Shade came back to the double doors where I was standing. In his usual way, he silently went to work examining the door. After a few mutterings the doors opened. We entered cautiously into what appeared to be a tomb for someone of note. Deciding that rejoining the group was more pressing, we cautiously but expeditiously went out the other side of the room where we entered a long hallway. This passage ended in another room appearing to be an armory. I spoke out loud about how much Krova would enjoy such a room only to have Lodi appear from out of nowhere. Shade and I were startled, then curious which was followed by irritation at Lodi's wide smile and explanation that Krova and Zar'za have ventured off in pursuit of some damn thing. Great. We are in the depths of some hell hole that is about to rupture with evil the likes not seen in eons and our healer and muscle are chasing after who knows what. Oh, and Valthrun was still here. I began to see the wisdom of Krova and Zar'za now.
After we all exchanged our stories it was decided to head down the stairwell to recon the area. Shade and Lodi went into stealth mode while I remained behind with Valthrun. He was instantly curious about what lay at the bottom of the stairs and began to vocalize this to me. I'm going to have to learn a spell of silence sometime in the near future as this sort of thing can get us into serious trouble. Fortunately, Valthrun didn't become too noisy allowing the stealthy duo to perform their tasks. At their signal, I crept down and overheard some talking. It was a Draconic tongue, most likely hobgoblin. The guards in the room were complaining of boredom as I listened in on their conversation. Hopefully that could work to our advantage.
How Did I Get in Front?
Lodi and Shade began to take aim at the nearest two guards with their bows. One shot clipped the shoulder armor of one of the guards while the second shot found its mark and fell one of the beasts into the well. Shouts of alarm instantly arose and we had a fight on our hands. I began furiously chanting my scorching orb spell as the shouts were becoming more numerous. One of the larger hobgoblins shouted instructions to open the cage. I relayed that to Shade and Lodi although there truly was little we could do to prevent this occurrence for the room began to fill with guards. Lodi managed to get off another shot which found its mark as the second guard was sent tumbling backwards down the well. Wishing for the best, we set up a defensive posture on the stairs and hoped our weapons would find their marks.The scorching orb whooshed to life and took up position at the base of the stairs, giving the hobgoblins pause. The larger beasts managed to get by and engage Shade on the steps. Fortunately Shade was able to make the most of his height advantage and struck several vicious blows. The larger hobgoblins were stalwart unfortunately and managed to put up a solid defense with their shields. Lodi and I fired our missile weapons while the scorching orb continued its steady assault on their backsides. I was able to come forward and push the beasts backwards down the stairs with a thunderwave. While wounded they were not out of the fight just yet. They regained their feet and resumed their attacks. Our attacks had now felled two of the hobgoblins and several of the smaller beasts when we found out what was in the cage.
A giant black spider came streaking across the room with such speed we had no time to react. It was in the stairwell in no time looking us up and down with its evil eyes. The beast instantly jumped upon Shade who did his best to fight off the creature. His previous wounds inflicted from the hobgoblins along with poison from the spider bites laid Shade low. I took up the front position by default as the spider and a hobgoblin closed the gap. They struck at me with their vile pincers and weapons but missed with their attacks. With the scorching orb at the rear and my close assault spells in the front combined with Lodi's arrows, we finally brought down the hideous beast. Taking a moment to say a prayer and count my good fortune, the remaining hobgoblin got in a strike with his flail. The world blurred as I sunk to the ground.
The Cage
I awoke to Lodi starring me in the face. He had a smile as I came back into this world. I sat up and instantly felt a surge of pain. Lying back down again, I saw we were back in the armory. Lodi explained that he managed to take down the last hobgoblin with his withering arrow assault. He and Valthrun then carried me and Shade up to the armory and bound our wounds. I thanked him and promptly fell back asleep. Several hours later, I awoke and found that Shade was up and about. After a bit of food (I have forgotten if this is breakfast, lunch or dinner) we decided to venture back down the stairs to see the condition of the area. Expecting guards and traps, we cautiously looked into the large room. The well in the middle contained two dead bodies but no other corpses could be found.
We made our way back to the cage. Webbing was covering the cell. A shudder went through my spine thinking of how nasty that spider had been. Shade must have had a similar thought as he drew his weapon. The thought of lighting the webbing on fire came to mind when we noticed a large cocoon. It appeared humanoid in shape. I crept in and cleared the webbing where I figured a face should be. A dragonborne face met mine. As the eyes of the figure opened and fluttered, she said to free her or make her death a quick one. I inquired as to her identity and she introduced herself as Vosh Glimmerscale, a paladin of the Silver Flame. Seeing the fierce gaze of the warrior that Korva had shown so many times, I knew she was a good and noble warrior. Shade remained skeptical. Before he could offer any protest, I freed Vosh from the spider's webs. Weakly, she stood up to her full height which towered over us. Searching around the area, we discovered her weapons and armor as well as her holy symbol. Vosh suited up. She told us how she had come down into this pit with her party and had been ambushed. Everyone was captured. Unfortunately we were too late to save her compatriots as she was the last to be a meal for that damn spider. There would be no more deaths from that vile creature we assured her. We told her that we sought to put an end to the evil within these walls. Vosh offered her services which we gladly accepted, given the near fatal experience from our last encounter with the denizens of this area.
