When we last left our heroes they had just been awarded an enchanted sword by the dead yet curiously talkative Sir Keegan. Concluding their conversation, they were distracted by a sound and realised that their occasional ally Splug had followed them!
Malachi, who was particularly interested in reuniting Splug with some of his finer locksmith's tools, led the party as they gave chase to Splug, who seemed to be leading them back towards the excavation site. When they arrived, they discovered that Splug had disappeared through a previously unknown door to the south. Proceeding through they found a maze of caves, dotted with massive stalagmites and stalactites*. As they attempted to negotiate their way through they were repeatedly beset upon by giant rats.
Hiding in the corner of the chamber, Splug was detected. and ruthlessly interrogated. Could he offer any more useful information to the group to prove his loyalty? Only that there was a pool of magical healing water to the west. Again he tried to run. "Stop him!" the group cried, and as Splug ran past Scrindrel, the good Elf let loose an arrow, hoping it might skim Splug's calf and slow him down. Unfortunately, Scrindrel was such a good shot that it entered the back of Splug's head and came out through his eye socket.
Splug immediately crumpled to the ground, letting out blood-curdling cries. "Nobody panic!" shouted Malachi, "I'm a locksmith!", and he ran over to provide assistance. Malachi, confused about what constituted sensible medical procedure at the time, wiggled the arrow but to no avail. Splug let out horrific cries of agony, and blacked out. Unable to see over Malachi's back in the cramped conditions, the rest of the group did their best to help by casting magical healing spells towards Splug, and he was revived once more. Malachi seized the opportunity to wiggle the arrow some more, in a clockwise motion, and Splug let out yet more screams that would haunt the nightmares of someone who watched a lot of horror movies and was really quite de-sensitized to that sort of thing.
"It's no good," Malachi sighed, "I can't save him." Having previously picked up Splug's body in a last attempt at medical intervention, he dropped it unceremoniously on the floor, skull first.
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| Artist's Impression |
Recovering from their loss, the group re-grouped (groups tend to do that) and went to investigate the rest of the cavern. Scrindrel took some encouragement to move as he was still horrified by his actions. He continued to protest that the party should abandon their quest, now that he was beginning to question everything they had done.
Towards the west they found a tunnel covered by large bronze doors, into which had been scratched the words: "Stay Out. Really." Venturing in, they beheld a shimmering blue pool, in the centre of which was a small island and an assortment of interesting objects. Assuming this was the healing pool that Splug had described, Marroar dipped his toe into the water. Unfortunately his toe did not return with the rest of his foot, as it was immediately disintegrated by the magical acid of the evil pool.
"Ow my fucking foot!" he exclaimed, hopping away, and a smile spread across Scrindrel's face - Splug truly had been a bastard, so it was okay that he shot him through the face.
Following the subsequent discovery of a lair of Kruthiks, the group decided that maybe they had had enough adventuring for the time being, and decided to limp back to Winterhaven to rest and restock their provisions. However, returning to the town, they found that dead had risen in the local graveyard and some zombie dispatching was therefore required. Can't they catch a break?
* During the writing of this update, I originally mistyped "stalactites" as "stalactittties". However, several Google image searches have been unsuccessful in shedding any light on what these may look like.
