Blackmoor Campaign pt. 10.

[William]

During our gaming session on Saturday the 27th of April we continued with the exploration of The Cave of the Unknown. All four PCs plus Abbie the Ranger and the three mercenaries from the Keep (all of whom are, by now, controlled by one of the players), were placed back where they left off last week - at the end of a tunnel within the cave system from which sounds of earth and stone being decimated plus large hissing noises were emanating from. Also, according to Ari the Halfling Thief (who can speak the Dwarf language), there are faint sounds of Dwarven language and voices coming up from whatever is at the other end, though no complete sentence can be discerned due to the other noises.

The PCs and their henchmen and hirelings decided to check out the source of the noises, but also to be as surreptitious as possible in order to spy upon the source. They dimmed their lanterns with the installed shutters and proceeded to move forward. The winding tunnel that they made their way down lasted for some 145 feet before arriving at an opening into a huge cavern. They estimated the cavern to be possibly 150 feet by 190 feet, and leading off from it were a number of other tunnels, the amount of which they could not discern due to their dimmed lanterns and the cavern's sheer size. There they held back by some 6 feet in order to peer into the huge underground chamber. Within the huge cavern they saw the source of the noises - a band of possibly six Dwarves (the exact number also could not be exactly discerned) operating a large steam powered bore. Scattered around the cavern were parts that had been tossed aside, presumably rejected during the bores construction, and also a number of tools presumably used to construct the bore on site (there was no way that the bore could gave possibly been moved through the tunnels except by teleportation magic).

The contraption had a large metal bore at the front with a larger, spiked, almost dish shaped bore set further back operating in a concentric fashion (to use an anachronism it looked somewhat like a Sky TV satellite dish with sharp edges, spikes, and a big sharp point at the front), followed behind it by what looked like a barrel (laid flat) shaped control room made from wood with iron hoops reinforcing its construction, and glass windows for the crew to see out from. Behind this was the metal steam engine, other metal machinery of a mysterious nature, and a coal furnace for generating power. At the base of the bore machine on each side were a set of three wheels so the bore could move around the mining area as needed, which were presumably also steam powered. The bore at the front could be made to bore either straight ahead or, judging from the three large holes in the ground (one on the north west side, one on the south side, and one large hole on the north east side), tipped downwards in order to bore holes into the ground. The largest hole (on the north east side) was just in front of their entrance into the cavern, giving them a mere 10 feet to walk into the cavern on. If they were to move any further than that to the right whilst making their way into the cavern they would fall into the hole. A number of passages and side caverns led off from the main chamber, and some of these had presumably been drilled by the Dwarves whilst working with the bore.

For the next few minutes the players discussed amongst themselves exactly what to do. Going in their favour was the fact that Ari speaks the Dwarven language, and that he is also a Demi-Human, albeit not a Dwarf. Going against their favour was the fact that they were technically spies, they had no idea exactly just how many Dwarves that they would be facing as there may be more hidden along the tunnels and in the other caverns, and the Dwarven bore could be used against them as a "super weapon". In the end they decided to wisely send out Ari the Halfling to communicate with them, whilst the rest of the party would remain hidden in the tunnel with firearms and longbow ready.
Ari moved out into the cavern with the hands held up in the gesture of surrender with no weapons drawn. The Dwarves immediately powered down the steam bore, and moved forward to speak with Ari who communicated with them in the Dwarven language. They made no attempt to attack him, but instead they exchanged information with him and answered his questions. From speaking with the Dwarves Ari discovered that they (the Dwarves) had suspicions that chaotic forces were making their way into the valley, and that it did not surprise them as their number were constantly aware of the movement of Orcs within The Stormkiller Mountains. Ari discovered (although the whole party of PCs knew anyway) that the Dwarves often fought with the Orcs of The Stormkiller Mountains, and also that the Dwarves strongholds within the mountains themselves were set up specifically to defend against the threat of an attack from the Orcs (something that they didn't know). The Dwarves had plans to move on as soon as possible, but they had been commissioned by the leaders of their clan to mine with this cave system for minerals and coal. It was only a matter of days before the steam bore would be dismantled and the Dwarves would be gone. Lastly, the Dwarves warned Ari of a ravine roughly one third of a mile north east of this cave system, and of their suspicions that it may be where the chaotic forces may be gathering.

