The large bonfire burning in the center of the room cast a dancing glow, eerily flickering across a massive trail of blood spread across the floor. In the distance, Thora was sure they heard the sounds of feet running, but it might have just been the adrenaline pumping from the recent battle. Spreading out, the crew checked the three exits from the main cavern entrance. It was Duanne who picked up some sort of sound coming from a wide open service tunnel to the deeper parts of the mine. The tortle waved the others over to the mine entrance, gathering together before they followed the wizard’s lead into the dark tunnel.
The magical light held by the wizard showed a widening cavern and a heavy-set shape upon the floor. The dead eyes of the dwarven miner stared up at them, seeming to blame them for not arriving sooner. Thora wondered about what might have been. What if they had gotten here just a few minutes faster? Would this miner have survived? Did he have a family?
“Why did these fools have to take off on their own?” the soldier muttered as they moved along, following the bloody footsteps on the stones.
Thora was brought back to the moment by a movement up ahead. As they all slowly advanced into the cavern system, Thora noticed the shape of a creature moving along one of the many branching tracks. The slender frame, lanky legs, hunched form, and hide clothing made it clear that this was no miner. Expertly leaping over the edge of a nearby mining cart, Thora took cover and gestured down the tunnel to alert the rest of the crew.
It had seemed obvious, at least to Thora, that the action of jumping into a mine cart to get out of sight was an attempt to conceal and not bring extra attention to them. Instead, the rest of the group seemed to take that as an indication to aggressively charge forward and draw as much attention as possible. For the next few minutes chaos reigned across the mine.
A shout rang out through the tunnels: “SAVE EVERYONE!”
Peeking over the edge of the mine cart, Thora saw the source of the noise. The shelled figure of Duanne rapidly surged his peg-legged frame down a different tunnel, away from the gnoll ahead of them, yelling the entire time. If there were any gnolls at all that had not heard his first shout, they would definitely have heard it now!
Time to dance
Left behind by the rushing tortle, the rest of the party prepared for the oncoming assault. Gnolls and their hunting hyenas seemed to come at them from every direction. The moment one of them would fall, it felt like another would take its place. Somewhere off in the dark, Thora could hear the sounds of battle and the wizard shouting and running, followed by shrieks. And possibly explosions? The dwarf wanted to go and help Duanne but their hands were a little full at the moment.
Feinting and slashing, Thora worked down the tunnels with Zearach and Alandal, the trio trying their best to stay alive. A pain surged through the soldier’s shoulder as the wild-eyed creature in front of Thora bit deep. The smell of the creature was overpowering, but Thora pushed the gnoll off with a boot to the chest, putting space between them yet again. Sliding to the left, and then to the right, the dwarf tried to find a tactical advantage. Thora’s thrusts were awkward, frustratingly ineffective, but at least the soldier was keeping the gnoll’s attention, buying the time the others needed to finish off the other part of the pack. Again, the snarling maw reached for Thora’s neck, the dwarf needing to use an arm to hold it off. Unsatisfied, the gnoll’s long tongue licked across the dwarf’s armour, seeming to be tasting a future snack.
A quick glance back showed that the others were locked in a heated battle of their own, but that it seemed to be swinging in their favour. Off in the darkness, the sounds of battle meant that Duanne was still alive, at least for now. If only Thora could get free!
The momentary distraction proved to be almost fatal. An incredible pain coursed through Thora’s body as a fire erupted in the dwarf’s left leg. That split second to look away had cost the dwarf dearly. The grinning gnoll now held a spear, having taken advantage of the dwarf’s distraction. Thora’s own blood could be seen dripping from the tip of the crude weapon as the hyena-faced warrior cackled.
“This dwarf-licker is getting on my nerves!” Thora shouted in frustration. “Light him up, boys!”
