[Apr 26, 2020]

Following Shael’s lead, the group continue down the hallway that they have been exploring and come to a wall with a very small gap at the bottom. Ceiba once more wild shapes, this time taking the form of a small jaculi-like serpent in order to writhe her way through. On the other side, she finds a lever with a large, stiff metal handle and is eventually able to pull this lever enough to trigger an opening mechanism. The walls grind up, revealing a series of spikes jutting outward with a roughly dwarf-sized gap in the middle.

Mal is able to safely make his way through this by using his shapeshifting abilities, however both Aneirin & Shael struggle due to their larger forms and despite their best efforts find themselves lightly pierced against the hallway’s defences.

After navigating their way through the protected hallway, the group end up in a room filled with rust-eaten weapons  and disrepaired armour, noticing several piles of bones. It’s possible that this room served as armory and a possible last stand for the dwarves of this stronghold when it fell.

Within the room there are several large armadillo-like creatures with two pincers, moth-like antennae, and incredibly thick tails. These creatures appear to be hostile and make a quick bee-line for Shael, consuming one of his daggers in the process. Aneirin spots an old ballista with several functional bolts nearby, and begins loading it up to see what happens when it’s fired at one of these creatures from point-blank range.

In the course of the ensuing combat, these creatures whale on Shael and land some punishing blows against him, and Ceiba’s dagger becomes another victim of their appetite. After a few seconds of fiddling around with the ballista, Aneirin is able to fire and successfully explodes one of the creatures leaving its goopy remains scattered across Shael and the walls behind. Another then attempts to focus its attacks on Aneirin, but ends up pinning itself against the siege weapon’s prod and is finally taken down by Mal’s arrows. One creature does escape, scurrying through an unseen hole somewhere in the ceiling though the threat seems to have subsided.

Investigating the room thereafter, the group spots two locked chests. Shael breaks a couple of lockpicks in the process of opening the first, and uncovers around six faded arrowheads (though two or three appear mostly untarnished), a coil of hempen rope and a set of winter gear. Underneath this, he also finds a tarnished dagger, a rather shiny arming sword, two handaxes, and what appear to be some small cannonballs.

Within the second chest, the group finds a bag of pitons that could be used for climbing, two bags of marbles, and some sling pellets. Within the chest there is also an opalescent spherical object reminiscent of stained glass, and underneath it a well-hidden shield.

The group also finds a bullet lantern, adding it to their considerable haul of loot. After taking all within this room carefully back through the ruins, the group spends the rest of the day carrying batches of loot up and out of the ruins to load on to their wagon, where Femen awaits outside Shael spends some time identifying any magical items found. After bathing and cleaning their equipment in the ruins’ spring-fed fountain, the group rests just within the cover of the ruins as shelter from the heavy rain outside and discuss the possibility of negotiating sale of the recovered loot back in Keskala.