Our heroes spent the night following the defeat of Sephek at the home of Berric’s cousin.
In the morning, they confronted Torga with the information that Sephek was the Ten Towns murderer. She appeared unsurprised but disappointed that her partner in her bounty hunting side-gig was dispatched, and civil when asked about other gossip in town and her own involvement in Sephek’s activities.
She told our heroes that there were too many coincidences. She’d hoped he wasn’t responsible but knew there was a chance. She also told them the Termalaine mines appear to be overrun with kobolds, and that the town speaker hasn’t mustered the town guard to root them out. She will continue her journey through lonelywood and up to Revel’s End to claim her current bounty, and to learn about any other bounties that may have come from the south.
On the way to meet the speaker at the blue clam, our heroes were intercepted by a man riding an axebeak, who issued a bag of payment including scrolls and gems, for defeating Sephek. He informed them that Skaern couldn’t be more pleased with the results of their investigation, and rode off south to Targos.
Speaker Mayhew hired our heroes to clear the mines of the kobold threat, and warned them there may be a worse threat stalking the mines. The mines have a vast central shaft that leads all the way to the underdark.
The mines appeared to be mostly empty aside from giant rats and dust. It wasn’t until they reached the 2nd floor of the mine they found a chamber with severed extremeties and a small treasure hoard, next to an opening leading into the underdark. Little did they know a Grell was lurking in this chamber and stalking their movements.
Progressing further, they met two kobolds named Grek and Smol digging into a dead rat. The emaciated kobolds attacked our heroes and were easily pacified. They were placed in the corner of the room to recover while our heroes cooked their rat.
When Smol awoke, he was fed and reassured that the kobolds were not necessarily in danger. Smol explained that Trex is their leader, a winged kobold who no longer speaks Dragon and speaks like a human. Smol and Grek would escort our heroes to Trex to make peace.
Trex, whose ‘wings’ were actually made of wood and cloth and who carried a rotten old satchel, explained that the kobolds only sought shelter from the dangers of the wilderness: clever animals, horrifying undead and other threats were too much for the hungry kobolds to deal with. They arrived in the mines at night and accidentally scared off the Termalaine workers when they arrived for work. Trex convinced our heroes that the kobolds would be happy to work in town, and that something horrible is is hunting both kobolds and miners.
Our heroes began their search across the vast shaft to the underdark in a bucket shuttle. Once isolated, Yrso was attacked by the Grell that had until then been stalking our heroes. Largo channeled the horrible Grell language in song and caused the Grell to flee with horrifying visions in it’s mind.
Across the chasm, Our heroes found a petrified skull of an illithid encased in the mine walls, containing a purple crystal. When Yrso attempted to retreive the crystal, the skull shattered.
The crystal exerted some mental influence over Yrso, who attemped to immediately toss the thing into the underdark – but changed her mind at the last minute. The crystal was pocketed for further examination later.
The Grell returned when our heroes attempted to traverse the shaft once again in the bucket shuttle, again targetting the isolated Yrso. This time, between a well placed guiding bolt, sling stone, and song of sleep, it was eventually smote and fell into deep darkness.
The kobolds were led out of the mines and into Termalaine, where Speaker Mayhew was convinced to take them on as workers in the town. Trex was quick to interrupt our heroes and speak to his own people’s virtues as workers and engineers.
Mayhew, accompanied by Trex, would examine the mines overnight and return the next day to pay our heroes.
In The Blue clam, the song of ‘what the fuck is it’ was played, and identified the purple crystal as a ‘Psi Crystal’ a crystal that grants telepathy, and whose effectiveness is determined by the bearer’s intelligence.
