Slain by Elf

Far away from Shadowfell Keep four renowned adventurers return to their home town for some well-earned rest after months of extraordinary encounters. Hearing that the local heroes are returning the town has planned a big welcome, throwing a party in our honour. As we enter the preparations are under way but the celebrations haven't begun yet.

'Haven't begun yet? Nonsense, I haven't been sober since Tuesday.'

'Which Tuesday? You've been drinking for weeks.'

'...is Tuesday not a month?'

Despite the air of optimism and cheer circulating through the town there remain pockets of uncertainty, one of which becomes our concern before too long. An old friend of mine gives me the news that a mine recently reopened by his brother has had some workers disappear under strange circumstances. As if citizens in distress is not enough to stir us in to action it turns out that one of the missing workers is the brother of Bigboots, our halfling companion. On hearing this, my friend's compassion is obvious, 'Oh my goodness, I am so sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Were you close to your brother?'

'No, I was miles away, adventuring.'

We head over to the mine and talk with the foreman, who gives us as much information as he knows about the disappearances as well as a rudimentary map of the mine. With this knowledge we crack a sunrod or two and press on in to the mine. There are still two active groups of miners working higher up in the mine. As we are about to pass the second of them a man runs out from where they are working and an explosion blasts our senses!

As the dust clears we hear groans and cries for help from inside the section and the escaped man is fleeing further in to the mine, not out towards the exit. As three of us brace the walls against the imminent cave-in and move to rescue the trapped miners Bigboots, with his rogueish speed and dextrous movement over the hazardous rocky floor, moves swiftly to intercept the suspicious runaway.

The tunnel is braced and the miners are successfully pulled out of the rubble, with only minor injuries sustained thanks to our quick action. As we start to move down the main tunnel to catch up with and help Bigboots we see him amble back towards us, alone. 'What's wrong? Did he get away from you?'

'No. No, I got him. He's just down the tunnel.'

'Great! Let's interrogate him.'

'Sure, but we'll need some spades.'

'Spades?'

'Um, yeah. I knew we needed him alive so I tried to grab him with my sticky gloves, but he evaded me. Instead I tried my Walking Wounded exploit to slow him down, make it so he couldn't get away. The moment before I threw my dagger he started doing a strange hopscotch down the tunnel, but it was too late to stop my throw. My blade cut his tendons and his leg gave way under his weight, dropping him to the tunnel floor. As he hit the ground the look of horror on his face was quickly obscured by the rocks falling on him from the cave-in trap he was avoiding. At least, he avoided it until I interrupted. So we need spades to dig him out of the tonne of rock sitting on top of him.

'On the positive side, I effectively disarmed the trap.'

This entry was posted on 22nd January 2009 at 9.50 pm and is filed under Dungeons & Dragons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.