Under Jorgenfist, Part 1 (Thursday, Abadius (I) 16th, 4708 AR)

The heroes continued their exploration of the Valley of the Black Tower.

Wyvern Cave. A musky smell lingered near the entrance to this cave - a thick, almost reptilian stink. Dozens of bones, many immense mammoth or aurochs remains, lay scattered on the ledge overlooking the river fifty feet below.

This cavern overlooked the Muschkal River at a height of 50 feet, and had been home to a nest of particularly hearty wyverns. The wyverns fought as a group, one distracting and flanking a foe while the others tried to grapple and sting opponents. The wyverns tried to flee into the mountains when injured, but the heroes killed them.

The wyverns had a fire opal - they'd placed the sparkling gemstone atop a low mound of sand in the center of their cave. The fire opal was worth only 200 gp, a paltry sum compared to the value of the rest of their treasure that lay heaped in the southwest spur cave. Buried under a collection of skulls, horse and elk thighbones, and well-gnawed bits of hide was a chest containing 1,435 gp and 2,987 sp. Behind the chest lay an ancient staff of heaven and earth.

Deathweb Cave. This cave crawled. Countless bloated, many-legged insects trampled one another as they carpeted the floor and climbed the walls, creating a susurrus of a million clicking bug legs. The deepest part of the cave seemed to be unnaturally thick with darkness and fallen webs.

This cave's entrance was 250 feet above the narrow beach below. The insects covering the floor were disgusting but mostly harmless. The innermost reaches of the cave were thick with webs spun by the undead denizens of the cave. When the webs were cleared, Shalelu noticed the secret door in the cave's northern wall. The tunnel beyond led on a winding route into a mazelike system of narrow tunnels infested with redcaps. One route through this maze led into the caves below Jorgenfist.

This cave was the nest of several undead monsters called deathwebs. These creatures resembled stocky, partially decayed spiders the size of horses, yet closer inspection revealed the horrid truth - they were animated shells of giant spiders that were infested with swarms of equally undead arachnids.

The deathwebs attacked all creatures that dared to enter this cave, but they waited for intruders to make their way into the cave before they struck. The deathwebs fought until destroyed.

The deathwebs didn't collect treasure deliberately. Still, the cave was cluttered with old webs, withered skins, and old bones, along with a dozen longswords (one of them a Large +1 longsword), a +2 halberd, three Large warhammers, a set of full plate armor, and a druid's staff with a spellstaff spell still in effect on it (the staff contained a rusting grasp at CL 12th).

The caves under Jorgenfist looked natural. The air in these caves was a bit warmer than that outside, but numerous tiny ventilation tunnels kept the caves from growing too stale.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were rough and laced with furrows and air vents, but despite their almost wrinkled look they remained quite strong - there was little chance of cave-ins within these halls.

The Small Tunnels. The secret door in the deathweb cave  led to winding northern tunnels. The tangled maze of caves connected to a narrow crack in the northwest wall. Along this way, dozens of other tunnels intercepted the primary passage, sloping ever downward in an increasingly vexing maze. These tunnels were infested with all manner of vermin, rats, slimes, and other creatures, but the most dangerous were a large clan of violent redcaps.

Navigating the small tunnels was a claustrophobic ordeal. The tunnels varied between 3 and 5 feet wide and wrapped over and under each other in a tangled three-dimensional maze riddled with dead ends.

The heroes spent much time in these cave and were thus guaranteed to encounter a murder party of five redcaps - the redcaps took intrusions into tight caves very personally and very violently. The redcaps were diminutive, gnomelike creatures who wore spiked iron boots and blood-soaked pointy caps, and wielded scythes much larger than their size suggested they were capable of wielding. The heroes killed or drove off all the redcaps they encountered.

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