Protecting the injured leg, Thora circled around the gnoll, trying to find a way to force it into being surrounded by the others. The spear-wielding gnoll attempted to break away but was soon boxed in on all sides, blows raining down upon him. With help from the others, Thora finally was able to make contact, exacting some revenge upon the beast with a final blow. There was a valuable lesson here: stay with your friends!
From the darkness to Thora’s left, the sound of a screaming gnoll rang out. Duanne’s work, no doubt!
“I’m coming for you!” shouted Thora, charging into the dark tunnel, hoping to reach the wizard before the gnolls captured him. The trio of them rushed forward, finding heavily singed gnolls rabidly chasing a dancing wizard. Duanne was dodging around them, electricity arcing from his claws, single-handedly fending off the pack and doing his best just to stay alive. Blows rained down on his shell, but the tortle managed to keep moving as Thora and the others began their assault from the rear.
With their arrival the gnolls became distracted, unsure of where to press the attack. Thora saw a look cross the tortle’s face as if he was considering his options. The wizard suddenly started running away, a gnoll’s spear clanging against his hard shell, and then the tortle was gone, shouting something about shark tunnels and missing dwarves, and telling the others to keep moving to find the miners. It was foolish, but at least the wizard was excellent at focusing on the immediate priority!
You reap what you sow
With Alandal and Zearach pinning the gnolls down, and Duanne charging around the tunnels, Thora took the opportunity to quickly explore a tunnel and try to find where the dwarves may have gone. Throwing caution to the wind, the usually careful soldier ran as quickly as possible, heavy feet slapping the stone floor. Coming to a complete stop, there was a brief moment where everything seemed to be standing still. The gnolls in the chamber stared wide-eyed at the sudden appearance of the dwarf in front of them, just as Thora stared back at them.
As the hunters and their hyenas sprang into action, Thora raised both blades to defend against the oncoming creatures.
“Looking for me?” Thora shouted at them, trying to taunt the hunters. Earlier, the dwarf had considered trying to pretend to be one of the miners to draw them away and, hopefully, these beasts weren’t very bright. The dwarf turned and ran full out back down the tunnel, towards Zearach and Alandal who were rushing to catch up. With any luck, those gnolls would run right into an ambush.
Alandal and Thora met up first, ready to team up against the hunters, but then the elf came rushing past. Faster than both of them, Zearach quickly floated down the hall, not heeding the yelled warning that Thora shouted too late. Instead of the gnolls rushing into an ambush, it was the ranger who found himself surrounded by a hungry pack of hunters. Zearach did his best to hold the ground, but there were simply too many of them as the swarm thrashed through the elf, and then headed for Alandal.
Squeezing by along the wall, Thora rushed behind one of the gnolls, trying to take its attention off of the bard. Together, the dwarf and the dragonborn took care of business, shoving their way into the melee. Somewhere in the echoing tunnels, Thora could hear the sound of a wooden peg leg slamming repeatedly into the rough stone of the tunnels. It seemed to be getting closer.
The dwarf locked eyes with the snarling beast standing atop the elf’s rapidly bleeding body and attempted to shove him out of the way with a kick, trying to clear space to reach Zearach. With all eyes on Thora now, Alandal took advantage, weaving lyrical melodies and rhythms that seemed to sooth the soul. The elf gasped for air as he came back around to middle of the battle, a large gnoll’s underside hovering mere inches from his face.
Charging forward with a shoulder down, Thora slammed the gnoll backwards and began swinging wildly, trying to get the pack’s attention. From somewhere behind the hyena-faced creatures came a blast of magic and a shouting wizard, boxing the beasts in. Blows rained down upon the dwarf, but somehow Thora found a final burst of adrenaline to keep standing, swinging, while the others surrounded the gnolls and took them out, one by one.
The blood in Thora’s eyes was making it difficult to see and the dwarf wasn’t sure at the moment how much of it was the gnolls. There was a voice in the dwarf’s head that suggested taking a nice nap, just a quick rest, but the desire to live was too strong to give into that tempting thought. All around were the sound of blades swinging in the air, clanging against armour, or digging into flesh. That was the only focus at the moment. Through the chaos the dwarf could see the determined looks of the others. They would do no surrendering today to these gnolls.
