As Edward returned to reality, the party debated how to handle the contents of Maynard’s journal. They decided to return to the headquarters to see if Helmok and Cyril could offer any ideas on how to find Maynard before he did something with his obsession.
They returned to the Wintersleep Mining Company HQ to find Helmoks legs dangling out of a hole in the vault front panel. Cyril was handing him tools as R4D watched over them, looking up as the party entered. Cyril asked if they had seen any sign of Maynard and was dismayed by what the party had found. Helmok finally reached the master release inside the door and popped out of the opening as the locks slid open. He answered questions for the party, telling them about Maynard, about the mine, the mountain itself, and the whole operation as best as he could. There weren’t many answers that helped with their search but Helmok was ready to help in any other way he could. They opened the vault, revealing tonnes of valuable ore, gems, and broken artifacts that had been found in the lowest level of the mine. The large table in the center of the vault was covered in papers and a few of the largest of the artifact pieces they had found.
The rod was not in the vault.
As they searched through the vault looking for clues as to what had happened, Edward and Paz inspected the artifacts. Edward was overwhelmed by a sense of familiarity with the carvings, although he couldn’t place how or why. Paz took the largest piece of stone and inspected the carving on it, a dome shape containing hundreds of tiny rectangles. Three arcs came up the sides of the dome, equal distances apart. Bits of writing in a language they couldn’t decipher could be seen at the broken edges of the stone. The other smaller fragments contained letters or parts of words but not enough of any single piece seemed to help make sense of what they were looking at.
Suddenly almost the entire party saw a fat gray scaly maggot-like creature crawl up on to the table from the far side, then launch itself at the group. Cyril drew his gun in a flash, firing on the creature before it could get close to the party. He ducked under the table to see where the worm had come from, only to jump back and yell “Run” to the group.
Hundreds of the worms came flooding over the tableside and on to the floor, filling the room with a caustic smell that put the party on edge. Edward, Paz and Mörker quicky blasted the swarm of maggots before they could get close. With ears ringing, the party tried to figure out what the creatures were. Edward drew from his Eldar knowledge to find they were hive larva of the minions of Chattur’ghath. They burrow in to hosts to grow in to hive warriors, consuming the host in the process. Edward warned everyone not to let the creatures touch them.
Outside the vault the party began discussing what to do now, with Edward continually butting in with questions that seemed to work against what the group was trying to do. Hattori convinced Edward to wait outside while the adults were talking, although Edward continued to add his thoughts from the door. Paz cast Silence on the doorway to keep him from overhearing. With that, Edward wandered through the heavy snow over to the Ridgeback to see what the miners were up to.
Looking through the frosty window, Edward could see most of the dwarves sitting at the long tables, playing games in front of the roaring fireplaces, and singing at the bar. The bar wrapped around the back room, with bartenders rushing back and forth with beer and liquor for the thoroughly shitfaced workers. As Edward watched, the door from the back room burst open and a wave of hive larva poured out, rushing over the bar and covering dozens of dwarves as they tried to figure out what was happening.
The scene in the Ridgeback was immediately one of panic, drunk dwarves tried to leave out the front door but it wouldn’t open, dwarves tried to fight the creatures but were quickly overwhelmed, dwarves trampling on each other as they to find a way out. The only other door was in the back room, where the swarm was coming from.
Edward broke the window he was looking through in an effort to lead some miners outside and began walking backward toward the HQ. Looking back in to the bar, he fired off a fireball in to the back room. The back door blew out as the booze in the back room exploded, sending flames out across the bar. The already panicked room turned in to complete pandemonium with dwarves on fire, dwarves trapped by the larva, and dwarves trampled as others tried to find ways out of the bar. Edward mulled his options and fired another fireball in to the bar, blasting as much of the larva swarm as he could. Dwarves and larva were obliterated in the blast, spreading the fire across the whole building. In an attempt to help? Maybe? Edward put a wall of fire up across the front of the bar, trapping larva and any dwarves attempting to come out the windows.
Unsure what else to do, Edward ran back to the HQ. The party was still inside debating their options, the silence spell on the doors kept them from hearing the incredible bullshit happening outside. Edward came rolling in and called for everyone to come out, but also that he had no idea who set fire to everything.
After assessing the situation, Reith sent R4D in to the building to save who could be saved and use his flame jets to kill any remaining larva. The party dragged the survivors away from the blaze, laying them down by the HQ. In the light of the fire, they could see a dwarven shape in the mouth of the mine. It held a rod aloft over it’s head, looked toward the group of them and slammed it into the ground. The ground thrummed with a vibration that was almost felt more than heard. Shadows could be seen in the firelight as creatures ran down the mountain walls, up from the cliffs below and out from behind the burning bar. The vibration caused serious distress to Edward as it vibrated the Blackstar shard that contained his soul. The vibration left him reeling, filling him with fear of what it could cause if that were to happen with him closer.
The party decided to follow what they assumed was Maynard in to the mine, with Paz staying behind to help with the survivors. She helped Cyril to carry dwarves the HQ, placing her hand on their chests as they did so. As the party watched, she placed her hand on a dwarf and gave Cyril a subtle nod. Cyril took that dwarf away from the rest of the survivors, around the side of the building.
A moment later a single gunshot was heard.
The party reached the mine entrance and looked into the darkness within, they could see mine cart tracks heading off into the tunnel. Mine carts were lined up at the entrance in preparation for the mine to return to work, something that didn’t seem likely any time soon. Light was cast on both a mine cart and R4D, with R4D then kicking the cart down the tunnel. The cart illuminated deep in to the mountain, leading to the main elevator heading down. The party got on the platform, pulling the switch for the lowest level. Wheels turned and cables creaked as the platform lowered slowly down. They passed by openings for the different levels, appearing seemingly at random. They could see that anywhere an ore vein was found, a new tunnel went heading off in to the mountain. About a third of the way down, they could hear the twang of cable fibres breaking. The platform began to fall, but was caught by the brake system built in to prevent catastrophic failures such as that. It continued lowering the platform but the brakes squealed loudly as they descended, removing even the possibility of a quiet entrance to the lowest level.
When they hit bottom, Edward wanted to climb the service ladder that ran up the side of the shaft. The rest of the party called him a fool and continued on, pushing the glowing mine cart forward. It rolled down the tunnel, around a gentle curve leading off to the left.
Early Frost Warning 