The Blood Creek Mine

Hot on the trail of the possibly kidnapped, possibly run-away innkeeper’s daughter, the party were following the lead of the sheriff’s tracker, heading south from Roderic’s Cove. The dense forest of the Churlwood was to the west, while to the east rugged cliffs dropped off into the sea. The northernmost peaks of the Fogscar Mountains rose ahead of them, growing closer with each passing mile., Ameiko and Sandru seemed to be growing apprehensive as the search led them farther south, but kept their concerns to themselves.

About an hour before sunset, the hoofprints veered off to the left, following what looked like a narrow game trail into the mountains. At the sight of this, the tracker turned pale. “That’s it – there ain’t enough gold to make me go down there! You’re on your own.” Without another word, he turned and headed back the way they’d come at a gallop.

At the same time, Ameiko started to tremble and hyperventilate. “Sandru, no! Not again! I can’t do this – I can’t go there! Not again! Not back there! No!” Tears streamed down her face, and she dashed away from the party, sobbing. “I’ll see to her,” Koya offered, and rushed after her.

Sandru was also pale, and his dark eyes welled with tears. “Why?” he asked, as if to himself. “Why did it have to lead here?”

In response to the party’s inquiries, Sandru drew a deep breath and attempted to compose himself. “I haven’t spoken of this to anyone but Ameiko and Koya, and even then we haven’t discussed it in almost 15 years. It’s just too painful. But now …

“I had a brother. His name was Alder, and he was quite a bit younger than me. Our parents were killed when I was in my teens, and Alder was little. Koya took us in, and raised us in Sandpoint. Alder was the same age as Ameiko, and they were best friends growing up. When they got older, they became more than just friends.

“Ameiko’s father was a hard man, and when she was about 16, she and her father had a fight. I don’t know what it was about – she never told me – but he hit her, and she was so hurt and angry she decided to leave home. She and Alder got it in their heads they would become adventurers. They were only kids, but they were headstrong, and I knew there was no talking them out of it, so I went along, to keep an eye on them.

“We built up a little band of adventurers, and actually had a pretty good run for awhile. Cleaned out a band of goblins over by Thistletop and a clan of kobolds over by Nybor. Ran off some bandits that had been ambushing caravans north of Wolf’s Ear. Did pretty well, and made some good money. Started thinking we were pretty damn good.

“Then we came to Roderic’s Cove. Town was near to panic. For a few years, hunters and loggers had been turning up missing down near the Fogscars, but people didn’t think much of it. Then farmsteads started being raided, with whole families just disappearing without a trace. Then people started disappearing right out of town, kids mostly, or drunks down in the Cove. Got to where people were afraid to go out after dark.

“Old Rossing was the sheriff then, too. His idea of enforcing the law is taking gold under the table to look the other way, and he’d never do anything that would make him miss a meal, let alone risk his life. So he hired us to take care of the problem for him. We said sure, no problem. We were so fucking stupid.

“Our ranger had no trouble picking up a trail from one of the homesteads that had been raided, and we followed it to the northern end of the Fogscar mountains. To this very trail. About a mile down that trail there’s a little lake. There use to be a tin mine there, the Blood Creek Mine, but a landslide blocked the creek, created the lake, and flooded the mine. We followed the trail to the edge of the lake, and figured whoever had made it must be hiding out in the mine, so we went in to take care of them.

“They must have had a lookout who sounded a warning, because they were waiting for us. Took us completely by surprise. We killed a few, but it wasn’t much of a fight, and before you knew it, we were all trussed up.” He stopped talking, too overcome with emotion to speak for several minutes. When he continued, his voice was a whisper.

“It was bad. It was really bad. They were some sort of cult, with this filthy druid named Golubrin leading them. He was crazy – they all were crazy. Every night, they’d take one of our group and … and …” His voice broke. “They’d do awful things to them, until they were screaming like nothing human. And then … they’d eat them. The druid had this poison that would paralyze you, but leave you awake and feeling everything. They’d eat them while they were still alive, screaming the whole time!”

He paused again, trembling, then continued. “Finally there were only three of us left, me, Alder, and Ameiko. Ameiko was going to be next – Golubrin had already given her the poison before they went to sleep, because it took a few hours to take effect. Alder was going crazy wanting to do something to save Ameiko. They had us tied up, with our hands tied behind us, but Alder actually dislocated his shoulders so he could get his hands in front of him, then he chewed through the ropes to free himself, and untied me and Ameiko. It must have hurt something awful, but he never made a sound. But by the time he got us all free, they were starting to wake up, and Ameiko was already paralyzed. We managed to get to the boat, but then we heard them start yelling, and knew they were after us. Alder didn’t even hesitate. ‘Get her out of here!’ was all he said, then he ran back to hold them off as long as he could. Stupid fool – he couldn’t even use his arms! But he fought long enough for me to get the boat moving, and pull their other boats after us so they couldn’t follow. The last thing we heard echoing through that mine were Alder’s screams.”

