DIDx1

The Players

• Zero (played by Ashley) - Forgeborn Cleric
• Shein (played by Nate) - Vesperkin Ranger
• Scarf (played by Sherif) - Lynoxi Rogue
• Rainer (played by Tim) - Human Paladin / Sorcerer

tl;dr

The highlights of this session were:

• The group escorted Denthe's group of miners into the Ludranna Grotto in Dolenna, protecting them while they mined for Mutine.
• The miners were attacked by a pair of Rust Monsters and an Umber Hulk. The party defeated them, but Garol, their mentor from the Delver's Guild, was killed.
• The mine partially collapsed, trapping some of the miner's, but the group managed to free them and heal a man whose legs had been crushed by a fallen rock.
• The group found a party of dead adventurers at a junction in the Grotto, killed by unknown assailants. One of the dead adventurers was named "Cale Seduli".
• The party decided to collect their payment after escorting Denthe back to the surface and do a supply run before investigating further into the killings.

Full Recap

Our story begins as a group of four adventurers, new to the city of Dolenna, sought work by making their way to the Delver's Guild, where the Wardens matched them and gave them their first job -- to escort some miners to a new dig site that had not yet been secured in the Deephollow. After being paired with a mentor of the guild, a Human man named Garol, they met with the foreman of the mining crew, a Human named Denthe, and began to escort his crew down into the Ludranna Grotto, taking in the sights of the wondrous At Matica technology along the way. As the sounds of rhythmic clacking faded into the distance and they came into a roughly dug mine, Denthe showed them the object of their mission -- Mutine. He explained that it was critical to exploration of the Grotto, as it became harder and more impervious the more pressure it is exposed to, and that it would take them a couple of days to extract it, and that they only need to patrol around the mine and make sure nothing snuck up on them while they worked.

The miners set about their work, hitting the Mutine deposits with strange pickaxes that looked more like stone than metal and which made very little sound. Asking about them, Denthe explained that less protected dig sites like this one make use of Petrasteel pickaxes, a metal which resembled granite and which absorbed shock, allowing it to be silent. The first day went by uneventfully, but at one point on the second day, the party heard a gasp from Garol outside the larger of the side passages, who beckoned them over to him. Peering into the passage, they witnessed some strange insect-like creatures eating the Mutine... Garol said that he wasn't familiar with the creatures, but they couldn't let them eat up all the Mutine, and drew his blade, advancing slowly forward. However, he failed to notice a large, hulking form in a small passage as he advanced forward, and the party heard a trumping roar as this hulking creature charged out of the passage and rammed Garol up against the cave wall, shoving its massive claws straight through Garol's chest. Garol spit up blood and choked, slipping into unconsciousness.

The creature barreled toward Shein and Rainer, clawing Shein hard and landing a solid bite through Rainer's armor. Scarf supported from the backlines, popping in and out from behind the cave walls to send volleys of crossbow bolts at the creature. Meanwhile, the insectoid creatures charged at Zero, unable to resist the temptation of his steel body. After savaging Rainer and Shein, the hulking creature backed off and burrowed through the cave wall nearby, causing a loud crack from above as the cave ceiling loosened and began to drop small rocks, portenting a dangerous situation. While Scarf supported Rainer in his pursuit of the large creature, trying to keep it away from the frightened miners, the creature managed to burrow through another section of wall, causing the ceiling to begin to collapse, causing a cave-in that trapped three of the miners, who began to shout for help. Going after Shein, the hulking creature only managed to land a few more punishing strikes before Shein landed a critical strike that pierced the large creature's thick armor, felling it. However, the insectoid creatures continued harassing Zero, managing to score a pair of solid hits on his shield with their antennae, causing it to rust and fall to pieces, leaving him defenseless. However, he managed to dodge their relentless assault afterwards, eventually landing a solid strike on one of them, dropping it. Shein then circled back around after finishing off the hulking creature and put an arrow through the eye of the second insectoid creature before it could land another strike on Zero's armor.

