Well...to no one's surprise, Halas is still the wild, wooly place it always has been. With ice gobbos, wooly mammoths, polar bears and snow leopards outside, it's the only locale around that can make Blackburrow look all warm and cuddly by comparison.
And today was the day for Mistique to test her mettle in the caverns and warrens of the gnoll complex. Teaming up with Andalurin (shaman), and Sorcia (warrior), they plunged into the darknss to find and kill as many doggies as possible.
The gnolls were more than happy to oblige. Some folks ask "What's the difference between the Elder Age and the Younger Age?". And the answer is...experience. Most folks in the Younger Age don't have any. And, in Blackburrow...that means trains...and lots of them. Hordes of steaming mad gnolls came pouring out of the darkness at us. Luckily, there were so many warm bodies to soak up the damage that we rarely died that night.
Gnolls, Gnolls Everywhere...and then Kales Went Into the Drink
We took on one more warrior, Kales, who was very inexperienced. Unfortunately, we forgot to tell him about the false tree at the top of of Blackburrow. And sure enough...he chased a gnoll pup into it and fell through the trapdoor at the bottom. Down, down into the darkness, he plummeted. Splash into the water he went. His last furious cries were "MIGOD! THERE ARE GNOLLS EVERYWHERE!". And then there was silence.
Well...that should have been that. But Kales got extraordinarily annoyed at us for our lack of warning (as if he gave us a chance before he charged into the darn thing), and we decided to be heroic rather than petty. We helped him. Here's how.
First of all, Sorcia stripped off all her belongings and handed them to Andalurin. "I trust that my soul is immortal and I know the ways of the burrows. I will leap into the darkness and find his corpse."
Sure enough...she did. The splash we heard was faint, but her voice echoed back comments about gnoll elites, commanders and guards. Very bad news. She'd never get out alive.
Then she told us she had found the corpse...but since there was no way to get out alive, she couldn't do anything about it.
This is where Andalurin's heroics came into play. He stripped off all his belongings and handed them to me. "I have a spell that will summon me home. I cannot save Sorcia, but I can leap down, gather his belongings and gate back to Halas with them."
Sorcia then said "You'll never make it. The corpse is too close to the guards. I will have to draw them off. Hopefully, I will survive long enough to allow you time to riffle through the corpse and cast your spell."
With not much further ado, the plan was made. Sorcia cried "NOW!" and leapt at the gnolls, raking them with her fingernails and running back into the warren. Andularin leapt down into the pit and swam to the corpse. We heard faint cries of "ahhh...i think i've had it" from Sorcia, but they grew fainter and fainter.
We waited, and waited, and waited still longer. Finally we heard Andalurin's triumphant shout as he returned to the Blackburrow entrance. "I have the prize!" he shouted. We rejoiced, while at the same time mourning Sorcia's supreme sacrifice.
But then, bloodied and torn, Sorcia stumbled through the doorway. "I have met the Grim Reaper, tweaked his nose, and lived to tell the tale." Slumping into an exhausted heap in the doorway, while Andalurn tended to her wounds, she told us of her exhaustive, frightening headlong flight through the palace corridors of Blackburrow, past numerous guards and commanders, and then out to the bridge and finally to topside. Barely she escaped being stunned, captured, and torn to shreds, but at last she made it to (relative) safety here with us.
A finer example of heroics, I have never seen. And it was really for no material gain at all. Kales departed our group thereafter and we expect to never see him again. But the friendship we made that night will certainly be worth more than any gold or experience we could have otherwise garnered.
We Gather After Many Fights to Wind Down a Bit
The adrenaline still pumping, we tore back into the burrows with a vengeance. Narrowly escaping death time after time, and slaughtering scores of the doggies, we eventually retired back to Halas and spent all of that day;s gainings on Brandy and Beer. Drunk and singing, we eventually passed out for the evening, drooling on the hardwood floor of the bar.
In other words...it was a perfect night.
Amazing How Big These Taverns Get When You're Drunk