So on the path back up to the zombie field, a middle aged woman came running toward the road yelling for help. She claimed that a cave-in in a mithral mine had trapped her husband and son and they would die without help. The group cautiously agreed to help her dig them out and jogged the 1/4 mile to the mine opening.

The mine shaft went basically straight into the hillside and about 100 yards in, a room opened up and inside was a pile of rubble from the cave in. As the group moved to help her dig at the rubble, the woman stood and said a magic word which released a stone slab that sealed the entrance to the room. Sha-Ashar and the 2 dwarves were trapped on the outside as a battle commenced.

The gnome released his illusion revealing his true form and yelled for his pets to attack. There was a short battle with the gnome arcanist, 2 fey panthers and a spectral panther tearing into the 4 trapped party members. Soon enough, the fey creatures were all dead.

Ooka and Torrin attempted to beat through the door, though the going was very slow (1 inch per hour for a hole large enough for Ooka) and they could not hear their allies on the other side except for faint hammering. They judged the door to be about 4 feet thick. They found arcane markings on the pillar but no indication of how to raise the stone. Ooka and Torrin continued to attack the door while Dante and Calth're continued into the tunnel.

Dante and Calth're quickly found another cavern where the gnome and his pets had obviously been living. There was a pool of clear water that caused them to become nervous. They went back to get their friends and Torrin used his water walking boots and glowing cloak to run across the surface of the pool as bait for anything living in it. When nothing attacked him, Ooka threw in a sunrod to see how deep it was. When they saw that there was nothing in the pool but water, she swam down to get her sunrod back and noticed that the water seemed to be seeping in from the bottom of the pool like a natural spring. They got fresh water and went back to work on the door.

Dante and Calth're continued down the path which was a natural split in the rock with a sandy floor. Eventually, the cave split and they followed the narrower path on a hunch that is might lead to fresh air. As they walked alone through the dark, they were ambushed by 3 Stirges who did a fair amount of damage before they were eventually squashed.

Dante noticed that there was a scent of fresh air again and remembered that stirges live in caves, but generally hunt in the forest and suspected there would be an opening above. He went back and got Ooka who managed to climb up and out of the cave and drop a rope to those below. After they had climbed out, they traveled down the hill to the mine entrance where they reunited with their friends.

Labels: cave