Hops strongly believes these fine, soulcaged, Kragdigger dwarves deserve an eternal seat in Morndinsamman. He and Frank depart with the survivors Tomax Uudor and Ja’ar’rodd as well as the two less fortunate spellguard fatalities back to the caravan. They will arrange for some clerical ringers to come free the disembodied Kragdigger dwarves from the crystal caves.
No sooner have Hops and Frank ridden out of view than leader Briar, wolf-raised Barika, and kobold archivist’s assistant Bock arrive on scene. Tales of adventuring are exchanged: Sqyylarr, Ander, and Watc rescued Uudor’s mostly doomed archeological foray to the Throne of Kulgraeth Kragdigger. Briar and Barika just returned from slaying a peculiar mongrel, all black and no eyes, which is being studied back at the caravan. Bock, privy to the location of the Throne from his master, Xalver, guided Briar and Barika up to the Throne site.
Briar, in command of the reformed party, decisively determines that the next course of action is to rescue and/or recover the two missing spellguard. Bock confirms the bloody footprints leading deeper into the cavern are definitely spellguard flavor. Sqyylarr takes point, tracking the prints across a natural bridge over a forty foot pit of ice to where a recently demised spellguard lies in a pool of blood, likely his own. Briar and Barika join to investigate the body which has been slashed as though by a sharp blade. Bock notices a second set of prints diverge off the edge of the bridge and, in the dim light emitted by the surrounding crystals and from points in the floor, can see the second spellguard, motionless at the bottom of the pit.
Ander retrieves a length of rope and Watc summons a mage hand to fasten a knot to haul up the fallen spellguard. Before anyone can figure how to get Watc ten feet closer to the body, a pile of random dwarf bones shifts, assembling in the shadows of the cave, and charges Barika with a large bone scythe. On the opposite end of the bridge, a pair of bone spiders and a bone scyther surround Watc.
Barika, Sqyylarr, and Briar go to work martially on the bone knight. Although very tough, the three eventually prevail against the bone construct.
Ander summons a force ballista, Bock demonstrates formidable monk pushiness, and Watc thunderwaves. They collaboratively shove the spiders into the pit. Although the spiders easily crawl up and out the sides, the tactic buys enough time for Barika, Sqyylarr, and Briar to rejoin and form a defensive line, collecting the three damaged bone monsters for a final, fatal fireball from Watc.
Recovery of the deceased spellguard follows a short rest. The party surmises from the vanquished necrotic constructs that a fairly powerful wizard, possibly in possession of a desirable spellbook and other treasures, might be nearby. Tempting as that is to some, others point out that the mission is now accomplished, and risking death by going farther into the cave might be an excess of initiative. Briar allows a vote and Charlie departs with the win in hand. They catch up to the caravan already making an expedited stop for the evening.
Bock reports back to Xalver who marvels at the number of trapped souls available in the crystal caves, but his enthusiasm is by no means for any particular application.
Briar reports back to Vesper Othuro and volunteers to bury the dead. Vesper Othuro confirms that Frank and Hops successfully returned with Tomax and Ja’ar’rodd who are recovering well.
Next up is Pefeus Pragast, Charlie Expedition’s animal cleric of Chauntea. His necropsy produced some interesting results. First, the black beast slain by Barika and Briar was not naturally eyeless; there were two small incisions at the eye sockets and the eyes were replaced by enclosing skin and bones to make the smooth featureless face. Second, a shiny, metallic, dodecahedron device was extracted from the sensory area of the creature’s brain. Watc borrows the device for an identification ritual and learns its primary purpose is to detect magic.
Ander reports back to Tutella Protectio. The report is a pretense to propose the barter of one slightly damaged soulcage crystal for Protectio’s help with Ander’s portable foundry project. Protectio accepts the consulting gig to ponder the possibility of imbuing a protection from energy spell into a non-brick foundry.
At dawn, the train of wagons resumes its eastward progress. The landscape changes as the narrow mountain valley gradually opens into some foothills and snowy wooded patches. The lead wagon, occupied by the caravan master and Sqyylarr, comes to a fork in the road. The wagon master gives local guide Sqyylarr a pop quiz: Which way? Sqyylarr confidently answers: Right. Nope, it’s Right, can’t you see the tracks of the two earlier expeditions duh? Charlie Expedition is extra swoll today because Master Brand and Portent Order have joined, so there is ample time for this kind of halted frivolity as the train bungees back into shape.
Just as the lead wagons resume along the right fork, a pack of inky, black, eyeless, catlike beasts beset the second wagon occupied by Watc and Ander. The harnessed hillbillies last no time at all. The wagon coasts to a stop. Ander leaps out the back door, dropping a force ballista that shoots one cat off the roof of the wagon. A followup firebolt hits it in its bared teeth. Watc shuts the back door and surveys the scene through the front portal as Sqyylarr, Barika, Bock, and Briar run to the rescue.
A pair of the cats leap into the wagon to attack Watc. The other cats attempt a weakening effect on Briar and Sqyylarr before attacking them. Ander’s turret knocks another cat off the wagon’s roof putting it where Barika can chop at it. Bock joins Sqyylarr in avenging the hillbillies’ attacker with critical strikes and it is quickly destroyed. Watc’s thunderous wave ejects a cat from the wagon and knocks another from the roof. Raging Barika catches the wave as well.
A cat attacks Sqyylarr and weakens Bock. Bock turns the tables by riposting and employs kobold pack tactics with Sqyylarr to drop the second cat. A second thunderwave slays the third cat. The repeated thunderwaves pulverize the hillbilly carcasses but narrowly miss Briar’s beloved hillbilly, Lucy.
The last cat jumps back into the wagon. Barika, singing a ditty about the cat coming back the very next day, charges through the door axe-first with a critical strike. Watc throws some magic missiles point-blank. Ander’s turret gets the final kill. Bock, crowded out of the wagon, is the only one who glimpses the hooded figure observing the fight from the road. The hooded figure takes two steps back and vanishes.
Vesper Othuro comes up to investigate. Ander, still jacked from combat, unsuccessfully renegotiates his nada salary. Briar makes a report of the incident including the hooded watcher. Vesper Othuro dispatches ten spellguard in pursuit. Watc performs field autopsies on all but one cat, retrieving the anticipated dodecahedron devices from their brains.
The wagon gets repaired, the hillbillies replaced, and the train expeditiously resumes its march until arriving at the quaint village of Timberfen.