Eventually, there was but one of the beasts left. It swung wildly at Thora with the sort of desperation shown in one’s final moments. After missing Thora’s shoulders by a narrow margin, the creature paused and shrugged their shoulders.
“Surrender?” came the questioning plea from the suddenly docile creature.
Thora responded to the request quickly and silently, knocking the gnoll out with the pommel of a sword. The beast slumped to the ground at Thora’s feet with a thud and the group finally had a moment to catch their breath. Kneeling down, Thora reached into their pack to find some rope to tie up the unconscious gnoll. When the dwarf turned around again to tie up the gnoll’s claws, it was clear by the lifeless eyes and still chest that the beast was no longer in the land of the living. Perhaps it had been bleeding more than Thora thought? Perhaps the impact with the ground had fatally wounded it? Or perhaps it had something to do with an oddly shaped indent in the creatures head that seemed roughly the size of the bottom end of a wooden leg?
What a lovely panic room you have here
With quiet all around them and the frenzy of battle finally subsided, Thora and the others slowly made their way down the tunnel in front of them. This one seemed different, with multiple steel doors built into the mine walls. Small slats seemed to be installed at about Thora’s eye level, inset into the frame and only opened from the inside. Sneaking up to the steel door, the dwarf took a closer look and noticed that there was no handle that could be used to open the barrier from this side. How strange.
Zearach came up next to Thora and knocked on the door, yielding not much but the echo against the mine walls. Further down the hall there stood another similar door upon upon which Alandal attempted the same, only to hear a strange response of squealing and flapping about from behind that one. It was Duanne who finally broke the silence.
“Sheriff Deen sent us to save you, come out!” shouted the tortle, not holding anything back in terms of volume. Any gnolls left in the mines would surely be arriving shortly!
Shortly after, a voice responded, asking them who they were. “If you’re gnolls, you have to tell us!” stated the voice, with the drawl common to the folks living in these parts.
Hoping to earn their trust, Thora switched to the guttural tones of the dwarven language, heavily tinged with the Sakhar mountain accent. Not all dwarves spoke the same dialect and for some the Common tongue had crept into most everyday use, but the soldier was fairly certain that gnolls would have a hard time getting the pronunciation correct.
“Unhund’dharok” stated Thora simply, explaining to the voice on the other side of the door that they were not gnolls. At the sound of their ancestral language being spoken, the door slid aside, revealing a group of dwarves in a well-provisioned bunker. The survival shelter seemed to have additional bracing to protect the miners in the case of a cave-in and also featured small bored tunnels to the surface to deliver fresh air as well as ample provisions. The dwarves could hide out here for quite a while as they waited for rescue.
“Not rightly sure where the others may be,” explained one of their hosts. “The plan was to sneak away and hide in these them bunkers until, well, we hadn’t gotten to that part yet.”
It was a solid plan. The bunkers should have been safe for a few days, meaning that for the time being the time pressure was off. If all had gone according to the miner’s plan, the other dwarves should now be safe in their bunkers, awaiting word of rescue.
Thora felt light-headed and, by the looks of their blood-soaked set of armour, there was good reason . The dwarf had been awake now for over 36 hours and was exhausted. Everything hurt. Settling down on a nearby chair, surrounded by dwarves and allies and friends, the warrior didn’t even have time to pull out a ball of yarn before the fatigue set in fully. Eyes closing, a snore softly rumbled into Thora’s beard. It was time to surrender to sleep.
Credits
- Cover image: “Mine” by Steam user ‘Napoleon Bonaparte‘ (sourced from: http://artpictures.club/autumn-2023.html) )
- Dwarf in chair image: “Battle weary dwarf”, generated by Jason St-Cyr using NightCafe
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