We’re in a VOLCANO?!?

Tollemay began the day screaming for his somewhat prized student, Myla. Bellowing as usual, impatient as ever he waited in his lab space. Myla hurried in and was given orders. Tollemay had received reports of an easily acceible and collectible precious mineral deposit. Providing only the vaguest of instructions as to where the location was and a description of how to find it he introduced Myla to D’artangan, who would be her escort and protector for the collection mission. Myla was to gather up and fill two casks. One with coal and the other with sulfur. There would also be a small group of adventurers he had hired to assist waiting for them at the adventurer’s guild as they spoke.

Off went Myla with D’artangan, carry the two casks, in tow. At the guild Myla was able to quickly identify the group of seven, Zophia, Oscar, Gil, Cord, Addie, Taern and Rylei. She filled the group in on her current mission, which was greeted with some consternation byZophia , they organized up and with Oscar offering his skills as a map maker off they went.

They headed north out of Midway and broke west once out of the mountain pass. The information they had put the target cave somewhere between 10 and 20 miles west. All day they marched until they spotted a small pack of wolves approaching. Hoping to let them just pass they held position but the animals were determined to attack. Addie stepped forward and tried to use her ability of Animal Defiance to turn the beasts away but they were unaffected and a battle was begun.

Oscar fired off a Bless spell to aid the party. They group moved to take positions for the fight and Gil was the first to be bitten by a wolf as he attempted to maneuver around one. Addie, undaunted by her first failure tried again and this time was able to repel one of the three wolves they faced. It turned and began to flee. The creature was struck quickly in succession by Gil, Taern and finally Addie who finished it off. Zophia, facing two of the beasts began sweeping attacks. She struck the first with such a blow that it fell over form the force. Continuing her sweep she hit the second and also drove it to the ground whereupon she let out a barbarian battle screech.

Luck was not with them just yet as the battle appeared to be going their way another, much larger, wolf appeared around a rise in front of them. It charged in and headed for Taern but the creature was repelled and stunned, unable to attack. With an opening provided, Oscar and Gil struck heavy blows on the big beast. As the wolf gathered its senses it struck out at and bit down hard on Addie. It turned to attack Gil but stumbled and hurt itself. With the opening provided Gil struck with his weapon and scored a massive hit felling the big beast.

Meanwhile, Zophia was having some trouble with the two that she was battling. As they scrambled to the feet and maneuvered for position, one wolf leaped up on to a large boulder for a better angle to attack. It bit down and struck Zophia. The beast was then hit by a Magic Missile cast by Rylie. As the tide of their attack turned against them the two remaining wolves leapt at and dragged Zophia down. The first wolf snapped his jaws in to Zophia drawing blood with the gnash. She responded by punching her fist through the head of the wolf, killing it.

There was now just Zophia and one wolf left tangled up. Oscar tried to cast a Cure Light down on to Zophia but the spell was ineffective. Zophia nad the wolf traded attacks, each damaging the other as the remainder of the group watched, not wanting to chance an attack in to the pile. A second attempt to heal by Oscar was successful and buoyed by this Zophia managed one final blow striking down the wolf.

The group used a few healing spells to recover. Zophia requested some time to butcher one fo the wolves for a fresh meal that night and while she performed that task the spell casters made use of the time to recharge their spent spells. Once completed, they moved on and made camp for the night as the sun was setting. They estimated they only made about 5 miles of walking distance. Fortunately, the night was quiet and restful.

They began the next day and after only an hour or so of walking Myla and Cord spotted the cave mouth entrance they believed they were looking to find. They moved up cautiously to investigate and identify if this was indeed their goal. As they approached they saw the tell tale tracks Tollemay had told them about of coal and sulfur dust leading from the cave mouth opening. But in that dust they spotted ant tracks. But not just ordinary ants, huge ant tracks.

Deciding to move in and search the cave a little closer Zophia lit a torch and moved inside. Myla urgently warned her to put the torch out as the dust on the ground could catch fire and possible explode. Zophia viewed this idea with disdain and possibly some magic. But agreeing to put out the torch she went to snuff it in the ground and the entire party shouted for her to stop. Instead they used some water to douse the torch and Oscar cast a Light spell on it to accomplish the same effect. And in they went.

The cave was very tunnel like. Not very wide but about as tall as it was wide. It tracked back in a rather straight line direction. They could see the mixed mineral tracks under their feet as they ventured further in. The cave split in two directions some ways in with two distinct trails of the minerals each heading down only one path. They decided to follow the sulfur trail first. This tunnel was very straight but very narrow. At one point the opening was no more than 2 or 3 feet by 2 or three feet forcing the party to pass through single file very carefully. The tracks continued with the trail of sulfur getting more solid as they went along. Some distance down they spotted an area where the sulfur was solid and easily gathered up and in to the cask. Myla was struck by the structure of the tunnel and the idea dawned on her that the tunnel was most likely a fissure in the stone that was hollowed out by an old lava tube. The walls were charred a long time ago and the sulfur was present just behind the burnt surface. The idea they were standing in a lava tube was not received well by Oscar.

With the sulfur gathered they back tracked to the original cave split and followed that trail. This path twisted and turned dramatically. They went for about 45 minutes through these passages and eventually found an exposed vein of coal. They dug in and quickly gathered enough to fill the second cask. With both now filled Zophia took the sulfur cask and D’artangan carried the coal. But as they began their trek out they heard the sounds of ants moving about coming from both directions. Looking about Myla noticed they were almost to the original tunnel they came down where they found the sulfur. A hurried discussion amongst themselves ensued and the decision was made to try the way ahead to the much shorter direct tunnel way out. They were concerned with how much time remained on the light spell and whether or not the way ahead actually did lead to the other passage.

They moved ahead at their best pace. Running for a brief period of time they finally arrived at a junction that met up with the other passage. They turned and ran single file as quickly as they could. At one point while running, Oscar stopped, he bent over to gather up something and then moved on again. It would have been no matter except Taern ran smack in to the back of him. Soon thereafter they found the original sulfur deposit they had mined confirming they were on the tunnel they hoped.

Moving as best they could they made their way to the small bottleneck opening, slowly moving through. But up ahead in the main chamber they could now see giant ants milling about. They moved through the small opening quietly as possible, gathered up all their force together and stepped forward. The torch had been hidden to keep the light from sight but now they exposed it gathering the attention of the ants. Holding steady, they let the ants do as they wanted. Some move up to investigate the group but none made any hostile moves and they all went back about their business.

A decision was made to avoid a fight with these creatures. They moved single file along the wall trying to not antagonize the ants. But the slow gentle pace did attract some attention as the ants occasionally moved to sense the party. Not once, but 4 separate times the ants moved close enough and with enough curiosity to startle a party member in to a reactive swing. Cord, Gil and Zophia twice all were urged in to a reflexive attack but none struck any of the ants. While it was an arduous creep they managed to navigate their way to the cave exit without starting another melee.

With their quarry in hand they made their way back as quickly as possible. With the excpetion of a light rain that fell overnight, they arrived in Midway the next day without incident and headed directly for the Gold Dragon Alchemy shop where Tollemay was waiting. He paid them their fee and provided Oscar a "generous" bonus gratuity for the maps he created during their trip.

We also welcome our two new players to our table. Long may they enjoy the company and the adventure!

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