Sandru sagged against a tree, as if all the strength had been sapped from his body. The chirping of forest birds were a stark contrast to the horror of the story he had just told. After a long minute, Ameiko and Koya emerged from the trees. Ameiko was pale, but her head was erect and her bearing grim.

She looked at the party, then at Sandru. “If that girl is in there, I know exactly what she’s going through. Alder didn’t abandon me, and I can’t abandon her to that fate. I can’t ask any of you to go with me – especially not you, Sandru – but I will not leave her to … them.”

Although badly shaken by Sandru’s tale, and more than a little afraid of what might be in store for them, the party readily agreed to accompany Ameiko. The trail continued through the woods for about a mile, sloping downwards. At the bottom it opened out into a small valley, filled with a narrow lake. Near the water’s edge were the carcasses of two horses, recently butchered – it seemed that the stablemaster at least was going to be disappointed at the outcome of their quest. At the southern end of the valley was a rocky bluff, and the dark mouth of the Blood Creek Mine could be seen opening into it. At the shore were muddy ruts where it looked like a small boat had been frequently beached, but there was no boat there now. Sandru warned the party that when he and Ameiko were here before, the cannibals were somehow alerted to their presence, and so might have someone on guard. When asked, he said that there were 20-30 cannibals in the mine when they were captured, but that was many years ago.

Alert to the possibility of lookouts, Bella crept stealthily up the hillside above the mine and down the other side, until she was confident that there weren’t any guards posted anywhere outside. She returned to the crest of the hill, and fastened her rope to a large boulder, then began to climb carefully down. Despite her caution, she dislodged a spray of small rocks, which fell into the water with a small splash. She held her breath, hoping it hadn’t alerted anyone below, and then continued climbing.

When she reached the mouth of the mine, she paused, considering what to do next. Carefully, she twisted around on her rope until she was hanging upside down, and lowered herself just far enough to peek into the opening. Inside, she saw a hewn passage leading away to the south, propped up by timbers and dimly lit by torches every 25-30’. About 10’ in there was an  opening to the right, and what looked like a narrower passage leading off to the left a little farther on. She saw a cork floating in the water attached to a string leading back into the first opening, and could hear a tuneless humming coming from that area. She also noticed a thin rope looping loosely from timber to timber near the roof, and leading back into the mine.

The water level in the flooded mine reached to within 4-5’ of the roof; it was likely wadable, but left no room to try to swing in on the rope. The walls looked too smooth to climb on, and looked slick with condensation to boot. Unsure of what to do next, Bella righted herself and climbed back up to the top, where she found the rest of the party waiting for her.

She related what she’d seen, and then gave her assessment. “The cork is some type of trigger, and will be set off if anything passing by makes waves in the water. The rope on the roof is probably part of a trap that will collapse the ceiling of the mine if anyone triggers the cork.” The others were skeptical – it seemed unlikely the inhabitants of the mine would collapse their only exit to the outside world just to stop intruders. Sandoval had an alternative explanation. “You saw a cork, attached to a string, and heard someone humming. They’ve got a guard posted inside, and he’s not very attentive because he’s fishing! The rope is probably attached to some alarm mechanism farther inside the mine.”

Bella shook her head sadly. Poor Sandoval. The bard might know lots of songs and fancy poems, but when it came to real life, he didn’t have a clue. She’d been born and raised in the port city of Magnimar, and knew a thing or two about fish. Everyday people didn’t catch their own fish – they got them from fishmongers. And the fishmongers got them from fishermen, who went out to sea every day in boats, and came back with big nets full of hundreds of fish. Really – did Sandoval think that flimsy little string could haul in a great huge net full of fish? And what would the cork have to do with it? No, she’d once heard of a trap that a wizard had set in his study, where if you opened any door or window, the change in air pressure would cause poison darts to fire at the intruder. This had to be something like that.

While Bella tried to puzzle out the elaborate mechanism she was sure was poised to crush them under tons of rock, the rest of the party tried to figure out how to get into the mine without alerting the guard. If only there was some way to approach without being heard. Koya listened for awhile, then spoke up: “Why don’t I just cast Silence on one of you?” Everyone looked at her in surprise – they’d all but forgotten the old woman. But Koya’s suggestion quickly turned into a plan. Shinjiro and Bella would climb the rope down to water-level, and then Koya would cast her Silence spell on a rock that Bella was carrying (since the spell would only last a few rounds). Hopefully that would give them a chance to get the jump on the guard. Assuming there was only one guard. And assuming Bella wasn’t right about the ceiling falling on them.

