June 17, Monday - Malachy (human barbarian), Arian (high elven sorcerer), Thalmyr (dwarven paladin), Melior (wood elven druid) and Mordecai (NPC human fighter) were having dinner in the Linden Inn, in Linden, when Raglin Tindall, the proprietor of the Inn, approached them. He told them a tale about a cousin of his and another investor, who came west from Mercia to check out the abandoned Perla Mines, located a few miles east of the hamlet of Tardesk (in the Shearingvale).
The story of Perla and the Perla Mines is that of a short-lived iron mine and its supporting hamlet. The mines were established about 20 years ago, and lasted only about a year before the mines and the nearby village of a dozen wooden shacks were abandoned. The mines were rich, but the surrounding area was not safe, and the cost of maintaining the mines was not justifiable given the wildness of the region.
Raglin Tindall, whose business is struggling, contacted a distant cousin of his in Mercia who had mining experience. His cousin and one of the cousin's noble friends (with money) came to the Vale to investigate the mine, with the end goal of buying the claim to the mine and the surrounding land if the mine seemed viable. Raglin's cousin Trillek and his noble investor friend left Linden to go to Tardesk back on June 12 (6 days ago) and hadn't been heard from since. Given that Tardesk is a mere 9 miles northeast of Linden, and the ruins of Perla and the Perla Mines are only 3 miles further east, news from these two is many days overdue. Raglin wanted the party to investigate the Mines and report back, with the promise of the opportunity to invest in the Mines depending on the outcome.
June 18, Tuesday - Leaving Linden late in the morning, the party (5 strong) made their leisurely way to Tardesk, and found a room for the night in the Regal Stallion Pub. Tardesk is a village of 150 or so people, and is known for the horse ranches surrounding the village. The party could have easily pressed on to the mines in the remaining daylight, but decided to spend the night in the village and discreetly see what information they could gather. A serving girl in the tavern did recall two strangers meeting the missing mens' descriptions having stayed at the pub perhaps Thursday or Friday of the past week (June 13 or 14). She didn't know where they went when they left.
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| Tardesk and Perla (maps in Hexographer - 1 mile hexes) |
June 19, Wednesday - Rising early, the party headed east across the stream and on toward the low rolling hills a few miles away. Three miles east of Tardesk, very near the edge of the hills, they came to the ruins of the tiny village of Perla. The failed mining hamlet consisted of a dozen or so buildings, mostly with rough field stone foundations and wooden uppers. The shells of the buildings were fairly intact, but the roofs had mostly caved in, and the walls were rapidly deteriorating. There were well-used campfire rings, some stacked firewood, and signs that animals had been grazed nearby. The party guessed that this spot was used by shepherds as a camping spot.
Continuing east, the trail was easy to follow and was still in obvious use. Raglin had told them that shortly after entering the hills, the trail to the old mines would veer off to the north, and a trail to some very small ruins from the Elder days continued east, deeper into the hills. When they reached the junction, they could see that the trail continuing east was still getting some use, and that the trail north was much more overgrown, but had been used fairly recently. A quarter mile up the trail, they came to a clearing against a tall hillside, and the overgrown but obvious entrance to the mines. The collapsed and decaying remnants of a few wooden shacks dotted the clearing.
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| The Abandoned Perla Mines, part 1 |
Another hundred feet or so down the passage, the blood trail disappeared into a very narrow natural fissure in the wall. One by one the characters were barely able to squeeze through the opening and descend a steep passage into a natural cavern. There were several narrow passages leading out of the cavern, and another body, mangled much worse than the first, in the center of the uneven rocky floor. The body was inspected, and presumed to be Raglin's cousin's friend. The party heard sounds of something knocking on stone somewhere nearby.
To investigate further, Melior the druid shape changed into a giant spider, and went up the gently rising southeast (lower right) passage. After ~75 feet, he came out into a small chamber in which was yet another prone body. Unlike the others, this figure was wearing fighter's gear (helmet, chainmail, shield and sword), and had been dead for at least a few weeks (judging from the state of decomposition). There were signs of some of the same kind of rending damage seen on the other corpses. Not wanting to shift back into his natural form, Melior postponed investigating the body further until later, and went down a steep and narrow side passage branching off near the chamber. It came out into a broader passage, sloping down to the northeast. It proved to connect back (to the SW) to where the others were waiting. The party joined up and headed northeast. There was more of the sound of knocking on stone.
Moments after emerging into a much larger natural cavern, three large monstrosities dropped from the walls and ceiling and quickly got into combat with the party. These three Hook Horrors were very tough, and as difficult as the ensuing fight was, it would have been that much more so if it weren't for a very successful Crown of Madness spell cast by Arian on one of the creatures. It repeatedly failed its saving throw, and remained under the control of the sorcerer for the duration of the battle, attacking one of its fellows instead of attacking the party. As it was, the melee characters were badly beat up by the end of the fight (Malachy with only 13 of 49 HP remaining, Melior with 7 of 34, Thalmyr with 5 of 28, and Mordecai with 19 of 28). Nobody went down, but most of them got close...
With the three creatures dealt with, the party paused to regroup.
Next - Probably some healing, and then more of the mines...
GM Commentary - Another really good session. There was a chance that we were going to have all 7 players for the first time ever, but then a few people were unable to make it, and we were back to the more typical 4 players. Add in a returning NPC who had been offstage for a while, and we had a comfortable sized party of 5.
The beginning of the session was cleaning up some details on level advancement for a few of the characters, followed by some local area history development and "color", followed by a bit of dungeon crawling and a good fight.
The characters still have some of the Perla Mines left to explore, and it can be a future expansion area for me. Which is good.
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