Admiral's Story

While you and Skeev search the rubble for items of value, Taresh walks around examining the cavern.

There's much in the rubble. Small centipede-like insects scatter as you dig through it. Much of the mess consists of useless moldy, decayed and/or rusty trinkets, pieces of armor, pouches, torn garments. Most of these are goblin in origin. But there are also signs that humans were added to the Nightmare's heap, their possessions ripped away and discarded in the rubble. There are even items that suggest some unwise or uninformed adventures before you may have previously attempted to confront the beast that you and your companions just put an end to.

You find some items of value:
> Several coin pouches, totaling 350 GP, 150 SP, and 100 CP.
> There are 5 gems (50 GP/ea) scattered about--at least that's how many you find, as you noticed that Skeev has already pocketed two.
> A goblin dagger: rough looking, but has an ornately carved hilt, and shows signs of blood stains from battle. Skeev takes interest in that.
> In an intact leather pouch you find 2 potions of healing (that each restore 1d10HP).
> There is another potion you cannot recognize in the pouch.
> You uncover a shimmering necklace. It seems to have a subtle magical aura.
> Near the necklace you find a journal.
> Within the rubble lies a goblin shaman staff: it is wooden and gnarled with a curved, pointed iron tip.
> There are various rusty axes and goblin blades strewn about.

After a short while of investigation, Taresh says, "I believe we should destroy these," pointing to some things clustered together on the cavern wall. They resemble large, round cocoons. The eggs are enveloped in a translucent membrane, glistening with a sickly sheen in the dim light of celestite crystal glow. They appear to be suspended in place, firmly held against the cavern wall by a network of silky, threaded goo.Admiral--Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 0, Spell Slots: 0/2, PP: 1/3, Pact Tally: 14/400
Taresh--Current HP: 34, Temp HP: 0. Ki: 7
Skeev--Current HP: 31, Temp HP: 0

Admiral gives the dagger and one of the healing potions to Skeev, keeping the other two potions for himself. He pockets the pretty necklace and the accompanying journal, and shows the staff to Taresh to see if he wants it. He is in the midst of gleefully stuffing his pockets full of gems and gold when Taresh directs his attention to the eggs. He wrinkles his nose. "Agreed. Would you like to do the honours or shall I?" He raises Reaver and the gem in the pommel of the sword glows with arcane energy as he prepares to fire an eldritch blast at the cluster of eggs.

Taresh smirks, "Let's both do the honors. It's best to be sure no nightmarish offspring plague these caverns. I imagine this putrid heap was at least in part meant to feed these hatchlings."

Skeev happily accepts the dagger. "This is no ordinary shank, he proudly explains. "It is known to my kin. We call it The Wounding Shiv. Our shaman gave it power to inflict great lingering wounds. It was lost long ago with the shaman and the warrior Grak--who wielded it--when they attempted to face the Nightmare. Their party never returned."

Taresh examines the goblin shaman's staff. "Hmm..." he says with interest. Giving it a swing he comments, "It certainly is more balanced than that pick axe." He motions in the direction of the fallen Nightmare. He finds some useable leather straps and buckles in the rubble. In a few minutes he is able to fashion a sort of staff sling to strap the item to his back.

You take a quick look over your loot. The necklace clearly has some magic to it, which might make itself clear to you if you were to sit with it for a while. The journal is filled with writings in Common. You are not sure what the second potion is, but when you examine it more closely the vial doesn't even appear to have any liquid in it. Yet shaking it reveals the audible sloshing of its contents.

With the excitement of battle and looting waning, the horrid smell of the area starts to return to the forefront of your mind.

Admiral and Taresh make short work of the eggs. When they’re done no trace of the eggs remains but for a bit of goo and some scorch marks on the cavern wall. Admiral leads the others back through the crystal cavern and into the tunnel burrowed by the Nightmare, away from the horrible stench, and says, "I want to get to the docks as quickly as possible, but perhaps we ought to take a short break. Even if we hurry, we probably won’t make it back in time before the slavers raise the alarm so if we’re to have any chance of escape, we’re going to need to be at our full strength."

As you mention the slavers, Skeev looks over his new dagger, The Wounding Shiv, as he called it.

After a moment of contemplation he says, "Captain, different portal doors are back near the cells. The slavers come from one sewer door. They will raise the alarm when I don't let them in. If they find your cell empty they will be looking for you, Taresh, and...me."

"Near the cells there are two other portals to the sewer and a fourth portal that leads up to an old warehouse."

He holds up the dagger and apprehensively continues, "But...we killed the Nightmare...and I...I have The Wounding Shiv to prove it. As a hero, King Korg would free me from service and let us pass through the goblin kingdom under Jahore to the port, if we go that way."

Admiral’s tail swishes from side to side as he thinks it over. "Your king won’t be mad at you for betraying the Iron Ring? You may have killed the Nightmare, but you also betrayed his allies. It seems to me that it would be to his advantage to turn us all over to the Iron Ring in order to regain favour with them."

