Episode 2.3

Tony, Ernie, Brad, Kathy, Greg, Bob (in an extended New Year’s Day special edition)

They walked up to meet the grimlocks and discovered a nasty site. The dead body of a hydra lay in a side alcove. It looked as if its flesh had been shredded. It had also been sitting there for at least a day.

There were five grimlocks, including one leader. Bob talked to them, telling them that the party was in the tunnels hunting troglodytes. This put the grimlocks at ease. The grimlocks told them that the they had wiped out what was left of the troglodytes and gave the troglodyte king to the grimlock cheif's pet as a plaything. This made the other grimlocks laugh. They also told the party that the hydra had been killed by a monster they referred to as "the Destroyer." They said it used to live in a cave that had ruins in it, but that it recently started wandering the tunnels. It was obvious that they were very afraid of it.

As if on cue, another grimlock ran up from behind his comrades exclaiming that the destroyer was coming. The grimlocks made a hasty retreat, running past the party, and went in the only direction they could - towards the entrance the party had just come from. Realising that Edic was waiting at the exit to attack any grimlocks that might show up, and not wanting to risk a fight with whatever had scared the grimlocks so much, the party decided to follow the grimlocks to the exit.

They reached the end of the tunnel just in time to hear Edic ambushing the grimlock captain. Very quickly, Edic was nearly surrounded. The party quickly jumped into the fray, Tony, Greg and Brad heading into combat, Bob firing off magic missiles, Kathy using her wand and Ernie hanging back to heal. The fight was over quickly, but as it ended, Kathy and Ernie heard something walking down the tunnel.

The party moved to each side of the tunnel entrance and waited. The creature approached the end of the tunnel, but did not exit. Only Tony was at an angle that allowed him to see the creature. It was almost as large as a horse, walked on two legs and a long neck with a very large maw on it's head.

It paused for a moment, as if it was thinking, then raised its head slightly and flexed its muscles. The group heard a very low frequency sound and then the tunnel entrance collapsed.

After the dust settled, they examined the bodies of the grimlocks. In addition to some armor and magical batleaxe, they found an odd scrap of leather with lines and grooves carved into one side. The took a peice of parchment and made a rubbing. It turned out to be a partial map of the tunnel system. The next day, Ernie used magic to translate the symbols. The areas on the map were labeled home, stranglers, rift, snake people, sun hole, lake, surface, ruins, Troglodyte king, and Troglodyte. The wanted to use the map to explore, but were uncertain where they were or where they should go once they figured out where they were. There was an interesting debate as to whether the Sun Hole referred to an exit to the out doors or to a hole from which lava flowed. They eventually came to the conclusion that the section of the map labeled Troglodyte and Troglodyte King represented the area where they had fought them in their lair. They decided to start exploring from that location, which meant traveling overland for a day to get to that entrance.

On the way, they were attacked by a pair of owlbears. Several characters spotted them before the ambush. Tony tried to outflank them but one of the two owlbears decided that it just made him an easy target. It attacked Tony then wrapped him up in a bear hug, nearly killing him. Tony fought back, causing serious damage, but was obviously on the loosing end of the battle. Greg raced over to assist Tony. He attacked the owlbear, killing it before it made Tony into a snack.

Meanwhile, Kathy enlarged Brad who then got into a boxing match with second owlbear. Between Brad's fists, Bob's magic missiles and Kathy's wand, they killed the owlbear in just a few rounds.

Ernie healed all the injured party members. They looked around for tracks, expecting to find traces of the goblin/wolf creature that was involved in the last owlbear attack, but they found no traces of it.

Once inside the cave, they made their way to the troglodyte lair. It was much more damaged than when they were last here. All the doors were broken down and one had a six foot diameter hole cut through the center of it. They found some troglodyte body parts, lots of ransacked rooms, and what must have been a throne room and an egg chamber. All the eggs were destroyed. From there, they decided to just explore nearby the marked areas of the map.

The next area they encountered was labeled on the map as Ruins. It was a large cave filled with large blocks of cut stone. Along the floor of the cave, was the remains of a broken structure – a hollow triangle which must have stood about 90 feet tall. The base of it, ten feet high, ten feet thick and over 100 feet wide, was still mostly intact. On the far left edge, they could see the beginning of one side of the triangle, but it was broken about 25 feet off the ground.

The room was not uninhabited. As soon as they entered the room, a large creature attacked them. It was obviously some type of troll, but bigger and much stronger than any troll they had seen before. Tony again tried to move to a flanking position and hide. Kathy enlarged Brad, who waited the creature to come to him. Bob began firing magic missiles. The creature moved in to attack and struck Brad with its claws. Its blow was tremendously damaging. Brad knew he could not trade blows with this monster for very long. Ernie cast prayer, hoping to improve everyone’s chances. Greg moved in to attack and suffered a very damaging attack of opportunity for his trouble. Tony moved in to flank the creature. Kathy got out her wand and began hitting it with lesser Sonic Orbs. Brad stood his ground, pounding it in the head repeatedly with his fists.

Even as its body visibly regenerated, the creature struck back, seemingly in all directions, attacking Brad, Greg and Tony. Brad was nearly down. Bob, in an effort to save Brad, made him invisible. The creature, being not very bright and momentarily confused when it’s largest and most dangerous foe suddenly vanished, decided to make its way towards Kathy and her annoying Lesser Sonic Orbs. This provoked a flurry of attacks of opportunity from Greg, Tony and Brad, who then became visible. Having suddenly found the giant sized monk again, it renewed its attacks against Brad. One more strike from his claws and down went the monk. Greg and Tony continued the attack, though they didn’t appear to be up to the task. Bob and Kathy helped them out with spells, but things were not looking good. Ernie finally squeezed his way close enough to Brad to heal him just before he died.

Deciding to stay on ground, the very injured but still enlarged monk began kicking furiously at the troll. Another nail-biting round later, the beast finally went down, using its final act to strike out one last time at Greg. The spellcasters quickly dug through their belongings for any type of acid or fire while Tony, Greg and Brad continued to slice, slash and pummel the troll’s body into ever smaller pieces before it could regenerate and get back up. After several minutes, they created enough of a fire to destroy the troll’s body.

After a few minutes of panting and healing, the party searched the cave. The troll had only a little treasure – some gold, and a couple of potions. They examined the remains of the triangle and found two small square indentions, perhaps two inches on a side and an inch deep, at the two corners of the base of the triangle. They also found a broken stone icon that, when pieced together, fit nicely in the hole. The icon had the symbol for the number one on it – in dwarven. They also discovered two smaller exits, tunnels too small for the troll to fit in.

They rested in one of the small tunnels and then began to explore more. They discovered the way back to the part of the caves they had been in before, the part that led to Haven and the Spirit of the Mountain (who was still not home). They found a lake. The tunnel dead ended there and they had to turn around. The next place they wanted to see was the Sun Hole.