Githyanki Slavers and Xvart Discoveries

As the previous fight had concluded, John ordered the summoned Earth Elemental to give chase to the escaping Githyanki, hoping to prevent him from sounding an alarm. It stepped down into the earth and passed under the Wall of Force blocking the passage. But its' speed was too slow to feasibly catch the quick footed Githyanki and was recalled. With that, thoughts turned to how they could pass the blocked passage. John thought that the Elemental might be able to create a whole in the rock around the Wall of Force and it did just that. Thus they were able to pass through and give chase.

The small party proceeded deeper in to the cave tunnels looking for any targets and info they could find. A little further down the passage split three ways. They decided to follow the center path and were not disappointed. Not more than 500 yards down they spotted light at the far end of the passage and there stood the wizard. The order was given to charge him and the Elemental lumbered forward only to be struck by a Lightning Bolt from the wizard that knocked it down. Badly wounded now, John set it free from his control and it melted in to the earth having proved extremely useful.

The rest of the party attempted to close on the wizard but were cut off by two more warriors that engaged Raifer, who had charged farther ahead than the rest. The party fell in behind him and attempted to attack the new targets. With his Yawara in hand, he jumped the closest Githyanki and dragged it down. Parker cast another Bless spell to aid the party and Nozenstein engaged the second warrior. Duther and Gladden used their ranged attacks on the standing warrior and hit with Gladden striking with the first critical hit of what was to be his best fighting day. Several blows were exchanged with the standing warrior while John cast his own lightning bolt at the Wizard. As it struck its target knocking him over, the wizards own lightning bolt discharged striking the ceiling above him causing several rocks to fall and cause him more damage.

The wizard retreated behing cover of the passage entrance and the party moved up. Raifer struck his opponent with a crushing blow, putting his hand deep in to the skull of the Githyanki, killing it. The others pressed their attacks on the standing warrior and struck it down quickly with their concentrated effort. John followed up his attack with an Ice Storm at the wizard, knocking it down again and the party closed quickly with it. As it stood, Raifer charged it and leaped in to hand to hand with it. But before anyone could get an attack off, the wizard disappeared leaving them alone in what appeared to be something of an office room.

The group searched the desks and other furinture finding nothing of real interest and turned to the door at the far end of the room to press on. But the door was nothing more than a fake opening to more cave wall. They then conducted a search for a secret passage and found one in the east wall. A search for traps was conducted and Raifer found a deadfall trigger that he was also able to disarm. As they opened the door, steam rushed out of the opening and they were all overwhelmed by the stench of sewar like conditions.

Peering through the doorway, they saw another Githyanki standing across the open hallway and several Xvarts. Sounds of a mining operation could be heard and an intense heat could be felt from the chamber beyond. In the group slipped as quietly as they could. When they pressed forward, one of the Xvarts turned and saw them, gave a shout and the stealthy attack was over. The group raced in to the room, Raifer and Nozenstein charging to engage the Xvart and Githyanki nearest.

Behind the enemy there could be seen many other Xvarts dressed in tatters and chained to the walls performing their mining duties. Several smelting fires burned in the chamber, a small stream ran through and a rail car line stretched from one end to the other emerging and disappearing from tunnels at both ends. Four other Xvarts, dressed in armour, were obviously henchmen. Three moved to attack and the fourth went to run for the rail car to get help.

Duther and Gladden, with another masterful sling shot, attacked the Xvart, only to see their missiles deflected by some kind of blue electric field. Raifer then struck the target and cut through killing the blue headed enemy. Nozenstein began to trade shots with the Gith who was wielding a silver blade. John cast a Fireball at the escaping Xvart to stop his flight. The blast struck inside the cart, knocking it and the Xvart over. Parker evoked a Dust Devil and directed it to engage two of the other Xvarts that were rushing up to attack.

Free of his engage target, Raifer charged forward to meet the one Xvart carrying a crossbow. His shot went wide and at that moment he spotted the fourth Xvart was getting up and attempting to run for help again. Raifer gave up his target and moved over to the fleeing target. Noze and the missile attackers concentrated on the lone Gith with Noze taking the brunt of the damage. But once again, Gladden hurled a perfect sling bullet at the Githyanki, knocking it down to one knee. It struck again at Noze, hitting him severely. But this time Noze brought his axe down cleaving the wounded warrior in two.

Rafier moved over and cut the retreating Xvart down, but was shot from behind by the target he left. The bolt was poisoned, but he was able to fight off the effects and turn on the target. The group closed on the remaining three. Two of them gave up the fight but the crossbowmen had to be killed.

They searched the bodies and found keys for the lock and freed all but one, whose bindings were older and the keys would not unlock his. They searched them for traps and eventually were able to pick the old and rusted locks of this most obviously older Xvart. Their attention turned to the material that was being mined, an odd black ore. The group took some of the smelted material and some of the raw mined material and offered to escort the slaves out to safety.

Raifer offered the slavers swords to the prisoners and particularly to the older one who stated that he hadn't used one in 40 years. Rafier let him know that it was 'like riding a wagon', you never forget. They then left the caves, exiting as quick as they could. They emerged to find that it was dark outside having been in there for quite some time. They moved away from the opening about a couple of miles and made a camp. The group was exhausted and quickly fell asleep, even those on watch. Raifer woke to see the old Xvart up and tending to a cooking fire and the sun at midday.

They ate a meal and talked briefly. The Xvart was evasive and reluctant to speak, eventually introducing himself as Parfek. Afterwards they moved on hugging the mountains. After two more days the group arrived back at the outpost with all their freed slaves. Raifer immediately went for his Reflecting Pool to talk with King Al-Alin. The king was obviously interested in the details of what they found and was stunned to hear the name of the old prisoner and identified him as the missing King of the Xvart nations. It was decided that more help was needed and that they would gather info, train and see about getting some other personnel to investigate the caves further.

Word was sent to Midway for any available assistance and requesting that the Smith Vora come to see this new ore. More messages were sent to the old Bard Righty to ask for any lore he may have on the area about the areas inhabitants, stories or anything else. And preparations were begun to determine who and when they would return to the caves.

The next day a Xvart party, led by Gliksnar came in to the camp. Raifer met them and went to have discussions with the released slaves. He addressed Parfek as king and was not received warmly. Parfek did not understand or believe what he was hearing, but Gliksnar and Raifer shared some of their recent meetings. The king was very wary but conceded to rethink his position after Raifer informed him thatthey would be going back to free the remaining slaves. Parfek instructed him to fly a blue flag at the outpost when they returned and they would come back for the people. At that time he would believe more of what was being said.

With that the group made preparations to send out a separate search party to investigate where the orcs that had attacked came from to discover anything they could about what was going on with their community and armies.

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