(#32) - The Outpost

The usual crowd got together again on Thursday for our latest D&D outing on Fantasy Grounds. I actually thought that the Saltmarsh campaign had finished completely, but I think this seems to be a continuation as we started in Saltmarsh and the theme seemed to carry on. I will try to find out by next week whether this was a continuation of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign or something that the DM has cobbled onto the end of it.

After a big battle at the Spire, the denizens of Saltmarsh narrowly overcame the sahuagin threat. 

A few months later...

Life began to return to normal in Saltmarsh, but we had become more well-known in town due to our exploits. As a result, we were invited by the local dwarf population to the one hundred year celebration of some copper mines that they were currently working.

The trip to somewhere called something like Duvagoia took several days by sea, and when we had landed, it took us and our three dwarven guides a further half-day on foot to reach an outpost, where we rested up for the night to get out of the heavy rain. We were generously plied with food and ale and left to our own devices - we did our best to escape the downpour.

The Dwarf Outpost

Gladreth was the only one of us that didn't get too drunk on the alcohol offered. Maybe because of this she was the most alert and therefore the first to be hit by an arrow that was shot from the undergrowth to our west.

It took us a while to come out of our drunken stupor, but by the time we had we were on the back foot against the attacking drow warriors. Gladreth, however, cast a Fireball that severely injured several of their warband thus buying us a little time to recover.

The fighters in our party rapidly gained injuries as the arrows sent our way were coated in some sort of green-gunk poison which added to the pain inflicted upon them. I managed to cast a Prayer of Healing to undo some of the damage, but the injuries kept piling on. As things looked like they were about to get worse for us, Gladreth spotted an opportunity to use a Lightning Bolt and some Magic Missiles to even the odds a little.

After the Drow encounter

It was a tough fight, but we eventually overcame the drow warband. We gathered their bodies for burial and stripped them of their belongings, amongst which were some small coins/medallions embossed with the likeness of a dwarf god. We drew lots for the watch rota and settled in for the night.

The night seemed to pass uneventfully, except for the constant rain, but when the dawn finally broke we noticed that somehow all of the drow bodies had been removed and our three dwarf companions had been taken. The place was covered in spider webs and a set of tracks headed off westwards towards the mines.

We followed the tracks for about two hours before we arrived at our destination. Many of the huts outside the mine had been burned and were still smouldering, and there were several dead dwarfs lying around the place in amongst pools of blood and silk cocoons. Many of the bodies had the same green gunk we saw on the drow weapons in their wounds. It was obvious that the celebrations had been interrupted by a savage attack which appeared to leave everyone dead or missing.

We scouted the area and managed to find a few maps of the mine and the surrounding area and a few ledgers of the mine's output and expenses (the mine seemed to be very profitable from the records).

Six hours later, the rain was still coming down, so we decided finish up our search and head towards the mine for some shelter. It was whilst we searched the last few huts that we managed to find a single dwarf survivor amongst the carnage - he had escaped by burying himself beneath a mound of his dead friends. He told Gladreth what had happened as she was the only one who could speak Dwarfish; the mine had been attacked out of nowhere by drow and spiders whilst the workers were celebrating the finding of a new, very rich, vein of copper - there were no survivors, and the rainstorm had washed away most of the blood by the time we got here. A short while later, the slain dwarfs rose from the dead and headed towards the mine.

We gave the dwarf directions back to our boat and finalised our investigation. In the final crate we searched we found three wands/rods that contained something that rattled when they were shaken. The box held a warning that they contained black powder.