…and the sky full of dust.

It looks a bit like this

Molotov cocktails, spears, bows, swords and maces readied, the party await the shuffling, clanking whatevers as they ascend the stairs.

Up the steps come what look like goblin zombies, chains attached to rings around their legs. Corvin lets loose with an arrow, sticking one in the chest, but the zombie continues to shuffle up the stairs.

Something like this

Halmary tries to turn undead, but despite feeling the divine power of his goddess flow through him, nothing appears to happen and the zombies continue to advance. Ungrid moves up to form the now standard shield wall with Halmary, leaving Zarkov and Idni behind with their spears. Corvin fires another arrow, right into the face of the front zombie, sending it crashing to the floor, once more lifeless and unmoving; he follows up with another arrow, pinning another. Idni follows suit, felling one, wounding another. Strange liquids ooze from the wounds, along with the heavy smell of formaldehyde. Ungrid moves up, Zarkov following, and the dwarves cut and bludgeon; another falls down, decapitated, another has its ribs crushed and then Zarkov bashes its skull in, and down goes another. Spears and sword and mace swing and stag, wounding the remaining zombies that are crowding up the stairs; one slams into Zarkov, winding him. The rest of the zombies soon fall, thanks to thrusts from Corvin’s and Idni’s spears.

Zarkov heals himself using the staff of healing, and then they descend the stairs into a chamber with cells along the walls, the chains attached to the leaking zombies leading inside. In the centre of the room is a patchwork hatch, planks and metal plates sealing a shaft, with goblin words of warning scrawled along the top. Idni and Ungrid prise it open, revealing a 30′ shaft through broken earth, ending at the top of a spiral staircase made of what looks like steel. Ropes are tied to the cell bars, and the party climb down and find themselves in another, different, dungeon: the walls are made of metal plates welded to the stone, engraved with ancient dwarven runes that Zarkov recognises as prayers to the gods. Corridors lead off, rusted rubble litters the floor, and there is a stillness to the place. Metal doors lead off into rooms.

They open one door, sliding into the wall, and reveal a room full of broken furniture and a pair of mechanical spider-like automatons, which scuttle forwards to attack!

Idni gets in a shot with his bow: the arrow pierces one of the automatons, smashing it to pieces. The other runs up, and Ungrid steps up and smashes it easily with a swipe of his new sword. Meanwhile, down a corridor, a lone and ragged goblin peers out from behind a door; he is spotted by Zarkov, who rushes up to him and bashes him with his mace. The goblin yells for mercy, but Idni rushes over and simply stabs it to death with his spear. They find a key-pad locked door in the room with the automatons, but leave it alone for now. In the room where the goblin came out from, they find a dwelling where the goblin must have been sleeping, along with more broken and rusted furniture; but there are also a collection of elven weapons: a curved sword, a hunting bow, a score of arrows, and a leaf-shaped shield. These are looted.

They continue to explore, finding another room full of broken furniture, a storeroom with metal barrels, and a ruined and bookless library, with another automation inside: this one resembles a mechanical dwarf. It doesn’t do anything until Idni tries (and fails) to open another key-pad locked door: it comes at him, claws ripping into him; it is smashed to bits by the combined might of Halmary and Ungrid. Idni, feeling sore, is tended to by Zarkov, but is still feeling a bit worse for wear.

Another room has two more spidery automatons sat on a metal table, staring at each other, twitching occasionally. They leave them alone, find another storeroom with an automaton squashed into a barrel: it leaps out to attack, and is smashed by Halmary.

They pause for breath, next to a pile of broken furniture that is blocking the corridor.

End of Session

Kills: 7 goblin ‘zombies’, 4 Worker Automatons, 1 Soldier Automaton, 1 pathetic goblin.

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