... Written on a long parchment posted in a few taverns in Mistone...I shall relate the expedition that took us to the purging of the disturbance in the Haven Mines and it's possible origin, but the next step is not yet known.
A hearty group (
Brisbane,
Cole,
Geir,
Sabrissia,
Key,
Jin,
Dervish,
Voon,
Karana, a depressive
Vell,
Xan,
Rhynn,
Dulan,
big cleric woman,
elven cleric and myself) gathered before the mines when Kit instructed us to report to Lord Rodor for a briefing.
When we arrived he was talking to Saviar Morgensen.
After Morgensen left, we were informed that we had to clear the mines of the squidmen (illithid, mind flayers, a bad thing to eat even with lots of lemon as Key later found out) and find their origin. Our reward was to be five hundred gold.
I found out, during the briefing, that these were not the Alhoon (?) illithid, they were in a small group, mostly one bred for assault - not the most deadly kind - dog-like attack creatures and umber hulks. The ogres themselves were being used by the illithid but were no part in the scheming. It was also conjectured that the umber hulks might have burrowed the way from the Underdark into the mines.
Anyway, the mines needed to be cleared, and we were there for that.
The descent wasn't much of a problem, Cole, Brisbane and a few others made short work out of the stubborn ogres. The umber hulks and dog creatures were handled in the same way but with considerably more work. After bursting through a large group of Umber Hulks and a few more of those dog creatures we reached the lair of the ogres.
The chief, by some unknown hand, was dragged the chief to our party where he was interrogated about the illithid presence in the mines.
What I managed to gather from his interrogation:
- They came in from "the big entrance". Might be the entrance to the mines or it might be that they tunneled in from above or side tunnels, who knows.
- The illithid had sent an ambassador to the ogres
- They took the iron, coal and gems to make the dog creatures
- They hauled most of the iron and coal away
- The leader of the illithid was a "big brainy guy", but he hadn't come to the mines
- The ogre chief does not understand commerce, so establishing a working relation between the ogres and the Haven Castle to explore iron mining is out of the question. Poor ogres, getting slaughtered like that so the craftsman can extract raw ore - how I wish I could educat them so that they'd better exploit their position of dominance in the raw iron market without needless bloodshed.
- There were more
squibbles in one of the corners of the lair.
Yes, that came as a surprise.
We rushed in there, not really organized and we met pleanty of resistence from a number of the dog creatures, umber hulks and ... a full illithid (at least I think it was a full illithid)! Battle was intense and many of us were seriously injured but the guards all fell and the illithid "constructor" was left.
Key interrogated him in a very delicate manner that ended with it's accidental decapitation but all we got out of the mind flayer was a image, planted in our brains, of a town in flames and on top of the town was a sword.
We explored the lab, and Cole picked up some machine that was surrounded by several incomplete dogs and umber hulks and hauled it back to Lord Rodor.
Ascent was easier than expected, I think the ogres were actually gracious for our ridding them of the infestation - they're smart enought to be gracious, but not smart enough to strike a lucrative mining deal - payment could even be made in cows or any other beasts that they might wish, strange how their brains work.
On returing to Lord Rodor, Dulan served as our spokesman and he transmited the information above to Lord Rodor and we were graciously rewarded.
In the end, the sword over the town was tought to be either:
- A symbolic representation of the illithid's desire to attack a town
- Port Hampshire or Lorindar - they have some sort of sword statues
- Hurm - home of the Seven Swords guild that buys a lot of iron from Haven
- Some protected city (like Haven)
Many other speculations were thrown but these were the ones that seem the most reasonable to me and I am known to be wrong.
If there is anything to add and you were a member of the party please post your considerations below.
