Osric: Vengence of the duergar (12)

Having cleared the major part of the hobgoblin lair, we move south to try and finish the job. Our rescued slaves arm themselves with axes and follow us. In the complex we find a secured door that we bust in, and make war on the remnants of the hobgoblin clan. It's a bit of a massacre as the main warrior force had been dispatched prior. A few of the PC's are a bit disgusted at the blood bath but we try and reassure ourselves that these were murderous slavers.

We find a storeroom of basic goods and food, and figure this is the 'treasure room' that the slaves were speaking of....curses. We park them there while we continue to explore the complex. We find what appears to be some sort of blood bowl pitch, which the gamers all find quick amusing. In one corridor Jenks spots another duergar sentry to hot foots it. As Jenks pursues, we discover that Duergar were obviously created by some malign GM who decided they can do everything. The sentry turns around and fires up some psychic powers and Jenks bursts into a human torch. Much more of a problem is that his cloth magic item, the robe of eyes, worth a stupid amount of money, gets charred....in the sense that it is now mostly a black smudge on the floor and Jenks' armour. The GM helpfully observes that we should make sure that cloth magic items are properly protected. I curse under my breath.

It's time to evacuate the dungeon, again under pursuit. Luckily this time, we have noticed there was a smoke hole in the roof of the goblin lair. We fall back, picking up the slaves and getting them to grab as much food and travel equipment as they can manage.  Back at the goblin lair we barricade 2 of the 3 entrances while Scabs and Chester the gnomes are sent up a 10 foot pole to scale the hole in the roof with a rope, the rest of us guard the entrances. Jane spreads finely ground flour all around the




area to help catch our expected invisible attackers and casts her last see invisible spell on Dan.

Jenks is sent up the rope next to use shape stone to open up the hole so humans can get through. The slaves follow. About this time a group of 6 duergar assault us from the Northern entrance. Dan and Renault the fighters manage to fend them off as Archon, the dwarf priest, and Jane, the illusionist evacuate. There is a wrestling match between the last duergar and Dan as the evil dwarf attempts to blow on his black horn. Dan manages to slay him just in time.

The door to the south splinters open just as Renault escapes up the rope. Dan lashes the rope to his body and fights defensively as the group hauls him up. We run off and hide in some woods. The slaves are sent off immediately to head to Compliments, we decide that we can rest and head back to strike the dungeon again before the Deurgar will expect to see us.

In about 6 hours (it's now night) we hear a large group speaking dwarvish preparing to strike South along the road. Archon translates and it sounds that they know we are from Compliments, and intend to massacre the village. We consider striking the dungeon while this group is gone and trying to catch up when we start to hear the sounds of much MUCH larger footstep. Oh right, Duergar can grow to ogre size. Dan blows to the duergar horn to attract their attention and we start a dodgy fight (as we are at reduced health already).

Invisible, ogre size, and now bursting you into flame

A group of 12 deurgar head in, lead by a larger deurgar with a firey ruby mounted in his gorget. 3 Hold back and start using their psychic powers to create a circle of flame around the melee. Jenks manages to entangle a few and delay their advance, but the bastards just shape change to break the entanglement. Jane has no useful spells and is merely throwing darts at this point. The gnomes are relatively safe as they have huge bonuses against large enemies. The fighters Dan and Renault take it on the chin. Jenks is targeted too, and the 3 psychics cause the circle of flame to tighten and send streams of flame to burn Jenks and Jane (who catches fire briefly). Towards the end Jenks manages to cast pyrotechnics on the circle of flame (now dangerously close) which extinguishes it and makes an enormous smoke cloud. 2 of the duergar escape, but we manage to flee under the cover of smoke as well. Dan only taking a moment to grab the Ruby gorget.

We have no spells and few hit points but we've stopped the destruction of Compliments for the moment.