The pair was able to climb down without incident, and all sounds disappeared as Koya cast her spell. Shinjiro took a deep breath and ducked under the water, while Bella held back (if she was right, there was no sense in them both being crushed). Shinjiro swam underwater until he reached the side passage, then propelled himself out of the water

Sitting on a pile of rocks in the alcove, holding a crude fishing pole, was a filthy man with

matted hair and clad in rotting hides; as Shinjiro sucked in his breath, the stench of death almost knocked him over. Nonetheless, he struck out with his fists. One blow landed solidly but the cannibal deflected the other with his fishing pole. He leapt to his feet, but didn’t attack or even try to defend himself; instead he was intent on reaching the rope that dangled from the ceiling on the opposite side of the alcove. Shinjiro tried to block him, but his footing on the loose rocks was unsure. Bella dashed into the mine and tried to leap on the guard’s back, but he shrugged the girl off and grabbed the rope. Shinjiro landed two more solid blows to his kidneys and he dropped lifeless into the water – but not before giving the alarm rope a hard jerk.

Bella alerted the rest of the party, who quickly climbed down to join them. Now that the guard had sounded the alarm, they were sure that someone would soon come to investigate, and decided to wait for them in the alcove and another narrow side passage nearby. Shinjiro decided to explore ahead, to hopefully give some advance warning of anyone approaching. A narrow passage led off to the right about 25’ down, and he entered it to see where it led. As he waded down it, he suddenly found that there was no floor beneath him. He had blundered into a vertical shaft from the old mine, now completely flooded, and was sinking beneath the surface. Luckily, he wasn’t wearing armor and was by now pretty practiced at swimming, so he was able to struggle back to the surface and get back to solid ground. He retraced his steps, and continued south down the main passage – and immediately fell into yet another open shaft. Once again, he was able to keep from drowning, and paddled to the opposite side of the pit. Here was an intersection of passages, leading in all four directions. However, he could see a lighted torch at the end of the passage to the east; moreover, the alarm rope from the alcove led in that direction.

As he swam back across the pit towards where the party was waiting, his hand brushed something under the water. He realized that there were ropes strung across the pit just below water level – that would solve the problem of how to get the armored members of the party across without them sinking.

When he returned, he found a heated argument in progress. Most of the party was in favor of continuing to wait for whoever was in the mine to come to them. But Ameiko was having none of it. If the cannibals had Isabelle and the Stark boy prisoner, she knew what they were likely doing to them, and they couldn’t afford to waste any time rescuing them. They had noticed that the guard’s hands and mouth were smeared with blood, and they could only hope that it was from eating the freshly butchered horsemeat.

So they moved on into the mine. Everyone made it across the flooded pit without incident, and turned down the passage to the east. As they did, they noticed that the footing was becoming more slippery, and occasionally felt unseen things brushing against their legs. As Sawyer and Shinjiro turned and began heading south, bony rotting arms thrust up from below the dark water’s surface and began grabbing at the party. Sandoval and Koya found themselves pulled underwater, held in the steely embrace of undead arms. Zhustin’s normal acid attacks would be ineffective against the creatures underwater, so he focused his efforts on helping Koya break free, but the thing holding her was stronger than both of them together. Nicki had no such problem with using his Disrupt Undead, and Marie used her Channel Positive Energy against all of the attackers. Although Koya was underwater and in danger of drowning, she managed to get to her holy symbol and did a Channeling of her own. Shinjiro killed the grappler threatening Sawyer, and Sawyer killed the one holding Sandoval. Sandru rushed to Koya’s aid, killing the thing holding her, and pulling his foster mother to the surface.

As the party caught their breath, Sandru looked puzzled. "When we were here before, we didn't see any sign of undead." The party wondered if in the intervening years, all the cannibals had transformed into undead. But if so, how to explain the guard? Knowing there was only one way to find out, they continued determinedly on. The passage continued south for about 40’, then made a turn back to the east. Shinjiro peered carefully around the corner. Ahead, the ground rose to a room of relatively dry ground, lit by torches. A weathered rowboat was pulled up onto the shore. The rope they had been following led to a small ship’s bell in the room ahead. But of greater interest were the trio of bloated zombies shuffling aimlessly around the room.

Shinjiro alerted the rest of the party, and they prepared to attack. Nicki crept into position, then let loose a Disrupt Undead on the center zombie. That got their attention, and they began to moan and shuffle towards the party. Shinjiro moved forward and let fly a pair of shuriken. He hit two of the creatures, and one fell to the ground, but as it did so, it burst with a spray of pus and decaying body fluids. The two remaining zombies continued forward, and three more appeared from corridors to the north and south. One shuffled up to Shinjiro and clawed at him, but missed. Marie stepped forward and Channeled the power of Desna. The one in front of her and Shinjiro died, spraying them both with pus. Koya also did Channel Positive Energy, and Bella, Marie, and Sandoval fired arrows until all the zombies lay dead.

Marie and Shinjiro tried to wash the zombie guts off themselves as best they were able, and the party moved forward onto dry land. But just as they set foot on the shore, a mob of filthy, unkempt cannibals rushed out at them from the passages the zombies had come from.

The PCs gained 314 XP for the night, putting them at 3826 XP with 5000 required for level 3. We’ll be at Leo’s next week, and Scott will be singing.