The Age of Worms / Rakthar's Way pt.7 / Eire the 25th, 3592 CE / 2-23-20

In the aftermath of the battle with the worgs, Lulu has the idea of trying to prevent the vampires from returning to their coffins. She takes Milton and Marrow and returns to the finished portion of the complex, where they overturn the five small coffins, placing barrels from the store room atop each. While they are there, Milton realizes that the head he saw earlier amidst the rubble of the caved-in tunnel is the same one missing from the statue in the chapel. After the party is reunited, they investigate the passage from which the worgs attacked them. They find a room that served as the worgs' lair, and then come to a rope bridge across a chasm at least seventy-five feet deep. Marrow notes that the construction is not stable. and the rope bridge may become unbalanced for anyone larger than Rikit, as Lulu discovers when she crosses it. The rest of the party cross on their hands and knees, but when Milton, the last to cross, is just to the other side, the robe bridge gives way, almost plunging him into the depths below. With their retreat now cut off, the party proceeds forward. As they round a corner, they come across Rakthar's audience chamber, gruesomely painted in blood. Rakthar himself, a vampiric bugbear, sits on a throne of stretched skin and bone, another worg at this side. He parlays with the party for a moment, but soon reveals that his intention is to slay the intruders. Calling forth his remaining two vampire spawn, a battle ensues. While the worg is slain quickly, one of goblin vampires drains some of Milton's blood. However, when Rakthar attempts to transform into a giant bat and fly away with Jennie Three-Sheets, Rikit heroically leaps to the rescue, plunging his stake into the vampire's heart, immobilizing him. His spawn fall soon after, one transforming to mist as another is staked by Marrow. As they discuss Rakthar's fate, the party is alerted to the sound of voices and the approach of booted feet. Jennie attempts to hold the only door leading out of the area, but it is ripped from her hand to reveal a squad of half-orc mercenaries. Lulu quickly reacts by using her staff of fire to create a wall of flame across the doorway, pushing back their attackers. As Rikit dissects Rakthar's throne to create a way to bind the stake deeper into the vampire's heart, Marrow experiments with thrusting the staked goblin into the magical fire, which appears to destroy it, though it is possible the creature has merely turned to mist. Lulu's inquiries for parlay to the other side of the wall of flame are soon met with a response, and after tense negotiations, she drops the magical fire in order to speak with her counterpart face to face. The leader of the half-orcs is a dwarf calling himself Xoden. He accuses the party of violating their "squatters rights" while being in the tunnels, but confides that disabling Rakthar and destroying his minions was a boon to Xoden's mysterious employer. Having pointed out that the party has served their duty as deputies by eliminating the goblins, he agrees to allow them to leave the tunnels unmolested on the condition that they make no mention of Xoden or his men's presence there. Lulu agrees to the conditions, and it appears as if the party's ordeal underground is almost over.