* V *

"Anybody hurt?" Coralyn asked.
"A couple of scratches," Gravak answered. "I think Taldir's probably come off worst." The Wizard leaned heavily on the wall and clutched his left shoulder. His robe hung open and scorched.
"Yes…" he answered bitterly, "I may need your help…"

Elantar smirked and asked Buttercup and Gravak if they wanted to "take a see at the chamber upstairs". No one else in the party spoke Orcish, and this was the first time any of them had heard Elantar use the tongue. Gravak translated the information, and the three of them left the rest of the party to recover. They were taking a different route back to the upper room, and Elantar was guiding them through the maze of tunnels.

"Your Orcish is coming on well Elantar," Gravak observed, speaking in the Common tongue. "I didn't realise you'd been using it so much."
"Thanks," the Rogue answered. "I usually pick up languages pretty well. I'm finding your grammar system rather complicated though; more so than I was expecting."
"To be honest, it does show a little," Gravak responded with a grin.

"Wait," she said suddenly. "Tripwire… Taldir was right about one thing at least."
"Already broke wun," Buttercup said, motioning back towards the main entrance. "Song-lady-elf fellovarit."
"What?" Elantar continued to struggle to follow Buttercup's uncouth dialect.
"Sounds like Arden already fell foul of a trip wire back near the entrance," Gravak interpreted. "Buttercup disabled it."
"Yeah, ran into it annit broke," she confirmed.
"Well, no one will fall on this one now. Let's keep going; I'll move ahead and look for any more."

There were no more traps on the way to the hidden room, and none guarding the chamber either. The cavern was roughly circular, with scattered pieces of furniture and equipment tucked away around the edges. A tunnel left the room opposite the opening where they had entered.

"This looks like a good place to stop for the night," Gravak declared.
"It doesn't sound like anyone else is here here. I'll check for other ways in," Elantar answered.

She followed the narrow rocky cavern for around sixty feet before it ended abruptly at a pool of cool water at the foot of a gentle waterfall. It was bitter, but clean and they'd be able to refill their skins here.

When Elantar returned, she found that Gravak had left to fetch the others, although it took Buttercup a couple of attempts to convey all of the information. Elantar decided to see to her wounds, and Buttercup did the same.

It wasn't long before everyone had reassembled in the Kobolds' living quarters.

"Found myself a set of drums!" Arden exclaimed excitedly.
"Probably best not play them tonight," Elantar warned. "We don't know that we're alone."
"I'm not stupid Elantar!" she snapped and retreated to examine her new prize.

Boshley stoked up the Kobolds' fire pit, and they settled for the night to rest.

"If anyone does attack us here, the door's narrow enough for us to defend," Eldarion observed.
"Want to split the watches as usual?" Elantar asked him. "I'm happy to go first." Eldarion nodded his agreement and set off to find a place to rest.

They had a couple of hours before anybody slept, however. Boshley regaled them all with tales of his home, and of how he had come to hate Kobolds so much. Arden gently sang them a few songs of long forgotten heroes. A couple of these were well known, and some of the others joined in the choruses. Buttercup looked on misty-eyed as Arden performed for them, and had a good go at joining in the songs that she could. Her voice wasn't really up to much though…

Taldir was first to retreat to bed, claiming he'd need to rise early to prepare spells for the new day. Eldarion wasn't far behind, his burns from the encounter healing with Coralyn's help.

Once everybody had fallen asleep, Elantar rigged a simple alarm on the chamber opening and set out to explore the tunnels. The alarm was an emergency precaution: she trusted that her senses would detect anything moving in the mines long before it was a danger. She found several more trip wires in the night and disabled them all; an explosive device and two pit traps as well. There wasn't much to be found in the way of loot. The equipment that the Kobolds had been using was crude and no use to them, and none of them carried any coins.

She woke Eldarion about four hours in. He was silent and irritable, but he was always that way when he woke up. Elantar watched him as she began to fall asleep. Despite all the enmity that had passed between them before, she found herself reassured by his presence, and felt safe as she drifted into a peaceful sleep.

