All was quiet after the battle. It seemed like the entire forward guard had
been wiped out so quickly, no alarm was raised. Ragath checked the north
wall to see where the orcs were coming from while Rheanna checked the south.
Ragath quickly found the door, and his dwarven instincts told him a forceful
shove foreward would recess the stone a bit, then it would easily slide to
one side.

Everyone regrouped and went through the northern door first, then the
southern door. Both doors slid aside to reveal a narrow passage descending a
flight of stairs down to a small chamber with an arrow slit looking down
upon the main entry to the complex. The archers galleries were littered with
debris, cobwebs, and rat droppings. The orcs who stood watch there didn't
bother to keep them clean, so poorly cured hide blankets and well-gnawed
bones from orc meals were scattered all over. The northern gallery had a
hallway that continued past the other arrow slits the party had seen, and
dead-ended at another small chamber.

Ragath went back and carefully picked up Adoemos' body. He carried it across
the bridge, and deposited it in the northern archers' gallery hoping that
the orcs would not find it there.

Since Ragath could see well in the dark, it was decided that he should go
into the huge stone doors first. He paused to read the old dwarven
inscription above the doors - "KHUNDRUKAR" - a name that was now only
important to the dead. He proceeded through a doorway that had possibly not
seen a dwarf in over two hundred years.

Inside he found a natural cave with carefully smoothed walls and floor. Wet
stone gleamed, and he could discern at least four exits leading off into the
darkness. A red glow as if from coals came from the far right passageway to
the southeast, and a crude wooden cage barred the closer right-hand
passageway. The room was littered with orcish sleeping furs, loot, and
rubbish. The work taken to preserve the natural beauty of this cavern while
carving out access to the rest of the complex must have been staggeringly
painstaking. To waste such a thing on orcs...

Ragath went back to get his companions. As they all entered the cave, three
prisoners walked up to the bars of the cage. One of them cried out, "Thank
Yondalla! We're rescued!" Rheanna picked the lock to their cage and they
introduced themselves.

Their names were Nuadu, Geradil, and Courana. Geradil and Courana were
peaceful villagers that lived on the edge of the Forest of Blaisingdell... a
large ancient forest housing an elven village of the same name. Nuadu was a
cleric of Ehlonna, the goddess of the forest. They had been in the 'loving'
care of the orcs for a period of three weeks.

The cell they were in had been their home since Nuadu and the two other
prisoners were captured by the orcs when they were travelling a couple of
days away from Blasingdell. Geradil and Courana were taken here ahead of
Nuadu, and were both near death by the time they all were reintroduced.
Through Nuadu's magical talents for creating water, making garments whole,
and healing, they were all in pretty good shape. Geradil and Courana were
NOT the type to fight orcs. They had neither the training nor the desire to
do battle. They just wanted to get back home.

The orcs were attempting to ransom Nuadu to the Abbey of Ehlonna in the town
of Blasingdell, a few days directly southeast from The Stone Tooth. The orcs
were having a hard time of ransoming him, as every messenger they had sent
had not returned. They may have been rethinking their decision by the time
the party freed him. The same went for Geradil and Courana, who the orcs
tried ransoming to their families... but their families were too poor to
find enough money.

The captives saw a large group (100 or so) of orcs go through over the last
day or so. Their captors appeared to know them. They left some of their
number behind, but had mostly gone away to somewhere or other. They could
have gone deeper inside the mountain, but the prisoners really had no idea.
They guessed at how many orcs there were that remained. It was very crowded
with the 100 or so that were here, so it'd probably have been somewhere
around 30 or 40 in the vicinity including the orcs the party had encountered
coming in.

The orcs had a female shaman, but the prisoners had only caught glimpses of
her and they were not sure what the shaman could do magic-wise. The orcs
also had mentioned someone called The Great Ulfe as if he was who kept them
there, but they'd never seen him or her.

Geradil and Courana were told that the guards outside had been killed, and
it was safe for them to go home. After they left, the party searched the
natural cave outside the prison and found a locked strongbox. Rheanna picked
it easily, and discovered that it contained all of Nuadu's equipment except
for his money. The orcs had either not had time to distribute it or wanted
to keep it together for some reason.

Everyone cautiously went through the passage to the north, avoiding the glow
coming from the far southeast passage. Haphazard stacks of crates, barrels,
sacks, and bundles littered the long, narrow cavern they entered. The orcs
appeared to have had some success in their raids of the small settlements
and mountain roads in the area. To the north, two finished stone passageways
led east and west; to the south, the party heard dripping water.

Ragath searched an alcove several feet along the south wall. He just seemed
to know something was different about the stone in part of that alcove.
Lifting a loose stone away, he discovered a small locked strongbox. Rheanna
was able to deal with the lock, and it was opened to reveal 180 gold pieces
of dwarven make, and an old flask that appeared to contain holy mead.

The party continued to the north, electing to take the west passage. A
little way down the passage, a short flight of stairs to the south led to a
large, ironbound door. A bloodstained human skull was fixed to the center of
the door by an iron spike. Everyone quietly listened at the door, and heard
a deep booming voice on the other side say (in common), "Good Vak... Good
Thrag..."

It was decided that the party should check out the rest of the passage
before dealing with whoever or whatever was behind this door. They continued
around a right angle turn to the north.

A normal sized wooden door was built into the western wall of the
passageway - but what drew the party's attention was what stood at the end
of the passageway to the north. A statue of a fierce-looking dwarf in heavy
mail armor was there. The stone warrior held a sword in one hand and a
smith's hammer in the other. The statue stood on a large stone pedestal; the
whole structure was about 7 feet tall and must have weighed many hundreds of
pounds.