With the dust settled, a silence overtook the mine briefly before the sounds of the miners spurred the party back into action. While Scarf ran up the main passage toward the mining encampments further up the Grotto to fetch help, Rainer and Shein began to dig out the miners, moving rocks while the other miners and Denthe helped them carry the rocks out of the way. Once they reached the other side of the collapse, they found one of the miners trapped underneath a large rock, his legs crushed, and the other two struggling to lift it. With Rainer's help, they quickly got it off of him, seeing his mangled legs beneath. Zero quickly came over and used his magic to heal the man's legs, giving him some relief, before taking out his medicine kit and putting his leg in a splint and helping him to his feet, bringing him to the steam cart on the rails in the main passage. Zero then remembered Garol and made his way over to the man's body, slumped against the cave wall. Though he tried to use his magic to keep the man alive, he was long gone. Zero vowed to get his body out of there for a proper funeral, but not before taking up his shield to replace the one he lost. They brought Garol's body up the passage to the mining encampment, where they handed over Garol's body and told them of the situation. The mining corp brought some lumber down below to shore up the cave walls that had collapsed due to the Umber Hulk's rage.

After resting for a bit, Denthe moved his miners to complete their work, and the party took some time to get to know each other as they continued their watch. Rainer asked Shein if he had thought about what kind of legacy he wanted to leave behind, but Shein seemed to not care about such things, saying that it would be nice, but it's not important to him. Meanwhile, Shein wanted to hear about Scarf's travels, picking up that Scarf seemed to be a well-traveled person. Scarf told him of her previous work as a messenger, which had taken her all over, but that she in particular had enjoyed the city of 'Fartus', commenting that its name confused her and that it didn't smell like farts, but that it was fun to ride the 'flyboats'. However, Scarf indicates that she didn't have much time for fun. Scarf wanted to know more about Zero, asking if he had any enemies. Zero seemed to have no answer to this, but mentioned having spent a long time alone after he had awakened, and that he was glad that he had friends now, mentioning one particular friend that was "higher" than others, referring to his goddess, Umos. Zero seemed to be confused by the concept of a soul, but took comfort in worshipping her. Some of what Zero seemed to be confusing to Scarf. Finally, Zero decided to ask Rainer what he considered important. Rainer replied that he considered his fellow temple members and cabalites important, the ones that taught him to fight, protect, and use magic. Zero asked if Rainer's "friend" was also the sister of twilight, Umos, but Rainer clarified that he was a follower of Astix, saying that she was the order in the world, and it was fitting of him to follow her. Zero seemed satisfied with his answer, happy to meet a friend of Umos. Scarf pledged to stick with the group, because the party was strong and would help him make coin. Zero said that Scarf was more important to him than gold, and Scarf agreed, but said that gold was a close second.

After Denthe and his crew completed their work, they sent the steam carts up the tracks to the surface and they began to make their way up and out of the Grotto. Along the way, they saw a large pool of blood coming from around a passage at a major junction. Peering around the corner, Scarf saw a pile of bodies -- dead adventurers. Stealthily approaching the bodies and checking to see if they were alive, she took note of the fact that they looked to be adventurers, but their gear seemed to be missing, with their packs emptied and armor missing. She managed to grab the Delver's tag off one of the larger men in the group, and brought it back to the group, telling them what she found. The party looked at the tag, noting the man's name was "Cale Seduli" and he was apparently not much higher in rank than themselves, with only a handful of jobs under his belt. Zero approached and confirmed that the adventurers were quite dead, looking closely at their wounds and identifying that they appeared to have been made by weapons, rather than creatures, identifying the wounds as possibly from a dagger, a shortsword, and a war pick. Disturbed by this, Zero searched around for tracks leading away from the pool of blood, finding some dried footprints leading further down the Grotto, from the direction they just came... but the footprints didn't lead far, trailing off after only 20 feet or so. They assumed that whoever did this must have retreated into the Grotto somewhere, but couldn't imagine where, given the sprawling, mazelike caverns. Denthe mournfully commented that this was the third group this week, clarifying once asked that groups of adventurers had been going missing in the Grotto, turning up dead, stripped of their valuables, and some in Dolenna had been pointing fingers at the Deepfolk, as they had been rather silent lately, despite their tentative trade relations. He mentioned at some of the attacks, witnesses had spotted dark figures retreating into the Grotto, but none had identified the perpetrators yet. The group wanted to pursue further, but decided it would be a good idea to go collect their payment first after escorting Denthe back to the surface and doing a supply run.