As our group approached the Foundry, which served as both Councilman Baine’s tavern and personal workshop, we heard a female voice screaming and we made haste towards the sound. Several of us entered the home of the councilman only to see a young woman slam a door behind her and then ran off down a corridor. Before we could make sense of that, the scene quickly changed as some sort of, what I can only describe as a metallic, four armed, humanoid, beast burst through the wooden door and proceeded to chase the female down the corridor. The strangest thing is, that instead of going around a table, as she had, to get to her, it instead started to smash the table into pieces; almost as if destroying the obstacle in front of it made more sense than to simply go around. It was at this point that the other human male in our group, Thomroe, pulled out a small strange contraption and pointed it at the beast. I must admit that I was quite unprepared for the deafening loud noise that it made. The weapon had some effect on it and I quickly unleashed the only form of attack that was available to me, I gathered my wits and sent my staff flying out of my hand to attack it. Naethan then entered the room from another doorway and flanked the monstrosity. Needless to say that we made quick work of the beast after that.

I examined the metallic being closely and had deduced that, although made entirely of metal, it seemed quite fragile and would be especially vulnerable to electrical attacks. Alas, I have not yet mastered that element but this lesson gives me all the more reason to do so as soon as I am able. Naethan, meanwhile, manages to calm the young girl down and introduces us to his sister. She seemed to bounce back from the incident quickly as she then admonished Naethan to remove an old junk ballista that had been cluttering up the yard for some time now. Naethan agrees to her request and enlists the rest of us as mere pack mules to help him cart the thing off. While doing so, I managed to pry off a few small trinkets from it as possibly useful spell components for that future electrical spell.

Shortly after depositing the ballista at the local junkyard, we then made our way to the local temple of Brigh to speak with Councilman Kite. Once there, Naethan decided to show one of the acolytes on the proper technique to maintain the large clock that sits out in the front courtyard. I was momentarily fascinated by the fact that the clock does not appear to use water or any other form of outside energy to move the gears and that it maintained the time so accurately. The councilman/priest then greeted Naethan and the rest of our party and his manner relaxed as we told him of our plans to investigate the caverns. The councilman then proceeded to tell us of the location to the entrance of the caverns and even went so far as to bless us all with a spell of waterbreathing, as part of the entrance would require us to swim underwater for a short distance. I find this a most useful spell and must remember to it, once I am of sufficient power to cast it.

We then made our way to the hidden entrance under the lake and swam though the caustic waters. While the spell was able to protect us from drowning, we were quite unprepared for the acidic nature of the water and a few of us had to spend a moment regaining our senses once we had climbed out onto an underground beach. It was as we were recovering though, that several large glowing beetle-like creatures began to climb out of the sand and assailed us. Thomroe’s gun, as he calls the weapon, unleashed several more loud retorts as we collectively dealt with the creatures. He then managed to harvest one of it’s organs and tied it to a stick as a means of illumination. Naethan was less successful in replicating Thomroe’s endeavors and I merely conjured up some glowing balls; and I made a mental note to bring some empty vials with me in order to acquire whatever liquid was inside them when we returned. We then ventured further into the caves and soon came across the corpse of a half-orc female. Naethan recognized the body as belonging to a local pit fighter of some renown that had fallen on hard times recently and had been known to associate with some morally questionable folks because of it. The group does not dwell on the body long and make our way further down eventually coming across a cave that emitted a deathly cold. I remembered some of the teachings of my time with the sage and warned the party of a mold that fed off of heat. Luckily for us, I had a spell in my repertoire for dealing with such a nuisance and, after a short time, was able to clear us a path to the other side where we encountered another corpse. This time, it was a member of Baine’s expedition who had not fared so well. At this time Naethan had decided to call a halt to our search and we then proceeded to haul both corpses back up to the surface with us.

We made our way to back to the temple so that they could prepare the bodies for a proper burial and the councilman assured us that he would notify their loved ones of the the loss. Twilight had encroached upon the town while we were underground and so we made our way to the town hall to update the councilwoman of our findings thus far. It was then that Naethan noticed that the central square was unusually bright for this time of day and we made our way cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Our caution turned out to be unfounded as we came across several of the townsfolk whom had been busy turning the square into a festive space in order to celebrate our return. Upon talking with several of the townsfolk, I learned that the failure of so many adventuring parties to ever return had indeed depressed the town and that news of our return had spread through the community like a wildfire. The daughter of one of the local bakers had quickly rallied several folks to put together an impromptu party and the whole town then proceeded to party the night away.