Aegon and the Troupe make their way deeper into the Iron Throne’s mine, encountering wave after wave of armed guards. After a short battle with hobgoblin guards, they are aware they are entering a trap. Unfortunately they have no choice but to keep moving forward.
1 Eleint 1368
The corpses of the hobgoblin guard lay before us. They were trying to draw us into the room ahead. We know it’s an ambush. But we can’t risk retreating and having more of the enemy follow us. We must press on and face whatever lies in wait.
The room is a bedchamber for the hobgoblins. Off to our north side we see a group of hobgoblins with their bows pulled. Before they can release I charge at them with shield raised high. It’s enough to distract them that they miss.
As I’ve come to expect by now, Kivan is the first to score a kill.
One of the archers pulls me away from the fight, giving the others a clear shot. I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder as an arrow pierces a gap in my armour. On seeing this, Branwen shouts and throws me a Potion of Healing.
A flurry of arrows follow, and Kivan and Kieria kill the hobgoblins before they can do any more damage. Their trap has only succeeded in sending them to the next world.
They have meagre equipment, but I’m surprised to find a few scrolls among their possessions: a Scroll of Magic Missile, a Scroll of Chill Touch, and a Scroll of Dimension Jump. Dynaheir scribes Dimension Jump into her spellbook so she can use it to escape tough situations.
We search the room and find that many of the chests are locked. Kieria struggles to pick them open, but Aura’s nimble fingers pop the locks open with ease.
The chests mostly contain weapons, but we do find a Potion of Magic Resistance. I hold onto it, ready for our next mage encounter.
We also find a couple of Scrolls of Protection, the first of which will protect someone from the effects of acid.
I can’t read the other scroll, so I ask Aura if she can make any sense of it. Unfortunately even a tinkerer like her can’t identify it.
A corridor leads to the east here, so we follow it into another guard’s quarters. The occupants are still alive and waiting for us.
We fight, but once again it is Kivan’s skill with the bow that takes the hobgoblins out. After three are killed, a wounded hobgoblin tries to flee, but Kivan already has an arrow in flight towards it.
One final arrow finishes the last guard, and we move in to search the room.
The hobgoblins have only a few pieces of silver jewellery among their equipment. Many of the chests in the room are locked, but Aura takes the opportunity to show off her skills again.
These chests are better stocked. We find an enchanted halberd alongside a Spear of Fire in the large chest to the north of the room. Kivan prefers his Dragon Spear so we pack these into the Bag of Holding.
We also find an Amulet of Great Foresight, a magic item that allows the wearer to see/hear things from other areas. Kivan
Kivan decides to wear it. If he can see his enemies around corners, he will be even more deadly. He places amulet around his neck and his eyes glaze over, turning a milky-white. He yells out that he cannot see, and the amulet won’t budge from his neck.
He can see around corners, but not right in front of him. I remember we still have some of Gellana’s Curse Removing Soap, so I find it in our Bag of Holding and apply it to the amulet. Once the archer slips it off and is able to see again, we continue searching through the chests.
The chest at the foot of the first bed contains several pieces of jewellery and 2 Potions of Superior Healing. I place these in my belt. I take most of the hits in our fights, so I’ll need these to stay alive.
In the other chests we find some powerful weapons. It’s odd that the hobgoblins weren’t using these to defend themselves. Then again, Kivan’s aim would have taken care of them before they could make a single blow anyway.
In one chest we find a battle axe that can send it’s weilder into a rage. Good for confidence and power, but sacrifices their self-control.
In another chest we find a pole axe that I can sense is enchanted. I don’t recognise the weapon, but Aura tells me it was once wielded by the general of the “Silver Knights,” a man named Kilther. This seems strange, I could swear we already had one of these in our Bag. Did Kilther carry two of these weapons?
After storing the weapons in our Bag of Holding, we take another corridor leading to the east out of the bedchamber. At the end of the corridor we come to a junction on a corridor leading north/south.
We follow the northern corridor. It bends to the west where we encounter more hobgoblin guards. Kivan is ready with his bow before they even spot us.
It is a slaughter. Kivan and Kieria make pincushions out of their corpses. I don’t even land a blow with Bashrik’s Hammer.
Along the corridor there is a room to the north. Inside there is a human woman protected by two hobgoblins, these more heavily armed than those we’ve encountered so far.
As soon as she sees us she activates her magical defenses. A Dispelling Screen glows around the floor, protecting both her and her guard. We won’t be able to ask the Weave to Dispel her magic. Her skin turns to stone, and a pale blue Shield forms around her. A barrage of Magic Missiles will have no effect on her either.
