“Well, that could have gone better,” Cyrus remarked.
“Gideon did manage to survive despite his luck,” Ariella said. “Nonetheless, it was fortunate that Naze decided on the better part of valour. I've never seen our rescue team on the verge of teleporting in so many times.”
“Well, at least they've learned of real danger,” Cyrus reflected. “But that should be alleviated somewhat soon, correct?”
The headmistress nodded and glanced at the sheets of paper in her hands. “Two more candidates have completed their courses with us, and are ready to take the exam. A human boy by the name 'Bloodclot'. An unusual name, but he was raised in the wild before he made his way to Mysthaven.
“And continuing the trend of unusual names is 'No-name', a dwarven initiate of Kothar. He does not speak much of his past, nor how he got his name. His is quite boorish, even for a dwarf, but his insight into his faith cannot be denied.”
Cyrus reflected on the information. “Well, they seem as odd as any other adventurer. Let's see how they do.”
Leafday, Clearbark 14th, 108 NA
Naze and Gideon readied their gear the next morning after a restful night back at the Academy. Before they set out, they were met with Ariella Sarenn. She was accompanied by two other individuals: a young human man and a foul-looking dwarf.
“Gideon, Naze, I'd like you to meet No-name of Kothar, and Bloodclot,” she says to them, introducing the dwarf and the human respectively. “They have just completed their semester with us and are ready to take the final exam. Since the two of you are already in the middle of your, I thought it would be good to complete it together. What do you say?”
Naze and Gideon glanced at each other, and shrugged. “The more people, the easier it'll be,” Naze remarked.
Ariella smiled. “Perfect! Off you go, then. And don't forget, you need to retrieve three more Mysthaven artifacts!”
Naze slapped his head, as the headmistress left them. “Didn't think of that. We were half way done, yesterday, and now we're only a quarter done!” Gideon laughed, while the newcomers grunted.
The party descended into the caves. They decided to take the left passage instead of the usual right. It was only a few steps in when they saw that the passageway was mostly obstructed by a large pit, leaving only a thin ledge on the left side of the tunnel. Bloodclot, who was in front of the group, peered into the pit, illuminating it with his torch.
An excited chittering was emitted by a ten-foot long red centipede, resting at the bottom of the pit, as new prey presented itself. It started climbing the walls of the pit to get to them.
Bloodclot, judging the depth of the pit to be no more than ten feet, jumped down next to the centipede, brandished his greataxe, and cleave the monstrous insect in two. He grinned and gave a thumbs up to the others who were staring downward with surprise. “No problem.”
They proceeded south, past the cave where Naze and Gideon fought the goblins. They encounter two pits in their way, allowing a thin bridge to walk on. Fortunately, they were not deep, and had only large centipede in one of them, which they slew easily like the first.
In the next room, they discovered what must have been the centipede's nest, as four younger monster centipedes, about 5 feet in length, skittered across the floor to eat them. The adventurers slew them effortlessly. For their efforts, they found some gold and two small, intact chain shirts among the the remains of goblin skeletons.
They continued on to the next passageway. Forgoing the entrance to the next cave, they continued down to the end of the current passageway. Searching carefully, they disarmed a pit trap and found a small chest buried behind it. Naze picked the chest's lock, and the party was rewarded with a small prize of a hundred and fifty silver.
The party turned around and entered the next cave that they had passed. Bloodclot stood in front of the group… and was rewarded with three crossbow bolts slamming into him, one of which hit him in the throat.
“That's them! They're the ones!” yelled the goblin sergeant, standing behind three fresh goblin crossbowmen.
“Shit, it's that goblin again!” Naze cried out. He dashed out in front of the group. “No-name, take care of Bloodclot! Gideon, you're with me!”
No-name quickly invoked a prayer of healing on the bleeding Bloodclot. Naze stopped right in front of the three goblins while they were reloading their crossbows. The halfling invoked color spray and two of the crossbow goblins fell to the ground, unconscious, while the goblin sergeant in the back wobbled on his feet, stunned. Gideon was right next to Naze, and with a few kicks, took out the last standing goblin crossbower. The two then wailed on the stunned goblin sergeant, finishing off the fight that started a day ago. No-name and a newly revived Bloodclot came up behind them, and finished out the unconscious goblins.
Looting the corpses provided the party with some extra cash, but more importantly, the goblin sergeant was carrying some of more value. It was a decorative sword, finely made with gems set into it. And it had a Mysthaven artisan mark. “Thank you, Mr. Goblin,” Naze said grinning.
The party entered the tunnel that the goblins were guarding. It went downward deeper into the earth. After a few minutes of walking, the party exited the tunnel to enter a huge cavern, and they could see the ruins of several elven-style buildings partially immersed in stone and rubble.
They entered the closest building still standing. From the ruined remains of the furniture, it appears this used to be a home. They heard some skittering behind the door at the end of the room, so Bloodclot and No-name guarded the door while Naze and Gideon cautiously searched the room.
“Ah! I Found something!” whispered Naze as he searched the ruined fireplace. From the debris, he pulled out a dirty, but still intact, silver locket. Opening it revealed a picture of a beautiful elven maiden and an inscribing that was written “Dearest Sefline, warmth of my heart. L.S.”
“I wonder who 'Selfine' was…” Naze muttered. On the back of the locket was a Mysthaven artisan mark. “Well, who cares. That's another one down.”
“Yer done there?” No-name asked. “If so, then let's see what mystery lies beyond this door.”
“Hmmph, judging by the sounds, I'd wager a large centipede as before,” Bloodclot remarked with a smirk.
“Ooh, a wager!” the dwarf replied. “I'll take that. Let's found out!”
Bloodclot grinned. He slammed the door open, and he, No-name, and Gideon rushed into the room. To their great surprise, they soon found themselves entangled in thick, sticky webbing on the floor, with a huge, hairy spider before them.
“We appear to be stuck in place,” Gideon calmly said, readying himself for a fight.
“No kidding! Let's deal with this spider and get out of here!” Bloodclot shouted as the spiders skittered towards, mandibles drooling and snapping.
Despite being stuck to the ground, the lack of mobility did not hinder the party's ability to fight. Well, except for Gideon, who tripped and fell when he tried to throw a kick at the huge spider. Fortunately for the party, the spider took the fallen gnome as easy prey and concentrated it attacks on him, but Gideon was nimble enough to dodge every attack.
Meanwhile, Bloodclot and No-name were beating down the spider with their attacks. The spider bit Bloodclot in return, sapping his strength with the poison from its fangs. Naze, at the back of the party, casted whelm spells at the spider. When the giant arachnid suffered too much damage, the spell took effect and the spider fell unconscious, allowing the party to easily finish it off.
The party decided to head back to the surface, to recover and get the poison out of Bloodclot. Retracing their steps, they came across three large centipedes feasting on goblin corpses. They are easily dispatched when Naze casted a sleep spell on two of them. Though the third did manage to poison No-name with its bite, the party had little trouble in killing all three of them.
They returned to the academy where their poison was removed and their wounds healed by the academy healers. They spent the night resting, and once morning arrived, prepared themselves to return underground.