Aetius and Nuadu covered the hall behind them while the rest moved up to
examine the statue closer. Suddenly, they felt a small ->click<- from the
floor beneath their feet. The statue's bearded face slid open, rather like
an oversized nutcracker, and greenish gas billowed forth! POISON!

Everyone other than Nuadu and Aetius was caught within the billowing cloud.
They emerged from it hacking and coughing, but basically unhurt. They got
lucky. The trap (according to Ragath, who knew of such things) was most
definitely one left over from the original inhabitants, and the poison had
had two hundred years to weaken in its container. If they had encountered
the trap when it was newly built, the results would have been much
different.

They talked while waiting for the gas to dissipate, and decided to take on
the door to their west before dealing with the huge ironbound door behind
them. When the gas dissipated, Rheanna checked the door for traps or any
locks. Finding the door clean, Ragath prepared to lead the party into
whatever was beyond.

Ragath burst through the door with the party behind him. The large chamber
behind the door was filled with rough-hewn bunks, tables, and chairs, and
the floor was strewn with filthy pelts. At a glance it appeared as if a
dozen or so orcs might live there. Five orcs, including one huge old orc
named "Old Yarrack" turned from a table in the center of the room to do
battle with the party.

Ragath dodged javelins and Yarrack's throwing axes easily as Aetius killed
one of the orcs and winged Yarrack with two lightning fast shots. Another of
the orcs flung a javelin that nearly hit Ragath, but was deflected at the
last instant by the dwarven monk's arm, which swept it aside in the air.

Yarrack rushed forward and grazed Ragath's arm with his hand axe while
another orc rushed forward and chopped its axe deep into Ragath's thigh. The
sturdy dwarf held fast, and dealt Yarrack a crushing blow to the skull with
his quarterstaff while Aetius loosed two more arrows, one finding the heart
of another orc and killing it where it stood.

The party quickly took care of the remaining orcs. Nuadu sent one spinning
and collapsing into a heap with an arrow to its midsection. Rheanna sent a
bolt clear through another orc which stood with a surprised look on its face
for a moment - not realizing it was already dead. Ragath took care of the
last orc, crushing its ribs and doing massive internal damage with his
quarterstaff.

After the bloody battle, Rheanna found a sack with 250sp, 40gp, and a potion
of cure light wounds inside. Ragath found a masterwork handaxe in Yarrack's
hand. Meanwhile, Nuadu sensed something wrong with the western wall. After a
brief search, a secret door nearly identical to the ones leading to the
archers' galleries was found. Ragath opened it and went through, almost
immediately finding another secret door that indeed did lead into the
northern archers' gallery.

The space in between the two secret doors was extremely dusty and unused. It
appeared as if the orcs had never realized it was there. Since the party
seemed to be in a defensible position with a secret means of egress, they
barred the door with a bunk and got some much needed rest.

Everyone rested without any interruption from the orcs. Once everyone was
refreshed and ready, the party decided to retrace their steps to the large
iron-bound door and see what was beyond it. They reached the door without
incident. Rheanna listened and heard low growling coming from the other
side. Ragath took the front again, and shoved the door open while the rest
of the party stood behind him with their weapons ready.

Beyond the door lay a small chamber covered in poorly cured animal hides and
illuminated by smoking torches in bronze sconces. The smell was
indescribable. A monstrous creature of about 10 feet in height with warty,
brown skin and greasy dark hair stepped forward, a massive axe in one hand.
Two huge wolves strained at chains held closely in his other hand. "You
think to challenge the Great Ulfe?" the creature boomed as it rushed
forward. "Vak! Thrag! At them!"

The humanoid dropped the chains, the wolves sprang forward, and the being
charged with a great roar of rage! Shadow thrust his hands forward and
chanted a few words, and a 5 foot diameter sphere of flame appeared right in
the middle of Ulfe and its wolves. One wolf and Ulfe dodged the sphere while
the other wolf was singed. Rheanna shot the wounded wolf with her crossbow
but the ogre kept coming.

Ulfe and the wolves closed with Ragath, who skillfully dodged Ulfe's axe as
it made a massive arc through the air toward him. Shadow willed his sphere
to move, seriously burning Ulfe and one of his wolves. Ulfe was not faring
well under the onslaught of the party's missile weapons. Nuadu sent an arrow
into his chest, followed by a bolt from Rheanna. Aetius shot two arrows
which Ulfe literally blocked with his forearm... the arrows piercing his arm
as he bellowed in pain and rage.

Ulfe swung one last time at Ragath... his strength faltering as he did so.
Shadow's sphere burnt into Ulfe's flesh once more, staggering him. Nuadu
struck the killing blow with another arrow to Ulfe's chest. As Ulfe's body
was falling, Aetius felled both wolves with his bow.

A quick survey of the room found two chests containing a total of 400gp,
1600sp, a potion bottle containing a dark liquid with a spider floating in
it, and a rapier with the mark of Durgeddin on it. The potion was deemed by
the cleric not to be divine... but that was all the party could tell about
it.

It was almost unbelievable. With a huge amount of teamwork, this dangerous
foe and his two deadly pets had been vanquished without causing so much as a
bruise against the party. Adoemos' death seemed to have given this group
spines of steel, and a sense of purpose and teamwork beyond what they had
when they started this journey. Whether these newfound attributes could
withstand what remained ahead of them remained to be seen.