Several of the Khyber mine insurrectionists realize suddenly they would rather leave than fight. Also, Ash would suddenly rather be Barika.
Barika jumps right in with an enraged assault on the fire elemental myrmidon overseer known as Yando to some. Ten, wreathed in shadow, flicks his divinely striking thorn whip nimbly through the long clog of striking miners striking Yando with tools and weapons. Yando’s dubious legacy ends with a javelin thrown by recently oppressed Kariggs.
A barely noticeable eye emerges from the western wall and reasserts mind control over Thybek and Vondrak who obediently return to mining. Watc and local personality WynkGlarx coax them back into the rebellion. Watc, vaguely sensing a looming moral dilemma, yoinks five of the mission objective Khyber crystals from a mine cart and tucks them into her handy fannysack.
More motivational posters around the captured chamber extoll King Bi’hig Bruhu’ther’s exploitive labor philosophy.
Sqyylarr checks out a side door bypassed by the growing mob who follow the mine tracks east. This room is a combination barracks and archery range where duergar Cabernet manages to sleep through the commotion. Sqyylarr liberates woke Cabernet and Khyber crystal number six. Just twenty-four crystals to go.
Sqyylarr and Barika chase down some fleeing stone guards who lead them to a couple of mind masters to the south. Although they are duergar like the enslaved miners, this lot has benefitted from King Bi’hig Bruhu’ther’s authoritarian regime. Barika offers them the opportunity to join or to die. Grykohm the mind master answers with a vulgar glob of ejected spittle. The mind masters turn Barika against Sqyylarr, but the result is frustratingly ineffective. An effective javelin from an open door shoots Sqyylarr in the buttocks. Airborne Ten swoops in with some divine shielding for Barika and some divine healing for Sqyylarr’s buttocks. Ander scorches around some rays and chain fires the eldritch ballista cannon. Sqyylarr and Barika climb upon a convenient table and pummel the guards from above.
WynkGlarx decides to realize his own heroic story. He leads the mob into feigning ongoing ensorcellment as they march along the tracks turning south along a lava pool where the mined Khyber crystals are fed to a pair of fire elementals, Flarion and Pyre, to undergo conversion to flat Khyber tiles. The duergar guard fight spills out into the same processing room just ahead of the mob. Watc thunderwaves a couple of the guards into the lava. Ander casts shatter to aggro Flarion and Pyre along with mob-surrounded fire myrmidon overseer Peydor. Flarion and Pyre abide the pull, but the mob is disinclined to release Peydor, mining him with their pickaxes. Pyre touches Barika with fire. Sqyylarr touches Pyre with Smash. Khariggs and Malbek embiggen themselves for the fight. Ten lays down some divine auras for magic resistance and good health. Ander produces a modest looking decanter that sprays Pyre with a geyser of water that extinguishes him. Sqyylarr fatally smashes Flarion. Barika and Ander hurry to assist the union beating on Peydor.
Watc, watching Amron the stone guard sink into the lava, escapes an unknown attack initiated by King Bi’hig Bruhu’ther who watches from a long hall to the west. Watc takes cover and warns the party. Ten swoops into the hallway to see what is what with this so-called King Bi’hig Bruhu’ther. What Ten finds is a prodigious anti-magic field.
