The Colony - Turn 58/59

Behind on turns again! Here are two back to back turns that cover a bunch of exploration in the Silverstream mine. The party manages to avoid all encounters (or they've scared off the opposition).


Start Date: August 21, mid-morning
Start Status: Press On
Start Location: Silverstream Mine

Adventuring: Rennard, Jinx, Mendel, Smoke, Zenobe
At the Tulip: Adrienne, Brigg, Hagan, Xon, Aaron

The Turn

Despite some serious wounds, the party presses on after Smoke, rather reluctantly, quaffs another minor restoration potion [4 healing]. Brigg moves ahead to scout the route, followed by Jinx, Rennard, and Zenobe. Smoke hangs in the back as a rearguard. The group moves north, bears right at a split, and finds themselves in a large chamber much like the last. One north and two down-sloping west passages lead away from this area, which shows little sign of recent traffic. The air in here is dry, dusty, and still. Brigg sneaks up the north passage but backs out quickly. "Quiet!" he whispers. "There's another rock-snail thing up there. I don't think it sensed me, but I don't think we want to bother it, do we?"

Smoke nods vigorously and the others agree. Rennard points to the nearest west passage. Brigg nods and starts down the gentle slope. This tunnel opens into another large rough-hewn chamber with the same timber supports found elsewhere in the mine. Veins of coal and gleaming metallic spots show in the chamber walls and rubble covers the floor. Many bootprints criss-cross the area, most running north to south or vice versa.

The irregular room has two south passages that join back up to the tunnel the party first explored. To the north, two additional tunnels lead northwest and southwest. Brigg points out a crude fire ring in the north half of the chamber. "This hasn't been used in years." He says, poking the black, dusty ash in the center of the ring.

The party presses on. The two west passages curl together and form a single tunnel heading west, more or less. The footprints continue along this passage. After a minor detour down a dead end, the group reaches a larger chamber. To the north, it ends in a T-shaped tunnel with a damp, dripping ceiling and a slick floor, but the door in the west wall of the larger room draws everyone's attention.

The metal door is quite sturdy and has a 2 x 2 foot barred window at eye level. It opens into the corner of a 10-foot wide L-shaped passage finished in green and gray polished stone slabs. Below the pull ring is an impressive-looking lock with fresh scratch marks around it that indicate someone or something has worked the mechanism recently. Rennard gives the door a quick tug. "Locked or stuck," he whispers.

Brigg points at the floor where you can all see fresh sweep marks in the dust and debris. "Locked, I'd say."

Before the group proceeds, Zenobe uses his final healing spell on Smoke (3 healing).

Faced with a door that leads into finished tunnels, the party decides to see if Brigg can open the lock. His attempt succeeds, but the group isn't really interested in exploring these tunnels yet, so he then attempts to relock the door, which also succeeds.

Turning their attention south, the group continues exploring, sticking close to the right-hand wall. The cave they are in is quite large, but, eventually, they reach the south end. There, a fairly straight mine shaft leads away southwest and another chamber opens to the southeast. The footprints, thick around the door and the north part of the chamber, are very sparse here, and dust and debris cover the piles or rock and the floor of the tunnel and caves.

The southwest corridor extends 40 or 50 feet and splits into three before dead-ending. As the party returns to the big chamber, Jinx calls a halt. "There's something here," he says, pointing at a section of the wall on the west side of the passage. A few minutes of searching turns up a hidden lever, which opens a small stone door, about 2 feet wide and 5 feet high. The area beyond is a roughly shaped room with four timber supports. A pile of picks and shovels along one wall, old and rusty, and several barrels of water and rotted material that may have once been food indicate it may just be a storeroom. Unlike the rest of the mine, this area is pretty clean and free of dust, but the party can't tell if that's because the door was closed or someone cleaned the place up.

After retreating and closing the door behind them, the party turns their attention east. The other passage leads to a vaguely V-shaped room. In the south branch, they find a shell of one of the rocktopus creatures, a massive specimen almost twice the size of the one they fought. It is empty, aside from a slimy residue clinging to the bottom of the shell's interior. A faint odor of decay indicates this thing has been dead quite a while, but probably for months rather than years.

"I really don't want to face a rocktopus that big!" mutters Smoke.

"I don't think any of us do," answers Zenobe.

"Let's keep moving and finish exploring," Brigg says. "I don't see much of interest here." He heads north and the others follow. First, they check out the T-shaped corridor to the north again [I have no idea why]. Yep, it's a dead end, with water dripping from the ceiling. Next, they head back east to where Brigg saw the other rocktopus. While the others wait in the chamber to the south, Brigg sneaks up the corridor to where he saw the creature, hoping to lure it into an ambush. The beast is either hiding or it's moved on, as he doesn't see it anywhere. Brigg advances far enough into the room to see that it's a dead end, but he's not interested in putting himself at risk.

"It's gone," he says when he rejoins the others. "I have no idea where it went. Maybe we should just get out of here for now and retreat to the farmhouse until tomorrow."

The others agree, and the party makes their way back to the ladder room, keeping their eyes peeled for wandering not-zombies or rocktopuses. Once upstairs they head straight for the exit, their retreat accompanied by the faint sounds of digging. Before leaving the mine site, Zenobe takes a last look at the body they brought out and examined. Nothing has changed.

By the time they get to the farmhouse they plan on using as a campsite, it's late morning. Rennard drafts Jinx and the pair works on repairing the door that was broken when the creatures took the farm family (at least that's what the party assumes happened). The others check on the animals roaming around the pasture, and then eat, rest and keep watch by turns.

As night approaches, the party moves inside and barricades the door. Rennard lays hands on someone [6 healing]. The night passes quietly. There's no sign that the creatures were out and about at the farmhouse. The next morning, everyone is up early.

End Date: August 22nd, early morning
End Status: Rest and Relaxation?
End Location: Farm near the Silverstream Mine