moi

The Mothers rested for eight hours in the barracks area with Fonesca and Levi regaining some of their spells. Guthranka did most of the watching as she was sustained by her ring. Gaspode made sure that there was a constant two person guard. The Mothers then explored the rest of the courtyard finding storage rooms and a kitchen area. In a pantry they found steps leading downwards. The rest of the western area was badly damaged by flame and smoke with some of the charred rafters hanging down into the hallways after having collapsed. There was a coating of ash and sludge on the floors and many surfaces. The Mothers did spot a bastard sword which had survived the flames, stuck into the wooden wall like a sconce. Guthranka took this with her. Not wanting to leave any area unchecked, the Mothers went down the stairs that they had found. On the way down the Mothers were not too happy to find that the passageway was neatly paved with stone. It opened into a large room with a number of doors and passageways leading off it. They went left. The northerly passage took them through a number of areas that seemed to be under construction. Returning to their main route they came across a dead end room that was occupied by a trio of stone giants. While combating these, a group of bugbears, apes and hill giants, including an impressively ugly, hunched and one-eyed specimen, came upon them from behind. While the fighters in the front killed the stone giants, Fonesca killed most of the first wave of bugbears with a falling wall of ice. The hills giants and the apes retreated, leaving the remaining bugbears to be slaughtered. Once this was complete the Mothers hurried after them, back into the original large chamber on this level. Not knowing where to head to, the Mothers chose the widest passage, a twenty foot wide one, leading to the south. As they reached the end of this, they were engaged with another force of bugbears. After some time killing these, two of the giants again appeared from behind. Fonesca was ready, and this time cast a wall of ice vertically, cutting the giants off from the combat. While Levi, Jito, Guthranka and Gaspode cut left and right around them the giants must have circled around, as they joined in the fray once most of the bugbears had fallen. This time the one-eyed giant and his apes were with them. But even this mighty force could not stand against the Mothers and soon the enemy were all dead, and the Mother's feet were wet with the runoff from the ice-wall and the gore of their opponents.

The Mothers explored further, finding two chambers filled with orc slaves. They decided to free them on condition that they left the area immediately. In a corridor they discovered a wall of boulders blocking further passage to the east. They doubled back at this point, going through what must have been the chambers of the bugbears. They found no one. A door led them back into the main room, which they had originally come to down the stairs. Trying the next door, they came upon two bugbear guards in a thin corridor outside five cells. Quickly overcoming the guards the Mothers set about opening the prisons. The first contained a chained up human who they questioned for a short time before realising that he was unhinged by his experiences. Lacking the ability to cure him at that time, the Mothers left him there for the moment, as Gaspode did not fancy having a bite taken out of his neck. Moving on, they found they found a human called Triolus who said that he was an engineer who had been captured on a caravan bound from Tilverton about a month earlier. Next they freed an elven woman called Siosann, who was calm and willing to fight. She had been captured about six months previously. She undertook to guard Triolus. In the next chamber a number of skeletons jumped up to attack them, but Guthranka destroyed them with the power of Tyr. In the last cell, a group of twelve orcs had been chained. Five remained alive. One spoke up and explained that they had been imprisoned because they had rebelled against the giants and that other rebels were still abroad, behind the boulder wall that they had come across previously. They shared natural caverns there with troglodytes and other underground creatures. After explaining that they had already freed a couple of groups of orc slaves, the Mothers were told about a number of other groups that were likely to still be locked up in the south western area of the complex. Moving to that area, the Mothers had to overcome two hill giants who were in a torture chamber. This battle drew two fire giants from another area and the Mothers were sorely pressed in defeating them. Following the path of the fire giants backwards, the Mothers found an armoury and smithy. There, seven dwarves were bound by long chains to the wall so that they could continue to work. Their leader Tettet Goblinslayer spoke for them and asked for the chance to fight some giants. He suggested that they leave his kinsmen in place until everything was safe. The engineer Triolus stayed with these dwarves while Tettet joined the group. This left the way clear to free four other groups of orcs who banded together and brought the orcs out from the barricaded cavern entrance. The whole group of around two hundred orcs departed hurriedly. Following the trail of the orcs to the foot of the stairs the Mothers tried the north-easterly room. There, amongst the furs, they found a loose flagstone with gold, gems and an earthenware jar secreted beneath it in a rough hole. Leaving the main room again, by the one passageway that they had not explored the Mothers came upon a fork. Going left they found a room with a padlocked door. Gaspode, picked this and checked for any traps. Not finding any they opened the door and stepped through into another forking passageway. Going left again, another padlocked door confronted them. Gaspode did his tricks and soon they saw that the room beyond was a wine cellar. Fonesca tried some of the wine, which had a stopper with a wax symbol of a death's head. She thought that it tasted good, with an earthy hint. At the other end of the fork the passageway abruptly ended. Being the suspicious types that they are, the Mothers spent some time here searching the stones for signs of a secret door. They did not find anything though. Returning to the first fork the Mothers took the right passage, which led straight down to a circular room which was filled with clear water that emerged from several apertures in the western wall. Steps led down into the water.

The Mothers investigated the pool chamber by dropping copper coins into it that Fonesca had enchanted with light spells from her wand of illumination. They revealed an underwater passage that was about four feet high in the north-eastern segment of the pool. Thinking that new spells might be required the Mothers retreated to the armoury area. There, Levi and Fonesca prayed and memorised spells respectively. Six hours later Levi had a water breathing prayer that he could use. Firstly he cured Gaspode, Jito and Guthranka of some more of their injuries. When they reached the pool, these three discarded the equipment that they thought they would not need (or what might be damaged) and Levi cast his spell upon them. Guthranka led the way as she could move easily in the watery environment due to her ring. The followed the tunnel upwards until it flattened out and then opened into a natural cavern, through which an underground stream ran. Since they found nothing of interest there, the three of them returned to the others and re-equipped themselves.

The group then set off for the caverns which the orcs had barricaded. They went northwest through some natural caverns, encountering and defeating some huge lizards in a dead end cavern with a sinkhole. Moving around to the northeast they found a stream running through a cavern that may well have been the same that they had seen earlier. Troglodytes occupied the eastern caverns. Guthranka negotiated with them using the Helm of Tongues. She agreed not to attack them and not to enter their caverns. The next few passageways leading east were blocked by spear wielding troglodyte warriors, so the Mothers moved into the southerly area, which had obviously, recently been the domain of the orcs. Here, too, they found a sinkhole, which was larger than the previous one. The exit from these caverns lead back northwest in a straight carved and stone clad passageway. This was returning the Mothers to the blockade point of the orcs, but on the way they saw that a similar pile of boulders had been placed on the left hand wall.

Curious as to what this could be, the Mothers dismantled the blockage, revealing an old brass bound wooden door that had seen better days. It was bolted shut from this side with a corroded brass bolt. After Gaspode checked it for traps the Mothers entered a straight passage leading south west. The air in the passage was oppressive and stale and it led to a disturbing temple. One end led to a room with a stairway leading further down which had been blocked off by a rock fall which now completely engulfed it. The other side was the temple itself. Four pillars of purplish glowing stone that even the dwarf, Tettet, did not recognise, held up an arched roof of the same material. Bas-reliefs and other strange carvings covered the walls hinting at dark practises and evil rites. At the end of the room an altar, carved from one huge piece of yellow rock stood before a raised alcove. Moving to examine this, both the priest and the paladin became distinctly uneasy. Levi decided that the place should be cleansed of it's evil and he quickly tried a simple ceremony of prayer and holy water libations over the altar in the hope that this would suffice. But it seemed to have no effect. Levi, frustrated by this went around behind the altar, looking for some clue as to how it might be purified. Stepping up the low stairs into the alcove he must have looked too long at the purplish-black, glossy curved wall of the alcove, for his face showed a momentary flash of horror before he screamed and drew his blades and began hacking at his own legs manically. He shouted and screamed incoherently all the while. The rest of the Mothers quickly stepped in, restraining him and removing his weapons. Tettet and Siosiann looked on in horror. They manhandled Levi out of the temple as quickly as they could and brought him, still gibbering, to the armoury where they hoped that the dwarves would look after him. They thought better of leaving the mad prisoner they had found earlier in his cell too, bringing the two madmen together.

Realising that, since Siosann's spellbooks and Tettet's axe had not been found, more chambers must have been unfound, the Mothers set about searching for more secret passages than what they had already discovered. Soon they had found one beside the stairway that led to this level. It opened into a room which contained three levers on the far wall. When they went to investigate these, the elf, Siosiann noticed another door to the right of the levers leading northwards. They then noticed that both of these secret doors contained spy holes at heights of five and fifteen feet that gave someone standing in the lever room a view through each secret door. The second door led into a large room with a corridor off it which whose closely fitting bars restrained four manticores and another narrower passage, leading ultimately to more stairs upwards. Guthranka suggested looking for more secret doors along the narrow passage and this search was rewarded with finding another opening. Guthranka led the way inside after Gaspode had checked the door for traps. A pit trap opened beneath the paladin and although three of the poisoned spikes hit her, she was able to clamber out of the hole with the help of the others.

After casting some more healing magic on Guthranka, the Mothers proceeded into the chamber beyond the pit. At first glance the chests and coffers were just what they were looking for, being filled with coins, gems and jewellery, but after some checking of the broken barrels and yellow mould that also appeared to be present, Gaspode used his gem of true seeing to reveal Tettet's axe, Siosann's backpack and sword as well as another sword, a quiver of arrows and a spear. The broken barrel proved to be a water-tight cask containing a map on some parchment, a strange set of instructions and diagrams on human skin and a long chain of a dark metal that none of them knew. Taking all of this for further perusal the Mothers went up the stairs outside into a room with no visible exit. A quick search revealed a concealed doorway, which led into a charred dining room that looked as though it had been used as a planning area from the scraps of burnt maps on the floor. After finding a cloakroom for the giants and an entry into passageways that they had already seen on the surface, the Mothers decided to retrieve the dwarves and the others in order to return to Arabel to search for a cure for them. Guthranka was discussing how to mock up some carrying contraption from the giant cloaks and spears that they had found with the dwarves, so that they could carry the lunatics more easily.