Since the research will take at least three weeks to complete, the rest of the party decides to see what's posted on Ashabenford's message board. A particular post catches their eye. It seems the town of Tallow's Post's silver mine has been overrun with goblins, and the town's mayor, Grundel Tallow, is asking for adventurers to help rid his town of the vile creatures. Since Tallow's Post is only five days from Ashabenford, and the others will be researching for at least three weeks, our heroes decide to help out the frightened town.
The next morning, Brau'ni, Delf, Tiron, and Cel set off on the Moonsea Ride and arrive at Tallow's Post five uneventful days later. They meet with Grundel Tallow at the Silver Vein Inn, and he relays the sad information that the goblins have become more brazen lately, taking out a caravan just outside of the town recently, and either capturing or killing the group just sent into the mine to eliminate them. Grundel introduces the party to a dwarven fighter, Fugnus Blowwater, who wants to help the party destroy the goblins. (He is dwarven, after all!) The party welcomes Fugnus to their group, glad for the extra muscle, and accepts Grundel's offer (the party will keep half of whatever they find in the mine) and set off for the site of the caravan attack.
Goblin tracks discovered at the site lead to the mine, its entrance boarded up and a crude sign posted: "Keep Out or Else". Delf and Cel cautiously approach the entrance and, upon seeing no signs of goblins, motion up Brau'ni, Tiron, and Fugnus. Tiron casts Silence on Brau'ni and he soundlessly takes down the barricade.
The party enters a large circular cavern, with passages to the left and right. The left one is blocked. The right passage empties out into another circular cavern, with no other obvious exits. A search for secret doors reveals one in the right wall. Delf, already wearing Elven Boots, wraps his Elven Cloak tightly about him and proceeds down the secret passage, invisible and silent. The passage soon empties into a small room with a single exit. Seeing no goblins, Delf gets the rest of the party. Once the party is in the room, Delf starts to set off down the passage, when suddenly the floor beneath him gives way...
Delf, uninjured by the 10-foot fall (thanks to his tumbling skills), is assaulted by the high-pitched scream of the Shrieker he nearly landed on. Suddenly, the sound of goblin war drums is heard in the distance as Delf clambers out of the pit. "Great," Delf thinks, "so much for the element of surprise!"
After the exit out of the room reveals a dead end, another search for secret doors reveals yet another secret door. The passage beyond it seems to lead in the general direction of the drum sounds, getting more annoying by the minute.
Rounding a corner, the party spies double doors at the end of the passage. Brau'ni steps into the passage, and just manages to catch himself as yet other trap door opens up underneath his lead foot. "That was close," Brau'ni thinks, as he takes another step and this time cannot maintain his balance and falls into the next pit, nearly impaling himself on the spikes thrusting up from its floor. "Enough of this!" exclaims Brau'ni after he is hauled up out of the pit. His staff in hand, Brau'ni pokes the floor in front of him, eventually revealing three more pit traps!
Delf's examination of the double doors for traps reveals an alarm which will sound when the doors are opened. "These goblins sure like keeping tabs on where we are!" Cel notes. The doors open into a small room with no discernible exits. A secret door is found, leading into a passage which ends in a wall. Yet another secret door is found. As the party steps through, they are confronted by six goblins!
Tiron quickly casts Hold Person and immobilizes one of the creatures. Delf, Cel, and Fugnus quickly dispatch four of the goblins, while one manages to get away. After killing the held goblin, our heroes race down the path the retreating goblin took. Racing down a stairway, Brau'ni and Cel spot a door in a room at the foot of the stairs, and rush in. Suddenly a portcullis hidden in the ceiling at the entrance to the room slams down, trapping Brau'ni and Cel! Without warning, arrows rain down from slots in the ceiling, targeted at the trapped adventurers!
Tiron and Fugnus, meanwhile, have problems of their own. Goblin arrows from slots in the wall above the room in which Brau'ni and Cel are trapped have begun to rain down upon them as well. Taking out their bows, they return fire, amazingly killing four of the very well protected goblins.
Things have gone from bad to worse for Brau'ni and Cel, however, as a dozen giant centipedes are dropped on them from above! Delf, safe from the goblin's arrows on the other side of the portcullis, takes matters into his own hands, and, in an amazing show of strength, bends the bars of the portcullis enough to allow Brau'ni and Cel to escape the room before the centipedes can do them any harm. Brau'ni splashes oil on the multi-legged monstrosities, and Cel's torch does the rest!
The two remaining goblins, stunned at seeing four of their comrades slain through the arrow slots and gagging from the smoke and smell of seared centipedes, retreat. After the smoke clears, Tiron stone shapes a hole in the ceiling of the room, and the party climbs up and into the ambush room, realizing they are now behind (and on the same level as) their goblin foes.
