A few days after the slaying of the Lizard King (G6), the party returns to the Mines of Azov. This time Girindor stays behind and they are joined by Jason. At first they cover a lot of old ground. They slay a party of troglodytes, who appear to be roasting their recent boss’s lizard steed over a fire. Finally in what appears to be a dead end, Ranulf spots the signs of a dwarf made secret door. Once they get it open (and close it carefully behind them), they follow a broad passage heading steadily downwards. There is an incident with a Shambling Mound, which is largely dealt with by Jason, who shoots an incendiary missile into it from his crossbow. They also encounter a demonic toad that is dispatched with Mitran fervour by Wilf.
In a large cavern full of giant mushrooms they catch occasionally glimpses of flying creatures far above – alike to mantas that fly in the seas. They are ambushed by a mob of assorted creatures – goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and troglodytes. They are swiftly dispersed: a few manage to flee and a couple of goblins and an orc are captured. All the corpses and the captives are wearing bronze neck-rings. Speaking to the captives it turns out that they are all escaped thralls. It seems that they are fleeing a race of masters who live further underground. They are dark-skinned and white-haired and wield terrible sorceries. They call themselves the Red T. They sound much as Demeetha, the translator they had freed fom the Lizard King, had described her masters, the Luthera. When quizzed by Ranulf regarding folk like him, they reply that they have heard of the Deep Ones, but never seen one. The party get them to show them the exit from this cavern, then let them go.
The next cavern is even bigger than the previous and again is filled by a mushroom forest. The party decide that it would be useful to have Demeetha here, so Ubaron flies up to the cap of a giant mushroom, whereupon he carves sigils. He teleports away and returns sometime later with Demeetha. She has armed herself from Grettir’s armoury with a staff, a whip and some throwing stars. This being his first opportunity, Ranulf questios her too regarding the “Deep Ones”. She says that she has occasionally seen one. They look more like Gunnri than Ranulf (i.e. smaller) and have white eyes.
As they progress into their third huge mushroom cave, they realise that they are being shadowed. Grettir spots a figure on a giant spider. She manages to ambush them, putting an envenomed arrow through Kolgrim’s leg, that paralyses him and disappears into the mushroom forest. Ubaron flies after her, carrying Grettir. Something cancels his fly spell. He uses featherfall on his spear to get Grettir to ground safely before levitating again. The spider and its rider make a number of attacks upon Grettir with magic and missiles, but he is too well-protected with magic, armour and skill for her to harm him. When it comes to hand-to-hand combat she is no match, even mounted upon her arachnid steed. She is also hampered by the light from Grettir’s spear and muspell sword. Grettir slays the spider with a blow, wounds her in the leg and then strikes to subdue her, rendering her unconscious. He binds and gags her. Ubaron lands and loots the equipment on her spider and they carry her back to the rest of the party, where Kolgrim is recovering from his paralysis. They teleport back to Sequarl.
Yu-Chi
Yu-chi, as the spider warrior calls herself, is fierce, defiant but plainly and quite reasonably scared. She describes herself as a ronin. She has dark skin and silver hair and a somewhat elven cast to her features – or so it seems to Grettir (Girindor is quite emphatic that these folk have nothing to do with elves, but Grettir is formulating his own theories on the matter). She carries tokens associated with the worship of a spider god – probably Lolth but perhaps Yesud (it matters little, they are both his enemies). Grettir realises that having brought her back to Sequarl he must either kill her or employ her. He is not blind to the risks in offering her a job, and he’s not exactly sure what he can do with her. He has no idea whether she can be held to an oath – Demeetha’s experience does not speak well of the trustworthiness of these ronin. However, in truth he was impressed by her pluck and determination in the face of defeat and does not have the heart to slit her throat. He invites her to take sworn service with him and she accepts. He will allow her to worship her god, but there will be no blood sacrifices. He hopes he won’t regret this.
G-7
OE Date: November 694
Characters: Grettir, Ubaron, Wilf, Ranulf, Jason NPCs: Kolgrim, Gunnri, Demeetha, Yu-Chi
Real World: June 2006; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries