We pick up where we left off, with Carn firing an arrow at one of the orc guards. As it bellows in anger and pain, Elvraema and Miles come hurrying down the passage to rescue their friend from certain doom. Carn, however, reckons he can handle three orcs all by himself and isn’t too happy with them interfering …
When the orcs are dead, the trio peers out through the arrow slits in the west wall. They can see two more orcs standing guard on a ledge outside, and a series of stairs winding through a passage to an imposing entrance: the Mountain Door of Khundrukar! The others agree with Carn that it’s a good thing they didn’t try a frontal assault. The place looks impregnable.
Up some stairs and around a corner from the guard room, the trio find a secret door that opens onto the fortress’ entry chamber. Opposite the massive stone doors is an equally massive crevasse with a spindly rope bridge stretching across it. Braziers flanking the doors illuminate this side of the chamber, but the far side is dark and too far away for the elves to make out any detail with their darkvision. The gurgle of rushing water echoes up from far below.
After some debate, the companions bar the fortress doors, trapping the two orcs outside. They then have a poke around the walls and find another secret door opposite the one they came through that leads to a smaller guard post on the south side of the entrance. The lone orc inside dies in mid-charge.
Rather than attempt a dangerous crossing of the crevasse, the companions opt to head back the way they came, collecting Armstrong and Sev along the way. When they return to the cooking cave, Sev volunteers to escort the halflings home while the others continue to explore the fortress. Meepo offers to accompany the warrior, and the two climb up the ropes to find the halflings waiting on the surface.
The others head down the worked passage past the makeshift prison and open up the doors at the end of it to find the ledge at the east end of the rope bridge. There are two orcs lurking in the shadows here. They toss some javelins at the adventurers before they die. Their bodies are unceremoniously shoved into the crevasse. They hit the water far below with a distant splash.
The group then heads east to explore the rest of the large cavern full of looted goods. In the southeast corner is an old well. To the north of that is a passage that’s been deliberately walled off with a makeshift barricade.
While his companions settle down for a short rest, Carn pokes around in the bags and crates. The contents are mostly just odds and ends the orcs have stolen from nearby farmsteads and villages. He does, however, come across a loose stone, behind which is a cavity containing a small strongbox. Popping it open, the rogue finds some gold and a vial of holy water.
Once refreshed, the companions take a passage leading out of the cavern to the southeast. This seems to be a dead-end, until Carn finds a secret door opening onto a short, worked passage that Armstrong confirms to be of dwarven manufacture. At the far end is a wall with Orcish curses scribbled on it. Elvraema says they basically translate to “Keep out!”
So of course the adventurers opt to ignore the warnings and press on. The curses are scribbled on what turns out to be another secret door, which opens into a small, smoky room occupied by three female orcs. One of them is older and has long, lacquered nails on her hands. She roars in anger and orders her two underlings to attack.
During the fight, Elvraema is taken down by the orcs’ ferocious blows, only to be saved by Miles, who stops slinging spells long enough to pour a healing potion down her throat. Carn, meanwhile, is cursed by the orc shaman, who calls upon Luthic, wife of Gruumsh, as she scratches at her attackers with her long claws.
As the battle turns against her, however, the shaman produces a key from a pocket and uses it to unlock a door in the north wall. As her acolytes fall, the shaman makes a run for it through the larger chamber beyond. Both Carn and Armstrong chase after her and take her down. Almost at once, however, a droning buzz sounds from a pit in the center of the room. The buzz grows louder as its source draws nearer …
Stirges! Although the pesky parasites manage to find latch on to their intended prey, they are all slain before they can suck anyone’s blood. Nevertheless, the companions are feeling the hurt now, so they lock themselves up in the shaman’s smoky room and settle down for an overnight rest.
In the morning, the companions return to the long cavern to the north. Skirting around the pit in the middle of the room, they head to the far end, where they find some long-dead orc corpses by a closed door. The corpses look charred. A close inspection of the door reveals some nozzles, which Carn expertly plugs up with some wax. The rogue then gets the door open to reveal a small chamber beyond containing nothing but a strange apparatus connected to the door with several hoses. As no one is skilled in alchemy, the companions wisely decide to leave it alone and close the door behind them.
On the western wall is an old gate. The lock is too rusty for Carn to pick, but he figures it doesn’t matter as it most likely just leads back to where the makeshift barricade in the long room with all the crates is. Perhaps the orcs made the barricade to keep out the stirges, since the gaps between the gate’s bars are big enough for oversized mosquitoes to fit through.
At this point, the companions agree that they have fully explored this level of Khundrukar. The way forward is to follow the dwarf-carved stairway that descends into the pit out of which the stirges had come. It is cold and dark down there, but without Sev, they have no need for any light to give them away.
The passage twists and turns, and the companions can hear water splashing on rock down below. Eventually a small stream cuts across their path, heading north, and they decide to follow it rather than continue on down the steps. The rock here is slimy and Miles slips in the water, so the companions decide to rope themselves together.