A while later, the party arrives at a room containing four more goblins surrounding a platform with an open trap door in its center. The goblins are quickly eliminated. A look under the trap door reveals an underground river and a metal cage suspended from a cable spanning the river. Our heroes press on, reasoning there's no need to descend now that they're at the level at which the goblins' traps will be sprung.
The next door opened reveals 18 goblins! A four-foot wide passage overlooks the room below on three sides. The goblins, with bows at the ready, were obviously waiting to ambush anyone who entered the room below! Caught by surprise, the goblins are easy prey for the party. Four goblins, fearing for theirs lives (and rightly so!), jump into the room below. Three limp away, but their companion is not so lucky, falling to his death. Seven more of the creatures manage to escape through an opening in the opposite corner of the room. Cel, pursuing them, races through the opening, setting off its fire trap! Stunned for a moment, Cel catches up with three of the retreating goblins and dispatches them. The party, after offing the seven goblins left in the room, joins up with Cel and goes after the four frightened goblins.
The goblins, desperate, have now taken to throwing burning flasks of oil to cover their retreat and actually manage to inflict damage to Brau'ni, Tiron, and Cel. Brau'ni, incensed, rounds a corner and runs straight into a room filled with nine goblins, managing to kill four of them before he is overwhelmed by the five remaining creatures. The rest of the party comes to his aid, quickly eliminating the goblins. Delf, meanwhile, had continued down the passage outside the room and encountered four more of the creatures, who were not long for this world. His long sword dripping steamy goblin blood, Delf rejoined the party.
The party continues their search of the complex. After several minutes, they travel down a long passage. As they approach a four-way intersection, Brau'ni suddenly notices a slippery substance on the floor. "Oil!" he yells, running forward, barely managing to get out of it before it bursts into flames! Suddenly an arrow shoots from the right-hand passage, striking Cel! She angrily turns into the passage, killing the four goblins there. "Hey, guys!" shouts Cel, "Prisoners!" In the room are four cells. The doors are opened to reveal seven grateful humans, one of them the sergeant in charge of the first party sent in after the goblins.
"The drum's down here!" Brau'ni shouts down from the passage, past where the oil had been. The passage ends in a wall, on which Delf finds a secret door. Delf opens the door and reveals a lone goblin, surprised by the half-elven face he sees in the opening. It is the last thing he ever sees...
After escorting the ex-prisoners back to the surface, the party goes back into the goblin complex to search the areas they have not yet explored. A secret door reveals the most impressive room yet.
The room has a single exit, blocked by rubble. It's not this to which the party's attention is drawn, however. A statue of what looks to be a human female cleric sits atop a fountain in the center of the room. Her piercing eyes, set upon chiseled features, stare out into the room. She holds an ornate scroll case in one hand. Closer examination of the statue reveals...
Eighteen Stirges, hidden in the ceiling, swoop down upon the party, catching them by surprise! The Stirges attack, attaching themselves to their victim and sucking its blood when a successful attack is made. Our heroes are finally able to subdue the Stirges, and resume their examination of the room.
Runes, written in an unknown language, are carved into the fountain and the robes of the cleric. An alcove is inset into one wall of the room. The statue, fountain, and alcove are made up of a substance unknown to the party. It almost looks to be some type of granite mixed in with metal somehow. The party is drawn back to the statue. She is not human after all: she has only three fingers (and no thumb) on each hand! Fugnus retrieves the scroll case from one of the three-fingered hands and hands it to Tiron, who opens it, revealing three scrolls written in the same unknown language as the runes.
Delf, meanwhile, spies a gauntlet sticking up out of the rubble blocking the exit to the room. He crosses over to it and pockets a ring the three-fingered gauntlet was clutching. Curious, he removes the gauntlet and reveals the bones of a three-fingered hand.
Fugnus, meanwhile, is fascinated by the alcove. He throws a copper piece in. It clatters harmlessly to the floor of the alcove. He steps into the alcove and vanishes without a trace. "Hey! Where'd Fungus go?" Delf yells. "Great! Now what do we do?"
Trying to think of something, anything, to do, Tiron sticks his staff into the fountain surrounding the statue. The water instantly freezes, trapping his staff. After a few scant moments, however, the water melts, releasing the staff from its icy enclosure. "That's not going to help poor Fugnus," Tiron laments as Delf copies down the runes surrounding the statue.
After spending a while more exploring the room, our heroes decide there's nothing they can do for Fugnus. Was the alcove a teleporter or a disintegrator? Knowing they'll never know for sure, the party trudges out of the room. They've only traveled for several minutes when...
"Hey, guys! Wait up!"
"Fugnus! Where were you?"
