More with the goblin mine - we vanquish evil

One of these days I'll update this journal in a timely manner. Possibly. Anyway, after some resting and plotting, we poked around (okay, looted) the king's chamber, tossing the weapons down the pit, then sealed it up with some broken doors and a chest. We left behind those too injured to help, taking Dorian, Katah, Ham, Lt. Thigpen and four others with us, and continued towards that underground lake. Along the way, we noticed that the dead hobgoblins and bugbears were now missing, as were the spear-bearing hobgoblins that had recently lined the windowed chamber.

We entered the huge cavern and noticed that it was lit by glowing fungus and moss. The floor appeared to be water with islands that we could step onto. Off in the distance we saw the large island with the fortress. Stepping forward, Linora called out to the dragon. It popped out of the murky water and hit her with a blast of acid. She quickly downed the potion of dragon control and attempted to get it to obey her; she learned that its name was actually Makulok, not Menulok, as we'd assumed, but she was unable to trick it into believing that someone had taken something from his hoard. Laughing and saying that he needed no help from any man, he sunk back into the water. Linora yelled at him to attack the castle, but instead he flew back and began spitting acid at us again. Obviously the potion was not effective. I tried Charming it into taking a nap, but that failed, too. All of us rather at a loss of what to do now, Ghost called out to Khrom-Vel (and the Master, as well) using her tattoo, which began to glow. As I began to Bless the group, both Ayman and Ghost heard a voice in their heads. As the group began attacking him, I cast Silence, momentarily stunning it, which seemed to help Linora. She chopped through his neck, slaying the evil dragon, and did a silent dance on the way back down to ground level.

Monster out of the way, we again rested- and again looted, this time the dragon's body. We located two long boats nearby and rowed across to the island with the fortress. Linora batted her way up to the fortress and found no one. Ghost went ahead and found doors on the other side of the island. We tied the oars under the dock in case anyone came by and made our way to the doors. Shocko was unable to pick them open, so Ayman wraithed through the crack and entered the building, then turned human again to turn the crank that opened the doors.

Inside we came to two doors; splitting up, we opened them simultaneously to a voice saying “What treachery is this?”. Yes, we'd located the goblin king, as well as a few others in a banquet hall. I cast Heat Metal at the king while Ayman put the goblins and a hobgoblin to sleep. The king began chanting something about thralls crushing our skulls and tentacles popped out of the floor, grabbing one of Dorian's men, Linora and Shocko. Ghost fired an arrow, but the king deflected it with his bracers then shot an acid bolt at SwampFox. I noticed the king's armor and dispelled its magic, yelling to the group to aim for him now. As Dorian's men and our fighters attacked the tentacles, Ghost fired more arrows at the king, who pulled off his crown as it was now burning hot. Ayman spooked one of the bugbears, causing it to run the wrong way to hide. Recovering, the king cast some sort of slowness spell, hitting everyone but me and SwampFox, who was finally able to free himself from the tentacle that had grabbed him. Unfortunately Linora got caught again and one of Dorian's men were killed, but Ghost continued to fire at the king. Trying to free my friends from their sluggishness, I cast a spell; it worked on Ayman and Shocko. Able to move at normal speed now, Ayman fired a dart at the king. Amazingly, that worked! The king coughed and fell to his knees and Linora set her dog on him.

The tentacles and other enemies gone, the king gasped that he wanted to be carried to his bed. Ghost obeyed and carried him upstairs as Ayman went ahead to check that the room was secure. As the king lay there, he explained that he had been a man once and that this was his curse. He was apparently slain and came back into this body, but didn't remember his original name.

Once the king was deceased, Linora flew off to try to locate the dragon hoard. We rowed the boats over and looted the loot, then headed back out of the cavern. Back in the armory in the mine, we gave the king's food to those injured, and I handed Dormaggs' staff to Katah's druid companion, which he seemed happy about. We made our way to the arena where we found that the slaves had tossed the goblins and hobgoblins into the pit with the troll. A dwarf named Thrur had become the leader of the slaves and we spread the news that the king and dragon were now dead. I went to retrieve our goblin friend Gribble while Linora showed the crown to Thrur, who said that it was mithril- what they'd been mining. The remaining goblins saw us (well, Linora) with the goblin king's crown and fled. Thrur told us that the dwarves would come to the mine so it would be cleared of goblins.

We made our way back to the surface; luckily it was night so we weren't blinded. We rested until daybreak, then made our way to Logging Town. We informed the mayor that we'd found slaves and killed the king and dragon, but that goblins were still there. The mayor gave me a letter to take to the king in Rinos, which I promised would get there. Comfortably back in Messenger-mode, I sent a message to the guild letting them know that we were successful on our mission.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox
May 24th, 3rd day of Darkmoon. Or so.


((This is a good place to stop; will post the rest soon.))