In this manner, they venture into a small, dry side chamber containing the remains of a dwarf as well as a number of stirges. After slaying the pests, the companions examine the body and conclude that the unfortunate soul was not one of Durgeddin’s folk. His desiccated corpse is too “fresh”, in a manner of speaking. Perhaps he was part of some other, less fortunate expedition. Hadn’t Sir Miles, the mayor of nearby Blasingdell, mentioned something about another group of adventurers?
After relieving the corpse of its money pouch, the group continues down the stream’s passage, which curves back to the south before entering a large chamber. Here the stream continues south past the foot of the main stairs and disappears under a low overhang in the cavern wall. There are two more exits to the east. The group chooses the closer one.
This passage leads to a long, irregular cavern with a square-mouthed tunnel at its northern end. Across from them is a cave blocked by a wooden gate. A heavy animal smell emanates from that direction, although no one is able to identify it.
As Carn and Elvraema creep closer to investigate, two scaly humanoids detach themselves from the wall and attack! As their horrid stench washes over the pair, they realize that the creatures are troglodytes! The creatures’ scaly hides enable them to blend in with the rock of their subterranean homes.
As one troglodyte engages the pair in combat, the other runs ahead and opens the gate. Everyone pauses in wonder as a massive brown bear comes through. It rears up on its hind legs and roars.
The noise of the ensuing battle attracts yet more stirges. While Armstrong ends up looking (and most likely feeling) like a pin cushion, he and his elven companions emerge victorious yet again. They are a bit sad about killing the bear but it couldn’t be helped. The troglodytes and stirges, however, had it coming!
Before exploring any more of the cave system, the companions decide to check out the worked tunnel. As they make their way along it, Armstrong remarks that it is too crude to be of dwarven manufacture. It looks more like orcish work. This must have been how they broke the siege!
The tunnel leads steadily upward and eventually opens onto the far side of the Stone Tooth from the fortress’ front door. Down at the base of the hill, the companions can just make out the dark waters of a mere nestled in marshy wetlands.
Heading back down into the caves, the group pushes south. A short side passage leads to a small cave in which two skeletons lie in a patch of yellow mold. Ordering the others to stand back, Miles uses his fire magic to burn the mold away safely. The group is then able to recover a gleaming longsword bearing Durgeddin’s mark and a steel helmet chased with silver. They conclude that these were probably more unfortunate explorers.
Further south, the passage opens into the middle of a vast cavern. The walls and ceiling are covered with crystals that glitter softly, reflecting and amplifying a faint phosphorescence produced by various types of subterranean fungi growing on the cavern floor.
The group stops to take it all in for a moment, stunned by the cave’s natural beauty. The moment is broken, however, when Carn calls out that he’s spotted what look like sarcophagi on a ledge to the west.
An old path through the fungus garden guides the party to some steps that lead up onto the ledge. There are about two dozen coffins lining the walls and ledge. All have dwarven runes carved into them, although only three appear to have actually been used. In addition to their occupants’ names and manners of death, these sarcophagi bear warnings against disturbing the dead inside.
Armstrong makes it quite clear to Carn that he will tolerate no desecration of the three occupied tombs. When the others decide to stop for a short rest here, Armstrong keeps his eyes locked on the wily rogue the whole time.
Eventually the elf gives up and goes to poke around in a blocked passage to the southwest. He reckons they could dig through the rubble, so the group opts to give it a try and is successful.
On the other side is a pool fed by the underground stream. A cavern to the north reeks of troglodyte. The group skirts the stream and heads south instead. This takes them to a cave that a massive pale-skinned lizard calls home. The lizard is chained to the far wall, against which two treasure chests sit.
Keen to see what’s in the chests, the group attacks the lizard. Much to everyone’s horror, the lizard wrenches the chain out of the wall and surges forward to swallow Miles whole in one gulp!
The mage’s companions slay the beast and cut it open as quickly as they can. Miles is near death when they finally get him out, but luck is on his side, and Elvraema is able to revive him with her magic.
The chests turn out to hold a lot of silver coins and some potions, which is rather disappointing for everyone.
After this escapade, the group decide to leave these side passages alone and go back to exploring the glittering cavern. They follow the path through the fungus past where they entered the cavern.
As the path skirts a short cliff, Carn is ambushed by a pair of tentacled gricks! They attempt to haul him up the cliff, but his companions are having none of it. Armstrong kicks one away, and Miles finishes it off. The other flees up the cliff without its meal, only to find a furious dwarf has climbed up after it and is pummeling and kicking it into oblivion.
The gricks’ lair at the top of the cliff is a dead end, so the group decides to rest there for the night. In the morning, they have a bit to eat and then climb back down to the path. It ends just a short distance to the east at a stone door with a glowering dwarf face carved into it.
The door is locked with what might ordinarily be a challenging lock, but Carn is a dab hand at picking locks and manages this one easily. The door opens to reveal a hall heading north to a flight of stairs that rises up into darkness.
Suddenly the companions remember that it’s about time for Sev and Meepo to return from escorting the halflings home, assuming nothing untoward happened to them along the way. They all agree that the best course of action will be to head back up the orc tunnel and then circle around to the natural chimney from the outside.
Poor Sev and Meepo! They’re probably standing around, wondering what’s happened to their friends. Maybe they’re even now trying to work up the courage to climb down the chimney and go looking for them …
TALES FROM THE YAWNING PORTAL 