Barbigazl Strikes Back! Part Uno

One could say that the mass of the mountain that was known to the Gnomes as Redbeck was what drew Morf back home to Azhfelton... or it could be that the Gnomes there asked him to come back. Having previously been abandoned by the same Gnomes after he teamed up with humans and elves and others (that had basically killed the party of Gnomes he was in), it was with some trepidation that he complied. He also brought with him Excrutia the fighter (who had been freed of her possession after the Master had been defeated), Denemus the thief, Alrick the Cleric, Valin the magic user and Perelay the Elf. [Ah, basic D&D, how I missed thee and thy race = class...]

Rufus Redcap, leader of the Gnomes, had a proposition for him. One of their Delvers (basically a priest/sage/wise one), Nuther Netherreach, was lost inside the mountain, and search parties had failed to bring him back... or make it back themselves. So they wanted Morf to check it out, and with the party would go Gort (Gnome fighter) and Oz (Gnome Delver in training, complete with magic orb of orby magicalness).

The first hurdle was getting into the mountain. Their previous entrance was now blocked, leaving another entrance through a pitm to which the party was guided by one Boris Barkshin. He informed that the pit was one in which they had thrown sheep and gotten back "slick". After Perelay flew down, he found out that the conversation of sheep to slick was courtesy of a green dragon, named Grundrakn (the name was only revealed after the dragon was [thanks DM!]). While it looked like there was going to be severe trouble, what with the dragon eating the sheep we sent down in a cage and snapping off the cage, a simple lightning bolt spell put an end to that issue. And revealed a ton of treasure... far more than one would expect. Perelay didn't seem that interested in touching anything [Cursed! Can't touch metal!], but we got potions and scrolls and lots of coins.

Moving on, we went through a passage until we found a large, really large, cavern under the ground. How large? There was a hillock in there with a city on it! And two lakes! Kinda large. This was the deserted city of Saltsburgh, where salt was mined. After dealing with glowworms with a taste for humans, we arrived at the city and set about looting... I mean, exploring... yeah... Morf found a large blaster gun hooked in the lake, and others found huts and a giant slug. Now that was an epic fight [there could have been four, but with how we rolled, we barely dealt with one]! It was so epic, Paraley was nearly killed in a single attack from the slug. Clubs did sod all, and axes barely hurt it. Morf blasted water into huts to spray encrusted salt on it, which did something more, but basically it survived longer than it should.

With that done, we got our breath back, then moved on, pausing only to admire the scaffold that let the miners paint their racing snails. Huh. [We didn't rest... we should have considering what's coming...]

[END]