After resting for about an hour, the group comes back down from the first floor of the windmill and finds Adabra working in her potions.
They thank her again for allowing them to rest, and prepare to leave.
Before they leave, however, Sigmar questions the old lady again about her current situation.
She is old and lives in a remote place, that clearly is no longer safe.
She would be better suited by moving back to Deepdale, where there are people and protection.
Adabra thanks him for caring, but explains that the windmill is her home.
It’s where she lived with her – now deceased – husband.
It’s where she made a life for herself.
She is too old to change now, and wouldn’t want to do it anyway.
If staying is dangerous and something happens to her, then that will be the will of Ehlonna.
Sigmar is not very convinced by her answer, but is also aware that he won’t change her mind easily.
And the reality is that they have more pressing matters to attend to.
The party says their final goodbyes to Adabra, and leaves.
The miserable weather did not relent in the hour that passed, so the trek progresses in the rain.
Eager to return to his brothers, Grunden begins walking a bit faster, spear-heading the whole group.
He is quickly reminded that taking point makes him a target, which is dangerous.
He slows down and allows the party to group around him for protection.
A couple of minutes later, the group is startled by a loud noise emanating from the nearby bushes.
But it’s only Droop. He is looks wet, muddy, tired, and downright miserable.
Kiara chastises the goblin for his absence.
He explains that he does not like going to town, and mentions that they were hard to find this time.
Reunited with their companion, the group is now complete.
Grunden leads them further south, towards the mountains.
For a while they follow the main path, but eventually abandon it in favor of less traveled trails.
As they progress, it seems the way is leading them nowhere of interest.
In front all they can see is wet foothills followed by a wall of mountains.
However, the peaks ahead seem to shift slightly as they look at them…
Less than an hour later, after reaching the top of a small foothill, the group finally understands where they are going.
The solid mountain they thought they were walking to, is in fact partly a natural illusion.
The actual mountain is farther than it seemed, and closer to them is a much smaller rock formation.
The path ahead opens to a rocky canyon that had been, until they approached, completely invisible.
They walk down the other side of the hill and into the canyon.
The canyon walls are tall, rising to at least 20 meters, and completely envelope the party.
They eventually approach a large wall of black stone, with a gate carved into it.
The gate is open with one stone door hanging precariously by a hinge and the other door missing.
Beyond the gate, in the shadow of the mountain to the south, lies a ruined settlement.
The are is in complete silence, apart from the rainfall.
The group walks through what’s left of the gate carefully, and looks around.
They see nothing but ruined buildings, and a path veering east between what’s left of the buildings that leads to another – smaller – wall.
Contrasting with the party’s caution, Grunden is very relaxed once they reach the settlement.
He goes straight to one of the houses in better shape and walks back out almost immediately.
His brothers are not where they set camp initially, which means they should be further ahead.
They move on, and approach the shorter wall to the east.
This wall is about 3 meters high and it’s partially collapsed.
Three heaps of rubble are piled high near it.
Beyond, carved in the canyon itself, looms the facade of a temple with steps rising to a stone door.
Near the corner of the wall they spot a makeshift tent assembled with black tarps in a shape that protects from the rain.
Inside, two dwarf-sized figures can be seen sitting.
As Grunden approaches, the two dwarves stand-up and walk into the light and rain.
Grunden’s brothers are very happy to see him and they share a warm moment of kinship.
Grunden leads them to the party and introduces them to the group:
Tharden Rockseeker, the older brother and the quieter of the bunch.
Nundro Rockseeker, the youngest and the visibly more energetic of the trio.
The dwarven brothers are happy to be reunited and thankful to the party. Everyone talks for a few minutes.
Grunden explains his, and the party’s, ordeal up until now.
The two brothers explain their efforts in opening a way through this temple, which they believe is dedicated to Dumathoin.
The conversation begins to veer towards the next step.
Before anyone can suggest that they should return to Deepdale, Sigmar asks for more information on their difficulties exploring the temple ruins.
Nundro’s expression lights up at Sigmar’s interest.
The younger dwarf explains that he and Tharden have been busy removing rubble from the inside of the temple.
They made good progress and reached a large chamber.
In their exploration, they managed to discover a hidden passage that leads to a corridor blocked by more rubble.
They were unable to progress more because they were assailed by gelatinous monsters that scared them way.
Much to Brannus' chagrin, Sigmar offers help in clearing up the chamber of the creatures.
Nundro is ecstatic at the offer, and Tharden smiles as well.
The party is preemptively offered a pair of magical Sending Stones for their help.
The dwarves used the stones to communicate briefly over long distances, but are willing to part with them.
Sigmar thanks them, but does mention that a reward is really not necessary.
Still, for now, Brannus takes one of the stones as Nundro keeps the other one.
After a few more minutes of preparation, the brotherly trio stays behind while party heads in to the temple steps.
The carved temple facade is tall, standing at roughly 10 meters high with what’s left of the stone doors reaching around 3 meters.
Flanking the door, two life-sized granite statues of cloaked dwarves.
The party walks in to a dusty foyer, featuring the marks of all the rubble the dwarf brothers have been dragging out.
The – once secret – door mentioned by Nundro stands open to the north, into a room beyond it with nothing but rubble.
Apart from the light that shines from the outside, there is no source of visible light and the temple depths seem to be in complete darkness.
Brannus casts a light cantrip and the party moves further in, heading west, reaching the main room their were told about.
The room is barren of furniture or features, except for four stone pillars holding up the ceiling and limestone altar stands at the far end of the room that seems bloodstained.
Kiara notices a gelatinous blob of a light brownish-yellow color clinging to the north-eastern corner of the ceiling.
Dwolf identifies this as an ochre jelly, aggressive amorphous creatures, that undoubtedly was responsible for scaring the dwarves away.
Brannus walks in and stands by the southeast area of the room.
Dwolf moves in to inspect the altar to the west.
When he approaches, another ochre jelly slimes in from behind the limestone and attacks!
A fight breaks out, with the party trying to carefully manage the attacking jelly and the stationary one.
Acting on Dwolf’s knowledge, the party knows to avoid the slashing damage of swords because the jellies are immune to it and have been known to split in two when cut.
However, the ranger himself is in a bind, forced to use his longbow at a disadvantageous point-blank range on the creature right in front of him.
The group splits efforts, and also attacks the one on the ceiling, that inevitably moves on them.
After a few tense moments of dealing with these out of the ordinary foes, the party defeats them and the creatures seem to melt into the ground.
Brannus uses his Sending Stone to tell Nundro it is safe to come in, but the nervous dwarf only replies with a feeble attempt to encourage the group to press forward.
Spearheaded by the human cleric, they search the room for points of interest.
The limestone altar does seem to be stained with blood.
Around them (north, south, northwest, and southwest) they find four secret doors.
Seeing their work is not done, the party decides to rest properly before continuing.
Brannus informs the dwarves of their plan and invites them to move their camp into this main chamber.
The trio of miners arrive a few short minutes later.
Brannus and Sigmar question Nundro about what they found.
The dwarf does point out that this seems wrong as there are no markings of the dwarven god, but he is still convinced they are in the right place.
Nundro believes that there has to be a real main chamber somewhere
When pressed as to where he think it is he mentions that – judging by how the room their in seems to have been built – he feels there’s a kind of symmetry in the construction, and anything of importance would be further west.
Sigmar is skeptical of Nundro’s reasoning.
Regardless, the party sets up camp in the chamber, agrees on watch shifts and settles down to rest…