A vigorous shake of her shoulder called Elantar from her slumber. Gravak looked furious.
"What have I done?" she asked him.
"Not you…" he responded.
"This is unbelievable!" Taldir bristled. Becoming more alert, she could tell that the whole party were angry about something.
"What's going on?" she asked the room.
"Eldarion's gone," Arden answered gloomily. "He's helped himself to all the coin we found yesterday and left us here."
"But he…" Elantar began. "He was here, just a few hours ago. He seemed fine… this makes no sense."
"I just can't believe he'd have done this..." Boshley muttered forlornly.
"I don't seem to have lost anything," Elantar added, after a quick check of her equipment. She was somewhat relieved at that.
"No one's lost anything personal," said Arden. "He was probably too afraid of waking us."
"It doesn't look like he touched any of the Kobolds' stuff either," Coralyn added trying to distract them. Leaving their feelings of betrayal aside for now, they decided to turn their attention to the equipment scattered around the chamber.

There were a number of chests around the room, all of which proved to be locked. Elantar had examined them overnight, and was confident that she'd be able to pick them open.
"Did anyone find any keys on the Kobolds?" Taldir asked.
"Oh, Taldir…" Arden began. "You're new here, so we'll let that one go." By the time she had finished speaking, Elantar was lifting back the lid of the nearest chest.
"Gems!" Boshley exclaimed with excitement. Elantar had spotted something else though.
"Some writing here that I can't read… What language is that?" She asked, "Dwarvish? Draconic?"
"It's Draconic," Taldir confirmed, as he took it from her hand. "It's a list of gems," he said after a few seconds, "each with a corresponding value." He began to pick through the chest and check it off against the inventory as Elantar moved on to the next chest. The second lock took a little longer to figure out, and by the time she'd got it open, Taldir had checked off the first's contents against his list.

"Looks like they're all here; the Kobolds' valuations seem pretty close to me as well."
"More stones in this one," Elantar announced as she lifted back the second lid. "They're all black." Gravak took sudden interest and approached her.
"They look like Onyx," the Cleric suggested.
"The Kobolds thought so too," Taldir added after examining what was presumably another inventory list. "Twenty-six pieces altogether, and they have valued them all." The black stones were in a variety of sizes, and this, presumably, was what gave them different values. Gravak continued to look on earnestly, and thoughtfully handled a couple of the stones while Coralyn gazed at him cautiously. Elantar had no idea what this could have meant, but turned her attention to the next chest. This turned out to contain a number of alchemical flasks; mostly acid bombs, but a few flasks of Alchemists' Fire, like the ones that they had been attacked with, and five Thunderstones. Taldir had wandered over and snatched up yet another inventory.

"Interesting…" he began, and let it hang in the air. Elantar wasn't about to humour him with any questions. The others had gathered round to look at the new items, and Taldir continued. "It looks like they had a strategy for passing through the unstable cavern that we came through," he announced, reading from the parchment. "They would set off a Thunderstone to drop anything that was loose, and then pass through the cave safely."
"I for one will find that useful for getting out of here!" Boshley squeaked. Several of the party nodded in agreement.

The final chest contained some equipment: a pair of bracers; a shortbow; a small bag and a rapier, along with several sheaves of parchment. Taldir took these up and began to read. After a few moments, he stifled a chuckle.

"They were fools," he announced. "These sheets contain all of their guesses about these and other magical items in the mine." He turned over a couple of pages, continuing to read, and letting out the occasional "wrong," or "simpering idiot," or something else dismissive. A few seconds later, he exploded into raucous laughter.
"Err… care to explain the joke?" Arden asked.
"The wand we found in the Otyugh's pit…" he paused to regain his composure, "the wand… they fed the wand to it!"
"What did they think that would achieve?" Gravak asked, puzzled.
"Ha! I don't think they were trying anything... they're victims of their own bureaucracy," he answered. This made it no clearer to anyone, and Taldir continued. "Hmm… This wand… This might explain something." He took out the wand that they had looted from the Otyugh's pit and gesticulated directly at Elantar. She flinched, but nothing happened whatsoever.
"What do you think you're doing!" she snapped with both anger and relief.
"Relax Rogue. If they were right about this, I can never use it. They suggest that it is loaded with Divine Magic. Coralyn," he said, handing her the wand, "see what you can make of it."
"I use Divine Magic too, you know," Gravak announced, glaring at Taldir.
"I know," the Wizard responded. "Not really your style though, is it? Wands?" Gravak said nothing in response, just quietly glowered at him. Elantar reflected that she'd be handing over whatever he wanted if she were Taldir. The Wizard turned his attention back to the sheets and muttered something insulting in Elvish. Elantar decided to store it for later, should the Orc ask.

