Crown of the Kobold King (days 10-11)

A fissure opened into a crevasse within a stalagmite cave. Navigating the crevasse required climbing. A medium character must squeeze to fit through the crevasse. The heroes sent down Edgrin, who told them the cave was inhabited by a giant bat. The heroes decided to ignore it and look for the last child.

They found him in a dark and cold ossuary which was full of the sound of dripping water. A dark corridor ran north down the center of the room, while to either side two large bays opened into small niches that contained ancient dwarven skeletons. At the far end of the corridor rest a large iron anvil. All of the niches were once barred with locked iron grates. The grates were rusted and broken along the far east and west walls. The ones that sealed the alcoves directly adjacent to the corridor, however, were still solid. The sealed alcoves contained dwarf skeletons, five on either side of the corridor. These bones did not animate until the heroes tried to traverse the hallway. Small openings between the backs of the niches and the hallway allowed the skeletons to reach through the wall to claw at the heroes as they passed. The heroes destroyed the skeletons. Savram Vade lay behind the anvil on the opposite end of the corridor. He ran down the corridor, receiving a vicious cut on his arm from a skeleton's claw. Other than that wound and the fact that he is dehydrated and hasn't eaten in days, the boy is alright. With all the children accounted for, the heroes rested before heading back out of the dungeon.

Crown of the Kobold King (days 8-10)

Hollin stayed catatonic after his freakish reptilian captors were slain. They boy had to be picked up and carried off. He came to after a few hours but remained withdrawn and never really recovered from the horrors of his capture.

The next cozy chamber was heated by bricks of mold-ridden incense. A tousled wolf-skin bed lay in one corner of the room, a stone table piled high with poorly crafted necklaces, rings and bracelets of gold in another. Several chucks of obsidian were stacked haphazardly on one wall there as well, forming a bizarre half-mirror. Vreggma was the consort of Merlokrep and a particularly stunning kobold female with shiny blue scales. Her grief over her king's demise was particularly short-lived, and she immediately attempted the coquettish seduction of Wrackomelor. In the end, Vreggma followed the heroes through the dungeons, fawning over Wrackomelor.

The next tunnel was blocked by a massive cave-in. Near the stone rubble the corpses of two kobolds lay stretched out on the floor, seemingly uninjured and yet stone-cold dead. Angular letters on the wall above the heads of the dead kobolds spelt out an inscription. This lonely stretch of corridor led to a now sealed cave. The splattered graffitti was a warning in rhyming Draconic: "Darky-dark below, and whispers soft and low. Evil lurks, its lipless mouth smirks. Do not go! Only death below!" Three shadows floated here in the dark. When the heroes approach the caved-in section, these incorporeal undead foes emerged from the walls to attack. After almost making Hrol their spawn, the shadows were destroyed. After that fight, the heroes needed an extended rest to recuperate. They returned to the first room of this level to rest, where they realized that the cauldron that had carried them down had been transported up by someone, possibly a fleeing Jeva.

After their rest, they gave up the search for Jeva on the second level of the dungeons and Mrunk and Edgrin climbed up to the first level to lower the cauldron again. They then set forth to find Jurin. Unlike the rest of this level, the next area featured rough stone and undressed rock reminiscent of a mine shaft. The tunnels divided and rejoined several times, making it difficult to maintain a sense of direction. Compounding this confusion, thick acrid smoke filled these tunnels, making it difficult to see anything beyond a few feet. These rough-hewn tunnels led to a great hall. All creatures in the tunnels had concealment. The forge spurned in the great hall kept a hell hound there to maul tresspassers. When the hell hound detected the heroes it stalked them, concealing itself until it could catch them in its breath before charging into melee. It fought to the death.

A loud crackling sound filled the next room. The smoke that poured from it was blistering hot and lit with a strange orange light. Inside stood a massive anvil, and nearby rested hammers, prongs, and other blacksmithing tools. A roar of flame issued from further inside the room. An undead monstrosity was left here by Droskar's wrath. The smoke was even thicker here, making it difficult to see anything beyond a few feet. Jurin Kreed, the young scion of Falcon's Hollow most powerful family, was sequestered here by an evil undead dwarf called a forge spurned. The forge spurned had already been hard at work at the anvil beating a new link for its soul-forged chain. When the link had been complete the creature sucked Jurin's soul into it, adding the boy to his gruesome menagerie. When the heroes entered the room, the forge spurned flew into a smoldering rage and leveled its hatred at the party. Eventually, the heroes destroyed it and its soul chain, releasing the souls of Jurin and the other victims.

Crown of the Kobold King (day 6-8)

After the fight was over, Jeva ran off into the darkness, while the heroes' choker friend left them after eating one of the kobold corpses.

The heroes decided to rest before looking for Jeva. While looking for her, they entered a narrow tunnel that opened out into a long cave, with openings in the north, south, and east walls. Unfortunately they found no sign of her.

