Concluding the Mine Fire

While the party questioned Gloria Wright’s sister on her kidnapping after her mysterious reappearance the City Watch finally made an official appearance. Swooping into the Miners Guild Hall and quickly talking over. Detective Bernard was reprimanded for getting involved while he was meant to be on a mandated vacation and for getting the party involved. The party were also reprimanded for their interference but fortunately were let go with little more than a harsh warning to stay out of City Watch business. Before being forced to finally take that vacation Bernard managed to discreetly instruct his Warforged partner to keep an eye on the party, keep them safe and out of trouble with Lyra in charge. The party was unaware of this but by the time ten days have passed the party has become aware that the Warforged is following them but not why.

The Job

Money is tight with the mines still closed due to the fire, it has been ten days (a week in this world) and the players’ characters are feeling the pinch along with the rest of the city. During this time Lyra has been working in one of the forges, even with the shortage of supplies they have been trying to keep the forges burning. The Foreman has been asking around for anyone interested in a job for some extra money, the rest of the party hear about this from Lyra and on arriving they meet Karst, a quiet individual also there for the job. Aluri the Foreman gives the party information on the job, he wants them to go to an abandoned village in the Ares Glades to salvage scrap metal. The job is considered above board because no one cares about the old ruin, the City Watch won’t class it as stealing. The party will be paid based on the weight of metal they can bring back. The party decided to rent a cart and some boxes to help transport more back.

The Forest

They head out into the unusual quiet of the forest, as they travel, they slowly can hear more, and Lyra hears what sounds like pigs. The pigs turn out to be boars, not that the characters know this they just see hairy pigs. Grace sees no danger in this and ends up just picking them up and tossing them back into the bush. Karst attempted to get on top of and grapple a boar, but it throws him off.

They reach the river that flows south through the Glades from the city and Grace makes easy work of moving the log blocking their path. Beyond there they find themselves in a clearing where an individual in fancy purple clergy robes is foraging. The figure is recognized by Lyra as the High Priest Oraz Irrizion however the rest of the party are unacquainted but do recognize the robes. Oraz offers healing to the wounded members of the party Karst and Grace, though Grace did not consider herself injured. The High Priest asks the party why they are there and on finding out where they are going offers them a deal. Oraz gives them a piece of a key to the tower in the village just in case they find the other pieces and requests that if they do get into the tower that they bring them any items of historical value. The Priest offers to pay for such items.

South the party finds an unused shrine that is similar but different from the ones they would see in the city temples. There they find some old coins embedded in the grass and some other key pieces.

They kept going through the forest and encounter some more boars, Grace without hesitation rushes in to pick one up. She catches it off guard and the other is scared off by Karst.

The Village

It is the early evening when the party reaches the village, the ruins are overgrown and long disused, but they are not the only ones there. There is another group of five people already there, picking through the ruins. The party tries to negotiate and even scare them off. The other group however is just desperate enough to try a fight. Grace tries to knock down a wall and drops a stone on an enemy head, Rex is attacked by the group’s more determined member, while Lyra uses her magic to cast burning hands. The flames catch on a nearby tree and climb back up her arms. The slightly discouraged leader goes round the wall to see what hit him on the head to find Grace, he attacks her, but she blocks it and there is a look of “Oh crap” on his face.

Karst shoots an enemy with a critical hit and Rex almost gets hit by one with a critical crossbow shot but was lucky. It the last moment a bird flies past and is hit instead. Lyra uses Thunderwave to knock the thugs away, and as collateral Rex who is stopped from moving by the Warforged. One of the thugs’ decided they are in over their head and runs leaving his 4 allies behind. Their original leader follows soon after. Another tries to escape as well but is shot by Rex as he escapes leaving 3 of the group to witness it. Grace throws one onto another having spun them by their ankles. Two are arrested, another escaped.

Grace tries to break off the door with their crowbar, this triggers a magical trap of lightning. She kicks the door, and nothing happens. Using a log they ram the door, the trap keeps triggering, but Grace is safe using the ram. The ramming seems to have no other effect on the door. The rest of the party investigate the ruins finding more key pieces.

Once there were a few pieces Lyra started putting them together. The other party members help with putting together the pieces and looking some more throughout the ruins of the village. Eventually they found all the pieces and constructed the two keys. When set into the door they glowed from behind with the image of a sun on one and a moon on the other. Then the door clicked and opened.

To be continued in the next session.