Skeev looks again at his new dagger. "You are right Captain. Korg has no real reason not to turn us over to The Ring. They'll prob'ly push him about us as soon as they see you and Taresh gone." He sheaths the dagger in his belt and continues, "No being a great-goblin-hero for me today." He sighs.

"Let’s keep going," Admiral decides. Anxious to get back to his ship, he requires very little persuasion to forgo the rest. He never needed magic to get by before he inherited Reaver so he figures he can make do without it now. "Best not to give the bilge-sucking bastards too much time to get their wits about them. We’ll sneak our way over to one of those other entrances to the sewers or perhaps, as a last resort, that garbage dumping hole you mentioned."

That said, you move your party through the area where you earlier saw signs of the Hound’s struggle with The Nightmare. Pushing on, you come to the mouth of the tunnel The Nightmare ripped into the existing tunnel network. From here left would take you back to the cell area and to the ‘drop-off’ portal door. Right would take you—as Skeev explains—to the portal doors that lead to the trash hole and further down to another sewer entrance.

Admiral leads his party right, headed for the other entrance to the sewer. As he slinks down the passageway, he keeps his ears pricked, listening for any sounds that might indicate the presence of iron ring agents.

You turn right, moving quietly and stealthy. Soon you are able to make out the faint sound of distant clanging of armor behind you. Looking behind, you notice slight, shifting illuminations on tunnel walls past the Nightmare passage you recently emerged from. The flickering looks like it could be from torches or lamps beyond a tunnel bend.

You quietly keep your party moving forward at a good pace, and soon come to a place where another tunnel meets on the right, while the tunnel you're on continues strait.

Admiral slows as they approach the fork in the tunnel and silently looks to Skeev for directions.

Upon your look, Skeev quietly relates, "Right to trash. Straight to sewer."


Admiral--Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 7, Spell Slots: 0/2, PP: 1/3, Pact Tally: 14/400
Taresh--Current HP: 34, Temp HP: 0. Ki: 7
Skeev--Current HP: 31, Temp HP: 0

Admiral nods and picks up the pace again, continuing straight ahead.

Swiftly picking up the pace and moving strait down the tunnel for about 15 minutes, you eventually come to a portal door just like the two you saw near the cell you wafted out of. You seem to have kept far ahead of any Ring agents that may be searching for you. You don't see their lights or hear their sounds any longer. But as you stand at this portal door you are aware that, beside the door itself, this is the tunnel's dead end. If agents were to come up behind you now there would be no escaping confronting them.

"The key, if you please, Skeev," whispers Admiral. Once the goblin hands over the key, Admiral will try to use it to open the portal door.

"Aye Captain," says Skeev confidently as he proudly hands you the key.

You push the large key into the equally large keyhole at the center of the round door. When you turn it, a mechanism produces a loud clang that echoes a bit through the tunnel. The door separates slightly from its tight sealed position and you are able to push open the door.

Skeev stands next to you as you do and peers as you open. Taresh is behind you both, keeping his eye on the tunnel behind you.

As the door swings open you see a large open wet area spotted with trash. There is a large opening high in a vaulted ceiling where beams of outside light faintly shine down into the area. Some small humanoid figures are startled by the opening door and duck into the shadows of archways. Four round tunnels empty into in this area on the left side of the room. The right side has arches but no tunnels. There is also a gargoyle stone fountain spouting filthy water to your right and another across the room on the left.



"Rat Runners. Goblins Korg sends to scout the city at night and grab anything useful that ends up down here." Skeev whispers when spotting the small figures scurry away.

Deciding that they don’t have time to hunt them all down, Admiral resists the feline impulse to chase the small, scurrying figures as he walks into the center of the room. He squints up at the opening in the ceiling. The daylight stings his eyes a little after having spent the last few hours wandering around these dimly lit tunnels.Turning his attention to the various tunnels, he asks Skeev, "Any idea how to get to the surface from here?"

The opening above is 35-40' high. There may be a way to get up there. The vaulted walls look slick, wet, and treacherous though. Gravity and slipperiness would make them impossible to climb by natural means. You also see that the opening is covered by a grate. By the looks of it, if there was a way up there, Skeev is tiny enough to slip though the grate bars. Looming beyond and above the grate you can just make out a balcony protruding from some building wall.

Skeev responds to your inquiry,

"The last tunnel goes to the canal system under the city. Some canals come out to the human city and wind between human buildings and under bridges. Good sneaking and hiding places for goblins sent to scout the city.

The third leads to the edge of the city market. Humans dump much stuff at the end of that one.

The second tunnel goes to connections under the human city burrows. Some drain pipes in these tunnels go up to streets and buildings.

The first tunnel here goes to a main sewer tunnel. Same you can get to from the portal door near the cell you and Taresh were in.

The sewer that the slaves were supposed to come in on is the one that flows out to the harbor and is closest to port. Too bad that's back the other way past the Nightmare hole, where they are looking for us."

"Aye, that is too bad…" Admiral agrees, scratching his chin as he weighs up the options before them. Suddenly his eyes light up as an idea occurs to him. "Skeev, does that key work on all the portal doors?"