26: Bugbears strike back and the Glintaxe

The heroes took Jurin, the blond lad the Forge Spurned had taken prisoner, back to his friends. Only one child remained in the clutches of the Bugbears.
In the abandoned galley kitchen of the dwarven monestery they rested. After 3-4 hours Bornir and Shaft were on watch when they heard a noise down one of the two corridors leading into the room.
They started to wake the others when they saw two goblins poke their heads into the room. The goblins yelled out "Bree'Yark!" in goblin and flung sling stones. Shaft killed them with two arrows but they had warned others. Bornir headed down the hallway after a fleeing goblin, encountering three more goblins. As the stout dwarf rounded the corner of the hallway he saw many hulking bugbears sneaking up the hallway. He shouted back to Shaft "More on the way, Bugbears!" Then he was overrun by the throng of goblinoids. They ran past Bornir and towards the drowsy heroes. Krech and Lath had come up and along with Shaft they held the hallway. The din of fighting awoke the rest of the heroes and they quickly moved up towards the hallway.
Felnar cast his Regroup spell, and dimensionally gathered the group around him, including Bornir, for who things were looking grim.
Bornir backed up and healed himself. The bugbears surged forward then were stopped by a web spell cast by Felnar which blocked the hallway. The bugbears started to retreat. The lead warriors were slain, then Aardgal swallowed a potion then spewed a gout of flame immolating most of the webbing along with the bugbears in them. The exposed bugbears were quickly slain, and then the two leaders were slain as they tried to flee.
Other bugbears and goblins beyond the webbing fled, but they had been routed. The heroes hunkered down to a nervous rest, expecting another wave of attack which never came, at least not from down the dark corridors.
Later that evening Azrael, Morgrim and Felnar were on watch when Krech sat upright and started rummaging in his pack. Azrael asked Krech what he was up to, but he was met with silence.
Krech clutched the captured battle axe recovered from the gelationous cube. It gleamed with an inner light. A light which reflected oddly in his eyes. He then started to don his armor awkwardly since he still clutched the axe in hand.
Again he was asked "Krech what are ye doing?" Krech responded in dwarvish. Morgrim looked skocked and said "Uhh, Krech isn't home..." Morgrim responded in dwarvish to Krech and Krech responded again in the tongue of the Forge born dwarves. Morgrim shook Bornir "Hey git up. You gotta head this"
The two dwarves and Krech conversed, though Krech responded fluently and infrequently in dwarvish. After this Morgrim said "Krech is possessed or controlled by something called Druingar Glintaxe. He quests for the Bloodaxe of his forefather said to lie somewhere deep in this place. I've persuaded him to wait until we have rested and restored our spells before heading deeper."
After a decent rest wounds were healed. Aardgal tried to speak to Krech and then announced "He may be ghost possessed. If so a protection from evil may help him for a short time, but it won't stop the ghost. The ghost doesn't seem evil, so may just want to complete some task before it can go on to the afterlife. If so we should follow him."
Morgrim told Krech "We're ready..." before he could say "let's go." the big man trundeled down the dungeon hall, walking in a manner of whomever the ghost had been in life.
Krech led them past the chamber of the Forge Spurned and down a winding ramp/stairway deeper into the crag. After some distance the heroes emerged into a cave. Krech went to the right. He went a short distance when 4 creatures, quadripedal, with fangs and claws and formed out of rock attacked. They blended with the rock perfectly and attacked without warning. Krech kept marching even after Morgrim bade him to stop. Morgrim was forced to follow him. Meanwhile in the cave a fight raged. The rock creatures proved resistance to normal weapons and magic was needed to pierce their tough hides. Azrael struck at them with his adamantine warhammer, then called on the power of Akira to turn them. THe remaining two creatures fled into the darkness.
The group quickly ran after Krech and Morgrim before the baleful power of Azrael's diety faded and the creatures returned.
United down a far tunnel Krech trundeled onwards and into a strange cavern. It dripped with slime. Krech went a few feet then slipped to the ground, unable to keep his footing. Morgrim followed and likewise fell. As Krech tried to rise a crossbow bolt hit his armor from above.