From this cave they could hear plaintive mewling cries emanating from a warm, damp chamber. A low wall of stone divided this cave into two partitions. One half of the cave contained several rows of large eggs half-buried in the sand. The other half contained a dozen infant kobolds, scrapping and playing with each other in the darkness. A rotund little female kobold stood between the heroes and the eggs. She wore no armor and was unarmed but steadfast. She attempted to parley with the heroes (though she only spoke Draconic) an appealed to their sense of decency. She begged them to leave the eggs unmolested. When they did so, she thanked them profusely and gladly offered them information about Merlokrep (she never liked the stupid king anyways) and Jekkajak (the old shaman brought nothing but trouble to the tribe).

Next the heroes took a crazy zigzagging pathway that seemed to be the main thoroughfare of the kobolds. This narrow corridor was home to a pair of shrieker fungi whose keening wail warned Merlokrep and his warriors in the throne room.

Next, the heroes entered the Throne of Merlokrep. The Kobold King's throne was crafted from the corpse of a monstrous centipede. The massive vermin was propped up against the wall on a dais of stone blocks, its legs curling in around any who sat upon it like leveled arm rests. Merlokrep, Dragon King of the Truescale Tribe sat there honing the edge of his bloody axe. He was flanked by two of his fearsome warriors, that were themselves clad in gilded armor, clutching their shortspears at attention. Merlokrep was a physical paragon of kobolds, and his imposing powerhouse frame bellied the usual assumptions about his pathetic reptilian race. The king's one good eye peered from his skull with a fierce aspect, smoldering with rage at the heroes' intrusion. Merlokrep wielded his axe in an impressive display. His regal snout was pierced with a gold nose-ring and his well-groomed ears were also adorned with gold studs. He wore a jeweled skull over his left eye. When the heroes made it this far, Merlokrep hailed them as he rose from his throne and offered them an honored place as Great Sacrifices to the Crown, offering to feast them before ripping them open and pulling out their hearts. He was genuinely shocked when the heroes turned him down, but his incredulousness gave way to towering rage in an instant as he ordered his warriors to attack. Merlokrep cast sleep as his warriors tied up the heroes. He cast burning hands when he could catch multiple heroes in it. He wielded his axe two-handed in melee. He targeted Hrol and Seoni and nearly killed them. Merlokrep fought to the death. The warriors hurled their shortspears, then attempted to take up flanking positions with their king. They fought to the death. With Merlokrep dead, his crown with a strong magic aura was the heroes' to claim.

The heroes needed to rest again before they entered an unadorned chamber with a gruesome bloodstained altar sitting at its center. Jekkajak, shaman of the Truescales, was here along with Tyran Moonsilver, the half-elf friend of Edgrin, tied to the altar. Hollin cowered in the northwest corner, slumped against the wall in shock. Jekkajak was a walking corpse of a kobold, whose withered old white scales were stretched tight over bone. His puny skeletal snout contained a lone tooth and constantly dribbled drool. His milky eyes focused intermittently on his surroundings. The heroes entered just as Jekkajak tore poor Tyran Moonsilver's heart from his chest with a dagger. He held the heart aloft as it burst into flames and cackled madly before ordering his warriors to attack. Jekkajak cast summon swarm to thicken the ranks and concentrated on it throughout the battle. He fought to the death. The warriors placed themselves between Jekkajak and the heroes, and they tried to keep the heroes off him as long as possible. They fought to the death.

Crown of the Kobold King (day 6)

The next roomy cavern was filled with dirty straw nests, scraps of weapons, armor, other junk, and the discarded remains of the kobold tribe's meals.

Most of the kobolds lived here, sleeping among the rocky boulders and fighting over the comfortable niches against the walls.

Twelve kobolds awaited the heroes here, along with two bloodscale commanders. The horde of reptilian monsters charged the heroes when they entered.

The bloodscales rallied the kobold warriors and yelled for help.

The kobolds put up a stiff fight. Nevertheless, some of them fled.

Help arrived from other areas fast. The heroes' kobold allies only fought as long as they thought they were on the winning side. They switched side when it appeared they might be losing.

Five kobold reinforcements snuck up on Kibbo and Jarrdreg and the children, three of them using flying talons to make trip and disarm attacks, along with a slurk-mounted kobold hopping wall to wall down the corridors and careening to anyone standing. These kobolds killed Kibbo and Jarrdreg while the heroes were engaged with another foe, but Jeva transformed into a hybrid werewolf form and attacked the kobolds.

The kobold reinforcements almost killed Hrol, but the choker showed up to return the favor, suddenly appearing and lashing out from above at a kobold about to strike Hrol.

The kobold reinforcements fought to the death but Kerrdremak in the end surrendered to the heroes.