He scanned down a few more items and then paused.
"Gnome, the shield you are carrying," he began.
"What of it?" Boshley asked.
"They've guessed at a Least Enchantment spell, which, to be fair, seems likely."
"It does seem sturdier than my old one," he replied.
"The interesting thing is how it got there," Taldir paused for effect. He was clearly enjoying the attention and, being the only one present able to read Draconic, enjoying demonstrating his superior knowledge. He'd never captivate a room like Arden could though.
"Well?" Coralyn asked. Even she was beginning to lose patience with him now.
"They got their best fighter drunk," he announced, clearly giving up on entertaining them after reading the mood of the party, "and convinced him that he could kill the monster. I suppose we saw the results."

"Anything useful in those pages?" Elantar asked. Taldir glared back at her and turned back to the parchment.
"There seems to be some items that we haven't found yet," he began. "They note somebody going by 'T', who wears some gloves with a weak transmutation on them. It seems likely that someone else is here still. Whatever it is, it's also carrying an axe."
"Finally; some useful information…" Elantar said dismissively. "Are we going to be much longer?"
Taldir ignored her and continued reading. "They have been trading with a Drow, who seems particularly interested in magical items. They've sold it a gem that the Kobolds' state they were glad to be rid of." He scanned down further before stopping.

"Gnome…" he said, peering again over the top of the sheet at Boshley.
"What?" he replied.
"The red gem you took earlier."
"Yeah, it's mine."
"It's of no use to you," he announced.
"I found it, I'm keeping it. There's loads of stones here, you can take a different one."
"None of them grant the carrier the ability to cast extra spells! Hand it over!" He demanded.
"Boshley…" Gravak began. "I understand that you found it, but if it's more use to someone else, it'll benefit us all." Arden and Coralyn stood poised to agree.
"Fine…" the Gnome muttered, and threw it at Taldir's feet before retreating to gather his pack. "Elantar's right. I'm about ready to move on too," he announced as he reached his open bedroll.

"Here's an interesting theory," Taldir continued, "but one I've heard before, of course." When nobody responded, he continued. "Magical clothing has been observed to re-size itself to the wearer."
"Really?" Gravak responded, "let's give it a try."
He took out the belt that one of the first Ogres they encountered had been wearing and wrapped it around his waist. Gravak was bulky, but the belt still hung loose for a few seconds before shrinking to a snug fit. "Seems you may be right," he added with a nod to Taldir, who began smirk.
"Do you notice anything different?" the Wizard asked.
"Well…" he began, pausing to shake his shoulders and take a few steps around the cavern. "My pack seems a little lighter than before." By now, the rest of the party were looking on with interest, and eyeing up the other items that they'd previously thought uselessly sized. Taldir was flicking through the notes the Kobolds had made.
"They suspected that this was a Lifting Belt," he announced when he'd found what he was looking for. "Sounds plausible if your pack seems less of a burden."
"Let's pack up the rest and get moving," Arden suggested. "We've still got this other Ogre or whatever to deal with."

Author's Notes

We'd had probably four or five sessions by this point, and Mike wasn't really enjoying playing D&D. Rather than just phasing Eldarion out, he wanted to leave in dramatic fashion, and settled with John on grabbing all he could carry from our collected loot and taking off while he was on night watch. Obviously, we're all friends in real life, so our characters' collected anger didn't leave the game!

John had written up some notes which were made by the Kobolds that we'd just massacred: they read a bit like overly officious meeting minutes, but were a record of observations they'd made about various magic items in their possession. They were a pretty amusing read, and I couldn't entirely do them justice in the story – I'll try to get hold of them again and transcribe them onto here.