On the ceiling, sticking to the wall, were two large sabre-toothed slimy white toads. One had a bugbear stuck to it's back who was reloading his crossbow. Shaft returned fire and downed the toad on which the bugbear was riding. It and he fell. The toad struck Morgrim and Krech, and the bugbear threw himself free of his mount but was hurt in the fall.
The bugbear struck a two handed vicious blow at Aardgal, barely missing the bald warrior of Wee Jas, Aaardgal returned the favor and slew the goblinoid.
The group crawled and was dragged by a flying Azrael across the slime filled room towards a far tunnel. Down stairs Krech led them, then they took a right at a fourway intersection. Finally they reached a widening of the hallway. It had two unearthed collumns and seemed to be recently excavated. A crushed goblin slave lay under rubble, it's stink several weeks old. Beyond the collumns were stairs down. The stairs looked to be of non-dwarven make, but they were of large fitted square stones. The stairs led further to a hallway which turned sharply to the left and. The top of the tunnel was rounded and a large spherical boulder 8' ft. in diameter blocked the hallway. Crouching down Morgrim could see a tunnel beyond.
Krech pushed against the boulder, Bornir lent a shoulder and slowly the round boulder rolled inch by inch forward.
After nearly a minute of heavy exertion they had moved the boulder far enough to squeeze around it and into a larger room. The room beyond was oddly shaped and had feminine statues made from granite around the room. On the far left wall was a door, and on the wall to the right were stairs heading down. Something down the stairs was emitting a shimmering purple light, and they could hear a rumbling grating noise coming from beyond the stairway.
The heroes heading that way and after a short flight of stairs they found themselves at the entrance of a bizarre cathedral-like room. The walls were formed of faceted purple quartz, and looked like the inside of a geode. The light was coming from inside the walls.
The room rose in 3 tiers to a large pool of stones and minerals, which were in motion. The 'pool' acted in a way similar to lava, flowing slowly in channels down each tier into two smaller pools, then running down further channels before reaching pools to either side of the entrance. Those pools spiraled and drained below. Up the middle of this very large chamber were short flights of stairs to a landing, with another short flight of stairs to a small projection out to the center of the large pool of the shining minerals and stones.
On the first landing stood two dwarves. Recognizable as Ullsa the priestess of Abbathor, and her sworn protector Toric first son of the Coalbrow Clan. They were facing a figure which seemed a part of the largest pool, a feminine figure composed of light and dark green jade.
Krech, still possessed by the dwarven spirit, spoke in dwarvish. The jade woman replied in common for all to hear "Others have claim, aproach and be recognized."
Morgrim spoke demanding the Stones of Ogremoch that Ullsa and her band had taken. She claimed to have already traded two of the stones to the Emerald Sister for a prophecy of the future and access for her champion to battle the guardian of the Bloodaxe.
Morgrim asked is she knew what would happen when she took the stones, that it would unleash terrible creatures upon the lands. She cared little for they were the lands of men and not of dwarves. Morgrim claimed they threatened the lands of Greysmere, his home. She responded that they would trouble men long before they troubled dwarves and that she bore the writ of the dwarven king of Karkast to act as she had. "Let the men die, if will profit us in the end." Morgrim raged that she was no better than a Duergar.
Meanwhile Aardgal had found that Ullsa detected as strongly evil, being a priestess, but neither her champion Toric nor the Emerald Sister detected as evil.
Morgrim was prompted by Shaft "We've cast battle spells if there's battle to be done lets have at it." Morgrim hefted his axe and roared "Take 'em"
Aardgal rushed the dwarves striking Toric who stopped him from reaching Ullsa. Toric hit him in turn with his axe. Shaft hit the dwarf with an arrow or two, and Morgrim struck a bow which felled the dwarf.
The Emerald Sister spoke "I cannot allow this violence in my prescence."
Felnar cast a web spell which entangled the dwarves, and The Emerald Sister immediately dispelled it.
"This is not over." Spoke Ullsa. She produced a smell bar of metal and with an incantation to Abbathor touched Toric and disappeared.
Stunned with the quick resolution of the battle they turned towards the Emerald Sister asking her "You possess two of the Stones of Ogremoch which we need to close the portal at the ruins of the six. What can we do or trade to have them?"
"I will ponder this." With that she was silent.