Into the Darkness (day 2-4)

When Wrackomelor pressed Jeva to talk about the fire, she weaved a harrowing tale of hearing her only friends wail as the flames melted their faces. When asked about Elara, she insisted the headmistress was a wonderful woman "who only did what was best for us orphans, no matter how much it hurt..." When asked about her horrible scars she said, "It was for my own good! She did this to us to make us better, she said". Tears followed fast. Wrackomelor did not believe her story about the night of the fire, and after Hrol detected a dim evil aura on her, he pressed her for the truth. Jeva admitted that she was detained in the basement by Elara the night of the fire for being bad. She claims she lost consciousness and when she came to, she was in the woods and the orphanage had already burnt down. The heroes decide to keep an eye on her and allow her to lead them to the kobold lair for now.

Following the tracks of the kobolds, and guided by the strange wild orphan from the forest, the heroes continue on their way to their barge from their last foray into the wood. Unsettlingly large crows loom into the branches cawing ominously as the heroes pass but otherwise not harassing them in any way. The next morning an ophidian predator crossed the path of the heroes. The moorsnake was too lethargic to attack and merely slithered away. At night, though, it slipped into camp and attempted to constrict Mrunk. The heroes dealt with the hungry animal swiftly.

As the heroes journeyed closer to the base of Droskar's Crag, the shadows of the wood deepened. When they emerged from a bleak treeline of twisted elm they caught another glimpse of the old monastery. Tall grasses and chunks of stone debris have all but overtaken this small yard. Off to one side, a wooden stable has collapsed into a mound of rotting timbers and moldy straw. The outer wall on the east side has also collapsed, leaving a ragged hole. Bits of foundation work only suggested the monastery's original layout, fading memories of a world long ago crashed under the unforgiving heel of time. When the heroes picked about the clearing they found little of interest beyond the ancient stonework and fallen stable. They found a small broken spear with a wicked barbed tip, with a slight oily residue sticking to it. When they scoured the ruins they found the top of a broken staircase half obscured by uprooted bushes. As they descended into the black, the constant woodland background noise seemed to liquefy in the murk below the surface. Replacing it was the occasional quasi-discernible whisper, moan, hiss, or intermittent echo of jangling chains.

The sub-level of this ancient monastery has a spartan interior. Smooth halls stretch between cold-stoned chambers. The stairs descended more than 20 feet below the surface and no sound penetrated from above. The monastery walls are masonry, and there are few sources of light. The monastery warps sounds in strange ways.

The stairway opened into a large rectangular chamber. The stone walls of this area were covered with intricate carvings of dwarves toiling in mines or smithies. In the center of the chamber stood the bottom half of a broken obsidian obelisk. Crude picks, hammers, and other tools lay scattered around the chamber. Kobold slaves gathered the obsidian. When the heroes arrived, two kobold slaves toiled near the west doorway, trying to drag a 60-pound chunk of the fallen monument behind them. Four kobold warriors accompanied them. The slaves used their slings and avoided melee. The warriors hissed and sputtered when they detected the heroes and rushed to attack. The heroes managed to subdue and tie up all the kobolds. When the heroes subdued the whimpering slaves (named Kibbo and Jarrdreg), they realized that they might prove invaluable, if irritating, allies. Kibbo referred to Hrol as Great Liberator and Jarrdreg applied the title of Great Lady Chief Bore-to-Snore to Seoni whom he saw cast sleep. The kobolds are lick-spittles. They know all about the "pink-skinned blood bags for the crown" and were happy to talk. According to them, the children were dragged down to the lower level. Wrackomelor, who reads Dwarven, pieced together and dusted off some of the broken chunks of the monument to read the following: "...Toil is the only true path to salvation. Those who will not work shall have their blood boiled in the Dark Furnace for all time...there is no decadent paradise awaiting us after death, as our corrupt forefathers claimed, only industrious labor in Droskar's Forge awaits the faithful, this great work is its own reward...the unfaithful, they will serve in the end, their blood and bones shall stoke the fires of our industry...the world will burn to the glory of Droskar."

As Kibbo and Jarrdreg led the way, an evil hiss rose from the darkness ahead. A floating dwarven form shrouded in full plate rounded the corner. The air about this dwarven specter shimmered eerily, and the walls and floor sizzled and smoked where it passed. The thing's boots scorn the earth, gliding a full foot above the masonry floor. It dragged a cruel bloodletter axe in the air behind it. The kobolds have seen the "flying dwarf ghost" and are terrified of it. They tried to flee at its approach. The mithral armor and glowing axe (locked to the gauntlet) approached the heroes. When the heroes attacked with a ranged weapon first they immediately noticed that it hit an invisible cube before it reached the armor. The glow shed by the axe refracted through the cube, creating a ghostly shimmer. The cube moved towards the heroes and engulfed Hrol.