RECAP: BDC, 10-24-25

The evening began at the Dwarvish mining village, after dropping off the injured dwarf at Oredeep. It was mid-evening, so the party decided to camp for the night and continue on the next morning.

The next morning, the party awoke to see that the region was basically a ruin – some broken shacks, and the tower proved to be burnt and broken. The party took the remainder of the morning to bury the dwarves, with Shephard saying a few somber words over each grave. During this, Sonia examined the remains of each of the dwarves as the rest of the party buried them, but he found nothing of note. They opted not to enter the mine and investigate it – it looked unstable, “… much like our healer.” The camp seemed like it had been here a while, but it was definitely a transient camp, not permanent.

A sad and soulless place to die, everyone agreed.

Thrax reconnoitered northward to review the direction they intended to take, and saw another huge mountain lake in the distance. They waited until leaving the camp before having a short, quiet lunch, then continued wending their way north atop Thrax and the carpet. A few miles from the lake, they were able to see some large creatures at the lake’s edge… frolicking? Going up and down a small hill, sliding into the water. Upon closer look, they seem to be giant otters, enjoying their time in the cool mountain sun.

On the other side of the lake, the bank is straight as an arrow – quite unnatural, at least to Jarlebank’s and Sonia’s eyes. Avoiding the otters, Simon advised getting closer to determine what, if any, the issue is regarding the strangely Euclidean lakeside, so after stopping the rest of the party a safe distance away, he and Peach stealth toward them. They avoid the otters.

Simon and Peach arrived at the sharp edge of the lake, and found an 8-10 foot drop down into the lake itself. Thick grass covered the ground, but stopped at the drop-off. They decided to dig a bit to see if there was a wall or some sort of barrier. But before they could claw back much earth, Peach turned and saw four giant otters behind them, having come upon the pair silently. Simon attempted to tell the otters that he and Peach were not a threat, and the otters in turn seemed quite friendly to Simon, and not at all threatening. They squeaked at Simon good-naturedly while Peach dug down into the turf, locating a series of cobblestones about 12 inches below the surface.

Jarlebank and Sonia headed down to meet Simon and Peach, while Calidar, Thrax and Shepherd hung back. Sonia examined the cobblestones; Sonia began to dig along the same line and discovered more cobbles – an overgrown road.

Simon borrowed Sonia’s necklace and dove into the lake, followed quickly by the playful otters. Simon only swam for a few moments before finding large sarsen stones amid the schools of fish and interloping otters. The cobblestones were very old, five to six centuries old at least, and the road went in a straight north-south direction.

Upon emerging, the rest made a fire to dry off Simon and ate a hasty lunch of fish, courtesy of the otters. They headed north again, following along the cobblestoned road (or where they believed it was). They went a couple miles, and the otters followed along with them. They finally noticed an oddly placed road, similar to the one they were on but above ground and emerging out the lake. It was 25-30 feet wide, and turned into a bridge of sorts, about 8-10 feet above the water at first and continued higher. It appeared to go straight into the side of a mountain.

The otters reacted negatively to their approach of the bridge, trying to move Simon away and dissuade him from continuing toward the “bridge.” Jarlebank cast Invisibility on Thrax and the latter went to do a reconnoiter by air of the bridge.

Thrax saw that the bridge came out of the water at a big slant, and the road entered a cave in the mountain, which was not visible from where the party was standing. Otherwise, the road wasn’t exceptional.

The party discussed the tactical elements of using the bridge, not the least of which was the total lack of cover while they would be the bridge and approaching the cave mouth. Eventually they decided to use Thrax and the Carpet, follow the road to the mountain cave entrance, with an emphasis on quick, quiet travel.

Before that, however, Simon spoke with the otters. They were utterly disinterested in approaching the bridge, instead the otters proposed playing “flopfish.”

“Tomorrow, perhaps,” said Simon, which seemed to mollified the otters a bit. But I must ask: what is frightening about the rocks?”

“There was plenty “Plenty!” they responded enthusiastically. “A nasty three-headed snake lives over there (at which they pointed on the other side of the bridge).

“Any creature like me?” Simon asked.

“Many!” the otters replied. “Nasty, stinky men, smaller than Otter-friend Simon. They tried to take our skins!”

Goblins, nodded Simon.

Peach, on watch, had heard a sound she couldn’t immediately identify: rocks moving across the bridge? Maybe up in the mountain? For the entire third watch. Sonia asked for more info – “a boulder rolling continuously,” said Peach.

“Could have been the sound of building? Of construction?” asked Sonia.

Peach thought for a moment, but the shook her head. “No, I don’t think so – it wasn’t that sort of noise.”

Simon told the rest of them about the “three-headed snake” the otteres had cautioned against. “Must have been a pretty big snake,” observed Shepherd.

After some rest, they left before dawn, upon carpet and Thrax. They moved fast, and approached the mountain quickly. Some people saw an outline of what appeared to be a boulder with arms and legs, standing in teh cavern entrance, but it quickly disappeared. even more curious, there was a light in the cave, which grew increasingly apparent as they approached.

The water was underneath the bridge all the way to the cave, which remained eight to 10 feet above the water until curving sharply upward toward the cave mouth about 100 yards from the mountainside. They decided to land at the base of the rise, and Thrax was noisy at landing, as his claws scraped on the stones. The party dismounted and began to approach the cave, but before they got far, a series of “snake heads” exploded upward out of the water and attacked them.

Battle commenced in earnest:

• Peach shot an arrow and drove a head backward.
• Sonia sprang forward and attacked.
• Calidar misjudged and ended up in the creature’s mouth, although he seemed too large to swallow.
• Jarlebank cast Cone of Cold and blasted a couple heads.

The Party initially assumed they’d sent the creature – all speculated that it was a hydra – but more heads returned. They were larger and scalier, and one reached out and did significant damage to Jarlebank. In order to avoid more trouble, Shepherd dimension doored the remaining party to the cave mouth.

There they found a few interesting things:

• The cave mouth was protected by a series of large portcullis, each with different bar thing and gap thickness.
• The first portcullis was damaged – pushed in from outside to the extent that human sized figures could slip past it.
  • They party speculated that this damage was likely caused by the hydra… which cautioned them to the idea that the hydra could reach this far up the road.
• The second portcullis was intact, but Peach and Jarlebank (who’d arrived first, ahead of the rest). But above, Peach notices dozens of holes in the ceiling… and the flickering orange of flames behind them.
• Beyond the last portcullis, an enormous wooden door, with glass insets, blocks off the rest of the cave. Light, and shadows, can be seen beyond the glass.

Down on the bridge, the rest of the party scuttled up toward the cave mouth. But a head bites and holds onto Sonia, only a few dozen feet from the cave mouth. Thrax swooped into the save him, ultimately absolutely bodying the head that had Sonia. Released, Sonia continued his scarred amble up the road.

Peach, staring upward and realizing the danger, grabbed Jarlebank by the arm: “Gaseous form.” she whispered hoarsely. “Get your potions and drink it – NOW.” She turned toward the road, where their reset of the party approached at a run. “Gaseous form potions! UP through the murder holes!”

“What are they saying?” Sonia murmured, somewhat out of breath. “Murder holes?”