The Fae Mhor

The general consensus was that the digging sounds further up the passage needed investigating. Tucking the loot from the store cave into various backpacks, the elf and her comrades moved cautiously up the tunnel to a bend and peered around.

Four troglydytes waited there, clearly guarding the passage. With a roar, the heroes charged around the corner, and were among the reptilians before the latter knew what was happening. A short and nasty fight ensued, during which the trogs were dealt with swiftly, but at the cost of one of the dwarves rescued from the slave pit, and a mortal wound to Thorkil's head. Swift first aid from Animir prevented him from dying immediately, but even without healer's training, she could see that moving him would be fatal. Making him as comfortable as possible, they left him and moved on down the passage and around the next corner. One of the three surviving local dwarves took his enchanted shortsword.

A chilling sight met their eyes. At the end of the tunnel, four chained dwarf miners laboured at the face, hewing rock and copper ore for their new masters. Guarding them were four troglydytes, armed with the usual clubs and javelins. Standing against the walls further back were two more dwarves, but horribly different to the four slaves; these were already dead. Dreadful wounds marked them, but each hefted a pickaxe and stood upright, clearly brought back to undeath by some unclean magic.

Last of all, a tall humanoid with black skin and milk-white hair lounged against the wall, arrogantly directing operations. Rippling black mail sheathed his slender body, and emblems of spiders and demons decorated all his equipment; clearly a Fae Mhor.

Very carefully, Animir withdrew the group around the corner and drew out her wand of Mage Armour. Each of her companions recieved the magic, an invisible shimmer of defence against the struggle to come. Their foes were fearsome, and many of them probably would not return.

Readying their weapons, they eased back around the corner. On the agreed signal, they launched their attack!

Animir and Akara remained at the rear, with their missile weapons, and began to rain projectiles into the ranks of their enemies. Romae led the three remaining rescued dwarves in a charge against the zombies.

The two undead monsters lurched into action, bringing up their weapons. For one of the dwarves Animir had rescued from the slave pits, this was too much. His eyes widened with horror as he recognized the corpse he was fighting as one of his clanmates, and he dropped his weapon and fled. The other two plunged in, shaken but fighting, as the trogs beyond started hurling javelins and the Fae Mhor began to cast a spell.

There was no perceptible result, but the battle began to go badly for the attackers. Romae was battered back and forth by the slow heavy blows of the zombie she was fighting, and one of the dwarf miners was skewered by a trog javelin almost immediately. Animir moved forward, drawing her sword, and between her, Romae and the last dwarf - Helthur, the one with Thorkil's sword - they carved more and more bits off the zombie dwarves.

At the rear, the Fae Mhor was busy casting another spell. As he released it, Akara and Animir heard a grinding, crunching noise from behind them. Animir was busy fighting, but Akara swung around too see and his jaw dropped.

A mound humped itself up in the tunnel floor. Rising to nearly seven feet high, protrusions formed on the sides, shaping themselves into arm-like structures. A lump at the top moulded itself into a head, though no features were visible. Below, it split into two legs, and feet formed as it tore each out of the ground with a horrible rending sound. It started towards Akara as Helthur gasped "Earth elemental!"

The plucky little kobold whirled his sling, sending a stone buzzing across the tunnel to smack into the approaching monster, but it advanced undeterred and struck him a smashing blow with its' massive rocky fist, hurling him backwards against the tunnel wall with a broken leg as it loomed over him ready to squash him to jelly.

At the same moment, another trog javelin arced through the combat and drove completely through Romae's head, killing her instantly. Things looked black!

Then there was a breakthrough. Both Helthur and Animir managed to chop enough bits off their zombies to bring them down, twitching but incapacitated. Animir moved forward to engage the trogs, ending their missile barrage, while Helthur swung around to rescue Akara by attacking the elemental. Akara, discovering that by lucky chance he was balanced against the wall, spun up his sling and resumed pelting the conjured creature with missiles. Helthur fought bravely, slashing and stabbing with his borrowed sword, but in the end the sheer brute force of the elemental caught up with him and it dealt him a smashing blow atop his head, crushing his skull and killing him outright. Thorkil's sword clanged to the ground. Akara spun his sling for one last shot, under no illusions that he could withstand the monster alone, knowing his time had come.

The small rock whirled across the closing gap between the elemental and the little kobold, and cracked into the monster's head. The result was out of all proportion to the act. With a strange blup sound of inrushing air, the massive elemental vanished utterly, leaving Akara staring in disbelief at his sling before the penny dropped; the spell had expired!

Animir hefted her shield, alone now, and prepared for the final battle as she faced the four trogs and dark, brooding Fae Mhor....

DM's note: This log actually includes two sessions, as Elizabeth's enthusiasm to play more actually overtook my ability to write up the results.