, but our wizard soon snapped us out of it with a few raps of his staff, and we were brought back to our more pressing matter of the town mage.
Marvin the “Magnificent” looked anything but. I’d seen bumbling apprentices carry themselves better. We asked him why he was doing nothing to help, either with the children or with the source of the curse. He obstinately replied he hasn’t been paid to do it. That kind of attitude reminds me too much of too many people I don’t want to remember, and I think everyone else had similar opinions. We ask if he at least could theoretically help. He says yes, but the way everyone shifts as he says it, they know he cannot. We leave, knowing all we needed to know. I hear Gnarhan behind snarl “mercenary” at him, and I can imagine the pallor of Marvin’s face, and I smile to myself.
We run out of time to do any shopping, but an abandoned mine shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge, so we head to the cart. When we get there, it is a thing of beauty, but not aesthetically. As soon as I walk in, I spot that it is designed for more than just peasant transport. The secret doors and the shaping of the windows tells me the cart driver and his runner brother are more than meets the eye. I sit in a corner and pull out my bow string and start to fasten it to my bow. It’s the first time using this bow, so I check to make sure she’s perfect. I can’t help but wonder if the cart has been so fitted because they come into trouble so much…
We reach the mine and disembark. Tanyth aloofly pays the driver 10 gold pieces, telling them the rest will be handed when we get back. When we reach the shaft entrance , we see that whatever contraption lowered the miners down had been broken. I deftly climb the rigging and tie my rope to it, attach the other end to myself and climb down, years of tree climbing and climbing training coming in handy as always.
Next was the turn of Ulalume. Not to be outdone, she practically flies down the shaft, making it look all too easy as she lands just as I finish untying myself. She flashes me a wry smile that both boils and freezes my blood. It was like being at the academy again, like how it was between me and Naya, but I allow myself to stay calm and just wink bank. Now would not be a good time to let her know she can press my buttons like that.
Tanyth began a slow descent that soon became too quick; she had lost her grip and was plummeting. I instinctively move out of the way, but surprisingly, Ulalume tries to catch her. Her reward for such a selfless act, however, was a swift boot to the head from the falling Tanyth, causing them both to fall in a heap.
As if this wasn’t a clown show enough, Gnarhan began to amble up the rig. I shout up trying to advise that a Dragborn and his armour trying to balance on a beam probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but I’m interrupted by the distinctive snap of wood. Ulalume, snapping out of her daze, again reaches up for another catch. This time she’s more successful, and he lands in her outstretched hands. Unfortunately, the rig swiftly follows and hits all of us.
I shake my head as I pick myself up from the ground, muttering a curse under my breath.
As we’re dusting ourselves off, Albertus floats down on one of his spells. I scowl, admittedly quite childishly, as he softly lands at the bottom. We move into the mine proper, but soon realise it is rather dark. Gnarhan takes point and I follow slightly behind, our eyes able to see further in the dark. Finally, we hit some good fortune and we find a lantern with oil on the way through the first passage. Gnarhan lights and leads.
We soon reach the first main shaft, and we are not alone. Sitting in the middle of the cavern around the table were four kobolds. I barely hear them chattering as if they were playing some game, their conversation punctuated by the sounds of rolling dice and cries of triumph or failure. Gnarhan and I, aware they’re oblivious to us and we have the drop on them, wordlessly and instinctively move opposite sides to each other and prepare to ambush them, Gnarhan dropping the placing the lantern on the floor. Ulalume, however, seemed to have other ideas.
She charges between both of us and eviscerates the closest sitting kobold, lifting it from its chair with her knife, screaming “BLEED”. Ever as subtle as ever, Ulalume is. Out the corner of my eye I see in the distance another kobold start to make a break for it, screaming “ALARM!”, while the ones at the table bowl into Ulalume and are joined by a couple of more brutish comrades. Seeing that the rest of the party were heading towards the main body I let fly two arrows at the crowd and chase the runaway. The dull thuds and two short and bloody screams let me know I’ve hit two marks perfectly. Unfortunately, doing this has slowed me down. Once I reach the corner the runner has fleed into, all I can see is the full darkness of a tunnel. I turn around and help dispatch what is left of the kobold crowd, landing the killing shot on one of the bigger ‘bolds.
Once the last kobold’s death rattle ended, we thought we would have enough time for a rest, but our heavy breathing was soon accompanied by the pounding of a drum in the distance. Obviously, the kobold had found the rest of his tribe, and they were preparing for us. Ulalume tried to suggest leaving, but we all knew we had to continue. The pumping in my heart began to match the beat of the drum as we all prepared to take on whatever was in the next shaft.
Somehow, this was quickly turning into a bit more than just a stroll through the mines…
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