Hops rejoins the party from the secret conference room now that Dordo Husac Onearm Bristlejaw has rejoined his ancestors. Hops wonders why the party would have walked by so many unopened doors.
The party doubles back and finds an array of six communal bedrooms behind the closed doors. Sqyylarr discovers that one of them contains a young, unscathed dwarf, Orek Copperforge, strategically sheltering in place to defend his own filth for three days now, and he is plenty ready to fight Sqyylarr. The party’s dwarvish speakers talk him down. Hops leverages their shared cultural sense of obligation to duty and convinces Orek to join the party.
Briar suggests that Hops teach everyone some introductory dwarvish phrases in case more survivors are found.
Orek informs the party that the stranger, Cohoreth, was admitted to Mithral Hall under the pretense of escaping the weather. Once inside, he summoned the eyeless aberrant army, houndacles, soldiers, and arachnoids, to destroy the garrison of 18 left by Queen Waybeard. Cohoreth took over the hall. He is probably in the throne room right now.
Now that one statistical survivor has been found, Ander begins crunching through the numbers like an aberrant houndacle crunches through inexperienced dwarves, and the expected survival rate of the garrison is not great.
The party wanders into a hall of statues and finds a dwarf hung by his muscles and organs upon a pantheonic statue. Orek recognizes him as Queen Waybeard’s nephew, Helm Strongshield. As Briar and Hops prepare to remove Helm from the statue, two scared dwarves protest from the opposite end of the room. Removal of the ignominious display will get everyone into trouble!
On cue, two of the really tough soldiers drop from the ceiling shadows onto the party. Barika critically hits the left one, Sqyylarr smashes the right one. Watc, exactly in between, fireballs from her position. The soldiers shift positions giving Briar the opportunity to get a piece. Barika runs down and finishes off one, Watc’s missiles of magic slay the other. The party flexes this decisive victory to impress and convince the dwarf younglings to join them. They bring along two more friends making five presumptive survivors.
Hops holds an improvised service to bolster the dwarves’ morale, and he blesses Ander, Barika, and Sqyylarr with a bit of fortification. A long rest would be better, but time is of the essence.
The party charges to the throne room hoping to surprise Cohoreth with the question on everyone’s mind: is he an illusionist or a conjurer? But the surprise bounces off of Cohoreth and sticks to Ander because Cohoreth is both, yet neither, yet so much more, and he already knew they were coming apparently ever since Ander was born. Ander, noting Cohoreth’s Eberron aberrant dragonmark, freaks out. Hops, however, remains confident and casually offers to make Cohoreth some dwarven herbal tea from his bag.
Once the cunning barbs finally taper off, Briar initiates the fight popping one of several houndacles flanking around Cohoreth with his spiritual weapon. Sqyylarr flattens a houndacle in two hits. Enraged Barika and the martial dwarves engage the remaining houndacles. A pair of soldiers drop in behind the party and start to mess up the dwarves. Ander and his turret focus on Cohoreth. Watc attempts to engage Cohoreth at range, but Cohoreth uses counterspells and other reactions to neutralize her best attempts. Hops, while personally engaged with the houndacles, drops a giant, distracting spiritual guardian in Cohoreth’s face.
The party is making good progress against the aberrant army when Cohoreth circles some death on the entire scrum. The dwarves catch the worst of it. Cohoreth smacks his staff onto the ground and retreats through a summoned portal, pausing to try and think of some witty remark in parting.
The last few abandoned houndacles surround Sqyylarr, right where she wants them, as she catches her second wind and surges into action. Briar lays hands upon Sqyylarr as she flattens two houndacles. Hops heals the masses and all the dwarves pop up again. Barika claims the final houndacle.
The gates of Mithral Hall, now under new management, are opened to the caravan.