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There was less of the party this time. Anja didn’t know where the barbarian Shonagh had gone, but she hadn’t appeared with the rest of them when they had met up again to go down into the mines of Kazak Zaroth.
She eyed the witch hunter warily. Him again. She prayed silently to Sigmar to bind him back in certain situations. The barbarian had been charging in all over the place last time, but that was just in her personality. A witch hunter should be more prepared, more calm, more, well, sensible.
Anyway, the party descended the stairs once more into the gloomy ante-chamber where both doors were once again shut. Looking to the left, the door to the refinery that they had gone through last time seemed locked, though a little battered around the edges from the pounding it received. They had been that way before and faced giant spiders and mechanically armed ratmen. And not found any dwarven miners. So it made sense to go the other way this time. Anja remembered that the barbarian had charged down this way before, and been called back by the silver tongue of the elf archer Ephilian. She herself had not journeyed far that way, so this would be entirely new to her.
The elves were speaking in tongues. Suspicious behaviour already. Anja’s guard was already up and she didn’t appreciate elves speaking in their own language. Who knew what plans they were hatching between themselves? And with no barbarian in the group this time, Anja knew she was the one with the strength.
And there the witch hunter goes…..trying to break down the door that last time was magically locked. She sighed inwardly and watched as the others tried to convince him to let the thief try. Amazingly he listened and the door was opened in the normal fashion. Didn’t stop him from charging through and finding a pit trap though. She shook her head. If he would just stop being so annoying she’d actually find him endearing. Kind of like a child that wants to know everything before they can even read.
The first room, before the pit trap, was small and inconspicuous apart from a small hole in one corner where rats were attacking from. Upon inspection by Machela the thief, after a brief and bloody brawl with the creatures, it appeared to be a secret door, leading to a chamber with three chests. Guarded unfortunately by 4 more rats.
Disposing of the rats, Anja and Machela began looting the chests. One exploded, wounding the thief badly, but rewarding Anja with gold. She’d heal the thief later. The other two chests each contained more rats. Who’d lock a rat in a chest?!!
By the time Anja left the room Recht the witch hunter had gotten out of the trap and broken down the next door to be faced with some more ratmen. D’ynar had cast a spell over his sword and made it flame, upping the damage it could cause. One of the ratmen met his end on the sword, another was killed by Recht and Anja killed the third.
On the way down the next corridor Anja fell in a pit trap. Thankfully she was helped out by both D’ynar and Machela so she didn’t have to endure the torment of the trap for too long. And the trap thankfully caused no damage. At the end of the corridor a large door with the word ‘Refinery’ in magical runes above stood closed. The runes were recognised by D’ynar as being the same as those above the first door through which they passed.
The door opened to reveal a large 30 x 50 foot room with a handle rod in the centre. Immediately Anja looked to the witch hunter who was almost hopping with excitement at the prospect of pulling the handle to find out what it did. A portcullis at the far end gave Anja a déjà vu feeling – it was of the same type as the one which had revealed the anvil and mechanically armed ratman last time they had been in these mines.
There were also two large grills in the floor – probably sensible to dodge those, and a chain in the right hand wall. The group managed to stop the witch hunter from pulling the handle, but couldn’t stop him from pulling the chain, opening the portcullis. Thankfully nothing appeared from behind it except a small piece of corridor with a corner leading off to the right.
While the witch hunter was stood with the chain, D’ynar was looking at the handle. Different from the original design apparently. More cogs had been added and it looked as if it now had a different purpose from the one it had been originally intended for.
Moving around the grills, Ephilian the elf archer moved to look down the corridor at the end. It was at that point Anja heard a small rip, and turning saw the witch hunter tugging at a piece of material snagged to the chain. Then the ominous sound of crashing metal. Anja turned again, just fast enough to see Ephilian jump out of the way of the portcullis as it crashed back down.
D’ynar was still looking at the handle. Under the grates he could make out carts suspended from chains, filled with what appeared to be molten metal. The elf reckoned that the original use of the handle had been to move some of the carts along for transport of ore mined. Anja nodded. It sounded sensible enough.
At the agreement of the group Recht reopened the portcullis. Machela took point, looking for traps in the corridor beyond. She discovered a pressure plate that was most likely paired with the hole in the wall that could just be made out behind her. Anja made a note to get over the pressure plate and out of the way of the hole as quickly as possible – there were those in the group who seemed to have an affinity with setting off traps.
The witch hunter decided to search the corridor – he had moved to be next through the passage. He found nothing, which did not surprise Anja. He only ever seemed to find things by childish curiosity and mindless blundering. Even more surprising was the next action of Rechts – he let the thief open the door at the end. Anja found it mildly amusing that the witch hunter that was supposed to notice evil beings and possession appeared to be possessed himself, by some spirit that actually thought sensibly for a change.
The room beyond obviously held some creatures of evil. Anja heard a squeak, and then Machela dashing back out of the room to hide behind Ephilian. Anja had waited to be the last of the party out of the refinery, healing the others where they needed it before journeying on.
D’ynar yelled victoriously – he must have killed something, and then Ephilian began shooting arrows. It appeared to Anja that Ratmen were down the end of the corridor. Ephilian staggered back, having been wounded. Anja bent to tend him, ensuring that she could not be harmed while healing him by careful positioning. Shurikens flew through the air above her head.
D’ynar managed to kill another ratman and yelled that there were still two left. As fast as he could he shut the door and even Anja far down the corridor could heard the ratmen screaming expletives. She made the symbol of Sigmar in the air in front of her and prayed for peace. D’ynar had shut an unconscious Recht in the room with the ratmen. She walked towards D’ynar as the door opened once again.
D’ynar immediately faced a ratman with an evil looking tail. The other ratman made for her, and in one swift blow she killed it with the might of Sigmar. D’ynar had slain the other. A giant rat appeared from nowhere but before it could do damage to anyone Ephilian had shot it dead with an arrow. The party were finally beginning to work as one, well, apart from the witch hunter, and Ana had to admit even he was showing signs of thinking about his actions.
The room beyond the door held a slowly recovering Recht, and a rack of weapons. On a plinth behind the rack words such as ‘Lord Blacksmith’ had been etched into the stone. Anja bent down to heal Recht while D’ynar investigated. A giant bat swooped out of a cupboard as he opened the door, to be cut down in mid-flight by Ephilian.
Machela joined them in the room, then picked the lock and stood back to allow D’ynar to open it. Lizard heads streamed out from the door and snarled. Anja drew breath. She had never faced a hydra. Now was the time. She stepped forward and with D’ynar began to hack at the creatures many heads. Ephilian dragged Recht back out of the firing range.
Anja and D’ynar fought for a while, hacking a few heads off. The hydra retreated, but the intake of breath allowed them to realise that a fire-bolt was coming, and they dodged out of the blast. The last head was finally cut off by D’ynar, and the ratman immediately behind the hydra met the same fate. Ephilian took his chance and shot another ratman which appeared behind the corpse, and Anja strode into the room beyond to kill the final one armed with a spear.
The room held only the promise of two more rooms beyond. One had bars and held two of the dwarf miners. Conversation between the party and the dwarves indicated that they were likely the last of the dwarven miners who had gone missing – the others were most likely dead.
Recht, at full strength once again was listening at the other door and described scrabbling sounds. It took a lot of persuasion to talk him into leaving the dungeon with the rescued dwarves and not opening the door to face whatever horrors lay beyond. For her part, Anja was grateful. The mission this time had seen her fight more than she was used to, and healing other members of the party and herself took a lot of strength. She would be glad to see the sun again and sit in the shade afforded by the huge tree next to the tavern they had all met at originally…
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