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 He came to after a few hours but remained withdrawn and never really recovered from the horrors of his capture.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.