The Clean Sweep
We headed down the only hallway heading out of the main room where the previous battle occurred. Another large room opened up in front of us. Again, several doors offered entrance. We examined the nearest door only finding a barracks for the hobgoblins. They'd be sleeping long enough once we found them. A long hall went off to the north from this room. We slowly crept down it when Shade suddenly stopped us. His gaze switched rapidly between the floor and ceiling and back again. He took a moment to determine what this was. I offered up my assistance. With a bit of tinkering and deduction, Shade found the mechanism that would operate a trap door. He disabled it and we stepped around it just to be certain not to set it off. We went down the hall further and found it entered what looked like a deserted eating area. Shade crept in to examine one of two doors in the room. As he approached the door, it flew open and screaming hobgoblins flooded out. The other door in the room also was flung open as more beasts entered the fray.
Vosh instantly ran to meet the attackers from across the room while Shade took a fast tactical evaluation of his position. I conjured the scorching orb once again and Lodi let loose with his arrows. Shade made a hasty retreat from the attackers, taking some hits as he came rounding the corner back into the hall. As he flew by us, I noted that he didn't look very good. I swung the orb around to clear off the smaller attackers that had Vosh flanked. They instantly immolated from the intense heat. The larger hobgoblins wouldn't be so easy to fall.
A fury of sword blows, arrow shots, spells and shurikens rained down upon the brutes. One by one, they succumbed to their wounds until only the leader was left. He fought to his last breath. Upon realization that this was indeed the last breath he would be taking, he uttered something about warning Kalarel. Vosh ended him after that last utterance.
We sat for a moment and then began to search the area. An interesting chest was in the room where the leader had emerged from. A key emerged after searching the boss's body. Shade once again went to work on the chest and discovered it was indeed trapped. After disarming the trap, I suggested that I use my ghost hand to operate the key, in case of any remaining surprises. Shade was all too happy at this recommendation. I opened the chest from a distance. It opened without much fanfare. We discovered some coins and a fine dagger of some sort. Shade and Lodi took great interest in it. I do hope that one of them will put it to good use on our next encounter. Once all the loot was secured, we headed out again.
Statues
Feeling this area to be clean of the hobgoblins, we ventured onward to the great doors. This area was completely dark. Nothing had apparently been down this way for ages. I cast my light spell to offer up some form of illumination. We traveled down the hallway which came into a large room. It was devoid of anything interesting save an exit on the other side. We crossed the large room carefully and found ourselves in another room containing several statues. Shade became fidgety and went into this thief mode, suspicious of anything. One large statue of a warrior holding a sword occupied the center of the room while two dragon statues were on the left wall. Shade approached the center statue carefully. The statue sprang to life and whirled around with its blade. Shade was struck with it on the swing. It revolved once and came to rest in its initial position.
Shade attempted to close the distance with the statue while crawling down on the floor. It came to life once again and adjusted its blade, striking Shade once more. Shade then performed some fancy flip, dodged the blade coming around and landed on the base of the statue. He began to examine the statue for an off switch. I assisted from a distance. At my vantage point, I observed a small access panel at the base of the statue. I directed Shade to my discovery. He popped open the hatch and began to look for a way to deactivate this trap. The mechanism shocked him. At this Vosh displayed her impatience and stormed up onto the statue. There, she and Shade beat it into rubble. Not the elegant solution that I hoped for but effective nonetheless.
Valthrun, Lodi and I went around the back of the statue where we approached a small, rectangular section coming off the main room. There was a door on the other side. Four statues holding vases were in each of the corners. This is certainly a trap given the warm welcome we received from the center statue. I discovered a strange discoloration along the entrance to this section of the room. Shade also discovered some mechanisms on the statues. I began to recall my studies of arcana and determined that a wall of force must appear here when the trigger is activated. Shade also found that the vases would rotate and fill the room with water. A clever but diabolical trap for sure. The two of us set forth and dismantled the trap piece by piece; him working on the mechanical aspects and I on the magical parts. As we neared completion of our work, Vosh once again had grown impatient and stormed over by one of the statues. She set off one of the dragon statue traps and was flung into the center statue. I cast her that look my instructors at the academy had cast me so often and asked if she had learned anything from that experience. She bowed her head and sat down as we completed our tasks.
Upon finishing, we took a moment to sit and reflect on the events of the day and wonder what had become of Krova and Zar'za.
