The party awoke the next after the celebration slightly hung over but well rested. Before the celebration, the party members each unwrapped the treasure that they had retrieved from the Golden Crown.

Acanthodoris discovered that his parcel contained a Scimitar of Sharpness. Galo found that his parcel contained a rare Amulet of the Devout. Evan David quickly unwrapped his parcel and found that his contained an Animated Shield. Kaelen unwrapped his parcel and his eyes widened as he discovered it was a Staff of Power.

The party all looked to Tarin to unwrap his parcel, but Tarin put his parcel back into his pack not wanting to open it at this time. Tarin said that he would open it once they all returned to Gundbarg. Tarin told the party that it was bad luck to open the treasure until their quest was complete. The rest of the party thought that this was somewhat odd, but let it go.

They all finished their breakfast, thanked Jarl Frostgale for his hospitality and informed him that they were going to explore the Mines of Berranzo. The Jarl again warned them with stories of his folk that explored the mines never to return. Seeing that he could not talk the party out of their plans, he wished them well and bid them farewell.

The party followed the directions that they were given and soon discovered that off to one side of the mountain trail they noticed a pile of discarded mining equipment; pickaxes, carts, sledgehammers and the like. The items were rusted beyond use, but there seemed to be a scattered trail of them leading down a pathway overgrown with gorse. As they scanned the path, the party noticed it led to the base of a rocky outcrop, which has caved in where it met the trail.

As they followed the overgrowth path, they came to what must have been the entrance to a subterranean mining colony. Half a dozen rusted tools lie strewn about a hefty pile of collapsed boulders that has sealed shut the entrance.

The party examined the entrance and were able to find a seam and expertly move the boulders. They all were able to squeeze through following the lead of Acanthodoris.

Acanthodoris is awarded an inspiration for slender bravery.

The party found themselves in a storage room where thin shards of light pierced the darkness of this empty chamber from cracks in the rock above. The scarce light illuminated four stone pillars covered in engraved mandalas. At the far end of the hall are a pair of stone doors, around eight-feet-tall, with thick handles of brass.

After some failed efforts, the party was finally able to open the pair of stone doors and discovered that it led to a larger cavern. They descended down an unlit stone stairway. The steps were dusty and rubble-strewn, and clearly haven’t been used in a long time. Each footstep echoed down the long, black stairway.

After several more minutes of exploring, the party emerged into an enormous natural cavern. A huge crevasse below was spanned by a pair of rickety-looking wooden walkways, anchored to a central pillar of stone. The crevasse itself is at least fifty feet deep and has dozens of crevices chiselled into the walls where miners have dug for veins of ore or precious minerals. To their right was a manmade tunnel leading into the rock and over the crevasse is a wide, semi-natural tunnel leading further down into the mountains.

---

Down in the crevasse, Kaelyn spotted six Rust Monsters foraging for metal and ore. As the rest of the party started to explore the path to the right, Kaelen summoned a Bull Mastiff and ordered him to attack the Rust Monsters. Soon the Bull Mastiff and the Rust Monsters were needlessly dead at the bottom of the crevasse.

After opening the door to their right, they party found themselves in a room that had been cut into the rock. Resting against the walls were racks of pickaxes, sledgehammer, chisels, and other mining tools, and stacked up in the far corner were half a dozen minecarts. To the left of the door was a desk, upon which lie a number of metal ingots.

The party moved to collect the metal ingots and were attacked by a couple of swarms of Cranium Rats. The rats were little more than a nuisance and were disposed of in short order.

The party moved to the next room and found that it was a vault that had been previously plundered. There were two long trunks on either side of the room which had been cracked open; they appeared to have been rummaged through, but the party took the items that remained.

Evan David explored the next room and cracked open the rickety wooden door, revealing a room filled with decaying bunkbeds and strewn with smashed crates, barrels and the like. Several of the bunk beds had chains wrapped around their bases, and buckets nearby filled with human excrement. Two villagers leapt to attack with a crazed look in their eyes. Evan David was able to deal with them easily.

Finally the party came upon a room that looked to have been an office. This room was clearly used as an office at some point but had since been converted to a makeshift laboratory. Strange glass vials and jars lined the shelves on the walls, filled with bodily fluids and organs. The large desk had been dragged into the centre of the room with a human corpse on it, its arms having been sliced open with adamantine claws being attached to the muscles and ligaments within.

Thilliosk, the Ithillid, looked up in surprise and anger and reached out with his mind to attack. Kaelen attempted an attack but was denied with the force of Thilliosk’s mind. The party then swarmed on Thilliosk and was able to defeat Thilliosk after a vicious battle.

The party then searched the room and found various items, but the most interesting were three crystals inscribed with the following names:

• Druskis
• Luzgrigaul
• Tharcereli

Underneath the crystals was a piece of parchment paper with the towns of Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter, and Waterdeep all scratched out.

The party gathered all the items up and returned to Fiskrbak before deciding on their next move.