At the end of last session, the party were about to open what they assumed was a door to another small cell deep in the Sunless Citadel. A small cell did indeed lie behind the door, but as Kemmo opened it, he discovered several giant rats dwelled within.
The rats surged forth nipping and biting at the warrior, whose friends quickly came to his aid. Sadly, the sound of battle aroused several more groups of rats who emerged from behind other doors in the corridor in search of feed. The battle was brief and violent. At its end all the rats lay dead, but several members of the party including Kemmo, Krorz and Beliver’s mount were injured.
The heroes continued onwards, after finding some small pieces of loot among the rats’ nests, entering another larger chamber containing two open pit traps and another fountain like the one encountered previously. The faint smell of rotting flesh emanated from a door to the west. Krorz decided to check the area for traps and moved cautiously forward. Sadly as he reached the fountain, more rats burst forth from the western door – one was the size of a large dog! Again, battle raged. Kemmo cut down the gigantic rat with one mighty blow and shortly thereafter its kin fell.
Searching the area – and the other room – the party found some more small trinkets as well as the body of Karakas (one of the members of the lost adventuring party the group searched for) and decided to retreat for their supplies and resources were running low. Unable to return to Oakhurst, on account of the attempted murder carried out by several members of the party in a barroom brawl gone bad, the party instead elected to head for Azurestone, a small village known to Krorz famed for the bluestone pulled from its quarry.
Their journey of three days was mainly without incident, but sadly on the journey both Kemmo and Belivar’s mount fell ill – victims of filth fever. With Adoven’s help, both shook off the disease by the time they reached Azurestone, however.
The party rested in Azurestone for several weeks, reflecting on their experiences and planning their next move.There they encountered the survivors of another band of adventurers in the village – The Blades and Staves – and discovered that they also had heard of the dwarven master smith Durgeddin and his hidden realm of Khundrukar. The two groups shared their knowledge of the place and its history, but came no closer to learning its location. The heroes also heard that terrible events had rocked Falcon’s Hollow in their absence – kobolds lairing below the old dwarven monastery near Droskar’s Crag the PCs had partially explored months ago. The children had been recovered and the kobold threat destroyed, which cheered the heroes – particularly Adoven who nurtured plans to one day return to the monastery and reclaim it for his people.
In any event, as the all too brief northern summer warmed the hills, the PCs again set off for the Sunless Citadel. A three-day journey again saw them back within its shadowed precincts.
This time, the PCs decided to eliminate the goblin threat. This time, when they burst into the goblins’ guard chamber they achieved surprise and quickly cut down the defenders before they could summon aid. Moving onwards into the columned hallway – scene of their retreat during their last foray – they moved to the west as this was where the majority of the goblins reinforcements had emerged from during their last foray. Here, they discovered a large chamber – obviously the tribe’s common area. As the vast majority of the goblins cowered away from the intruders, Krorz entered the chamber. Sadly, a half-dozen goblin and hobgoblins warriors were also present and charged forward cutting down Krorz before his friends could come to his aid…
