Session Twenty Two
Gathering her wits about her Grace peered over the lip of the pit in to the darkness below, unattended the torches in the winding room were near expended however as they flickered & died Grace's gut feeling was that the creatures had given up waiting for her to descend. Knowing that her only way out of these catacombs was to go forward grace sighed & began to strip the rope ends hanging from the ceiling & knot them to together, this completed Grace took some time to rest & nibble a little of her remaining meager cache of waybread before preparing herself for the climb down.
As Grace lowered herself below the winding room ceiling she tensed half expecting the bug bears to leap towards her, when it didn't happen she drew her sword & dropped the last few feet, again when nothing happened grace crept forward towards the barricaded passage, all seemed quiet so, hugging the wall, she crawled forward into the passage & then into the guards quarters on the right, although the torches had long expired the last of the coals in the fire pit allowed Grace to see that the room was unoccupied with the exception of the battered goblin manacled to the far wall, further investigation revealed the creature was now no longer breathing.
Calming herself Grace relighted her lantern shielding the beam with its darkened glass lens, creeping into the passage Grace stopped, suddenly realising that Stunty's body had disappeared, scuttling forward Grace stumbled over first Stunty's two handed mace & then Thorn's backpack & spear, crouching, Grace rummaged through Thorn's bag, discarding the more mundane items Grace took Thorn's back pack & continued.
As the ballista was revealed in the pale light from her lantern Grace let out a sigh of relief, the bug bears were no where in sight, neither was Thorn's corpse. Quickly grace cut the bow string & smashed the firing pin disabling the ballista as best she could, against the wall were several more heavy bladed bolts.
Just beyond the ballista's position the passage twisted to the left & narrowed, a few feet further a heavy oak door stood ajar. Listening all seemed silent beyond, holding her breath & closing the lamps shutter Grace pushed the door wide.
Through the doorway several glowing braziers allowed Grace to see what lay beyond, the passage opened out into a high roofed cavern about thirty feet long before it again narrowed & curled to the right, on the left however there was a stone carving some twelve feet high. Taking the chance that she would not be disturbed Grace fed the braziers from the pile of faggots stacked against the passage wall, Admiring the statues form Grace could see it depicted a woman, human possibly elvish, however she could not be sure as its head had been smashed beyond recognition. Poking around the room Grace eventually looked behind the statues base, thrown carelessly behind the statue was Stunty & Thorn's broken bodies, putting aside her feelings of remorse Grace gingerly hooked up the elvish sword only recently acquired by Thorn, off Stunty's back pack there was no sign, with her eyes half closed Grace slipped the sorcerous ring from Thorn's finger as well as gloves of dexterity.
Aware that she could do nothing for her former comrades Grace turned away & with a tear in her eye walked away.
The cavern as she'd suspected narrowed then terminated in a short passage with a door at its end, wary that the bug bears must be some where close Grace rummaged in Thorn's pack until she found what she was looking for, the magical cloak of invisibility that Thorn had claimed for his own but then never attempted to use, slipping it over her own cloak Grace looked at her hand but was surprised to still see it, after a few moments thought it struck her that maybe you needed to empower the cloak for it to operate, hesitatingly Grace opened her mind & let her own power flow into the cloak, slowly her hand faded until it was no more than a shadow, then, gritting her teeth, grace pulled the brass ring & the door open, as it swung open, the door scrapped in the dirt, glancing through Grace saw both bug bears turn towards her, both were carrying heavy bladed halberds however from the look on their faces neither could see her more importantly however looking past the bug bears grace could see a underground river 7 timber jetty.
Moving close to the wall Grace tried to slip past the bug bears however to late she realised that whilst invisible the bug bears could still hear her, hugging the wall Grace almost made it passed them untouched however as the bug bears moved towards the open door they swung the halberd from side to side, the blade of the nearest bug bear clipped her arm, whilst causing no hurt it did alert the bug bear to her presence, it turned to face her general direction, fortunately the second creature had not noticed its companions reaction & it continued towards the door way.
Moving backwards Grace quickly strung her bow & using the magical arrows put several shafts into the nearing bug bear, each arrow appearing from her shadowy form to her eye as it left contact with the bow, the bug bear, whilst not fatally wounded sat plucking at the broken shaft protruding from its chest, the second creature, unsure where the arrows had come from stepped through the doorway & pushed the door closed behind itself.
Turning back to the river grace was amazed to see an open barge sliding towards the jetty, at its prow stood the skeletal figure first seen when she entered this hell hole only days earlier with Thorn, scrabbling at her belt Grace proffered the coin to the silent ferryman, accepting the token he gestured for her to step into the boat, unhesitatingly she did so.
Against the flow of the river & without any apparent aid from the cowled figure, several hundred yards later grace could see the river disappeared under a low cutting however on its left bank there was a small stone built wharf, the boat glided to a stop next to the wharf, the figure gestured to grace that she should get out, grace didn't need a second invitation. From the wharf grace could see a narrow stone cut passage with stairs leading steeply up, ten minutes later grace found herself under the night sky high on the side of the valley which she & Thorn had been traveling through before they'd taken shelter from the storm.
Silently Grace said good bye to Thorn,
"Time to go home" murmured Grace.