Session 8: "In the cold light of day........." or "How to avoid a frosty reception".

"In the cold light of day......" or "you can you fit an Elf and a Goliath in a round hole!”.

Eglath remained on the smooth cliff face outside looking around from his perch half-way up the smooth face of rock his companions had scaled not moments before. He could see in the distance a lone figure running with ease. After a short while he could make out the figure approaching was Lionel. Shouting at Lionel he caught his attention and told him to tie the loose rope around his waist and he would pull Lionel up. Not a moment too soon. Eglath saw what he first thought was a large bird flying towards the mountains. He quickly observed that it was no ordinary bird but could only be a large, white, dragon!

Pushing Lionel ahead Eglath knew they had mere seconds, not minutes, before the dragon was upon them. Eglath managed to get Lionel to the chimney opening and unceremoniously pushed him down the hole and he dived headfirst after the Elf. A freezing cold blast of air hurtled down the chimney. Eglath was stuck but safe. Lionel had landed with a thud and an oomph as Eglath bellowed help. Bandur was the first to respond and entered the room that both he and Hagnulf had left not 10 minutes before. He helped Lionel to his feet then calmly walked over to Eglath, pulled him by the head and out of the chimney. Eglath weas not to happy that Bandur had seized his ears as the main point of contact. Bandur looked up the chimney and informed the now gathered group that the chimney was blocked by a frozen block of ice!

Eglath and Lionel blurted out that the dragon had appeared and obviously had blasted the chimney with its frost breath. The way out was blocked.

The group gathered in the main area. Lionel informed them that Heimund had remained with the Gnomes, assisting building defences. Lionel had visited Umbrage Hill once more and managed to acquire 3 more healing potions.

They inspected the level they were on. They could see through more arrow slits that there was a huge void on the other side of the south wall and what looked like a balcony looking over it from the east wall of the void. On the south wall of the void there appeared to be 3 arrow slits like the ones they were looking through.

They had found two sets of steps leading down from the main room, a side room with rotten furniture in with a steel shield hanging on the wall with a design engraved upon it of a Dwarf gauntlet holding an axe. Gimli had an inspired vision and remembered reading a tome in his home town about a long abandoned Dwarf fortress called Axeholm. It was rumoured to have been abandoned and this may have coincided with the imprisonment of an Elf called Viagria or Viledia or something similar. through a second door in the room with the chimney entrance a small room with what looked like a dug tunnel leading down and left.

 From the tunnel emanated a pungent, rotting smell of decay.

Fargrim took the lead, followed by Bandur and Gimli. Hagnulf, Lionel Eglath and lastly the 2 humans, Bron and Beorwulf.  The tunnel twisted downward, not 2 feet wide, 5 feet high but ever downwards.

Fargrim stepped out into a passageway, definitely Dwarven in construction. The corridor ran roughly north/south. Fargrim headed south. He came to a room with a double door in the west wall, a single door in the south wall and a collapsed section to the east. To the east instead of passageways was a rough tunnel from which the smell of rot and decay was stronger.

Fargrim came to a branch in the tunnel and followed the stronger smell. Before long hissing and snarling noises could be heard from ahead. Hagnulf pushed to the front and stepped onto a writhing mass on the floor. Firing a quick shot into it, followed by a strike from Fargrim; the floor erupted into a hoard of humanoid figures. The smell of stench and decay came from the rotting mass of gnawed bones and decaying flesh strewn across the room. Dwarf bones, human bones, spider carcasses and small rodents made up the decaying mass.

Hagnulf was surrounded and although he fought bravely was battered to the ground dying. Fargrim tried to fight his way to Hagnulf but was blocked by 2 humanoids. Eglath pushed his was forward and grabbed a humanoid in his hands, the creature snarling and spitting as it tried to bite him. Bandur tried to slide through the legs of Gimli and only succeeded in knocking him to the floor. Beorwulf tried a spectacular flying leap but only succeeded in pushing Bandur back to the ground.

Bandur threw himself upwards and Beorwulf used this to complete his flying leap only to land flat on his face in front of a humanoid. Bron shouted for everyone to get behind him.  Eglath dropped the humanoid and stepped backwards. Beorwulf got to his feet. Fargrim, Eglath and Beorwulf felt spiritual energy flood through them as first Gimli then Lionel cast their respective magic to aid the front line.

Humanoid after humanoid fell then a wave of spiritual prayer filled the room. Half of the humanoids fled the room up the stairs. The remaining three humanoids fell under the combined attacks of a revived Hagnulf, Bron, Hagnulf and Beorwulf.

 The group took stock for they had been sorely tested. Just what evil infested this once Dwarven fortress? Could they defeat whatever evil lurked here? They took a brief respite where Gimli and Lionel healed as many wounds as they could with their magic abilities as others used whatever personal healing they had left.

TBC