"I was brought to the most spectacular room I've ever seen! It had eight sides, with an alcove inset into each side. It had this huge domed ceiling and in its center was a triangular dais, with statues at each of its corners. There were three sets of stairs leading down below the floor, ending up against each wall of the dais in a huge metal plate! It was awesome!"
"Well, what took you so long to come back? We must have waited for you for at least 30 minutes!"
"No way! I was gone for only a few minutes!"
Realizing that they must reveal that room's secrets, the party decides to secure the rest of the goblin complex before heading back there.
Eventually the party comes to a passage sloping down to a set of double doors. Delf starts down the passage, then slips on the unseen oil covering it! He slides down the passage, directly at the double doors in front of him! When he hits them, the doors, hinged at the top, open and Delf falls into a twenty foot pit! Shaken by the fall, Delf slowly brings himself to his feet, and suddenly sees giant rats, intent on making him their next meal! Before the rats can attack, however, Delf is able to climb out of the pit to safety.
After finding nothing else (and no more goblins) in the complex, our heroes head back to the statue room for the night, securing its secret door behind them.
The next morning, Brau'ni and Fugnus decide to step into the alcove together. Delf, Tiron, and Cel will follow after Tiron's prayers, about two hours later.
"Wow!" Brau'ni exclaims as he and Fugnus arrive in the room. It is exactly as Fugnus described it. The unknown runes are carved near the alcoves and into the statues, just as in the previous room. The alcoves and statues appear to be made of the same unknown metallic granite substance. After thirty minutes, Delf, Tiron, and Cel appear in the alcove.
"I thought you said you wouldn't be here for two hours!" Brau'ni says.
"We waited two hours!" Tiron answers. "How long have you been here?"
"About thirty minutes!" Brau'ni replies.
As the party explores the magnificent room, Fugnus clambers up onto the dais. Suddenly its center glows a greenish color, then coalesces into what looks to be a model of a solar system. Delf, intrigued, clambers up as well. Delf takes his dagger out, touching it to one of the planets. A humming sound is heard, then the domed ceiling transforms into a scene of mountains framed against a strange blue-green sky. Delf touches another planet with his dagger. A slightly different humming sound is heard, then the domed ceiling transforms into a landscape of volcanos belching smoke and fire into a red-brown sky. Touching different planets seems to reveal different scenes. One scene shows some sort of bipedal life form alien to this planet, shaped like ice cream cones! When Delf touches the dagger to the sun, the model winks out! Delf and Fugnus climb back down off of the dais.
Fugnus then climbs up onto the dais from a different side. Its center glows a reddish color, then once again coalesces into a model of a (different) solar system. It seems climbing up on each of the three sides produces a model of a different solar system! Once again, Delf touches his dagger to the planets, once again revealing different sounding hums and different scenes. One scene looks very familiar to our heroes. It appears to be their world! Later, when one of the planets in the third and final (blue) solar system is touched, the scene shows the world of the three-fingered beings who built this great room.
The green solar system is once again brought up. As the solar system appears, Fugnus notices that one of the metal plates at the bottom of one of the sets of stairs has started to glow a bright green! He boldly steps into the green glow...
About fifteen minutes later, Fugnus emerges from the glow, carrying a large book.
"Fugnus! Where were you?"
"What? I was only gone for a couple of minutes..."
"More like fifteen!"
"Anyway, I was in a triangular room, with the green glow behind me and a pedestal with this book on it in front of me!"
The large book is written in an unknown language, different from the language in which the runes are carved. The book is filled with strange pictures, and is completely undecipherable. Suddenly, Fugnus gets an idea. "Delf! Bring up the red system again!" As Delf does so, another metal plate glows, this time a reddish color. Fugnus steps into it and returns carrying another large book, written in Common!
This book appears to contain the same information as the other book. It is laid out in the same manner and contains the same pictures as well. Tiron then discovers some sort of translation table. Common letters are listed, along with letters from the first book and the runes in this room!
"We can use this to translate these runes!" Tiron notes. "Fugnus, go put the green book back, we don't need it anymore!" After looking at the translation table, Tiron realizes there are gaps in the matrix. Sometimes Common letters translate to the unknown symbols, sometimes they don't, and vice-versa. "We're going to have to take this back to someone with a Comprehend Languages ability!" Tiron notes.
"Before we do," Fugnus says, bringing the red solar system up again, "Let's see where these alcoves go!" And so they do, revealing the following scenes in each of the alcoves:
The party, with the book written in Common, walks into the alcove leading to the statue room, and arrive without incident. Sealing the secret door to the statue room behind them carefully, they make their way out of the complex, and report back to Grundel Tallow. He thanks them for their help, and our heroes set out for Ashabenford, five days away.
