| Campaign 2000 16 October, 2000 |
Player Characters
Leaving Viper in the village (Jake was absent), the other members of the party left to follow the path of the missing Hucrele children.
They descended without mishap into the ravine near some old pillars. They defended themselves against an attack of 3 dire rats. Drai, sober for the first time in days, proved his usefulness by slaying 2 of the rats.
Finding themselves at the top of a long, zig-zaging stairway that went down deeper into the ravine, the party lit up a lantern and headed down.
At the base of the stairs, Torlic managed to fall through a trapdoor into a pit. With Drai's help from above, he dispatched a dire rat that was down there feeding on a goblin corpse. There was a small amount of money on the goblin.
Exploring the ruins, the party met a whiney kobold named Meepo. Lothar knew Draconic and was able to speak with him. Meepo told the party of his clan's stolen dragon, Calcryx, and then took the party to meet the leader of his clan, Yusdrayl. Yusdrayl offered the party vague promises of a reward if they would rescue the dragon from the thieving goblins. The party accepted and Meepo was sent along with them as a guide.
As Meepo lead them to a "back way" into the goblin section of the old fortress, the party picked up signs of the previous, now-missing adventurer party. A couple of attacks by dire rats, including a massive female dire rat, caused some notable injuries in the party, but also resulted in signficant found loot. Included in this loot was that of a slain human ranger, obviously one of the missing adventurers, but not one of the Hucreles.
Continuing on, the party stumbled into a goblin ambush. Meepo, who was at the front of the party, and Torlic, who had been injured in the previous encounters, were both dropped immediately (fortunately Torlic was at 0 hit points and not in immediate danger of dying). 2 goblins were standing behind a half-wall at the end of a hall, throwing javelins at the well-lit party members.
Rushing forward in the poor lighting proved to be a bad decision for both Drai and Lothar when they stepped on the caltrops that had been scattered in front of the half-wall. Despite his injuries, Drai managed to leap the half-wall and dispatch one of the goblins. A shot from Lothar, and an attack of oppurtunity from Drai as the other goblin tried to run away, dispatched the other.
Drai and Lothar, now limping from their caltrop wounds, picked up their wounded and retreated as fast as they could.
Back at the chamber where they first met Meepo, the party is blocked from going back into the kobold area by guards. Meepo, now dead since neither Lothar nor Drai possessed any skill in healing, was laid by Drai near the cage of his missing dragon. Lothar and Drai then retreated to an empty room they had seen earlier to rest and wait for Torlic to be on his feet again.
2 hours later, with Torlic now at 1 hit point, the party climbed back up the rope (slowly, in Drai's case) and limped back to Oakhurst. Awakening "Corkie" Nackle, the town cleric, the party had their wounds treated and then went to bed at the inn.
The next day, before setting out again, the party inventoried what they had accumulated so far, selling off the excess and splitting the profits amongst themselves.
This being the 9th day since leaving Millorba, the party has 5 days before the auction of the fruit they were sent to acquire. [an error occurred while processing this directive]