I call out to the others to focus their attacks on the mage. As I charge at her, the hobgoblins try to stop me with their bows, and she tries to Slow me down with a spell.
We break through the mage’s Stoneskin, but she has already prepared another spell. Her skin turns back to flesh for a moment before turning back to rock.
She then summons a Cone of Cold, unaware that I’m protected from elemental magic. The cone passes right through me and freezes the hobgoblins behind me. They fall to the ground and shatter into several pieces.
Her second Stoneskin is broken, and several arrows stick into her. With her robes pooling up with blood, she resorts to Mirror Images to protect herself this time.
The attacks come quickly enough that we destroy the mirror images. She attempts to Dispel any magical protections we have, unaware that we have none to dispel.
Seeing it has no effect, and clutching at her wounds, she calls upon the Weave to turn her Invisible, her last line of defense.
She is almost silent, and we can’t see where she is. The others block the exit, while I hold my shield steady. I hear her quaffing a potion – she must be healing herself up! I turn to the Weave for the first time, asking for some Silence. She cannot escape now, and she can’t cast any more spells.
When she appears once again she is casting a spell! A spell with no vocal components that can allow her to Vocalise once again. Her magic is back, we have to kill her quickly!
Thankfully, her potions didn’t bring her back to full strength, and she no longer has any protections. Kivan’s arrow pierces her chest, and she slumps to the ground against the northern wall.
Dynaheir says that she has learned a lot from watching the mage, and believes she can better use defensive magic now.
Gameplay Note
Her Death and Breath Weapon Saving Throws improve by 1 point. Her THAC0 improves by 1 point. She gets 1 additional Level 1 Spell and 1 additional Level 2 Spell per day. Her Hit Points increase by 6 and she gets 4 points of Lore.
On her corpse we find she had some more protection in the form of a magical amulet. I suggest that Kivan wear it, assuring him that we still have some Curse Removing Soap should it turn out like the last amulet he tried.
Her other protection was a Traveller’s Robe, often worn by mages to provide some protection against ranged weapons.
She carried a dagger in her belt. It is a Spinesheath, enchanted to help rogues stab people in the back. Or in the front.
I find her scroll pouch containing several spells. The first is a Slow spell, one she attempted to use on me.
She also has a Hold Person scroll. Being able to paralyse someone in combat will prove useful, so I scribe this into my spellbook.
She also has a Scroll of Mirror Image, which I also scribe. It didn’t help her stay alive, but it might help me one day.
A Lance of Disruption can be used to hurt a lot of enemies in my path. Unfortunately I fail to copy this one into my spellbook.
Mage Armour can conjure up some protection for any mage. Dynaheir wants to improve her defensive magic, but unfortunately she fails to scribe this spell.
The last scroll allows the mage and her allies to Resist Fear. Dynaheir attempts, but also fails to scribe this spell as well.
We search the rest of the room, but find only a few gold coins. We return to the corridor and continue to the west. We come across a room with several armour stands and weapon racks on display. This must be the hobgoblins’ armoury!
We spend some time searching through the armoury for anything useful. Most of it is mundane equipment, but we pack it into our Bag of Holding anyway. If the armoury is empty they won’t be able to re-arm themselves. Among the equipment we find some enchanted leather armour and a small enchanted shield, but our equipment is still superior to these finds.
The corridor turns south here, toward the west end of the guard’s quarters. We pass by a room that is occupied by a human guard this time.
Guard: What are you doing in my room?! You’re not supposed to be here!
I swing Bashrik’s Hammer up to his chin and his jaw cracks in twain. We step over the body and search the room. We find some potions in a cabinet on the opposite side. One will protect us from the gaze of a basilisk.
The other will allow someone to enter into a rage during combat.
In a chest next to his bed we find a Scroll of Ghost Armour, a more powerful Mage Armour that I scribe into my spellbook.
In a locked chest at the foot of the bed, Aura finds a potion that will grant the imbiber the strength of a fire giant.
We leave the room and continue to the south. We find the entrance to the hobgoblin guards’ quarters where we started. Where they tried to ambush us. We decide to go through to the other side and take the path to the south.
We find a large room with a tall ceiling. Human bodies lay strewn across an otherwise empty room. Their wounds are not that of combat. These people have been tortured. The blood stains on the floor are dry, they are not recent. But one body still has colour, and his blood is still wet.
Then a deep laughter fills the room. Whoever, whatever, did this to these people is still here! And its voice starts to taunt us.
Ogre Mage: So, have you come to look at my handiwork? Rather impressive, ain’t it? The guy to the left of me screamed quite a while before he finally expired. HA ha ha ha.
We draw our weapons and attempt to retreat.