After this meeting with the Dwarves Ari left the cavern and rejoined his party. They made their way back out of the cave system, vowing to return to explore the rest when the Dwarves had departed. They also decided amongst themselves that the next best course of action would be to scout the rest of the valley, and to spy on whatever else may be living within it. Remembering the fact from looking at their map that there is some woodland in the southern part of the valley that they had not yet explored, and vowing to explore it the next available day, the PCs continued to explore the clearing that they were in once outside The Cave of the Unknown. They found no more caves within the 700 yard by 800 yard vicinity so they moved north east in order to find the ravine. Upon finding it they roughly mapped the area from sight whilst holding back within the trees, and then made their way back to the clearing and north up into the woodland. Here they explored and mapped the area up to the surrounding mountains, taking into account (once again thanks to Percival Svenson) that there is somewhere within the woods a mad hermit. As the day moved on and the gaming session progressed more mapping was done of the woodland and lower mountainous area until eventually dusk started to fall, and the characters came face to face with a freshly awoken and very hungry wandering Rhagodessa. It had presumably made its way down from a cave within the mountains. Gunshots and arrows were fired and hit, but unfortunately melee combat had to be engaged in for the party's very survival. A mercenary was killed and Kay Rocklin was badly wounded, resulting in a failed morale check for the remaining two mercenaries who fled the scene. However, more successful gunshots, arrows and melee combat killed the Rhagodessa, though the fight was still a protracted one (Rhagodessa are a 4+2 hit dice monster and the combat happened by lantern and moon light). The party wisely decided to return to the Keep for safety before the night brought more nocturnal monsters their way. After building a funeral pyre for the deceased mercenary the PCs (using their lanterns) made their way straight back to the clearing and down the hillside to the valley road. From there they made their way back to the Keep, all the while being on guard with firearms and arrows. We ended the session here.

Bill

[badams30]

Very cool use of the Cave of the Unknown! The last party I ran through B2 used to joke about all the retainers they hired, whenever things got tough, their retainers almost ALWAYS ran away. Such awful bad luck on the die rolls, but they managed to survive, wisely retreating often.

[William]

Very cool use of the Cave of the Unknown! The last party I ran through B2 used to joke about all the retainers they hired, whenever things got tough, their retainers almost ALWAYS ran away. Such awful bad luck on the die rolls, but they managed to survive, wisely retreating often.

Thanks!
I made The Cave of the Unknown benign in comparison with the rest of the adventure, as B2 is lethal enough by itself. However, there is scope for being stupid within The Cave of the Unknown, and also for hanging around for too long and encountering a wandering monster making their way in, but as long as the players aren't daft or hang around for too long then they should be fine there.

Bill

[badams30]

Very cool use of the Cave of the Unknown! The last party I ran through B2 used to joke about all the retainers they hired, whenever things got tough, their retainers almost ALWAYS ran away. Such awful bad luck on the die rolls, but they managed to survive, wisely retreating often.

Thanks!
I made The Cave of the Unknown benign in comparison with the rest of the adventure, as B2 is lethal enough by itself. However, there is scope for being stupid within The Cave of the Unknown, and also for hanging around for too long and encountering a wandering monster making their way in, but as long as the players aren't daft or hang around for too long then they should be fine there.

Bill

I like it. As I mentioned before, out of all the times I played in B2, not once did the DM ever develop or use the cave, so I never thought much about it. I did follow a play by post once that the DM made that area a cave complex like mammoth cave in the US, just a "pretty" cave with a small stream running through it. The party used it as a campsite and one night they heard weird noises coming from somewhere and located a naturally concealed branch of tunnels that led to the some under realm with dark elves and all sorts of crazy stuff. I like the dwarven mining machine though, very cool concept.

[merias]

Just catching up on these reports - loving the steampunk vibe with the steam-powered bore (a level of tech that fits well with the firearms).

I also like to use retainer loyalty and morale in campaigns, I find it keeps things interesting vs. just a bunch of meatshields that blindly charge into battle for the PCs for little reward.